SERIOUS RErLEcTIoNs,

HAPPINESS.
{"newspaper_name": "The Wilmingtonian, and Delaware register.", "edition": "01", "page": "p1", "byline": ""}
----'IIappiness! our beings end and AIM"


Could we in long perspective view the
miseries consequent to deSerton from rec
titudc--did they in all their dreadful accu
mutation, strike the mind OF youth when
first he stretches forth the hand to grasp the
Circean cup, mcthinks he would shrink from
It with more repugnance than the hand re-
tracts from the electric shock. And that
they do not flash conviction is, to the exper-
fenced pilgrim III life's sober journey, a Cause
Of astonishment To Ills enlightened obser
walton present misery appears SO unfalingly
10 follow the footsteps of vice, that 1t eX-
cites both his censure and his pity to see his
fellow creatures running the mad career OF
folly, unawed by example, unrestraned by
the lessons of wisdom. Man he sees inccs-
SAINT in the pursuit Of enjoyment, yet turn
ing his back upon the means of attaining It,
choosing the shadow while the substance is
offered, and, SO is the visual ray obscured,
looking upon the flying meteor as fixed
Star.-l1ow comes it that we are thus ad-
verse to our own felicity? Does it proceed
from an error in our nature? Certainly not.
1t we're impious to suppose So We arc
furnished with ability to SO Alright, but are
led astray by our own dclusions, by mista-
Ken notions, respecting our "being's end and
aim" Happiness is not the proper PURSUIT
of man-though the daughter of Heaven,
she was appointed his attendant on earth;
but when made the object of alteration, like
the maid intoxicated by ilattery, She as
sumes the air Of divinity, and rises far a
bove her idolatrous worshippers. Walk, .
man, in the way that is set before thee; lis
ten with obedience to the voice within; and
though its pointings may seem unfriendly to
my present repose, still,