26−35
V. Principles of a Self-Education for the Promotion of One’s Own Happiness.
Happiness is the Reward of Effort.—The Greatest Efficiency is not the Greatest Happiness.—The Principles of a Self-Education:—I. The Multiplication of the Sources of Enjoyment—What these Sources Are—The Avoidance of Profitless Pain—The Value of Knowledge—The True End of Culture—Falsity of “Contentment with Little.”—The Kind of Knowledge Required:—1. Of Our Bodily Constitution—2. Of the Elements of the Sciences—3. Of the Nature of the Mind—4. Of the Principles of Business—5. Of the Value of Evidence.—II. The Maintenance of a Sensibility to Pleasure.—The Criteria of Pleasurable Sensations.—The Anatomy of Ennui.—III. The Search for Variety of Impressions.—Variety Necessary to High Pleasure.—Pleasure must be Remitted.—The Individual should Seek Novelty.—The Evil Effects of Habit.—IV. The Proper Proportion Between Desire and Pleasure.—The Wisdom of Counting the Cost.—Precepts for the Regulation of Desire.—V. Make all Pleasures a Part of Happiness.—All Pleasures are Excellent.—Error of the Contrary Doctrine.—All Pleasures should be Brought into Relation.—The Bond of Sense to what is Beyond Sense.—The Reality of the Ideal.
Strowingspp. 36−56
PART II.
How Far Our Happiness Depends on Nature and Fate.
I. Our Bodily and Mental Constitutions.
Life as a Synonym of Happiness.—Necessity and Chance the Arbiters of Life.—The Endowment of the Child.—The Laws of Heredity.—Hereditary and Congenital Traits.—The Heritage of the Race.—Family Jewels and Family Curses.—The Avenue of Escape.—Precepts for Self-training.—Words for Women.—Beauty and its Cult.—Its Perils and its Power.—The Ideal of the Beautiful.—The Four Temperaments.—Cheerfulness and its Physical Seat.—Diseases that are Cheerful and those that are Not.—What to do in an Attack of the Blues.—Old Age and its Attainment.—The Fallacious Bliss of Youth.—Men who Outlive Themselves.
Strowingspp. 57−80
II. Our Physical Surroundings.
Clothing and its Objects.—The Dress of Women.—The Value of Good Clothes.—The Room and its Furniture.—Our Living Rooms.—Own Your Own House.—Foes to Fight in House-building.—A New Principle for Architects.—Love of Home and Homesickness.—How Climate Influences Cheerfulness.
Strowingspp. 81−91
III. Luck and its Laws.
What Solon said about Happiness.—Destiny in Human Affairs.—The Calculation of Chances.—Results of the Laws of Luck.—They Cannot be Escaped.—Runs of Luck and their Results.—“A Fool for Luck,” and Why.—The Story of Polycrates and its Moral.—The Fetichism of Gamblers.—Luck Does Less Than Many Think.—The Miracles of Insurance.—The Dark Hand of Destiny.—Trifles Rule the World.—We Are the Slaves of Chance.—But What is Chance?
Strowingspp. 92−108
PART III.
How Far Our Happiness Depends on Ourselves.
I. Our Occupations—Those of Necessity and those of Choice.
The Washerwoman’s Ideal of Happiness.—Labor is the True Source of Enjoyment.—Selection of an Occupation.—How to Find Pleasure in Its Pursuit.—Fitness and Unfitness for Certain Occupations.—Dangers of Diligence in Business.—The Rare Complaint, Over-Conscientiousness.—Making a Living a Mean Business.—Occupations of Choice.—Reflections on Recreations.
Strowingspp. 109−117
II. Money-making, Its Laws and Its Limits.
The Universal Prayer.—Property the Foundation of Progress.—Wealth is Welcome to All.—What Riches Give.—“Effective” and “Productive” Riches.—The Author Discovers the Fortunate Isles.—But is Promptly Disenchanted.—How to Get Rich.—Another Way to Get Rich.—New Lamps for Old.—Riches and Happiness.
Strowingspp. 118−127
III. The Pleasures we may Derive from Our Senses.
The Elect of God are those who Improve their Faculties.—Division of the Faculties.—The Rules of Pleasure.—The Rule of Moderation.—The Rule of Variety.—Pleasures of the Muscular Sense.—Of the Sense of Touch.—Of the Sense of Smell.—Of Tobacco Using.—Eating as a Fine Art.—The Symmetry of a Well-served Dinner.—Gastronomic Precepts.—Pleasures of the Sense of Hearing.—Of the Sense of Sight.
Strowingspp. 128−141
IV. The Pleasures we may Derive from Our Emotions.
Hope and Fear.—The Folly of Philosophies.—Hopes which are Incompatibles.—A Most Useful Suggestion.—Fear is a Safeguard.—Worry and its Remedies.—Courage and Apathy.—Remorse and Regret.—Anger, Hatred, and Revenge.—The Imagination.—The Esthetic Emotions.—The Contemplation of Nature.—The Arts of Pleasure.—The Excellence of Good Taste.—Plot-Interest.—The Emotions of Pursuit.—The Emotions of Risk.
Strowingspp. 142−155
V. The Pleasures we may Derive from Our Intellect.
The Search for Truth.—Advantages of Intellectual Pleasures.—Especially to Women.—Riddles and Puzzles.—Reading, and Rules for It.—My Own Plan.—What Line to Read In.—A Plea for Poetry.—Thinking About Reading.—What Meditation Means.—Social Intellectual Pleasures.—Writing and Letter Writing.—Keeping a Diary.—The Pursuit of Truth.—What Truth Is.—The Study of Science.
Strowingspp. 156−168
VI. The Satisfaction of the Religious Sentiment.
Happiness the Only Standard of Value.—The Strange Law of Evolution.—The Ideal of Humanity.—The Position of Dogmatic Religion.-The Unhappiness Produced by Religions.—The Happiness Derived from Religions.—The
