18–24 November 1822

The hours of social intercourse, of gratified hope, of the festive board, have just now yielded to quieter pleasures of the closet and the pen. This tender flesh is warmly clad, the blood leaps in the vessels of life. Health and Hope write their results on the passing moment, — and these things make the pleasure of a mortal, bodily, mental being. There are in the world at this moment one hundred million men whose history today may match with mine, not counting the numberless ones whose day was happier. There are also in existence here a countless crowd of inferior animals who have had their lesser cup filled full with pleasure. The sunny lakes reflect the noonday beams from the glittering tribes which cover its bottom, rapid as thought in their buoyant motions, leaping with the elasticity and gladness of life. The boundless Ocean supports in its noisy waves its own great population, — the beautiful dolphin, the enormous whale, and huge sea-monsters of a thousand families and a thousand uncouth gambols dash through its mighty domain in the fulness of sensual enjoy- ment. The air is fanned by innumerable wings, the green woods are vocal with the song of the insect and the bird ; the beasts of the field fill all the lands untenanted by man, and beneath the sod the mole and the worm take their plea- sure. All this vast mass of animated matter is moving and basking under the broad orb of the sun, — is drinking in the sweetness of the air, is feeding on the fruits of nature, — is pleased with life, and loth to lose it. All this pleasure flows from a source. That source is the Benevolence of God.