PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

I-luman Happiness.
pleasure to the means; after which the end may be
forgotten a~ soon as we will.
Hence those pJea4iures are most valuable, not which
are most exquisit~ in the .fruition, but which ;rre most
productive of engagement and activity in (he pursuit.
A man who is Lq earnest in his endeaYO!lrS after
the happiness of a future state, has, in this respect,
an advantage over all the world. For he ba-; con·
stantly before his eyes an object of supreme impor_­
anee, productive of perpetual engagement and activity,
and of which the pursuit (which can be said of
no pursuit besides) lasts him to his life's end. Yet
even he must have many ends, beside the far end:
but then they will a>nduct to that, be subordinate,
and in some way or other c;:pable of being referred to
that, and deriye their satisfaction, or an addition
of satisfaction, from that.
Engagement is every thing. rh~ more significant,
however, OUf engagements are, the better; such as
the planning of laws, institutions, manufactures, charjties,
improvements, public works; and the endeavouring,
by our interest, address, solicitations, and activity
to carry tnem into tffect: or upon a smaller
scale, the pl"ocuring of a maintenance and fortune for
our families by a course of industry ant! application
to aur callings, which forms and gives motion to the
common occupations of life; training up a child ;
prosecuting a scheme for his future establishment;
making ourselves m35ters of a language or a science;
improving or managing an estate; labouring after
a piece of preferment: and l{l:Itly, any' engagement,
which is innocent, is better than none: as the writing
of a book, the building of a house, the laying ont
of a garden, the digging of a fish-pond even the
ra;~ing of a cucumber or a tulip.
Whilst thl! mind is taken up with the objects of
business before us, we are commonly happy, \Vhatever
the object or business be: when the mind is absent,
and the thoughts are wandering to somethinti else