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    262 A DISCONTENTED PAPEH.

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    -S>- I.

    of tlie chirruping of birds of the perfume of flowers , "that they knoiv off " There ' s a divinity that shapes our ends" and that probably

    , uses discontented up our grumblings ? Let , us even when so they friends are in most aimless time . Are and we my proper

    say , , place , and be sure that it will be " with very great exactness added to the eternities . "

    There is , indeed , a doctrine which goes the length of saying that discontents ought not to be spoken , because they ought not to be

    felt . This doctrine I hold to be " flat burglary ; " its comprehensiveness is admitted . _iFrom bad to good , from good to better , from

    better to best , that is the law of life ; and if anybody expects humanity to renounce it , and sit like

    a . . —_ Grey-haired Saturn , quiet as a stone . " that individual should be reminded of the last beatitude— " blessed

    is he that expecteth nothing , for he shall not be disappointed . " It isindeedthe philosophy of his own teachingteaching which we

    emp , hasize , to those of tender years hy some fable , or other , winding with" If you would obtain your wishes , learn to moderate

    up , your desires . " A moral which , if it means that half a loaf is better than no bread , and that a wise man will rather take a debt

    by instalments than not at all , is unexceptionable ; but which , pushed to the length so common with preachers of contentment ,

    is ridiculous enough . " The way not to be discontented is , never to want anything "—that is their economy of human life ; and it is

    preached , with garnishing of texts and hymns , especially to the but now and then to all classes of society . It may be said to

    p poor ervade , - didactic literature , in various degrees and forms . How often , when I was young , " My gorge rose at the nonsense and stuff

    of it , " as Robert Manning ' s did at the sermon in Mount Zion chapel ! I have always thought that in transparent impudence this

    didactic sophism has only one parallel among things intellectual that have obtained any footing in the world ; I mean Hume ' s

    " argument" ( as it is cheerfully entitled ) " against miracles , " because they are " contrary to experience ; " an argument which amounts

    _^ precisely to this , and nothing more : — If miracles never took place at all , they

    But miracles never never took did place take in Judea lace at ; all Therefore p ,

    Miracles never took place , in Judea . Few things have provoked me to indignation oftener than that

    ¦ " argument , " and the preaching of the Pharisees of contentment . I am never to want anything , am I ? Why a jelly-fish knows better

    than that . I am to be " contented in that station of life in which it hath leased" & c . am I ? But I won't ! my station is whatever I can

    reach p . I am , to be , contented with my " portion , " am I ? But I

    won't ! my portion is whatever I can get . " Man , " says one sage ,

    262 A Discontented Papeh.

    262 A DISCONTENTED _PAPEH .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/46/