authority of Scripture. "Man is born to trouble," says Job, "as
the sparks fly upward." In turning over a few pages more, we find
ourselves in doubt again. "_The latter end of Job was more blessed
than his beginning_; for he had 14,000 sheep, and 6,000 camels, and
1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 she-asses. He had also seven sons and
three daughters. So Job died being old and full of days."

It may not be unpleasant to place before the reader the opinions of
several celebrated men, on Life, that he may choose his side, and
either like the bee or the spider, extract the poison or gather the
honey. We will begin with Sterne, one who well knew the human heart.

"What is the life of man? is it not to shift from side to side!
from sorrow to sorrow!"

"When I consider how oft we eat the bread of affliction, when one
runs over the catalogue of all the cross reckonings and sorrowful
items with which the heart of man is overcharged, 'tis wonderful
by what hidden resources the mind is enabled to stand it out, and
bear itself up, as it does, against the impositions laid upon our
nature."--_T. Shandy_.

"A man has but a bad bargain of it at the best."--_Chesterfield_.

"No scene of human life but teems with mortal woe."--_Sir Walter
Scott_.

In opposition to these sentiments, Franklin, in writing on the death
of a friend, gives us his opinion, "_It is a party of pleasure_, some
take their seats first."