Page:Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse.pdf/169



WE are creatures of circumstance, inclination, or habit. One influences us, one impels us, one fixes us. Some are so much influenced by changing circumstances, that they have no rectifying principle, but revolve with the wheel of fortune. Some are led by inclination into the paths of vanity or vice; but habit finally fixes us all, associates us to some set of ideas, stamps upon us some kind of character, and marks us down for the future participation of joy, or for the blackness of darkness forever."

When we least expect happiness, it is often nearest; when we most desire it, it is frequently farthest from our reach. Is not this to repress the pride of human foresight, to humble the