it to your parents, your brothers and sisters, your schoolmates, your teachers-and say it cheerfully and with a smile; it will do you good, and do your friends good. There's a kind of inspiration in every "good morning," heartily and smilingly spoken, that helps to make hope fresher and work lighter. It seems really to make the morning good, and a prophecy of a good day to come after it. And if this be true of the "good morning," it is also of all kind, cheerful greetings; they cheer the discouraged, rest the tired one, and somehow make the wheels of time run more smoothly. Be liberal then, and let no morning pass, however dark and gloomy it may be, that you do not help at least to brighten it by your smiles and cheerful words.

The cheerful are the busy; when trouble knocks at your door or rings the bell, he will generally retire if you send him word "engaged." And a busy life cannot well be otherwise than cheerful. Frogs do not croak in running water. And active minds are seldom troubled with gloomy forebodings. They come up only from the stagnant depths of a spirit unstirred by generous impulses or the blessed necessities of honest toil.

What shall we say by way of commending that sweet cheerfulness by which a good and sensible woman diffuses the oil of gladness in the proper sphere of home. The best specimens of heroism in the world were never gazetted. They play their role in common life, and their reward is not in the admiration of spectators, but in the deep joy of their own conscious thoughts. It is easy for a housewife to make arrange

ments for an occasional feast; but let me tell you what is greater and better: amid the weariness and cares of life; the troubles, real and imaginary, of a family; the many thoughts and toils which are requisite to make the family home of thrift, order and comfort; the varieties of temper and cross-lines of taste and inclination which are to be found in a large household-to maintain a heart full of good nature and a face always bright with cheerfulness, this is a perpetual festivity. We do not mean a mere superficial simper, which has no more character in it than the flow of a brook, but that exhaustless patience, and self-control, and kindness. and tact which spring from good sense and brave purposes. Neither is it the mere reflection of prosperity, for cheerfulness, then, is no virtue. Its best exhibition is in the dark back-ground of real adversity. Affairs assume a gloomy aspect, poverty is hovering about the door, sickness has already entered, days of hardship and nights of watching go slowly by, and now you see the triumph of which we speak. When the strong man has bowed himself, and his brow is knit and creased, you will see how the whole life of the household seems to hang on the frailer form, which, with solicitudes of her own, passing, it may be, under "the sacred primal sorrow of her sex," has an eye and an ear for every one but herself, suggestive of expedients, hopeful in extremities, helpful in kind words and affectionate smiles, morning, noon and night, the medicine, the light, the heart of a whole household. God bless that bright, sunny face! says many a reader, as he

recalls that one of mother, wife, sister, daughter, which has been to him all that my words have described.

The industrious bee stops not to complain that there are so many poisonous flowers and thorny branches in his road, but buzzes on, selecting the honey where he can find it, and passing quietly by the places where it is not. There is enough in this world to complain about and find fault with, if men have the disposition. We often travel on a hard and uneven road, but with a cheerful spirit and a heart to praise God for his mercies, we may walk therein with great comfort and come to the end of our journey in peace.

Let us try to be like the sunshiny member of the family, who has the inestimable art to make all duty seem pleasant, all self-denial and exertion easy and desirable, even disappointment not so blank and crushing; who is like a bracing, crisp, frosty atmosphere throughout the home, without a suspicion of the element that chills and pinches. You have known people within whose influence you felt cheerful, amiable, and hopeful, equal to anything! Oh! for that blessed power, and for God's grace to exercise it rightly! I do not know a more enviable gift than the energy to sway others to good; to diffuse around us an atmosphere of cheerfulness, piety, truthfulness, generosity, magnanimity. It is not a matter of great talent; not entirely a matter of great energy; but rather of earnestness and honesty, and of that quiet, constant energy which is like soft rain gently penetrating the soil. It is rather a grace than a gift; and we all know where all grace is to be had freely for the asking.

Happiness.

WRITERS of every age have endeavored to show that pleasure is in us and not in the object offered for our amusement. If the soul be happily disposed, everything becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name.

The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who seeks happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove.

Man is, in all respects, constituted to be happy. Hence it is that he sees goodness around him in proportion to the goodness that is within him; and it is also for this reason that when he calls the evil that is within

him outside of him it also appears so. If man, therefore, chooses that which does not seem to him good, he can, in a measure, enjoy it. One of the most evident differences between the enjoyment of what is good and true and that which is false and evil, is that the first leaves something to be re-enjoyed in memory and after lite, while the latter leaves regret, disappointment and suffering.

Great part of the infelicity of men arises not so much from their situations or circumstances as from their pride, vanity and ambitious expectations. In order to be happy, these dispositions must be subdued; we must always keep before our eyes such views of the world as shall prevent our expecting more from it than it is designed to afford. We destroy our joys by devouring.

them beforehand with too eager expectation. We ruin the happiness of life when we attempt to raise it too high. Menedemus being told one day that it was a great felicity to have whatever we desire, "Yes," said he, "but it is a much greater to desire nothing but what we have."

The idea has been transmitted from generation to generation that happiness is one large and beautiful precious stone--a single gem, so rare that all search after it is all vain effort, for it is fruitless and hopeless. It is not so. Happiness is a mosaic, composed of many smaller stones. Each taken apart and viewed singly may be of little value, but when all are grouped together and judiciously combined and set, they form a pleasing and graceful whole, a costly jewel.

Trample not under foot then the little pleasures which a gracious Providence scatters in the daily path while in eager search after some great and exciting joy. We are so apt to overlook little things and our own mind, and look for happiness in large external matter; but we find it not.

If you go to the creature to make you happy, the earth will tell you that happiness grows not in the furrows of the fields; the sea that it is not in the treasures of the deep; cattle will say, "It is not on our backs;" crowns will say, "It is too precious a gem to be found in us." We can adorn the head, but we cannot satisfy the heart. Happiness is in us, not in things.

If happiness consisted in things only, there would be no end to the numberless kinds of it. It was in this point of view that the erudite Roman writer, Varro,