CHAPTER THREE
THE LAW OF LIFE

The one ineradicable desire of men, placed there by God, is the desire to be happy. Happiness is the final good, the one justification for the Creation. It is then of vital importance to understand how it can be obtained and retained. The answer is that it is the result of loving and being loved by God, and loving and being loved by one's neighbour. In other words, there is a Law of Life, just as there are laws of mathematics, or agriculture, or cookery; and the only way to produce the desired result is to use the proper means. Happiness does not come accidentally, nor by a lucky combination of circumstances, nor by a change of location, nor even by a determination to achieve it in the wrong way. It is just as much a scientific product as is a machine or a good pudding: there is one way to achieve it, and a thousand ways to spoil it!

Everyone desires to be happy, and God desires everybody to be happy. Why then do the Ages of History tell an unrelieved story of unhappiness? The answer is simple: it is because, while everyone desires to be happy, we have all followed each other like a flock of sheep in using the wrong means to achieve this end. Happiness never comes as the result of seeking one's own pleasure, but only as a result of seeking the happiness of others. God has so arranged society that each individual ought to seek the happiness of others in the knowledge that they are all seeking his happiness. His security lies, not in his own unaided efforts, as at present,