Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1851-01-29
MISC T. LII AN E OU S.
HAPPINESS.


Love, truly such, is itself not the most
common thing in the world, and mutual love
still less so. But that enduEing personal
attachment, SO beautifully delneated by
Erin's sweet melodist, and still more touch
ingIy, perhaps, in the weIl-known ballad,
,''John Anderson, my 10, john" in addition
to depth and cons,ancy of character of no
everyday occurrence, supposes peculiar
sensibility and tenderness of nature; a con-
stlu,ional communca,lveness, and uIteran-
cy Of heart and soul delight in the detail
Of sympathy, in the outward and visible
signs of The sacrament within, TO count, as
i. were, the pulses Of the life Of love. But,
above all, it supposes soul which, even in
the pride and summer-lide Of life, even in
The lustihood of health and strength, had
felt o(lenest and priced highest tina, which
age cannot take away, and which, in all our
lovings, is the love. mean that willing
sense of the insuffciency Of the sci flor itself,
which predisposes generous nature to see,
in the total being of another, the supple
ment and completion Of its own the que,
perpetual seeking which the presence of the
beloved modulates, no. suspends, where the
heart momen,aIily finds, and, finding, again
seeks on; lastly, when ''lfe's changeful orb
has passed the full," a confirmed faith in The
nobleness Of humanity, thus brought home
and pressed, as 1t were, 10 the very bosom
Of hourly experience; it suppose., say, a
heartfelt reverence for worth not the less
deep because dives,ed of Its solemn,y by
habit, by familiarity, by mutual infrmi,ies.
and even by feeling Of modesly which will
arise in delicate minds, when they are con-
scious Of possessing the same or the cor
respondent excellence in their own charsc-
,er.. In short, there mus, be mind which.
while it feels the beautiful and the excellent
in the beloved as its own, and bv right of
love appropriate it, can call goodness its
plsyiellow, and dares make sport of time
and infrmily while in the person of /,
thousand fontIy endeared partner, we feel
for aged virtue the caressing fondness tha,
belongs 10 the innocence of childhood and
repeat the same attentions and tender cour-
tesies as had been dictated by the same az
fection 10 the same object, when a,.ired 10
feminine loveliness, or in manly beauty
These qualities which ! have enumerated.
are rarely found united in single individ-
uaI. How much more rare, must it be, that
two such individuals should meet together
in this wide world, under circumstances that
admit Of their union as husband and wife.
A person may be highly esiimable on the
whole, nay, amiable as neighbor, friend,
housems.e, in short, in all the concentric
circles of attachment, save only. the last and
inmosl; and yet from how many causes
be esranged from the highes. perfection in
this! Pride, GOODNESS, or fsslidiousness Of
nature, worldly cares, an anxious or ambi-
tIous dIspositIon, a passion for display, a
sullen temper, one or the other, TOO often
proves "lhe dead fl Y in the compost of spi-
ces," and any one is enough 10 unfit it for
the precious balm of unction. For some
mighty good sor. of people, too, there is not
seldom sort of sa.ufnine, or, if you will,
ursine vanity, that keeps itself alive by suck
ing the paws of its own self-importance
And as this high sense, or rather sensation
of their own value, is for the most par,
grounded on negative qualities, so they have
no better means of preserving The same bu,
by negatives, that is, by not doing or saying
oh9 tnlhS AIot ii'Shs oC Put w" II 'oI IoIu.
silly, or nonsensical or (,o use their own
phrsse,) by mever forgetting Themselves,
which some of their acquainlances ere char
liable enough to think The most worthless
object they could be employed in remem-
bering. The same effect is produced in the
thousands, by the too general insensibilIty
to a very important nu.h this, namely,
that the MISERY Of human life is made up
Of large masses, each separated from the
other by certain intervals. One year, the
death of a child; years after, failure in
trade; after another longer or shorter in
tervaI, daughter may have married un-
happily i'm all but The singularly unfor-
Iunale the integral parts that compose The
sum total of The unhappiness of mans
life, are easily counted, and distinctly re-
membered. The HAPPINESS Of life, on the
consraro is made up of minute fractions, the
little soon-forgotten charities of kiss. q
smile, kind look, heartfelt complmen,
in the disguise Of playful rallery, and the
countless other infnilesimals of pleasurabIe
thought and genial feeling.
Christ was born among the poor, grew
up among the poor, toied with the poor