The annual death rate, in 1888, for the principal cities of the world, per 1,000 inhabitants, was: San Francisco, Cleveland, Stockholm, 17; Bristol, Dresden, 18; Chicago, Cincinnati, Edinburgh, London, Turin, 19; Berlin, Baltimore, Brussels, Buffalo, Liverpool, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, 20; Brooklyn, St. Louis, Tokyo, 21; Amsterdam, Christiana, Paris, Washington, 22; Glasgow, 23; Copenhagen, 24; Bombay, Boston, New Orleans, Pesth, Venice, Vienna, 25; Breslau, Calcutta, Manchester, New York, Prague, Rotterdam, 26; Dublin, 27; Rome, 28; Hamburg, Munich, 29; Trieste, 30; Buda Pesth, St. Petersburg, 32; Alexandria, 38; Madras, 40; and Cairo, 51. The death rate among the poor and rich respectively varies much. In Paris the death rate per 1,000 inhabitants between 40 and 50 years in easy circumstances was 8.3 against 18.7 among the poor. In London are some districts of the wealthy classes where the rate was 11.3 against 38 in the slums. The mean age at death among the gentry was 55 years, while among the workers it was 20-1/2 years. It was found that only 8% of the children of the upper classes died in their first year against 19% in the general population of Liverpool and 33% in the slums of that city. Deaths from consumption were nearly one-fourth of all deaths among the poor, and only one-eighteenth among the rich. The above facts and figures cannot fail to set every intelligent person who reads them to thinking of this great health problem. HAPPINESS. CHAPTER XI. HAPPINESS. "The learned is happy Nature to explore, The fool is happy that he knows no more." Happiness is defined by Webster as an agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended with enjoyment; the state of being happy; felicity; blessedness: bliss; joyful satisfaction. _Happiness_ is generic and applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; _felicity_ is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; _blessedness_ is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; _bliss_ denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven. Happiness is only comparative, and we drink it in, in the exact ratio of our understanding to interpret the justice of the divinity within us. The first pre-requisite is_ wisdom_, the second is like unto it, _more wisdom_, and the third sufficient understanding to know that it is wisdom. "It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song, But the man worth while is one who will smile When everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble, And it always comes with the years, And the smile that is worth the praises of earth Is the smile that shines through tears.