Happiness - An Essay

William Lyon Phelps

• Publisher: White Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781473329317
• eBook ISBN:
  9781473362116
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Mind & Body in Philosophy

This early work by William Lyon Phelps was originally published in 1927 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Happiness' is an essay about the true definition of happiness and where it is to be found. William Lyon Phelps was born on 2nd January 1865, in New Haven, Conneticut, United States. Phelps earned a B.A. in 1887, writing his thesis on the Idealism of George Berkeley. He then gained an M.A. in 1891 from Yale and his PhD from Harvard in the same year. During his time a Yale, he offered a course in modern novels which brought the university considerable attention both nationally and internationally. Phelps published many essays on modern and European literature, including titles such as 'Essays on Modern Novelists' (1910), 'Some Makers of American Literature' (1923), and 'As I Like it' (1923).

Happiness

NO MATTER WHAT may be one’s nationality, sex, age, philosophy, or religion, everyone wishes either to become or to remain happy. Hence definitions of happiness are interesting. One of the best was given in my Senior year at college by President Timothy Dwight: “The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts.”

This definition places happiness where it belongs-within and not without. The principle of happiness should be like the principle of virtue; it should not be dependent on things, but be a part of personality. Suppose you went to a member of a State Legislature, and offered him five hundred dollars to vote for a certain bill. Suppose he kicked you out of his office. Does that prove he is virtuous? No; it proves you can’t buy him for five hundred. Suppose you went to the same man a month later and offered him a million dollars-that is, instead of making him a present, you make him and his family independent for life, for the best thing about having money is that if you have it, you don’t have to think about it. Suppose, after listening to this offer, he should hesitate. That would mean he was already damned.

He is not only not virtuous, he knows nothing about virtue. Why? Because his virtue is dependent not on any interior standard, but on the size of the temptation. If the temptation is slight, he can resist; if alluring his soul is in danger. Such virtue is like being brave when there is no danger, generous when you have nothing to give, cheerful when all is well, polite when you are courteously treated.

Fortunately there are in every State Legislature some men who have no price, who are never for sale, who look upon all bribes with equal scorn-and these are the virtuous men. After the same order, there are boys who are just as safe in Paris as in Binghamton; just as safe at three o’clock in the morning as at three o’clock in the afternoon; just as safe with evil companions as with good companions. Why? Because these boys do not allow place, time, and people to determine their conduct, they attend to that matter themselves. Their standards are within.

So far as it is possible-it is not always possible-happiness should be like virtue. It should be kept or lost, not by exterior circumstances, but by an inner standard of life. Yet some readers of this page will lose their happiness before next Sunday, though I hope they recover it. But why lose it, even for a season? There are people who carry their happiness as a foolish woman carries a purse of money in her hand while walking on a crowded thoroughfare. The first man who is quick with his fingers, nimble with his feet, and untrammelled by conscience, can and will take the purse away, and disappear with it. He will have separated the woman and her money. Now if one’s happiness is like that, an exterior thing, dependent on an enemy’s volition, on a chance disaster, on an ill wind, on any one of a thousand ac...

Table of contents

• William Lyon Phelps
• Happiness