Every one loves, desires, or aspires to happiness: this is the fundamental or primordial law of human nature, beyond which we cannot push enquiry. Good, or good things, are nothing else but the means to happiness: accordingly every man, loving happiness, loves good also, and desires not only full acquisition, but perpetual possession of good.

EPICURUS.

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Epicurus, a Greek Philosopher, 280 B. C., in his letter to Menæcus gives his Code of Morals, and mode of life, at some length, which are as follows: "No one," he says, "ought to think himself too young or too old for philosophic contemplation since it is the great business of man to consider what is requisite to the living well happily as regards himself, and worthily as regards his relations to society. And in the first place as a needful constituent of this knowledge, we must take care that, believing God to be an immortal and perfectly happy Being, we attribute nothing to Him that is inconsistent with these attributes." Seneca reproached Epicurus with reverencing God only as a parent, to be honored and worshipped for His excellence, without thinking of any gain to be obtained by so doing.

"The wise man," continues Epicurus, "will not consider the loss of life an evil, but as food is chosen for its quality, rather than its quantity, so he will endeavor to make his life pleasant rather than long. It is needful to satisfy our physical wants in a certain degree, both for the sake of living in comfort, and in order to keep the body tranquil, so as to leave the mind free from disturbance for our endeavor should be to avoid suffering and perturbation since pleasure is the great object of life. But it is not every kind of pleasure that will be sought by a wise man; for luxurious feasts are not needful to him who by temperance and exercise has made his bread and water sweet to his taste; therefore when I speak of pleasure as the summum bonum; I do not mean licentious pleasures: for he only enjoys a truly happy life, who examines his desires by the light of sober reason, and determines which ought to be qualified, which repressed. In short, no man can live happily who does not live wisely and justly, and no man can live wisely and justly with. out being happy, for virtue and happiness cannot be separated. Nay, were it possible, it would be better to live wisely and to be unhappy, than to be irrational and fortunate. One who acts on

these principles lives among men as if he were already a god; he has nothing about him that resembles the brute animal, but though a man, he lives among the immortals."

SOCRATES.

Socrates, who taught 430 years B. C., remarks, that honorable things are good things, and that every one without exception desires good. On this point all men are alike; the distinctive features of virtue must then consist in the power of acquiring good things, such as health, weaith, money, power, dignities, &c. But the acquisition of these things is not virtuous, unless it be made consistently with justice and moderation.

Socrates recommends virtue on the ground of its remunerative consequences to the agent, in the shape of wealth and other good things. He, as well as Xenophon, agree in the same doctrine: presenting virtue as laborious and troublesome in itself, but as being fully requited by its remunerative consequences in the form of esteem and honor, to the attainment of which it is indispensable.

When I have learnt, says Socrates, which are my worst and which are my best points, I shall evidently be in a condition to cultivate and pursue the latter, and resolutely to avoid the former.

My mission from the Gods, says Socrates, is to dispel the false persuasion of knowledge, to cross-examine men into a painful conviction of their own ignorance, and to create in them a lively impulse towards knowledge and virtue.

Justice, which is good both in itself, and by reason of its consequences, I rank among the noblest qualities.

The just man should act with a view to good.

The just man is happy, and the unjust miserable.

Socrates maintains, that justice is good, per se, ensuring the happiness of the agent by its direct and intrinsic effects on the mind: whatever its ulterior consequences may be. He maintains indeed that these ulterior consequences are also good but that they do not constitute the paramount benefit; or the main recommendation of justice: that the good of Justice, per se, is much greater.

The fundamental principle (Socrates affirms) to which cities or communities owe their origin, is, existence or wants and necessities in all men. No single man is sufficient for himself: every one is in want of many things, and is therefore compelled to seek communion or partnership with neighbors and auxiliaries. Reci

procal dealings begin each gives to others, and receives from others, under the persuasion that it is better for him to do so.

We must

In regard to religion, the raising of temples, arrangement of sacrifices, &c., we know nothing about these matters. examine it, and see where we can find Justice and Injustice.

Justice is in the mind what health is in the body, when the parts are so arranged as to control, and be controlled pursuant to the dictates of nature. Injustice is in the mind what disease is in the body, when the parts are so arranged as to control, and be controlled contrary to the dictates of nature; virtue is thus health, beauty, good condition of the mind: vice is the disease, ugliness, weakness of the mind.

It is profitable to a man to be just, and to do justice, per se, even though he be not known as just either by Gods or men, and may thus be debarred from the consequences which would ensue if he were known. It is unprofitable to him to be unjust, even though he can continue to escape detection and punishment. As health is the greatest good, and sickness the greatest evil of the body: so Justice is the greatest good, and Injustice the greatest evil of the mind.

Socrates says, that the Gods are good, and therefore cannot be the cause of anything except good. The Gods must be announced as causes of all the good which exists. No poetical tale can be tolerated which represents the Gods as assuming the forms of different persons, and going about to deceive men into false beliefs. A perfectly reasonable man will account death no great evil. If a man passes his life pleasurable until its close, it may be said that he has lived well at least, provided he lives taking pleasure in fine or honorable things.

To do wrong is worse than to suffer wrong, as well as more disgraceful.

If a man be punished for wrong doing, he suffers what is just, and the punisher does what is just.

We ought to do-continues Socrates- what is pleasing for the sake of what is good not vice versa. But every thing becomes good by possessing its appropriate virtue or regulation. The regulation appropriate to the mind is, to be temperate. The temperate man will do what is just-his duty towards men and what is holy-his duty towards the Gods. He will be just and holy. He will therefore also be courageous: for he will seek only such plea

sures as duty permits, and he will endure all such pains as duty requires. Being thus temperate, just, brave, holy, he will be a perfectly good man, doing well and honorably throughout. The man who does well, will be happy: the man who does ill, and is wicked, will be miserable.

Every thing has its own fixed and determinate essence, not relative to us nor varying according to our will and pleasure, but existing, per se, as nature has arranged. All agencies, either by one thing upon other things, or by other things upon it, are in like manner determined by nature, independent of our will and choice.

XENOPHANES.

Xenophanes maintained that there was but one God, identical with, or a personification of the whole Uranus. "The whole Kosmos, or the whole God, sees, hears, and thinks." The divine nature, he said, did not admit of the conception of separate persons, one governing the other, or of want and imperfection in any way.

HERAKLEITUS.

Herakleitus says, "Every man, individually considered, was irrational reason belonged only to the universal or to the whole, with which the mind of each living man was in conjunction, renewing itself by perpetual absorption, inspiration or inhalation, transition, and impressions through the senses."

PROTAGORAS.

Protagoras asserts that no good citizen can be without a sense of justice, and of shame.

GRECIAN HISTORY.

Orpheus, a Thracian, visited Egypt and brought from thence the doctrines with which he afterwards corrupted the simple religion of Greece, The doctrine he taught was that of One, Self-existent God, the Maker of all things, who is present to us in all His works; but this great truth was disguised under a mass of fables.

Orpheus taught that the One Supreme Deity was the source of all, and that tutelary gods of air, fire, earth, &c., were in fact only emanations of his power made manifest to men by visible and tangible objects. But when the Most High was no longer to be approached by the vulgar, the especial manifestations was soon

SACRED BOOK OF THE MEXICANS.

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individualized, and a polytheism, which probably the first introducers of this mysterious doctrine, never contemplated, was built upon it.

The mysterious doctrine of Orpheus, which gave tangibility and distinctness to the notions of the Deity, soon struck the imaginations of the poet. Homer and Hesiod took it up and finished the individualizing process by giving names and forms to the various sub-deities of the different powers of nature. Yet these were for a long time, only the poetical version of the old belief: the one Supreme God still held the reins, and Destiny was looked up to as the ruler of these sub-gods no less than of men.

SACRED BOOK OF THE MEXICANS.

We gather the following from Müller: A book called "Popol Vuh," and pretending to be the original text of the sacred writings of the Indians of Central America. The "Popol Vuh" is a literary composition in the true sense of the word. It contains the mythology and history of the civilized races of Central America, and comes before us with credentials that will bear the test of critical inquiry.

"Popol Vuh" means the book of the people, and referred to the traditional literature in which all that was known about the early history of the nation, their religion and ceremonies, was handed down from age to age. We find material for studying their character, for analyzing their religion and mythology, for comparing their principles of morality, their views of virtue, beauty, and heroism, to those of other races of mankind. This is the charm, the real and lasting charm, of such works as that presented to us for the first time in a trustworthy translation by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. There are some coincidences between the Old Testament and the Quiché MS. which are certainly startling. Yet even if a Christian influence has to be admitted, much remains in these American traditions which is so different from anything else in the national literatures of other countries, that we may safely treat it as the genuine growth of the intellectual soil of America.

EXTRACTS FROM "POPOL VUн."

The Quiche MS. begins with an account of the creation, the Quiches believed that there was a time when all that exists in heaven and earth was made. All was then in suspense, all was calm