Happiness indeed depends much more on what is within than without us. When Hamlet says the world is "a goodly prison; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst," and Rosencrantz differs from him, he rejoins wisely, "Why then, 'tis none to you: for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison." "All is opinion," said Marcus Aurelius. "That which does not make a man worse, how can it make his life worse? But death certainly, and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all these things happen equally to good men and bad, being things which make us neither better nor worse." "The greatest evils," says Jeremy Taylor, "are from within us; and from ourselves also we must look for our greatest good." "The mind," says Milton, "is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." Milton indeed in his blindness saw more beautiful visions, and Beethoven in his deafness heard more heavenly music, than most of us can ever hope to enjoy. We are all apt, when we know not what may happen, to fear the worst. When we know the full extent of any danger, it is half over. Hence, we dread ghosts more than robbers, not only without reason, but against reason; for even if ghosts existed, how could they hurt us? and in ghost stories, few, even those who say that they have seen a ghost, ever profess or pretend to have felt one. Milton, in his description of death, dwells on this characteristic of obscurity: "The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable, in member, joint, or limb; Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, For each seem'd either; black he stood as night; Fierce as ten furies; terrible as hell; And shook a deadly dart. What seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on." The effect of darkness and night in enhancing terrors is dwelt on in one of the sublimest passages in Job-- "In thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falleth on men, Fear came upon me, and trembling, Which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, an image was before mine eyes. There was silence; and I heard a voice saying Shall mortal man be more just than God?" Thus was the terror turned into a lesson of comfort and of mercy. We often magnify troubles and difficulties, and look at them till they seem much greater than they really are. "Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them: nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep." [5]