University of Virginia Library

HAPPINESS.

Who then is happy? Ere she close the strain,
The muse herself shall answer. 'T is the man
(Of easy fortune and a generous heart)
Whose charity by wisdom is directed;
Who loves his God, his neighbor, and himself,
In just descending order; whose employ
Is doing good to others; whose reward,
The bright reflection of the joy he gives.
Like a mild taper in a diamond lustre,
Which multiplies one little ray to thousands,
His means of blessing still increase by use.
Not all the evils of this sordid world,
Can shake the solid peace of such a man.
The changing seasons, times, events, and all
The various scenes that checker human life,
And e'en the chilling adverse storms of fate,
Serve but to ripen the celestial fruits
His active love produces; draughts of bliss
He quaffs for every little taste he gives,
And finds a heaven in wishing others there.
To seek for happiness in things of sense,
In wealth, ambition, pleasure, or supineness,
Is but a vain exertion—idle hope;
For then we chase a transitory cheat,
And leave the game, the real prize, behind,
Hid in contentment's calm sequestered vale,
While we toil up the mountain's rugged side,
Tempting new dangers, and exposed to all
The storms that beat ambition's bleaker road;
Or perils worse than these, concealed beneath
The treacherous sweets that bloom in pleasure's path,
A thousand serpent-stings, unseen, but fatal.
And if in dastard indolence we rest,
Our lazy hopes are certain of defeat.
Then learn the true, the only real source
Whence happiness can flow—a precept drawn
From holy writ this heavenly source proclaims—
“To fear the Lord, and his commands obeys,
Is man's whole duty,” in a single line;
An easy yoke, a burden light to bear.
'T is but to love in heart and action both—
For love is the fulfilling of the law.