ent bliss,
before we have laid a foundation in our souls for it? You wish to
take this life too easy by far, my son; rouse up all your strength,
look around you with the keenness of a resolved spirit, and seek to
regenerate your whole being,--let that be your object, and let the
desire for happiness be subservient to it. You will clasp joy to
your breast, as an everlasting gift, at the end of the race. What
are your aims and objects? You hardly know; you are in pursuit of
that which flees, before you as a shadow, and your restless spirit
sinks and murmurs,--you have no grand object in view, to buoy you up
steadily and trustfully through every ill which life has power to
bestow. Those very ills are seized upon, and become instruments of
glory to the devoted and heaven-strengthened spirit,--they prepare
for a deeper draught of all things dear and desired, and though the
soul droop beneath the weight of human suffering, yet the rod that
smites is kissed with a prayer. Turn away from your individual self,
as far as you can, and regard the broad world with a philanthropic
eye--"

"Impossible--impossible!" interrupted Alfred, hastily, "I defy any
person to turn from himself, and look upon the world with a more
interested gaze than he casts upon his own heart. One may be
philanthropic in his feelings and devoted to alleviating the
distresses of less fortunate beings, but I hold it to be impossible
that our individual selves will not always be first in interest. A
sudden and powerful impulse may carry us away for a time, but after
that rushing influence leaves us, we see yourselves again, and, find
that we had only lost our equilibrium briefly. I say only what I
sincerely think, and what thousands secretly know to be the case,
even while advocating views quite opposite. There is no candour in
the world!"

"Softly, my good friend," said the grandfather, mildly smiling. "I
also hold it to be impossible that we can lose either our
individuality or our interest in ourselves, but I believe it
possible that we may love others just as well, if not better than
ourselves. I do not refer to one or two particular persons whom we
may admire, but I speak of the mass of our fellow-creatures."

"I cannot even conceive of such a love!" returned the young man,
shaking his head. "I cannot see how I could love a person who
possesses no attractive qualities whatever;--I always feel
indifference, if not dislike. I think I could sacrifice my li