Year: 1867

minor ends oflife, and their constant activity
20 to constitute human happiness


There is no instinct more active and uni
versal than that of seeking happiness.
Philosophers have sometimes said that it
was the fundamental instinct Of human ma
ture. It certainly is a universal impulse.
But in regard to no other instinct have
more mistakes been made. Men have
sought happiness in every conceivable way.
They have soughtit by the exercise of single
faculties, and by the exercise of great
variety Of faculties They have sought it
by avoiding activity, and by being too in
tensely active. Moderation and excess
have both been praeticed for the sake of
happiness.


Now, right end of life, that develops
whole organization, an aim which keeps
alive, and whets and renders active every
part of the'human economy, will reap as
much of the lower measures of happiness
as it is possible for man to reap in this
world. | do not believe there is any such
as happiness for man that is not active,
and active, too, with an aim and and intent
Intelligent and worthy activity, in all parts
of mans nature, continued through life,
is the secret ofhappiness Mechanics know
very well that machine is injured more by
lying still without using than by moderate
and normal usings An engine viii wear
out sooner ifit be put up in the shop than
if it be run upon the road. And if man
has no daily tasks that he is obliged to per
form, and spends his time in idleness and in
activity, he will not live out half his days;
while if be spends bis time in regular indus
try, he will be apt to be long lived. Land
lords know that the worst tenants in the
world for their dwellings are nobodys. They
/ know that houses that are given over to
impure air, aud mould, and dust, viii fall
to pieces faster than hou-es that are used,
And so it is with the human mind. There
is no way in which it can be dilapidated fas-
ter, or brought into morbid conditions
sooner, than by Incidence.


The only law of usefulness is continuous,
organized, and we'll directed activity. 1t is
true that the same amount Of activity viii
produce very different measures Of useful
ness in different persons. One soil, ifit be
exceedingly sandy, viii produce but twenty
fold. Another SOIL of clay, will produce
fifty fold. Another soil, Of deep vegetable
loan, will produce hundred fold. And so
men are rich, richer, and richest in their
endowments, and the same amount ofexer-
else will produce different degrees of pro
duct iu different men. But notwithstand-
ing, the universal law of usefulness is that
men are to bs useful in proportion as they
are active.


make this remark with the more en-
phasis because Of the impression which pre-
walls particularly among the young that
men are endowed with a kind offruitfulness
of nature which only requires opportunity
to develop itself 1t is what is usually call
ed genius. There is an impression that if
a man is a man of genius, he comes to
knowledge without study; that if man is
smart, and is man Of taste; if he is in COM
merce, in politics, 10 scholastic pursuits; if
he is a public man of any sort, he does
things abundanty and easily without labor.
| But the reverse is true. In proportion as
man is useful, he is constantly industrious
| The products of mans mind, the products
of a man nature, are useful, and eminently
60, in proportion to the ceaseless activity
that is impaired to the one or the other.
There is no man born SO great that he can
afford to be indolent There is no man,
though bis head be as massive as Web
sters. but needs to study and to ponder.
| There Is no man, though be be endowed ike
Michael Angelo, but needs to be what ne
was-the most laborious man of his age.
Though ike Titan, one has all artistic taste,
and live to the age of hundred years, 1t
is not simply his genius, but the power with
which he applies himself, and his contlnu-
Gus industry, that mark and register his
usefulness. A man in life with one talent
will be greatly useful if he knows how to
keep that talent wisely employed; but man
with ever so many talents viii be of little
use if he does not know how TO employ
them wisely. 1t is mistake, therefore, to
suppose that because a man is largely en-
dowed he does not need to be industrious
and active. Every one should make up his
mind in the beginning that whatever facni-
ties God has given him, the condition Of
his holding them is ceasless activity therein.
In the light of these facts, let US consider
the almost universal repinings ofmen at the
condition in which they find themselves, If
not in words, yet in thought, where taxation
is perpetually laid upon them, and they are
necessitated to work l think if you were
to 20 from man to man in all the ordinary
channels of life, you would find very few
men, if you took them at that hour when
they made their secret complaints, who did
not labor under the impression that though
they should be resigned to their condition,
it was condition of misfortune that they
we're obliged to exert themselves. The
young man, beginning in life, says to him
self II am obliged to rise early, and sit up
late, and labor necessarily; but | hope for a
better time. All, yes, that better time Is
the FOOLS paradise Of laziness! He is obi
sed to work now; but he looks forward to the
fine when he will not be under the necessity