Providence, may be enjoyed, in nearly an equal degree of perfection, in the humblest cottage as in the most luxurious dwelling; depending as they do, not so much on outward circumstances as on the use which we make of all our faculties, whether of the mind or body, as I hope to prove in the following essay; and these two indispensable conditions to our happiness are the health of our body and the peace of our mind. For whatever be the enjoyments in which we make our happiness to consist, be they intellectual or sensual, it is morality and health that furnish the only plain and certain road to its attainment. And how high soever a man's rank may be, however great his wealth, powerful his genius, or extensive his acquirements, he never can attain, by a combination of all these means, greater blessings than health of body, peace of mind and their natural consequences-an agreeable consciousness or enjoyment, and self-respect. Though our acceptableness and standing in society also depend much upon appearance and circumstances; our real respectability, as also our capacity for enjoyment, are in our own keeping and depend chiefly on ourselves. For

"The heart, and not opinion, honours man. "*

* "Das Herz und nicht die Meinung ehrt den Mann."

Schiller.

Our health then, and the peace of our mind, constitute our greatest treasure. Without them all worldly fame and riches are but "gilded loam or painted clay"-mere glitter without substance. Poor also is that fame which brings us no happiness, and miserable, very miserable indeed is that being who has nothing but money to live on. For though it is true that without money there is little comfort in this world, and its want obstructs our progress in every career of life; of what use to us are fame and all the treasures on earth, unless we possess likewise the health, feelings, and habits necessary to enjoy them?-What real blessings can opulence confer on men who are bankrupt in every thing on which true happiness depends?-Of what use is it to a man's happiness that his body is dressed with the greatest possible elegance, that it is fed on the choicest dainties, that it is carried about in the most fashionable equipage, and that it may be stared at every evening in a conspicuous opera-box, if the surest and the most independent basis of his happiness-his mind, is blasted, and his character gone? And as all our being's end and aim is happiness, whatever may be our avocations, is it not then to the perfection and preservation of these two indispensable conditions for its enjoyment:-to the health of our

body and to the peace of our mind, that our attention must principally be directed?

There is however a third condition, so intimately connected with the two just mentioned, that it likewise merits our attention in a high degree; and that is harmony between our intellectual and physical faculties. In fact, both parts of our nature, the mental and physical, are so intimately connected and intertwined, that one cannot suffer without the other becoming more or less affected by it; nor can one of them prosper, at least to a great degree, and for any length of time, without the other. In consequence of this law of man's nature, our pleasures will naturally be most perfect, when both, the intellectual and sensual, mingle into one; for it is the combination of what touches as well our heart and mind as our senses which makes the deepest, the most lasting, and the most agreeable impressions upon us; and which also gives to nature and to the arts their best attractions.-The strong all-potent enthusiasm often produced by a religious worship like the Roman Catholic; the undounted intrepidity and heroic deeds of military ardour; the inspiring force of genius; the resistless power of love, and the fascinating charms of music, what are they but the effect of an impulse powerfully operating, as well

on our heart and mind as on our senses? What affords us also greater enjoyment, by touching both parts of our nature, than the vivifying return of life to fields and gardens after showers, when every plant seems restored, and every tree looks grateful, as if it had a soul and thought, and thanked the Giver? And who that by illness has ever been deprived, for only a short period, of the perceptibility of his senses, and of the command of his reasoning faculties, has not learned to appreciate, by his own experience, the world of happiness which unfolds itself to every feeling and cultivated being, when health is once more circulating through his veins, and he feels himself again in the full possession of his mind? Who that has ever felt this heavenly joy, does not share my conviction, that there is no happiness on earth equal to the gift of life, if health of body and purity of mind "combine to exalt its earthly course?" What, on the contrary, tends more to pervert all our enjoyments than whatever disturbs or destroys. this union between our mind and body, or their health and harmony? What is more calculated to destroy the grand and natural aim of all our wishes and doings than a ruined constitution and an enfeebled intellect?

to influence and to be influenced by the world which surrounds him; and as the sweetest sensations of which he is capable, are produced by his heart answering to that of another; whatever tends to increase or to diminish this contact in which we stand to our fellow men, and to the outward world in general; or whatever is calculated either to sharpen or to blunt the perceptibility and development of the organs by means of which those impressions are made on our nature; necessarily must either perfect or pervert our enjoyments. And as harmony between the intellectual and physical parts of our nature is likewise of the greatest influence on the health of both our mind and body, whatever is calculated to disturb it, can only be detrimental to our happiness.

Is it our nervous system which is too highly excited, and which no longer stands under the perfect control of our reasoning faculties;—such a morbid state of our sensibility is sure to prove itself a great detractor from our happiness. For though it must be admitted that there are instances in which the bliss of sensibility richly overpays the pain which it often gives where it exists in excess, yet in all cases where the nervous system may be said to domineer over all our other faculties, not only the functions of