ABSTRACT
Is generally agreed that it is reasonable and right to desire to be happy; that we ought to be happy, if we can, not only because happiness is a desirable state of mind in itself, but also because it diffuses itself, tending by simple contagion to make happier those with whom we come into contact. We need not stop to inquire whether those philosophers are right who represent happiness as the chief good, and the production of happiness as the proper aim and final purpose of all moral action. I, for one, would rather define that final purpose and chief aim as the production of nobility of character; yet, though I would rather have men noble than happy, if the nobility were incompatible with happiness, we fortunately are not confronted with any such hard choice. In a decaying and morally degraded society there would be such incompatibility; but in our modern world the moral tradition is so far developed and respected that happiness tends to accrue to those who achieve nobility of character. I do not assert that nobility of character is the surest road to happiness or brings the greatest happiness. Quantitative estimates and comparisons of degrees and intensities of happiness are inevitably and at the best but vague and uncertain: we can make only rough judgments of more and less. There are some persons of fortunate dispositions, temperaments and circumstances who seem throughout their lives to maintain a high level of happiness, while yet their characters may be very simple and of no very high moral level. But the happiness that is attained by the man of noble character has this advantage, that, though it may not be so intense and unalloyed as that of the less developed character, it is more securely founded. A single inevitable misfortune, the hand of death, impairment of health, loss of position or wealth, may destroy entirely the happiness of the simpler nature; while the developed character will know how to adjust himself to the changed conditions, how to save something from the wreck.
