You may call this levity, and you are partly right; for flowers and colours are but trifles light as air, but such levity is a constituent portion of our human nature, without which it would sink under the weight of time.

While on earth we must still play with earth, and with that which blooms and fades upon its breast.

The consciousness of this mortal life being but the way to a higher goal, by no means precludes our playing with it cheerfully; and, indeed, we must do so, otherwise our energy in action will entirely fail." [178] Cheerfulness also accompanies patience, which is one of the main conditions of happiness and success in life.

"He that will be served," says George Herbert, "must be patient." It was said of the cheerful and patient King Alfred, that "good fortune accompanied him like a gift of God." Marlborough's expectant calmness was great, and a principal secret of his success as a general.

"Patience will overcome all things," he wrote to Godolphin, in 1702.