For Happiness is non-selfish.
But non-selfishness, after all, is a negative.
Happiness does indeed include negative merits, but it is also positive and radiating and infectious. When we ask what we can do for others, one answer is, we can keep happy. Here, again, Larson’s words are to the point:—
“He who is always glad is always adding to the welfare of every member of the race. The great soul is always in search of ways and means for adding to the welfare of others. But no way is better, greater, or more far reaching than this. To be glad at all times is to be of greater service to mankind than any other thing we can do. Consider how all things change when the glad soul arrives, and how all work becomes lighter when the spirit of joy is abroad. And every man has the power to dispense the spirit of joy wherever he may work or live.
“Work in the spirit of joy, and your work will be the product of joy—a rare product—the best of its kind.”
Therefore, keep happy.
To help all those with whom you live, and many beyond this narrow circle, keep happy.
To help your children and posterity, whether you already are or are going to be a father or mother, keep happy.
The relation of a parent (or of any one who has charge of children) to children, illustrates well how our states of mind react upon ourselves. Be happy with children, and you make them happier, healthier, pleasanter to be with, easier to train. When they are in this favourable condition, you yourself, in turn, have more Happiness and health, partly because your work is more delightful and more successful. And so your Happiness is self-increasing as well as self-radiating.