The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

head. The designation to be chosen among these
alternatives depends, of course, upon the thesis to
be proved. I am at the moment not concerned to
prove any thesis, but merely to describe. Perhaps
the simplest way to describe the difference
between the two sorts of happiness is to say that
one sort is open to any human being, and the other
only to those who can read and write. When I was
a boy I knew a man bursting with happiness whose
business was digging wells. He was of enormous
height and of incredible muscles; he could neither
read nor write, and when in the year 1885 he got a
vote for Parliament, he learnt for the first time that
such an institution existed. His happiness did not
depend upon intellectual sources; it was not based
upon belief in natural law, or the perfectibility of
the species, or the public ownership of public
utilities, or the ultimate triumph of the Seventh Day
Adventists, or any of the other creeds which
intellectuals consider necessary to their enjoyment
of life. It was based upon physical vigour, a
sufficiency of work, and the overcoming of not
insuperable obstacles in the shape of rock. The