The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-03-03
HAPPINESS is NOT
THE END OF LIFE
Prof. Adler Thinks Marriages
Should Be Made to Promote
Moral Growth of World

Prof Felix Adler of New York, who
is a very ethical person, recently said
that the end and aim of marriage was
not happiness, but the promotion of
the worlds moral growth" One wishes
once in a while that a great many
learned persons would come together
and agree upon a few maxims so that
we will not constantly be disturbed by
the differing opinions of the great.
Now those who naturally look to the
learned for their rules of conduct are
often shocked because of the very OPP
posite advice given by them. Advice
is cheap and the supply exceeds the
demand and probably always will.
For Prof. Adler to say that happi-
ness is not the end of marriage is rather
confusing, because the pursuit of hap
piness seems to be the end not only of
marriage, but of life itself. Every man
and woman in the world hopes for hap
piness, and when life passes without
its attainment, we still hope for 1t in
another life. 1t is rational sort OF
wish, to be happy, and when marriage
is not for money-and really few mar
riages are for that-it is because the
two people who marry really believe
they are going to find happiness to-
gether. How few think of the promo
ton of the worlds moral growth when
they marry and, with due respect to
Prof. Adler's great mind, what idiots
people would be to marry to promote
the moral growth of anything, if they
did not think they were going to be
happy. A happy marriage undoubted-
ly does promote the moral growth Of
the world, just as any right and proper
%, si<r1at
but that any man thinks of whether the
world is going to be helped or hurt by
his marriage, is quite out of the ques-
ton. Each of us has one life to live,
the time of youth of each life is all too
short, and so long as men and women
are human they are going to pursue in
dividuaI happiness, and let the world
go hang Science would have us live
for posterity, but does any one really
live for posterity? The pursuit of
happiness need not be a selfish thing
because it is individual. 1t may include
charity living for others in a way, all
sorts of kindness and goodness. but
the great moving force is a desire for
happiness here and now, and failing in
that, happiness somewhere for which
we were undoubtedly born.
Happiness is a thing which flies as
we seek; it. and comes if we make no
undue effort to find it, which, however,
does rot prevent us from eternally
thinking it is just ahead of us. This
pursuit of happiness, which is abso-
lutely natural, is in many cases, an
excellent thing, for it becomes an in
centive for the best endeavor and much
thinking about it often results in the
determination to make ones self wor-
thy of happiness. To become worthy
of happiness involves self-Sacrifice,
cultivation of the spiritual side of life
and a general elevation of ones. aims
and purposes. To make ready; then if
happiness does not come there is some
satisfaction in knowing that one has
done ones best.
But the dictum laid down by Prof.
Adler will not greatly appeal to any
body save as an abstract proposition.
Granted that we ought to be interested
and are, in the worlds moral growth
and willing to do much for it, still when
1t comes to giving up individual hap
piness with that end in view, well, per-
haps it is done, but it is doubtful. We
all want to see the millennium, but if it's
coming depends upon our risking every
thing we most want, then we will dis
cover that there is a limit to our de-
SireS in that direction. Life is short
and happiness is shorter; sometimes it
is thing of moment, like the glimpse
of a beautiful sunset that one catches
through the smoky chimneyS Of city.
Who would exchange the few happy
moments which come to most of us, for
some possible good to a possible pos
terity. We art not angels, but hui
man beings, and life is hard enough;
shorn of the brief times of spiritual or
intellectual eXaltation which light up
the dark places now and then, it would
he nothing ar oil