THE ART OF HAPPINESS

New Zealand Mail, 21 February 1901, Page 30

THE ART OF HAPPINESS

In a lecture upon “The Art of Happiness,” Madame Sarah Grand said that, as a .rule, men. understand the art of happiness better t han women, who are too prone to accept unnecessary evils with a. ready resignation that woman’s intelligence is, however, being developed, and she is being taught that sh, : is a responsible being. As she develops she will learn to appreciate the dignity of honest labour and honourable poverty; amongst women the desire to work is not so common as to be discouraged. and the ineffectual life of many women is one of the saddest features of our day, idleness being one of the worst enemies of happiness. She strongly advised parents to give their children, sons and daughters alike, the opportunity to follow their instinctive proclivities in the way of life-work, there being joy in congenial work and in congenial play; that the chances of happiness outweigh the chances of misery, every function of mind and body inclining towards pleasure, to the avoidance of pain, and that happiness is to be fount! in the simpler modes of life, not in excitement, which is but its imitation; that in all recipes far happiness goodness must be rth© principal ingredient, the others which go to form a truly happy life being fidelity in friendship, love, and marriage, affection between parents and children, moral courage, courtesy, and perfect sincerity. Mme. Grand dwelt on the power of kindness, which cannot be i>ut on as a manner, but must emanate from the rtTmer feelings of ; the heail. Doubtless’ "some among Mme. Sarah Grand’s audience may have felt disposed to take exception to her picture of the home life of many men belonging to the lower middle-class, whose wives and daughters (in Scotland) are, and ever have been, distinguished by remarkable frugality, industry, and a cheerful acceptance of downright hard work. Also, in these days when girls are, as a rule, immersed in professional or home duties, and the cry is, “Where are the nice idle girls who used to be always at hand to heG rtr’-f-me. Grgnd’& rlesire that each girl be granted ah. object-In'"life seems to come* too late; but one of the most telling remarks in the lecture was that “women suffer from If a want of proportion,” as‘ exemplified an their arrangement of either worker; play.