106 PHILLIDA AND CORIDON. 



child, possibly, or a poet ; certainly not a phi- 

 losopher. And happiness, too, is that some- 

 thing of which the scientific mind can render 

 us a quite adequate description ? Or is it, 

 rather, a wayward, mysterious thing, coming 

 often when least expected, and going away 

 again when, by all tokens, it ought to remain? 

 How is it with ourselves ? Do we wait to 

 weigh all the good and evil of our state, to take 

 an accurate account of it pro and con, before 

 we allow ourselves to be glad or sorry ? Not 

 many of us, I think. Mortuary tables may 

 demonstrate that half the children born in this 

 country fail to reach the age of twenty years. 

 But what then ? Our " expectation of life " is 

 not based upon statistics. The tables may be 

 correct, for aught we know ; but they deal with 

 men in general and on the average ; they have 

 no message for you and me individually. And 

 it seems not unlikely that birds may be equally 

 illogical ; always expecting to live, and not die, 

 and often giving themselves up to impulses of 

 gladness without stopping to inquire whether, 

 on grounds of absolute reason, these impulses 

 are to be justified. Let us hope so, at all events, 

 till somebody proves the contrary. 



But even looking at the subject a little more 

 philosophically, we may say and be thankful 

 to say it that the joy of life is not dependent 



