Welsh Journals

'U THE SOUTH WALES ATHEN^UM. CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OF GENTLEMEN. No. 2. FEBRUARY, 1846. Price Ihd. WE LOVE THE RIGHT. The motto we have prefixed to this "article, is the one we have taken to guide us in the conduct of this ma¬ gazine. We love the right, and what we love we are desirous of putting into the possession of others. Hence, our present attempt. Rightness is a state in which we should endeavour to live; because it is an indispensable pre-requisite to happiness, and happiness is the aim of all. To seek happiness without first obtaining rightness of mind, is an-idiot's'task:—-it is an attempt to fly without a whig—it is bridging an ocean with.a wish, to trust to which, requires more than a sane man's cou- *n»ge-". • V'r^^'-i * , ., '. - ". There are some, %who from the pe¬ culiarity of their circumstances in life, without this pre-requfsite are in possession o£ a present joy: and this they call .happiness: -swrongly so. That is not happiness, which is de¬ pendent upon things which in them¬ selves are.transitory/"■'■"Ajoy," upon which we lave ho hold, is at best but a poor, thing, and cannot with propriety^b€"^M^natea happiness. What claim $o continued * joyfulness can those have, who' prefer it for the gratification of a desire r.wKich soon grows satiated, or of a.lust „which BmKjnlljaax?^jTheri is hot, there 'cannot^?Jany happiness worthy of the, name,* .which is not the result of _.-_!... ^^tjfe>: Rightness, is the only gate whereby happiness is ac¬ cessible to mortals. We may get glimpses of it, withtmt passing those portals, but they will be but glimpses —glimpses that every-^exhalation will intercept. .:? Rightness, what is it? Simply, conformity to truth. But what is truth ? How many will answer, It is my creed, my opinion, my favour¬ ite theory, my practice. . Lighting up their prejudiced reason with but a spark from the torch of truth, they cry, Behold the truth itself! And how high and haughty is their proclama¬ tion of the lie! so high, that minds are trapped into its adoration. The laws of God, they are truth: as written in the stars, as spoken by the flow¬ ers and the trees, as given by crea¬ tures of the sky, the jsea, the pasV ture and. the forest; as shewn by the bowels of the earth, as whispered by the silent secret workings of the hu¬ man mind, and as declared with more direct revelation in the sacred Scrip¬ tures. Yes, the laws of God", they are truth,- and truth is hone other^ Truth is in man, only in the,degree that the laws'df God are operating within him. Man's departure from truth commenr ces when he, reliesupon bis^bwh falj Kble.'eohceptiohs Mjtrv^,^m^^^ itself. .1 Man gets nearer*to^jT^orj^ apprehension of traftr.the'i'inOrft; he- abstractshimselffrom,^8 prejudices and supposed interests, and views it as an abstraction, something belong¬ ing not to him bul to theInfinite^ to