[Greek:  —­hae gar phusis bebion ou ta chraemata]

[Footnote 1:  Eth.  Eud., vii. 2. 37:]

And just for the same reason we can more easily bear a misfortune which comes to us entirely from without, than one which we have drawn upon ourselves; for fortune may always change, but not character.  Therefore, subjective blessings,—­a noble nature, a capable head, a joyful temperament, bright spirits, a well-constituted, perfectly sound physique, in a word, mens sana in corpore sano, are the first and most important elements in happiness; so that we should be more intent on promoting and preserving such qualities than on the possession of external wealth and external honor.

And of all these, the one which makes us the most directly happy is a genial flow of good spirits; for this excellent quality is its own immediate reward.  The man who is cheerful and merry has always a good reason for being so,—­the fact, namely, that he is so.  There is nothing which, like this quality, can so completely replace the loss of every other blessing.  If you know anyone who is young, handsome, rich and esteemed, and you want to know, further, if he is happy, ask, Is he cheerful and genial?—­and if he is, what does it matter whether he is young or old, straight or humpbacked, poor or rich?—­he is happy.  In my early days I once opened an old book and found these words:  If you laugh a great deal, you are happy; if you cry a great deal, you are unhappy;—­a very simple remark, no doubt; but just because it is so simple I have never been able to forget it, even though it is in the last degree a truism.  So if cheerfulness knocks at our door, we should throw it wide open, for it never comes inopportunely; instead of that, we often make scruples about letting it in.  We want to be quite sure that we have every reason to be contented; then we are afraid that cheerfulness of spirits may interfere with serious reflections or weighty cares.  Cheerfulness is a direct and immediate gain,—­the very coin, as it were, of happiness, and not, like all else, merely a cheque upon the bank; for it alone makes us immediately happy in the present moment, and that is the highest blessing for beings like us, whose existence is but an infinitesimal moment between two eternities.  To secure and promote this feeling of cheerfulness should be the supreme aim of all our endeavors after happiness.

Now it is certain that nothing contributes so little to cheerfulness as riches, or so much, as health.  Is it not in the lower classes, the so-called working classes, more especially those of them who live in the country, that we see cheerful and contented faces? and is it not amongst the rich, the upper classes, that we find faces full of ill-humor and vexation?  Consequently we should try as much as possible to maintain a high degree of health; for cheerfulness is the very flower of it.  I need hardly say what one must do to be healthy—­avoid every kind