about the streets proclaiming it, and anxious to avenge it : let it drop. It is wisdom to say little respecting the injuries you may have received.

No popular saying is more commonly accepted than the maxim which asserts that time is the great consoler. Does this express the truth? The work that we must do, the responsibilities that we must undertake, the example we must set to others, these are the great consolers; for these apply the first remedies to the malady of grief. Time possesses nothing but the negative virtue of helping it to wear itself out. Who, that has observed at all, has not perceived that those among us who soonest recover from the shock of a great grief for the dead, are those who have most duties to perform towards the living? When the shadow of calamity rests upon our houses, the question with us is, not how much time will suffice to bring back the sunshine to us again, but how much occupation have we got to force us forward into the place where the sunshine is waiting for us to come? Time may claim many victories, but not the victory over grief. The great consolation for the loss of the dead who are gone, is to be found in the great necessity of thinking of the living who remain. What a lesson this teaches! Truly, an old one, which some of us can never learn too often. "The highest honours are those which no accident can take away, the honours that are conferred by love and truth!"

When God made man, He framed not a machine but a free being, who was to rise or fall, according to the use or abuse of his powers. We may here observe, en pas

sant, that Bonaparte, after witnessing some anatomical demonstrations, made this profound exclamation:-"Ah! this body, I see, is a machine made to live:" as much as to say the corpus is not to be put out of gear by a little matter. What will not the abuse of free agency do? The clouds that intercept the heavens from us, come not from the heavens, but from the earth. If man by pleasing himself is lost, by denying himself he is found.

Epicurus, like Aristippus, declared that pleasure constituted happiness; all animals instinctively pursue it, and as instinctively avoid pain. Man should do deliberately that which animals do instinctively; but he is too stubborn to receive instruction. Every pleasure is in itself good; but in comparison with another it may become an evil. The philosopher differs from the common man in this, that while they both seek pleasures, the former knows how to forego certain enjoyments which will cause pain and vexation hereafter; whereas the common man seeks only to enjoy, putting consequences aside; now is the accepted time, and he will have it, if he has to pay compound interest for every supernatural vibration of pulsation. The philosopher's art enables him to foresee what will be the result of his acts, and so foreseeing, he not only avoids those enjoyments which occasion grief, but knows how to endure those pains from which surpassing pleasure will result. Happiness, then, is not the enjoyment of the moment, but of the whole life; we must not seek to intensify, but to equalise; not debauchery to-day, and satiety to-morrow, but equal enjoyment all the year round. Looking to others for our standard of

happiness, is the sure way to be miserable. Our business is with our own hearts, and our own motives. Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked up in strangers' gardens: but if the mind is not laid out like a well-cultivated garden, it will be overgrown with weeds. What above all is necessary to happiness, is a sound body, and a contented mind. No life can be pleasant but a virtuous one, and the pleasures of the body, although not to be despised, are insignificant when compared with those of the soul. The former are but momentary,-the latter embrace both the past and the future. Hence Epicurus's golden rule of temperance, wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having small wants.

Philosophical education consists in accustoming the mind to judge accurately, and the will to choose manfully; but the true physiologist contends neither can be done if the brain and nervous system be unbraced, or out of tune; there can be no sustaining power, no music in the soul, unless the preparatory steps pre-named-the science of life and living-be judiciously carried out. We are happy, not according to what we have, but according to what we enjoy. Physical education is written about, talked about, and by some (and not a few), sneered at; and those who profess to be converts, rarely think of acting up to their ideal. Ancient truths have lost their majesty, and new truths their sincerity. Doubtless there are many powerful minds, pregnant with great truths, but, say they virtually, the servile, twilight-creeping public will not allow them to be delivered; they must lie dormant until riper times arrive in a later period. When sterility of mind is less a

passport everywhere, their development may be and will be hailed with enthusiasm. If we can descry the signs of the times, this will be, we apprehend, when the million have found out their real wants, and deciphered their spiritual nature.

There is but one formula for morals, and that is, to live harmoniously with nature. Christianity, that ought to be really and in good faith the supreme regent of all moral feeling, will be comparatively easy, if the physical takes the lead; for no man can see through a soiled window, or produce music from an untuned instrument. If reason is the great creative law, to live conformably to reason must be the practical moral law. If the universe be subject to a general law, every part of that universe must also be duly subordinated to it. As a word of encouragement to the unhappy ones, who over-lament, perhaps, the preponderance of the carnal principle, we cannot do better than refer them to a quotation from Dr. Arnold's last sermon :—I have never (said this simple-hearted and earnest man) wished to speak with exaggeration: it seems to me as unwise as it is wrong to do so. I think it is quite right to observe what is hopeful in us, as well as what is threatening; that general confession of unmixed evils are deceiving and hardening; that our evil never looks so really dark, as when we contrast it with anything which there may be in us of good. "Do good, and avoid evil, and happiness will assuredly follow in its train."

It is no part of wisdom to neglect doing anything, because the best thing cannot be accomplished. Good is stronger than evil. A single really good man in an ill

place, is like a little yeast in a gallon of dough-it can leaven the mass. It is sad to reflect that our profession, styled dignified, honourable, &c., should be one of those callings that is destined to fatten on the miseries and distresses of our neighbours. What a sad drawback to the pleasure of the science to reflect, that we, as medical scavengers, are constantly engaged in draughting off the products of repletion, superfluities, and excesses of every varied form. Far better would it be, if we are born to suffer (maybe from the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children), to feel only reasonable sorrows, disquietudes inseparable from our social and moral position. He who violates the law is accursed. When we have new perceptions, we shall gladly disburthen the memory of its hoarded treasure as old rubbish. Great efforts from great motives, is the best definition of a happy life; exercise without motive, we may all know from experience, is a nullity: the easiest labour is a burden to the man who is motiveless. We cannot multiply our pleasures as we multiply our possessions. We may, indeed, set no limits to our capacity for enjoying them. Folly, however, must always be attended with grievous results; and we doubt not there is some truth in the rant of a mad poet, that there is a pleasure in being mad, which none but a madman knows.

Our candid opinion of the happiness versus misery question, lies in a small compass. Man is the arbiter of his own destiny: it is his ignorance that is his curse; Knowledge, the wing wherewith we flee to heaven;" and this must save him. There is a depth of soul and

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