THE MORALITY OF HAPPINESS. 66j 



mined by the unionist principle that the better workers must not dis- 

 credit the worse by exceeding them in efficiency, he may trace to the 

 immoral belief " (well put !) " that the unworthy should fare as well 

 as the worthy. To-morrow it turns out that business for the plumber 

 has been provided by damage which the brick-layers have done." And 

 so daily and hourly do we feel that the moral imperfections of the 

 community are fit subjects for such altruistic efforts as may help to 

 raise the average morality. 



While we thus recognize that our well-being depends so greatly 

 on the well-being of others — their health and bodily capacities, their 

 sense and knowledge, and their moral qualities — that due regard for 

 others is essential to the happiness of self, we see further that each 

 member of the body social gains directly by the possession and ex- 

 ercise of such qualities as lead or enable him to help his fellows. 

 Among the proverbs which present in brief the ideas of a race as to 

 what is good and bad, are many which imply that regard for the in- 

 terest and welfare of others is bad policy. Such proverbs can not be 

 regarded as expressing " the wisdom of many " by " the wit of one," 

 for experience proves abundantly that the policy of hardness and in- 

 difference is unwise and short-sighted. Even mere material success — 

 which does not always mean happiness — is not advanced in the long- 

 run by disregard of others. The man of business gains in unnum- 

 bered ways by consideration for the rights and interests of his fellow- 

 workers, and loses in as many by selfish disregard for them. Nay, 

 even in the trivial affairs of ordinary life, at home and abroad, the 

 kindly and considerate gain constantly, while the careless and indif- 

 ferent as constantly suffer. It is, however, when we consider happi- 

 ness as distinguished from mere material success, and the general 

 balance of comfort and enjoyment as distinguished from the effects 

 of individual actions, that we see how much men gain by sympathetic 

 and kindly, conduct. We see even first-rate abilities and untiring 

 energy beaten easily in the race of life by the kindliness which makes 

 friends of all around and leads to opportunities which the hard and 

 ungenial fail to obtain. But when we rightly apprehend the nature 

 of life, and what makes life worth living, we find the chief gain of the 

 kindly, not in these material opportunities, but in the pleasanter ways 

 along which their life's work leads them. Compare two men, toward 

 the evening of life, of whom both perhaps have achieved a fair amount 

 of material success in life, but one of hard, unkindly manners, the other 

 genial and sympathetic ; one alone in life's struggle, the other with 

 " troops of friends " from first to last. Who can doubt, as he com- 

 pares the woi-n and weary look of one with the bright and cheerful 

 aspect of the other, that regard for others counts for something toward 

 the welfare and the happiness of self ? 



Care for others helps so surely in life's struggle that it would be 

 good policy for the naturally hard man to benefit others for purely 



