from their consciences being devoid of hope. In the first book of Plato's Republic is the following passage : "He "whose conscience does not reproach him, "has cheerful hope for his companion." The same idea is carried farther by Pindar ; for this great poet says, that he who leads a just and holy life, has always amiable hope for his companion; which fills his heart with joy, and is the support and comfort of his old age: hope, the most powerful of the divinities in governing the ever-changing and inconstant temper of mortal men. And Euripides, in his Hercules Furens, likewise observes as follows: "He is the good man, in whose breast hope springs eternally: but to be in the world "without hope is the portion of the wicked.” But there is an observation much stronger than these in the 17th chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon, purporting not only the exclusion of hope, but presaging the constant apprehension of evil: "For wickedness condemned by her own witness is very timorous; and being pressed with "conscience, always forecasteth grievous things."

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In the same decided manner as the Scrip

tures and the Book of Wisdom denounce temporal and eternal misery to the wicked, do they promise happiness, both in this life and that which is to come, to the righteous. "Thou, O God, wilt keep him in perfect 66 peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. "Thou wilt bless him indeed, and keep him "from evil. The work of righteousness shall "be peace, and the effect of righteousness “quietness and assurance for ever. Whe"ther a man be rich or poor, if he have a good heart towards the Lord, he shall at "all times rejoice with a cheerful coun"tenance. Look at the generations of old, "and see, did ever any trust in the Lord "and was confounded? or did any abide in "his fear and was forsaken? or whom did "he ever despise that called upon him? “When a man's ways please the Lord, he "maketh his enemies to be at peace with ❝ him. Commit thy way unto the Lord; "put also thy trust in him, and he shall

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bring it to pass. Delight thou in the Lord, " and he shall give thee thy heart's desire. "Your labour shall not be in vain in the

"Lord. His mercy is on them that fear "him throughout all generations. And all

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things shall work together for good to

"them that love God. A good man shall "be satisfied from himself; for his rejoicing "is this, the testimony of his conscience. "The spirits of just men shall be made per"fect; and they shall see God, and shall be "ever with the Lord: their inheritance shall “be for ever, and they shall receive a crown "of glory, that fadeth not away. Eye hath "not seen, nor ear heard, neither have en"tered into the heart of man, the things "which God hath prepared for them that "love him," &c. &c. &c.

In this distinction, in this important distinction, between the feelings of the minds of the good and bad, and not in what are called the good things of life, consists, beyond all doubt or question, the essential happiness or misery of every human being: for the mind is the man; and that it is so, is a conclusion which has been ever inculcated by the wisest men. In Plato's Phædon it is mentioned, that a little while before Socrates drank the poison he was adjudged to do, Crito asked him, how he would be buried? To which, with a smile, he replied, that Crito confounded him, i. e. his mind or soul, with his corpse; desiring his friends to undeceive Crito in this particular, that he might not

despair, or say at his funeral, Socrates is laid out; Socrates is carried out; Socrates is interred. You should say (addressing himself to Crito) that my body, and not Socrates, is interred: that indeed you may bury as you please, and in the manner agreeable to our laws and customs. And nothing can more strongly prove that this great man thought all genuine happiness was seated in the mind, than his noble and sublime declaration to Antipho, that he neither desired, or looked for, or expected, greater happiness in this life, than the consciousness of making a progress in virtue.

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Cicero in his Tusculan Questions observes, Corpus quidem quasi vas est aut aliquid "animi receptaculum; ab animo tuo quic"quid agitur, id agitur a te.”

Seneca likewise observes," Major sum et "ad majora natus quam quod sim corporis " mancipium, quod equidem non aliter aspi"cio quam vinculum libertati meæ circum"datum *"

And he further observes, "Si perpendere "te voles, sepone pecuniam, domum, digni"tatem, intus te ipse consule."

Marcus Aurelius writes to the same pur

* Epist. lxvi.

pose; σε Ενδον βλεπε, ενδον ή πηγη τε αγαθε. Look within, for within is the fountain of good *."

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Many more quotations to the same effect might be made from Horace, Juvenal, and other writers; but these are sufficient to prove how universally it is adjudged that human happiness is determined by the mind and its feelings. Solomon observes," Keep "thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues (or the actions) of life." And our Saviour says, "What shall it profit a "man, if he gain the whole world, and lose "his own soul? or what shall he give in exchange for his soul?"

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Since therefore it has pleased Almighty God to decree, that the good and the good only shall possess those happy feelings which constitute the essence of human felicity, every man ought to admit and to admire his goodness to the species in thus putting it in the power of each man to be happy if he will; as there is no man but may be virtuous and pious if he chooses to be so: and he ought to allow, that by this means as great a reward is decreed as could be to those that will love, honour, and obey their God: and he ought likewise to think, that there never

* Lib. vii. 59.