Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-04-10
THE WAY TO HAPPINESS
BY H. Addington Bruce
N GORE and more emphatically men

M light an" and %0I farming are protsstiSs
against the present tendency to seek
happiness through the augmentlng OF pleas
ures and material possessions. 1t is ten
dency, they rightly insist, fraught with grave
dangers not only to the individual but to
society.
For society it means class and conflict
rather than harmony. 1t brings to the in
diyduaI discomfort instead Of content, con-
suming restlessness, undermining not E
strengthening of morale. And unfortunately,
as Prof A. e. Kennedy, Of Harvard univer-
sity, recently pointed out in noteworthy
address to the Twentieth Century club, Of
Boston, it is a distinctive characteristic Of
present day western civilization.
In this respect the west has much to
learn from the east, albeit the east may per-
haps Justly be accused of going too far in
an differentiation of external goods Prof.
Kennedy stated the case discreetly and in-
formingly when he reminded his audience
"The prmordal conception of the Occi-
dental is that to enjoy life, to have happi.
ness and contentment, you must acquire
things from the outside. The conception Of
the Asiatic on the other hand, IS that to
enjoy life and have peace, quiet, and sereni-
ty, you must stand outside things and culH-
Vate internal relations-must get your hap
piness from within. ~
"Here are two sets of conceptions pro-
foundry remote from each other. | had no
brief for either. We may go too far in
either direction. But it seems significant
that the great religious leaders of the past
have been Orientals.
Undeniably man was put into the world
not simply to exist in it passvely, but to
exert himself productivity, and if over-a ctiv-
ity means Illustration of happiness so does
q passive, inert existence There is happy
mean, whereby time is found for intellectual
and spiritual as well material progress.
The error of the west is in forgetting this y
Again L would quote from a recent adj
dress, this time an address by President,
Hibben, of Princeton university speaking to
a large group of Princeton alumni: H.
I'VE are, in America, many of us, If not
most of us, parasites in our present civiliza-
ton. We are enjoying untold comforts and
luXuries in this present age, and yet, as
Carlyle said Of his generation, we may say
of ours that we have mistaken comfort for
civilization
Nov, gentlemen; you know that there IL
no nation in the world that has ever survived
merely because of material prosperity Ey-
cry nation, if it is to live, must have a liy-
ing intellectual life in the broadcast sense Of
the word"
And this, from an address to a Boston
audience by Mr. Vivian T. Pomeroy, touching
on the advantages and disadvantages of me-
chanical inventiveness:
There is a spiritual side of life which.
alone can balance, safeguard, and explain
the material side. We are intended to have
intensive energy equal to our extensive ener-
Sles Otherwise our speed only rushes us to
profound disillusion.
our geographical and chemical conuuests
nave made the world small. Man is not
thereby essentially greater The health and
bloom of activity disappear if we are doing
Things with frantic haste to escape from
ourselves. For each one of us there is the
adventure of the spiritual quest"
Timely words of warning, these, and words
or wholesome stimulation. But will those
who most need to heed them give heed?
That is the question
Copyright, 1924)