The next evening, when we were all seated together in the cool,
refreshing shade of a large tree which was planted by the hands of Mr.
and Mrs. Uwins during their honeymoon some twenty years before, we
requested Mr. Midith to proceed with his explanation of the exterior of
the “big-house.”
But before Mr. Midith had an opportunity to begin, Rev. Dudley
requested permission to ask Mr. Midith a question.
“Certainly,” said Mr. Midith. “It is one of our principles that we
allow all persons to ask all the questions they desire to ask.”
“The question I want to ask you is this: I have heard you speak about
_happiness_ and _truth_ several times. What do you understand by
happiness and by truth? What is your idea of them? Will you be kind
enough to give us a brief explanation of them before you proceed at
your announced topic? I would like to know how your idea of happiness
and truth coincide with our theological view of them.”
“Very well,” responded Mr. Midith.
“_Happiness_, or _pleasure_, is a feeling which we seek to bring into
consciousness and retain there, while _misery_, or _pain_, is a feeling
which we seek to get out of consciousness and to keep out. Hence all
sentient beings of which we have any knowledge are in pursuit of the
greatest happiness. Happiness is the aim and end of _all_. One plainly
sees, then, that all activity and quietude of sentient organisms,
whether man or beast, have for their ultimate end the acquisition
of the highest attainable state of happiness. Health, wealth and
intelligence are intrinsically worthless. They can only be the _means_
by which we can attain the _end_--which is always happiness, and the
principle remains the same, whether the duration of this happiness is
but for a moment or for an eternity; whether the receiver intends to
enjoy it in this life only, or in some supposed life to come also.
“If I myself and my fellow-beings were just as happy, it would be of
no consequence to me or to any one else whether I were blind or had
excellent sight, whether sound or diseased, whether intelligent or
ignorant, whether kind or cruel, whether honest or dishonest, whether
rude or polite, whether truthful or untruthful, whether rich or poor,
whether praised or scorned, whether master or slave.
“It is, however, the nature of blindness, disease, ignorance, slavery,
etc., to produce _misery_, and _therefore_ we call them _evils_.
When we are not afflicted with them we seek to avoid them; when we
are afflicted with them we seek to cure them. From the foregoing
conclusions we are forced to admit that, _as a whole_, acts causing
pleasure or happiness are conducive to life, while on the other hand,
those causing pain or misery are destructive to life as a whole. Under
no other conceivable conditions is it possible for a race of sentient
creatures to evolve, maintain and perpetuate itself; for if, as a
whole, acts destructive to life were more pleasurable than those which
conduce to the fullness of it, the race of sentient beings, even as it
now exists, would soon become extinct; for pleasure, or happiness, is a
feeling which we seek to bring into consciousness and retain there.
“To eat gives us more happiness than it does to starve; therefore we
eat. To wear clothes gives us, as a whole, more happiness than the
efforts to obtain them cause misery. To live in society gives us, in an
average, more pleasure than the social discord causes pain. This, then,
is in brief our idea of general happiness. Now for _truth_.
“Truth is the exact correspondence between the subjective order of our
conceptions and the objective order of the relations among things. All
things in the universe, as far as we know and have reason to believe,
are related to one another in one or more ways. The sun attracts all
the planets, and all the planets in turn attract the sun. All the fixed
stars are attracted by one another, no matter in what remote region
of the universe they may be located. If the matter of only one of the
countless stars of the heavens would be annihilated, all the remainder
would seek a new position.
“The sun radiates heat and light. The radiated heat and light
strike the earth. Heat causes evaporation. Absence of heat produces
condensation, and condensation causes rain, etc. Rain, heat and light
are favorable to vegetable growth. The vegetable assimilates the
inorganic into the organic. The animal lives on the vegetable directly
or indirectly. Our environment acts on us, and we in turn react on the
environment. So we find everything, from the mote to the furthest
star, bound together by endless relations.
“When I look at the pen which I hold in my hand, it produces an
impression on my mind. This mental picture produced on the mind by the
attributes of the material pen in my hand, we call an _ideal_ pen.
So you see that all things that we know exist in a double form--the
idea, or mental picture, of the thing and the thing itself, or the
attributes of it, which produced the idea, or mental picture. The
material pen in my hand possesses the properties of matter and weighs
something; the ideal pen in my mind possesses the properties of mind,
or consciousness, and weighs nothing.
“When the mental picture of the ideal pen exactly corresponds with the
material pen in my hand in _all_ its relations, then I have the whole
_truth_ concerning the pen. But, when I know that a pen will write and
that the point is split, but do not know that the point of it, when
brought with violence against the hand or other parts of the body,
will also penetrate the flesh and cause pain, I have only a _partial_
knowledge of a pen. That is, my subjective conceptions do not _exactly_
correspond with the subjective relations among the pen and other
things. In this case I would not know the exact relations between the
pen’s point and my own organs. I would therefore be partly ignorant
on this subject, and my ignorance, on this as well as on all other
points, would not unlikely lead me into acts that are attended with
pain or misery--acts that are not in tune with facts and relations of
the things in the universe; and for the very reason that such acts are
attended with pain, we call them _wrong_. There would be no right and
no wrong, if there was no happiness and pain.
“All truth must be found by experience. Some is easily found, while
some lies deeply buried from the superficial human view. Some truth
is so conspicuous and universal that all mankind believe and know it.
Some is so obscure and hidden that no man has yet found it, unless we
claim that we know all that can be known, and no well-informed person
will make such claims. It is often said that such and such a thing
cannot be done because there are too many different opinions. But the
fact is, that we all agree as far as we have found the truth. Men
in their opinions are likely to differ only concerning those things
about which they have not yet acquired the truth, but they will always
agree as far as they have discovered the truth. Thus the concerted
action of mankind becomes more and more harmonious, in proportion as
we discover new truths and as the number of individuals clearly seeing
these truths increases. The action of a hundred persons, each knowing
a thousand truths, or facts, would be more harmonious than would be
the actions of a hundred persons, fifty of whom know each a thousand
facts and fifty know only seven hundred each; or than if each of the
hundred individuals know only eight hundred facts each. Let us further
illustrate this agreement and disagreement of mankind; also let us
exemplify how conspicuous some truths are and how obscure and complex
others are.
“All mankind are in pursuit of the greatest happiness, either
consciously or unconsciously, whether that happiness is to be
enjoyed here or in some supposed unknown world. But all believe in
this fundamental axiom. Perhaps all men of mature age agree that
fire burns. Our experience of fire has established quite an exact
correspondence between the subjective order of our conceptions and the
objective order of the relations among things and our nervous system.
All sane persons believe that food is necessary for the sustenance
of the human body. We all agree here. We all know of some relations
existing between water and the human organism; we know that we cannot
breathe it like air.
“The truth, or the relation existing between a drowning man and the
altitude of Mt. Everest, is not so conspicuous as the example cited
before; yet there is a relation between them. The man falling in the
ocean from the shore, tends to raise the water of the ocean in a
similar manner as a turnip thrown in a pail partly filled with water,
raises the water in the pail. Mountains are measured from the sea
level. A _high_ sea level makes a low mountain, and a _low_ sea level
makes a high mountain. This relation is truth, but we do not all see
it.”
“But why do we not all know this truth the same as the truth that fire
burns?” asked Rev. Dudley.
“It seems to me that this is easily accounted for. One, or at least a
few burns, is generally sufficient to convince us that fire _always_
burns; and when we are burned we always find it out, for the pain is
directly communicated to the nervous system. But there are many reasons
why we do not all know the relations between the drowning man and the
altitude of Mt. Everest. In the first place, the rise of the water
in the ocean is so slight that no human eye can see it. No direct
observation can ascertain it. Again, there are not many men drowned.
Again, nobody is watching for the rise of the water. We can only know
it by reasoning up to it from a general principle; and you know that
reasoning, in your present intellectual stage, is, as a whole, not
very agreeable to the minds of the masses who are only seeking to keep
the fierce wolf of poverty away from their door. Those are some of the
reasons.
“There is a relation between the _size_ of Ireland and the length of
the earth’s day. The centrifugal force at the equator increases as
the day is shortened. If the day were half as long as now, the water
would tend to accumulate at the equator by virtue of the increased
centrifugal force. Ireland is situated not far from the North Pole, and
with increased centrifugal force at the equator, the water would recede
from its present shore, which would increase the size of Ireland. If
the day were _lengthened_ to forty-eight hours, Ireland would be,
perhaps, entirely submerged.
“Let us take another example where the truth is still more obscure.
There exists a relation between the size of a growing plum in the
Selvas (the luxuriant forest of the Amazon) and the _direction_ of the
earth’s rotation. The earth rotates from _west_ to east, causing the
trade winds to blow _always_ from the _east_. The Selvas is situated
in the zone of trade winds, which brings abundance of moisture from
the Atlantic ocean, because no mountains intervene. But, if the earth
rotated from east to west, would change the direction of the trade
winds from east to west. And then the Andes mountains would not let the
moisture, which the trade winds would bring from the Pacific, pass over
them, which would make a large part of the Selvas a desert instead of
being the most fertile land in the world. So the plum would be very
small or no plum at all.
“Let us take one more example. There exists a relation between the
amount of red clover and the number of cats; but we do not all see
this truth or relation. Let us see if we can trace it. Red clover is
fertilized here only by the humble bee. Field mice destroy humble bees
by eating their honey; and cats catch mice. To have much red clover,
then, we must have many humble bees; to have many humble bees, we must
have few field-mice; and to have few field-mice, we must have many cats.
“There is a relation between the garden _soil_ and a _thought_. Soil
is assimilated into a potato, etc. The potato is eaten, digested, and
built into a brain, and the brain is the organ of thought.
“So we find a relation existing between the whole course of nature;
between star and planet; the body and the food we eat; the soil and our
life; the male and the female; the residence and our health; labor and
our garments; truth and happiness.
“With these preliminary remarks in our mind, let us see whether we
can trace and combine the two great phenomena--happiness and truth.
Happiness may be represented as being the power which initiates and
guides our course of action; and an organism which is at rest would
never move again, if, by remaining quiet, it found from time to time
greater happiness. _Truth_ may be represented as being a path which
leads a sentient organism in complete harmony with the facts of the
universe. There are countless other paths besides the path of Truth,
which a sentient being may travel, but there is only one--the path of
Truth which rewards the traveler with the greatest happiness, while all
the countless others punish him with more or less misery, and sometimes
with instantaneous death.
“If it be true, then, that all sentient organisms are in pursuit of
the greatest happiness, and that happiness can be attained only by
traveling on the path of Truth, all sentient creatures, whether human
beings or inferior animals, would be traveling the path of Truth
only, if they possessed sufficient intelligence always to ascertain
that path. For, traveling on any other path, would sooner or later be
attended with pain; and would therefore be a contradiction in terms to
the proposition that all sentient beings are in pursuit of the greatest
happiness, which is only realized completely when all the desires of
the organisms are satisfied. If, then, the foregoing conclusions are
true, and they have stood the test of the keenest scientific inquiry
on our globe for ages, all misery, pain, wrong, evil, or whatever we
may name it, must be ascribed to ignorance; and this proposition is
substantiated by the application of every known psychological fact. To
illustrate:
“A little child may be actuated to put its hand against a red hot
stove, because it is ignorant of the relations existing between the
sensitive hand and the hot stove; but after it has learned the true
relations, it will not do it any more. A savage may attempt to stop a
running locomotive, by standing on the track; but after he has learned
its immense momentum, he will cease trying it. A people, during a
certain stage of intellectual culture, may live in cities; but after
they have learned the evils and uselessness of cities, no one will live
in them. With a certain amount of intelligence, man endeavors to make
himself happy by antagonizing the happiness of others; but as soon
as he discovers that a greater happiness can be attained by building
our own happiness on the happiness of our fellowman, all antagonism
disappears. Some of these truths we can see conspicuously with a little
intelligence, while others are very obscure and require a vast amount
of it. But no matter how conspicuous or how obscure, just as soon as we
learn that we derive greater happiness by doing right, or by following
Truth, we will follow it, for its own reward, wherever we see it, and
just that far all persons agree.”
“But, according to your theory, Mr. Midith, does it not necessarily
follow that a hog, wallowing in a mud puddle, enjoys as much happiness
as a philosopher, or as a Marsite enjoys in the grand parlors of his
big-house, or sporting on his brilliantly lighted boulevard?” asked
Rev. Dudley. “You say that an organism is completely happy when all
its desires are fully satisfied; and it seems to me that all the hog’s
desires may be as fully satisfied as those of a Marsite.”
“I fear, Rev. Dudley, that you do not understand our position at all,”
replied Mr. Midith. “But let us see if I can make this plain to you.
“You know that as we ascend in the scale of animal creation, the
faculties, as you call them, of each organism increase in number and in
complexity. The hog, of which you speak, has more and higher faculties
than the snail. The ape has more and higher faculties than the hog. The
savage has more and higher ones than the ape. And the highly cultivated
person has more and higher ones than the savage. Each additional
faculty, as we ascend in the scale of animal being, brings also new
and higher desires, so that a being which is endowed with many and
with complex faculties, has also many and high desires to satisfy. But
we must remember that the _ability_ to satisfy desires increases in a
greater ratio than the desires increase in number and in complexity.
“Now, then, we get to the main point, which is: Each satisfied faculty
contributes its amount of happiness in proportion to its complexity of
the desire; so that a being which has numerous and complex desires,
and has them all satisfied, is immeasurably happier than a being which
has but a few and simple desires, which are also all satisfied. Each
faculty, then, is a track, so to speak, on which loads of happiness of
different value are coming into consciousness.
“Now, I think we can easily see why it is that a highly enlightened
person, other things being equal, is happier than an ignorant,
superstitious one. The enlightened person has several advantages
over the ignorant one. First, the enlightened person understands the
phenomena of nature better, which enables him to march more in harmony
with facts, by which he escapes the natural penalty of discord, and
reaps the reward of harmony. And, secondly, the informed person lives
in a vast mental world, bounded only by telescopic stars located in the
remote regions of the universe. His extended world contains countless,
admirable things, the admiration of each of which brings him a flood
of happiness; while the unenlightened, superstitious person lives in a
very contracted mental world bounded by superstitious fear, over which
boundary he dares not pass. His small world contains only a few things
from which he receives happiness by admiring them, and even these few
things he understands so imperfectly that he is continually punished by
nature for running cross-grained with facts. The foregoing conclusion
is also confirmed by the evolution point of view. For if the greatest
happiness is our highest aim and end, a complex being could not have
evolved from a simpler one, if the complex organism were not enjoying a
greater happiness than the more ignorant or inferior one.
“After the foregoing contemplation, we can easily see that each
organism, according to its degree of development, has a particular
environment in which all its desires can be most nearly satisfied. A
savage, with his mental constitution, would find no delight in living a
civilized life in an elegantly furnished residence; his position would
not correspond with his faculties and desires, and before he could
enjoy a splendid parlor, his desires will have to be changed. An ape
would find no happiness in following the habits of a hog; and a hog
could not live in the environment of a fish, neither could the masses
of your people, with their present desires and amount of intelligence,
if transferred to our world, enjoy the free, kind, and rich society
of Mars. They would feel as awkward there as the savage would feel in
your parlor. Intelligence, personal and ancestral, determines the whole
course of animal activity. Every animal and every man acts just as
good, and no better, as the amount of his intelligence compels him to
act. And no one’s course of action, whether considered good or bad, can
be changed permanently without the mental assimilation of additional
knowledge. A clear and thorough knowledge of this important truth by
all would forever banish every vestige of human cruelty from the face
of the earth.
“In conclusion of this topic, let me say that I am very glad that
you requested me to give you our idea of truth and happiness. But,
in order to avoid being misunderstood, allow me to explain one other
point. I told you that an organism is completely happy only when
all its desires are fully satisfied; but, as a whole, our desires
can never be _completely_ satisfied. This, I think, can be best
understood by bearing in mind that the higher beings according to
the doctrine of evolution have been evolved from lower organisms by
the pressure of environment, by competition, by the survival of the
fittest. Our environment is continuously pressing us, by the survival
of the fittest, etc., into higher and higher planes, which require
a continuous adjustment of ourselves with our environment, and this
continuous adjustment and pressure involves incomplete satisfaction.
There will, then, always remain abundance of scope for our healthful
ambition, both in the direction of physical structure and mental
powers. No matter how physically perfect a person may be in bodily
structure, strength, endurance and agility, we can conceive of one who
is still his superior. And no matter how learned a person may be, his
field of thought is always bounded; and this boundary always implies
a region outside of the sphere of his thought, which can never be
co-extensive and identical with infinity.”