in the savage man the intellectual faculties sleep. as soon as his appetites are satisfied, he sees neither pleasures to desire, nor pains to fear. he lies down and sleeps again. this negative happiness would bring desolation to the heart of a civilized man. all his faculties have commenced their development. he experiences a new craving, which occupations, grave or futile, but rapidly changed and renewed, can alone appease. if there occur between them intervals which can be filled neither by remembrances, nor by necessary repose, lassitude and ennui intervene, and measure for him the length of these chasms in life by sadness.
the next enemy to happiness, after vice, is ennui. some escape it without much seeming calculation. my neighbor every morning turns over twenty gazettes, the state articles of which are copied the one from the[140] other. economising the pleasure of this reading, and gravely reposing in the intervals, he communicates, sometimes with an oracular tone, sometimes with a modest reserve, his reflections to those who surround him; and, at length, leaves the reading room with the importance of one who feels that he has discharged a debt to society.
in public places, it is not the spectacles, but the emotions of the common people who behold them, that are worthy of contemplation. in the murder of a poor tragedy by poorer actors, what transports from this enthusiastic mass of the audience when a blow of the poniard, preceded by a pompous maxim, lays the tyrant of the piece low! what earnest feeling, what sincere tears do we witness! how much more worthy of envy these honest people who lose their enjoyment neither by the revolting improbability of the situations, nor by the absurdity of the dialogue, nor by the mouthing of the rehearsal, than those fastidious critics who exalt their intellectual pride at the expense of these cheap enjoyments!
from the moment in which a man feels sincere pleasure in cultivating his understanding, he may date defiance to the fear of the weight of time. he has the magic key which unlocks the exhaustless treasury of enjoyments. he lives in the age and country which he prefers. space and time are no longer obstacles to his happiness. he interrogates the wise and good of all ages and all countries; and his conversations with them cease, or change object, as soon as he chooses. how much gratitude does he owe the author of nature for having impressed on genius so many different impulses! with[141] plato, he is among the sages of greece, hearing their lessons and associating his wishes with theirs for the happiness of his kind.[45] in the range of history, he ascends to the infancy of empires and time. does he court repose? horace bids him gather the roses before they fade; or shakspeare reminds him, when illusions will vanish like the baseless fabric of a vision.
if a man has powers and acquirements, it is a great evil, if he is disposed to fatigue others with his self-love. if we could number all the subjects of which the most accomplished scholar is ignorant, we should perceive that the interval between him and a common person is not so immense as he may imagine. ought he to be astonished if the real friends of the muses tire of his declamations, his recitations and occupancy with himself?
to attain truth should be the real end of all study. in such researches the mind kindles, as by enchantment, at every step! the desire to succeed, produces that noble emotion which is always developed by ardent zeal and pure intentions. success, although we were to think nothing of its results, inspires a kind of pleasure; because truth comports with our understanding, as brilliant and soft colors agree with the eye, or pleasant sounds with the ear. this enjoyment naturally associates with another still more vivid. the effect of truth is universally salutary; and every instance in which our feeble intellect discovers some gleams, elevates the spirit, and intimately penetrates it with a high degree of happiness.
one of the chief advantages of study is, that it enfranchises the mind from those prejudices that disturb life. how many, and what agonizing torments have[142] been caused by those which are associated with false ideas of religion.[46] after those great calamities in the dark ages which destroyed the traces of the sciences and arts, men, pursued by terror, seemed to imagine that they constantly saw malevolent spirits flying among the clouds or wandering in the depth of woods. the sound of strong wind and thunder came to their ear as the voice of infernal divinities; and, prostrate with terror, they sought to appease their angry gods by bloody sacrifices. in process of time, a small number of men, enlightened by observation, dared to raise the veil by degrees, and succeeded in dissipating these terrors by tracing the seeming prodigies to some of the simplest laws of physics. the phantoms of superstition vanished, and, in the light of reason, revealed a just and beneficent divinity presiding over obedient nature.
we think, in our pride, that an immense interval separates us from those times of disaster, ignorance and alarm. how many of our kind, unhappy by their intellectual weakness, still tremble before the jealous and implacable god of their imaginations, who enjoins hatred and wrath; and punishes even the errors of opinion by the most horrible torments. the man who is exempt from prejudices is alone capable of prostrating himself before the divinity from a feeling of love, and whose prayer, alike confident and resigned, is addressed to his noble attributes of power, justice and clemency.
there are other errors which study dispels. the student who is charmed with communion with the muses, does not consume his best years in gloomy intrigues; nor do you meet him pressing forward in the path which ambition has traced. the greeks, fertile in significant[143] allegories, supposed the same divinity to preside over the sciences and wisdom.
the habit of living in converse with the noblest works of mind and art, produces elevation of soul; and he who has an elevated mind must be intrinsically good and happy. exempt from the weaknesses of vanity, free from the tumultuous passions, he cultivates the noble and generous virtues for the pleasure of practising them. disdaining a mass of objects of desire which disturb the vulgar, he offers a small mark to misery. should adversity strike him, he has resources so much the more sure, as he finds them in himself.
no one can ever taste the full charm of letters and the arts, except in the bosom of retirement. if he reads and meditates only for the pursuit of fame, amusements change to labors. if we propose to enter the lists, outstrip rivals, and direct a party, we are soon agitated with little passions, but great inquietudes. heaven, sternly decreeing that no earthly felicity shall be unalloyed, has placed a thirst for celebrity as a drawback upon the love of study.
but ought the ardor to render immortal services—ought the noble ambition to be useful, to be stifled? are not these the source of pleasures as pure as they are ravishing? i contemplate an immense and indestructible republic, composed of all those men who devote themselves to the happiness of their kind. occupied without relaxation or abatement in continuing the works which their predecessors have begun, they bequeath to their successors the care of pursuing and crowning their labors. men of genius are the chiefs of this republic. as they have talents which separate[144] them from the rest of the human race; they have also pleasures reserved for themselves alone. what a sublime sentiment must have elevated the spirit of newton when a part of the mysterious laws of the universe first dawned on his mind! a glow still more delightful must have pervaded the bosom of fenelon when meditating the most beautiful lessons which wisdom ever announced to the powerful and the rulers of the people. to these privileged beings it belongs, to give a powerful impulse to minds, and to trace a new path for the generations to come.
i shall have attained my humble ambition if, docile to the voice of the wise, i shall be able, in any degree, to indicate the way in which these lessons may be put in practice. i shall thus have contributed my aid to dissipate the night of prejudice and vice.
