Havelock Ellis, that laughter of any sort may be considered a
religious exercise, for it bears witness to the soul's
emancipation. I quoted this opinion in order to deny its
adequacy. But we must now settle our scores more carefully with
this whole optimistic way of thinking. It is far too complex to
be decided off-hand. I propose accordingly that we make of
religious optimism the theme of the next two lectures.
Lectures IV and V
THE RELIGION OF HEALTHY MINDEDNESS
If we were to ask the question: "What is human life's chief
concern?" one of the answers we should receive would be: "It is
happiness." How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness,
is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all
they do, and of all they are willing to endure. The hedonistic
school in ethics deduces the moral life wholly from the
experiences of happiness and unhappiness which different kinds of
conduct bring; and, even more in the religious life than in the
moral life, happiness and unhappiness seem to be the poles round
which the interest revolves. We need not go so far as to say with
the author whom I lately quoted that any persistent enthusiasm
is, as such, religion, nor need we call mere laughter a religious
exercise; but we must admit that any persistent enjoyment may
PRODUCE the sort of religion which consists in a grateful
admiration of the gift of so happy an existence; and we must also
acknowledge that the more complex ways of experiencing religion
are new manners of producing happiness, wonderful inner paths to
a supernatural kind of happiness, when the first gift of natural
existence is unhappy, as it so often proves itself to be.
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