6 Building a Good Life 



school and to church regularly where he may be 

 led to do a small amount of religious thinking on 

 his own account. 



6. Happiness. The good life is a happy life. 

 But nearly all the students of human problems seem 

 to think that happiness eludes the grasp of the one 

 who seeks it in a direct way. "I want my children 

 to be happy and enjoy life," is often the remark 

 of well-meaning parents. They then proceed as if 

 joy and happiness could be had for money. It is 

 true that during his early years of indifference to any 

 serious concern or personal responsibility, the child 

 may be made extremely happy by giving him prac- 

 tically everything his childish appetites may call for 

 and allowing him to grow up in idleness. But there 

 comes a time when the normal individual begins to 

 question his own personal and intrinsic worth. The 

 instincts and desires of mature life come on and if 

 there be not available the means for the realization 

 of the better instinctive ambitions, then bitterness 

 and woe are likely to become one's permanent por- 

 tion. 



However, it may be put down as a certainty that 

 happiness and contentment will naturally come in 

 full measure into the life that has been well built 

 during the years of childhood and youth. If the 

 good health has been conserved, a life of usefulness 

 and service prepared for, moral strength built into 

 the character, social efficiency looked after continu- 



