G. A. Johnston

“ Happiness is not mere pleasure. The man or woman whose life is a ceaseless round of pleasure finds that it soon begins to pall, and the happiness which he seeks is never attained, but vanishes like a will-o'-the-wisp as he goes forward to clutch it. ”

“ Pleasure is a jewel which will only retain its lustre when it is in a setting of work, and a vacant life is one of the worst of pains, though the islands of leisure that stand in a crowded, well-occupied life may be among the things to which we look back with the greatest delight. ”

“ But a man's inclinations are also of importance in the choice of vocation. If I choose my profession or trade merely because it is my duty to do so, quite apart from the question whether I have any liking for it, it is improbable that I shall make the most of life. It is usually fatal for a man to enter an occupation, simply because he is actuated by a strong sense of duty. Unless his inclinations be in accordance with his duty, a feeling of discontent is apt to remain with him all his life. ”

“ The service of art or music or education is vaguely felt to be higher than carpentry or engineering or cooking. But all socially valuable vocations have their part to play in advancing the good of humanity, and all offer worthy lives to those who engage in them. In every one of these trades or professions, the worker may take pleasure in doing his duty, and in the great majority of cases the worker does find his deepest satisfaction in the consciousness of work dutifully done. The professions do not have a monopoly of work that is pleasant. ”

“ Happiness is not a sum or aggregate of pleasures. It is the harmony of pleasure, as it is enjoyed by the man of stable character in a purposeful life. The difference between happiness and pleasure has been admirably stated by Prof. Dewey: "Pleasure is transitory and relative, enduring only while some special activity endures, and having reference only to that activity. Happiness is permanent and universal. It results only when the act is such a one as will satisfy all the interests of the self concerned, or will lead to no conflict, either present or remote. ”

“ If that be done, it is always at the expense of the self as a whole. Those who speak most about their rights of self-assertion in the narrow individualist sense, do not realise that the reason why the matter occupies so much of their attention is precisely that they have no self to assert. As we say, they do not know what to do with themselves. They have chosen no vocation, they have entered on no walk of life in which to realise a character. When a man identifies himself with a worthy cause, he ceases to harp on his right of self-assertion. ”

“ But the completest loyalty to vocation can be rendered only by those who not only know that they have chosen their vocation, but feel that they have been chosen by it and for it. In all that we have said about vocation no reference has yet been made to this most important point. A man's vocation is not merely what he has chosen, it is also that to which he has been called. A man, then, should feel that he is called to discharge the obligations of his vocation. Now, by what is he called? In some cases, no doubt, he may be called by his birth or inclinations or natural capacities. ”

“ But, from the ethical standpoint, compromise is not the true solution of the dispute between self-denial and self-assertion, between altruism and egoism. This will become clear if we bear in mind the meaning of the self. The self, we insist, is social; it is the whole man, considered not as an isolated unit, but as part of a family, an organ in a body-politic, and a member of a religious community. While retaining his own individuality he merges his interests, desires, aspirations, and duties in those of the family and community of which he is a part. ”

“ First, then, we have to show that the so-called higher callings have no monopoly of happiness. But we must begin by frankly recognising that to two great classes of workers the attainment of happiness, as the harmony of duty and pleasure, is, unless in very exceptional circumstances, impossible.
For the sweated worker happiness is hardly possible. But it is now widely recognised that sweated labour is immoral. It is a thing which ought not to be. The laws of many lands have acknowledged this by prohibiting some of its more glaring forms. Sweated labour is no vocation at all. ”

“ Many a man has fulfilled his vocation very indifferently as a minister or doctor, who might have done more for the world had he been content to be a good artisan. Every calling, however humble, offers the possibility of realising a good character and fulfilling a noble vocation; and when once a man has chosen an occupation, it is generally his duty to "make the best of it" in the truest sense. The possibility of forming a strong character depends, in general, on identifying oneself with some one worthy occupation. ”

“ But if one does one's duty with a willingness to take pleasure in it, it gradually becomes more and more pleasant in itself." In early youth, we are accustomed to divide life broadly into work and play, regarding the first as duty or necessity and the second as pleasure. One of the great differences between childhood and manhood is that we come to like our work more than our play. It becomes to us, if not the chief pleasure, at least the chief interest of our lives, and even when it is not this, an essential condition of our happiness. ”

“ The school should aim at securing that the child, with his capacity for cherishing ideals, should take the highest of all as his ideals. If the child forms low ideals, his work will be poor, and the occupation which he chooses will be regarded by him as merely monotonous drudgery, from which he is ever seeking escape. On the other hand, if his ideals are lofty, the toil of his trade or profession will be transformed by them. He will endeavour to produce the best work possible, for only so will he be realising his ideals. ”

“ It comes to understand that it may derive pleasure, not from courses of action that are undutiful, but from the very performance of its duty. The man whose life is well and worthily organised finds that pleasure and duty are not in eternal conflict. His life as a whole is the carrying out of his duty; but his life as a whole is a pleasant one, precisely because it is a life which is loyally devoted to duty. And this is happiness. The happy life is that in which duty is pleasant, and pleasure does not conflict with duty. ”

“ It must be really a vocation. He should feel the call of duty towards it, but he should also feel that his happiness consists in obeying the call. It should be a walk in life into which both duty and pleasure alike conspire to guide him. The boy has a right to choose the occupation to which he intends to devote himself.
It is every year becoming more possible for the average boy to select the career for which he is best fitted. However low his father's position, if the boy have capacity and ambition, he can raise himself to any level. ”

“ This strength of the man himself, this resolution, energy, and self-mastery, or, in short, this 'vigour,' is the source of all progress: it shows itself in great deeds, in great thoughts, and in the capacity for true religious feeling." [3] Even the toil of the navvy may be a school of virtue.
In the various trades and professions, the opportunities of living the good life differ very little. Almost every one of them offers a vocation that is worth fulfilling. Almost every one of them provides a walk in life in which character may be developed and duty and pleasure harmonised. ”

“ Self-assertion and Self-repression. Is the moral ideal self-denial or self-affirmation? Does duty consist in the assertion of myself or the negation of myself? Am I to seek my own interests or the interests of others? Ought I to be egoistic or altruistic? This problem has given rise to as much discussion among moralists as any other.
On the one hand, there is a persistent tendency to maintain that self-denial is the highest moral ideal. It is a man's duty, on this theory, to renounce the self with all its desires and interests and inclinations. ”

“ But if his sense of vocation is based on religion, he may still believe that he is of value. He may still be upheld by the conviction that even though society seems to have no use for him, he is of infinite worth in the sight of God. Christianity has always insisted on the value of the individual soul. Every man, however humble, is called of God to some vocation which he, and he alone, can fulfil. ”

“ No man can truly be said to have a vocation at all, unless he is trying to realise a comprehensive ideal in life. A comprehensive ideal organises all the purposes of a man, so that they do not conflict, but work together harmoniously in the fulfilling of his vocation. ”

“ The question immediately arises, How is the boy or young man to know what is his vocation, and in what particular occupation he will be best able to fulfil it? This is the most difficult practical problem that the youth is ever called upon to face. Of course, there are some boys who do not need to consider the question at all. If the boy is heir to an estate or great business, it is his duty to take the place which birth has assigned to him. And in other cases the father or mother decides for the boy what trade or profession he is to follow, and he is forced into this. ”

“ Anyone who has been taken through engineering works of any kind, and who has entered into conversation with the workers, must have been impressed with the interest the men take in their machines and their work, and the pride and pleasure they show in explaining the mechanism and processes. The machine with which they work seems to have become a part of themselves. The workers feel that their machines have grown to know them, and they take pleasure in collaborating with these mechanical partners. ”

“ The child is destined to live his life in performing the duties and enjoying the rights of his vocation; and in a very real sense all education must be vocational. All education must be directed to help the child to fulfil his vocation with the most satisfaction to himself and the greatest advantage to the community. But it is a real question whether education should be general or occupational. "Occupational" and "vocational" are not synonymous. A man's real vocation in life may be very much wider than his occupation. ”

“ And so, when a man denies himself for the sake of his family or country or the kingdom of God, what he does is to sacrifice those interests which are private to his individual self, for the sake of that more comprehensive self (family or church or state) which in his best moments he regards as his real self.
It is this real self that is to be asserted. It is mischievous to try to assert some one fragmentary aspect of the self. ”

“ In the elementary school occupational education should have no place. The elementary school system does not exist to turn out workmen; it exists to turn out men. It aims at laying the foundations of character, of mental ability, and of manual skill. It is no part of its task to specialise character or intelligence or skill in any one particular direction. It must try as far as it can, in the short years at its disposal, to raise to the highest possible level the general capacities of the child. This is not to say that the work of the child in school must be exclusively book-work. ”

“ Their sense of vocation may connect itself with their loyalty to the state. They may believe that their duty consists in the faithful performance of the tasks of the sphere of life which has been assigned to them by society.
The value of a sense of vocation, whether inspired by God or society, may be put in very simple terms. The important thing in life is that we should be able to feel that the work we are doing and the life we are living are of some value and significance in the world. ”

“ VOCATION.
§ 1. Pleasure, Duty, and Happiness. The young child sharply distinguishes between pleasure and duty. What gives it pleasure is the thing it wants to do; while duty always seems to be what it does not want to do. Duty is unpleasant, and pleasure is apt to be undutiful. But the child gradually comes to see that duty is not necessarily externally imposed by some alien power. It realises that it is free, and that it can impose its duties on itself. Similarly, the child begins to recognise that stolen pleasures are not always the sweetest. ”

“ Now, it is sometimes easy to be possessed by the conviction that we are necessary organs in the body-politic, integral elements in the life of society. During the War the shipyard worker and the engineer in the munition-factory can realise that they are necessary members of the community, and that in performing the tasks of their vocation faithfully they are contributing to the good of the state as a whole. But times come when the state seems to have no use for some of its citizens. They are "unemployed." ”