THE ART OF HAPPINESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3461, 4 January 1901, Page 4

THE ART OF HAPPINESS.

Under the auspices of the Sunday Lecture Society, . Madame Sarah Grand lectured at St. George's Hall, London, on " The Art of Happiness." She remarked at the outset she had chosen her subject because it was, she knew, impossible to say anything new upon it, but a truism well often the most powerful argument. An Eastern sage had said that man was made for misery, as sure "as the sparks fly upward." To her mind that was as erroneous- as the' knowledge- of astronomy and .geology existing, in the sage's day. ' Man. made much misery for himself, and for those that came ' after him. Happiness'distended largely on the - "mind. Hence freewill as opposed to destiny came into, the argument,, and destiny so far bad had the best of it. To the question, is there such a thing as happiness? the ordinary healthy mind, she continued, must answer yes. Why, then, were people unhappy? might be asked. The art of happiness was still in its infancy, but everyone knew, how to be disagreeable. One of the rarest things in social intercourse was the disinterested desire to please. Charm of manner could not be put on and taken off like a garment. So much might be said on the question of married happiness. It ought to be the model state, yet when a voice from the colonies said Send us a thousand* wives," there were a thousand Benedicts ready to answer " Take ours." Much useful time was expended in endeavouring to make two wrongs into one right. She

*as not prepared to say that man—and woman too—-did not deserve all the hard • things said about them. The craze to ba thought financially and socially better off tlian we really were, was a great enemy to true happiness. There was many a hero, and many a martyr, in the shape of a city clerk or a.shopman in their midst—men wlio sweated out-thsir lives in toil, in order to satisfy" the greed of a wife ' whose 'ambition 'it was- to live on £2OO a year* after-the manner of her neighbour in receipt of £IOOO. But woman was growing oufe of her infantile intelligence. She was learning—at- last. As she grew wiser she would learn to appreciate gentleness and courtesy—and if necessary to content herself with honourable poverty. There ' was little to choose between the lot of the - Hindoo widow and the average English

girl. Neither had an opportunity given her to follow her own bent. The ineffectual lives of ninny of our. women was one -A the saddest things of our day. Happiness had enemies, and idleness was one of them. Those .who wished to fre happy would have to cultivate habits of labour. Life, to be happy, should throb between exertion and-repose. There was a-time when workers were referred to as the .common people by those who lived on the fruits of their labours, and were not ashamed of it. But there were few now, she thought, who-would care to deny that idleness was but the forerunner of physical and moral deterioration. Some found refuge from ennui in cigarettes, others pur- | sued the Franchise, in the hope that the right to a Parliamentary vote every seven years would make them happy. Then there was the bicycle' girl, whose mind was stored only with distances —distances run or to be run in a. given time. Haste had become a mania. What, she might ask, was the end of all this haste, the end of all these endeavours to pass the time.as she' had depicted?. Old age, misery, and death. The. art of making misery had been more steadily pursued than that of making happiness. Those who ] taught that life was not worth Imng should be condemned to labour for the benefit of others until they were in a better frame of mind. Happiness was infectious; but that it was a question of temperament was only partially true. In searching for happiness it did not do to lend themselves to various forms of excitement. The one was often substituted for the other. She might define happiness as fidelity, in friendship, love an marriage, moral courage, courteous behaviour in. social intercourse, a devotion to duty, and a perfect in every relation, in life." "We were not-happy, it was true. -We might and we . ought to _be. There was. ail art of happiness which ought to. be preached from the cradle to the grave. In the words of the Persian philosopher, she might say: "Taking the first step with a good thought, the second _ step with a good'word, and the third with a good deed, I entered Paradise.