Major prophets of to-day . rch for happinessby limitation instead of expansion leads at itsextreme to stoicism, to asceticism, to nirvana, tothe state of mind of Diogenes, who threw away hissole utensil, the cup, when he saw a man drink outof his hand. Many moralists before Ostwald have attemptedto put this idea into semi-mathematical form, gen-erally with the object of advising the seeker afterhappiness to take the lower and smoother says in Sartor Resartus: The Fraction of Life can be increased in value,not so much by increasing your Numerator as by less-ening your Denominator.
Major prophets of to-day . rch for happinessby limitation instead of expansion leads at itsextreme to stoicism, to asceticism, to nirvana, tothe state of mind of Diogenes, who threw away hissole utensil, the cup, when he saw a man drink outof his hand. Many moralists before Ostwald have attemptedto put this idea into semi-mathematical form, gen-erally with the object of advising the seeker afterhappiness to take the lower and smoother says in Sartor Resartus: The Fraction of Life can be increased in value,not so much by increasing your Numerator as by less-ening your Denominator. Nay, unless my Algebradeceive me, Unity itself divided by Zero will giveInfinity. Make thy claim of wages a zero, then;thou hast the world at thy feet. Well did the Wisestof our time write It is only with Renunciation thatLife, properly speaking, can be said to begin. James, in his Principles of Psychology, expressesit as follows: Self-esteem = p SuccessPretensions. That is, our self-esteem is determined by the ratio [194]. WILHELM OSTWALD of our actualities to our supposed he suggests that some Bostonians would behappier men and women to-day if they could oncefor all abandon the notion of keeping up a MusicalSelf and without shame let people hear them call asymphony a nuisance. William Winter puts the thought in rhyme : I have set my heart on nothing, you seeAnd so the world goes well with me. One is irresistibly impelled to quote Johnsonsremark: Sir, that all who are happy, are equally happy,is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may beequally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happi-ness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable con-sciousness. A peasant has not capacity for havingequal happiness with a philosopher. Boswell tags this in his usual style with the obser-vation that this very question was very happilyillustrated by the Reverend Mr. Robert Brown atUtrecht, who said that a small drinking glass anda very large one may be equally full, but the la
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmaeterlinckmaurice18
