He comes
with a relish to all those goods which nature has provided for him,
tastes all the pleasures of the creation which are poured about him, and
does not feel the full weight of those accidental evils which may befall
him.
If we consider him in relation to the persons whom he converses with, it
naturally produces love and good-will towards him. A cheerful mind is
not only disposed to be affable and obliging, but raises the same
good-humour in those who come within its influence. A man finds himself
pleased, he does not know why, with the cheerfulness of his companion:
it is like a sudden sunshine, that awakens a secret delight in the mind,
without her attending to it. The heart rejoices of its own accord, and
naturally flows out into friendship and benevolence towards the person
who has so kindly an effect upon it.
When I consider this cheerful state of mind in its third relation, I
cannot but look upon it as a constant, habitual gratitude to the great
Author of nature.
There are but two things which, in my opinion, can reasonably deprive us
of this cheerfulness of heart. The first of these is the sense of guilt.
A man who lives in a state of vice and impenitence, can have no title to
that evenness and tranquillity of mind which is the health of the soul,
and the natural effect of virtue and innocence.
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