Reflections on the Conduct of the War [pp. 427-435]

REFLECTIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
now enjoying the sense of security after dangel past, with
plerty of money and other plunder to last until a good chance
comes for another raid. The bandit's conscience, on such occasions, is as self-approving as the Quaker's "Inner TLight" after
he has cheated a customer. Virtue is not always its own
reward, nor vice its own punishment; and he who entertains
such low, selfish and sensual notions of human obligation and
religious duty, deserves to be disappointed. Bad mene are as
happy as good men. Successful men are usually happy,
whether good or bad.
Knowledge is, no doubt, a source of much elevated and
refined happiness; but, when inuich time is bestowed on its
acquisition, men take to solitude, and acquire habits of indolence and feelings of lassitude. Occupation is, of all things,
most essential to happiness, and it is probable that the wellto-do peasant who, when too old to work, can still supervise
the work of others, is the happiest of men. Fa-rmning has ever
been, and must ever be, the most comiinon humani employment,
and it is right to believe that God has made it, of all others,
the most conducive to happiness.
Great intellectual effort is generally followed by great depression of spirits; and ns the acquisition of learniing requires
such effort, we doubt whether, on the whole, the knowledge of
books enhances human happiness.
There is one class of the old of wvhom as yet we have said
n othinig. It is they whom old age overtalkes in the midst of
poverty and misfortune. Age brings with it resigniation, and
resignation blunts the arrows of adversity and assuages the
pangs of misery. Tihe feeliiios of the young are more exquisite than those of the old; contentuent is unknlown to them;
they never bend before the blasts of adversity-an(l hence
they suffer more from poverty and misfortune thain the aged.
The young, too, are tempted to commit crime when they
find their situation almost desperate; whilst the old, being less
wretched and more resigned, are not so liable, under similar
circumstances, to take to wicked and desperate ways. We
conclude, then, that the aged, the poor, and unfortunate, are
less miserable, and are better men than the young or middleaged who find themselves in a like predicament.
ART. XII.-REFLECTIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
THE TRUE POLICY HAS BEEN ADOPTED BY OUR GOVERNMENT.
Our people are strangely and criminally inconsistent in their treatment of
the officers of our army and of the executive head; that in great measure
controls and directs those officers. We boast of the skill, courage and superior ability and efficiency of our officers over those of the North. The
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