“It is a very pleasant face,” said John.—“It is,” said Mr. Willock,
JOY with TRANQUILLITY.
“You will observe here, that very little alteration is remarked in the face of those who feel within themselves the sweetness of Joy. The forehead is serene; the eyebrows without motion, elevated in the middle; the eye pretty open, and with a laughing air; the eyeball lively and shining; the corners of the mouth turn up a little; the complexion lively; the cheeks and lips red.
“Joy is a delightful sensation, and gives health to the body as well as to the mind; when we feel joyful, with what alacrity, what spirit, do we move and act! It is Joy that you taste of, when the time arrives for you to return home from school, to see your friends in vacation. When Joy is felt, the mind is occupied with every thing that is pleasant; all care is for the time obliterated from your recollection; you jump, and dance, and sing, and spring about like young fawns, from place to place. But this is not Joy with Tranquillity, like that in the picture. Joy with Tranquillity is more lasting, and is less violent. I will attempt to describe the passion to you by an example.
The Story of Matthieu and Gerrard, the two Fishermen, who each found a treasure.
“Two fishermen, named Matthieu and Gerrard, who lived in a small village near the Mediterranean, and who had each of them large families, and were very poor, were out one day drawing their nets, when one of them, Gerrard, called out to the other, that he had drawn ashore a small casket, which was extremely heavy; and he begged the other to assist him to force it open, when he found it full of precious stones, carefully inclosed in cotton. The fisherman who had found the treasure, very fairly and justly told the other that he should go shares; and overjoyed, ran home directly to his wife, to tell her the good news. The other fisherman, who was older and more careful, staid to put his nets in order before he followed, and was very kindly doing the same office for his friend, when he discovered another casket among the meshes of the net, which his comrade had overlooked, full of the like treasure, and which he put in his pocket.
“When the old fisherman returned to the village, which was no great way from the sea-shore, he found the house of his comrade surrounded by people. In short, poor Gerrard’s rapture had occasioned him to tell every creature he met of his good fortune, and they had followed him in a mass. One gave him a piece of advice; another put in a claim for favour; a third offered to get him a market for the diamonds of a friend. In short, he was almost torn to pieces by the officious kindness of his neighbours; and in his perplexity, he sold his treasure for less than half its value, to an old Jew, who, on hearing the news, had hastened all the way from Marseilles to the spot, to make a good bargain.
“The old fisherman said nothing about his luck until night, when he was at supper with his wife; and she being a prudent woman, though she felt a great deal of joy that her dear children would be better cloathed and fed, yet it was Joy with Tranquillity. They neither of them suffered their good success to run away with their reason. It was therefore determined between themselves, that Matthieu should go the next day to Marseilles, where dwelt a respectable Armenian merchant, and get a fair price from him for the precious stones he had had the luck to find.
“The next day, the old fisherman set out on his journey, without saying a word to any body, and returned home laden with louis d’ors, in addition to the small sum which was the moiety of what the other fisherman had honestly shared with him.