THE ACT OF LIFE. 



measurable moment on its passage, bears upon its 

 invisible and rapid wings, all the information that we 

 receive, and all the happiness that we enjoy. It 

 delights us with softness in touching, with raciness 

 in tasting, with perfume in smelling, with music in 

 hearing, and with all the world in seeing; and what 

 would we, what can we have more than that ? 



Thus, as the ACT OF LIFE is, as it were, not a 

 matter measurable in duration, the quantity of 

 happiness that we enjoy is not a sum of measur- 

 able durations ; and thus it has nothing to do with 

 time, in the common way of estimating it by the 

 visible motion of visible matter. It is said or 

 fabled of the ancient Scythians, that they slew the 

 wise in order to inherit their wisdom, and the 

 strong in order to inherit their strength ; but if 

 we would only use our senses our powers of obser- 

 vation aright, we might inherit the wisdom and 

 the strength of all past ages, as well as those of 

 the present, and even behold and grasp forward 

 into futurity without ever injuring a hair of any 

 living creature. In that way an observant man 

 may and does actually concentrate more enjoyment 

 into one brief hour, nay, into one immeasurable 

 moment, than a dull and careless man drawls out 

 of his three score and ten years. And it is in the 

 observation of nature only that this unbounded 

 happiness, this happiness which time cannot mea- 

 sure or space bound, is to be found out. All that 

 is of human making, or human possession, is mea- 

 surable, and we speedily get to the end of its 

 pleasure ; but, even in this world, the pleasure of 

 nature is absolutely to our fondest wish infinite 

 and eternal. 



