desponding heart. Then
it is, that life is abandoned to persecuting fiends, and the springs of
joy are poisoned by the demons of listlessness.

The scholar and the Christian have theirs guarantied against despair.
The desire for intelligence is never satisfied but with the attainment
of that wisdom which passes all understanding; and the eye discerning
the bright lineaments of its perfect exemplar, can set no limits to the
sacred passion, which recognises the connexion of the human mind with
the divine, and places before itself a career of advancement, to which
time itself can never prescribe bounds. But it is not with these high
questions that we are at present engaged. We have thrown open the book
of human life; we are to read there of this world and its littleness, of
the springs of present action, of the relief of present restlessness.

We have said, that the pursuit of a noble object is in itself a
pleasure. It is to the mind which holds up no definite object to its
wishes, that the universe seems deficient in the means of happiness, and
joy becomes a prey to the fiend of ennui.

Let us develop this principle more accurately. Let us examine into the
nature of _ennui_, and fix with exactness its true signification. Let us
see if it be a principle of action widely diffused. Let us ascertain the
limits of its power; let us trace its influences on individual
character. Perhaps the investigation may lead us to a more intimate
acquaintance with our nature.

_Ennui_ is the desire of activity without the fit means of gratifying
the desire. It presupposes an acknowledgment of exertion as a duty, and
a consciousness of the possession of powers suited to making an
exertion. It is itself a state of idleness, yet of disquiet. It is
inert, yet discontented.

Such is ennui in itself. In its effects, it embraces a large class of
human actions, and its influences are widely spread throughout every
portion of mental or physical effort. To trace these effects, and to
prescribe their limits, will be a part of our object; at present we
would observe, that wherever a course of conduct is the result of
physical want, of a passion for intelligence, a zeal for glory, or to
sum up a great variety of theories in one, of a just and enlightened
self-love, there there is no trace of ennui. But when the primary
motives of human conduct have failed of their effect, and the mind has
become a prey to listlessness, the career, then pursued, le