Hints on the Sources of Happiness, Addressed to Her Children by a Mother

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1819 Excerpt: ... VIII. ON THE SOCIAl AFFECTIONS. 1. Of all the sources of enjoyment that enrich the life of man, the most precious and extensive are the affections, which on every side bind him to his fellows, by the various ties of kindred, love, and friendship. It has been elegantly said by Mr. Pope, that self-love and social are the same,--happily expressing, that when we conduce to the welfare of others we increase our own, and thus double our chances for felicity. So necessary, indeed, are social attachments to every temper, every age, every rank, that we never hear of any scheme of happiness of which they do not form a part, nor can we conceive any state of misery equal to that of standing alone in the world, unconnected and unfriended. The apparently most severe misanthrope, shunning all intercourse with his kind, and perpetually holding the language of contempt and hatred for every gentle emotion, gives evidence, in some way, that he yet turns to them for comfort and consolation. Affecting indifference and disgust to rational creatures, he is compelled to find other objects for the play of those affections, which, however blighted, cannot be wholly eradicated. Irrational creatures imperceptibly attract his notice and regard; the hare that crosses his solitary walk, or the squirrel that interrupts his lonely meditations. In the seclusion of self-banishment, some favourite dog receives those caresses, and is the object of those affections, which the formation of the human mind imperatively demands shall be felt and participated. Without such participation, how dreary is the most populous situation. The fettered criminal, shut out from all communion with his fellows, immured in a dark dungeon, and equally oppressed in body as in mind, has yet the social principle so...