We have thus shown that Happiness consists in exercise or actual living

according to excellence; naturally, therefore, according to the highest
excellence, or the excellence of the best part of man
We have thus shown that Happiness consists in exercise or actual living
according to excellence; naturally, therefore, according to the highest
excellence, or the excellence of the best part of man. This best part
is the Intellect (_Nous_), our most divine and commanding element; in
its exercise, which is theoretical or speculative, having respect to
matters honourable, divine, and most worthy of study. Such
philosophical exercise, besides being the highest function of our
nature, is at the same time more susceptible than any mode of active
effort, of being prosecuted for a long continuance. It affords the
purest and most lasting pleasure; it approaches most nearly to being
self-sufficing, since it postulates little more than the necessaries of
life, and is even independent of society, though better _with_ society.
Perfect happiness would thus be the exercise of the theorizing
intellect, continued through a full period of life. But this is more
than we can expect. Still, we ought to make every effort to live
according to this best element of our nature; for, though small in
bulk, it stands exalted above the rest in power and dignity, and, being
the sovereign element in man, is really The Man himself (VII.).

1st, Because they last for a short time

1st, Because they last for a short time. [Surely they are good for the
time they do last.] 2ndly, By repetition, they lose their relish.
[Intermission and variety, however, are to be supposed.] 3rdly, The
eagerness for high and intense delights takes away the relish from all
others.

3

3. The Acrid Principle Is Not Soluble in Ether.--Inasmuch as
various works on pharmacy made the claim that the active or
acrid principle of the plants in question was soluble in ether,
this was the next subject for investigation. The juice was
expressed from a considerable quantity of the mashed Indian
turnip. This juice was clear and by test was found to possess
the same acrid property as the unmashed corms.

'How to Live' deals mainly with personal hygiene, that is, the proper

care of the individual
'How to Live' deals mainly with personal hygiene, that is, the proper
care of the individual. Hygienic improvement is limited, however, to the
attainment of the best of which an individual is capable. Eugenics deals
with the even more vital subject of improving the inherent type and
capacities of the individuals of the future. It has been but briefly
touched upon in this volume.

But though the essential of the woman"s task is universality,

this does not, of course, prevent her from having one or two severe
though largely wholesome prejudices
But though the essential of the woman"s task is universality,
this does not, of course, prevent her from having one or two severe
though largely wholesome prejudices. She has, on the whole,
been more conscious than man that she is only one half of humanity;
but she has expressed it (if one may say so of a lady) by getting her
teeth into the two or three things which she thinks she stands for.
I would observe here in parenthesis that much of the recent
official trouble about women has arisen from the fact that they
transfer to things of doubt and reason that sacred stubbornness
only proper to the primary things which a woman was set to guard.
One"s own children, one"s own altar, ought to be a matter of principle--
or if you like, a matter of prejudice. On the other hand,
who wrote Junius"s Letters ought not to be a principle or a prejudice,
it ought to be a matter of free and almost indifferent inquiry.
But take an energetic modern girl secretary to a league
to show that George III wrote Junius, and in three months she
will believe it, too, out of mere loyalty to her employers.
Modern women defend their office with all the fierceness of domesticity.
They fight for desk and typewriter as for hearth and home, and develop
a sort of wolfish wifehood on behalf of the invisible head of the firm.
That is why they do office work so well; and that is why they ought
not to do it.

HABIT ECONOMIZES MORAL EFFORT

HABIT ECONOMIZES MORAL EFFORT.--To have to decide each time the question
comes up whether we will attend to this lecture or sermon or lesson;
whether we will persevere and go through this piece of disagreeable work
which we have begun; whether we will go to the trouble of being
courteous and kind to this or that poor or unlovely or dirty
fellow-mortal; whether we will take this road because it looks easy, or
that one because we know it to be the one we ought to take; whether we
will be strictly fair and honest when we might just as well be the
opposite; whether we will resist the temptation which dares us; whether
we will do this duty, hard though it is, which confronts us--to have to
decide each of these questions every time it presents itself is to put
too large a proportion of our thought and energy on things which should
take care of themselves. For all these things should early become so
nearly habitual that they can be settled with the very minimum of
expenditure of energy when they arise.

For example: If it could be shown that small doses of alcohol produce no

ascertainable ill effects upon the human organism, the higher mortality
among the moderate drinkers as compared to total abstainers might have
to be explained as due to some as yet unrecognized cause or causes
other than alcohol
For example: If it could be shown that small doses of alcohol produce no
ascertainable ill effects upon the human organism, the higher mortality
among the moderate drinkers as compared to total abstainers might have
to be explained as due to some as yet unrecognized cause or causes
other than alcohol. But if laboratory and clinical evidence shows that
alcohol in so-called moderate quantities (social moderation) produces
definite ill effects, such as lowering the resistance to disease,
increasing the liability to accident and interfering with the efficiency
of mind and body and thus lessening the chances for success in life, to
say nothing of any toxic degenerative effect upon liver, kidneys, brain
and other organs, the excess mortality that unquestionably obtains among
moderate drinkers as compared to total abstainers must be ascribed
chiefly to alcohol.

Chapter IV

Chapter IV. enquires whether a moral action must proceed from a moral
purpose in the agent. He decides in the affirmative, replying to
certain objections, and more especially to the allegation of Hume, that
justice is not a natural, but an artificial virtue. This last question
is pursued at great length in Chapter V., and the author takes occasion
to review the theory of Utility or Benevolence, set up by Hume as the
basis of morals. He gives Hume the credit of having made an important
step in advance of the Epicurean, or Selfish, system, by including the
good of others, as well as our own good, in moral acts. Still, he
demands why, if Utility and Virtue are identical, the same name should
not express both. It is true, that virtue is both agreeable and useful
in the highest degree; but that circumstance does not prevent it from
having a quality of its own, not arising from its being useful and
agreeable, but arising from its being virtue. The common good of
society, though a pleasing object to all men, hardly ever enters into
the thoughts of the great majority; and, if a regard to it were the
sole motive of justice, only a select number would ever be possessed of
the virtue. The notion of justice carries inseparably along with it a
notion of moral obligation; and no act can be called an act of justice
unless prompted by the motive of justice.

Chapter IV

Chapter IV. is on our Ideas of good and ill Desert. These are only a
variety of our ideas of right and wrong, being the feelings excited
towards the moral Agent. Our reason determines, with regard to a
virtuous agent, that he ought to be the better for his virtue. The
ground of such determination, however, is not solely that virtuous
conduct promotes the happiness of mankind, and vice detracts from it;
this counts for much, but not for all. Virtue is in itself rewardable;
vice is of essential demerit. Our understanding recognizes the absolute
and eternal rectitude, the intrinsic fitness of the procedure in both
aspects.