Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/673

Rh almost amusing to see how men will seek to excuse themselves for their carelessness in these matters on the ground that they are sacrificing themselves to some useful object, some form of public service. It may often be doubted whether even success in their endeavors would result in any benefits at all commensurable with the ills brought on their families. And in any case it may not unreasonably be contended that usefulness, like charity, should begin at home. A great novelist and moralist has recently satirized the common neglect of public interests by the English paterfamilias whose largest conception of public good is the welfare of his family. The case is no doubt common enough; but its commonness must not make us overlook the evils of the other extreme, the carrying out of something which is supposed to be of public value at the cost of the comfort and enjoyment of the public benefactor's family and friends. If moral worth is to be estimated by the amount of happiness bestowed on others, it may well be doubted whether some of these self-sacrificing persons of large aims are not of inferior value to many a commonplace good natured citizen, who is perfectly free from all lofty aspirations, who likes to live well and to surround himself by happy faces, and whose healthy instinct for pleasure leads him unreflectingly to add to the enjoyment of all who have to do with him.

In many cases, then, it is clear that people do not think enough of the simple pleasures of life. It may be added that, in order to realize in one's self and in others the full benefit of a pleasurable existence, it is necessary to pursue pleasure as something intrinsically desirable. It will not do to seek it merely as a means to an end beyond itself. Pleasure must be loved and sought in and for itself, if it is to be the good which it is capable of becoming. A man should be steeped in the atmosphere of happiness if he is to realize the efficient and beneficent existence we have described, and this presupposes what may paradoxically be called a disinterested liking for pleasure. It is by no means easy to persons of a certain temperament to cultivate the spirit of enjoyment in this way. In truth, it may be said to be the result of a difficult art which will only be acquired by those who have reached a high pitch of moral culture. To foster and manifest a cheerful and gladsome mind often involves a considerable amount of self-restraint in repressing and banishing those gloomy reflections to which one may be constitutionally prone. There is further a certain moral sluggishness and inertia in some natures which makes it a considerable effort to rise into the pleasurable strata of the emotional atmosphere. How often, for example, is a fit of mental depression only capable of being dissipated by a vigorous form of bodily exercise to the idea of which the feeling of the moment is strongly opposed! The creation and sustentation of a bright and joyous consciousness is thus often a matter of real difficulty, and deserves to be extolled as a moral triumph over natural inclination.