If the law was made for the lawless and disobedient, and punishment instituted for the guilty, why not execute the law upon those that have transgressed it, and punish those who have committed crime, and grant encouragement to the innocent, and liberality to the industrious and peaceable? And now I entreat your honor to bear with me patiently while I ask what good can accrue to this state or the United States, or any part of this state, or the United States, or to yourself, or to any other individual, to continue this persecution upon this people, or upon Mr. Smith--a persecution that you are well aware, is entirely without any just foundation or excuse? With sentiments of due respect, I am your most obedient servant, EMMA SMITH. _Happiness_.[A] [Footnote A: It is not positively known what occasioned the writing of this essay; but when it is borne in mind that at this time the new law of marriage for the Church--marriage for eternity, including plurity of wives under some circumstances--was being introduced by the Prophet, it is very likely that the article was written with a view of applying the principles here expounded to the conditions created by introducing said marriage system.] Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, {135} uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. But we cannot keep all the commandments without first knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all, or more than we now know unless we comply with or keep those we have already received. That which is wrong under one circumstance, may be, and often is, right under another. God said, "Thou shalt not kill;" at another time He said, "Thou shalt utterly destroy." This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted--by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the kingdom are placed. Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire. If we seek first the kingdom of God, all good things will be added. So with Solomon: first he asked wisdom, and God gave it him, and with it every desire of his heart, even things which might be considered abominable to all who understand the order of heaven only in part, but which in reality were right because God gave and sanctioned by special revelation. A parent may whip a child, and justly, too, because he stole an apple; whereas if the child had asked for the apple, and the parent had given it, the child would have eaten it with a better appetite; there would have been no stripes; all the pleasure of the apple would have been secured, all the misery of stealing lost.