THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



better be about his work, instead of wasting time 

 in vain regrets and futile apprehensions. If your ex- 

 perience has not made you better able at forty to go 

 ahead with your useful work than you were at thirty, 

 then it is more than probable that you would waste 

 the time over again had you the opportunity to do so. 

 Hence the regret of the man of forty that he is not 

 ten years younger a regret one so often hears ex- 

 pressed is not only foolish because of its futility, but 

 implies a wish that would probably be void of results 

 could it be realised. There are as many hours in the 

 day for the man of fifty as for him of twenty. And 

 to-day is the only time of which either the one or the 

 other can be sure; to-morrow may never come for 

 either. Life therefore has as many certainties at one 

 age as at another and you cannot hypothecate mere 

 probabilities. 



Where, however, death approaches untimely, as from 

 accident or disease, while the worker is still in his 

 prime and his work unfinished, we may freely admit 

 that the case is hard. As Henry IV. of France lay dan- 

 gerously ill, he said to his minister Sully: "My friend, 

 I have no fear of death; you have seen me brave it in 

 a thousand instances; but I regret losing my life before I 

 have been able, by governing my subjects well, and 

 alleviating all their burthens, to demonstrate that I 

 love them as my children." That monarch's deeds 

 were consistent with his words, as he was spared for a 

 time to demonstrate, before being snatched away, still 

 prematurely, by the assassin's bullet. In such a case, 



