THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 



No science nowadays is simple ; the day of occult formu- 

 las, of specifics, of magic words is past. We tfavel in 

 electric cars, to be sure, but we know nothing of the 

 potency of an Aladdin's lamp. 



Our science must be based in part on the laws of the 

 physiologist. Accepting the dictum that good health 

 is the surest road to normal mentality, it must inculcate 

 rules for eating, for training the body, and for sleeping. 



It must inculcate also the fundamental rules of the 

 psychologist, teaching the best methods of training the 

 memory, the thinking power, the will. 



It must include data gathered by the practical sociol- 

 ogist, showing how the needs of the many should be 

 paramount to the desires of the individual, and giving 

 convincing evidence that individual happiness finds 

 full fruition only through the development of broad 

 sympathies and altruistic impulses. 



Stated otherwise, the science of happiness must com- 

 prehend a broad system of rules for such training of 

 body and mind as will lead to the best practise of the 

 art of living, doctrines of a self-confidence that stops 

 short of self-illusion; of sentiment without sentimen- 

 tality; of cheerful optimism not run riot into visionary 

 fanaticism; in a word, of sanity and common sense. 



When the generality of mankind have grasped the 

 essentials of such a comprehensive science, human life 

 as a whole will approach nearer to the ideal condition 

 which obtained among the immediate disciples of 

 Epicurus, whose famous Gardens, according to a 

 modern German commentator, were "a nursery of fair 

 conduct, of finest morals, and of noble enjoyment." 



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