ABSTRACT
Happiness is a promise perpetually renewed. The curious fact is that the formula may appear equally depressing or encouraging. All depends on the tone in which it is expressed; once again, it is the time that makes the song. If people would understand that the moral truths are in first place poetical truths they would profit greatly. To renew it is to devalue it; it is to undermine confidence. Such renewal is good enough for pacts of friendship between States, for obligatory oaths of fidelity, and other simulacra of a political order, which are neither closely nor distantly related to the moral life, and which are very displeasing when they profane its language. The simple observation of the great natural rhythms leads to meditation, which soothes the mind. Even the quotidian cycle of the sun is instructive and beneficent to consider, and men who live close to Nature can consider it at greater leisure and derive a greater benefit.
