THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 



THE problem of happiness is the problem of 

 problems. The problem of problems did 

 I say? Nay, I understate the case the 

 only problem is the problem of happiness. For savage 

 and for civilised man alike; for hod-carrier and for 

 psychologist; for the little child prattling at its mother's 

 knee and for the old man tottering to the grave; for 

 blooming maiden and for ancient beldame; for beast 

 and bird and reptile even; for each and every living 

 thing in all the broad expanse of land and sea and sky, 

 the ever present, ever insistent, inexorable problem 

 of happiness is the dominant motive of every act. 



Back of every conscious movement lies the load- 

 stone of a desire. Back of every instinctive motion 

 of the lowliest organism, every reflex twitch of a muscle 

 of beast or of man, is a chain of organic impulses lead- 

 ing no less surely, though it be by the tortuous route of 

 heredity, to a primeval desire. And in the last analysis 

 all desires, whatever their seeming diversity of character, 

 may be reduced to one: Stated broadly, there is no 

 desire but the desire for happiness. 



Sometimes the association of motive with result is 

 direct and evident; sometimes it is remote and obscure, 

 but always it is present and always operative. The wolf 

 pursuing its quarry; the child grasping eagerly after a 

 toy; the youth pressing his ardent suit as a lover; 



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