The Pursuit Of Happiness A Book Of Studies And Strowings

Excerpt from The Pursuit of Happiness: A Book of Studies and Strowings "We hold these truths to be self-evident, - that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and The Pursuit Of Happiness." - The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. "The sun and stars that float in the open air, The apple-shaped earth and we upon it, surely the drift of them is something grand, I do not know what it is except that it is something grand, and that it is Happiness." - Walt Whitman. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Reproduction of the original: The Pursuit of Happiness by Daniel G. Brinton

'The Pursuit of Happiness' by Daniel G. Brinton is a classic book that offers valuable insights into the pursuit of happiness. It explores the definition of happiness and the desirability of learning how to become happy, as well as pleasure and pain, the hierarchy of enjoyments, and the distribution of happiness. It provides principles for self-education and the promotion of personal happiness, as well as insights into how our happiness depends on nature, fate, others, and ultimately, ourselves.

Now we can understand what Plato meant when he said that the right aim ofliving should stand out of relation to pleasure or pain. He had in mind these otheractivities which give in some natures an intenser sense to self-consciousness thanany mere nerve reaction. The ancient ideal was the greatness of the individual, therichness of his imagination, the reach of his intellect, the strength of his will, thefirmness of his friendship, the devotion of his patriotism, the singleness of his lifeand purpose in some noble aim. This it was that floated before the intellectualvision of Plato and led him to scorn the pleasures of the sense and the charms oftranquillity.Let us applaud him; for we moderns are not ignorant of the luxury of toil and thejoy of strong endeavor; we too, like Othello, "do agnize an alacrity for hardness;"with Seneca we can say, "Res severa est verum gaudium." But we hold it needlessand unwise to leave any sunny field uncultured on whose soil may be trained tobloom the fragrant flower of pleasure.The yearning for joy is a cry of nature which can never be stifled. Give heed to itand obey it. It calls you to wider horizons, to warmer sympathies, to a fuller growth,to a completer development. It holds the secret of Evolution. It is the incessantprompter to a higher form of existence. Biologists have discovered that theavoidance of painful and the search for pleasurable sensations are the firstprinciples of organic animal life, and are those which have developed the amoebainto the man. In him, this general consciousness has blossomed into Selfconsciousness,and to this he owes all the growth of his higher nature, hisessentially human powers. To the extent that this is brought into harmony with thesum of his faculties and with his surroundings, he wins that something greater thanpleasure which we call happiness. From the culture of this, if from any source, hemust look for the advent of those new spirit-powers which more fortunategenerations in the hereafter may enjoy. Who knows but those, our dear children ofafter days, may gain a still higher form of consciousness, one through which theywill be brought into harmony with the perfect working of the Cosmos, and theancient fable be realized, of men who walked the earth as gods?

The pursuit of happiness, -the pursuit of one's own happiness, -is it a vain quest? and, if not vain, is it a worthy object of life? There have been plenty to condemn it on both grounds. They have said that the endeavor is hopeless; that to study the art of being happy is like studying the art of making gold, which is the only art by which gold can never be made. Nothing, they add, is so unpropitious to happiness as the very effort to attain it. They go farther. "Let life," they proclaim, "have a larger purpose than enjoyment." They quote the mighty Plato, when he demands that the right aim of living shall stand apart, and out of all relation to pleasure or pain. They declare that the theory of happiness as an end is the most dangerous of all in modern sociology-the tap-root of the worst weeds in the political theories of the day, for the reason that the individual pursuit of enjoyment is necessarily destructive of that of society at large. Moreover, they urge, who dares write of it? For he who has not enjoyed it, cannot speak wisely of it; and in him who has attained it, 'twere insolence to boast of it.