“How good is man's life, the mere living! How fit to employ all the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!
“May your joys be as bright as the morning, your years of happiness as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and your troubles but shadows that fade in the sunlight of love
“Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity
“Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys
“For life, with all its yields of joy and woe, and hope and fear, believe the aged friend, is just a chance o' the prize of learning love