“rejoice always: and again i say, rejoice,” says one of the highest authorities; and a poet who is scarcely less infallible in psychological science writes—

a cheerful heart is what the muses love.

dante makes melancholy dismally punished in purgatory; though his own interior gaiety—of which a word by and by—is so interior, and its outward aspect often so grim, that he is vulgarly considered to have himself been a sinner in this sort. good art is nothing but a representation of life; and that the good are gay is a commonplace, and one which, strange to say, is as generally disbelieved as it is, when rightly understood, undeniably true. the good and brave heart is always gay in this sense: that, although it may be afflicted and oppressed by its own misfortunes and those of others, it refuses in the darkest moment to con{32}sent to despondency; and thus a habit of mind is formed which can discern in most of its own afflictions some cause for grave rejoicing, and can thence infer at least a probability of such cause in cases where it cannot be discerned. regarding thus cheerfully and hopefully its own sorrows, it is not over-troubled by those of others, however tender and helpful its sympathies may be. it is impossible to weep much for that in others which we should smile at in ourselves; and when we see a soul writhing like a worm under what seems to us a small misfortune, our pity for its misery is much mitigated by contempt for its cowardice.

a couple of generations ago most people would have opened their eyes wide at any one who should have thought remarks like these worth making. such truth formed part of the universal tradition of civilisation and moral culture. but a wilful melancholy, and, the twin sign of corruption, a levity which acutely fears and sympathises with pains which are literally only skin-deep, have been increasing upon us of late in a most portentous way. the much-vaunted growth of “humanity” has been due rather to a softening of the brain than of the heart. huge moral ill, the fact of national degradation, the prospect of national disaster, arouses less pain in the sympathetic hearts of humanitarians than the yelp of a poodle which{33} has had its ear pinched. men and times do not talk about the virtues they possess. which is more inhuman: to punish with rack and wheel the treason which voluntarily sacrifices or jeopardises the welfare of millions, or to condone or ignore it for the sake of momentary ease? the england in which melancholy and levity are becoming prevalent habits is merry england no more. “the nation thou hast multiplied, but not increased the joy.” and we are not the only nation which deserves this lamentation of the prophet. the growths of melancholy and levity have been still more marked in france. in america, some traveller has remarked, “there is comfort everywhere, but no joy.” america is accordingly the only country which has no art.

it is, as we have said, a vulgar error to consider dante a melancholy poet. in the whole range of art, joy is nowhere expressed so often and with such piercing sweetness as in the paradiso; and it flashes occasionally through the dun atmosphere of the other parts of the poem. the inferno is pervaded by the vigorous joy of the poet at beholding thoroughly bad people getting their deserts; and the penances of purgatory are contemplated by him with the grave pleasure which is often felt by the saner sort of persons, even in this world, under the sufferings{34} they acknowledge to be the appropriate punishment of and purification from the sins they have fallen into. shakespeare is the most cheerful of poets. we read his deepest tragedies without contracting even a momentary stain of melancholy, however many tears they may have drawn from us. calderon flies among horrors and disasters on the wings of a bird of paradise, without any resulting incongruity; and like things may be said of the greatest painters and musicians, until quite recent times. but since about the beginning of this century how many of our geniuses have mingled their songs with tears and sighs over “insoluble problems” and “mysteries of life” which have no existence for a man who is in his right senses and who minds his own business; while the “scrannel pipes” of the smaller wits have been playing to the sorry yankee tune of “there’s nothing new, and there’s nothing true, and it doesn’t signify.” music has taken to imitate the wailing of lost spirits or the liveliness of the casino; and the highest ambition of several of our best painters seems to have been to evoke a pathos from eternal gloom.

this is false art, and represents a false life, or rather that which is not life at all; for life is not only joyful, it is joy itself. life, unhindered by the internal obstruction of vice or the outward{35} obscurations of pain, sorrow, and anxiety, is pure and simple joy; as we have most of us experienced during the few hours of our lives in which, the conscience being free, all bodily and external evils have been removed or at least quiescent. and, though these glimpses of perfect sunshine are few and far between, the joy of life will not be wholly obscured to us by any external evil—provided the breast is clear of remorse, envy, discontent, or any other habitually cherished sin. the opportunities and hindrances of joyful life are pretty fairly distributed among all classes and persons. god is just, and his mercy is over all his works. if gardens and parks are denied to the inhabitant of a city lane, his eye is so sharpened by its fasts that it can drink in its full share of the sweetness of nature from a flowering geranium or a pot of crocuses on his window-sill. there are really very few persons who have not enough to eat. marriage is open almost equally to all, except, perhaps, the less wealthy members of the upper orders. none are without opportunities of joy and abundant reasons for gratitude: and the hindrances of joy are, if justly considered, only opportunities of acquiring new capacities for delight. in proportion as life becomes high and pure it becomes gay. the profound spiritualities of the greek and indian myths laugh for joy; and there are, perhaps,{36} no passages of scripture more fondly dwelt upon in the roman breviary than those which paint the gladness of the uncreated wisdom: “when he balanced the foundations of the earth, i was with him, forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times, playing in the world: and my delight is to be with the children of men.{37}”