is not
given thee? Close thy _Byron_; open thy _Goethe_." In effect, happiness
is a relative term, which we can alter as we please by altering the
amount which we demand from life. "Fancy that thou deservest to be
hanged (as is most likely), thou wilt feel it happiness to be only shot:
fancy that thou deservest to be hanged in a hair-halter, it will be a
luxury to die in hemp."

Such teaching is neither sympathetic enough nor positive enough to be of
much use to poor mortals wrestling with their deepest problems. Yet in
the very negation of happiness he discovers a positive religion--the
religion of the Cross, the Worship of Sorrow. Expressed crudely, this
seems to endorse the ascetic fallacy of the value of self-denial for its
own sake. But from that it is saved by the divine element in sorrow
which Christ has brought--"Love not Pleasure; love God. This is the
EVERLASTING YEA, wherein all contradiction is solved: wherein
whoso walks and works, it is well with him."

This still leaves us perilously near to morbidness. The Worship of
Sorrow might well be but a natural and not less morbid reaction from the
former morbidness, the worship of self and happiness. From that,
however, it is saved by the word "works," which is spoken with emphasis
in this connection. So we pass to the last phase of the Everlasting Yea,
in which we return to the thesis upon which we began, viz., that "Doubt
of any sort cannot be removed except by action." "Do the Duty which
_lies nearest thee_, which thou knowest to be a Duty! Thy second Duty
will already have become clearer.... Yes here, in this poor, miserable,
hampered, despicable Actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or
nowhere is thy Ideal; work it out therefrom; and working, believe, live,
be free.... Produce! Produce! Were it but the pitifullest infinitesimal
fraction of a Product, produce it, in God's name! 'Tis the utmost thou
hast in thee; out with it, then. Up, up! Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with thy whole might. Work while it is called Today; for the
Night cometh, wherein no man can work."

Thus the goal of human destiny is not any theory, however true; not any
happiness, however alluring. It is for practical purposes that the
universe is built, and he who would be "in tune with the universe" must
first and last be practical. In various forms this doctrine has
reappeared and shown itself potent. Ritschl based his system on
practical values in religion, and Pro