Evening star., 1925-04-27

All aboard. st. John, for an easy,
prose trip through the fourth and
final epistle of Alexander Pope's
Essay on Man" originally done in
rhymed couplets. Some fans of this
column have gone to the trouble of
writing in to ask what had become of
this last portion, 1t having been two
weeks since No, appeared.
Well. we admit that the third epistle
always bores us TO tears When we
got done the labors of translating 1t
into prose we were so exhausted that
we never wanted to hear about Pope
again. But the two weeks interval
has done us good. So we take up the
strain again.
Happiness, Buddy. is the main thing.
No matter what you call it-pleasure.
ease, content-happiness is the Rogue
fort cheese OF life's banquet. And you
don't have to go to Europe to find 1t,
either tno matter what the Shipping
Board says).
II you can't find happiness every
where, you will find it nowhere. You
can't buy tit is free, like sunshine
and fresh air. This is deep stuff, ]
know. but you have to puzzle it out
yourself.
If you ask the wise guys the Road
to Happiness. you will find out they
Service, not self; another says to
give mankind the go-by; some say you
gotta be busy all the time; others
that you must always be loafing to
enjoy life.
Some, siandering the animals. find
that plea sure merely ends in pain, and
others, the so-called intelligentsia, are
so sophisticated that even Virtue looks
bum to- EN-.
What are we going to do about it?
Take Natures path; all we have
to do is to think right and mean well,
and we ought to come out o. K. No
man can be happy without helping
make some one else happy. too.
]. These birds who pretend to shun or
hate mankind in reality are looking
for an admirer or hoping to draw a
friend closer to them than ever. Why,
II you take away what others feel.
what others think, pleasures fade
away, glories pass out.
OF course, you will find some peo-
pie who are greater, or richer, or
wiser than you. but that doesn't mean
at all that they necessarily are hap
pier. Such a belief shocks your old
friend, common sense, buddy.
No. the Lord did not place happi-
ness in external things. Your high
powered car" won't make you happy
in itself. They crank up their well
known small car" and ride out into
the country, and no sooner are they
there than they turn around and drive
back to town again.
Hope and fear even things up, after
all
Now here is my recipe for Happi
ness:
1. Health.
2. Peace.
8. Competence.
A fellow has to have certain
amount of money, in this day and age,
to get along, but once he has that,
he can let the rest toll along for super
f1uous wealth. All they get out of 1t
is the pleasure of paying a big in
come tax, now, honest, ain't it?
AS for health, be temperate. There
is so much wisdom packed away in
that sentence that most people won't
recognize 1t is there.
AS for peace, you have to be a de-
cent guy. Do good, said the prophet.
not evil, that ye may live! He didn't
say be good 80 the moralists will
approve of you. or be good so you
can go to heaven.
Not on your sweet life. He said
to do good in order that you may
live, get your moneys worth, as 1t
were. of this strange thing of which
we are integral parts.-Life.
Sometimes 1t may appear to you
that slick men. crooked ones, are get