lovely and happy as thyself. See that beautiful bird, with shining
plumage and brilliant crest, and hear the melodious notes that arise
from its silvery throat! Its form proclaims beauty, and its song
happiness. See those snow-white lambs skipping over the verdant
grass,--now nestling sportively beside their bleating mothers, then
springing forward, bounding from knoll to knoll, and filling the air
with strains of joy and delight! See yonder butterfly weighing itself
upon that brilliant flower: his gorgeous wings are expanded and
glittering in the sun like sparkling gems! See those bright-eyed
children! their glowing cheeks, their beaming eyes, and above all
their clear and merry laugh proclaiming happiness pure and unbounded.
Earth is truly lovely, but its inhabitants are not all happy. Oh no,
not _all_, for one who loves the beauties of earth, rejoices in the
loveliness of nature, and finds her chief pleasures in the spreading
grove, by the babbling brook, among the brilliant flowers, is sad and
unhappy. And why? Because she has learned too soon that there is no
such thing as [real and abiding] happiness on earth, that the fairest
plants wither, that pleasure is a deceitful phantom-false and
fleeting. Truly she has learned all this, and will she _never_ learn
to raise her eyes to that bright world where true happiness only
resides, and to trust meekly in Him who is the only Dispenser of peace
and joy?"

Later we have another entry in which, after again referring to the
beauties of nature, she exclaims:

"O life, life! I fain would read thy mysteries: I fain would draw
aside every vail and behold for what purpose I was created. Was it to
be an heir of sorrow? was it to live for myself alone, and then pass
away and let my memory perish with me? No, I was born for a better--a