PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 93 



apprenticeship prove that there was a remarkable sound- 

 ness in his original constitution, a fund of natural health, 

 moral and intellectual, of genial humour and of homely 

 wisdom. How bravely he makes the most of adverse 

 circumstances ! How cheerfully he accommodates him- 

 self to his situation ! How kindly are the relations 

 he establishes between himself and his coarse and riot- 

 ous associates ! There is nothing which he cannot 

 assimilate and apply to his mental nutriment, and he is 

 animated by a quiet, half-conscious, but steadfast ambi- 

 tion for self-culture. He has a deep-lying conviction of 

 his ability to rise above the sphere in which he finds 

 himself placed ; but he has already got firm hold of 

 a very ancient philosophy of life, a philosophy which 

 has been of use to wise men in every age ; and it has 

 made him comparatively indifferent to what is called 

 success. According to this philosophy, happiness is 

 too subtle an essence to be purchased with gold, or 

 to be' dealt out wholesale to one class of men as dis- 

 tinguished from another ; the rude fare of the peasant 

 is as sweet to him as his dainties to the peer; the 

 honest pride which warms the heart of the capable artisan 

 is as instinct with joy as the aristocrat's pride of rank 

 or birth ; nature's face has a smile for all who will lov- 

 ingly look into it ; and rising in the world may mean 

 falling in all that makes life precious, character illustri- 

 ous, man happy. 



