Foresight is very wise, but foresorrow is very foolish; and castles are at any rate better than dungeons, in the air. Some of our troubles, no doubt, are real enough, but yet are not evils. It happens, unfortunately too often, that by some false step, intentional or unintentional, we have missed the right road, and gone wrong. Can we then retrace our steps? can we recover what is lost? This may be done. It is too gloomy a view to affirm that "A word too much, or a kiss too long, And the world is never the same again." There are two noble sayings of Socrates, that to do evil is more to be avoided than to suffer it; and that when a man has done evil, it is better for him to be punished than to be unpunished. We generally speak of selfishness as a fault, and as if it interfered with the general happiness. But this is not altogether correct. The pity is that so many people are foolishly selfish: that they pursue a course of action which neither makes themselves nor any one else happy. "Every man," says Goethe, "ought to begin with himself, and make his own happiness first, from which the happiness of the whole world would at last unquestionably follow." It is easy to say that this is too broadly stated, and of course exceptions might be pointed out: but if every one would avoid excess, and take care of his own health; would keep himself strong and cheerful; would make his home happy, and give no cause for the petty vexations which embitter domestic life; would attend to his own affairs and keep himself sober and solvent; would, in the words of the Chinese proverb, "sweep away the snow from before his own door, and never mind the frost upon his neighbor's tiles;" though it might not be the noblest course of conduct; still, how well it would be for their family, relations, and friends. But, unfortunately, "Look round the habitable world, how few Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue." [6] It would be a great thing if people could be brought to realize that they can never add to the sum of their happiness by doing wrong. In the case of children, indeed, we recognize this; we perceive that a spoilt child is not a happy one; that it would have been far better for him to have been punished at first and thus saved from greater suffering in after life. It is a beautiful idea that every man has with him a Guardian Angel; and it is true too: for Conscience is ever on the watch, ever ready to warn us of danger. We often feel disposed to complain, and yet it is most ungrateful: "For who would lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual being, Those thoughts that wander through Eternity; To perish rather, swallowed up, and lost In the wide womb of uncreated thought." [7] But perhaps it will be said that we are sent here in preparation for another and a better world. Well, then, why should we complain of what is but a preparation for future happiness? We ought to