The prescription to look away from the final end, Happiness, in order to secure that end, may be tested on the example of one of our intermediate pursuits, as Health.  It is not a good thing to be always dwelling on the state of our health:  by doing so, we get into a morbid condition of self-consciousness, which is in itself pernicious.  It does not follow that we are to live at random, without ever giving a thought to our health.  There is a plain middle course.  Guided by our own experience, and by the experience of those that have gone before us, we arrange our plan of life so as to preserve health; and our actions consist in adhering to that plan in the detail.  So long as our scheme answers expectation, we think of nothing but of putting it in force, as occasion arises; we do not dwell upon our states of good health at all.  It is some interruption that makes us self-conscious; and then it is that we have to exercise ourselves about a remedial course.  This, when found, is likewise objectively pursued; our only subjectiveness lies in being aware of gradual recovery; and we are glad to get back to the state of paying no attention to the workings of our viscera.  We do not, therefore, remit our pursuit; only, it is enough to observe the routine of outward actions, whose sole motive is to keep us in health.

The pursuit of the still wider end, Happiness, has much in common with the narrower pursuit.  When we have discovered what things promote, and what things impede our happiness, we transfer our attention to these, as the most direct mode of compassing the end.  If we are satisfied that working for other people brings us happiness, we work accordingly; this is no side aim, it is as direct as any aim can be.  It may involve immediate sacrifice, but that does not alter the case; we can get no considerable happiness from any source without temporary sacrifice.

[HAPPINESS AND VIRTUE DISTINCT AIMS.]

If it be said that the best mode of attaining happiness is to put ourselves entirely out of account, and to work for others exclusively, this, as already noted, is a self-contradiction.  It is to tell people not to think of their own happiness, and yet to know that they are securing that in the most effectual way.  It is also very questionable, indeed absolutely erroneous, in fact.  The most apparent way to secure happiness is to ply all the known means of happiness, just as far as, and no farther than, they are discovered to produce the effect.  We must keep a check upon the methods that we employ, and abandon those that do not answer.  So long as we find happiness in serving others, so long we continue in that course.  And it is a melancholy fact that Pope’s bold assertion—­“Virtue alone is happiness below,”—­cannot be upheld against the stern realities of life.  Life needs to be made up of two aims—­the one, Happiness, the other Virtue, each on its own account.  There is a certain mutual connection of the two, but all attempts at making out their identity are failures.