CHAPTER I.
THE NEW IMPORT OF THE QUESTION.
PAGE The question may seem vague and useless; but if we consider its real meaning we shall see that it is not so 1 In the present day it has acquired a new importance 2 Its exact meaning.

It does not question the fact of human happiness 3 But the nature of happiness, and the permanence of its basis 4 For what we call the higher happiness is essentially a complex thing 5 We cannot be sure that all its elements are permanent 7 Without certain of its elements it has been declared by the wisest men to be valueless 8 And it is precisely the elements in question that modern thought is eliminating 11 It is contended that they have often been eliminated before; and that yet the worth of life has not suffered 13 But this contention is entirely false.

They were never before eliminated as modern thought is eliminating them now 17 The present age can find no genuine parallels in the past 19 Its position is made peculiar by three facts 19 Firstly, by the existence of Christianity 19 Secondly, the insignificance to which science has reduced the earth 23 Thirdly, the intense self-consciousness that has been developed in the modern world 25 It is often said that a parallel to our present case is to be found in Buddhism 27 But this is absolutely false.

Buddhist positivism is the exact reverse of Western positivism 29 In short, the life-problem of our day is distinctly a new and an as yet unanswered one 31.