Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/114

106 these and other evil effects of the grosser forms of self-indulgence, has been passed upon the teacher of that far-seingfar-seeing [sic] care of self by which the health is preserved, happiness obtained, the whole nature strengthened and sweetened, the enjoyment of all forms of pleasure increased, and in all these respects the lot of posterity improved to many—nay, to uncounted generations.

On the other hand, there are those who, seeing that the doctrine taught is unassailable on that side, assert that it is and always has been obvious—forgetting how many morose and gloomy people there are who show by their mere existence that in the past (of which they are the descendants) the contrary doctrine has prevailed, as it still exists in the present (which they in part represent), and will continue doubtless for many generations.

If it be agreed that Mr. Spencer's teaching in this matter is needless where it is accepted and useless where it is needed (because none who would be benefited by it will listen), I answer that the case is otherwise. There are thousands now, and their number will be largely increased in the future, who have found in this teaching the lesson which they needed to make their lives happy and their influence in their own time and in the future blessed. It has come as a new and cheering light to them (I was going to say as a revelation, but the word would be misinterpreted) to see in happiness, their own included, the answer to the doleful question. Is life worth living? If by self-mortification, overwork, wear end worry, I make myself wretched and fail to make those around me happier, I may well ask in mournful accents that foolish question. If I not only fail so to make others happier but make them less happy, and hand on gloom and misery to future ages, I may not only ask it gloomily but answer it sadly. Life is not worth living. Better, were it lawful, to cease the painful and useless, the worse than useless, contest. But if by due care and thought of self, by reasonable enjoyment of the bright and pleasant things which life brings to most, I in some degree or wholly counterpoise such pains and sorrows as life brings to all, and at the same time help to brighten the lives of those around, and those also of generations as yet unborn, how shall I doubt what answer to give to the question. Is life worth living? Not sad is the answer, but bright and cheering.

There is still not a little to be said respecting the due care of personal well-being. Just here I close by remarking that, in the attempt to simplify Mr. Herbert Spencer's nomenclature, I certainly did not improve the title of this chapter by calling it "Self versus Others" as I did till now, instead of "Egoism versus Altruism," as he called the chapter in the "Data of Ethics" bearing on the same subject. Due care of self is not a matter of "self versus others," seeing that care of personal well-being is essential to the influence of self for the good of others. I have therefore given to this section a new sub-title.

But there is another aspect of this part of our subject which