With respect to any final aim or end, the greater part of mankind live
at hazard. They have no certain harbour in view, nor direct their
course by any fixed star. But to him that knoweth not the port to
which he is bound, no wind can be favourable; neither can he who has
not yet determined at what mark he is to shoot, direct his arrow
aright.
It is not, however, the less true, that there is a proper object to
aim at; and if this object be meant by the term happiness, (though I
think that not the most appropriate term for a state, the perfection
of which consists in the exclusion of all _hap_ (that is, chance)), I
assert that there is such a thing as human happiness, as _summum
bonum_, or ultimate good. What this is, the Bible alone shows clearly
and certainly, and points out the way that leads to the attainment of
it. This is that which prevailed with St. Augustine to study the
Scriptures, and engaged his affection to them. "In Cicero, and Plato,
and other such writers," says he, "I meet with many things acutely
said, and things that excite a certain warmth of emotion, but in none
of them do I find these words, _Come unto me, all ye that labour, and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest_."[39]