The New York Journal, And Daily Patriotic Register

The secret of being always easy.

An Italian bishop struggled through great difficulties without repining, and met with much opposition in the discharge of his Episcopal function, without ever betraying the least impatience. An intimate friend of his, who highly admired those virtues which he thought it impossible to imitate, one day asked the Prelate if he would communicate the secret of being always easy. Yes, replied the old man, I can teach you the secret; it consists in nothing more than in making a right use of my eyes; his friend begged him to explain himself--most willingly, returned the bishop--in whatever state I am, I first of all look up to Heaven, and remember that my principal business here is to go there; I then look down upon the earth, and call to mind how small a space I shall occupy in it when I come to be interred--I then look abroad in the world, and observe what multitudes there are who are in all respects more unhappy than myself.--Thus I learn where true happiness is placed--where all our cares must end--and how very little reason I have to repine or to complain.