,,the ,,feast ,,of ,,st4 ,,friend ,a ,christmas ,book by ,,arnold ,,bennett ,author of ,the ,old ,wives' ,tale1 ,buried ,alive1 etc41 etc4 ,new ,york ,george ,h4 ,doran ,company #aiaa ,,contents ,,chapter ,i4 ,,the ,,fact ,,ii4 ,,the ,,reason ,,iii4 ,,the ,,solstice ,,and ,,goodwill ,,iv4 ,,the ,,appositeness ,,of ,,christmas ,v4 ,,defence ,,of ,,feasting ,,vi4 ,,to ,,revitalize ,,the ,,festival ,,vii4 ,,the ,,gift ,,of ,,oneself ,,viii4 ,,the ,,feast ,,of ,,st4 ,,friend ,,ix4 ,,the ,,reaction ,x4 ,,on ,,the ,,last ,,day ,,of ,,the ,,year ,,one ,,the ,,fact ,something has happened to ,christmas1 or to our hearts2 or to both4 ,in order to be convinced of this it is only necessary to compare the present with the past4 ,in the old days of not so long ago the festival began to excite us in ,november4 ,for weeks the house rustled with charming and thrilling secrets1 and with the furtive noises of paper parcels being wrapped and unwrapped2 the house was a whispering gallery4 ,the tension of expectancy increased to such a point that there was a positive danger of the cord snapping before it ought to snap4 ,on the ,eve we went to bed with no hope of settled sleep4 ,we knew that we should be wakened and kept awake by the waits singing in the cold2 and we were glad to be kept awake so4 ,on the supreme day we came downstairs hiding delicious yawns1 and cordially pretending that we had never been more fit4 ,the day was different from other days2 it had a unique romantic quality1 tonic1 curative of all ills4 ,on that day even the tooth-ache vanished1 retiring far into the wilderness with the spiteful word1 the venomous thought1 and the unlovely gesture4 ,we sang with gusto ,christians awake1 salute the happy morn4 ,we did salute the happy morn4 ,and when all the parcels were definitely unpacked1 and the secrets of all hearts disclosed1 we spent the rest of the happy morn in waiting1 candidly greedy1 for the first of the great meals4 ,and then we ate1 and we drank1 and we ate again2 with no thought of nutrition1 nor of reasonableness1 nor of the morrow1 nor of dyspepsia4 ,we ate and drank without fear and without shame1 in the sheer1 abandoned ecstasy of celebration4 ,and by means of motley paper headgear1 fit only for a carnival1 we disguised ourselves in the most absurd fashions1 and yet did not make ourselves seriously ridiculous2 for ridicule is in the vision1 not in what is seen4 ,and we danced and sang and larked1 until we could no more4 ,and finally we chanted a song of ceremony1 and separated2 ending the day as we had commenced it1 with salvoes of good wishes4 ,and the next morning we were indisposed and enfeebled2 and we did not care2 we suffered gladly2 we had our pain's worth1 and more4 ,this was the past4 99 99 99 99 99 ,even today the spirit and rites of ancient ,christmas are kept up1 more or less in their full rigour and splendour1 by a race of beings that is scattered over the whole earth4 ,this race1 mysterious1 masterful1 conservative1 imaginative1 passionately sincere1 arriving from we know not where1 dissolving before our eyes we know not how1 has its way in spite of us4 ,i mean the children4 ,by virtue of the children's faith1 the reindeer are still tramping the sky1 and ,christmas ,day is still something above and beyond a day of the week2 it is a day out of the week4 ,we have to sit and pretend2 and with disillusion in our souls we do pretend4 ,at ,christmas1 it is not the children who make-believe2 it is ourselves4 ,who does not remember the first inkling of a suspicion that ,christmas ,day was after all a day rather like any other day8 ,in the house of my memories1 it was the immemorial duty of my brother on ,christmas morning1 before anything else whatever happened1 to sit down to the organ and perform ,christians ,awake with all possible stops drawn4 ,he had to do it4 ,tradition1 and the will that emanated from the best bedroom1 combined to force him to do it4 ,one ,christmas morning1 as he was preparing the stops1 he glanced aside at me with a supercilious curl of the lips1 and the curl of my lips silently answered4 ,it was as if he had said3 ,i condescend to this1 and as if ,i had said3 ,so do ,i4 ,such a moment comes to most of us of this generation4 ,and thenceforward the change in us is extraordinarily rapid4 ,the next thing we know is that the institution of waits is a rather annoying survival which at once deprives us of sleep and takes money out of our pockets4 ,and then ,christmas is gluttony and indigestion and expensiveness and quarter-day1 and ,christmas cards are a tax and a nuisance1 and present-giving is a heavier tax and a nuisance4 ,and we feel self-conscious and foolish as we sing ,auld ,lang ,syne4 ,and what a blessing it will be when the festivities 7as they are misleadingly called7 are over1 and we can settle down into commonsense again6 99 99 99 99 99 ,i do not mean that our hearts are black with despair on ,christmas ,day4 ,i do not mean that we do not enjoy ourselves on ,christmas ,day4 ,there is no doubt that1 with the inspiriting help of the mysterious race1 and by the force of tradition1 and by our own gift of pretending1 we do still very much enjoy ourselves on ,christmas ,day4 ,what ,i mean to insinuate1 and to assert1 is that beneath this enjoyment is the disconcerting and distressing conviction of unreality1 of non-significance1 of exaggerated and even false sentiment4 ,what ,i mean is that we have to brace and force ourselves up to the enjoyment of ,christmas4 ,we have to induce deliberately the ,christmas feeling4 ,we have to remind ourselves that it will never do to let the heartiness of ,christmas be impaired4 ,the peculiarity of our attitude towards ,christmas1 which at worst is a vacation1 may be clearly seen by contrasting it with our attitude towards another vacation--the summer holiday4 ,we do not have to brace and force ourselves up to the enjoyment of the summer holiday4 ,we experience no difficulty in inducing the holiday feeling4 ,there is no fear of the institution of the summer holiday losing its heartiness4 ,nor do we need the example of children to aid us in savouring the ,august festivities4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if any person here breaks in with the statement that ,i am deceived and the truth is not in me1 and that ,christmas stands just where it did in the esteem of all right-minded people1 and that he who casts a doubt on the heartiness of ,christmas is not right-minded1 let that person read no more4 ,this book is not written for him4 ,and if any other person1 kindlier1 condescendingly protests that there is nothing wrong with ,christmas except my advancing age1 let that person read no more4 ,this book is not written for him1 either4 ,it is written for persons who can look facts cheerfully in the face4 ,that ,christmas has lost some of its magic is a fact that the common sense of the western hemisphere will not dispute4 ,to blink the fact is infantile4 ,to confront it1 to try to understand it1 to reckon with it1 and to obviate any evil that may attach to it--this course alone is meet for an honest man4 ,,two ,,the ,,reason ,if the decadence of ,christmas were a purely subjective phenomenon1 confined to the breasts of those of us who have ceased to be children then it follows that ,christmas has always been decadent1 because people have always been ceasing to be children4 ,it follows also that the festival was originally got up by disillusioned adults1 for the benefit of the children4 ,which is totally absurd4 ,adults have never yet invented any institution1 festival or diversion specially for the benefit of children4 ,the egoism of adults makes such an effort impossible1 and the ingenuity and pliancy of children make it unnecessary4 ,the pantomime1 for example1 which is now pre-eminently a diversion for children1 was created by adults for the amusement of adults4 ,children have merely accepted it and appropriated it4 ,children1 being helpless1 are of course fatalists and imitators4 ,they take what comes1 and they do the best they can with it4 ,and when they have made something their own that was adult1 they stick to it like leeches4 ,they are terrific ,tories1 are children2 they are even reactionary6 ,they powerfully object to changes4 ,what they most admire in a pantomime is the oldest part of it1 the only true pantomime--the harlequinade6 ,hence the very nature of children is a proof that what ,christmas is now to them1 it was in the past to their elders4 ,if they now feel and exhibit faith and enthusiasm in the practice of the festival1 be sure that1 at one time1 adults felt and exhibited the same faith and enthusiasm--yea1 and more6 ,for in neither faith nor enthusiasm can a child compete with a convinced adult4 ,no child could believe in anything as passionately as the modern millionaire believes in money1 or as the modern social reformer believes in the virtue of ,acts of ,parliament4 ,another and a crowning proof that ,christmas has been diminished in our hearts lies in the fiery lyrical splendour of the old ,christmas hymns4 ,those hymns were not written by people who made-believe at ,christmas for the pleasure of youngsters4 ,they were written by devotees4 ,and this age could not have produced them4 99 99 99 99 99 ,no6 ,the decay of the old ,christmas spirit among adults is undeniable1 and its cause is fairly plain4 ,it is due to the labours of a set of idealists--men who cared not for money1 nor for glory1 nor for anything except their ideal4 ,their ideal was to find out the truth concerning nature and concerning human history2 and they sacrificed all--they sacrificed the peace of mind of whole generations--to the pleasure of slaking their ardour for truth4 ,for them the most important thing in the world was the satisfaction of their curiosity4 ,they would leave naught alone2 and they scorned consequences4 ,useless to cry to them3 ,that is holy4 ,touch it not6 ,i mean the great philosophers and men of science--especially the geologists--of the nineteenth century4 ,i mean such utterly pure-minded men as ,lyell1 ,spencer1 ,darwin and ,huxley4 ,they inaugurated the mighty age of doubt and scepticism4 ,they made it impossible to believe all manner of things which before them none had questioned4 ,the movement spread until uneasiness was everywhere in the realm of thought1 and people walked about therein fearsomely1 as in a land subject to earthquakes4 ,it was as if people had said3 ,we don't know what will topple next4 ,let's raze everything to the ground1 and then we shall feel safer4 ,and there came a moment after which nobody could ever look at a picture of the ,nativity in the old way4 ,pictures of the ,nativity were admired perhaps as much as ever1 but for the exquisite beauty of their navet1 the charm of their old-world simplicity1 not as artistic renderings of fact4 99 99 99 99 99 ,an age of scepticism has its faults1 like any other age1 though certain persons have pretended the contrary4 ,having been compelled to abandon its belief in various statements of alleged fact1 it lumps principles and ideals with alleged facts1 and hastily decides not to believe in anything at all4 ,it gives up faith1 it despises faith1 in spite of the warning of its greatest philosophers1 including ,herbert ,spencer1 that faith of some sort is necessary to a satisfactory existence in a universe full of problems which science admits it can never solve4 ,none were humbler than the foremost scientists about the narrowness of the field of knowledge1 as compared with the immeasurability of the field of faith4 ,but the warning has been ignored1 as warnings nearly always are4 ,faith is at a discount4 ,and the qualities which go with faith are at a discount2 such as enthusiasm1 spontaneity1 ebullition1 lyricism1 and self-expression in general4 ,sentimentality is held in such horror that people are afraid even of sentiment4 ,their secret cry is3 ,give us something in which we can believe4 99 99 99 99 99 ,they forget1 in their confusion1 that the great principles1 spiritual and moral1 remain absolutely intact4 ,they forget that1 after all the shattering discoveries of science and conclusions of philosophy1 mankind has still to live with dignity amid hostile nature1 and in the presence of an unknowable power and that mankind can only succeed in this tremendous feat by the exercise of faith and of that mutual goodwill which is based in sincerity and charity4 ,they forget that1 while facts are nothing1 these principles are everything4 ,and so1 at that epoch of the year which nature herself has ordained for the formal recognition of the situation of mankind in the universe and of its resulting duties to itself and to the ,unknown--at that epoch1 they bewail1 sadly or impatiently or cynically3 ,oh6 ,the bottom has been knocked out of ,christmas6 99 99 99 99 99 ,but the bottom has not been knocked out of ,christmas4 ,and people know it4 ,somewhere1 in the most central and mysterious fastness of their hearts1 they know it4 ,if they were not1 in spite of themselves1 convinced of it1 why should they be so pathetically anxious to keep alive in themselves1 and to foster in their children1 the ,christmas spirit8 ,obviously1 a profound instinct is for ever reminding them that1 without the ,christmas spirit1 they are lost4 ,the forms of faith change1 but the spirit of faith1 which is the ,christmas spirit1 is immortal amid its endless vicissitudes4 ,at a crisis of change1 faith is weakened for the majority2 for the majority it may seem to be dead4 ,it is conserved1 however1 in the hearts of the few supremely great and in the hearts of the simple4 ,the supremely great are hidden from the majority2 but the simple are seen of all men1 and them we encourage1 often without knowing why1 to be the depositaries of that which we cannot ourselves guard1 but which we dimly feel to be indispensable to our safety4 ,,three ,,the ,,solstice ,,and ,,good ,,will ,in order to see that there is underlying ,christmas an idea of faith which will at any rate last as long as the planet lasts1 it is only necessary to ask and answer the question3 ,why was the ,christmas feast fixed for the twenty-fifth of ,december8 ,for it is absolutely certain1 and admitted by everybody of knowledge1 that ,christ was not born on the twenty-fifth of ,december4 ,those disturbing impassioned inquirers after truth1 who will not leave us peaceful in our ignorance1 have settled that for us1 by pointing out1 among other things1 that the twenty-fifth of ,december falls in the very midst of the ,palestine rainy season1 and that1 therefore1 shepherds were assuredly not on that date watching their flocks by night4 99 99 99 99 99 ,christians were not1 at first1 united in the celebration of ,christmas4 ,some kept ,christmas in ,january1 others in ,april1 others in ,may4 ,it was a pre-,christian force which drove them all into agreement upon the twenty-fifth of ,december4 ,just as they wisely took the ,christmas tree from the ,roman ,saturnalia1 so they took the date of their festival from the universal pre-,christian festival of the winter solstice1 ,yule1 when mankind celebrated the triumph of the sun over the powers of darkness1 when the night begins to decrease and the day to increase1 when the year turns1 and hope is born again because the worst is over4 ,no more suitably symbolic moment could have been chosen for a festival of faith1 goodwill and joy4 ,and the appositeness of the moment is just as perfect in this era of electric light and central heating1 as it was in the era of ,virgil1 who1 by the way1 described a ,christmas tree4 ,we shall say this year1 with exactly the same accents of relief and hope as our pagan ancestors used1 and as the woaded savage used3 ,the days will begin to lengthen now6 ,for1 while we often falsely fancy that we have subjugated nature to our service1 the fact is that we are as irremediably as ever at the mercy of nature4 99 99 99 99 99 ,indeed1 the attitude of us moderns towards the forces by which our existence is governed ought to be1 and probably is1 more reverent and awe-struck than that of the earlier world4 ,the discoveries of science have at once quickened our imagination and compelled us to admit that what we know is the merest trifle4 ,the pagan in his ignorance explained everything4 ,our knowledge has only deepened the mystery1 and all that we shall learn will but deepen it further4 ,we can explain the solstice4 ,we are aware with absolute certitude that the solstice and the equinox and the varying phenomena of the seasons are due to the fact that the plane of the equator is tilted at a slight angle to the plane of the ecliptic4 ,when we put on the first overcoat in autumn1 and when we give orders to let the furnace out in spring1 we know that we are arranging our lives in accordance with that angle4 ,and we are quite duly proud of our knowledge4 ,and much good does our knowledge do us6 99 99 99 99 99 ,well1 it does do us some good1 and in a spiritual way1 too6 ,for nobody can even toy with astronomy without picturing to himself1 more clearly and startlingly than would be otherwise possible1 a revolving globe that whizzes through elemental space around a ball of fire3 which1 in turn1 is rushing with all its satellites at an inconceivable speed from nowhere to nowhere2 and to the surface of the revolving1 whizzing globe a multitude of living things desperately clinging1 and these living things1 in the midst of cataclysmic danger1 and between the twin enigmas of birth and death1 quarrelling and hating and calling themselves kings and queens and millionaires and beautiful women and aristocrats and geniuses and lackeys and superior persons6 ,perhaps the highest value of astronomy is that it renders more vivid the ironical significance of such a vision1 and thus brings home to us the truth that in spite of all the differences which we have invented1 mankind is a fellowship of brothers1 overshadowed by insoluble and fearful mysteries1 and dependent upon mutual goodwill and trust for the happiness it may hope to achieve4 99 99 99 ,let us remember that ,christmas is1 among other things1 the winter solstice1 and that the bottom has not yet been knocked out of the winter solstice1 nor is likely to be in the immediate future6 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is a curious fact that the one faith which really does flourish and wax in these days should be faith in the idea of social justice4 ,for social justice simply means the putting into practice of goodwill and the recognition of the brotherhood of mankind4 ,formerly1 people were enthusiastic and altruistic for a theological idea1 for a national idea1 for a political idea4 ,you could see men on the rack for the sake of a dogma2 you could see men of a great nation fitting out regiments and ruining themselves and going forth to save a small nation from destruction4 ,you could see men giving their lives to the aggrandisement of an empire4 ,and the men who did these things had the best brains and the quickest wits and the warmest hearts of their time4 ,but today1 whenever you meet a first-class man who is both enthusiastic and altruistic1 you may be sure that his pet scheme is neither theological1 military nor political2 you may be sure that he has got into his head the notion that some class of persons somewhere are not being treated fairly1 are not being treated with fraternal goodwill1 and that he is determined to put the matter right1 or perish4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in ,england1 nearly all the most interesting people are social reformers3 and the only circles of society in which you are not bored1 in which there is real conversation1 are the circles of social reform4 ,these people alone have an abounding and convincing faith4 ,their faith has1 for example1 convinced many of the best literary artists of the day1 with the result that a large proportion of the best modern imaginative literature has been inspired by the dream of social justice4 ,take away that idea from the works of ,h4,g4 ,wells1 ,john ,galsworthy and ,george ,bernard ,shaw1 and there would be exactly nothing left4 ,despite any appearance to the contrary1 therefore1 the idea of universal goodwill is really alive upon the continents of this planet3 more so1 indeed1 than any other idea--for the vitality of an idea depends far less on the numbers of people who hold it than on the quality of the heart and brain of the people who hold it4 ,whether the growth of the idea is due to the spiritual awe and humility which are the consequence of increased scientific knowledge1 ,i cannot say1 and ,i do not seriously care4 ,,four ,,the ,,appositeness ,,of ,,christmas ,yes1 you say1 ,i am quite at one with you as to the immense importance of goodwill in social existence1 and ,i have the same faith in it as you have4 ,but why a festival8 ,why eating and drinking and ceremonies8 ,surely one can have faith without festivals8 99 99 99 99 99 ,the answer is that one cannot2 or at least that in practice1 one never does4 ,a disinclination for festivals1 a morbid self-conscious fear of letting oneself go1 is a sure sign of lack of faith4 ,if you have not enough enthusiasm for the cult of goodwill to make you positively desire to celebrate the cult1 then your faith is insufficient and needs fostering by study and meditation4 ,why1 if you decide to found a sailing-club up your creek1 your very first thought is to signalise your faith in the sailing of those particular waters by a dinner and a jollity1 and you take care that the event shall be an annual one6 99 99 99 ,you have faith in your wife1 and in your affection for her4 ,surely you don't need a festival to remind you of that faith1 you so superior to human weaknesses8 ,but you do6 ,you insist on having it4 ,and1 if the festival did not happen1 you would feel gloomy and discouraged4 ,a birthday is a device for recalling to you in a formal and impressive manner that a certain person still lives and is in need of goodwill4 ,it is a device which experience has proved to be both valuable and necessary4 99 99 99 99 99 ,real faith effervesces2 it shoots forth in every direction2 it communicates itself4 ,and the inevitable result is a festival4 ,the festival is anticipated with pleasure1 and it is remembered with pleasure4 ,and thus it reacts stimulatingly on that which gave it birth1 as the vitality of children reacts stimulatingly on the vitality of parents4 ,it provides a concrete symbol of that which is invisible and intangible1 and mankind is not yet so advanced in the path of spiritual perfection that we can afford to dispense with concrete symbols4 ,now1 if we maintain festivals and formalities for the healthy continuance and honour of a pastime or of a personal affection1 shall we not maintain a festival--and a mighty one--in behalf of a faith which makes the corporate human existence bearable amid the menaces and mysteries that for ever threaten it1--the faith of universal goodwill and mutual confidence8 99 99 99 99 99 ,if then1 there is to be a festival1 why should it not be the festival of ,christmas8 ,it can1 indeed1 be no other4 ,christmas is most plainly indicated4 ,it is dignified and made precious by traditions which go back much further than the ,christian era2 and it has this tremendous advantage--it exists6 ,in spite of our declining faith1 it has been preserved to us1 and here it is1 ready to hand4 ,not merely does it fall at the point which uncounted generations have agreed to consider as the turn of the solar year and as the rebirth of hope6 ,it falls also immediately before the end of the calendar year1 and thus prepares us for a fresh beginning that shall put the old to shame4 ,it could not be better timed4 ,further1 its traditional spirit of peace and goodwill is the very spirit which we desire to foster4 ,and finally its customs--or at any rate1 its main customs--are well designed to symbolize that spirit4 ,if we have allowed the despatch of ,christmas cards to degenerate into naught but a tedious shuffling of paste-boards and overwork of post-office officials1 the fault is not in the custom but in ourselves4 ,the custom is a most striking one--so long as we have sufficient imagination to remember vividly that we are all in the same boat--,i mean1 on the same planet--and clinging desperately to the flying ball1 and dependent for daily happiness on one another's good will6 ,a ,christmas card sent by one human being to another human being is more than a piece of coloured stationery sent by one log of wood to another log of wood3 it is an inspiring and reassuring message of high value4 ,the mischief is that so many self-styled human beings are just logs of wood1 rather stylishly dressed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and then the custom of present-giving6 ,what better and more convincing proof of sympathy than a gift8 ,the gift is one of these obvious contrivances--like the wheel or the lever--which smooth and simplify earthly life1 and the charm of whose utility no obviousness can stale4 ,but of course any contrivance can be rendered futile by clumsiness or negligence4 ,there is a sort of ,christmas giver who says pettishly3 ,oh6 ,i don't know what to give to ,so-and-,so this ,christmas6 ,what a bother6 ,i shall write and tell her to choose something herself1 and send the bill to me6 ,and he writes4 ,and though he does not suspect it1 what he really writes1 and what ,so-and-,so reads1 is this3 ,dear ,so-and-,so4 ,it is nothing to me that you and ,i are alive together on this planet1 and in various ways mutually dependent4 ,but ,i am bound by custom to give you a present4 ,i do not1 however1 take sufficient interest in your life to know what object it would give you pleasure to possess2 and ,i do not want to be put to the trouble of finding out1 nor of obtaining the object and transmitting it to you4 ,will you1 therefore1 buy something for yourself and send the bill to me4 ,of course1 a sense of social decency will prevent you from spending more than a small sum1 and ,i shall be spared all exertion beyond signing a cheque4 ,yours insincerely and loggishly 99 99 994 ,so managed1 the contrivance of present-giving becomes positively sinister in its working4 ,but managed with the sympathetic imagination which is infallibly produced by real faith in goodwill1 its efficacy may approach the miraculous4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,christmas ceremony of good-wishing by word of mouth has never been in any danger of falling into insincerity4 ,such is the power of tradition and virtue of a festival1 and such the instinctive brotherliness of men1 that on this day the mere sight of an acquaintance will soften the voice and warm the heart of the most superior sceptic and curmudgeon that the age of disillusion has produced4 ,in spite of himself1 faith flickers up in him again1 be it only for a moment4 ,and1 during that moment1 he is almost like those whose bright faith the age has never tarnished1 like the great and like the simple1 to whom it is quite unnecessary to offer a defence and explanation of ,christmas or to suggest the basis of a new faith therein4 ,,five ,,defence ,,of ,,feasting ,and now ,i can hear the superior sceptic disdainfully questioning3 ,yes1 but what about the orgy of ,christmas8 ,what about all the eating and drinking8 ,to which ,i can only answer that faith causes effervescence1 expansion1 joy1 and that joy has always1 for excellent reasons1 been connected with feasting4 ,the very words 'feast' and 'festival' are etymologically inseparable4 ,the meal is the most regular and the least dispensable of daily events2 it happens also to be an event which is in itself almost invariably a source of pleasure1 or1 at worst1 of satisfaction3 and it will continue to have this precious quality so long as our souls are encased in bodies4 ,what could be more natural1 therefore1 than that it should be employed1 with due enlargement and ornamentation1 as the kernel of the festival8 ,what more logical than that the meal should be elevated into a feast8 ,but1 exclaims the superior sceptic1 this idea involves the idea of excess6 ,what if it does8 ,i would not deny it6 ,assuredly1 a feast means more than enough1 and more than enough means excess4 ,it is only because a feast means excess that it assists in the bringing about of expansion and joy4 ,such is human nature1 and it is the case of human nature that we are discussing4 ,of course1 excess usually exacts its toll1 within twenty-four hours1 especially from the weak4 ,but the benefit is worth its price4 ,the body pays no more than the debt which the soul has incurred4 ,an occasional change of habit is essential to well-being1 and every change of habit results in temporary derangement and inconvenience4 ,do not misunderstand me4 ,do not push my notion of excess to extremes4 ,when ,i defend the excess inevitably incident to a feast1 ,i am not seeking to prove that a man in celebrating ,christmas is entitled to drink champagne in a public restaurant until he becomes an object of scorn and disgust to the waiters who have travelled from ,switzerland in order to receive his tips4 ,much less should ,i be prepared to justify him if1 in his own home1 he sank lower than the hog4 ,nor would ,i sympathetically carry him to bed4 ,there is such a thing as excess in moderation and dignity4 ,every wise man has practised this4 ,and he who has not practised it is a fool1 and deserves even a harder name4 ,he ought indeed to inhabit a planet himself1 for all his faith in humanity will be exhausted in believing in himself4 99 99 99 ,so much for the feast6 99 99 99 99 99 ,but the accompaniments of the feast are also excessive4 ,for example1 you make a tug-of-war with your neighbour at table1 and the rope is a fragile packet of tinselled paper1 which breaks with a report like a pistol4 ,you open your half of the packet1 and discover some doggerel verse which you read aloud1 and also a perfectly idiotic coloured cap1 which you put on your head to the end of looking foolish4 ,and this ceremony is continued until the whole table is surrounded by preposterous headgear1 and doggerel verse is lying by every plate4 ,surely no man in his senses1 no woman in hers1 would1 etc41 etc4 99 99 996 ,but one of the spiritual advantages of feasting is that it expands you beyond your common sense4 ,one excess induces another1 and a finer one4 ,this acceptance of the ridiculous is good for you4 ,it is particularly good for an ,anglo-,saxon1 who is so self-contained and self-controlled that his soul might stiffen as the unused limb of an ,indian fakir stiffens1 were it not for periodical excitements like that of the ,christmas feast4 ,everybody has experienced the self-conscious reluctance which precedes the putting on of the cap1 and the relief1 followed by further expansion and ecstasy1 which ensues after the putting on4 ,everybody who has put on a cap is aware that it is a beneficial thing to put on a cap4 ,quite apart from the fact that the mysterious and fanciful race of children are thereby placated and appeased1 the soul of the capped one is purified by this charming excess4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and the ,tree6 ,what an excess of the fantastic to pretend that all those glittering balls1 those coloured candles and those variegated parcels are the blossoms of the absurd tree6 ,how excessively grotesque to tie all those parcels to the branches1 in order to take them off again6 ,surely1 something less medieval1 more ingenious1 more modern than this could be devised--if symbolism is to be indulged in at all6 ,can you devise it1 ,o sceptical one1 revelling in disillusion8 ,can you invent a symbol more natural and graceful than the symbol of the ,tree8 ,perhaps you would have a shop-counter1 and shelves behind it1 so as to instill early into the youthful mind that this is a planet of commerce6 ,perhaps you would abolish the doggerel of crackers1 and substitute therefor extracts from the ,autobiography of ,benjamin ,franklin6 ,perhaps you would exchange the caps for blazonry embroidered with chemical formula1 your object being the advancement of science6 ,perhaps you would do away with the orgiastic eating and drinking1 and arrange for a formal conversation about astronomy and the idea of human fraternity1 upon strictly reasonable rations of shredded wheat6 ,you would thus create an original festival1 and eliminate all fear of a dyspeptic morrow4 ,you would improve the mind4 ,and you would avoid the ridiculous4 ,but also1 in avoiding the ridiculous1 you would tumble into the ridiculous1 deeply and hopelessly6 ,and think how your very original festival would delight the participators1 how they would look forward to it with joy1 and back upon it with pleasurable regret2 how their minds would dwell sweetly upon the conception of shredded wheat1 and how their faith would be encouraged and strengthened by the intellectuality of the formal conversation6 99 99 99 99 99 ,he who girds at an ancient established festival should reflect upon sundry obvious truths before he withers up the said festival by the sirocco of his contempt4 ,these truths are as follows3--,first1 a festival1 though based upon intelligence1 is not an affair of the intellect1 but an affair of the emotions4 ,second1 the human soul can only be reached through the human body4 ,third1 it is impossible to replace an ancient festival by a new one4 ,robespierre1 amongst others1 tried to do so1 and achieved the absurd4 ,reformers1 heralds of new faiths1 and rejuvenators of old faiths1 have always1 when they succeeded1 adopted an ancient festival1 with all or most of its forms1 and been content to breathe into it a new spirit to replace the old spirit which had vanished or was vanishing4 ,anybody who1 persuaded that ,christmas is not what it was1 feels that a festival must nevertheless be preserved1 will do well to follow this example4 ,to be content with the old forms and to vitalize them3 that is the problem4 ,solve it1 and the forms will soon begin to adapt themselves to the process of vitalization4 ,all history is a witness in proof4 ,,six ,,to ,,revitalize ,,the ,,festival ,it being agreed1 then1 that the ,christmas festival has lost a great deal of its old vitality1 and that1 to many people1 it is a source of tedium and the cause of insincerity2 and it being further agreed that the difficulty cannot be got over by simply abolishing the festival1 as no one really wants it to be abolished2 the question remains--what should be done to vitalize it8 ,the former spirit of faith1 the spirit which made the great ,christmas of the golden days1 has been weakened2 but one element of it--that which is founded on the conviction that goodwill among men is a prime necessity of reasonable living--survives with a certain vigour1 though even it has not escaped the general scepticism of the age4 ,this element unites in agreement all the pugnacious sectaries who join battle over the other elements of the former faith4 ,this element has no enemies4 ,none will deny its lasting virtue4 ,obviously1 therefore1 the right course is to concentrate on the cultivation of goodwill4 ,if goodwill can be consciously increased1 the festival of ,christmas will cease to be perfunctory4 ,it will acquire a fresh and more genuine significance1 which1 however1 will not in any way inconvenience those who have never let go of the older significance4 ,no tradition will be overthrown1 no shock administered1 and nobody will be able to croak about iconoclasm and new-fangled notions and the sudden end of the world1 and so on4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the fancy of some people will at once run to the formation of a grand international ,society for the revivifying of ,christmas by the cultivation of goodwill1 with branches in all the chief cities of ,europe and ,america1 and headquarters--of course at the ,hague2 and committees and subcommittees1 and presidents and vice-presidents2 and honorary secretaries and secretaries paid2 and quarterly and annual meetings1 and triennial congresses6 ,and a literary organ or two6 ,and a badge--naturally a badge1 designed by a famous artist in harmonious tints6 99 99 99 99 99 ,but my fancy does not run at all in this direction4 ,i am convinced that we have already far too many societies for the furtherance of our ends4 ,to my mind1 most societies with a moral aim are merely clumsy machines for doing simple jobs with the maximum of friction1 expense and inefficiency4 ,i should define the majority of these societies as a group of persons each of whom expects the others to do something very wonderful4 ,why create a society in order to help you to perform some act which nobody can perform but yourself8 ,no society can cultivate goodwill in you4 ,you might as well create a society for shaving or for saying your prayers4 ,and further1 goodwill is far less a process of performing acts than a process of thinking thoughts4 ,to think1 is it necessary to involve yourself in the cog-wheels of a society8 ,moreover1 a society means fuss and shouting3 two species of disturbance which are both futile and deleterious1 particularly in an intimate affair of morals4 ,you can best help the general cultivation of goodwill along by cultivating goodwill in your own heart4 ,until you have started the task of personal cultivation1 you will probably assume that there will be time left over for superintending the cultivation of goodwill in other people's hearts4 ,but a very little experience ought to show you that this is a delusion4 ,you will perceive1 if not at once1 later1 that you have bitten off just about as much as you can chew4 ,and you will appreciate also the wisdom of not advertising your enterprise4 ,why1 indeed1 should you breathe a word to a single soul concerning your admirable intentions8 ,rest assured that any unusual sprouting of the desired crop will be instantly noticed by the persons interested4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the next point is3 ,towards whom are you to cultivate goodwill8 ,naturally1 one would answer3 ,towards the whole of humanity4 ,but the whole of humanity1 as far as you are concerned1 amounts to naught but a magnificent abstract conception4 ,and it is very difficult to cultivate goodwill towards a magnificent abstract conception4 ,the object of goodwill ought to be clearly defined1 and very visible to the physical eye1 especially in the case of people1 such as us1 who are only just beginning to give to the cultivation of goodwill1 perhaps1 as much attention as we give to our clothes or our tobacco4 ,if a novice sets out to embrace the whole of humanity in his goodwill1 he will have even less success than a young man endeavouring to fall in love with four sisters at once2 and his daily companions--those who see him eat his bacon and lace his boots and earn his living--will most certainly have a rough time of it4 99 99 99 ,no6 ,it will be best for you to centre your efforts on quite a small group of persons1 and let the rest of humanity struggle on as well as it can1 with no more of your goodwill than it has hitherto had4 ,in choosing the small group of people1 it will be unnecessary for you to go to ,timbuktu1 or into the next street or into the next house4 ,and1 in this group of people you will be wise1 while neglecting no member of the group1 to specialise on one member4 ,your wife1 if you have one1 or your husband8 ,not necessarily4 ,i was meaning simply that one who most frequently annoys you4 ,he may be your husband1 or she may be your wife4 ,these things happen4 ,he may be your butler4 ,or you may be his butler4 ,she may be your daughter1 or he may be your father1 and you a charming omniscient girl of seventeen wiser than anybody else4 ,whoever he or she may be who oftenest inspires you with a feeling of irritated superiority1 aim at that person in particular4 ,the frequency of your early failures with him or her will show you how prudent you were not to make an attempt on the whole of humanity at once4 ,and also you will see that you did well not to publish your excellent intentions4 ,if nobody is aware of your striving1 nobody will be aware that you have failed in striving4 ,your successes will appear effortless1 and most important of all1 you will be free from the horrid curse of self-consciousness4 ,herein is one of the main advantages of not wearing a badge4 ,lastly1 you will have the satisfaction of feeling that1 if everybody else is doing as you are1 the whole of humanity is being attended to after all4 ,and the comforting thought is that very probably1 almost certainly1 quite a considerable number of people are in fact doing as you are2 some of them--make no doubt--are doing a shade better4 ,i now come to the actual method of cultivating goodwill4 ,,seven ,,the ,,gift ,,of ,,oneself ,children divide their adult acquaintances into two categories--those who sympathise with them in the bizarre and trying adventure called life2 and those who don't4 ,the second category is much the larger of the two4 ,very many people belong to it who think that they belong to the first4 ,they may deceive themselves1 but they cannot deceive a child4 ,although you may easily practise upon the credulity of a child in matters of fact1 you cannot cheat his moral and social judgment4 ,he will add you up1 and he will add anybody up1 and he will estimate conduct1 upon principles of his own and in a manner terribly impartial4 ,parents have no sterner nor more discerning critics than their own children4 ,and so you may be polite to a child1 and pretend to appreciate his point of view2 but1 unless you really do put yourself to the trouble of understanding him1 unless you throw yourself1 by the exercise of imagination1 into his world1 you will not succeed in being his friend4 ,to be his friend means an effort on your part1 it means that you must divest yourself of your own mental habit1 and1 for the time being1 adopt his4 ,and no nice phrases1 no gifts of money1 sweets or toys1 can take the place of this effort1 and this sacrifice of self4 ,with five minutes of genuine surrender to him1 you can win more of his esteem and gratitude than five hundred pounds would buy4 ,his notion of real goodwill is the imaginative sharing of his feelings1 a convinced participation in his pains and pleasures4 ,he is well aware that1 if you honestly do this1 you will be on his side4 99 99 99 99 99 ,now1 adults1 of course1 are tremendously clever and accomplished persons and children are no match for them2 but still1 with all their talents and omniscience and power1 adults seem to lack important pieces of knowledge which children possess2 they seem to forget1 and to fail to profit by1 their infantile experience4 ,else why should adults in general be so extraordinarily ignorant of the great truth that the secret of goodwill lies in the sympathetic exercise of the imagination8 ,since goodwill is the secret of human happiness1 it follows that the secret of goodwill must be one of the most precious aids to sensible living2 and yet adults1 though they once knew it1 have gone and forgotten it6 ,children may well be excused for concluding that the ways of the adult1 in their capricious irrationality1 are past finding out4 ,to increase your goodwill for a fellow creature1 it is necessary to imagine that you are he3 and nothing else is necessary4 ,this feat is not easy2 but it can be done4 ,some people have less of the divine faculty of imagination than others1 but nobody is without it1 and1 like all other faculties1 it improves with use1 just as it deteriorates with neglect4 ,imagination is a function of the brain4 ,in order to cultivate goodwill for a person1 you must think frequently about that person4 ,you must inform yourself about all his activities4 ,you must be able in your mind's eye to follow him hour by hour throughout the day1 and you must ascertain if he sleeps well at night--because this is not a trifle4 ,and you must reflect upon his existence with the same partiality as you reflect upon your own4 7,why not87 ,that is to say1 you must lay the fullest stress on his difficulties1 disappointments and unhappinesses1 and you must minimise his good fortune4 ,you must magnify his efforts after righteousness1 and forget his failures4 ,you must ever remember that1 after all1 he is not to blame for the faults of his character1 which faults1 in his case as in yours1 are due partly to heredity and partly to environment4 ,and beyond everything you must always give him credit for good intentions4 ,do not you1 though sometimes mistakenly1 always act for the best8 ,you know you do6 ,and are you alone among mortals in rectitude8 99 99 99 99 99 ,this mental exercise in relation to another person takes time1 and it involves a fatiguing effort4 ,i repeat that it is not easy4 ,nor is it invariably agreeable4 ,you may1 indeed1 find it tedious1 for example1 to picture in vivid detail all the worries that have brought about your wife's exacerbation--negligent maid1 dishonest tradesman1 milk in a thunder storm1 hypercritical husband1 dirt in the wrong place--but1 when you have faithfully done so1 ,i absolutely defy you to speak to her in the same tone as you used to employ1 and to cherish resentment against her as you used to do4 ,and ,i absolutely defy you not to feel less discontented with yourself than in the past4 ,it is impossible that the exercise of imagination about a person should not result in goodwill towards that person4 ,the exercise may put a strain upon you2 but its effect is a scientific certainty4 ,it is the supreme social exercise1 for it is the giving of oneself in the most intimate and complete sense4 ,it is the suspension of one's individuality in favour of another4 ,it establishes a new attitude of mind1 which1 though it may well lead to specific social acts1 is more valuable than any specific act1 for it is ceaselessly translating itself into demeanour4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the critic with that terrible ,english trait1 an exaggerated sense of the ridiculous1 will at this point probably remark to himself1 smiling3 ,i suppose the time will come1 when by dint of regular daily practice1 ,i shall have achieved perfect goodwill towards the first object of my attentions4 ,i can then regard that person as 'done4' ,i can put him on a shelf1 and turn to the next2 and1 in the end1 all my relations1 friends and acquaintances will be 'done' and ,i can stare at them in a row on the shelf of my mind1 with pride and satisfaction 99 99 994 ,except that no person will ever be quite done1 human nature1 still being human1 in spite of the recent advances of civilisation1 ,i do not deprecate this manner of stating the case4 ,the ambitious and resolute man1 with an exaggerated sense of the ridiculous1 would see nothing ridiculous in ticking off a number of different objects as they were successively achieved4 ,if for example it was part of his scheme to learn various foreign languages1 he would know that he could only succeed by regular application of the brain1 by concentration of thought daily2 he would also know that he could never acquire any foreign language in absolute perfection4 ,still1 he would reach a certain stage in a language1 and then he would put it aside and turn to the next one on his programme1 and so on4 ,assuredly1 he would not be ashamed of employing method to reach his end4 ,now all that can be said of the acquirement of foreign languages can be said of the acquirement of goodwill4 ,in remedying the deficiences of the heart and character1 as in remedying the deficiences of mere knowledge1 the brain is the sole possible instrument1 and the best results will be obtained by using it regularly and scientifically1 according to an arranged method4 ,why1 therefore1 if a man be proud of method in improving his knowledge1 should he see something ridiculous in a deliberate plan for improving his heart--the affair of his heart being immensely more important1 more urgent and more difficult8 ,the reader who has found even one good answer to the above question1 need read no more of this book1 for he will have confounded me and it4 ,,eight ,,the ,,feast ,,of ,,st4 ,,friend ,the consequences of the social self-discipline which ,i have outlined will be various4 ,a fairly early result will be the gradual decline1 and ultimately the death1 of the superior person in oneself4 ,it is true that the superior person in oneself has nine lives1 and is capable of rising from the dead after even the most fatal blows4 ,but1 at worst1 the superior person--7and who among us does not shelter that sinister inhabitant in his soul87--will have a very poor time in the soul of him who steadily practises the imaginative understanding of other people4 ,in the first place1 the mere exercise of the imagination on others absolutely scotches egotism as long as it lasts1 and leaves it weakened afterwards4 ,and1 in the second and more important place1 an improved comprehension of others 7which means an intensified sympathy with them7 must destroy the illusion1 so widespread1 that one's own case is unique4 ,the amicable study of one's neighbours on the planet inevitably shows that the same troubles1 the same fortitudes1 the same feats of intelligence1 the same successes and failures1 are constantly happening everywhere4 ,one can1 indeed1 see oneself in nearly everybody else1 and1 in particular1 one is struck by the fact that the quality in which one took most pride is simply spread abroad throughout humanity in heaps6 ,it is only in sympathetically contemplating others that one can get oneself in a true perspective4 ,yet probably the majority of human beings never do contemplate others1 save with the abstracted gaze which proves that the gazer sees nothing but his own dream4 99 99 99 99 99 ,another result of the discipline is an immensely increased interest in one's friends4 ,one regards them even with a sort of proprietary interest1 for1 by imagination1 one has come into sympathetic possession of them4 ,further1 one has for them that tender feeling which always follows the conferring of a benefit1 especially the secret conferring of a benefit4 ,it is the benefactor1 not the person benefited1 who is grateful4 ,the benefit which one has conferred is1 of course1 the gift of oneself4 ,the resulting emotion is independent of any sympathy rendered by the other2 and where the sympathy is felt to be mutual1 friendship acquires a new significance4 ,the exercise of sympathetic imagination will cause one to look upon even a relative as a friend--a startling achievement6 ,it will provide a new excitement and diversion in life4 ,when the month of ,december dawns1 there need be no sensation of weary apprehension about the difficulty of choosing a present that will suit a friend4 ,certainly it will not be necessary1 from sheer indifference and ignorance1 to invite the friend to choose his own present4 ,on the contrary1 one will be1 in secret1 so intimate with the friend's situation and wants and desires1 that sundry rival schemes for pleasuring him will at once offer themselves4 ,and when he receives the present finally selected1 he will have the conviction1 always delightfully flattering to a donee1 that he has been the object of a particular attention and insight4 99 99 99 ,and when the cards of greeting are despatched1 formal phrases will go forth charged1 in the consciousness of the sender1 with a genuine meaning1 with the force of a climax1 as though the sender had written thereon1 in invisible ink3 ,i have had you well in mind during the last twelve months2 ,i think ,i understand your difficulties and appreciate your efforts better than ,i did1 and so it is with a peculiar sympathetic knowledge that ,i wish you good luck4 ,i have guessed what particular kind of good luck you require1 and ,i wish accordingly4 ,my wish is not vague and perfunctory only4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and on the day of festival itself one feels that one really has something to celebrate4 ,the occasion has a basis1 if it had no basis for one before2 and if a basis previously existed1 then it is widened and strengthened4 ,the festival becomes a public culmination to a private enterprise4 ,one is not reminded by ,christmas of goodwill1 because the enterprise of imaginative sympathy has been a daily affair throughout the year2 but ,christmas provides an excuse for taking satisfaction in the success of the enterprise and new enthusiasm to correct its failures4 ,the symbolism of the situation of ,christmas1 at the turn of the year1 develops an added impressiveness1 and all the ,christmas customs1 apt to produce annoyance in the breasts of the unsentimental1 are accepted with indulgence1 even with eagerness1 because their symbolism also is shown in a clearer light4 ,christmas becomes as personal as a birthday4 ,one eats and drinks to excess1 not because it is the custom to eat and drink to excess1 but from sheer effervescent faith in an idea4 ,and as one sits with one's friends1 possessing them in the privacy of one's heart1 permeated by a sense of the value of sympathetic comprehension in this formidable adventure of existence on a planet that rushes eternally through the night of space2 assured indeed that companionship and mutual understanding alone make the adventure agreeable1--one sees in a flash that ,christmas1 whatever else it may be1 is and must be the ,feast of ,st4 ,friend1 and a day on that account supreme among the days of the year4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the third and greatest consequence of the systematic cultivation of goodwill now grows blindingly apparent4 ,to state it earlier in all its crudity would have been ill-advised2 and ,i purposely refrained from doing so4 ,it is the augmentation of one's own happiness4 ,the increase of amity1 the diminution of resentment and annoyance1 the regular maintenance of an attitude mildly benevolent towards mankind1--these things are the surest way to happiness4 ,and it is because they are the surest way to happiness1 that the most enlightened go after them4 ,all real motives are selfish motives2 were it otherwise humanity would be utterly different from what it is4 ,a man may perform some act which will benefit another while working some striking injury to himself4 ,but his reason for doing it is that he prefers the evil of the injury to the deeper evil of the fundamental dissatisfaction which would torment him if he did not perform the act4 ,nobody yet sought the good of another save as a means to his own good4 ,and it is in accordance with common sense that this should be so4 ,there is1 however1 a lower egotism and a higher4 ,it is the latter which we call unselfishness4 ,and it is the latter of which ,christmas is the celebration4 ,we shall legitimately bear in mind1 therefore1 that ,christmas1 in addition to being the ,feast of ,st4 ,friend1 is even more profoundly the feast of one's own welfare4 ,,nine ,,the ,,reaction ,a reaction sets in between ,christmas and the ,new ,year4 ,it is inevitable2 and ,i should be writing basely if ,i did not devote to it a full chapter4 ,in those few dark days of inactivity1 between a fete and the resumption of the implacable daily round1 when the weather is usually cynical1 and we are paying in our tissues the fair price of excess1 we see life and the world in a grey and sinister light1 which we imagine to be the only true light4 ,take the case of the average successful man of thirty-five4 ,what is he thinking as he lounges about on the day after ,christmas8 ,his thoughts probably run thus3 ,even if ,i live to a good old age1 which is improbable1 as many years lie behind me as before me4 ,i have lived half my life1 and perhaps more than half my life4 ,i have realised part of my worldly ambition4 ,i have made many good resolutions1 and kept one or two of them in k more or less imperfect manner4 ,i cannot1 as a commonsense person1 hope to keep a larger proportion of good resolutions in the future than ,i have kept in the past4 ,i have tried to understand and sympathise with my fellow creatures1 and though ,i have not entirely failed to do so1 ,i have nearly failed4 ,i am not happy and ,i am not content4 ,and if1 after all these years1 ,i am neither happy nor content1 what chance is there of my being happy and content in the second half of my life8 ,the realisation of part of my worldly ambition has not made me any happier1 and1 therefore1 it is unlikely that the realisation of the whole of my ambition will make me any happier4 ,my strength cannot improve2 it can only weaken2 and my health likewise4 ,i in my turn am coming to believe--what as a youth ,i rejected with disdain--namely1 that happiness is what one is not1 and content is what one has not4 ,why1 then1 should ,i go on striving after the impossible8 ,why should ,i not let things slide8 ,thus reflects the average successful man1 and there is not one of us1 successful or unsuccessful1 ambitious or unambitious1 whose reflections have not often led him to a conclusion equally dissatisfied4 ,why should ,i or anybody pretend that this is not so8 99 99 99 99 99 ,and yet1 in the very moment of his discouragement and of his blackest vision of things1 that man knows quite well that he will go on striving4 ,he knows that his instinct to strive will be stronger than his genuine conviction that the desired end cannot be achieved4 ,positive though he may be that a worldly ambition realised will produce the same dissatisfaction as ,dead ,sea fruit in the mouth1 he will still continue to struggle4 99 99 99 ,now you cannot argue against facts1 and this is a fact4 ,it must be accepted4 ,conduct must be adjusted to it4 ,the struggle being inevitable1 it must be carried through as well as it can be carried through4 ,it will not end brilliantly1 but precautions can be taken against it ending disgracefully4 ,these precautions consist in the devising of a plan of campaign1 and the plan of campaign is defined by a series of resolutions3 which resolutions are generally made at or immediately before the beginning of a ,new ,year4 ,without these the struggle would be formless1 confused1 blind and even more futile than it is with them4 ,organised effort is bound to be less ineffective than unorganised effort4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a worldly ambition can be1 frequently is1 realised3 but an ideal cannot be attained--if it could1 it would not be an ideal4 ,the virtue of an ideal is its unattainability4 ,it seems1 when it is first formed1 just as attainable as a worldly ambition which indeed is often schemed as a means to it4 ,after twenty-four hours1 the ideal is all but attained4 ,after forty-eight1 it is a little farther off4 ,after a week1 it has receded still further4 ,after a month it is far away2 and towards the end of a year even the keen eye of hope has almost lost sight of it2 it is definitely withdrawn from the practical sphere4 ,and then1 such is the divine obstinacy of humanity1 the turn of the year gives us an excuse for starting afresh1 and forming a new ideal1 and forgetting our shame in yet another organised effort4 ,such is the annual circle of the ideal1 the effort1 the failure and the shame4 ,a rather pitiful history it may appear6 ,and yet it is also rather a splendid history6 ,for the failure and the shame are due to the splendour of our ideal and to the audacity of our faith in ourselves4 ,it is only in comparison with our ideal that we have fallen low4 ,we are higher1 in our failure and our shame1 than we should have been if we had not attempted to rise4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there are those who will say3 ,at any rate1 we might moderate somewhat the splendour of our ideal and the audacity of our self-conceit1 so that there should be a less grotesque disparity between the aim and the achievement4 ,surely such moderation would be more in accord with common sense6 ,surely it would lessen the spiritual fatigue and disappointment caused by sterile endeavour6 ,it would4 ,but just try to moderate the ideal and the self-conceit6 ,and you will find1 in spite of all your sad experiences1 that you cannot4 ,if there is the stuff of a man in you1 you simply cannot6 ,the truth1 is that1 in the supreme things1 a man does not act under the rules of earthly common sense4 ,he transcends them1 because there is a quality in him which compels him to do so4 ,common sense may persuade him to attempt to keep down the ideal1 and self-conceit may pretend to agree4 ,but all the time1 self-conceit will be whispering3 ,i can go one better than that4 ,and lo6 the ideal is furtively raised again4 ,a man really has little scientific control over the height of his ideal and the intensity of his belief in himself4 ,he is born with them1 as he is born with a certain pulse and a certain reflex action4 ,he can neglect the ideal1 so that it almost dissolves1 but he cannot change its height4 ,he can maim his belief in himself by persistent abandonment to folly1 but he cannot lower its flame by an effort of the will1 as he might lower the flame of a gas by a calculated turn of the hand4 ,in the secret and inmost constitution of humanity it is ordained that the disparity between the aim and the achievement shall seem grotesque2 it is ordained that there shall be an enormous fuss about pretty nearly nothing2 it is ordained that the mountain shall bring forth a mouse4 ,but it is also ordained that men shall go blithely on just the same1 ignoring in practice the ridiculousness which they admit in theory1 and drawing renewed hope and conceit from some magic1 exhaustless source4 ,and this is the whole philosophy of the ,new ,year's resolution4 ,,ten ,,on ,,the ,,last ,,day ,,of ,,the ,,year ,there are few people who arrive at a true understanding of life1 even in the calm and disillusioned hours of reflection that come between the end of one annual period and the beginning of another4 ,nearly everybody has an idea at the back of his head that if only he could conquer certain difficulties and embarrassments1 he might really start to live properly1 in the full sense of living4 ,and if he has pluck he says to himself3 ,i will smooth things out1 and then ,i'll really live4 ,in the same way1 nearly everybody1 regarding the spectacle of the world1 sees therein a principle which he calls ,evil2 and he thinks3 ,if only we could get rid of this ,evil1 if only we could set things right1 how splendid the world would be6 ,now1 in the meaning usually attached to it1 there is no such positive principle as ,evil4 ,assuming that there is such a positive principle in a given phenomenon--such as the character of a particular man--you must then admit that there is the same positive principle everywhere1 for just as the character of no man is so imperfect that you could not conceive a worse1 so the character of no man is so perfect that you could not conceive a better4 ,do away with ,evil from the world1 and you would not merely abolish certain specially distressing matters1 you would change everything4 ,you would in fact achieve perfection4 ,and when we say that one thing is evil and another good1 all that we mean is that one thing is less advanced than another in the way of perfection4 ,evil cannot therefore be a positive principle2 it signifies only the falling short of perfection4 ,and supposing that the desires of mankind were suddenly fulfilled1 and the world was rendered perfect6 ,there would be no motive for effort1 no altercation of conflicting motives in the human heart2 nothing to do1 no one to befriend1 no anxiety1 no want unsatisfied4 ,equilibrium would be established4 ,a cheerful world6 ,you can see instantly how amusing it would be4 ,it would have only one drawback--that of being dead4 ,its reason for being alive would have ceased to operate4 ,life means change through constant development4 ,but you cannot develop the perfect4 ,the perfect can merely expire4 ,that average successful man whom ,i have previously cited feels all this by instinct1 though he does not comprehend it by reason4 ,he reaches his ambition1 and retires from the fight in order to enjoy life1--and what does he then do8 ,he immediately creates for himself a new series of difficulties and embarrassments1 either by undertaking the management of a large estate1 or by some other device4 ,if he does not maintain for himself conditions which necessitate some kind of struggle1 he quickly dies--spiritually or physically1 often both4 ,the proportion of men who1 having established an equilibrium1 proceed to die on the spot1 is enormous4 ,continual effort1 which means1 of course1 continual disappointment1 is the sine qua non--without it there is literally nothing vital4 ,its abolition is the abolition of life4 ,hence1 people1 who1 failing to savour the struggle itself1 anticipate the end of the struggle as the beginning of joy and happiness--these people are simply missing life2 they are longing to exchange life for death4 ,the hemlock would save them a lot of weary waiting4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we shall now perceive1 ,i think1 what is wrong with the assumptions of the average successful man as set forth in the previous chapter4 ,in postulating that happiness is what one is not1 he has got hold of a mischievous conception of happiness4 ,let him examine his conception of happiness1 and he will find that it consists in the enjoyment of love and luxury1 and in the freedom from enforced effort4 ,he generally wants all three ingredients4 ,now passionate love does not mean happiness2 it means excitement1 apprehension and continually renewed desire4 ,and affectionate love1 from which the passion has faded1 means something less than happiness1 for1 mingled with its gentle tranquility is a disturbing regret for the more fiery past4 ,luxury1 according to the universal experience of those who have had it1 has no connection whatever with happiness4 ,and as for freedom from enforced effort1 it means simply death4 ,happiness as it is dreamed of cannot possibly exist save for brief periods of self-deception which are followed by terrible periods of reaction4 ,real1 practicable happiness is due primarily not to any kind of environment1 but to an inward state of mind4 ,real happiness consists first in acceptance of the fact that discontent is a condition of life1 and1 second1 in an honest endeavour to adjust conduct to an ideal4 ,real happiness is not an affair of the future2 it is an affair of the present4 ,such as it is1 if it cannot be obtained now1 it can never be obtained4 ,real happiness lives in patience1 having comprehended that if very little is accomplished towards perfection1 so a man's existence is a very little moment in the vast expanse of the universal life1 and having also comprehended that it is the struggle which is vital1 and that the end of the struggle is only another name for death4 99 99 99 99 99 ,well1 ,i hear you exclaiming1 if this is all we can look forward to1 if this is all that real1 practicable happiness amounts to1 is life worth living8 ,that is a question which each person has to answer for himself4 ,if he answers it in the negative1 no argument1 no persuasion1 no sentimentalisation of the facts of life1 will make him alter his opinion4 ,most people1 however1 answer it in the affirmative4 ,despite all the drawbacks1 despite all the endless disappointments1 they decide that life is worth living4 ,there are two species of phenomena which bring them to this view4 ,the first may be called the golden moments of life1 which seem somehow in their transient brevity to atone for the dull exasperation of interminable mediocre hours3 moments of triumph in the struggle1 moments of fierce exultant resolve2 moments of joy in nature--moments which defy oblivion in the memory1 and which1 being priceless1 cannot be too dearly bought4 ,the second species of compensatory phenomena are all the agreeable experiences connected with human friendship2 the general feeling1 under diverse forms1 that one is not alone in the world4 ,it is for the multiplication and intensification of these phenomena that ,christmas1 the ,feast of ,st4 ,friend1 exists4 ,and1 on the last day of the year1 on the eve of a renewed effort1 our thoughts may profitably be centered upon a plan of campaign whose execution shall result in a less imperfect intercourse4