THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

———————— 

In this broad earth of ours,

 Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, 

Enclosed, and safe within its central heart.

 Nestles the seed perfection.

 The pursuit of perfect human happiness has been the aim of the social reformer, for longer time perhaps than chemists sought the philosopher's stone or mechanists the principal of perpetual motion. That this earth may be made to the likeness of a heaven, peopled only by happy men and women, many optimists of all ages have dreamt. In the imaginative account of Plato's Republic, in Sir Thomas More's Utopia, in a book of a like character left unfinished by Lord Bacon, in the modern dreams of Bellamey's " Looking Backward," and William Morris' " News from Nowhere," may be traced the same exuberant hope that unhappiness is no necessary part of earthly life, and may with wise effort be banished. The idea of a heaven on earth has been, it is true, sometimes combated for religious reasons, by teachers who argued that being a place of trial this planet could not but be a place of unhappiness. Such contentions have however, come rather from a misconstruction of the meaning of the word happiness (which is by no means inconsistent with hard trial) than from any serious thought of setting up a fatalistic creed that since misery must exist, being ordained by the nature of things, no effort should be made to secure earthly comfort. This is proved by the fact that in all ages religious associations and bodies have striven, sometimes mistakenly but always sincerely, to add to the sum of human happiness. The great Crusades of the churches against slavery, their innumerable charity organisations, their bold denunciations of the grinding greed of any oppressors of the poor— all witness how largely the promotion of the material welfare of the masses has occupied their attention.

 Contrasting the earlier meetings of pagan and Christian Utopians with those of later ages a basic difference will be found. The former are aristocratic, the latter democratic. Plato's scheme of the completely happy life was founded on the idea that only the free Greek population of the world was human, that the Barbarian (a term comprehensive of all the people's living outside of the Ionic peninsula) was a strange creature not possible of inclusion in any system of a well-ordered state, and that the slave was a superiorly-gifted animal to be fed and housed well, but otherwise unconsidered. His Utopia was for a few philosophers, living a life of high thinking, under the favoring influences of a material well being which wisdom would prevent from abuse. Marcus Aurelius, a Roman, set down laws of life which followed the most exalted moral principles, but yet presupposed the existence of a slave class. Sir Thomas More's Utopia represented, according to modern ideas, a very great advance on the old pagan ideas. His conception of a happy state involved the complete material happiness of all individuals, but their obedience to and reverence of Prince and Church.

 Omitting consideration of minor writers from the Elizabethian period to the 19th century there seems to have been little of that curious speculative striving after the perfect happiness which is now the refuge of every mediocre scribbler. With the genesis of the socialistic movement, imaginary Utopias became as plentiful as forms of religion. "Looking Backward" was one of the most striking of the easy recipes for human happiness, partly on account of its fair literary ability and boldness of thought ; partly because of the splendid audacity which placed Utopia hardly a century ahead of the present generation. It was preceded and followed by hundreds, perhaps if all the booklets of the world could be accounted thousands, of schemes of the same kind, modelled upon State socialism, and guaranteed to cure all the evils that flesh is heir to. A closing word was spoken by William Morris, who, without attempting to say how his ideal could be attained, wrote of England under a system of anarchist-communism, peaceful, happy, reverent, filled to the lips with art and poetry living a life woven with purple and gold. From a " reform " point of view his book was perhaps not meant seriously. As a beautiful daydream it will live in literature.

 The reason for drawing the dividing line at the Elizabethan period, in considering the written aspirations after Utopia is that the works antecedent to that all dealt with an aristocratic form of rule. Republican or monarchical, each writer presumed the existence of a superior class and an inferior class. Since then the world has gone through the French Revolution and has learnt its democracy. Modern Utopias, therefore, are based upon the rule of the people or on no rule at all, as in the works of Prince Krapotkin and Morris. 

After calm consideration it is impossible to come to any other conclusion than that both ancient and modern schemes for Utopian happiness are at present impracticable. That under an aristocratic system it is possible to secure perfect material happiness for every citizen of a state has been proved by experience in many parts of the world. England, in the days of " Merrie Englande," ruled by an aristocracy held in check by a powerful church, and with one third of its lands held by religious organisations, came very close to that happy state. Thorrold Rogers, in his researches as to the economic condition of Britain at that period, found though many abuses, hardships and wrong privileges existed, the general state of the people was happy. A workingman could with the labor of one and a half days earn sufficient for good board and lodging for a week. With three days labor he met the cost of the maintenance of himself, a wife and family. Beggars, except the maimed, were rare, as the monasteries kept the poor. The then Established Church had acquired possession of nearly one-third of the whole cultivated area of the country, but was a mild and indulgent landlord and used its revenues in the building of great churches and other works of art. In Peru also, under a pagan religion, material happiness was secured to all the inhabitants of a country boasting a very large population and a great degree of civilisation. The conditions of " Merrie Englande" and of Peru are now, however, impossible. King Demos has upset all the thrones and made impossible a State founded on the principle of the absolute obedience of the general people to an aristocratic order. 

Equally impossible are the democratic socialistic schemes for Utopia, of which the present days have been so prolific. All such schemes are founded on the assumption of a new man, a man without envy, selfishness, turbulence or sloth ; and that new man has not yet come within the range of things practical. In fact whilst hoping for the attainment of such schemes, those dreaming them do seem to strive most for the stirring up of the malices and jealousies which hinder humanity from happiness.

 But away from all the thinkers of vain things, a few have found what seems the right road to happiness. Such men as Ruskin, Carlyle, Mazzini, Walt Whitman. (those are not mentioned invidiously as there are many score others) have insisted that the gainings of happiness is not through materialism, have gone to older days and have recast for modern times the old doctrine that well-being does not consist alone of bread and meat, and that, the humbly placed may be as joyous as the great.

 " Each is not for its own sake,

 I say the whole earth and all the stars in the

 Sky are for religion's sake.

 That was the say of Whitman, the greatest thinker of America ; and, understanding " for religion's sake" in its broadest sense, it is the say of Ruskin and all others of the new school of Economics. 

"Each man should seek to satisfy his needs with the least possible exertion" is the dictum of the Freetrade economists who ushered in the industrial era of civilisation, and the spirit of that statement has largely dominated life since. But no more pernicious doctrine could be imagined. When for it is substituted the faith that each man should love his work for his work's sake, should love humanity for humanity's sake, and should strive for a clean and beautiful world for his own sake, then happiness will be a nearer haven. The opportunity for satisfying desires is not happiness, so that the pursuit of that opportunity is not the pursuit of happiness. When that is recognised greed will be abandoned and well-being pervade the air. It is to attempt an impossible reversion of the natural order of progress to seek after material good first, preaching the increase in the riches of some and the decrease in the riches of others as the sole way to the happiness of the world.

National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW ),  21 September 1896 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article156707409