Better Gutenberg
Free, beautifully formatted public-domain ebooks
‹Better GutenbergThe Pursuit of HappinessPart II — How Far Our Happiness Depends on Nature and Fate · 3 of 29Contents›

The Pursuit of Happiness

by Daniel G. Brinton

3 of 29 · Contents · Download EPUB

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

← Back to The Pursuit of Happiness

Scroll to Top