Hap"pi*ness , n. [From Happy.]
1. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity.
All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!
Shak. 2. An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul
arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the
possession of those circumstances or that state of
being which is attended with enjoyment; the state of being happy; contentment; joyful satisfaction; felicity; blessedness.
3.
Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace; -- used especially
of language.
Some beauties yet
no precepts can declare,
For there's a happiness, as well as care.
Pope. Syn. --
Happiness, Felicity, Blessedness, Bliss. Happiness
is generic, and is applied to
almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; felicity is a more formal
word, and is
used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising
from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections;
bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven.
O happiness! our being's end and aim!
Pope.
Others in virtue
place felicity,
But virtue joined with riches and long life;
In corporal pleasures he, and careless ease.
Milton. His overthrow heaped happiness upon him;
For then, and not
till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little.
Shak.
Hear it pronounced