with the name of firmness, is in reality but the result of dul

ness or insensibility.

In connection with this comprehensive passion of grief, let me briefly urge the high importance of preserving in children a cheerful and happy state of temper, by indulg ing them in the various pleasures and diversions suited to their years. Those who are themselves, either from age or temperament, grave or sober, will not unfrequently attempt to cultivate a similar disposition in children. Such, however, is in manifest violation of the laws of the youthful constitution. Each period of life has its distinctive character and enjoyments; and gravity and sedateness, which fond parents commonly call manliness, appear to me quite as inconsistent and unbecoming in the character of childhood as puerile levity in that of age.

The young, if unwisely restrained in their appropriate amusements, or too much confined to the society of what are termed serious people, may experience in consequence such a dejection of spirits as to occasion a sensible injury to their health. And it should furthermore be considered, that the sports and gayeties of happy childhood call forth those various muscular actions, as laughing, shouting, running, jumping, &c., which are, in early life, so absolutely essential to the healthful development of the different bodily organs.

Again, children when exposed to neglect and unkind treatment, for to such they are far more sensible than we are prone to suspect, will not unusually grow sad and spiritless, their stomach, bowels, and nervous system becoming

enfeebled and deranged, and various other painful infirmities, and even premature decay, may sometimes owe their origin to such unhappy source.

Childhood, moreover for what age is exempt from them?-will often have its secret troubles, preying on the spirits and undermining the health. The sorrows of this period are, to be sure, but transient in comparison with those of later life, yet they may be the occasion of no little suffering and injury to the tender and immature system while they do last. And then again many of the baleful passions, as envy and jealousy, in which grief is always more or less mingled, may agitate the human bosom long before they can be exhibited in language. Disappointed ambition, too, may wound the breast and disturb the health even in our earliest years.

Children, varying as they are known to do in their temperaments, will be affected in unequal degrees by the moral influences to which I have referred. When delicate and possessed of high nervous sensibility they will feel them far more keenly, and the danger from them will be correspondently enhanced.

Grief, let me add in conclusion of this subject, is a passion from which every human heart is destined to suffer. Affliction, in the continually recurrent vicissitudes of life, must fall upon us all; no one can hope to shun it, though the fates measure it out in very different quantities to different individuals, and to some so abundantly, that, like the Thracians, they might well weep at the birth of a child and rejoice at the funeral of their friends. Life is generally regarded as happy or unhappy according to the

fortune which marks its close. We are apt to repine against fate if adversity overtakes us near the end, however great may have been the prosperity of our preceding years. Solon, the famous lawgiver, and one of the seven wise men of Greece, counted no man happy till the manner of his death was known. "Futurity carries for every man many various and uncertain events in its bosom. He, therefore, whom Heaven blesses with success to the last, is in our estimation the happy man. But the happiness of him who still lives, and has the dangers of life to encounter, appears to us no better than that of a champion before the combat is determined, and while the crown is uncertain."* But could we justly complain of a repast where all the dishes were good and plentiful except one or two at the end? Or, on the other hand, praise it if all were poor and scanty but a few of the last? The closing scenes of Sir Walter Scott's career were indeed melancholy; nevertheless, his feast of life, as a whole, was far richer and more abundant than is allotted to most men.

*Plutarch. Life of Solon.

CHAPTER XXV.

ENVY AND JEALOUSY.-SIMILAR IN THEIR NATURE.-SECRET AND DANGEROUS IN THEIR OPERATION.-MANIFEST THEMSELVES EVEN IN INFANCY.-INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF THESE PASSIONS UPON HEALTH.-SHAME. ITS NATURE. THE PHENOMENA WHICH ATTEND IT.-WHEN EXTREME MAY BE FRAUGHT WITH DANGER TO HEALTH AND EVEN LIFE.--A FREQUENT SOURCE OF SUFFERING AND DISEASE IN A STATE OF SOCIETY.

ENVY and jealousy are closely allied in their nature, and are oftentimes used indiscriminately for the same mental feeling. The only distinction between these two contemptible passions, is, that jealousy is felt toward a competitor who is, or we apprehend is, rising to our own rank or condition, and likely therefore to interfere either with our present or anticipated fortunes and enjoyments; whereas envy is directed toward those who already, as we conceive, enjoy something more and better, as respects internal or external gifts, than belongs to ourselves. They are each, however, attended by corresponding effects, and as is true of all malignant feelings, become equally the authors of their

own punishment, physical as well as moral. They are both secret and degrading passions, and when long and deeply indulged wear equally upon soul and body-prey like a hidden canker on the inmost sources of health and happiness. We may writhe and madden under, but dare not acknowledge the sting they infix in our bosom. "Saw of the soul" was fitly applied by an ancient writer to the wasting feeling of envy.

The manifestations of envy and jealousy, are witnessed even in infancy. "Envy," it has been said, "exerts its baneful effects on us even from our cradle. Children are observed to look sickly, and lose their flesh, if they see other children more indulged than themselves." "I have seen," says a French writer, "a jealous child, who was not yet able to speak a word, but who regarded another child who sucked with him, with a dejected countenance and an irritated eye." Esquirol observes that jealousy sometimes destroys all the delights of early life, and causes a true melancholy with delirium; and that some children, jealous of the fondness and caresses of their mother, grow pale, emaciate, and die. In children who are educated together, this feeling of jealousy will be constantly appearing, however anxiously they may strive to dissemble it. An indiscreet partiality on the part of parents or teachers is especially apt to awaken it, and may thus produce the most unhappy effects both on the mind and body of youth.

Dr. Zimmermann observes that there are many persons

* Treatise on Insanity.