The morning journal-courier., 1908-06-22

pie thing as physical pleasure In an intelligent way, and see what Is left Of their nerves after trying the eNperl- ment Neither as nation, nor AS indi- viduals are we intelligent enough, to put the matter on no higher basis, for a philosophy of life which should seek to mako calculated self-interest the guide of our conduct,
 But If man Is not to regulate his life in such way as to make himself happy, what principle or philosophy Is there left?
 The most obvious alternative is that of the ascet;c, the second of the phil osophies that I have named.
 The ascetic secs the evil of devotion to the external means of happiness. He therefore goes 10 the extreme of re- jecting them altogether, Because bus mess Is so often unworthily selfish, he condemns the use of money. Because marriage VOWS are often made and of- ten broken for such miserable reasons, he would withdraw from marriage al- together, Happiness, he says, If 1t exists al all, Hes within the mans mind rather than without 1t, And even this internal happiness is to be attain ed better by ignoring 1t than by pursu- ing it, Such man lives by preference the life of hermit; or if he comes out Into the world he surrounds himself by badges and marks of difference which shall isolate him from the community about him,
 do not believe that this philosophy lof life will ever appeal to many of those who hear these words. It Is es- Isentially an eastern Ideal rather than a western one and lt Is perhaps needless to say that this philosophy of life, while 1t has contributed something to the greatness of the east, has contri- ness II may almost be described as philosophy which In its practical effects tends to take out of contact with the peoples life those very men and those lvery forces which are needed to cave that life and improve it.
 Far higher claims than the philoso- lphy of the ascetlc has the philosophy of the Stole. The two are alike in i some ways; in others they are totally different. Tho ascetlc and the Stole are alike In trying to make a man in- | dependent of the mere accessories of happiness, but whereas the ascetc takes refuge In withdrawal, as far as may be. from the affairs and incidents
 and turmoils of life, the Stole under takes a nobler task and has a more
 positive program.
 "We are In the midst of a universe" |"
 says the stoic "whose purposes we do
 not fully understand. But certain universe has an underlying order; 1t
 Is clear that this order Is not arrang- led with a view to our own individual happiness as It's primary object, There
 are two ways" says the Stole, "of at-
 tempting to meet this conflict, Either
 we can try to bring the order of the universe into line with our own indi-
 vldual desires, or we can try 10 bring Jour own individual desires into line
 with the order of the universe. The fret is the part of child-of a child
 who reaches out his hand for the moon
 and cries because he cannot get it. The last is the way of a man. who. know
 Ing that he cannot get the moon. Is
 content to make the most Of the light
 that the moon gives him. The child
 would avoid pain. By SO doing he but
 mul'iplies his pains and terrors, and
 adde imaginary evils 10 the real ones.
 The man knows that in the universe
 as it is at present ordered pain is there
 to he borne: and he so schools hmsel
 in all his minor choices that when tho
 day of a major choice comes he neith
 CT weens nor f'inches. but takes what
 Is provided The child is carried ava,
 by enthusiasm for the pomps and vani
 ties of the world, and foreets all elst in the pleasure of seeing them Tn
 man knows that there will be ten fail ures for one success, md chooses t regard both these prizes and his owr pursuit of them as part of plan O
 tho universe which he does not full,
 understand but may find satisfaction fl
 working out, whether 1t lead him a , an individual to throne or to a prls . on"
 Such. gentlemen. were the principle , of the stoic philosophy-the nobles :, product Of classical antiquity. Wher does it fail?
 1T you are really able to hold it am tempted to say that it fails no
 where. But few, very few men hay been able to hold 1t, and fewer stil i, have been able to impress its lesson , upon others. Even among the goo , men of the ancient world there wer , a score of Epicureans to every Stoic
 There is In the Stoic philosophy as have indicated it certain element o cold majesty that is almost inhumar
 There are few of us who have our ac , tons so under the control of our In f tellect that we can suppress the erie , of plain or the promptings of rebel f lion by a contemplation of the orde f of the universe. There are few of Il f who are brave enough to work ou r our own salvation in phllosophic lone I Illness. The ideals of Epicurus ma : not have been the highest, but the
 were at any rate Ideals that recogniz - ed the element of human compan , ionship He who has read the las f unnniehed letter of that philosophe l from his deathbed, This Is m { birthday, at once sad and joyous, ga s for the pain of my sickness, but man
 times more joyous on account of tn . tokens of remembrance that l hay . received from my friends sees hoy s the lower philosophy, with the ele = ment of human love thrown in, go :. nearer home to the ancient world an { had more practical inspiration for tn . human spirit than had the highes . intellectual philosophy with the ele e ment of love left out
 { The Christian philosophy is tn !, ctnic pbiioeophy with tho human e1n