TEXT B Whether work should be
placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may
perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. There is certainly much work that is
exceedingly weary and an excess of work is always very painful. I think,
however, that provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is
to most people less painful than idleness. There are in work all grades, from
mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of
the work and the abilities of the workers. Most of the work that
most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has
certain great advantages. To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day
without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left
free to fill their own time according to their choice, are at a loss to think of
anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide on,
they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter.
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization,
and at present very few people have reached this level. Moreover the exercise of
choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is
positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the
orders are not too much unpleasant. Most of idle rich men suffer unutterable
boredom as the price of their freedom from toil. At times, they may find relief
by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but number of such
sensation is limited, especially after youth is past. Accordingly the more
intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women
for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of whose
earthshaking importance they are firmly persuaded①.
Work therefore is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventive of
boredom, for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though
uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels
when he has nothing to do with his days②. With this advantage of work
another is associated, namely that it makes holidays much more precious when
they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to impair his vigor,
he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could
possibly find. The second advantage of most paid work and of
some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for
ambition. In most work success is measured by income, and while our capitalistic
society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is
concerned that this measure ceased to be the natural one to apply. The desire
that men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as
for the extra comforts that a higher income can acquire. However dull work may
be, it becomes bear able if it is means of building up a reputation, whether in
the world at large or only in one’s own circle. Which of the following could be the best title for the passage
A.Work and Happiness B.The Last Stage of Civilization C.The Cause of Happiness and Agony D.Pains and Gains