, and all
mankind, during every period of their existence, if possible,
cheerful and happy; nor does she ever willingly part with any
pleasure but in hopes of ample compensation in some other period of
their lives. The sole trouble which she demands is that of just
calculation, and a steady preference of the greater happiness. And
if any austere pretenders approach her, enemies to joy and
pleasure, she either rejects them as hypocrites and deceivers, or
if she admit them in her train, they are ranked, however, among the
least favoured of her votaries.

"And, indeed, to drop all figurative expression, what hopes can we
ever have of engaging mankind to a practice which we confess full
of austerity and rigour? Or what theory of morals can ever serve
any useful purpose, unless it can show, by a particular detail,
that all the duties which it recommends are also the true interest
of each individual? The peculiar advantage of the foregoing system
seem to be, that it furnishes proper mediums for that
purpose."--(IV. p. 360.)

In this paean to virtue, there is more of the dance measure than will
sound appropriate in the ears of most of the pilgrims who toil
painfully, not without many a stumble and many a bruise, along the rough
and steep roads which lead to the higher life.

Virtue is undoubtedly beneficent; but the man is to be envied to whom
her ways seem in anywise playful. And, though she may not talk much
about suffering and self-denial, her silence on that topic may be
accounted for on the principle _ca va sans dire_. The calculation of the
greatest happiness is not performed quite so easily as a rule of three
sum; while, in the hour of temptation, the question will crop up,
whether, as something has to be sacrificed, a bird in the hand is not
worth two in the bush; whether it may not be as well to give up the
problematical greater happiness in the future, for a certain great
happiness in the present, and

"Buy the merry madness of one hour
With the long irksomeness of following time."[46]

If mankind cannot be engaged in practices "full of austerity and
rigour," by the love of righteousness and the fear of evil, without
seeking for other compensation than that which flows from the
gratification of such love and the consciousness of escape from
debasement, they are in a bad case. For they will assuredly find t