’There is a pretty passage in one of Lucian’s dialogues, where Jupiter complains to Cupid, that, though he has had so many intrigues, he was never sincerely beloved.  “In order to be loved,” says Cupid, “you must lay aside your aegis and your thunder-bolts; you must curl and perfume your hair, and place a garland on your head, and walk with a soft step, and assume a winning, obsequious deportment.”  “But,” replied Jupiter, “I am not willing to resign so much of my dignity.”  “Then,” returned Cupid, “leave off desiring to be loved."’

These remarks by Mrs. Barbauld are full of sound philosophy.  Who has not observed, in his circle of acquaintance, and in the recesses of his own heart, the same inconsistency of expectation, the same peevishness of discontent.

Says Germanicus, ’There is my dunce of a classmate has found his way into Congress, and is living amid the perpetual excitement of intellectual minds, while I am cooped up in an ignorant country parish, obliged to be at the beck and call of every old woman, who happens to feel uneasy in her mind.’

’Well, Germanicus, the road to political distinction was as open to you as to him; why did you not choose it?’ ’Oh, I could not consent to be the tool of a party; to shake hands with the vicious, and flatter fools.  It would gall me to the quick to hear my opponents accuse me of actions I never committed, and of motives which worlds would not tempt me to indulge.’  Since Germanicus is wise enough to know the whistle costs more than it is worth, is he not unreasonable to murmur because he has not bought it?

Matrona always wears a discontented look when she hears the praises of Clio.  ’I used to write her composition for her, when we were at school together,’ says she; ’and now she is quite the idol of the literary world; while I am never heard of beyond my own family, unless some one happens to introduce me as the friend of Clio.’  ’Why not write, then; and see if the world will not learn to introduce Clio as the friend of Matrona?’ ’I write! not for the world!  I could not endure to pour my soul out to an undiscerning multitude; I could not see my cherished thoughts caricatured by some soulless reviewer, and my favorite fancies expounded by the matter-of-fact editor of some stupid paper.’  Why does Matrona envy what she knows costs so much, and is of so little value?

Yet so it is, through all classes of society.  All of us covet some neighbor’s possession, and think our lot would have been happier, had it been different from what it is.  Yet most of us could obtain worldly distinctions, if our habits and inclinations allowed us to pay the immense price at which they must be purchased.  True wisdom lies in finding out all the advantages of a situation in which we are placed, instead of imagining the enjoyments of one in which we are not placed.