y to a
dishonored grave, over which Love stands bewildered, and weeps her
unavailing tears. Sometimes, on the other hand, they are gloomy, sad,
silent. Perhaps they are morose. Worse still, they are whining,
fretful, complaining. You would even call them sour. Often they are
cynical and disagreeable. But be not too hasty, too sweeping, too
clear-cut. I have seen such men who were the reverse of the Pharisees.
Their faces were a tombstone. The portals of their soul were guarded
by lions scarcely chained. But though their temple had no Beautiful
Gate, it was none the less a temple, consecrated to the Most High.
Within it, day and night, the sacred fire burned, the sacred Presence
rested. There, honor, justice, devotion, and all heroic virtues dwelt.
Thence falsehood, impurity, profanity, whatsoever loveth and maketh a
lie,--were excluded. They are unsuccessful, because they will not
lower the standard which their youth unfurled. Its folds float high
above them, out of reach, but not out of sight, nor out of desire. With
constant feet they are climbing up to grasp it. You do not see it; no,
and you never will. You need not strain your aching eyes; but they see
it, and comfort their weary hearts withal.

These men may receive sympathy, but they do not need pity. They are a
thousand times more blessed than the vulgarly successful. The shell is
wrinkled, and gray, and ugly; but within, the meat is sweet and
succulent. Perhaps they will never make a figure in the world, but

"True happiness abides with him alone
Who in the silent hour of inward thought
Can still suspect and still revere himself
In lowliness of mind."

And it is even better never to be happy than to be sordidly happy. It
is better to be nobly dissatisfied than meanly content. A splendid
sadness is better than a vile enjoyment.

I hear of people that never failed in anything they undertook. I do not
believe in them. In the first place, however, I do not believe this
testimony is true. It is the honest false-witness, it is the
benevolent slander of their affectionate and admiring friends. But if
it were in any case true, I should not believe in the man of whom it
was affirmed. It is difficult to conceive that a person of elevated
character should not attempt many things too high for him. He finds
himself set down in the midst of life. Earth, air, and water, his own
mind and heart, the whole mental, moral, and physical world