Happiness Essays on the Meaning of Life #224266

Great numbers of thoughtful people are just now much perplexed to know what to make of the fafis of life, and are looking about them for some reasonable interpretation of the modern world. They cannot abandon the work of the world, but they are conscious that they have not learned the art of work. They have to fight the battle of life but they are not sure what weapons are fit for that battle. They are so beset by the cares of living that they have no time for life itself. They observe that' happiness often eludes those who most eagerly pursue it and that the meaning of life is often hidden from those whose way would seem to be most free. To this state of mind — hesitating, restless, and dissatisfied, in the world but not content to be of the world the reflefiions of Professor Hilty, as published in Switzerland and Germany, have already brought much reassurance and composure and their message seems hardly less applicable to English and American life. Here also the fever of commercialism threatens the vitality of i deal ism, and here also the art of life is lost in the pace of living. Religion to a great many e'du cated people still seems, as Bishop Butler wrote in 173 6, not so much as a subject of inquiry.