THE MORALITY OF HAPPINESS. 187 



THE MORALITY OF HAPPINESS. 



By THOMAS FOSTEK. 

 I. INTRODUCTORY. 



IT is known to all who watch the signs of the times obvious, in- 

 deed, to them, and known to many who are less observant that 

 those moral restraints which claim to be of sacred origin are no longer 

 accepted by a large and increasing number of persons. I have no wish 

 to inquire here whether those restraints should be regarded as of divine 

 origin or not. I note only the fact that by many they are not so re- 

 garded. I am not concerned to ask whether it is well or ill that their 

 authority should be rejected, and their controlling influence be dimin- 

 ishing or disappearing among many ; it suffices, so far as my present 

 purpose is concerned, that the fact is so. The question then presents 

 itself, Does any rule of conduct promise to have power now or soon 

 among those who have rejected the regulative system formerly preva- 

 lent ? We need not consider whether such a rule of conduct, neces- 

 sarily secular in origin, is in itself better or worse than a rule based on 

 commandments regarded as divine. All we have at present to ask is 

 whether such a regulative system is likely to replace the older one 

 with those over whom that older law no longer has influence. 



Here at the outset we find that those who hold extreme views on 

 either side of the questions I have left untouched agree in one view 

 which is, I think, erroneous. On the one hand, those who maintain 

 the divine character of the current creed insist, not only that it is suffi- 

 cient for all, but that, in the nature of things, no other guide is possi- 

 ble. On the other hand, those who reject the authority of that creed 

 most energetically, assert as positively that no new regulative system, 

 no new controlling agency, is necessary. As Mr. Herbert Spencer has 

 well put it, "both contemplate a vacuum, which one wishes and the 

 other fears." But those who take wiser and more moderate views, 

 who, in the first place, recognize facts as they are, and, in the next, 

 are ready to subordinate their own ideas of what is necessary or best 

 for the ideal man to the necessities of man as he really is, perceive that 

 for the many who no longer value a regulative system which, so far as 

 they are concerned, is decaying, if not dead, another regulative system 

 is essential. Again, to use the words of the great philosopher whose 

 teachings are to be our chief guide in this series of papers, " Few 

 things can happen more disastrous than the decay and death of a 

 regulative system no longer fit" (for those we are considering), "be- 

 fore another and fitter regulative system has grown up to replace it." 



My purpose in these papers is to show how rules of conduct may 

 be established on a scientific basis for those who regard the so-called 



