Solved Exercise for Precis writing with Title “Modern Man and Happiness” for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Fully Solved Precis Exercise

Who are really the happiest people It is odd that -ve have no answer really: for with most of us happiness is our beings and aim’ we are sometimes in doubt whether our own balance is on the right side or the wrong. Looking back, I think I can separate the years when I was happy and those when i was unhappy. But perhaps at the time i should have judged differently. We are never either so happy or so miserable z.ls we suppose ourselves to be.

The successful man generally tells us that he was happiest while he was still struggling for his success, or sometimes before he discovered that an ambitious career was open to him. As a rule, the game of life is worth playing, but the struggle is the prize.

It is generally supposed that the young are happier than the old. This seems to me very doubtful. Young people are often very unhappy, torn by conflicting elements in their character which, after a time, come to some kind of a mutual understanding. Robert Browning boldly claims that old age e5, `the best of life’ and some old people agree with him.

The married are supposed to be happier than the single they are certainly less prone to commit suicide; but suicide is not a very good test, and it has been pointed out that married people with no children are not much less suicidal inclined than bachelors and spinsters. Still, as a rule, marriage is probably the happiest state. It all depends on whether the pair are well matched, and very bad choices are. I think, the exception.

On the whole the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except the fact that they are so — a good reason, no doubt. And yet I should not choose a naturally contented temperament as my first request from a fairy godmother. It would be unfortunate if I said, wish to be the happiest man in England’ and promptly found myself locked up in an asylum, a cheerful lunatic who believed himself to be the Emperor of China. For all we know to the contrary, the happiest man in England may be a mad man and none of us would wish to change places with him, and none of us would wish to change places with him. And even if the always cheerful person is perfectly sane, he is without the ‘splendid spur’ which most men need if they are to do much with their lives.

But I have noticed with surprise how often the biographies of great men reveal that they were subject to frequent and severe fits to depression, which the world knew nothing of. Perhaps it is only shallow natured who never feel the tragedy of existence. I can sympathise with the man who wrote: ‘Send me hence ten thousand miles from a face which always smiles’.

And yet the Sermon on the Mount goes far towards ranking worry as one of the deadly sins. Spinoza agrees. Sadness is never justifiable, he says. The medieval monks who must have known the moral dangers of boredom, placed among the Seven Deadly Sins one which they called Acedia. They describe it as a compound of dejection, sloth, and irritability, which makes a man feel that no good is worth doing. We have forgotten the word, and when we are attacked by the thing we blame ourselves or our nerves. But perhaps the monks were right.

Religion is a great source of happiness, because it gives us the right standard of values, and enables us to regard our troubles as ‘a light affliction which is but for a moment’. But the religious temperament is susceptible to more grievous fits of misery than any other.

We hear sometimes of the gaiety which prevails in a monastery or nunnery. I confess that this vapid hilarity rather irritates me. Running away from life ought not to make people happy. Unworldliness based on knowledge of the world is the finest thing on earth: but unworldliness based on ignorance of the world is less admirable.

Very different is the happiness enjoyed by such a saint as the Hindu mystic and Christian missionary, Sadhu Sunder Singh, whose life has just been written by Canon Street. It is one of the most fascinating books that I have read for a long time. The Sadhu has undergone every kind of persecution, including two days at the bottom of a well in Tibet, where he found himself among the decaying corpses of former victims. He lives the life of St. Francis of Assisi, and is as happy as that most Christ—like of saints. An English parlour maid announced him to her mistress as follows: ‘There’s someone come to see you, ma’am, I can’t make nothing of his name, but he looks as if he might be Jesus Christ’. I urge my readers to read The Sadhu. It will make them feel better — or worse, which is much the same thing in this connection. To descend from these heights. The busy are happier than the idle, and the man who has found his work is much happier than the man who has not found it. Recognition by others is essential to all but the strongest and proudest virtue. I think I should put it third among the gifts which I should ask from the fairy godmother above mentioned. I should wish first for wisdom like King Solomon; and by wisdom I mean a just estimate of the relative value of things. My second wish would be for domestic happiness, and my third for the approval of my fellows.

Can we say that some periods of history were happier than others?’ Nobody can doubt that we have fallen upon evil times; and it seems to be true that we take public affairs much more tragically than they did in the eighteenth century. Dr. Johnson lived through the American War, the greatest misfortune that has happened to the British Empire. But this is how he delivers himself about public calamities. Boswell: ‘If they were in Parliament, I should be vexed if things went wrong’, Johnson: ‘That’s cant, Sir. Public affairs vex no man’. Boswell: ‘Have they not vexed yourself a little, sir? Have you not been vexed by all the turbulence of this reign? Johnson: ‘Sir I have never slept an hour less nor eaten an ounce less meat?

We are not so philosophical.

Aids to Vocabulary

1. Prone – bending downward
2. Spur -stimulus
3. Affliction – pain, distress
4. Persecution-harassment
5. Parluor maid-female cook
6. Turbulence – state of being agitated

Points for Precis Writing

1. To trace out the happiest peoples certainly not an easy job.
2. The periods of struggle and young age are often termed as happy ones though even this is disputed
3. The married couples having children are considered to be happier, as they are less prone to committing suicide.
4. Depression is a natural phenomenon and most of the great men pass through it.
5. Religious people are considered comparatively happier but their happiness cannot be considered real.
6. Busy people and especially those who have found their work are happier than idlers.
7. It is difficult to distinguish the periods of history on the basis of happiness.
8. Modern man lacks the philosophical element.

Precis

Strange as it may seem tracing out the happiest people is not an easy job and no tests can be prescribed for it. Of course looking back, one can judge when he was happy and when not he may not have thought the same at that particular time. The successful person often found himself happy at the time of struggle. The struggle often is the prize of the game of life. Youth is also often considered a period of happiness, though it is disputed by many like Browning, who claimed old age to be the best period of life. As a matter of course, married people are considered happier than the unmarried men, because the bachelors are considered more prone to commit suicide. But this tendency is also noticed in childless couples. Over all, it can be stated that the happiest people are the ones .As to have no particular cause to feel thrilled in life. They have nature! contentment and yet this is something that not all will go in for A lunatic in asylum rely be the happiest man and yet none would change places with him The biographies of all great men reveal that they passed through the periods of depression. The ‘Sermon on the Mount’ and Spinoza rank worry as one of the sins. The medieval monks talked of dejection, sloth and irritability as though that made a man feel that one good was worth doing act on has been considered a source of happiness, but it is doubted if running away from life can bring happiness. The happiness enjoyed by Hindu Mystic and Christian Missionary, who underwent different types of persecutions must be rated differently Descending to lower levels the busy people especially those who have found the work to their taste are happier than idlers. Along with happiness, recognition and wisdom are aspired for. It is difficult to single out a particular period of history as happier than the other one. But the modern people have fallen on evil times, as they take the public affairs more seriously than their ancestors, who took even the serious calamities lightly, obviously the modern man lacks the philosophical element.

Suggested Titles:-

1. Modern Man and Happiness
2. Test of Happiness not easy