" [Footnote: J. H. Levy, of London, in a funeral oration.]
To him who complains that he is moral but not happy, the answer is,
Be more moral! A high enough morality, a complete enough consecration,
will lead, in all but very abnormal cases, to happiness in the individual
life, as well as make its due contribution to the happiness of others.
Is there anything better than morality?
It is this lack of vision, this immature skepticism as to the
service of morality to human welfare, that has fired a flame of
revolt in certain minds, a revolt not merely against incidental
defects and outworn conceptions of morality, but against morality
uberhaupt. The declamations of these Promethean rebels make it
clear, however, that their protest is but the old fault of
condemning a necessary institution altogether for its imperfections
or its abuses. Morality has been blended with superstition and
tyranny, has been often blind, perverted, narrow, checking noble
impulses and choking the rich and happy development of life. But it
is one thing to arraign these accidents and corruptions of morality;
it is quite another to discard the whole system of guidance of which
they are but the excrescences and mistakes. This usurping is, of
course, also in large part a thirst for novelty, a love of paradox,
of practicing ingenuity in making the better appear the worse; it is
in part a volcanic eruption of suppressed longings and a protest
against the inadequacy of our present code to provide opportunity
and happiness for the masses.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220