Brief summary of happy people
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Happy People
By William Ralph Inge
In the essay ‘Happy People’ the writer, William Ralph Inge explores the question of what makes people happy and who are considered to be happy people. In the book of Proverbs written by King Solomon, he writes that, ‘Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy’. Robert Browning thanks God that the meanest of his creatures has two soul-sides, one to face the world with and one to show a woman when he loves her. It is very rare for someone to completely share one’s feelings.
According to Inge, for most people, happiness is their being’s end and aim. The author feels that he can easily separate the years when he was happy from the years he was not, but immediately states that one is never either so happy or so miserable as one assumes to be. He feels that the game of life is worth playing, but the struggle is the actual prize.
He opines that young people are unhappy as they have to go through several conflicts. Robert Browning and many old people believe that old age is the best age in one’s life. He feels that marriage too is probably the happiest state when the partners are well matched. He feels that the happiest people are those who don’t have any particular reason to be happy. The writer feels that the happiest man in England may probably be a mad man although no one would want to trade places with such a person.
The biographies of great men reveal that they were subject to frequent and severe fits of depression. The medieval monks placed among the Seven Deadly Sins, one which they called Acedia, which is a compound of dejection, sloth and irritability. Religion is a great source of happiness, although it is prone to more serious misery than any other. Inge is of the opinion that running away from life ought not to make people happy and prefers unworldliness based on knowledge of the world as a better option. He urges readers to read the book, ‘The Sadhu’, which is centred on the life of Sadhu Sundar Singh, who in spite of his travails and persecution, still was as happy as most other Christ-like saints.
The author would like to wish for three gifts from the fairy godmother. The first would be wisdom, the second domestic happiness and the third for the approval of his fellowmen. He disagrees with the views of Napoleon Bonaparte, who felt that a hard heart is a recipe for happiness and feels that a life without affection and sympathy could only give negative kind of happiness. Inge feels that people live in evil times and public affairs are taken more tragically than how they were taken in the eighteenth century. He gives the example of Dr Johnson who lived through the American war and illustrates Johnson’s stance on how well he dealt with public calamities through a dialogue he had with Boswell, who on the other hand was too perturbed by the misfortunes of those times. He finally seems to reiterate the fact that trusting in God’s ability to handle everything happening around us- good or bad- is the secret for our peace and happiness