248 HENEY KIRKE WHITE'S REMAINS. 



mitting sadness on these accounts, so far from ameliorat- 

 ing the condition of mortality, only adds to the aggre- 

 gate of human misery, and throws a gloom over those 

 moments when a ray of light is permitted to visit the 

 dark valley of life, and the heart ought to be making the 

 best of its fleeting happiness. Landscape, too, ought to 

 be a source of delight to you ; fine buildings, objects of 

 nature, and a thousand things which it would be tedious 

 to name. I should call the man who could survey such 

 things as these without being aiFected with pleasure, 

 either a very weak minded and foolish person, or one of 

 no mind at all. To be always sad, and always ponder- 

 ing on eternal griefs, is what I call utter selfishness : I 

 would not give twopence for a being who is locked up 

 in his own sufferings, and whose heart cannot respond 

 to the exhilarating cr}'' of nature, or rejoice because he 

 sees others rejoice. The loud and unanimous chirping 

 of the birds on a fine sunny morning pleases me, be- 

 cause I see they are happy : and I should be very selfish, 

 did I not participate in their seeming joy. Do not, 

 however, suppose that I mean to exclude a man's owp 

 sorrows from his thoughts, since that is an impossibility, 

 and, were it possible, would be prejudicial to the human 

 heart. I only mean that the whole mind is not to be 

 incessantly engrossed with its cares, but with cheerful 

 elasticity to bend itself occasionally to circumstances, and 

 give way without hesitation to pleasing emotions. To 

 be pleased with little, is one of the greatest blessings. 



Sadness is itself sometimes infinitely more pleasing 

 than joy ; but this sadness must be of the expansive and 

 generous kind, rather referring to mankind at large, than 

 the individual ; and this is a feeling not incompatible 

 with cheerfulness and a contented spirit. There is diffi- 

 culty, however, in setting bounds to a pensive disposi- 

 tion ; I have felt it, and I have felt that I am not always 

 adequate to the task. I sailed from Hull to Barton the 

 day before yesterday, on a rough and windy day, in a 

 vessel filled with a marching regiment of soldiers : the 

 band played finely, and I was enjoying the many pleasant 

 emotions which the water, sky, winds, and musical in- 



