The Happiest People
SIR,—Janus tells us that Dr. Gallup mentioned to him an attempt in the United States to discover who were the happiest people, and gives some of the conclusions that were reached. It would be interesting to know how happiness was measured. We used to be taught that one of the snags about the philosophy of hedonism was the impossibility or discovering a nedonistic calculus—i.e., a measure of pleasure—though I netieve that the author of Alice in Wonderland once suggested as a basic unit " the amount of pleasure derived by the average man from the consumption of a penny bun." But if there is no reliable means of measuring pleasure, still less, I imagine, can happiness be given an accurate quantitative assessment. Solon's solution of the problem, "Call no man happy until he is dead," is of little practical assistance. Has Dr. Gallup really found the answer ? If so, I hope that he will publish
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