RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 28 October 1941, Page 2

RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS

j In reply to the question, “What is ' Happiness?” Professor C. E. M. Joad, i the philosopher, offered the following:j ! “There's a very famous answer in [ | Aristotle. Aristotle says that happiness j iis to be found in the exercise of all I (your best facilities, tuned up to concert! • pitch, employed upon what he calls { an appropriate subject matter, that is I to say doing what they are fitted and | suited for; interspersed with intervals of recreation, in leisure (or pleasure), in artistic employment, in the | conversation of one’s friends. HappiI ness as he sees it is a matter of effort j ar.d endeavour, it isn’t to be found in I sitting back and saying: “Now let's ! enjoy ourselves.' It isn’t to be found lin the gospel of a good time. It’s to be ! found rather in doing something which appears to you to be worth while, bei ing used up to the last ounce of your | energy and capacity in doing it, and j then looking back and noticing that \ you have been happy. Happiness has been, as Aldous Huxley has said, like coke —it’s a by-product; something that is thrown off in the act of doing something else. Aristotle’s famous metaphor is that it’s like the bloom on the cheek of a young man in perfect health; it’s not a part of health, but it’s something added. It’s a sign that the organism is functioning appropriately on an appropriate subject matter. Now, I should like to put that briefly by saying that happiness is something which does not yield itself to direct pursuit, but comes incidentally. It’s not a house which can be built with men’s hands. It’s like the Kingdom of Heaven, it can’t be taken by storm. It’s like a flower, it surprises you; a sort of song that you hear as you pass the hedge, rising suddenly into the night. Really the best recipe for happiness that I know is not to have leisure enough to wonder whether you are being miseri able or not; in other words, happiness ! is a by-product of activity.”