,,the ,,human ,,machine ,,by ,,arnold ,,bennett ,first ,published ,november #aijh ,second ,edition ,september #aiaj ,third ,edition ,april #aiaa ,fourth ,edition ,august #aiab ,fifth ,edition ,january #aiac ,sixth ,edition ,august #aiac ,,contents ,i ,,taking ,,oneself ,,for ,,granted ,,ii ,,amateurs ,,in ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,living ,,iii ,,the ,,brain ,,as ,a ,,gentleman-,,at-,,large ,,iv ,,the ,,first ,,practical ,,step ,v ,,habit-,,forming ,,by ,,concentration ,,vi ,,lord ,,over ,,the ,,noddle ,,vii ,,what ',,living' ,,chiefly ,,is ,,viii ,,the ,,daily ,,friction ,,ix ',,fire6' ,x ,,mischievously ,,overworking ,,it ,,xi ,,an ,,interlude ,,xii ,,an ,,interest ,,in ,,life ,,xiii ,,success ,,and ,,failure ,,xiv ,a ,,man ,,and ,,his ,,environment ,,xv ,l4,s4,d4 ,,xvi ,,reason1 ,,reason6 ,i ,,taking ,,oneself ,,for ,,granted ,there are men who are capable of loving a machine more deeply than they can love a woman4 ,they are among the happiest men on earth4 ,this is not a sneer meanly shot from cover at women4 ,it is simply a statement of notorious fact4 ,men who worry themselves to distraction over the perfecting of a machine are indubitably blessed beyond their kind4 ,most of us have known such men4 ,yesterday they were constructing motorcars4 ,but to-day aeroplanes are in the air--or1 at any rate1 they ought to be1 according to the inventors4 ,watch the inventors4 ,invention is not usually their principal business4 ,they must invent in their spare time4 ,they must invent before breakfast1 invent in the ,strand between ,lyons's and the office1 invent after dinner1 invent on ,sundays4 ,see with what ardour they rush home of a night6 ,see how they seize a half-holiday1 like hungry dogs a bone6 ,they don't want golf1 bridge1 limericks1 novels1 illustrated magazines1 clubs1 whisky1 starting-prices1 hints about neckties1 political meetings1 yarns1 comic songs1 anturic salts1 nor the smiles that are situate between a gay corsage and a picture hat4 ,they never wonder1 at a loss1 what they will do next4 ,their evenings never drag--are always too short4 ,you may1 indeed1 catch them at twelve o'clock at night on the flat of their backs2 but not in bed6 ,no1 in a shed1 under a machine1 holding a candle 7whose paths drop fatness7 up to the connecting-rod that is strained1 or the wheel that is out of centre4 ,they are continually interested1 nay1 enthralled4 ,they have a machine1 and they are perfecting it4 ,they get one part right1 and then another goes wrong2 and they get that right1 and then another goes wrong1 and so on4 ,when they are quite sure they have reached perfection1 forth issues the machine out of the shed--and in five minutes is smashed up1 together with a limb or so of the inventors1 just because they had been quite sure too soon4 ,then the whole business starts again4 ,they do not give up--that particular wreck was1 of course1 due to a mere oversight2 the whole business starts again4 ,for they have glimpsed perfection2 they have the gleam of perfection in their souls4 ,thus their lives run away4 ',they will never fly6' you remark1 cynically4 ,well1 if they don't8 ,besides1 what about ,wright8 ,with all your cynicism1 have you never envied them their machine and their passionate interest in it8 ,you know1 perhaps1 the moment when1 brushing in front of the glass1 you detected your first grey hair4 ,you stopped brushing2 then you resumed brushing1 hastily2 you pretended not to be shocked1 but you were4 ,perhaps you know a more disturbing moment than that1 the moment when it suddenly occurred to you that you had 'arrived' as far as you ever will arrive2 and you had realised as much of your early dream as you ever will realise1 and the realisation was utterly unlike the dream2 the marriage was excessively prosaic and eternal1 not at all what you expected it to be2 and your illusions were dissipated2 and games and hobbies had an unpleasant core of tedium and futility2 and the ideal tobacco-mixture did not exist2 and one literary masterpiece resembled another2 and all the days that are to come will more or less resemble the present day1 until you die2 and in an illuminating flash you understood what all those people were driving at when they wrote such unconscionably long letters to the ,telegraph as to life being worth living or not worth living2 and there was naught to be done but face the grey1 monotonous future1 and pretend to be cheerful with the worm of ennui gnawing at your heart6 ,in a word1 the moment when it occurred to you that yours is 'the common lot4' ,in that moment have you not wished--do you not continually wish--for an exhaustless machine1 a machine that you could never get to the end of8 ,would you not give your head to be lying on the flat of your back1 peering with a candle1 dirty1 foiled1 catching cold--but absorbed in the pursuit of an object8 ,have you not gloomily regretted that you were born without a mechanical turn1 because there is really something about a machine4448 ,it has never struck you that you do possess a machine6 ,oh1 blind6 ,oh1 dull6 ,it has never struck you that you have at hand a machine wonderful beyond all mechanisms in sheds1 intricate1 delicately adjustable1 of astounding and miraculous possibilities1 interminably interesting6 ,that machine is yourself4 ',this fellow is preaching4 ,i won't have it6' you exclaim resentfully4 ,dear sir1 ,i am not preaching1 and1 even if ,i were1 ,i think you would have it4 ,i think ,i can anyhow keep hold of your button for a while1 though you pull hard4 ,i am not preaching4 ,i am simply bent on calling your attention to a fact which has perhaps wholly or partially escaped you--namely1 that you are the most fascinating bit of machinery that ever was4 ,you do yourself less than justice4 ,it is said that men are only interested in themselves4 ,the truth is that1 as a rule1 men are interested in every mortal thing except themselves4 ,they have a habit of taking themselves for granted1 and that habit is responsible for nine-tenths of the boredom and despair on the face of the planet4 ,a man will wake up in the middle of the night 7usually owing to some form of delightful excess71 and his brain will be very active indeed for a space ere he can go to sleep again4 ,in that candid hour1 after the exaltation of the evening and before the hope of the dawn1 he will see everything in its true colours--except himself4 ,there is nothing like a sleepless couch for a clear vision of one's environment4 ,he will see all his wife's faults and the hopelessness of trying to cure them4 ,he will momentarily see1 though with less sharpness of outline1 his own faults4 ,he will probably decide that the anxieties of children outweigh the joys connected with children4 ,he will admit all the shortcomings of existence1 will face them like a man1 grimly1 sourly1 in a sturdy despair4 ,he will mutter3 ',of course ,i'm angry6 ,who wouldn't be8 ,of course ,i'm disappointed6 ,did ,i expect this twenty years ago8 ,yes1 we ought to save more4 ,but we don't1 so there you are6 ,i'm bound to worry6 ,i know ,i should be better if ,i didn't smoke so much4 ,i know there's absolutely no sense at all in taking liqueurs4 ,absurd to be ruffled with her when she's in one of her moods4 ,i don't have enough exercise4 ,can't be regular1 somehow4 ,not the slightest use hoping that things will be different1 because ,i know they won't4 ,queer world6 ,never really what you may call happy1 you know4 ,now1 if things were different 444' ,he loses consciousness4 ,observe3 he has taken himself for granted1 just glancing at his faults and looking away again4 ,it is his environment that has occupied his attention1 and his environment--'things'--that he would wish to have 'different1' did he not know1 out of the fulness of experience1 that it is futile to desire such a change8 ,what he wants is a pipe that won't put itself into his mouth1 a glass that won't leap of its own accord to his lips1 money that won't slip untouched out of his pocket1 legs that without asking will carry him certain miles every day in the open air1 habits that practise themselves1 a wife that will expand and contract according to his humours1 like a ,wernicke bookcase1 always complete but never finished4 ,wise man1 he perceives at once that he can't have these things4 ,and so he resigns himself to the universe1 and settles down to a permanent1 restrained discontent4 ,no one shall say he is unreasonable4 ,you see1 he has given no attention to the machine4 ,let us not call it a flying-machine4 ,let us call it simply an automobile4 ,there it is on the road1 jolting1 screeching1 rattling1 perfuming4 ,and there he is1 saying3 ',this road ought to be as smooth as velvet4 ,that hill in front is ridiculous1 and the descent on the other side positively dangerous4 ,and it's all turns--,i can't see a hundred yards in front4' ,he has a wild idea of trying to force the ,county ,council to sand-paper the road1 or of employing the new ,territorial ,army to remove the hill4 ,but he dismisses that idea--he is so reasonable4 ,he accepts all4 ,he sits clothed in reasonableness on the machine1 and accepts all4 ',ass6' you exclaim4 ',why doesn't he get down and inflate that tyre1 for one thing8 ,anyone can see the sparking apparatus is wrong1 and it's perfectly certain the gear-box wants oil4 ,why doesn't he--8' ,i will tell you why he doesn't4 ,just because he isn't aware that he is on a machine at all4 ,he has never examined what he is on4 ,and at the back of his consciousness is a dim idea that he is perched on a piece of solid1 immutable rock that runs on castors4 ,,ii ,,amateurs ,,in ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,living ,considering that we have to spend the whole of our lives in this human machine1 considering that it is our sole means of contact and compromise with the rest of the world1 we really do devote to it very little attention4 ,when ,i say 'we1' ,i mean our inmost spirits1 the instinctive part1 the mystery within that exists4 ,and when ,i say 'the human machine' ,i mean the brain and the body--and chiefly the brain4 ,the expression of the soul by means of the brain and body is what we call the art of 'living4' ,we certainly do not learn this art at school to any appreciable extent4 ,at school we are taught that it is necessary to fling our arms and legs to and fro for so many hours per diem4 ,we are also shown1 practically1 that our brains are capable of performing certain useful tricks1 and that if we do not compel our brains to perform those tricks we shall suffer4 ,thus one day we run home and proclaim to our delighted parents that eleven twelves are #acb4 ,a feat of the brain6 ,so it goes on until our parents begin to look up to us because we can chatter of cosines or sketch the foreign policy of ,louis ,,xiv4 ,good6 ,but not a word about the principles of the art of living yet6 ,only a few detached rules from our parents1 to be blindly followed when particular crises supervene4 ,and1 indeed1 it would be absurd to talk to a schoolboy about the expression of his soul4 ,he would probably mutter a monosyllable which is not 'mice4' ,of course1 school is merely a preparation for living2 unless one goes to a university1 in which case it is a preparation for university4 ,one is supposed to turn one's attention to living when these preliminaries are over--say at the age of about twenty4 ,assuredly one lives then2 there is1 however1 nothing new in that1 for one has been living all the time1 in a fashion2 all the time one has been using the machine without understanding it4 ,but does one1 school and college being over1 enter upon a study of the machine8 ,not a bit4 ,the question then becomes1 not how to live1 but how to obtain and retain a position in which one will be able to live2 how to get minute portions of dead animals and plants which one can swallow1 in order not to die of hunger2 how to acquire and constantly renew a stock of other portions of dead animals and plants in which one can envelop oneself in order not to die of cold2 how to procure the exclusive right of entry into certain huts where one may sleep and eat without being rained upon by the clouds of heaven4 ,and so forth4 ,and when one has realised this ambition1 there comes the desire to be able to double the operation and do it1 not for oneself alone1 but for oneself and another4 ,marriage6 ,but no scientific sustained attention is yet given to the real business of living1 of smooth intercourse1 of self-expression1 of conscious adaptation to environment--in brief1 to the study of the machine4 ,at thirty the chances are that a man will understand better the draught of a chimney than his own respiratory apparatus--to name one of the simple1 obvious things--and as for understanding the working of his own brain--what an idea6 ,as for the skill to avoid the waste of power involved by friction in the business of living1 do we give an hour to it in a month8 ,do we ever at all examine it save in an amateurish and clumsy fashion8 ,a young lady produces a water-colour drawing4 ',very nice6' we say1 and add1 to ourselves1 ',for an amateur4' ,but our living is more amateurish than that young lady's drawing2 though surely we ought every one of us to be professionals at living6 ,when we have been engaged in the preliminaries to living for about fifty-five years1 we begin to think about slacking off4 ,up till this period our reason for not having scientifically studied the art of living--the perfecting and use of the finer parts of the machine--is not that we have lacked leisure 7most of us have enormous heaps of leisure71 but that we have simply been too absorbed in the preliminaries1 have1 in fact1 treated the preliminaries to the business as the business itself4 ,then at fifty-five we ought at last to begin to live our lives with professional skill1 as a professional painter paints pictures4 ,yes1 but we can't4 ,it is too late then4 ,neither painters1 nor acrobats1 nor any professionals can be formed at the age of fifty-five4 ,thus we finish our lives amateurishly1 as we have begun them4 ,and when the machine creaks and sets our teeth on edge1 or refuses to obey the steering-wheel and deposits us in the ditch1 we say3 ',can't be helped6' or ',doesn't matter6 ,it will be all the same a hundred years hence6' or3 ',i must make the best of things4' ,and we try to believe that in accepting the status quo we have justified the status quo1 and all the time we feel our insincerity4 ,you exclaim that ,i exaggerate4 ,i do4 ,to force into prominence an aspect of affairs usually overlooked1 it is absolutely necessary to exaggerate4 ,poetic licence is one name for this kind of exaggeration4 ,but ,i exaggerate very little indeed1 much less than perhaps you think4 ,i know that you are going to point out to me that vast numbers of people regularly spend a considerable portion of their leisure in striving after self-improvement4 ,granted6 ,and ,i am glad of it4 ,but ,i should be gladder if their strivings bore more closely upon the daily business of living1 of self-expression without friction and without futile desires4 ,see this man who regularly studies every evening of his life6 ,he has genuinely understood the nature of poetry1 and his taste is admirable4 ,he recites verse with true feeling1 and may be said to be highly cultivated4 ,poetry is a continual source of pleasure to him4 ,true6 ,but why is he always complaining about not receiving his deserts in the office8 ,why is he worried about finance8 ,why does he so often sulk with his wife8 ,why does he persist in eating more than his digestion will tolerate8 ,it was not written in the book of fate that he should complain and worry and sulk and suffer4 ,and if he was a professional at living he would not do these things4 ,there is no reason why he should do them1 except the reason that he has never learnt his business1 never studied the human machine as a whole1 never really thought rationally about living4 ,supposing you encountered an automobilist who was swerving and grinding all over the road1 and you stopped to ask what was the matter1 and he replied3 ',never mind what's the matter4 ,just look at my lovely acetylene lamps1 how they shine1 and how ,i've polished them6' ,you would not regard him as a ,clifford-,earp1 or even as an entirely sane man4 ,so with our student of poetry4 ,it is indubitable that a large amount of what is known as self-improvement is simply self-indulgence--a form of pleasure which only incidentally improves a particular part of the machine1 and even that to the neglect of far more important parts4 ,my aim is to direct a man's attention to himself as a whole1 considered as a machine1 complex and capable of quite extraordinary efficiency1 for travelling through this world smoothly1 in any desired manner1 with satisfaction not only to himself but to the people he meets en route1 and the people who are overtaking him and whom he is overtaking4 ,my aim is to show that only an inappreciable fraction of our ordered and sustained efforts is given to the business of actual living1 as distinguished from the preliminaries to living4 ,,iii ,,the ,,brain ,,as ,a ,,gentleman-,,at-,,large ,it is not as if1 in this business of daily living1 we were seriously hampered by ignorance either as to the results which we ought to obtain1 or as to the general means which we must employ in order to obtain them4 ,with all our absorption in the mere preliminaries to living1 and all our carelessness about living itself1 we arrive pretty soon at a fairly accurate notion of what satisfactory living is1 and we perceive with some clearness the methods necessary to success4 ,i have pictured the man who wakes up in the middle of the night and sees the horrid semi-fiasco of his life4 ,but let me picture the man who wakes up refreshed early on a fine summer morning and looks into his mind with the eyes of hope and experience1 not experience and despair4 ,that man will pass a delightful half-hour in thinking upon the scheme of the universe as it affects himself4 ,he is quite clear that contentment depends on his own acts1 and that no power can prevent him from performing those acts4 ,he plans everything out1 and before he gets up he knows precisely what he must and will do in certain foreseen crises and junctures4 ,he sincerely desires to live efficiently--who would wish to make a daily mess of existence8--and he knows the way to realise the desire4 ,and yet1 mark me6 ,that man will not have been an hour on his feet on this difficult earth before the machine has unmistakably gone wrong3 the machine which was designed to do this work of living1 which is capable of doing it thoroughly well1 but which has not been put into order6 ,what is the use of consulting the map of life and tracing the itinerary1 and getting the machine out of the shed1 and making a start1 if half the nuts are loose1 or the steering pillar is twisted1 or there is no petrol in the tank8 7,having asked this question1 ,i will drop the mechanico-vehicular comparison1 which is too rough and crude for the delicacy of the subject47 ,where has the human machine gone wrong8 ,it has gone wrong in the brain4 ,what1 is he 'wrong in the head'8 ,most assuredly1 most strictly4 ,he knows--none better--that when his wife employs a particular tone containing ten grains of asperity1 and he replies in a particular tone containing eleven grains1 the consequences will be explosive4 ,he knows1 on the other hand1 that if he replies in a tone containing only one little drop of honey1 the consequences may not be unworthy of two reasonable beings4 ,he knows this4 ,his brain is fully instructed4 ,and lo6 his brain1 while arguing that women are really too absurd 7as if that was the point71 is sending down orders to the muscles of the throat and mouth which result in at least eleven grains of asperity1 and conjugal relations are endangered for the day4 ,he didn't want to do it4 ,his desire was not to do it4 ,he despises himself for doing it4 ,but his brain was not in working order4 ,his brain ran away--'raced'--on its own account1 against reason1 against desire1 against morning resolves--and there he is6 ,that is just one example1 of the simplest and slightest4 ,examples can be multiplied4 ,the man may be a young man whose immediate future depends on his passing an examination--an examination which he is capable of passing 'on his head1' which nothing can prevent him from passing if only his brain will not be so absurd as to give orders to his legs to walk out of the house towards the tennis court instead of sending them upstairs to the study2 if only1 having once safely lodged him in the study1 his brain will devote itself to the pages of books instead of dwelling on the image of a nice girl--not at all like other girls4 ,or the man may be an old man who will live in perfect comfort if only his brain will not interminably run round and round in a circle of grievances1 apprehensions1 and fears which no amount of contemplation can destroy or even ameliorate4 ,the brain1 the brain--that is the seat of trouble6 ',well1' you say1 'of course it is4 ,we all know that6' ,we don't act as if we did1 anyway4 ',give us more brains1 ,lord6' ejaculated a great writer4 ,personally1 ,i think he would have been wiser if he had asked first for the power to keep in order such brains as we have4 ,we indubitably possess quite enough brains1 quite as much as we can handle4 ,the supreme muddlers of living are often people of quite remarkable intellectual faculty1 with a quite remarkable gift of being wise for others4 ,the pity is that our brains have a way of 'wandering1' as it is politely called4 ,brain-wandering is indeed now recognised as a specific disease4 ,i wonder what you1 ,o business man with an office in ,ludgate ,circus1 would say to your office-boy1 whom you had dispatched on an urgent message to ,westminster1 and whom you found larking around ,euston ,station when you rushed to catch your week-end train4 ',please1 sir1 ,i started to go to ,westminster1 but there's something funny in my limbs that makes me go up all manner of streets4 ,i can't help it1 sir6' ',can't you8' you would say4 ',well1 you had better go and be somebody else's office-boy4' ,your brain is something worse than that office-boy1 something more insidiously potent for evil4 ,i conceive the brain of the average well-intentioned man as possessing the tricks and manners of one of those gentlemen-at-large who1 having nothing very urgent to do1 stroll along and offer their services gratis to some shorthanded work of philanthropy4 ,they will commonly demoralise and disorganise the business conduct of an affair in about a fortnight4 ,they come when they like2 they go when they like4 ,sometimes they are exceedingly industrious and obedient1 but then there is an even chance that they will shirk and follow their own sweet will4 ,and they mustn't be spoken to1 or pulled up--for have they not kindly volunteered1 and are they not giving their days for naught6 ,these persons are the bane of the enterprises in which they condescend to meddle4 ,now1 there is a vast deal too much of the gentleman-at-large about one's brain4 ,one's brain has no right whatever to behave as a gentleman-at-large3 but it in fact does4 ,it forgets2 it flatly ignores orders2 at the critical moment when pressure is highest1 it simply lights a cigarette and goes out for a walk4 ,and we meekly sit down under this behaviour6 ',i didn't feel like stewing1' says the young man who1 against his wish1 will fail in his examination4 ',the words were out of my mouth before ,i knew it1' says the husband whose wife is a woman4 ',i couldn't get any inspiration to-day1' says the artist4 ',i can't resist ,stilton1' says the fellow who is dying of greed4 ',one can't help one's thoughts1' says the old worrier4 ,and this last really voices the secret excuse of all five4 ,and you all say to me3 ',my brain is myself4 ,how can ,i alter myself8 ,i was born like that4' ,in the first place you were not born 'like that1' you have lapsed to that4 ,and in the second place your brain is not yourself4 ,it is only a part of yourself1 and not the highest seat of authority4 ,do you love your mother1 wife1 or children with your brain8 ,do you desire with your brain8 ,do you1 in a word1 ultimately and essentially live with your brain8 ,no4 ,your brain is an instrument4 ,the proof that it is an instrument lies in the fact that1 when extreme necessity urges1 you can command your brain to do certain things1 and it does them4 ,the first of the two great principles which underlie the efficiency of the human machine is this3 ,the brain is a servant1 exterior to the central force of the ,ego4 ,if it is out of control the reason is not that it is uncontrollable1 but merely that its discipline has been neglected4 ,the brain can be trained1 as the hand and eye can be trained2 it can be made as obedient as a sporting dog1 and by similar methods4 ,in the meantime the indispensable preparation for brain discipline is to form the habit of regarding one's brain as an instrument exterior to one's self1 like a tongue or a foot4 ,,iv ,,the ,,first ,,practical ,,step ,the brain is a highly quaint organism4 ,let me say at once1 lest ,i should be cannonaded by physiologists1 psychologists1 or metaphysicians1 that by the 'brain' ,i mean the faculty which reasons and which gives orders to the muscles4 ,i mean exactly what the plain man means by the brain4 ,the brain is the diplomatist which arranges relations between our instinctive self and the universe1 and it fulfils its mission when it provides for the maximum of freedom to the instincts with the minimum of friction4 ,it argues with the instincts4 ,it takes them on one side and points out the unwisdom of certain performances4 ,it catches them by the coat-tails when they are about to make fools of themselves4 ',don't drink all that iced champagne at a draught1' it says to one instinct2 'we may die of it4' ',don't catch that rude fellow one in the eye1' it says to another instinct2 'he is more powerful than us4' ,it is1 in fact1 a majestic spectacle of common sense4 ,and yet it has the most extraordinary lapses4 ,it is just like that man--we all know him and consult him--who is a continual fount of excellent1 sagacious advice on everything1 but who somehow cannot bring his sagacity to bear on his own personal career4 ,in the matter of its own special activities the brain is usually undisciplined and unreliable4 ,we never know what it will do next4 ,we give it some work to do1 say1 as we are walking along the street to the office4 ,perhaps it has to devise some scheme for making #aej suffice for #bjj1 or perhaps it has to plan out the heads of a very important letter4 ,we meet a pretty woman1 and away that undisciplined1 sagacious brain runs after her1 dropping the scheme or the draft letter1 and amusing itself with aspirations or regrets for half an hour1 an hour1 sometimes a day4 ,the serious part of our instinctive self feebly remonstrates1 but without effect4 ,or it may be that we have suffered a great disappointment1 which is definite and hopeless4 ,will the brain1 like a sensible creature1 leave that disappointment alone1 and instead of living in the past live in the present or the future8 ,not it6 ,though it knows perfectly well that it is wasting its time and casting a very painful and utterly unnecessary gloom over itself and us1 it can so little control its unhealthy morbid appetite that no expostulations will induce it to behave rationally4 ,or perhaps1 after a confabulation with the soul1 it has been decided that when next a certain harmful instinct comes into play the brain shall firmly interfere4 ',yes1' says the brain1 ',i really will watch that4' ,but when the moment arrives1 is the brain on the spot8 ,the brain has probably forgotten the affair entirely1 or remembered it too late2 or sighs1 as the victorious instinct knocks it on the head3 ',well1 next time6' ,all this1 and much more that every reader can supply from his own exciting souvenirs1 is absurd and ridiculous on the part of the brain4 ,it is a conclusive proof that the brain is out of condition1 idle as a nigger1 capricious as an actor-manager1 and eaten to the core with loose habits4 ,therefore the brain must be put into training4 ,it is the most important part of the human machine by which the soul expresses and develops itself1 and it must learn good habits4 ,and primarily it must be taught obedience4 ,obedience can only be taught by imposing one's will1 by the sheer force of volition4 ,and the brain must be mastered by will-power4 ,the beginning of wise living lies in the control of the brain by the will2 so that the brain may act according to the precepts which the brain itself gives4 ,with an obedient disciplined brain a man may live always right up to the standard of his best moments4 ,to teach a child obedience you tell it to do something1 and you see that that something is done4 ,the same with the brain4 ,here is the foundation of an efficient life and the antidote for the tendency to make a fool of oneself4 ,it is marvellously simple4 ,say to your brain3 ',from #i o'clock to #i4cj this morning you must dwell without ceasing on a particular topic which ,i will give you4' ,now1 it doesn't matter what this topic is--the point is to control and invigorate the brain by exercise--but you may just as well give it a useful topic to think over as a futile one4 ,you might give it this3 ',my brain is my servant4 ,i am not the play-thing of my brain4' ,let it concentrate on these statements for thirty minutes4 ',what8' you cry4 ',is this the way to an efficient life8 ,why1 there's nothing in it6' ,simple as it may appear1 this is the way1 and it is the only way4 ,as for there being nothing in it1 try it4 ,i guarantee that you will fail to keep your brain concentrated on the given idea for thirty seconds--let alone thirty minutes4 ,you will find your brain conducting itself in a manner which would be comic were it not tragic4 ,your first experiments will result in disheartening failure1 for to exact from the brain1 at will and by will1 concentration on a given idea for even so short a period as half an hour is an exceedingly difficult feat--and a fatiguing6 ,it needs perseverance4 ,it needs a terrible obstinacy on the part of the will4 ,that brain of yours will be hopping about all over the place1 and every time it hops you must bring it back by force to its original position4 ,you must absolutely compel it to ignore every idea except the one which you have selected for its attention4 ,you cannot hope to triumph all at once4 ,but you can hope to triumph4 ,there is no royal road to the control of the brain4 ,there is no patent dodge about it1 and no complicated function which a plain person may not comprehend4 ,it is simply a question of3 ',i will1 ,i will1 and ,i will4' 7,italics here are indispensable47 ,let me resume4 ,efficient living1 living up to one's best standard1 getting the last ounce of power out of the machine with the minimum of friction3 these things depend on the disciplined and vigorous condition of the brain4 ,the brain can be disciplined by learning the habit of obedience4 ,and it can learn the habit of obedience by the practice of concentration4 ,disciplinary concentration1 though nothing could have the air of being simpler1 is the basis of the whole structure4 ,this fact must be grasped imaginatively2 it must be seen and felt4 ,the more regularly concentration is practised1 the more firmly will the imagination grasp the effects of it1 both direct and indirect4 ,after but a few days of honest trying in the exercise which ,i have indicated1 you will perceive its influence4 ,you will grow accustomed to the idea1 at first strange in its novelty1 of the brain being external to the supreme force which is you1 and in subjection to that force4 ,you will1 as a not very distant possibility1 see yourself in possession of the power to switch your brain on and off in a particular subject as you switch electricity on and off in a particular room4 ,the brain will get used to the straight paths of obedience4 ,and--a remarkable phenomenon--it will1 by the mere practice of obedience1 become less forgetful and more effective4 ,it will not so frequently give way to an instinct that takes it by surprise4 ,in a word1 it will have received a general tonic4 ,with a brain that is improving every day you can set about the perfecting of the machine in a scientific manner4 ,v ,,habit-,,forming ,,by ,,concentration ,as soon as the will has got the upper hand of the brain--as soon as it can say to the brain1 with a fair certainty of being obeyed3 ',do this4 ,think along these lines1 and continue to do so without wandering until ,i give you leave to stop'--then is the time arrived when the perfecting of the human machine may be undertaken in a large and comprehensive spirit1 as a city council undertakes the purification and reconstruction of a city4 ,the tremendous possibilities of an obedient brain will be perceived immediately we begin to reflect upon what we mean by our 'character4' ,now1 a person's character is1 and can be1 nothing else but the total result of his habits of thought4 ,a person is benevolent because he habitually thinks benevolently4 ,a person is idle because his thoughts dwell habitually on the instant pleasures of idleness4 ,it is true that everybody is born with certain predispositions1 and that these predispositions influence very strongly the early formation of habits of thought4 ,but the fact remains that the character is built by long-continued habits of thought4 ,if the mature edifice of character usually shows in an exaggerated form the peculiarities of the original predisposition1 this merely indicates a probability that the slow erection of the edifice has proceeded at haphazard1 and that reason has not presided over it4 ,a child may be born with a tendency to bent shoulders4 ,if nothing is done1 if on the contrary he becomes a clerk and abhors gymnastics1 his shoulders will develop an excessive roundness1 entirely through habit4 ,whereas1 if his will1 guided by his reason1 had compelled the formation of a corrective physical habit1 his shoulders might have been1 if not quite straight1 nearly so4 ,thus a physical habit6 ,the same with a mental habit4 ,the more closely we examine the development of original predispositions1 the more clearly we shall see that this development is not inevitable1 is not a process which works itself out independently according to mysterious1 ruthless laws which we cannot understand4 ,for instance1 the effect of an original predisposition may be destroyed by an accidental shock4 ,a young man with an inherited tendency to alcohol may develop into a stern teetotaller through the shock caused by seeing his drunken father strike his mother2 whereas1 if his father had chanced to be affectionate in drink1 the son might have ended in the gutter4 ,no ruthless law here6 ,it is notorious1 also1 that natures are sometimes completely changed in their development by chance momentary contact with natures stronger than themselves4 ',from that day ,i resolved--' etc4 ,you know the phrase4 ,often the resolve is not kept2 but often it is kept4 ,a spark has inflamed the will4 ,the burning will has tyrannised over the brain4 ,new habits have been formed4 ,and the result looks just like a miracle4 ,now1 if these great transformations can be brought about by accident1 cannot similar transformations be brought about by a reasonable design8 ,at any rate1 if one starts to bring them about1 one starts with the assurance that transformations are not impossible1 since they have occurred4 ,one starts also in the full knowledge of the influence of habit on life4 ,take any one of your own habits1 mental or physical4 ,you will be able to recall the time when that habit did not exist1 or if it did exist it was scarcely perceptible4 ,and you will discover that nearly all your habits have been formed unconsciously1 by daily repetitions which bore no relation to a general plan1 and which you practised not noticing4 ,you will be compelled to admit that your 'character1' as it is to-day1 is a structure that has been built almost without the aid of an architect2 higgledy-piggledy1 anyhow4 ,but occasionally the architect did step in and design something4 ,here and there among your habits you will find one that you consciously and of deliberate purpose initiated and persevered with--doubtless owing to some happy influence4 ,what is the difference between that conscious habit and the unconscious habits8 ,none whatever as regards its effect on the sum of your character4 ,it may be the strongest of all your habits4 ,the only quality that differentiates it from the others is that it has a definite object 7most likely a good object71 and that it wholly or partially fulfils that object4 ,there is not a man who reads these lines but has1 in this detail or that1 proved in himself that the will1 forcing the brain to repeat the same action again and again1 can modify the shape of his character as a sculptor modifies the shape of damp clay4 ,but if a grown man's character is developing from day to day 7as it is71 if nine-tenths of the development is due to unconscious action and one-tenth to conscious action1 and if the one-tenth conscious is the most satisfactory part of the total result2 why1 in the name of common sense1 henceforward1 should not nine-tenths1 instead of one-tenth1 be due to conscious action8 ,what is there to prevent this agreeable consummation8 ,there is nothing whatever to prevent it--except insubordination on the part of the brain4 ,and insubordination of the brain can be cured1 as ,i have previously shown4 ,when ,i see men unhappy and inefficient in the craft of living1 from sheer1 crass inattention to their own development2 when ,i see misshapen men building up businesses and empires1 and never stopping to build up themselves2 when ,i see dreary men expending precisely the same energy on teaching a dog to walk on its hind-legs as would brighten the whole colour of their own lives1 ,i feel as if ,i wanted to give up the ghost1 so ridiculous1 so fatuous does the spectacle seem6 ,but1 of course1 ,i do not give up the ghost4 ,the paroxysm passes4 ,only ,i really must cry out3 ',can't you see what you're missing8 ,can't you see that you're missing the most interesting thing on earth1 far more interesting than businesses1 empires1 and dogs8 ,doesn't it strike you how clumsy and short-sighted you are--working always with an inferior machine when you might have a smooth-gliding perfection8 ,doesn't it strike you how badly you are treating yourself8' ,listen1 you confirmed grumbler1 you who make the evening meal hideous with complaints against destiny--for it is you ,i will single out4 ,are you aware what people are saying about you behind your back8 ,they are saying that you render yourself and your family miserable by the habit which has grown on you of always grumbling4 ',surely it isn't as bad as that8' you protest4 ,yes1 it is just as bad as that4 ,you say3 ',the fact is1 ,i know it's absurd to grumble4 ,but ,i'm like that4 ,i've tried to stop it1 and ,i can't6' ,how have you tried to stop it8 ',well1 ,i've made up my mind several times to fight against it1 but ,i never succeed4 ,this is strictly between ourselves4 ,i don't usually admit that ,i'm a grumbler4' ,considering that you grumble for about an hour and a half every day of your life1 it was sanguine1 my dear sir1 to expect to cure such a habit by means of a solitary intention1 formed at intervals in the brain and then forgotten4 ,no6 ,you must do more than that4 ,if you will daily fix your brain firmly for half an hour on the truth 7you know it to be a truth7 that grumbling is absurd and futile1 your brain will henceforward begin to form a habit in that direction2 it will begin to be moulded to the idea that grumbling is absurd and futile4 ,in odd moments1 when it isn't thinking of anything in particular1 it will suddenly remember that grumbling is absurd and futile4 ,when you sit down to the meal and open your mouth to say3 ',i can't think what my ass of a partner means by--' it will remember that grumbling is absurd and futile1 and will alter the arrangement of your throat1 teeth1 and tongue1 so that you will say3 ',what fine weather we're having6' ,in brief1 it will remember involuntarily1 by a new habit4 ,all who look into their experience will admit that the failure to replace old habits by new ones is due to the fact that at the critical moment the brain does not remember2 it simply forgets4 ,the practice of concentration will cure that4 ,all depends on regular concentration4 ,this grumbling is an instance1 though chosen not quite at hazard4 ,,vi ,,lord ,,over ,,the ,,noddle ,having proved by personal experiment the truth of the first of the two great principles which concern the human machine--namely1 that the brain is a servant1 not a master1 and can be controlled--we may now come to the second4 ,the second is more fundamental than the first1 but it can be of no use until the first is understood and put into practice4 ,the human machine is an apparatus of brain and muscle for enabling the ,ego to develop freely in the universe by which it is surrounded1 without friction4 ,its function is to convert the facts of the universe to the best advantage of the ,ego4 ,the facts of the universe are the material with which it is its business to deal--not the facts of an ideal universe1 but the facts of this universe4 ,hence1 when friction occurs1 when the facts of the universe cease to be of advantage to the ,ego1 the fault is in the machine4 ,it is not the solar system that has gone wrong1 but the human machine4 ,second great principle1 therefore3 ',in case of friction1 the machine is always at fault4' ,you can control nothing but your own mind4 ,even your two-year-old babe may defy you by the instinctive force of its personality4 ,but your own mind you can control4 ,your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission4 ,your own mind has the power to transmute every external phenomenon to its own purposes4 ,if happiness arises from cheerfulness1 kindliness1 and rectitude 7and who will deny it871 what possible combination of circumstances is going to make you unhappy so long as the machine remains in order8 ,if self-development consists in the utilisation of one's environment 7not utilisation of somebody else's environment71 how can your environment prevent you from developing8 ,you would look rather foolish without it1 anyway4 ,in that noddle of yours is everything necessary for development1 for the maintaining of dignity1 for the achieving of happiness1 and you are absolute lord over the noddle1 will you but exercise the powers of lordship4 ,why worry about the contents of somebody else's noddle1 in which you can be nothing but an intruder1 when you may arrive at a better result1 with absolute certainty1 by confining your activities to your own8 ',look within4' ',the ,kingdom of ,heaven is within you4' ',oh1 yes6' you protest4 ',all that's old4 ,epictetus said that4 ,marcus ,aurelius said that4 ,christ said that4' ,they did4 ,i admit it readily4 ,but if you were ruffled this morning because your motor-omnibus broke down1 and you had to take a cab1 then so far as you are concerned these great teachers lived in vain4 ,you1 calling yourself a reasonable man1 are going about dependent for your happiness1 dignity1 and growth1 upon a thousand things over which you have no control1 and the most exquisitely organised machine for ensuring happiness1 dignity1 and growth1 is rusting away inside you4 ,and all because you have a sort of notion that a saying said two thousand years ago cannot be practical4 ,you remark sagely to your child3 ',no1 my child1 you cannot have that moon1 and you will accomplish nothing by crying for it4 ,now1 here is this beautiful box of bricks1 by means of which you may amuse yourself while learning many wonderful matters and improving your mind4 ,you must try to be content with what you have1 and to make the best of it4 ,if you had the moon you wouldn't be any happier4' ,then you lie awake half the night repining because the last post has brought a letter to the effect that 'the ,board cannot entertain your application for1' etc4 ,you say the two cases are not alike4 ,they are not4 ,your child has never heard of ,epictetus4 ,on the other hand1 justice is the moon4 ,at your age you surely know that4 ',but the ,directors ought to have granted my application1' you insist4 ,exactly6 ,i agree4 ,but we are not in a universe of oughts4 ,you have a special apparatus within you for dealing with a universe where oughts are flagrantly disregarded4 ,and you are not using it4 ,you are lying awake1 keeping your wife awake1 injuring your health1 injuring hers1 losing your dignity and your cheerfulness4 ,why8 ,because you think that these antics and performances will influence the ,board8 ,because you think that they will put you into a better condition for dealing with your environment to-morrow8 ,not a bit4 ,simply because the machine is at fault4 ,in certain cases we do make use of our machines 7as well as their sad condition of neglect will allow71 but in other cases we behave in an extraordinarily irrational manner4 ,thus if we sally out and get caught in a heavy shower we do not1 unless very far gone in foolishness1 sit down and curse the weather4 ,we put up our umbrella1 if we have one1 and if not we hurry home4 ,we may grumble1 but it is not serious grumbling2 we accept the shower as a fact of the universe1 and control ourselves4 ,thus also1 if by a sudden catastrophe we lose somebody who is important to us1 we grieve1 but we control ourselves1 recognising one of those hazards of destiny from which not even millionaires are exempt4 ,and the result on our ,ego is usually to improve it in essential respects4 ,but there are other strokes of destiny1 other facts of the universe1 against which we protest as a child protests when deprived of the moon4 ,take the case of an individual with an imperfect idea of honesty4 ,now1 that individual is the consequence of his father and mother and his environment1 and his father and mother of theirs1 and so backwards to the single-celled protoplasm4 ,that individual is a result of the cosmic order1 the inevitable product of cause and effect4 ,we know that4 ,we must admit that he is just as much a fact of the universe as a shower of rain or a storm at sea that swallows a ship4 ,we freely grant in the abstract that there must be1 at the present stage of evolution1 a certain number of persons with unfair minds4 ,we are quite ready to contemplate such an individual with philosophy--until it happens that1 in the course of the progress of the solar system1 he runs up against ourselves4 ,then listen to the outcry6 ,listen to the continual explosions of a righteous man aggrieved6 ,the individual may be our clerk1 cashier1 son1 father1 brother1 partner1 wife1 employer4 ,we are ill-used6 ,we are being treated unfairly6 ,we kick2 we scream4 ,we nourish the inward sense of grievance that eats the core out of content4 ,we sit down in the rain4 ,we decline to think of umbrellas1 or to run to shelter4 ,we care not that that individual is a fact which the universe has been slowly manufacturing for millions of years4 ,our attitude implies that we want eternity to roll back and begin again1 in such wise that we at any rate shall not be disturbed4 ,though we have a machine for the transmutation of facts into food for our growth1 we do not dream of using it4 ,but1 we say1 he is doing us harm6 ,where8 ,in our minds4 ,he has robbed us of our peace1 our comfort1 our happiness1 our good temper4 ,even if he has1 we might just as well inveigh against a shower4 ,but has he8 ,what was our brain doing while this naughty person stepped in and robbed us of the only possessions worth having8 ,no1 no6 ,it is not that he has done us harm--the one cheerful item in a universe of stony facts is that no one can harm anybody except himself--it is merely that we have been silly1 precisely as silly as if we had taken a seat in the rain with a folded umbrella by our side4444 ,the machine is at fault4 ,i fancy we are now obtaining glimpses of what that phrase really means4 ,,vii ,,what ',,living' ,,chiefly ,,is ,it is in intercourse--social1 sentimental1 or business--with one's fellows that the qualities and the condition of the human machine are put to the test and strained4 ,that part of my life which ,i conduct by myself1 without reference--or at any rate without direct reference--to others1 ,i can usually manage in such a way that the gods do not positively weep at the spectacle thereof4 ,my environment is simpler1 less puzzling1 when ,i am alone1 my calm and my self-control less liable to violent fluctuations4 ,impossible to be disturbed by a chair6 ,impossible that a chair should get on one's nerves6 ,impossible to blame a chair for not being as reasonable1 as archangelic as ,i am myself6 ,but when it comes to people6444 ,well1 that is 'living1' then6 ,the art of life1 the art of extracting all its power from the human machine1 does not lie chiefly in processes of bookish-culture1 nor in contemplations of the beauty and majesty of existence4 ,it lies chiefly in keeping the peace1 the whole peace1 and nothing but the peace1 with those with whom one is 'thrown4' ,is it in sitting ecstatic over ,shelley1 ,shakespeare1 or ,herbert ,spencer1 solitary in my room of a night1 that ,i am 'improving myself' and learning to live8 ,or is it in watching over all my daily human contacts8 ,do not seek to escape the comparison by insinuating that ,i despise study1 or by pointing out that the eternal verities are beyond dailiness4 ,nothing of the kind6 ,i am so 'silly' about books that merely to possess them gives me pleasure4 ,and if the verities are good for eternity they ought to be good for a day4 ,if ,i cannot exchange them for daily coin--if ,i can't buy happiness for a single day because ,i've nothing less than an eternal verity about me and nobody has sufficient change--then my eternal verity is not an eternal verity4 ,it is merely an unnegotiable bit of glass 7called a diamond71 or even a note on the ,bank of ,engraving4 ,i can say to myself when ,i arise in the morning3 ',i am master of my brain4 ,no one can get in there and rage about like a bull in a china shop4 ,if my companions on the planet's crust choose to rage about they cannot affect me6 ,i will not let them4 ,i have power to maintain my own calm1 and ,i will4 ,no earthly being can force me to be false to my principles1 or to be blind to the beauty of the universe1 or to be gloomy1 or to be irritable1 or to complain against my lot4 ,for these things depend on the brain2 cheerfulness1 kindliness1 and honest thinking are all within the department of the brain4 ,the disciplined brain can accomplish them4 ,and my brain is disciplined1 and ,i will discipline it more and more as the days pass4 ,i am1 therefore1 independent of hazard1 and ,i will back myself to conduct all intercourse as becomes a rational creature4' 444 ,i can say this4 ,i can ram this argument by force of will into my brain1 and by dint of repeating it often enough ,i shall assuredly arrive at the supreme virtues of reason4 ,i should assuredly conquer--the brain being such a machine of habit--even if ,i did not take the trouble to consider in the slightest degree what manner of things my fellow-men are--by acting merely in my own interests4 ,but the way of perfection 7,i speak relatively7 will be immensely shortened and smoothed if ,i do consider1 dispassionately1 the case of the other human machines4 ,thus3-- ,the truth is that my attitude towards my fellows is fundamentally and totally wrong1 and that it entails on my thinking machine a strain which is quite unnecessary1 though ,i may have arranged the machine so as to withstand the strain successfully4 ,the secret of smooth living is a calm cheerfulness which will leave me always in full possession of my reasoning faculty--in order that ,i may live by reason instead of by instinct and momentary passion4 ,the secret of calm cheerfulness is kindliness2 no person can be consistently cheerful and calm who does not consistently think kind thoughts4 ,but how can ,i be kindly when ,i pass the major portion of my time in blaming the people who surround me--who are part of my environment8 ,if ,i1 blaming1 achieve some approach to kindliness1 it is only by a great and exhausting effort of self-mastery4 ,the inmost secret1 then1 lies in not blaming1 in not judging and emitting verdicts4 ,oh6 ,i do not blame by word of mouth6 ,i am far too advanced for such a puerility4 ,i keep the blame in my own breast1 where it festers4 ,i am always privately forgiving1 which is bad for me4 ,because1 you know1 there is nothing to forgive4 ,i do not have to forgive bad weather2 nor1 if ,i found myself in an earthquake1 should ,i have to forgive the earthquake4 ,all blame1 uttered or unexpressed1 is wrong4 ,i do not blame myself4 ,i can explain myself to myself4 ,i can invariably explain myself4 ,if ,i forged a friend's name on a cheque ,i should explain the affair quite satisfactorily to myself4 ,and instead of blaming myself ,i should sympathise with myself for having been driven into such an excessively awkward corner4 ,let me examine honestly my mental processes1 and ,i must admit that my attitude towards others is entirely different from my attitude towards myself4 ,i must admit that in the seclusion of my mind1 though ,i say not a word1 ,i am constantly blaming others because ,i am not happy4 ,whenever ,i bump up against an opposing personality and my smooth progress is impeded1 ,i secretly blame the opposer4 ,i act as though ,i had shouted to the world3 ',clear out of the way1 every one1 for ,i am coming6' ,every one does not clear out of the way4 ,i did not really expect every one to clear out of the way4 ,but ,i act1 within1 as though ,i had so expected4 ,i blame4 ,hence kindliness1 hence cheerfulness1 is rendered vastly more difficult for me4 ,what ,i ought to do is this6 ,i ought to reflect again and again1 and yet again1 that the beings among whom ,i have to steer1 the living environment out of which ,i have to manufacture my happiness1 are just as inevitable in the scheme of evolution as ,i am myself2 have just as much right to be themselves as ,i have to be myself2 are precisely my equals in the face of ,nature2 are capable of being explained as ,i am capable of being explained2 are entitled to the same latitude as ,i am entitled to1 and are no more responsible for their composition and their environment than ,i for mine4 ,i ought to reflect again and again1 and yet again1 that they all deserve from me as much sympathy as ,i give to myself4 ,why not8 ,having thus reflected in a general manner1 ,i ought to take one by one the individuals with whom ,i am brought into frequent contact1 and seek1 by a deliberate effort of the imagination and the reason1 to understand them1 to understand why they act thus and thus1 what their difficulties are1 what their 'explanation' is1 and how friction can be avoided4 ,so ,i ought to reflect1 morning after morning1 until my brain is saturated with the cases of these individuals4 ,here is a course of discipline4 ,if ,i follow it ,i shall gradually lose the preposterous habit of blaming1 and ,i shall have laid the foundations of that quiet1 unshakable self-possession which is the indispensable preliminary of conduct according to reason1 of thorough efficiency in the machine of happiness4 ,but something in me1 something distinctly base1 says3 ',yes4 ,the put-yourself-in-his-place business over again6 ,the do-unto-others business over again6' ,just so6 ,something in me is ashamed of being 'moral4' 7,you all know the feeling67 ,well1 morals are naught but another name for reasonable conduct2 a higher and more practical form of egotism--an egotism which1 while freeing others1 frees myself4 ,i have tried the lower form of egotism4 ,and it has failed4 ,if ,i am afraid of being moral1 if ,i prefer to cut off my nose to spite my face1 well1 ,i must accept the consequences4 ,but truth will prevail4 ,,viii ,,the ,,daily ,,friction ,it is with common daily affairs that ,i am now dealing1 not with heroic enterprises1 ambitions1 martyrdoms4 ,take the day1 the ordinary day in the ordinary house or office4 ,though it comes seven times a week1 and is the most banal thing imaginable1 it is quite worth attention4 ,how does the machine get through it8 ,ah6 the best that can be said of the machine is that it does get through it1 somehow4 ,the friction1 though seldom such as to bring matters to a standstill1 is frequent--the sort of friction that1 when it occurs in a bicycle1 is just sufficient to annoy the rider1 but not sufficient to make him get off the machine and examine the bearings4 ,occasionally the friction is very loud2 indeed1 disturbing1 and at rarer intervals it shrieks1 like an omnibus brake out of order4 ,you know those days when you have the sensation that life is not large enough to contain the household or the office-staff1 when the business of intercourse may be compared to the manoeuvres of two people who1 having awakened with a bad headache1 are obliged to dress simultaneously in a very small bedroom4 ',after you with that towel6' in accents of bitter1 grinding politeness4 ',if you could kindly move your things off this chair6' in a voice that would blow brains out if it were a bullet4 ,i venture to say that you know those days4 ',but1' you reply1 'such days are few4 ,usually4446' ,well1 usually1 the friction1 though less intense1 is still proceeding4 ,we grow accustomed to it4 ,we scarcely notice it1 as a person in a stuffy chamber will scarcely notice the stuffiness4 ,but the deteriorating influence due to friction goes on1 even if unperceived4 ,and one morning we perceive its ravages--and write a letter to the ,telegraph to inquire whether life is worth living1 or whether marriage is a failure1 or whether men are more polite than women4 ,the proof that friction1 in various and varying degrees1 is practically conscious in most households lies in the fact that when we chance on a household where there is no friction we are startled4 ,we can't recover from the phenomenon4 ,and in describing this household to our friends1 we say3 ',they get on so well together1' as if we were saying3 ',they have wings and can fly6 ,just fancy6 ,did you ever hear of such a thing8' ,ninety per cent4 of all daily friction is caused by tone--mere tone of voice4 ,try this experiment4 ,say3 ',oh1 you little darling1 you sweet pet1 you entirely charming creature6' to a baby or a dog2 but roar these delightful epithets in the tone of saying3 ',you infernal little nuisance6 ,if ,i hear another sound ,i'll break every bone in your body6' ,the baby will infallibly whimper1 and the dog will infallibly mouch off4 ,true1 a dog is not a human being1 neither is a baby4 ,they cannot understand4 ,it is precisely because they cannot understand and articulate words that the experiment is valuable2 for it separates the effect of the tone from the effect of the word spoken4 ,he who speaks1 speaks twice4 ,his words convey his thought1 and his tone conveys his mental attitude towards the person spoken to4 ,and certainly the attitude1 so far as friction goes1 is more important than the thought4 ,your wife may say to you3 ',i shall buy that hat ,i spoke to you about4' ,and you may reply1 quite sincerely1 ',as you please4' ,but it will depend on your tone whether you convey3 ',as you please4 ,i am sympathetically anxious that your innocent caprices should be indulged4' ,or whether you convey3 ',as you please4 ,only don't bother me with hats4 ,i am above hats4 ,a great deal too much money is spent in this house on hats4 ,however1 ,i'm helpless6' ,or whether you convey3 ',as you please1 heart of my heart1 but if you would like to be a nice girl1 go gently4 ,we're rather tight4' ,i need not elaborate4 ,i am sure of being comprehended4 ,as tone is the expression of attitude1 it is1 of course1 caused by attitude4 ,the frictional tone is chiefly due to that general attitude of blame which ,i have already condemned as being absurd and unjustifiable4 ,as1 by constant watchful discipline1 we gradually lose this silly attitude of blame1 so the tone will of itself gradually change4 ,but the two ameliorations can proceed together1 and it is a curious thing that an agreeable tone1 artificially and deliberately adopted1 will influence the mental attitude almost as much as the mental attitude will influence the tone4 ,if you honestly feel resentful against some one1 but1 having understood the foolishness of fury1 intentionally mask your fury under a persuasive tone1 your fury will at once begin to abate4 ,you will be led into a rational train of thought2 you will see that after all the object of your resentment has a right to exist1 and that he is neither a doormat nor a scoundrel1 and that anyhow nothing is to be gained1 and much is to be lost1 by fury4 ,you will see that fury is unworthy of you4 ,do you remember the gentleness of the tone which you employed after the healing of your first quarrel with a beloved companion8 ,do you remember the persuasive tone which you used when you wanted to obtain something from a difficult person on whom your happiness depended8 ,why should not your tone always combine these qualities8 ,why should you not carefully school your tone8 ,is it beneath you to ensure the largest possible amount of your own 'way' by the simplest means8 ,or is there at the back of your mind that peculiarly ,english and ,german idea that politeness1 sympathy1 and respect for another immortal soul would imply deplorable weakness on your part8 ,you say that your happiness does not depend on every person whom you happen to speak to4 ,yes1 it does4 ,your happiness is always dependent on just that person4 ,produce friction1 and you suffer4 ,idle to argue that the person has no business to be upset by your tone6 ,you have caused avoidable friction1 simply because your machine for dealing with your environment was suffering from pride1 ignorance1 or thoughtlessness4 ,you say ,i am making a mountain out of a mole-hill4 ,no6 ,i am making a mountain out of ten million mole-hills4 ,and that is what life does4 ,it is the little but continuous causes that have great effects4 ,i repeat3 ,why not deliberately adopt a gentle1 persuasive tone--just to see what the results are8 ,surely you are not ashamed to be wise4 ,you may smile superiorly as you read this4 ,yet you know very well that more than once you have resolved to use a gentle and persuasive tone on all occasions1 and that the sole reason why you had that fearful shindy yesterday with your cousin's sister-in-law was that you had long since failed to keep your resolve4 ,but you were of my mind once1 and more than once4 ,what you have to do is to teach the new habit to your brain by daily concentration on it2 by forcing your brain to think of nothing else for half an hour of a morning4 ,after a time the brain will begin to remember automatically4 ,for1 of course1 the explanation of your previous failures is that your brain1 undisciplined1 merely forgot at the critical moment4 ,the tone was out of your mouth before your brain had waked up4 ,it is necessary to watch1 as though you were a sentinel1 not only against the wrong tone1 but against the other symptoms of the attitude of blame4 ,such as the frown4 ,it is necessary to regard yourself constantly1 and in minute detail4 ,you lie in bed for half an hour and enthusiastically concentrate on this beautiful new scheme of the right tone4 ,you rise1 and because you don't achieve a proper elegance of necktie at the first knotting1 you frown and swear and clench your teeth6 ,there is a symptom of the wrong attitude towards your environment4 ,you are awake1 but your brain isn't4 ,it is in such a symptom that you may judge yourself4 ,and not a trifling symptom either6 ,if you will frown at a necktie1 if you will use language to a necktie which no gentleman should use to a necktie1 what will you be capable of to a responsible being8444 ,yes1 it is very difficult4 ,but it can be done4 ,,ix ',,fire6' ,in this business of daily living1 of ordinary usage of the machine in hourly intercourse1 there occurs sometimes a phenomenon which is the cause of a great deal of trouble1 and the result of a very ill-tended machine4 ,it is a phenomenon impossible to ignore1 and yet1 so shameful is it1 so degrading1 so shocking1 so miserable1 that ,i hesitate to mention it4 ,for one class of reader is certain to ridicule me1 loftily saying3 ',one really doesn't expect to find this sort of thing in print nowadays6' ,and another class of reader is certain to get angry4 ,nevertheless1 as one of my main objects in the present book is to discuss matters which 'people don't talk about1' ,i shall discuss this matter4 ,but my diffidence in doing so is such that ,i must approach it deviously1 describing it first by means of a figure4 ,imagine that1 looking at a man's house1 you suddenly perceive it to be on fire4 ,the flame is scarcely perceptible4 ,you could put it out if you had a free hand4 ,but you have not got a free hand4 ,it is his house1 not yours4 ,he may or may not know that his house is burning4 ,you are aware1 by experience1 however1 that if you directed his attention to the flame1 the effect of your warning would be exceedingly singular1 almost incredible4 ,for the effect would be that he would instantly begin to strike matches1 pour on petroleum1 and fan the flame1 violently resenting interference4 ,therefore you can only stand and watch1 hoping that he will notice the flames before they are beyond control1 and extinguish them4 ,the probability is1 however1 that he will notice the flames too late4 ,and powerless to avert disaster1 you are condemned1 therefore1 to watch the damage of valuable property4 ,the flames leap higher and higher1 and they do not die down till they have burned themselves out4 ,you avert your gaze from the spectacle1 and until you are gone the owner of the house pretends that nothing has occurred4 ,when alone he curses himself for his carelessness4 ,the foregoing is meant to be a description of what happens when a man passes through the incendiary experience known as 'losing his temper4' 7,there6 the cat of my chapter is out of the bag67 ,a man who has lost his temper is simply being 'burnt out4' ,his constitutes one of the most curious and 7for everybody7 humiliating spectacles that life offers4 ,it is an insurrection1 a boiling over1 a sweeping storm4 ,dignity1 common sense1 justice are shrivelled up and destroyed4 ,anarchy reigns4 ,the devil has broken his chain4 ,instinct is stamping on the face of reason4 ,and in that man civilisation has temporarily receded millions of years4 ,of course1 the thing amounts to a nervous disease1 and ,i think it is almost universal4 ,you at once protest that you never lose your temper--haven't lost your temper for ages6 ,but do you not mean that you have not smashed furniture for ages8 ,these fires are of varying intensities4 ,some of them burn very dully4 ,yet they burn4 ,one man loses his temper2 another is merely 'ruffled4' ,but the event is the same in kind4 ,when you are 'ruffled1' when you are conscious of a resentful vibration that surprises all your being1 when your voice changes1 when you notice a change in the demeanour of your companion1 who sees that he has 'touched a tender point1' you may not go to the length of smashing furniture1 but you have had a fire1 and your dignity is damaged4 ,you admit it to yourself afterwards4 ,i am sure you know what ,i mean4 ,and ,i am nearly sure that you1 with your courageous candour1 will admit that from time to time you suffer from these mysterious 'fires4' ',temper1' one of the plagues of human society1 is generally held to be incurable1 save by the vague process of exercising self-control--a process which seldom has any beneficial results4 ,it is regarded now as smallpox used to be regarded--as a visitation of ,providence1 which must be borne4 ,but ,i do not hold it to be incurable4 ,i am convinced that it is permanently curable4 ,and its eminent importance as a nuisance to mankind at large deserves1 ,i think1 that it should receive particular attention4 ,anyhow1 ,i am strongly against the visitation of ,providence theory1 as being unscientific1 primitive1 and conducive to unashamed laissez-aller4 ,a man can be master in his own house4 ,if he cannot be master by simple force of will1 he can be master by ruse and wile4 ,i would employ cleverness to maintain the throne of reason when it is likely to be upset in the mind by one of these devastating and disgraceful insurrections of brute instinct4 ,it is useless for a man in the habit of losing or mislaying his temper to argue with himself that such a proceeding is folly1 that it serves no end1 and does nothing but harm4 ,it is useless for him to argue that in allowing his temper to stray he is probably guilty of cruelty1 and certainly guilty of injustice to those persons who are forced to witness the loss4 ,it is useless for him to argue that a man of uncertain temper in a house is like a man who goes about a house with a loaded revolver sticking from his pocket1 and that all considerations of fairness and reason have to be subordinated in that house to the fear of the revolver1 and that such peace as is maintained in that house is often a shameful and an unjust peace4 ,these arguments will not be strong enough to prevail against one of the most powerful and capricious of all habits4 ,this habit must be met and conquered 7and it can be67 by an even more powerful quality in the human mind2 ,i mean the universal human horror of looking ridiculous4 ,the man who loses his temper often thinks he is doing something rather fine and majestic4 ,on the contrary1 so far is this from being the fact1 he is merely making an ass of himself4 ,he is merely parading himself as an undignified fool1 as that supremely contemptible figure--a grown-up baby4 ,he may intimidate a feeble companion by his raging1 or by the dark sullenness of a more subdued flame1 but in the heart of even the weakest companion is a bedrock feeling of contempt for him4 ,the way in which a man of uncertain temper is treated by his friends proves that they despise him1 for they do not treat him as a reasonable being4 ,how should they treat him as a reasonable being when the tenure of his reason is so insecure8 ,and if only he could hear what is said of him behind his back6444 ,the invalid can cure himself by teaching his brain the habit of dwelling upon his extreme fatuity4 ,let him concentrate regularly1 with intense fixation1 upon the ideas3 ',when ,i lose my temper1 when ,i get ruffled1 when that mysterious vibration runs through me1 ,i am making a donkey of myself1 a donkey1 and a donkey6 ,you understand1 a preposterous donkey6 ,i am behaving like a great baby4 ,i look a fool4 ,i am a spectacle bereft of dignity4 ,everybody despises me1 smiles at me in secret1 disdains the idiotic ass with whom it is impossible to reason4' ,ordinarily the invalid disguises from himself this aspect of his disease1 and his brain will instinctively avoid it as much as it can4 ,but in hours of calm he can slowly and regularly force his brain1 by the practice of concentration1 to familiarise itself with just this aspect1 so that in time its instinct will be to think first1 and not last1 of just this aspect4 ,when he has arrived at that point he is saved4 ,no man who1 at the very inception of the fire1 is visited with a clear vision of himself as an arrant ass and pitiable object of contempt1 will lack the volition to put the fire out4 ,but1 be it noted1 he will not succeed until he can do it at once4 ,a fire is a fire1 and the engines must gallop by themselves out of the station instantly4 ,this means the acquirement of a mental habit4 ,during the preliminary stages of the cure he should1 of course1 avoid inflammable situations4 ,this is a perfectly simple thing to do1 if the brain has been disciplined out of its natural forgetfulness4 ,x ,,mischievously ,,overworking ,,it ,i have dealt with the two general major causes of friction in the daily use of the machine4 ,i will now deal with a minor cause1 and make an end of mere dailiness4 ,this minor cause--and after all ,i do not know that its results are so trifling as to justify the epithet 'minor'--is the straining of the machine by forcing it to do work which it was never intended to do4 ,although we are incapable of persuading our machines to do effectively that which they are bound to do somehow1 we continually overburden them with entirely unnecessary and inept tasks4 ,we cannot1 it would seem1 let things alone4 ,for example1 in the ordinary household the amount of machine horse-power expended in fighting for the truth is really quite absurd4 ,this pure zeal for the establishment and general admission of the truth is usually termed 'contradictoriness4' ,but1 of course1 it is not that2 it is something higher4 ,my wife states that the ,joneses have gone into a new flat1 of which the rent is #afe a year4 ,now1 ,jones has told me personally that the rent of his new flat is #aef a year4 ,i correct my wife4 ,knowing that she is in the right1 she corrects me4 ,she cannot bear that a falsehood should prevail4 ,it is not a question of #i1 it is a question of truth4 ,her enthusiasm for truth excites my enthusiasm for truth4 ,five minutes ago ,i didn't care twopence whether the rent of the ,joneses' new flat was #afe or #aef or #ajef a year4 ,but now ,i care intensely that it is #aef4 ,i have formed myself into a select society for the propagating of the truth about the rent of the ,joneses' new flat1 and my wife has done the same4 ,in eloquence1 in argumentative skill1 in strict supervision of our tempers1 we each of us squander enormous quantities of that h4-p4 which is so precious to us4 ,and the net effect is naught4 ,now1 if one of us two had understood the elementary principles of human engineering1 that one would have said 7privately73 ',truth is indestructible4 ,truth will out4 ,truth is never in a hurry4 ,if it doesn't come out to-day it will come out to-morrow or next year4 ,it can take care of itself4 ,ultimately my wife 7or my husband7 will learn the essential cosmic truth about the rent of the ,joneses' new flat4 ,i already know it1 and the moment when she 7or he7 knows it also will be the moment of my triumph4 ,she 7or he7 will not celebrate my triumph openly1 but it will be none the less real4 ,and my reputation for accuracy and calm restraint will be consolidated4 ,if1 by a rare mischance1 ,i am in error1 it will be vastly better for me in the day of my undoing that ,i have not been too positive now4 ,besides1 nobody has appointed me sole custodian of the great truth concerning the rent of the ,joneses' new flat4 ,i was not brought into the world to be a safe-deposit1 and more urgent matters summon me to effort4' ,if one of us had meditated thus1 much needless friction would have been avoided and power saved2 amour-propre would not have been exposed to risks2 the sacred cause of truth would not in the least have suffered2 and the rent of the ,joneses' new flat would anyhow have remained exactly what it is4 ,in addition to straining the machine by our excessive anxiety for the spread of truth1 we give a very great deal too much attention to the state of other people's machines4 ,i cannot too strongly1 too sarcastically1 deprecate this astonishing habit4 ,it will be found to be rife in nearly every household and in nearly every office4 ,we are most of us endeavouring to rearrange the mechanism in other heads than our own4 ,this is always dangerous and generally futile4 ,considering the difficulty we have in our own brains1 where our efforts are sure of being accepted as well-meant1 and where we have at any rate a rough notion of the machine's construction1 our intrepidity in adventuring among the delicate adjustments of other brains is remarkable4 ,we are cursed by too much of the missionary spirit4 ,we must needs voyage into the ,china of our brother's brain1 and explain there that things are seriously wrong in that heathen land1 and make ourselves unpleasant in the hope of getting them put right4 ,we have all our own brain and body on which to wreak our personality1 but this is not enough2 we must extend our personality further1 just as though we were a colonising world-power intoxicated by the idea of the 'white man's burden4' ,one of the central secrets of efficient daily living is to leave our daily companions alone a great deal more than we do1 and attend to ourselves4 ,if a daily companion is conducting his life upon principles which you know to be false1 and with results which you feel to be unpleasant1 the safe rule is to keep your mouth shut4 ,or if1 out of your singular conceit1 you are compelled to open it1 open it with all precautions1 and with the formal politeness you would use to a stranger4 ,intimacy is no excuse for rough manners1 though the majority of us seem to think it is4 ,you are not in charge of the universe2 you are in charge of yourself4 ,you cannot hope to manage the universe in your spare time1 and if you try you will probably make a mess of such part of the universe as you touch1 while gravely neglecting yourself4 ,in every family there is generally some one whose meddlesome interest in other machines leads to serious friction in his own4 ,criticise less1 even in the secrecy of your chamber4 ,and do not blame at all4 ,accept your environment and adapt yourself to it in silence1 instead of noisily attempting to adapt your environment to yourself4 ,here is true wisdom4 ,you have no business trespassing beyond the confines of your own individuality4 ,in so trespassing you are guilty of impertinence4 ,this is obvious4 ,and yet one of the chief activities of home-life consists in prancing about at random on other people's private lawns4 ,what ,i say applies even to the relation between parents and children4 ,and though my precept is exaggerated1 it is purposely exaggerated in order effectively to balance the exaggeration in the opposite direction4 ,all individualities1 other than one's own1 are part of one's environment4 ,the evolutionary process is going on all right1 and they are a portion of it4 ,treat them as inevitable4 ,to assert that they are inevitable is not to assert that they are unalterable4 ,only the alteration of them is not primarily your affair2 it is theirs4 ,your affair is to use them1 as they are1 without self-righteousness1 blame1 or complaint1 for the smooth furtherance of your own ends4 ,there is no intention here to rob them of responsibility by depriving them of free-will while saddling you with responsibility as a free agent4 ,as your environment they must be accepted as inevitable1 because they are inevitable4 ,but as centres themselves they have their own responsibility3 which is not yours4 ,the historic question3 ',have we free-will1 or are we the puppets of determinism8' enters now4 ,as a question it is fascinating and futile4 ,it has never been1 and it never will be1 settled4 ,the theory of determinism cannot be demolished by argument4 ,but in his heart every man1 including the most obstinate supporter of the theory1 demolishes it every hour of every day4 ,on the other hand1 the theory of free-will can be demolished by ratiocination6 ,so much the worse for ratiocination6 ,if we regard ourselves as free agents1 and the personalities surrounding us as the puppets of determinism1 we shall have arrived at the working compromise from which the finest results of living can be obtained4 ,the philosophic experience of centuries1 if it has proved anything1 has proved this4 ,and the man who acts upon it in the common1 banal contracts and collisions of the difficult experiment which we call daily life1 will speedily become convinced of its practical worth4 ,,xi ,,an ,,interlude ,for ten chapters you have stood it1 but not without protest4 ,i know the feeling which is in your minds1 and which has manifested itself in numerous criticisms of my ideas4 ,that feeling may be briefly translated1 perhaps1 thus3 ',this is all very well1 but it isn't true1 not a bit6 ,it's only a fairy-tale that you have been telling us4 ,miracles don't happen1' etc4 ,i1 on my part1 have a feeling that unless ,i take your feeling in hand at once1 and firmly deal with it1 ,i had better put my shutters up1 for you will have got into the way of regarding me simply as a source of idle amusement4 ,already ,i can perceive1 from the expressions of some critics1 that1 so far as they are concerned1 ,i might just as well not have written a word4 ,therefore at this point ,i pause1 in order to insist once more upon what ,i began by saying4 ,the burden of your criticism is3 ',human nature is always the same4 ,i know my faults4 ,but it is useless to tell me about them4 ,i can't alter them4 ,i was born like that4' ,the fatal weakness of this argument is1 first1 that it is based on a complete falsity2 and second1 that it puts you in an untenable position4 ,human nature does change4 ,nothing can be more unscientific1 more hopelessly medival1 than to imagine that it does not4 ,it changes like everything else4 ,you can't see it change4 ,true6 ,but then you can't see the grass growing--not unless you arise very early4 ,is human nature the same now as in the days of ,babylonian civilisation1 when the social machine was oiled by drenchings of blood8 ,is it the same now as in the days of ,greek civilisation1 when there was no such thing as romantic love between the sexes8 ,is it the same now as it was during the centuries when constant friction had to provide its own cure in the shape of constant war8 ,is it the same now as it was on #bnd ,march #ahai1 when the ,british ,government officially opposed a motion to consider the severity of the criminal laws 7which included capital punishment for cutting down a tree1 and other sensible dodges against friction71 and were defeated by a majority of only nineteen votes8 ,is it the same now as in the year #ahhc1 when the first ,s4,p4,c4,c4 was formed in ,england8 ,if you consider that human nature is still the same you should instantly go out and make a bonfire of the works of ,spencer1 ,darwin1 and ,wallace1 and then return to enjoy the purely jocular side of the present volume4 ,if you admit that it has changed1 let me ask you how it has changed1 unless by the continual infinitesimal efforts1 upon themselves1 of individual men1 like you and me4 ,did you suppose it was changed by magic1 or by ,acts of ,parliament1 or by the action of groups on persons1 and not of persons on groups8 ,let me tell you that human nature has changed since yesterday4 ,let me tell you that to-day reason has a more powerful voice in the directing of instinct than it had yesterday4 ,let me tell you that to-day the friction of the machines is less screechy and grinding than it was yesterday4 ',you were born like that1 and you can't alter yourself1 and so it's no use talking4' ,if you really believe this1 why make any effort at all8 ,why not let the whole business beautifully slide and yield to your instincts8 ,what object can there be in trying to control yourself in any manner whatever if you are unalterable8 ,assert yourself to be unalterable1 and you assert yourself a fatalist4 ,assert yourself a fatalist1 and you free yourself from all moral responsibility--and other people1 too4 ,well1 then1 act up to your convictions1 if convictions they are4 ,if you can't alter yourself1 ,i can't alter myself1 and supposing that ,i come along and bash you on the head and steal your purse1 you can't blame me4 ,you can only1 on recovering consciousness1 affectionately grasp my hand and murmur3 ',don't apologise1 my dear fellow2 we can't alter ourselves4' ,this1 you say1 is absurd4 ,it is4 ,that is one of my innumerable points4 ,the truth is1 you do not really believe that you cannot alter yourself4 ,what is the matter with you is just what is the matter with me--sheer idleness4 ,you hate getting up in the morning1 and to excuse your inexcusable indolence you talk big about ,fate4 ,just as 'patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel1' so fatalism is the last refuge of a shirker4 ,but you deceive no one1 least of all yourself4 ,you have not1 rationally1 a leg to stand on4 ,at this juncture1 because ,i have made you laugh1 you consent to say3 ',i do try1 all ,i can4 ,but ,i can only alter myself a very little4 ,by constitution ,i am mentally idle4 ,i can't help that1 can ,i8' ,well1 so long as you are not the only absolutely unchangeable thing in a universe of change1 ,i don't mind4 ,it is something for you to admit that you can alter yourself even a very little4 ,the difference between our philosophies is now only a question of degree4 ,in the application of any system of perfecting the machine1 no two persons will succeed equally4 ,from the disappointed tone of some of your criticisms it might be fancied that ,i had advertised a system for making archangels out of tailors' dummies4 ,such was not my hope4 ,i have no belief in miracles4 ,but ,i know that when a thing is thoroughly well done it often has the air of being a miracle4 ,my sole aim is to insist that every man shall perfect his machine to the best of his powers1 not to the best of somebody else's powers4 ,i do not indulge in any hope that a man can be better than his best self4 ,i am1 however1 convinced that every man fails to be his best self a great deal oftener than he need fail--for the reason that his will-power1 be it great or small1 is not directed according to the principles of common sense4 ,common sense will surely lead a man to ask the question3 ',why did my actions yesterday contradict my reason8' ,the reply to this question will nearly always be3 ',because at the critical moment ,i forgot4' ,the supreme explanation of the abortive results of so many efforts at self-alteration1 the supreme explanation of our frequent miserable scurrying into a doctrine of fatalism1 is simple forgetfulness4 ,it is not force that we lack1 but the skill to remember exactly what our reason would have us do or think at the moment itself4 ,how is this skill to be acquired8 ,it can only be acquired1 as skill at games is acquired1 by practice2 by the training of the organ involved to such a point that the organ acts rightly by instinct instead of wrongly by instinct4 ,there are degrees of success in this procedure1 but there is no such phenomenon as complete failure4 ,habits which increase friction can be replaced by habits which lessen friction4 ,habits which arrest development can be replaced by habits which encourage development4 ,and as a habit is formed naturally1 so it can be formed artificially1 by imitation of the unconscious process1 by accustoming the brain to the new idea4 ,let me1 as an example1 refer again to the minor subject of daily friction1 and1 within that subject1 to the influence of tone4 ,a man employs a frictional tone through habit4 ,the frictional tone is an instinct with him4 ,but if he had a quarter of an hour to reflect before speaking1 and if during that quarter of an hour he could always listen to arguments against the frictional tone1 his use of the frictional tone would rapidly diminish2 his reason would conquer his instinct4 ,as things are1 his instinct conquers his reason by a surprise attack1 by taking it unawares4 ,regular daily concentration of the brain1 for a certain period1 upon the non-frictional tone1 and the immense advantages of its use1 will gradually set up in the brain a new habit of thinking about the non-frictional tone2 until at length the brain1 disciplined1 turns to the correct act before the old1 silly instinct can capture it2 and ultimately a new sagacious instinct will supplant the old one4 ,this is the rationale4 ,it applies to all habits4 ,any person can test its efficiency in any habit4 ,i care not whether he be of strong or weak will--he can test it4 ,he will soon see the tremendous difference between merely 'making a good resolution'--7he has been doing that all his life without any very brilliant consequences7--and concentrating the brain for a given time exclusively upon a good resolution4 ,concentration1 the efficient mastery of the brain--all is there6 ,,xii ,,an ,,interest ,,in ,,life ,after a certain period of mental discipline1 of deliberate habit-forming and habit-breaking1 such as ,i have been indicating1 a man will begin to acquire at any rate a superficial knowledge1 a nodding acquaintance1 with that wonderful and mysterious affair1 his brain1 and he will also begin to perceive how important a factor in daily life is the control of his brain4 ,he will assuredly be surprised at the miracles which lie between his collar and his hat1 in that queer box that he calls his head4 ,for the effects that can be accomplished by mere steady1 persistent thinking must appear to be miracles to apprentices in the practice of thought4 ,when once a man1 having passed an unhappy day because his clumsy1 negligent brain forgot to control his instincts at a critical moment1 has said to his brain3 ',i will force you1 by concentrating you on that particular point1 to act efficiently the next time similar circumstances arise1' and when he has carried out his intention1 and when the awkward circumstances have recurred1 and his brain1 disciplined1 has done its work1 and so prevented unhappiness--then that man will regard his brain with a new eye4 ',by ,jove6' he will say2 ',i've stopped one source of unhappiness1 anyway4 ,there was a time when ,i should have made a fool of myself in a little domestic crisis such as to-day's4 ,but ,i have gone safely through it4 ,i am all right4 ,she is all right4 ,the atmosphere is not dangerous with undischarged electricity6 ,and all because my brain1 being in proper condition1 watched firmly over my instincts6 ,i must keep this up4' ,he will peer into that brain more and more4 ,he will see more and more of its possibilities4 ,he will have a new and a supreme interest in life4 ,a garden is a fairly interesting thing4 ,but the cultivation of a garden is as dull as cold mutton compared to the cultivation of a brain2 and wet weather won't interfere with digging1 planting1 and pruning in the box4 ,in due season the man whose hobby is his brain will gradually settle down into a daily routine1 with which routine he will start the day4 ,the idea at the back of the mind of the ordinary man 7by the ordinary man ,i mean the man whose brain is not his hobby7 is almost always this3 ',there are several things at present hanging over me--worries1 unfulfilled ambitions1 unrealised desires4 ,as soon as these things are definitely settled1 then ,i shall begin to live and enjoy myself4' ,that is the ordinary man's usual idea4 ,he has it from his youth to his old age4 ,he is invariably waiting for something to happen before he really begins to live4 ,i am sure that if you are an ordinary man 7of course1 you aren't1 ,i know7 you will admit that this is true of you2 you exist in the hope that one day things will be sufficiently smoothed out for you to begin to live4 ,that is just where you differ from the man whose brain is his hobby4 ,his daily routine consists in a meditation in the following vein3 ',this day is before me4 ,the circumstances of this day are my environment2 they are the material out of which1 by means of my brain1 ,i have to live and be happy and to refrain from causing unhappiness in other people4 ,it is the business of my brain to make use of this material4 ,my brain is in its box for that sole purpose4 ,not to-morrow6 ,not next year6 ,not when ,i have made my fortune6 ,not when my sick child is out of danger6 ,not when my wife has returned to her senses6 ,not when my salary is raised6 ,not when ,i have passed that examination6 ,not when my indigestion is better6 ,but now6 ,to-day1 exactly as to-day is6 ,the facts of to-day1 which in my unregeneracy ,i regarded primarily as anxieties1 nuisances1 impediments1 ,i now regard as so much raw material from which my brain has to weave a tissue of life that is comely4' ,and then he foresees the day as well as he can4 ,his experience teaches him where he will have difficulty1 and he administers to his brain the lessons of which it will have most need4 ,he carefully looks the machine over1 and arranges it specially for the sort of road which he knows that it will have to traverse4 ,and especially he readjusts his point of view1 for his point of view is continually getting wrong4 ,he is continually seeing worries where he ought to see material4 ,he may notice1 for instance1 a patch on the back of his head1 and he wonders whether it is the result of age or of disease1 or whether it has always been there4 ,and his wife tells him he must call at the chemist's and satisfy himself at once4 ,frightful nuisance6 ,age6 ,the endless trouble of a capillary complaint6 ,calling at the chemist's will make him late at the office6 etc4 etc4 ,but then his skilled1 efficient brain intervenes3 ',what peculiarly interesting material this mean and petty circumstance yields for the practice of philosophy and right living6' ,and again3 ',is this to ruffle you1 ,o my soul8 ,will it serve any end whatever that ,i should buzz nervously round this circumstance instead of attending to my usual business8' ,i give this as an example of the necessity of adjusting the point of view1 and of the manner in which a brain habituated by suitable concentration to correct thinking will come to the rescue in unexpected contingencies4 ,naturally it will work with greater certainty in the manipulation of difficulties that are expected1 that can be 'seen coming '2 and preparation for the expected is1 fortunately1 preparation for the unexpected4 ,the man who commences his day by a steady contemplation of the dangers which the next sixteen hours are likely to furnish1 and by arming himself specially against those dangers1 has thereby armed himself1 though to a less extent1 against dangers which he did not dream of4 ,but the routine must be fairly elastic4 ,it may be necessary to commence several days in succession--for a week or for months1 even--with disciplining the brain in one particular detail1 to the temporary neglect of other matters4 ,it is astonishing how you can weed every inch of a garden path and keep it in the most meticulous order1 and then one morning find in the very middle of it a lusty1 full-grown plant whose roots are positively mortised in granite6 ,all gardeners are familiar with such discoveries4 ,but a similar discovery1 though it entails hard labour on him1 will not disgust the man whose hobby is his brain4 ,for the discovery in itself is part of the material out of which he has to live4 ,if a man is to turn everything whatsoever into his own calm1 dignity1 and happiness1 he must make this use even of his own failures4 ,he must look at them as phenomena of the brain in that box1 and cheerfully set about taking measures to prevent their repetition4 ,all that happens to him1 success or check1 will but serve to increase his interest in the contents of that box4 ,i seem to hear you saying3 ',and a fine egotist he'll be6' ,well1 he'll be the right sort of egotist4 ,the average man is not half enough of an egotist4 ,if egotism means a terrific interest in one's self1 egotism is absolutely essential to efficient living4 ,there is no getting away from that4 ,but if egotism means selfishness1 the serious student of the craft of daily living will not be an egotist for more than about a year4 ,in a year he will have proved the ineptitude of egotism4 ,,xiii ,,success ,,and ,,failure ,i am sadly aware that these brief chapters will be apt to convey1 especially to the trustful and enthusiastic reader1 a false impression2 the impression of simplicity2 and that when experience has roughly corrected this impression1 the said reader1 unless he is most solemnly warned1 may abandon the entire enterprise in a fit of disgust1 and for ever afterwards maintain a cynical and impolite attitude towards all theories of controlling the human machine4 ,now1 the enterprise is not a simple one4 ,it is based on one simple principle--the conscious discipline of the brain by selected habits of thought--but it is just about as complicated as anything well could be4 ,advanced golf is child's play compared to it4 ,the man who briefly says to himself3 ',i will get up at #h1 and from #h4cj to #i ,i will examine and control my brain1 and so my life will at once be instantly improved out of recognition'--that man is destined to unpleasant surprises4 ,progress will be slow4 ,progress may appear to be quite rapid at first1 and then a period of futility may set in1 and the would-be vanquisher of his brain may suffer a series of the most deadly defeats4 ,and in his pessimism he may imagine that all his pains have gone for nothing1 and that the unserious loungers in exhibition gardens and readers of novels in parlours are in the right of it after all4 ,he may even feel rather ashamed of himself for having been1 as he thinks1 taken in by specious promises1 like the purchaser of a quack medicine4 ,the conviction that great effort has been made and no progress achieved is the chief of the dangers that affront the beginner in machine-tending4 ,it is1 ,i will assert positively1 in every case a conviction unjustified by the facts1 and usually it is the mere result of reaction after fatigue1 encouraged by the instinct for laziness4 ,i do not think it will survive an impartial examination2 but ,i know that a man1 in order to find an excuse for abandoning further effort1 is capable of convincing himself that past effort has yielded no fruit at all4 ,so curious is the human machine4 ,i beg every student of himself to consider this remark with all the intellectual honesty at his disposal4 ,it is a grave warning4 ,when the machine-tender observes that he is frequently changing his point of view2 when he notices that what he regarded as the kernel of the difficulty yesterday has sunk to a triviality to-day1 being replaced by a fresh phenomenon2 when he arises one morning and by means of a new1 unexpected glimpse into the recesses of the machine perceives that hitherto he has been quite wrong and must begin again2 when he wonders how on earth he could have been so blind and so stupid as not to see what now he sees2 when the new vision is veiled by new disappointments and narrowed by continual reservations2 when he is overwhelmed by the complexity of his undertaking--then let him unhearten himself1 for he is succeeding4 ,the history of success in any art--and machine-tending is an art--is a history of recommencements1 of the dispersal and reforming of doubts1 of an ever-increasing conception of the extent of the territory unconquered1 and an ever-decreasing conception of the extent of the territory conquered4 ,it is remarkable that1 though no enterprise could possibly present more diverse and changeful excitements than the mastering of the brain1 the second great danger which threatens its ultimate success is nothing but a mere drying-up of enthusiasm for it6 ,one would have thought that in an affair which concerned him so nearly1 in an affair whose results might be in a very strict sense vital to him1 in an affair upon which his happiness and misery might certainly turn1 a man would not weary from sheer tedium4 ,nevertheless1 it is so4 ,again and again ,i have noticed the abandonment1 temporary or permanent1 of this mighty and thrilling enterprise from simple lack of interest4 ,and ,i imagine that1 in practically all cases save those in which an exceptional original force of will renders the enterprise scarcely necessary1 the interest in it will languish unless it is regularly nourished from without4 ,now1 the interest in it cannot be nourished from without by means of conversation with other brain-tamers4 ,there are certain things which may not be discussed by sanely organised people2 and this is one4 ,the affair is too intimate1 and it is also too moral4 ,even after only a few minutes' vocalisation on this subject a deadly infection seems to creep into the air--the infection of priggishness4 7,or am ,i mistaken1 and do ,i fancy this horror8 ,no2 ,i cannot believe that ,i am mistaken47 ,hence the nourishment must be obtained by reading2 a little reading every day4 ,i suppose there are some thousands of authors who have written with more or less sincerity on the management of the human machine4 ,but the two which1 for me1 stand out easily above all the rest are ,marcus ,aurelius ,antoninus and ,epictetus4 ,not much has been discovered since their time4 ',the perfecting of life is a power residing in the soul1' wrote ,marcus ,aurelius in the ninth book of ,to ,himself1 over seventeen hundred years ago4 ,marcus ,aurelius is assuredly regarded as the greatest of writers in the human machine school1 and not to read him daily is considered by many to be a bad habit4 ,as a confession his work stands alone4 ,but as a practical ',bradshaw' of existence1 ,i would put the discourses of ,epictetus before ,m4 ,aurelius4 ,epictetus is grosser2 he will call you a blockhead as soon as look at you2 he is witty1 he is even humorous1 and he never wanders far away from the incidents of daily life4 ,he is brimming over with actuality for readers of the year #aijh4 ,he was a freed slave4 ,m4 ,aurelius was an emperor1 and he had the morbidity from which all emperors must suffer4 ,a finer soul than ,epictetus1 he is not1 in my view1 so useful a companion4 ,not all of us can breathe freely in his atmosphere4 ,nevertheless1 he is of course to be read1 and re-read continually4 ,when you have gone through ,epictetus--a single page or paragraph per day1 well masticated and digested1 suffices--you can go through ,m4 ,aurelius1 and then you can return to ,epictetus1 and so on1 morning by morning1 or night by night1 till your life's end4 ,and they will conserve your interest in yourself4 ,in the matter of concentration1 ,i hesitate to recommend ,mrs4 ,annie ,besant's ,thought ,power1 and yet ,i should be possibly unjust if ,i did not recommend it1 having regard to its immense influence on myself4 ,it is not one of the best books of this astounding woman4 ,it is addressed to theosophists1 and can only be completely understood in the light of theosophistic doctrines4 7,to grasp it all ,i found myself obliged to study a much larger work dealing with theosophy as a whole47 ,it contains an appreciable quantity of what strikes me as feeble sentimentalism1 and also a lot of sheer dogma4 ,but it is the least unsatisfactory manual of the brain that ,i have met with4 ,and if the profane reader ignores all that is either ,greek or twaddle to him1 there will yet remain for his advantage a vast amount of very sound information and advice4 ,all these three books are cheap4 ,,xiv ,a ,,man ,,and ,,his ,,environment ,i now come to an entirely different aspect of the whole subject4 ,hitherto ,i have dealt with the human machine as a contrivance for adapting the man to his environment4 ,my aim has been to show how much depends on the machine and how little depends on the environment1 and that the essential business of the machine is to utilise1 for making the stuff of life1 the particular environment in which it happens to find itself--and no other6 ,all this1 however1 does not imply that one must accept1 fatalistically and permanently and passively1 any preposterous environment into which destiny has chanced to throw us4 ,if we carry far enough the discipline of our brains1 we can1 no doubt1 arrive at surprisingly good results in no matter what environment4 ,but it would not be 'right reason' to expend an excessive amount of will-power on brain-discipline when a slighter effort in a different direction would produce consequences more felicitous4 ,a man whom fate had pitched into a canal might accomplish miracles in the way of rendering himself amphibian2 he might stagger the world by the spectacle of his philosophy under amazing difficulties2 people might pay sixpence a head to come and see him2 but he would be less of a nincompoop if he climbed out and arranged to live definitely on the bank4 ,the advantage of an adequate study of the control of the machine1 such as ,i have outlined1 is that it enables the student to judge1 with some certainty1 whether the unsatisfactoriness of his life is caused by a disordered machine or by an environment for which the machine is1 in its fundamental construction1 unsuitable4 ,it does help him to decide justly whether1 in the case of a grave difference between them1 he1 or the rest of the universe1 is in the wrong4 ,and also1 if he decides that he is not in the wrong1 it helps him to choose a new environment1 or to modify the old1 upon some scientific principle4 ,the vast majority of people never know1 with any precision1 why they are dissatisfied with their sojourn on this planet4 ,they make long and fatiguing excursions in search of precious materials which all the while are concealed in their own breasts4 ,they don't know what they want2 they only know that they want something4 ,or1 if they contrive to settle in their own minds what they do want1 a hundred to one the obtaining of it will leave them just as far off contentment as they were at the beginning6 ,this is a matter of daily observation3 that people are frantically engaged in attempting to get hold of things which1 by universal experience1 are hideously disappointing to those who have obtained possession of them4 ,and still the struggle goes on1 and probably will go on4 ,all because brains are lying idle6 ',it is no trifle that is at stake1' said ,epictetus as to the question of control of instinct by reason4 ',it means1 ,are you in your senses or are you not8' ,in this significance1 indubitably the vast majority of people are not in their senses2 otherwise they would not behave as they do1 so vaguely1 so happy-go-luckily1 so blindly4 ,but the man whose brain is in working order emphatically is in his senses4 ,and when a man1 by means of the efficiency of his brain1 has put his reason in definite command over his instincts1 he at once sees things in a truer perspective than was before possible1 and therefore he is able to set a just value upon the various parts which go to make up his environment4 ,if1 for instance1 he lives in ,london1 and is aware of constant friction1 he will be led to examine the claims of ,london as a ,mecca for intelligent persons4 ,he may say to himself3 ',there is something wrong1 and the seat of trouble is not in the machine4 ,london compels me to tolerate dirt1 darkness1 ugliness1 strain1 tedious daily journeyings1 and general expensiveness4 ,what does ,london give me in exchange8' ,and he may decide that1 as ,london offers him nothing special in exchange except the glamour of ,london and an occasional seat at a good concert or a bad play1 he may get a better return for his expenditure of brains1 nerves1 and money in the provinces4 ,he may perceive1 with a certain ,french novelist1 that 'most people of truly distinguished mind prefer the provinces4' ,and he may then actually1 in obedience to reason1 quit the deceptions of ,london with a tranquil heart1 sure of his diagnosis4 ,whereas a man who had not devoted much time to the care of his mental machinery could not screw himself up to the step1 partly from lack of resolution1 and partly because he had never examined the sources of his unhappiness4 ,a man who1 not having full control of his machine1 is consistently dissatisfied with his existence1 is like a man who is being secretly poisoned and cannot decide with what or by whom4 ,and so he has no middle course between absolute starvation and a continuance of poisoning4 ,as with the environment of place1 so with the environment of individuals4 ,most friction between individuals is avoidable friction2 sometimes1 however1 friction springs from such deep causes that no skill in the machine can do away with it4 ,but how is the man whose brain is not in command of his existence to judge whether the unpleasantness can be cured or not1 whether it arises in himself or in the other8 ,he simply cannot judge4 ,whereas a man who keeps his brain for use and not for idle amusement will1 when he sees that friction persists in spite of his brain1 be so clearly impressed by the advisability of separation as the sole cure that he will steel himself to the effort necessary for a separation4 ,one of the chief advantages of an efficient brain is that an efficient brain is capable of acting with firmness and resolution1 partly1 of course1 because it has been toned up1 but more because its operations are not confused by the interference of mere instincts4 ,thirdly1 there is the environment of one's general purpose in life1 which is1 ,i feel convinced1 far more often hopelessly wrong and futile than either the environment of situation or the environment of individuals4 ,i will be bold enough to say that quite seventy per cent4 of ambition is never realised at all1 and that ninety-nine per cent4 of all realised ambition is fruitless4 ,in other words1 that a gigantic sacrifice of the present to the future is always going on4 ,and here again the utility of brain-discipline is most strikingly shown4 ,a man whose first business it is every day to concentrate his mind on the proper performance of that particular day1 must necessarily conserve his interest in the present4 ,it is impossible that his perspective should become so warped that he will devote1 say1 fifty-five years of his career to problematical preparations for his comfort and his glory during the final ten years4 ,a man whose brain is his servant1 and not his lady-help or his pet dog1 will be in receipt of such daily content and satisfaction that he will early ask himself the question3 ',as for this ambition that is eating away my hours1 what will it give me that ,i have not already got8' ,further1 the steady development of interest in the hobby 7call it67 of common-sense daily living will act as an automatic test of any ambition4 ,if an ambition survives and flourishes on the top of that daily cultivation of the machine1 then the owner of the ambition may be sure that it is a genuine and an invincible ambition1 and he may pursue it in full faith2 his developed care for the present will prevent him from making his ambition an altar on which the whole of the present is to be offered up4 ,i shall be told that ,i want to do away with ambition1 and that ambition is the great motive-power of existence1 and that therefore ,i am an enemy of society and the truth is not in me4 ,but ,i do not want to do away with ambition4 ,what ,i say is that current ambitions usually result in disappointment1 that they usually mean the complete distortion of a life4 ,this is an incontestable fact1 and the reason of it is that ambitions are chosen either without knowledge of their real value or without knowledge of what they will cost4 ,a disciplined brain will at once show the unnecessariness of most ambitions1 and will ensure that the remainder shall be conducted with reason4 ,it will also convince its possessor that the ambition to live strictly according to the highest common sense during the next twenty-four hours is an ambition that needs a lot of beating4 ,,xv ,l4,s4,d4 ,anybody who really wishes to talk simple truth about money at the present time is confronted by a very serious practical difficulty4 ,he must put himself in opposition to the overwhelming body of public opinion1 and resign himself to being regarded either as a poseur1 a crank1 or a fool4 ,the public is in search of happiness now1 as it was a million years ago4 ,money is not the principal factor in happiness4 ,it may be argued whether1 as a factor in happiness1 money is of twentieth-rate importance or fiftieth-rate importance4 ,but it cannot be argued whether money1 in point of fact1 does or does not of itself bring happiness4 ,there can be no doubt whatever that money does not bring happiness4 ,yet1 in face of this incontrovertible and universal truth1 the whole public behaves exactly as if money were the sole or the principal preliminary to happiness4 ,the public does not reason1 and it will not listen to reason2 its blood is up in the money-hunt1 and the philosopher might as well expostulate with an earthquake as try to take that public by the button-hole and explain4 ,if a man sacrifices his interest under the will of some dead social tyrant in order to marry whom he wishes1 if an ,english minister of religion declines twenty-five thousand dollars a year to go into exile and preach to ,new ,york millionaires1 the phenomenon is genuinely held to be so astounding that it at once flies right round the world in the form of exclamatory newspaper articles6 ,in an age when such an attitude towards money is sincere1 it is positively dangerous--,i doubt if it may not be harmful--to persist with loud obstinacy that money1 instead of being the greatest1 is the least thing in the world4 ,in times of high military excitement a man may be ostracised if not lynched for uttering opinions which everybody will accept as truisms a couple of years later1 and thus the wise philosopher holds his tongue--lest it should be cut out4 ,so at the zenith of a period when the possession of money in absurd masses is an infallible means to the general respect1 ,i have no intention either of preaching or of practising quite all that ,i privately in the matter of riches4 ,it was not always thus4 ,though there have been previous ages as lustful for wealth and ostentation as our own1 there have also been ages when money-getting and millionaire-envying were not the sole preoccupations of the average man4 ,and such an age will undoubtedly succeed to ours4 ,few things would surprise me less1 in social life1 than the upspringing of some anti-luxury movement1 the formation of some league or guild among the middling classes 7where alone intellect is to be found in quantity71 the members of which would bind themselves to stand aloof from all the great1 silly1 banal1 ugly1 and tedious luxe-activities of the time and not to spend more than a certain sum per annum on eating1 drinking1 covering their bodies1 and being moved about like parcels from one spot of the earth's surface to another4 ,such a movement would1 and will1 help towards the formation of an opinion which would condemn lavish expenditure on personal satisfactions as bad form4 ,however1 the shareholders of grand hotels1 restaurants1 and race-courses of all sorts1 together with popular singers and barristers1 etc41 need feel no immediate alarm4 ,the movement is not yet4 ,as touching the effect of money on the efficient ordering of the human machine1 there is happily no necessity to inform those who have begun to interest themselves in the conduct of their own brains that money counts for very little in that paramount affair4 ,nothing that really helps towards perfection costs more than is within the means of every person who reads these pages4 ,the expenses connected with daily meditation1 with the building-up of mental habits1 with the practice of self-control and of cheerfulness1 with the enthronement of reason over the rabble of primeval instincts--these expenses are really1 you know1 trifling4 ,and whether you get that well-deserved rise of a pound a week or whether you don't1 you may anyhow go ahead with the machine2 it isn't a motor-car1 though ,i started by comparing it to one4 ,and even when1 having to a certain extent mastered1 through sensible management of the machine1 the art of achieving a daily content and dignity1 you come to the embroidery of life--even the best embroidery of life is not absolutely ruinous4 ,meat may go up in price--it has done--but books won't4 ,admission to picture galleries and concerts and so forth will remain quite low4 ,the views from ,richmond ,hill or ,hindhead1 or along ,pall ,mall at sunset1 the smell of the earth1 the taste of fruit and of kisses--these things are unaffected by the machinations of trusts and the hysteria of stock exchanges4 ,travel1 which after books is the finest of all embroideries 7and which is not to be valued by the mile but by the quality71 is decidedly cheaper than ever it was4 ,all that is required is ingenuity in one's expenditure4 ,and much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity4 ,and all the while as you read this you are saying1 with your impatient sneer3 ',it's all very well2 it's all very fine talking1 but 444' ,in brief1 you are not convinced4 ,you cannot deracinate that wide-rooted dogma within your soul that more money means more joy4 ,i regret it4 ,but let me put one question1 and let me ask you to answer it honestly4 ,your financial means are greater now than they used to be4 ,are you happier or less discontented than you used to be8 ,taking your existence day by day1 hour by hour1 judging it by the mysterious feel 7in the chest7 of responsibilities1 worries1 positive joys and satisfactions1 are you genuinely happier than you used to be8 ,i do not wish to be misunderstood4 ,the financial question cannot be ignored4 ,if it is true that money does not bring happiness1 it is no less true that the lack of money induces a state of affairs in which efficient living becomes doubly difficult4 ,these two propositions1 superficially perhaps self-contradictory1 are not really so4 ,a modest income suffices for the fullest realisation of the ,ego in terms of content and dignity2 but you must live within it4 ,you cannot righteously ignore money4 ,a man1 for instance1 who cultivates himself and instructs a family of daughters in everything except the ability to earn their own livelihood1 and then has the impudence to die suddenly without leaving a penny--that man is a scoundrel4 ,ninety--or should ,i say ninety-nine8--per cent4 of all those anxieties which render proper living almost impossible are caused by the habit of walking on the edge of one's income as one might walk on the edge of a precipice4 ,the majority of ,englishmen have some financial worry or other continually1 everlastingly at the back of their minds4 ,the sacrifice necessary to abolish this condition of things is more apparent than real4 ,all spending is a matter of habit4 ,speaking generally1 a man can contrive1 out of an extremely modest income1 to have all that he needs--unless he needs the esteem of snobs4 ,habit may1 and habit usually does1 make it just as difficult to keep a family on two thousand a year as on two hundred4 ,i suppose that for the majority of men the suspension of income for a single month would mean either bankruptcy1 the usurer1 or acute inconvenience4 ,impossible1 under such circumstances1 to be in full and independent possession of one's immortal soul6 ,hence ,i should be inclined to say that the first preliminary to a proper control of the machine is the habit of spending decidedly less than one earns or receives4 ,the veriest automaton of a clerk ought to have the wherewithal of a whole year as a shield against the caprices of his employer4 ,it would be as reasonable to expect the inhabitants of an unfortified city in the midst of a plain occupied by a hostile army to apply themselves successfully to the study of logarithms or metaphysics1 as to expect a man without a year's income in his safe to apply himself successfully to the true art of living4 ,and the whole secret of relative freedom from financial anxiety lies not in income1 but in expenditure4 ,i am ashamed to utter this antique platitude4 ,but1 like most aphorisms of unassailable wisdom1 it is completely ignored4 ,you say1 of course1 that it is not easy to leave a margin between your expenditure and your present income4 ,i know it4 ,i fraternally shake your hand4 ,still it is1 in most cases1 far easier to lessen one's expenditure than to increase one's income without increasing one's expenditure4 ,the alternative is before you4 ,however you decide1 be assured that the foundation of philosophy is a margin1 and that the margin can always be had4 ,,xvi ,,reason1 ,,reason6 ,in conclusion1 ,i must insist upon several results of what ,i may call the 'intensive culture' of the reason4 ,the brain will not only grow more effectively powerful in the departments of life where the brain is supposed specially to work1 but it will also enlarge the circle of its activities4 ,it will assuredly interfere in everything4 ,the student of himself must necessarily conduct his existence more and more according to the views of his brain4 ,this will be most salutary and agreeable both for himself and for the rest of the world4 ,you object4 ,you say it will be a pity when mankind refers everything to reason4 ,you talk about the heart4 ,you envisage an entirely reasonable existence as a harsh and callous existence4 ,not so4 ,when the reason and the heart come into conflict the heart is invariably wrong4 ,i do not say that the reason is always entirely right1 but ,i do say that it is always less wrong than the heart4 ,the empire of the reason is not universal1 but within its empire reason is supreme1 and if other forces challenge it on its own soil they must take the consequences4 ,nearly always1 when the heart opposes the brain1 the heart is merely a pretty name which we give to our idleness and our egotism4 ,we pass along the ,strand and see a respectable young widow standing in the gutter1 with a baby in her arms and a couple of boxes of matches in one hand4 ,we know she is a widow because of her weeds1 and we know she is respectable by her clothes4 ,we know she is not begging because she is selling matches4 ,the sight of her in the gutter pains our heart4 ,our heart weeps and gives the woman a penny in exchange for a halfpenny box of matches1 and the pain of our heart is thereby assuaged4 ,our heart has performed a good action4 ,but later on our reason 7unfortunately asleep at the moment7 wakes up and says3 ',that baby was hired2 the weeds and matches merely a dodge4 ,the whole affair was a spectacle got up to extract money from a fool like you4 ,it is as mechanical as a penny in the slot4 ,instead of relieving distress you have simply helped to perpetuate an infamous system4 ,you ought to know that you can't do good in that offhand way4' ,the heart gives pennies in the street4 ,the brain runs the ,charity ,organisation ,society4 ,of course1 to give pennies in the street is much less trouble than to run the ,c4,o4,s4 ,as a method of producing a quick1 inexpensive1 and pleasing effect on one's egotism the ,c4,o4,s4 is simply not in it with this dodge of giving pennies at random1 without inquiry4 ,only--which of the two devices ought to be accused of harshness and callousness8 ,which of them is truly kind8 ,i bring forward the respectable young widow as a sample case of the ,heart v4 ,brain conflict4 ,all other cases are the same4 ,the brain is always more kind than the heart2 the brain is always more willing than the heart to put itself to a great deal of trouble for a very little reward2 the brain always does the difficult1 unselfish thing1 and the heart always does the facile1 showy thing4 ,naturally the result of the brain's activity on society is always more advantageous than the result of the heart's activity4 ,another point4 ,i have tried to show that1 if the reason is put in command of the feelings1 it is impossible to assume an attitude of blame towards any person whatsoever for any act whatsoever4 ,the habit of blaming must depart absolutely4 ,it is no argument against this statement that it involves anarchy and the demolition of society4 ,even if it did 7which emphatically it does not71 that would not affect its truth4 ,all great truths have been assailed on the ground that to accept them meant the end of everything4 ,as if that mattered6 ,as ,i make no claim to be the discoverer of this truth ,i have no hesitation in announcing it to be one of the most important truths that the world has yet to learn4 ,however1 the real reason why many people object to this truth is not because they think it involves the utter demolition of society 7fear of the utter demolition of society never stopped any one from doing or believing anything1 and never will71 but because they say to themselves that if they can't blame they can't praise4 ,and they do so like praising6 ,if they are so desperately fond of praising1 it is a pity that they don't praise a little more6 ,there can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises4 ,his instinct is to blame4 ,if he is satisfied he says nothing2 if he is not1 he most illogically kicks up a row4 ,so that even if the suppression of blame involved the suppression of praise the change would certainly be a change for the better4 ,but ,i can perceive no reason why the suppression of blame should involve the suppression of praise4 ,on the contrary1 ,i think that the habit of praising should be fostered4 7,i do not suggest the occasional use of trowels1 but the regular use of salt-spoons47 ,anyhow1 the triumph of the brain over the natural instincts 7in an ideally organised man the brain and the natural instincts will never have even a tiff7 always means the ultimate triumph of kindness4 ,and1 further1 the culture of the brain1 the constant disciplinary exercise of the reasoning faculty1 means the diminution of misdeeds4 7,do not imagine ,i am hinting that you are on the verge of murdering your wife or breaking into your neighbour's house4 ,although you personally are guiltless1 there is a good deal of sin still committed in your immediate vicinity47 ,said ,balzac in ,la ,cousine ,bette1 ',a crime is in the first instance a defect of reasoning powers4' ,in the appreciation of this truth1 ,marcus ,aurelius was1 as usual1 a bit beforehand with ,balzac4 ,m4 ,aurelius said1 ',no soul wilfully misses truth4' ,and ,epictetus had come to the same conclusion before ,m4 ,aurelius1 and ,plato before ,epictetus4 ,all wrong-doing is done in the sincere belief that it is the best thing to do4 ,whatever sin a man does he does either for his own benefit or for the benefit of society4 ,at the moment of doing it he is convinced that it is the only thing to do4 ,he is mistaken4 ,and he is mistaken because his brain has been unequal to the task of reasoning the matter out4 ,passion 7the heart7 is responsible for all crimes4 ,indeed1 crime is simply a convenient monosyllable which we apply to what happens when the brain and the heart come into conflict and the brain is defeated4 ,that transaction of the matches was a crime1 you know4 ,lastly1 the culture of the brain must result in the habit of originally examining all the phenomena of life and conduct1 to see what they really are1 and to what they lead4 ,the heart hates progress1 because the dear old thing always wants to do as has always been done4 ,the heart is convinced that custom is a virtue4 ,the heart of the dirty working man rebels when the ,state insists that he shall be clean1 for no other reason than that it is his custom to be dirty4 ,useless to tell his heart that1 clean1 he will live longer6 ,he has been dirty and he will be4 ,the brain alone is the enemy of prejudice and precedent1 which alone are the enemies of progress4 ,and this habit of originally examining phenomena is perhaps the greatest factor that goes to the making of personal dignity2 for it fosters reliance on one's self and courage to accept the consequences of the act of reasoning4 ,reason is the basis of personal dignity4 ,i finish4 ,i have said nothing of the modifications which the constant use of the brain will bring about in the general value of existence4 ,modifications slow and subtle1 but tremendous6 ,the persevering will discover them4 ,it will happen to the persevering that their whole lives are changed--texture and colour1 too6 ,naught will happen to those who do not persevere4 ,,the ,,end