Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-27
WILL o. THE WISPS
That Men Have Chased Throughout
the Ages and Never Caught.
is HAPPINESS TO BE FOUND?
How Ancients and Moderns Would Entrap
the Fleeing Phantom.
mn1nDv ann nnar
HAPPINESS TO BE FOUND?
THEORY By PHILOSOPHER AND FOOL
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.l

thought so for 81 years, and / know of no
better plan than to resign myself to the in
evitable and reflect that flies were born to
be destroyed BY spiders and man to be con-
sumed by care"
1t would, therefore, follow that to avoid
all pain, whether mental or physical, is. &C.
cording to his philosophy, the best method
OF pursuing happiness, and of securing such
portion of it as the world with all its phan-
tom joys and vain delusions can give. An
other profound philosopher puts it that If
pain could be eliminated from mans life,
and he were delivered from bores, he would
be as nearly upon the pinnacle of bliss as
it is ever possible to get in this world Of
woe.
But the unorthodox philosophers were not
the first to PROFOUND the pessimistic fact
that life is system of misery. They were
not the first to proclaim "All is vanity and
yexation of spirit" that "Man is of lew
days and full of trouble" that MAN is
born to trouble as the sparks fly upward"
Job and Jeremiah and David and other
holy men of old have told of the miseries of
lie in their day. even good man fndeth
always sufficient cause for mourning and
live in the world without tribulatlons," says
Thomas a. Kempis. of holy memory.
A QUESTION OF THE AGES.
Is life blessing or curse? This has
been question in all ages. The thinkers
Of all times have deeply concerned them
selves as to what was the object of lite. 1t
has been shown in thousands of sermons
that this world life is harsh apprentice
rhi n tn nlc for ha Of 10
a term OF probation. But long before the
days of Christianity and Calvinism Sophie
cles, who has been called "the high priest OF
humanity" said that mot to be born at all
is the greatest OF all possible benefits, but
lnasmuch as man has appeared on earth the
very best thing he can do is to hurry back
where he came from" This was not strange
doctrine for the days when a birth was
hailed with lamentations, and death was
celebrated with songs of rejoicing and
festivals of welcome. Suicide was con-
sidered an act of wisdom when for any
reason of poverty and misery, happiness was
not to be secured. When men grew discon-
tented and disheartened over the hardships
of the world, or when they were afflicted
with the rheumatism, hay fever or other
chronic diseases they agreed with Pliny
that Natures most pleasing invention was
brevity of life II was in the times of such
teaching that the old saying so frequently
Quoted "Whom the gods love die young"
originated. Epicurus held and taught in
his school of philosophy that when life was
no longer delight, death became benefit
and suicide was to be commended.
Eow widely different are the views held
nowadays when the theory and practice is
to prolong life to the latest minute at any
expense of suffering and distress. and sui
eide is counted crime only to be condoned
by the charitable construction of alteration
of mind.
POLLY TO BE WISE.
Socrates held and taught that the object
of life was to acquire knowledge, but, as
somebody asks, of what great avail is il to
acquire knowledge, when it comes too late
to most for practical purposes? One of the
saddest things in life is that when people
by study and experience have Just learned
how to live wisely, they find the lesson has
come too late, and they are called by the in
exorable decree of death to pass to ''the great
beyond"
A philosopher of the present day, how
ever, in view of the history of the world
maintains that the happiest people are the
ignorant, whose thoughts and wishes do not
rise beyond the satisfying of their physical
wants, and insists that the development of
the intellect among the masses increases
their suffering and misery. II this be ad-
mittej az true, then it will be seen that edu-
cation instead of being panacea for much
of the misery of mankind is only an aggra-
vation by which discomfort is fostered and
the evils of poverty are intensified. A
thinker of this school insists that every
schoolhouse planted in the South by North |
ern missionaries through mistaken benevo- |
lence subtracts from the happiness Of the |
race it is proposed to benefit. In his little |
cabin in the woods and among the corn
fields with hog ard hominy, the colored |
man leads a contented, happy-go-lucky life,
but with added knowledge he becomes dis |
contented, unhappy, and joins the great army
of growlers and idlers.
A RETURN TO PEssIMIsM.
In these days when freedom of thought is
encouraged rather than repressed, when the |
theological cree.ls of past centuries are be- |
coming less onerous and overpowering, when |