gives a self-centered confidence in one's heaven-aided powers, and a
high-minded cheerfulness, like that of a celestial spirit. It is this
which an old writer has called the paradise of a good conscience.

"I count this thing to be grandly true,
That a noble deed is a step toward God;
Lifting the soul from the common clod
To a purer air and a broader view.

"We rise by the things that are under our feet;
By what we have mastered of good or gain;
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet."

"My body must walk the earth," said an ancient poet, "but I can put
wings on my soul, and plumes to my hardest thought." The splendors and
symphonies and the ecstacies of a higher world are with us now in the
rudimentary organs of eye and ear and heart. Much we have to do, much
we have to love, much we have to hope for; and our "joy is the grace we
say to God." "When I think upon God," said Haydn to Carpani, "my heart
is so full of joy that the notes leap from my pen."

Says Gibbons:--

"Our lives are songs:
God writes the words,
And we set them to music at leisure;
And the song is sad, or the song is glad,
As we choose to fashion the measure.