I followed happiness to make her mine,

Past towering oak and swinging ivy vine.

She fled, I chased, o’er slanting hill and dale,

O’er fields and meadows, in the purpling vale.

Pursuing rapidly o’er dashing stream,

I scaled the dizzy cliffs where the eagles scream;

I traversed swiftly every land and sea,

But always happiness eluded me.

Exhausted, fainting, I pursued no more,

But sank to rest upon a barren shore.

One came and asked for food, and one for alms;

I placed the bread and gold in bony palms;

One came for sympathy, and one for rest;

I shared with every needy one my best;

When lo! sweet Happiness, with form divine,

Stood by me, whispering softly, “I am thine.”

These beautiful lines of Burleigh’s express the secret of all abounding happiness. Sacrifice the personal and transient, and you rise at once into the impersonal and permanent. Give up that narrow cramped self that seeks to render all things subservient to its own petty interests, and you will enter into the company of the angels, into the very heart and essence of universal love. Forget yourself entirely in the sorrows of others and in ministering to others, and divine happiness will emancipate you from all sorrow and suffering.

As a Man Thinketh, James Allen