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458
ETHICS
meat. The question, " How is boredom to be avoided, " is one
that has particularly intrigued the moralists, and their
answer has been, "By hard work." Pointing out that work
is the only occupation which, mankind has been able
to tolerate except in very small doses, they have recommended
unremitting effort as a recipe for the good life.
"A man is seldom so harmlessly occupied," said Dr. Johnson,
"as when he is making money."
Recipe for Happiness. The answer is in accordance
with the teaching of evolutionary ethics. It also embodies
the conclusions of the by-product theory of pleasure. 1 But,
while providing for the absorption of the activity of com
sciousness for, when we work hard, our consciousness is
intensely engaged it offers no suggestions as to the nature
of the object upon which the activity of consciousness
may be most fruitfully directed; and surely, it may be said,
some objects of conscious activity are better than others.
What objects? Spinoza comes nearest to the answer which
I am suggesting in this chapter, when he tells us that
"happiness or unhappiness depends on the quality of the
objects which we love. Love towards a thing eternal and
infinite fills the mind wholly with joy and is unmingled
with any sadness." The word "love" in this quotation
is, I think, important. We are never bored or unhappy
when we are planning or endeavouring for someone whom
we love, or for a cause for which we care. To love one's
work is also a sure basis for happiness. Spinoza, however,
specifies more particularly things "infinite and eternal".
Now thcae, in the terms of the foregoing theory of value,
will be the absolute values, truth, goodness and beauty.
From this point of view, it is highly significant that nobody
is unhappy when he is trying to make something that is
beautiful, or is engaged in the research that is inspired
only by the wish to find out what is true. This is
what Goethe meant when he said: "He who has
perhaps
science and art has also religion." Such pleasures are, says
1 See Chapter XI, pp. 400-406.