Discouragements 



provement to get a glimpse of the great 

 Elm-trunk and the green grass beyond ; 

 but, suppose we do not like it when the 

 bushes are down, what then ? 



Even given on his part the best artistic 

 perception, does it follow that another 

 man's views of what you ought to like 

 always suit your own ? 



May it not perhaps be wiser to work The contra- 



i i ^ riness of hu* 



out your own problems in your own way ? 

 Human nature is so constituted that it 

 yearns for authority, and when it gets 

 authority it chafes thereat, and each man 

 cherishes his own unwisdom as dearer 

 than the knowledge of another. Such con- 

 trary beings are we that it is always what 

 we have not that seems the greater bless- 

 ing, and we seldom know when we are 

 well off. The hardest state of mind to 

 attain is content, and so little do we know 

 the essence of happiness, that finding the 

 contented man, we forthwith compassion- 

 ate him for his lack of ambition, or gird at 

 him for supineness, and pride ourselves 

 upon our own divine unrest. 



Even thus do the educating influences 

 of the garden lead us round to philoso- 

 227 



