THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



the man pursuing the ideal of his ambition these are 

 obviously seekers of pleasure. But no less truly, if 

 less directly and therefore less obviously, seekers of 

 pleasure are the mother sacrificing herself for her child, 

 the patriot risking his life for his country, the devotee 

 voluntarily suffering martyrdom. 



These illustrations suggest that the paths of pleasure 

 may be curiously devious. Indeed to casual in- 

 spection it would seem that, if the great purpose of or- 

 ganic being is the pursuit of happiness, then the great 

 result of organic being is pitiful failure. Every or- 

 ganic thing is born to suffer and to die. The vast 

 multitudes of carnivorous creatures that make up so 

 large a bulk of the world's population sustain life only 

 through the infliction of suffering and death. One 

 animal preys on another; man preys on his fellow man; 

 disease lurks around every corner and perpetually in- 

 flicts its quota of misery; and, back of it all, that none, 

 not even one, may escape, stands the dreadful spectre, 

 Death, to lead his never ending galaxy of blanched 

 victims inexorably, pitilessly through the closing por- 

 tals of this world. To talk of happiness in such a world 

 of strife and terror and torturing agony seems but a 

 mockery. 



But softly. "There is purpose in pain, otherwise 

 'twere devilish." The moralist has long believed it, 

 the biologist can now explain it. And that purpose 

 is strange paradox! to make pleasure possible. But 

 for pain there could be no such thing as pleasure; but 

 for suffering there could be no happiness. 



It needs no obscure metaphysical reasoning to ex- 



[6] 



