have dreaded the approach and trembled in the presence of prosperity.* It is a penalty attendant on the passions that indulgence increases their force and appetite. This is particularly the case with money. Juvenal notes that the love of money increases as much as the money itself increases. Now, if a man is loaded with a preternatural quantity of blood or of prosperity, the tendency is the same in both cases to congestion. A wise man guards against the danger of repletion, but "the prosperity of fools destroys them." Having noticed the injurious influences of prosperityhow it often undermines character, how it relaxes virtue and deadens piety, how it develops evil and intoxicates like wine, and how it exposes to envy and perils and death, we may perhaps be less anxious to secure a large amount of success. At the same time the question has another side, and prosperity has many good effects. Success produces hope and confidence, and is one of the best hygienic agents. The victorious army has but few on its sick-list, the defeated army has crowded ambulances and hospitals; and generally speaking moderate prosperity exercises a very beneficial influence on a man altogether; it sweetens temper, improves health, and stimulates intellect, and in the really good it quickens devotion. When prosperity has been rightly obtained then it can be fully enjoyed. When a man has done his work well *Metuit secundis Alteram sortem bene præparatum then his " wages are perfumed" with the aroma of merit, but when it is otherwise, sorrow is appropriate to success rather than joy. This is the explanation of some cases, where prosperity distils no joy, and success yields no delight. Many have succeeded where they had better have failed. One may succeed in deceiving and overreaching others, and in making them captive to his will; but success in wrong-dealing is a thing on all accounts to be deplored. Hence appears the solemnity and responsibility of success. The Emperor Akbar played a game at a sort of chess, where the pieces were all female slaves splendidly dressed, and whoever won carried off the sixteen ladies.* This game, rude and barbarous as it may appear, is yet an image of the greater game of life. For men win wives, and with them children and new relations; they also win friends and patrons, and they also lose them. Success must not terminate in self. A man who has succeeded in getting all sorts of good things for himself, and has not succeeded in benefiting humanity, must be regarded as a failure. That no one may come short in this way let him often ponder the vow made by Sir John Herschel and some of his young college friends, that each Iwould strive to do his utmost to leave the world better than he found it.† We must daily have fresh successes. It will not do to contemplate the prizes and medals gained in boyhood, and say to oneself, "It is enough." That man is sure to "Up the Country," by Hon. E. Eden, ii. 208. + Dean Stanley's "Funeral Sermon on Sir J. Herschel." be disappointed who lives upon the past and cherishes early successes in his memory, not considering that they have become withered leaves. It is related that a Carthaginian once addressed the great general of his country with this reproach, "Hannibal, you know how to gain a victory, but not how to use it." This epigram applies to many things besides wars; it is applicable to the commonest occurrences of daily life-to the acquisition of money, property, honour, influence, place, and friends. To use all these wisely and for good requires no small amount of generalship. We need not be ashamed to enjoy "the good things which God has not been ashamed to give us ;" but our enjoyment should always save a remnant to share with others, so as to multiply joy. Some postpone this enjoyment to some future and indefinite time, often till extreme age, forgetting that though things continue the same they are not the same to the old as to the young, but have lost their relish and attractiveness. They resemble the Foulahs, a nation of Africa, who never drink their milk until it is quite sour.* We have enough and think it little. How many would count our income a fortune! To have enough is better than excessive prosperity. There are many things besides better than success, better than wealth. To know the glorious facts of science and history, to be able to read and speak in different languages, to have the calm and ennobling hopes of religion-how much better than mere worldly success! * "Park's Life and Travels," p. 51. That success is narrow which is limited by the horizon of this world. True success is to be measured by the circles of eternity. A man may have succeeded in gaining wealth, honour, friends, and all that is desirable and glorious in life, and yet not have succeeded in securing a place in our Father's house, where are many mansions; and if so, his temporal success is not for a moment to be compared with his everlasting failure. CHAPTER XXI. ADVERSITY. It may be assumed that the time of trouble comes to all, and that no home is exempt from the entrance of affliction. Our enemies call our trials punishments, our friends call them troubles; but a Christian knows that they are necessary and loving chastisements. He knows that without the cross-threads there could be no web of life, and he knows that the shuttle which inserts them is not shot by chance. Those sufferings, which we have inherited, or which have come upon us without our fault, are to be regarded as a part of our probation for a better life. Those sufferings which we have brought upon ourselves, and they are the sharpest,* are to be regarded as a punishment, not vindictive but corrective; and, if so regarded, they can be received with welcome and turned to good account. This is obvious enough in great offences, but not so observable in minor faults. Thus, when a man is |