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HAPPINESS

Is that state of the animal man, at which he arrives by the power of the understanding, which being exerted in reflection* on past, present and future, enables him to form a volition, or acquire a motion, to progress forward unimpeded, in a state of absolute liberty, and in a right line to the well-being of his essence.

Whatever impedes this volition, formed by means of the understanding, must be inimical to the happiness of man. These impediments are either physical or moral; physical, as when he hungers and the fruit upon the tree is elevated beyond his reach; moral, as when one of his own species is in possession of it, and refuses to participate it. To remove these impediments, associations of the human species were formed, by whose collective bodily force, physical impediments were overcome, and by their collective mental force, moral ones might be counteracted.

In this state self seems to have acquired new relations, or rather to have extended its own nature; but by no means to have contracted it, nor, according to both vulgar and philosophical opinions, ancient and modern, to have sacrificed its own happiness to that of society; but on the contrary, the volition is only changed, and though forced back by the understanding, to react upon its source, it acquires a greater momentum, and is kept steadier upon a right line to happiness, which it reaches the sooner, imitating the laws of material projectiles.

The connection of identity or being with Nature passes through the infinite combinations of existence and essence. I have been from all eternity passing through the several stages of inanimate, vegetable and animal states; and this truth gives me an interest to oppose and remove every evil from sensitive Nature: as I labor to the advantage and happiness, ultimately o my own connections, and upon this truth reposes the whole nogal system of Nature.

To prove this axiom, which if established will overturn all ancient philosophy, and introduce a new system, I shall suppose that two individuals, just entered into a social state, and impelled by the most powerful of all the passions, hunger, discover upon a tree a small quantity of fruit, which they can acquire only by mutual aid: this being done, the fruit is found to be too little to satisfy the appetite of either, and yet they divide it, though they had each a volition, propelling them to eat the whole. This volition, however, they suppress; and this is called the sacrifice of self to society; whereas it is, on the contrary, turning the advantage of society to the particular advantage of self; for the mental power surveying constantly its own motion or volition, pushes it back upon the source, self, to acquire an augmentation; and the first volition of eating all, is changed to a wider or greater volition of giving away half, by the following reflection :

Were I to devour the whole of the fruit, my companion would desert me, and I should lose his aid, and consequently suffer want; I should also be deprived of the passion of sympathy, which extends and harmonizes my essence; and lastly, I should barter the great good of society, present and future, acquired by mental reflection, for the momentary pleasure of taste.

I shall suppose another instance, where three individuals are concerned, a female and two males; the latter desire to enjoy or cohabit with the former, since they cannot both participate, as in the case of the fruit, there must be a momentary preference. The delay, however, or check of the volition of enjoyment, in this case, would proceed from the paramount volition of liberty, which never can violate the will of another, if the understanding is sound or in its natural state; because on reflection or thought, we must be sensible, that the forcing our will upon another, perverts the order of the moral world, and breaks down all the barriers that guard happiness or wellbeing, and this for the advantage of a momentary prefer

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ence. The moment we suffer self to violate volition, we assent to its being violated, and destroy the basis of all well-being.

By these examples we see, that when self, in its volition, directed by judgment, gives up a little present for much future good, it makes no sacrifice, but is ever most partial when it seems the least so, and that judgment when opposing, or resisting volition, operates as a floodgate, not to destroy, but to preserve the water to flow in a current of utility.

If, in the first institutions of society, its collective force of coercion had been employed only against the violators of personal freedom, there would have been no moral evil at this day upon the face of the globe. But the torrent of violation has now gained a dreadful extent, and the rugged rocks of coercion, in attempting to stop the destructive current of this enormous cataract, turn the inundation upon the peaceful meadows, and involve all Nature in the same calamity. The civil institutions of mankind, in order to preserve and perpetuate existence, have destroyed the liberty and happiness of essence or self. Self is the subdivision and partition of all Nature, into particular identities, to enjoy consciousness, happiness and motion in the dispensation and economy of Nature, who seems to have rendered it impossisible for self, willingly and knowingly, to do any thing against its own happiness; and even were it possible that the volition, under the guidance of a sound understanding, should will evil to self, it would be the highest crime in Nature to execute such evil; and this proves, that virtue and self love are one and the same thing.

Happiness is that condition or state of essence in which the sensations of pleasure predominate either in actual gratification, or in expectation which causes agreeable emotions to fill up the vacuum or passage from that to enjoyment.

Violence has given so dreadful a concussion and vibration to the universal chain of existence, that policy has

invented institutions, calculated solely to give tenacity to the links, in order to preserve, the whole from destruction or annihilation.

To wave figurative speech; Man has totally changed the idea of well-being into strong or durable being. To constitute happiness, repose is the greatest component part; but the violence of nations demands a sacrifice of it to labor, which procures population and riches, upon which the strength and competition of nations and individuals are founded.

To a regenerated mind in a state of intellectual existence, repose lengthens time-moments into hours, hours into days, days into years, years into ages, and ages into eternity; and wisdom fills up the immense space. But the same repose is misery to an unregenerated mind in a state of mere animal existence, that has no knowledge of self, but demands the agitation of perpetual occupation, or, like the pendulum, loses life with motion.

The intellectual mind also cannot exist without motion; but it is the undulation caused by the zephir of desires, and corrected by the intellectual sun shine; whereas the motion of animal existence is that of the vessel, tempest-tost, and without the helm of reason; and intellectual lightnings are dreaded, as they increase while they expose the horrors of the storm.

Thus, the mere animal existence dreads the repose which invites reflection, while the intellectual mind, courts it as the only means of enjoying, ensuring and perpetuating happiness. The former has little more consciousness of existence than the brute, and his happiness, which consists in the indulgence of blind tempestuous passions, is interrupted by the least relaxation. The intellectual mind, on the contrary, besides its pure calm enjoyment, fills up each period of repose, with the emotions of reflection and anticipation, which increase its powers of consciousness.

The present situation of mankind in society, recals to mind, the fable of two inimical, ferocious beasts, who continued in combat so long, each watching the assault

of its antagonist, that inanition consumed both on the field of battle, as they neglected to feed, while fury and suspicion rivetted their attention on their visible enemy, till death, by famine, triumphed over both.

So it is with mankind. They combat nation against nation for existence, and sacrifice the end to the means, or well-being and happiness to the security of existence.

The great enemy to happiness is the fear that every individual nation has of adopting the theory and practice of truth, lest if its neighbors should not also adopt it, its own safety would be exposed. Every one fears to throw the pebble of truth into any part of the lake of humanity, lest the resistance of the circumjacent waters, increasing the violent agitation on the centre self, should overwhelm and destroy it; whereas it would but give that energy of concussion necessary to carry its undulations upon the shore of all sensitive Nature.

There is no subject of such infinite importance to mankind, as the augmentation of judgment or reason, which can be promoted only by a free and unlimited disquisition of truth, and the evils which human nature suffers over all the globe, can never be remedied while thought is shackled.

1 Did no evil exist in Nature, thought might then be bound in the strongest fetters, lest it might perhaps do harm by inventing error; but, as at present, the contrary is the case, and humanity is put to every kind of torture upon the rack of coercive institutions and barbarous customs, it is sacrilege and rebellion, against reason and Nature, to control the power of thought.

When the proposal of emancipating the mind from error is heard, every one is consternated, not on his own account, but on his neighbor's, for he thinks that truth would not be dangerous to himself: this proves the reciprocal and universal suspicion of others to be a general calumny, which checks the progress of reason in the reformation of error, the removal of misery, and establishment of well-being or happiness.

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