The Greek notion
of felicity, on the other hand, is perfectly conveyed in these words of
a great French moralist: "_C'est le bonheur des hommes_,"--when? when
they abhor that which is evil?--no; when they exercise themselves in the
law of the Lord day and night?--no; when they die daily?--no; when they
walk about the New Jerusalem with palms in their hands?--no; but when
they think aright, when their thought hits: "_quand ils pensent juste_."
At the bottom of both the Greek and the Hebrew notion is the desire,
native in man, for reason and the will of God, the feeling after the
universal order,--in a word, the love of God. But, while Hebraism seizes
upon certain plain, capital intimations of, the universal order, and
rivets itself, one may say, with unequalled grandeur of earnestness and
intensity on the study and observance of them, the bent of Hellenism is
to follow, with flexible activity, the whole play of the universal
order, to be apprehensive of missing any part of it, of sacrificing one
part to another, to slip away from resting in this or that intimation of
it, however capital.
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