Goodness and Gayety
the Desert meant when they preached their crusade in favour of discretion";—are all spoken to those hardy and humorous souls who can bear to be honest with themselves.
The ardent reformer, intolerant of the ordinary processes of life, the ardent philanthropist, intolerant of an imperfect civilization, the ardent zealot, intolerant of man's unspiritual nature, are seldom disposed to gayety. A noble impatience of spirit inclines them to anger or to sadness. John Wesley, reformer, philanthropist, zealot, and surpassingly great in all three characters, strangled within his own breast the simple desire to be gay. He was a young man when he formed the resolution, "to labour after continual seriousness, not willingly indulging myself in the least levity of behaviour, or in laughter,—no, not for a moment"; and for more than fifty years he kept—probably with no great difficulty—this stern resolve. The mediæval
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