South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1837-04-22
Miscellaneous.
HAPPINESS Equally DISTRIBUTED.

HAPPINESS EQUALLY OlS1RIbUTED.
Every situation and every condition
Of life, every occupation, business and
calling, every age, rank and station,
has its pleasures and its pains !; its priv
ileges and its privations-its comforts
and its inconvenience. The rich as
well as the poor-the poor as well as
the rich-all have their share ofthe en-
|joyments and blessings oflife, and their
share of the perplexities and cares, the
crosses and disappointments, that fall
to the lot Of human nature. In these
particulars-in these vicissitudes and
changes which may be called the Cir
culating medium of human society,
the coin current among all classes and
conditions-there exist moi, neither can
there exist, any monopoly on the one
or the other. Much of the pain and
sorrow that constitute the burden of
complaint among men, excepting al
ways bodily infrmities, and sickness,
and positive want and suffering, exist
in the imagination, and are heighten-
ed by contrasting the outward appea-
rance, the external circumstances Of O.
theirs, with whatwe know to be the ac-
tual state of our own condition and
feelings, and by this drawing dissimi-
lar conclusions from what in fact are
similar premises, although appearing to
be widely different. The deception is
very natural one; in truth, the appa-
rent condition of others, as having in 1t
the full possession ofhappiness, or the
inevitable ingredients of the cup OF
misery, must always be viewed through
false medium, and is most uncer-
tain criterion by which ojudge OF the
degree OF enjoyment possessed by any
being. An individual may derive
! much of his enjoyment from contrast
inc one situation Of his life with that OF
another: indeed most ofour happiness,
especially that which depends upon
combinations and associations of the
mind growing out of Incidental CIR
cumstances, arise from such contrast,
The same is also true with respect to
mental pain and misery, and even to
great extent, with respect to bodily,
growing out of reverse of circumstan-
ces and the loss of fortune. While,
therefore, a man confines his compar-
ison and contrasts to himself-to his
own condition relatively considered IN
reference to one period of his life and
another-he may have some certain da-
ia upon which to form his opinions
and draw his conclusions with respect
to himself, his own happiness and en-
iovment: but from the same premises
he can form no correct opinions of the
happiness or misery Of others. The
poor, therefore, have no good reasons
| for envying the rich, merely from loo
king at their outward appearance; nell
ther have the rich for envying the poor,
which is often done-and in fact, the
hiah and the low, the famous and the
obscure, the man ofleisure and the la
borer, the opposites in rank, classes and
conditions ofevery name and kind IN
society, have no good grounds to envy
each other or wish change of situa-
tons, Judging merely from what meets
the eve. Something more must be
| lxnown-the,ARcANA ofthe feelings x
THOUGHTS must be laid open, else no cor
rect opinions can be formed. 10 tenn
nered wishes and moderated desires,
! happiness is chiefly confined-and
these are as likely to exist-even more