Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-01-31
The Cult of happiness.
N-HnnN


Within certain limits happiness is sub
iect to the will, and to be happy is, there
fore, a duty.
OF course there are mental tempera-
ments to which the sadder aspects of life
are first to present themselves, as there
are temperameuts which array the world
in rose colors, 1t is not to be expected
that the bilious man and the confirmed
dyspeptic will overflow with high spirits
Of the bon vivant
But it is within the power of the will
amid the greatest sorrows to draw upon
reserve fund of happiness-if one has
sucb a reserve fund-and thus at once
moderate sorrows and give them an en-
nobling character.
In wat, then, consists this reserve fund,
and what is its sourceY l. must evident
ly be of a different quality from that
happiness which is an affair of tempera-
ment. Being held apart and in reserv,
it cannot be affected by the ups and
downs, the haps and mishaps of life.
Il consists primarily in the faith that
amid ali the shows of the world there 10
some inresident power that makes for
good.
This faith is not one of those beliefs
which are determined by evidence or
logical demonstration. 1t is an attrma-
tion Of the will.
The case stands thus; Either there Is
such a power that makes for good call
it by what name you viii or leave it name
less-either there Is such power, or the
world is a ruin, disorganized mass, its
law and beauty an illusion, and your own
personality an unsubstantisl nothing.
Now, there is no valid argument meta
physical, theological or scientific, BY
which the former of these alternatives
may be proved. There is not and cannot
be. You may search for it through all
the ages-in vain.
The faith in it is an exercise of the will.
l. is involved in that primary assertion
of the Wilt am" 1t Is . part of that
primary unrehecting faith in the substsu'
tiality of the world.
Being an exercise of the will, this faitn
may be weak or strong; it may be 90
seured; it may be ostensibly rejected,
though, SO long as reason preserves lts
sanity, il cannot be worked out OF the
mind. II IS there, and We constantly re-
cur TO 1t as the starting-polht OF al
thought and action, however much We
may seek to evade It or deny IT,.
1t is this faith, we say, that constitutes
that reserve fund OF happiness from
which one may draw in all the Ills of life
That the fund may be full to overlooking
is then the great desideratum. How IL
the fund TO Ee increased.
By recurrence 10 its source-the will
We must will TO be happy. Happiness
is life, force, creativity. | am-if these
words do not mean happiness, hsppl-
ness overriding All the changes and en-
tightening the shadows of the world, then
they mean nothing, are bat hollow reyer-
bersuops.
Happiness is thus 4 cult, kind Of wor-
ship, . condition TO be nurtured, fostersa'
encouraged, developed.
VIII to be happy. The exercise y
appropriate to all seasons, but Is especial-
ly appropriate to that sacred hohdAy
season which We have just passed, when,
by common consent, 1t IL the sPeciai
business OF nen, Eomen-and childreA
OF course-to b. happy.
We help one another IL wiling by az
willing the same thing. Hence the use OF
hohdays-we conspire together 70 DC
happy. and we thus strengthen and 81
large our life for al good ends.