THE MORALITY OF HAPPINESS. 66^ 



not prevent the average intelligence of the community from being a 

 matter of great moment even in political matters — supposed to be 

 guided always by the wisest, despite the true saying that the world is 

 governed with but a small amount of wisdom. What I have here said 

 has no relation to the action of kings, princes, and the like, who in 

 English-speaking communities can not now injuriously influence politi- 

 cal relations except through the weakness or folly of statesmen. Yet 

 the argument might be strengthened by calling attention to the way 

 in which, even within the last thirty years, our own country has suf- 

 fered in this special direction, statesmen weakly or foolishly yielding 

 to public pressure by which the unwise counsels of princes have been 

 supported. A hundred years ago our country saw in still more marked 

 way how the average want of intelligence of the many, supporting the 

 stupidity of a king (of alien race, in that case), may go near to wreck 

 the fortunes of a great race. "We may hope, however, that no such 

 trouble is in store for us hereafter as afllicted the British people when 

 a foolish people insanely strengthened the hands of a mad king. 



In social matters a low standard of general intelligence is a serious 

 evil, which a wise altruism will endeavor to diminish. "J do not 

 ni.eati," I may here say with Mr. Herbert Spencer, " such altruism as 

 taxes rate-jyai/ers that children's minds may he filled xcith dates and 

 names and gossip about Jcings and narratives of battles and other use- 

 less information, no amount of which icill make them cajKihle workers 

 or good citizens / hut I mean such altruism as helps to spread a knowl- 

 edge of the nature of things, and to cultivate the poioer of applying 

 that hnoxdedgeP 



It is hardly necessary to multiply examples. "We are confronted 

 at every step by the harmful effects of prevalent want of intelligence. 

 The tire which is intended to warm your room is so stupidly placed 

 that it sends the better part of the heat up the chimney and creates 

 cold draughts round your legs. Equally obnoxious to the understand- 

 ing is the window by which you seek to ventilate your room. It is a 

 struggle to open it, a struggle to close it, unless when your head is in 

 the way, when it generally descends in effective guillotine-fashion. 

 The carpeting of your room is an absurdity, the papering (apart from 

 any question of beauty) a monstrosity. The gaseliers are so ingen- 

 iously arranged that you get a minimum of light and a maximum of 

 heat and foul air. The chair you sit on seems intended to make you 

 uncomfortable ; as you draw it up to the table you find that the sense- 

 less people who plan furniture have provided sharp corners just where 

 your knees are most likely to be caught. If you wish to lie down or 

 to recline on a sofa, you find the head of the sofa so ingeniously 

 padded that, while too sloped for reclining, it is not sloped enough for 

 you to lie on it comfortably.* Your child, running in for a kiss from 



* I fear Mr. Foster refers to that abominatioa of desolation, the Alexandra sofa, which 

 certainly for hideousaess and utter unfitness for all the uses of a sofa is a marvel of 



