Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/674

644 It may be well to add that this conscious pursuit of a happy tone of mind will demand a good deal of individual self-assertion in the face of the claims of social custom. If a man is to succeed in being a radiant center of happiness, he must, it is plain, be free to seek enjoyment in his own way. We do not mean merely that he will naturally disregard the force of example so far as to avoid the extreme heat of the struggle for existence. It is only too obvious that, if he desires a healthy, cheerful condition of mind, he must take life in a measure easily and abandon all excessive ambitions. What is less obvious is, that he will have to hold aloof from many of the forms of fashionable enjoyment prescribed by society. These prescriptions are often exceedingly foolish, having no relation to individual tastes. For example, the late dinner-party, though supposed to be a source of enjoyment, is really adapted to induce in many persons a permanent feeling of depression and weariness. It would perhaps not be edifying to inquire how much of the chronic discontent and mental discomfort of people arises from a too ready compliance with the demands of fashionable society with respect to amusements.

But the reader may object that we are here taking only one view of our subject. Is it not, he may ask, a dangerous doctrine that pleasure is a good thing, deserving to be cultivated with ardor and assiduity? No doubt the pursuit of personal enjoyment must not be made the sole aim of life. To use Mr. Spencer's language, egoism must be balanced by altruism. Yet, while allowing this, we would contend that a wise and calm regard for a continuously happy existence is a much less inadequate guide to right living than many moralists are apt to think. They forget that the preservation of an habitual flow of pleasurable feeling is not possible where exciting indulgences are sought after as the chief thing in life. It is really a defamation of the idea of pleasure to call a sensual person addicted to wild excesses of enjoyment a man of pleasure. The true man of pleasure is rather he who tries to carry the atmosphere of enjoyment into all the circumstances and occupations of the day. Those who thus seek pleasure rationally, avoiding all fatiguing over-indulgence, and giving the highest value to the quieter and more expansive forms of enjoyment, will not perhaps greatly fail in a due consideration of others' interests. For, as Mr. Spencer has shown in this same volume, a considerable dash of altruism is a necessary condition of a full experience of personal gratification. This is true even in our present imperfect stage of social development. And if, as he thinks, and we would fain hope, things are tending to a complete formation of the social man with an adequate capacity of sympathy, it must happen by and by that the most thoughtful and judicious cultivator of personal happiness will at the same time be most serviceable to others. However this may be, Mr. Spencer has rendered a timely service in exposing the absurdity of an undiscriminating disparagement of the pleasurable disposition,