There is no standard-pattern happiness planned to suit the temperament
of everybody like the map of a city which all travellers follow to find
their bearings. Happiness is a city that each person maps out for
himself; its highways and byways are of his own engineering and grow to
match his own requirements. Happiness is not a sloppy garment like a
ready-made coat that you buy in a store. Happiness must be made to fit.
In fact, every man makes his own happiness.
We all distil pleasure out of life in our peculiar way. Only our ways
differ as the poles asunder. One man cannot understand where the other
man’s relish for life comes in. What is nauseous as bitter herbs in one
mouth tastes delicate as the wines of Orvieto on another palate. A
famous American millionaire found greater satisfaction in the simple
pleasure of attending funerals than in all the superb luxuries which his
millions brought him. We do not envy his simple pleasure. It was an
innocent method of enjoyment peculiarly his own.
I knew a man who made an income of over £10,000 a year by hard work, and
his pleasure was immense in doing it. One half of his relaxation in
life was making more income, and the other half his amusement consisted
in lecturing people on the evil of extravagance if they spent "tuppence"
on a bus fare instead of walking three-pennyworth of leather off the
soles of their boots. He never spent "tuppence" himself if he could
save it. He drove life at high pressure, and enjoyed the sensations of
a quick run. People called him a money-making machine devoid of fine
feeling. People made a mistake. His nature was highly strung. He was
keenly sensitive to pleasure--the pleasure of money-making. It was the
poetry, the luxury, the fine art of life all rolled into one, and it
quickened the gay emotions within him that seeing a good play, hearing
an eloquent sermon or driving a spanking four-in-hand to Ascot on a fine
June morning, excites in other people. There are various buttons to
press, but they all send the same thrill of earthly pleasure tingling
through the human frame. Different hands strike the same chords on the
harp of life, and they tremble into song.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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