ALL mankind are looking for happiness. This is the goal toward which all are striving. They are so constituted that nothing short of happiness can satisfy them. From the cradle to the grave, mortal man goes hungrily, sometimes desperately and fiercely, in pursuit of this thing which so persistently eludes him. In Science and Health (p. 285) we read : "It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what relates more nearly to the happiness of being." Sense-testimony relates only to the beliefs about life; understanding gives a full comprehension of the realities of being. Mother Eve was not more deluded by sense-testimony than is her modern daughter whom the prophetic vision saw down the stretch of the centuries.
If it were not for their subtle and deceitful nature, we would sooner get through with the beliefs of the flesh. The fact remains, however, and with all the saddening effects of the centuries attached to it, that the reason we allow ourselves to be deluded and deceived by these beliefs is that we are not ready to part with them. We still believe that in some manner, in some measure or in some degree, we shall get our happiness from the mortal sense of things. Sense-testimony has expressed itself through the thoughts of mortals in every age. It expresses the mortal or spurious consciousness, and is forever saying, "Ye shall be as gods;" therefore mortals are still believing the agelong lie, and are blindly deceived.
The desire to be happy is normal and natural. The young people starting out in life look into the future, and all the longing of the heart is for complete and permanent happiness. A young man rushes into the cares of business life. He is eager to make money, to accumulate, to build a home and a business, to make a place for himself in the world. He believes his happiness lies in this, and so long as he believes it, he will not change his course; but "when understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis" (Science and Health, p. 322), he will face about, and turn the lie on the sense-testimony which has deluded and deceived him, entangled and imprisoned him, and looking in the right direction, he will find his happiness.
