The art of being happy

Front matter

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Chap. XV.— Of Friendship 158

Chap. XVI.— The Pleasures of the Senses . . 169 Chap. XVII.— The Pleasures of the Heart . . 176 Chap. XVIII.— The Pleasures of the Understanding 182

Chap. XIX. — The Pleasures of Imagination. . 189

Chap. XX. — Melancholy 195

Chap. XXI. — Religious Sentiments 202

Chap. XXII.— Of the Rapidity of Life .... 215

Chap. XXIIL— On Death 224

Chap. XXIV.— Conclusion 253

Appendix.- — The Choice of a Profession .... 260

THE

ART OF BEING HAPPY.

Introduction

Some will, perhaps, be ready, when they read the title of this volume, to regard its counsels with indifference, or even with disdain. They will indolently, and yet confidently, affirm, that the theoretical discussion of the pursuit of happiness is visionary and profitless ; that lecture, write, preach as we may, the future will be, perhaps ought to be, as the past ; that the world is always growing older without ever growing wiser ; and that men are evidently no more successful in their search after happiness now, than in the remotest periods of history. They will affirm, that man has always been the sport of accident, the slave of his passions, the creature of circumstances ; that it is useless to reason, vain to consult rules, imbecile to surrender independence, to follow the guidance of those who assume to be wise, or receive instruction from those who have been taught by years. They will allege the utter inefncacy of the lights of reason, philosophy, and religion, judging from the little comparative illumination, which they have hitherto shed upon the paths of life. On the same ground, and from the same reasonings, they might declaim against every attempt, in every form, to render the world wiser and happier. With equal propriety they might say, " Close the pulpit, silence the press, cease from parental discipline, moral suasion, and the training of education. Do what you will, the world will go on as before/ ' Who does not see the absurdity of such language ? Because we cannot do every thing, shall we do nothing? Because the million float towards the invisible future without any pole-star, or guided only by the presumption of general opinion, is it a conclusive proof that none have been rendered happier in consequence of having followed wiser guidance, and pursued happiness by system ?

Such is the practical creed of the great mass of society. I, on the contrary, think that this general persuasion is palpably false and fatal ; that much suffering may be avoided, and much enjoyment obtained by following rules, and pursuing happiness

INTRODUCTION. <J

by system ; that I have had the fortune to meet with numbers, who were demonstrative proof that men may learn how to be happy. I am confident that the far greater portion of human suffering is of our own procuring, the result of ignorance and mistaken views, and that it is a superfluous and unnecessary mixture of bitterness in the cup of human life. I firmly believe that the greater number of deaths, instead of being the result of specific diseases, to which they are attributed, are really caused by a series of imperceptible malign influences, springing from corroding cares, griefs, and disappointments. To say, that more than half the human race die of sorrow, and a broken heart, or in some way fall victims to their depraved passions, may seem like advancing a revolting doctrine ; but it is, nevertheless, a simple truth.

We do not actually see the operations of grief upon some one or all the countless frail and delicate constituents of human life. But if physiology could look through the infinitely complicated web of our structure with the power of the solar microscope, it would behold every chagrin searing some nerve, paralyzing the action of some organ, or closing some capillary ; and that every sigh draws its drop of life-blood from the heart. Nature is slow in resenting her injuries ; but the memory of them is indelibly impressed, and treasured up for a late but certain revenge, Nervousness, lowness of spirits, headache, and all the countless train of morbid and deranged corporeal and mental action, are at once, the cause and the effect of sorrow and anxiety, increased by a constant series of action and reaction. Thought and care become impressed upon the brow. The bland essence of cheerfulness evaporates. The head becomes shorn of its locks ; and the frosts of winter gather on the temples. These concurrent influences silently sap the stamina of life ; until, aided by some adventitious circumstance, death lays his hand upon the frame, that by the sorrows and cares of life was prepared for his dread office. The bills of mortality assign a name to the mortal disease different from the true one.

Cheerfulness and equanimity are about the only traits that have invariably marked the life of those who have lived to extreme old age. Nothing is more clearly settled by experience, than that grief acts as a slow poison, not only in the immediate infliction of pain, but in gradually impairing the powers of life, and in subtracting from the sum of our days.

If, then, by any process of instruction, discipline, and mental force, we can influence our circumstances, banish grief, create cheerfulness, we can, in the same degree, reduce rules, for the pursuit of happiness, to a system ; and make that system a

INTRODUCTION. O

matter of science. Can we not do this ? The very million who deride the idea of seeking for enjoyment through the medium of instruction, unconsciously exercise the power in question to a certain extent ; though not to the extent of which they are capable. All those wise individuals who have travelled with equanimity and cheerfulness through the diversified scenes of life, making the most of its good, and the least of its evils, bear a general testimony to the truth of this fact. We find in them a conviction that they had such power, and a force of character that enabled them to act according to their convictions.

No person deserves the name of a philosopher, who is not wise in relation to the great purpose of life. In the same proportion, then, as I can convince my readers, that by their own voluntary, physical and mental discipline, they can act upon circumstances, and influence their temperament, and thus bear directly upon their happiness, I shall be able to stir up their powers, and call forth their energy of character, to apply that discipline in their own case. In the same proportion I shall be instrumental in training' them to the highest exercise of their reason, and the attainment of true philosophy.

The elements upon which we should operate, are circumstances, habits, and modes of thinking and acting. The philosopher of circumstances, denies that you can act upon these. But, by his unwearied efforts to propagate his system, he proves that he does not himself act upon his avowed convictions. The impulse of all our actions from birth to death, the spring of all our movements, is a conviction that we can alter and improve our condition. We have a consciousness stronger than our reason, that we can control our circumstances. We can change our regimen and habits ; and, by patience and perseverance, even our temperament. Every one can cite innumerable and most melancholy instances of those who have done it for evil. The habit of indulging in opium, tobacco, ardent spirits, or any of the pernicious narcotics, soon reduces the physical and mental constitution to that temperament, in which these stimulants are felt to be necessary. A corresponding change is produced in the mind and disposition. The frequent and regular use of medicine, though it may have been wholly unnecessary at first, finally becomes an inveterate habit. No phenomenon of physiology is more striking, than the facility with which the human constitution immediately commences a conformity to whatsoever change- of circumstances, as of climate, habit, or aliment, we impose upon it. It is a most impressive proof, that the Creator has formed man capable of becoming the creature of all climates and conditions.

If we may change our temperament both of body and mind for evil, as innumerable examples prove that we may, why not also for good. Our habits certainly are under our control : and our modes of thinking, however little the process may have been explained, are, in some way, shaped by our voluntary discipline. We have powers of self-command, as every one who has made the effort to exercise them, must be conscious. We have inexhaustible moral force for self- direction, if we will only recognize and exert it. We owe most of our disgusts and disappointments, our corroding passions and unreasonable desires, our fretfulness, gloom and self- torment, neither to nature nor fate ; but to ourselves, and our reckless indifference to those rules, that ought to guide our pursuit of happiness. Let a higher education and a truer wisdom detach us from our passions, dispel the mists of opinion, and silence the authority of example. Let us commence the pursuit of happiness on the right course, and seek it where alone it is to be found. Equanimity and moderation will shed their mild radiance upon our enjoyments; and in our reverses we shall summon resignation and force of character : and, according to the sublime ancient maxim, we shall, in some useful degree, become masters of events and of ourselves.

I am sensible that there will always be a sufficient number of those, deemed philosophers, who, notwithstanding their rules, have wandered far from their aim. Such there will ever be, so long as there are stirring passions within, or hidden dangers around us ; and there will be shipwrecks, so long as human cupidity and ambition tempt self-confident and unskilful mariners upon the fickle and tumultuous bosom of the ocean. But is this proof that a disciplined pilot would not be most likely to make the voyage in safety, or that the study of navigation is useless ?

My affectionate desire is, to draw your attention to those moral resources which the Creator has placed at your command. How many millions have floated down the current in the indolent supineness of inactivity, who, had they been aware of their internal means of active resistance, would have risen above the pressure of their circumstances ! Who can deny, that there is a manifest difference, even as things now are, between the moral courage of action and endurance, put forth by a disciplined and reflecting mind, possessing force of character, and the stupid and passive abandonment, with which a savage meets pain and death ?

To encourage us to shake off the superincumbent load of indifference, ridicule, and opposition, and to make efforts to extend virtue and happiness, let us

INTRODUCTION. y

reflect that a useful thought may outlive an empire. Babylon and Thebes are, now, nowhere to be found ; but the moral lessons of the contemporary wise and good, despised and disregarded, perhaps, in their day, have descended to us and are still to be found. As the seminal principles of plants, borne through the wide spaces of the air by their downy wings, find at length a congenial spot, in which to settle down, and vegetate, these seeds of virtue and happiness, floating down the current of time, are still arrested, from age to age, by some kindred mind, in which they germinate, and produce their golden fruit. No intellect can conjecture, in how many instances, and to what degree, every fit moral precept may have come between the reason and passions of some one, balancing between the course of happiness and ruin, and may have inclined the scale in his favour. The consciousness of even an effort to achieve one such triumph is a sufficient satisfaction to a virtuous mind.

Chapter II, The Physical, Organic, And Moral Laws

It is devoutly to be hoped that the time is rapidly approaching, when no one will be found who shall regard religion and philosophy as militant and irreconcilable principles. So far from their being in opposition, when rightly understood, they will be found resting on the same immutable foundation. A few of the misguided friends of piety may have sometimes attempted to represent them as separate and hostile interests ; but it will one day be understood, that whatever wars with reason and common sense, is equally hostile to religion. The simple and unchangeable truths of Christianity will be found to violate none of our most obvious convictions. Truth will reassume her legitimate reign. Piety, religion, and morals, our best interests for this life, and our surest preparations

THE PHYSICAL, ORGANIC, AND MORAL LAWS. 11

for a future one, will be found exactly conformable to the eternal order of things ; when this is seen, the system of the gospel will become universal, according to its legitimate claims. True piety, in my mind, is equally our duty, our wisdom, and happiness. To behold God every where in his works, to hold communion with him in a contemplative and admiring spirit, to love and trust him, to find in the deep and constantly present persuasion of his being and attributes, a sentiment of exhaustless cheerfulness and excitement to duty, I hold to be the source of the purest and sublimest pleasure that earth can afford.

True philosophy unfolds the design of final causes with a calm and humble wisdom. It finds the Creator everywhere, and always acting in wisdom and power. It traces the highest benevolence of intention, where the first aspect showed no apparent purpose, or one that seemed to tend to misery ; offering new inducements to learn the first and last lesson of religion, and the ultimate attainment of human wisdom, resignation to the will of God. In vindicating his ways to men, it declares that so long as we do not understand the laws of our being, and so long as we violate them, either ignorantly, wilfully, or even unconsciously, misery must certainly follow ; and that the Omnipotent has forged every link of the chain that connects our own unhappiness with every transgression of the laws of our nature.

We find ourselves making a part of an existing universe, which neither ignorance, nor wisdom, doubting, nor confidence can alter. If we know the order, of which we are the subjects, and conform to it, we are happy. If we ignorantly, or wilfully transgress it, the order is in no degree changed, or impeded. It moves irresistibly on, and the opposition is crushed. How wisdom and benevolence are reconcilable with the permission of this ignorance and opposition ; in other words, why partial evil exists in God's universe, it is not my object to enquire. The enquiry would not only be fruitless, but would in no degree alter the fact, that what we call evil does exist. It is enough for us to know, that, as far as human research has reached, or can reach, the more profoundly we investigate the subject, the more clearly are design, wisdom, and benevolence discoverable. Beyond our discernment, right reason, guided by humility, would infer, that, where we cannot trace the impress of these attributes, it is not because they are not to be found, but because our powers are not equal to the discovery. If we had a broader vision, and were more fully acquainted with the relations of all parts of God's universe, the one to the other, and all the reasons of the permanent ordinances of his government, we should be able to understand the necessity of partial evil to the general good ; we should understand, why it rains on the waste ocean, when drought consigns whole countries to aridity and desolation ; in a word, why ignorance, transgression, misery, and death, have a place in our system.

All that we now know is, that the natural laws of this system are universal, invariable, unbending ; that physical and moral tendencies are the same all over our world ; and we have every reason to believe, over all other worlds. Wherever moral beings keep in harmony with these laws, there is no instance in which happiness is not the result. Men never enjoy health, vigour, and felicity in disobedience to them. The whole infinite contrivance of every thing above, around, and within us, appears directed to certain benevolent issues ; and all the laws of nature are in perfect harmony with the whole constitution of man.

We shall not enter upon the subtle controversies of moral philosophers, as to the fundamental principle of moral obligation, whether it be expediency, the nature of things, or the will of God. In my view these are rather questions about words than things. The nature of things is a part of the will of God ; and expediency is conformity to this unchanging order. An action derives its moral complexion from being conformed to the will of God, and the nature of things ; and whatever is so conformed, is expedient ; consequently, all the different foundations of morals, when examined, are found to be precisely the same.

My notions of morality are, that it is conformity to the physical, organic, and moral laws of the universe. Some will choose to call it expediency; others, the will of God; and others still, the constitution of things. These views, when reduced to their elements, are the same, call them by what names we may. We may obviously divide these laws into three classes. The first series we call physical laws, or those which act upon the material universe, and upon ourselves as a part of that universe. The second we call organic, or those which regulate the origin, growth, well-being, and dissolution of organized beings. The last, denominated moral, act chiefly on the intellectual universe. They are founded on our relations to the great family of being, and to God.

We infer from analogy, that these laws always have been, are, and always will be, invariably the same ; and that they prevail alike in every portion of God's universe. We so judge, because we believe the existing order of things to be the wisest and the best. We know that the physical laws actually do prevail alike in every part of our world, and as far beyond it, as the highest helps of astronomy can aid our researches into the depths of immensity. It is not probable, that if we could investigate the system, as far as the utmost stretch of thought, we should find any point, where the laws of gravity, light, heat, and motion do not prevail ; where the sentient beings are not restricted to the same moral relations, as in our world ! Wherever the empire of science has extended, we note these laws equally prevalent, in an atom and a world, and from the lowest order of beings up to a man. The arrangement of the great whole, it should seem, must be a single emanation from the same wisdom and will, perfectly uniform throughout the whole empire. What an impressive motive to study these laws, and conform to them, is it, to know, that they are as irresistible as the divine power, as universal as the divine presence, as permanent as the divine existence; that there is no evading them, that no art can disconnect misery from transgressing them ; that no change of place or time, that not death, nor any transformation which our conscious being can undergo, will, during the revolutions of eternity*, dispense any more with the necessity of observing these laws, than during our present transitory existence.

I need not dwell a moment upon the proofs of the absolute identity of the physical laws. No one need be told, that a ship floats, water descends, heat warms, and cold freezes, and that all physical properties of matter are the same over the globe. We shall only show by a few palpable examples, that our system is arranged in conformity to the organic laws. Every discovery in the kingdom of animated nature developes new instances.

In the tropical regions, the muscular energy is less, in proportion as the natural fertility of the soil is greater. In colder latitudes muscular energy is increased ; and ruder elements and a more sterile nature, proportion their claims accordingly. In arctic regions no farinaceous food ripens. Sojourners in that climate find, that bread and vegetable diet do not furnish the requisite nutriment ; that pure animal food is the only sustenance that will there maintain the tone of the system, imparting a delightful vigor and buoyancy of mind. Strange as it may seem, to conform to this necessity, these dreary countries abound in infinite numbers and varieties of animals, fowls and fishes. The climate favours the drying and preserving of animal food, which is thus prepared to sustain the inhabitants, when nature imprisons the material creation in chains of ice, and wraps herself up in her mantle of snow. Thus, if we survey the whole globe, the food, climate and other circumstances will be found accommodated to the inhabitants ;

and they, as far as they conform to the organic laws, will be found adapted to their climate and mode of subsistence.

In all positions man finds himself called upon, by the clear indications of the organic laws, to take that free and cheerful exercise, which is calculated to develope vigourous muscular, nervous and mental action. The peasant digs, and the hunter chases for subsistence ; but finds at the same time health and cheerfulness. The penalty of the violation of this organic law by the indulgence of indolence is debility, enfeebled action, both bodily and mental, dyspepsia with all its painful train, and finally death. On the other hand, the penalty of over exertion, debauchery, intemperance, and excess of every species, comes in other forms of disease and suffering. These laws though not so obviously and palpably so, are as invariable and inevitable, as those of attraction, or magnetism ; and yet the great mass of our species, even in what we call enlightened and educated countries, do not recognize, and obey them. It is in vain for them, that, from age to age, the same consequences have ensued, as the heralds of the divinity, proclaiming to all people, in all languages, that his laws carry their sanctions with them. One of our most imperious duties, then, is to study these laws, to make ourselves conversant with their bearing upon our pursuit of happiness, that we may conform to them. When we have "become acquainted with their universality and resistless power, we shall indulge no puerile hope that we may enjoy the present gratification of infringing them, and then evade the ultimate consequences. We shall as soon calculate to change condition with the tenants of the air and the waters, as expect to divert any one of them from its onward course.

He then is wise, who looks round him with a searching eye to become fully possessed, without the colouring of sophistical wishes, and self- deceiving expectation, of the actual conditions of his being ; and who, instead of imagining, that the unchangeable courses of nature will conform to him, his ignorance, interests or passions, shapes his course so as to conform to them. He will no more expect, for example, that he can indulge his appetites, give scope to his passions, and yield himself to the seductions of life, and escape without a balance of misery in consequence, than he would calculate to throw himself unhurt, from a mountain precipice.

So far as regards himself, he will study the organic laws, in reference to their bearing upon his mind, his health, his morals, his happiness. He will strive to be cheerful ; for he knows that it is a part of the constitution of things, that

AND MORAL LAWS.

cheerfulness tends to physical and n He will accustom himself to exerci; - -.- and avoid indolence, because he understands that he was formed to be an active being, and that he cannot yield to his slothful propensities, without forfeiting the delightful feeling of energy, and the power to operate upon events, instead of being passively borne along by them. He will be active, that he may be conscious of power. He will rise above the silent and invisible influence of sloth, and will exult in a feeling of force and self-command, for the same reasons that the eagle loves to soar aloft, and look upon the sun ; because a sensation of power, and a sublime liberty are enjoyed in the flight. He will be temperate in the gratification of his appetites and passions, because he is aware, that every excessive indulgence strikes a balance of suffering against him, which he must discharge sooner, or later ; and helps to forge a chain of habit, that will render it more difficult for him to resist the next temptation to indulgence. He will rise early from sleep, because nature calls him to early rising, in all her cheerful voices, in the matin song of birds, the balmy morning freshness and elasticity of the air, and the renovated cry of joy from the whole animal creation. He will do this, because he has early heard complaints from all sides of the shortness of life, and because he is sensible, that lie who rises every day two hours before the common period, will prolong the ordinary duration of life by adding six years of the pleasantest part of existence. He will rise early, because, next to the intemperate, no human being offers a more unworthy spectacle, than is presented by the man, who calls himself rational and immortal, who sees before him a greater amount of knowledge, duty and happiness, than he could hope to compass in a thousand years ; and who yet turns himself indolently from side to side, during the hours of the awakening of nature, enjoying only the luxury of a savage or a brute, in a state of dozing existence little superior to the dreamless sleep of the grave. I test the character of a youth, of whom I wish to entertain hope, by this criterion. If he can nobly resist his propensities, if he can act from reason against his inclinations, if he can trample indolence under foot, if he can always make the effort to show the intellectual in the ascendant over the animal being, I note him as one, who will be worthy of eminence, whether he attain it or not. In a word, there is something of dignity and intellectual grandeur in the aspect of the young, who live in obedience to the organic and moral laws, which commands at once that undefined, and almost unconscious estimation and respect, which all minds involuntarily pay to true erreatness.

When the young reach that period, when it is proper to assume the obligations of settled life, this conformity to the nature of things will cause them to pause, and reflect on what is before them, and will interdict them from following the inconsiderate throng, in entering into that decisive condition, consulting no other lights, than a morbid fancy, those impulses which are common to all other animals, or sordid calculations of interest. They perceive at a glance, that those who with such views take on them the obligations of the conjugal state, have no right to hope any thing better than satiety, ill-humour, monotonous disgust, and the insupportable imprisonment of two persons, in intimate and indissoluble partnership, who find weariness and penance in being together, who are reminded, at once by the void in their hearts, and their mutual inability to fill it, that they must not only endure the pain of being chained together, but feel, that they are thus barred from a happier union, partly by shame, partly by public opinion, and more than all, by the obstacles, wisely thrown by all civilized nations in the way of obtaining divorce. There can be no doubt, that the common views of the universal unhappiness of the wedded state in all Christian countries are the result of gross exaggeration. Making all allowances for errors from this source, language is too feeble, to delineate the countless and unutterable miseries, that, in all time since the institution of marriage., as recognized by Christianity, have resulted from these incompatible unions, for the simple reason, that, in this transaction, of so much more moment than almost any other, scarcely one of the parties in a thousand, it is believed, takes the least note of of it in relation to the organic and moral laws.

The young and the aged, the feeble and the strong, the healthy and the diseased, the beautiful and the deformed, the mild and the fierce, the intellectual and the purely animal, the rich and the poor, bring their incompatibilities to a common stock, add ruinous excesses of temperament together, and arouse from a short trance to the conscious and sober sadness of waking misery. Weariness and discontent, relieved only by domestic discord, and a wretchedness aggravated by the consciousness that there is no escape from it, but by death, is the issue of a union consummated under illusive expectations of more than mortal happiness. What multitudes have found this to be the reality of their youthful dreams ! Yet, if this most important union is contracted under animal impulses, without any regard to moral and intellectual considerations, without any investigation of the organic and social fitness of the case, without enquiry into the compatibility, without a mutual understanding of dtspositions and habits ; who cannot foresee, that the affections will soon languish in satiety ; that repentance, disaffection, and even loathing, in proportion to the remembered raptures for ever passed away, will open the eyes of the parties to their real and permanent condition, and that by a law as certain and inevitable, as that which propels water down a precipice ! And this is not the darkest shade in the picture. By the same laws children are born, who advance into life to repeat the errors of their parents, to make common stock of their misery anew, to multiply the number of the unhappy ; or, perhaps worse, to tenant hospitals, and the receptacles of human ignorance and misery.