99 99 99 99 99 ---------------------------------------- ------------------- ,transcriber's ,note3 ,obvious typographical errors have been corrected4 ,for a complete list1 please see the end of this document4 ---------------------------------------- ------------------- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,mental ,,efficiency ---------------------------------------- ---- ,,by ,,arnold ,,bennett ,novels ,,the ,,old ,,wives' ,,tale ,,helen ,,with ,,the ,,high ,,hand ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,carlotta ,,buried ,,alive ,a ,,great ,,man ,,leonora ,,whom ,,god ,,hath ,,joined ,a ,,man ,,from ,,the ,,north ,,anna ,,of ,,the ,,five ,,towns ,,the ,,glimpse ,pocket ,philosophies ,,how ,,to ,,live ,,on #bd ,,hours ,a ,,day ,,the ,,human ,,machine ,,literary ,,taste ,,mental ,,efficiency ,miscellaneous ,,cupid ,,and ,,commonsense3 ,a ,play ,,what ,,the ,,public ,,wants3 ,a ,play ,,the ,,truth ,,about ,,an ,,author ,,the ,,feast ,,of ,,st4 ,,friend ,,george ,h4 ,,doran ,,company ,,new ,,york ---------------------------------------- ---- ,,mental ,,efficiency ,,and ,,other ,,hints ,,to ,,men ,,and ,,women ,,by ,,arnold ,,bennett ,author of ,how to ,live on #bd ,hours a ,day ,the ,old ,wives' ,tale1 etc4 ,,george ,h4 ,,doran ,,company ,,publishers ,,new ,,york ,copyright1 #aiaa ,by ,george ,h4 ,doran ,company ,,contents ,page ,i4 ,mental ,efficiency #g ,the ,appeal #g ,the ,replies #ac ,the ,cure #ai ,mental ,calisthenics #bd ,,ii4 ,expressing ,one's ,individuality #cb ,,iii4 ,breaking with the ,past #ci ,,iv4 ,settling ,down in ,life #de ,v4 ,marriage #ec ,the ,duty of ,it #ec ,the ,adventure of ,it #ei ,the ,two ,ways of ,it #fe ,,vi4 ,books #gb ,the ,physical ,side #gb ,the ,philosophy of ,book ,buying #gh ,,vii4 ,success #hd ,candid ,remarks #hd ,the ,successful and the ,unsuccessful #ia ,the ,inwardness of ,success #ig ,,viii4 ,the ,petty ,artificialities #ajd ,,ix4 ,the ,secret of ,content #aab ,i ,,mental ,,efficiency ,,the ,,appeal ,if there is any virtue in advertisements--and a journalist should be the last person to say that there is not--the ,american nation is rapidly reaching a state of physical efficiency of which the world has probably not seen the like since ,sparta4 ,in all the ,american newspapers and all the ,american monthlies are innumerable illustrated announcements of physical-culture specialists1 who guarantee to make all the organs of the body perform their duties with the mighty precision of a #fj h4p4 motor-car that never breaks down4 ,i saw a book the other day written by one of these specialists1 to show how perfect health could be attained by devoting a quarter of an hour a day to certain exercises4 ,the advertisements multiply and increase in size4 ,they cost a great deal of money4 ,therefore they must bring in a great deal of business4 ,therefore vast numbers of people must be worried about the non-efficiency of their bodies1 and on the way to achieve efficiency4 ,in our more modest ,british fashion1 we have the same phenomenon in ,england4 ,and it is growing4 ,our muscles are growing also4 ,surprise a man in his bedroom of a morning1 and you will find him lying on his back on the floor1 or standing on his head1 or whirling clubs1 in pursuit of physical efficiency4 ,i remember that once ,i went in for physical efficiency myself4 ,i1 too1 lay on the floor1 my delicate epidermis separated from the carpet by only the thinnest of garments1 and ,i contorted myself according to the fifteen diagrams of a large chart 7believed to be the magna charta of physical efficiency7 daily after shaving4 ,in three weeks my collars would not meet round my prize-fighter's neck2 my hosier reaped immense profits1 and ,i came to the conclusion that ,i had carried physical efficiency quite far enough4 ,a strange thing--was it not8--that ,i never had the idea of devoting a quarter of an hour a day after shaving to the pursuit of mental efficiency4 ,the average body is a pretty complicated affair1 sadly out of order1 but happily susceptible to culture4 ,the average mind is vastly more complicated1 not less sadly out of order1 but perhaps even more susceptible to culture4 ,we compare our arms to the arms of the gentleman illustrated in the physical efficiency advertisement1 and we murmur to ourselves the classic phrase3 ,this will never do4 ,and we set about developing the muscles of our arms until we can show them off 7through a frock coat7 to women at afternoon tea4 ,but it does not1 perhaps1 occur to us that the mind has its muscles1 and a lot of apparatus besides1 and that these invisible1 yet paramount1 mental organs are far less efficient than they ought to be2 that some of them are atrophied1 others starved1 others out of shape1 etc4 ,a man of sedentary occupation goes for a very long walk on ,easter ,monday1 and in the evening is so exhausted that he can scarcely eat4 ,he wakes up to the inefficiency of his body1 caused by his neglect of it1 and he is so shocked that he determines on remedial measures4 ,either he will walk to the office1 or he will play golf1 or he will execute the post-shaving exercises4 ,but let the same man after a prolonged sedentary course of newspapers1 magazines1 and novels1 take his mind out for a stiff climb among the rocks of a scientific1 philosophic1 or artistic subject4 ,what will he do8 ,will he stay out all day1 and return in the evening too tired even to read his paper8 ,not he4 ,it is ten to one that1 finding himself puffing for breath after a quarter of an hour1 he won't even persist till he gets his second wind1 but will come back at once4 ,will he remark with genuine concern that his mind is sadly out of condition and that he really must do something to get it into order8 ,not he4 ,it is a hundred to one that he will tranquilly accept the status quo1 without shame and without very poignant regret4 ,do ,i make my meaning clear8 ,i say1 without a very poignant regret1 because a certain vague regret is indubitably caused by realizing that one is handicapped by a mental inefficiency which might1 without too much difficulty1 be cured4 ,that vague regret exudes like a vapour from the more cultivated section of the public4 ,it is to be detected everywhere1 and especially among people who are near the half-way house of life4 ,they perceive the existence of immense quantities of knowledge1 not the smallest particle of which will they ever make their own4 ,they stroll forth from their orderly dwellings on a starlit night1 and feel dimly the wonder of the heavens4 ,but the still small voice is telling them that1 though they have read in a newspaper that there are fifty thousand stars in the ,pleiades1 they cannot even point to the ,pleiades in the sky4 ,how they would like to grasp the significance of the nebular theory1 the most overwhelming of all theories6 ,and the years are passing2 and there are twenty-four hours in every day1 out of which they work only six or seven2 and it needs only an impulse1 an effort1 a system1 in order gradually to cure the mind of its slackness1 to give tone to its muscles1 and to enable it to grapple with the splendours of knowledge and sensation that await it6 ,but the regret is not poignant enough4 ,they do nothing4 ,they go on doing nothing4 ,it is as though they passed for ever along the length of an endless table filled with delicacies1 and could not stretch out a hand to seize4 ,do ,i exaggerate8 ,is there not deep in the consciousness of most of us a mournful feeling that our minds are like the liver of the advertisement--sluggish1 and that for the sluggishness of our minds there is the excuse neither of incompetence1 nor of lack of time1 nor of lack of opportunity1 nor of lack of means8 ,why does not some mental efficiency specialist come forward and show us how to make our minds do the work which our minds are certainly capable of doing8 ,i do not mean a quack4 ,all the physical efficiency specialists who advertise largely are not quacks4 ,some of them achieve very genuine results4 ,if a course of treatment can be devised for the body1 a course of treatment can be devised for the mind4 ,thus we might realize some of the ambitions which all of us cherish in regard to the utilization in our spare time of that magnificent machine which we allow to rust within our craniums4 ,we have the desire to perfect ourselves1 to round off our careers with the graces of knowledge and taste4 ,how many people would not gladly undertake some branch of serious study1 so that they might not die under the reproach of having lived and died without ever really having known anything about anything6 ,it is not the absence of desire that prevents them4 ,it is1 first1 the absence of will-power--not the will to begin1 but the will to continue2 and1 second1 a mental apparatus which is out of condition1 puffy1 weedy1 through sheer neglect4 ,the remedy1 then1 divides itself into two parts1 the cultivation of will-power1 and the getting into condition of the mental apparatus4 ,and these two branches of the cure must be worked concurrently4 ,i am sure that the considerations which ,i have presented to you must have already presented themselves to tens of thousands of my readers1 and that thousands must have attempted the cure4 ,i doubt not that many have succeeded4 ,i shall deem it a favour if those readers who have interested themselves in the question will communicate to me at once the result of their experience1 whatever its outcome4 ,i will make such use as ,i can of the letters ,i receive1 and afterwards ,i will give my own experience4 ,,the ,,replies ,the correspondence which ,i have received in answer to my appeal shows that at any rate ,i did not overstate the case4 ,there is1 among a vast mass of reflecting people in this country1 a clear consciousness of being mentally less than efficient1 and a strong 7though ineffective7 desire that such mental inefficiency should cease to be4 ,the desire is stronger than ,i had imagined1 but it does not seem to have led to much hitherto4 ,and that course of treatment for the mind1 by means of which we are to realize some of the ambitions which all of us cherish in regard to the utilization in our spare time of the magnificent machine which we allow to rust within our craniums--that desiderated course of treatment has not apparently been devised by anybody4 ,the ,sandow of the brain has not yet loomed up above the horizon4 ,on the other hand1 there appears to be a general expectancy that ,i personally am going to play the role of the ,sandow of the brain4 ,vain thought6 ,i have been very much interested in the letters1 some of which1 as a statement of the matter in question1 are admirable4 ,it is perhaps not surprising that the best of them come from women--for 7genius apart7 woman is usually more touchingly lyrical than man in the yearning for the ideal4 ,the most enthusiastic of all the letters ,i have received1 however1 is from a gentleman whose notion is that we should be hypnotised into mental efficiency4 ,after advocating the establishment of an institution of practical psychology from whence there can be graduated fit and proper people whose efforts would be in the direction of the subconscious mental mechanism of the child or even the adult1 this hypnotist proceeds3 ,between the academician1 whose specialty is an inconsequential cobweb1 the medical man who has got it into his head that he is the logical foster-father for psychonomical matters1 and the blatant 'professor' who deals with monkey tricks on a few somnambules on the music-hall stage1 you are allowing to go unrecognized one of the most potent factors of mental development4 ,am ,i8 ,i have not the least idea what this gentleman means1 but ,i can assure him that he is wrong4 ,i can make more sense out of the remarks of another correspondent who1 utterly despising the things of the mind1 compares a certain class of young men to a halfpenny bloater with the roe out1 and asserts that he himself got out of the groove by dint of having to unload ten tons of coal in three hours and a half every day during several years4 ,this is interesting and it is constructive1 but it is just a little beside the point4 ,a lady1 whose optimism is indicated by her pseudonym1 ,esperance1 puts her finger on the spot1 or1 rather1 on one of the spots1 in a very sensible letter4 ,it appears to me1 she says1 that the great cause of mental inefficiency is lack of concentration1 perhaps especially in the case of women4 ,i can trace my chief failures to this cause4 ,concentration1 is a talent4 ,it may be in a measure cultivated1 but it needs to be inborn4444 ,the greater number of us are in a state of semi-slumber1 with minds which are only exerted to one-half of their capability4 ,i thoroughly agree that inability to concentrate is one of the chief symptoms of the mental machine being out of condition4 ,esperance's suggested cure is rather drastic4 ,she says3 ,perhaps one of the best cures for mental sedentariness is arithmetic1 for there is nothing else which requires greater power of concentration4 ,perhaps arithmetic might be an effective cure1 but it is not a practical cure1 because no one1 or scarcely any one1 would practise it4 ,i cannot imagine the plain man who1 having a couple of hours to spare of a night1 and having also the sincere desire but not the will-power to improve his taste and knowledge1 would deliberately sit down and work sums by way of preliminary mental calisthenics4 ,as ,ibsen's puppet said3 ,people don't do these things4 ,why do they not8 ,the answer is3 ,simply because they won't2 simply because human nature will not run to it4 ,esperance's suggestion of learning poetry is slightly better4 ,certainly the best letter ,i have had is from ,miss ,h4 ,d4 ,she says3 ,this idea to avoid the reproach of 'living and dying without ever really knowing anything about anything' came to me of itself from somewhere when ,i was a small girl4 ,and looking back ,i fancy that the thought itself spurred me to do something in this world1 to get into line with people who did things--people who painted pictures1 wrote books1 built bridges1 or did something beyond the ordinary4 ,this only has seemed to me1 all my life since1 worth while4 ,here ,i must interject that such a statement is somewhat sweeping4 ,in fact1 it sweeps a whole lot of fine and legitimate ambitions straight into the rubbish heap of the ,not-worth-while4 ,i think the writer would wish to modify it4 ,she continues3 ,and when the day comes in which ,i have not done some serious reading1 however small the measure1 or some writing 444 or ,i have been too sad or dull to notice the brightness of colour of the sun1 of grass and flowers1 of the sea1 or the moonlight on the water1 ,i think the day ill-spent4 ,so ,i must think the incentive to do a little each day beyond the ordinary towards the real culture of the mind1 is the beginning of the cure of mental inefficiency4 ,this is very ingenious and good4 ,further3 ,the day comes when the mental habit has become a part of our life1 and we value mental work for the work's sake4 ,but ,i am not sure about that4 ,for myself1 ,i have never valued work for its own sake1 and ,i never shall4 ,and ,i only value such mental work for the more full and more intense consciousness of being alive which it gives me4 ,miss ,h4 ,d4's remedies are vague4 ,as to lack of will-power1 the first step is to realize your weakness2 the next step is to have ordinary shame that you are defective4 ,i doubt1 ,i gravely doubt1 if these steps would lead to anything definite4 ,nor is this very helpful3 ,i would advise reading1 observing1 writing4 ,i would advise the use of every sense and every faculty by which we at last learn the sacredness of life4 ,this is begging the question4 ,if people1 by merely wishing to do so1 could regularly and seriously read1 observe1 write1 and use every faculty and sense1 there would be very little mental inefficiency4 ,i see that ,i shall be driven to construct a programme out of my own bitter and ridiculous experiences4 ,,the ,,cure ,but tasks in hours of insight willed ,can be through hours of gloom fulfilled4 ,the above lines from ,matthew ,arnold are quoted by one of my very numerous correspondents to support a certain optimism in this matter of a systematic attempt to improve the mind4 ,they form part of a beautiful and inspiring poem1 but ,i gravely fear that they run counter to the vast mass of earthly experience4 ,more often than not ,i have found that a task willed in some hour of insight can not be fulfilled through hours of gloom4 ,no1 no1 and no6 ,to will is easy3 it needs but the momentary bright contagion of a stronger spirit than one's own4 ,to fulfil1 morning after morning1 or evening after evening1 through months and years--this is the very dickens1 and there is not one of my readers that will not agree with me4 ,yet such is the elastic quality of human nature that most of my correspondents are quite ready to ignore the sad fact and to demand at once3 what shall we will8 ,tell us what we must will4 ,some seem to think that they have solved the difficulty when they have advocated certain systems of memory and mind-training4 ,such systems may be in themselves useful or useless--the evidence furnished to me is contradictory--but were they perfect systems1 a man cannot be intellectually born again merely by joining a memory-class4 ,the best system depends utterly on the man's power of resolution4 ,and what really counts is not the system1 but the spirit in which the man handles it4 ,now1 the proper spirit can only be induced by a careful consideration and realization of the man's conditions--the limitations of his temperament1 the strength of adverse influences1 and the lessons of his past4 ,let me take an average case4 ,let me take your case1 ,o man or woman of thirty1 living in comfort1 with some cares1 and some responsibilities1 and some pretty hard daily work1 but not too much of any6 ,the question of mental efficiency is in the air4 ,it interests you4 ,it touches you nearly4 ,your conscience tells you that your mind is less active and less informed than it might be4 ,you suddenly spring up from the garden-seat1 and you say to yourself that you will take your mind in hand and do something with it4 ,wait a moment4 ,be so good as to sink back into that garden-seat and clutch that tennis racket a little longer4 ,you have had these hours of insight before1 you know4 ,you have not arrived at the age of thirty without having tried to carry out noble resolutions--and failed4 ,what precautions are you going to take against failure this time8 ,for your will is probably no stronger now than it was aforetime4 ,you have admitted and accepted failure in the past4 ,and no wound is more cruel to the spirit of resolve than that dealt by failure4 ,you fancy the wound closed1 but just at the critical moment it may reopen and mortally bleed you4 ,what are your precautions8 ,have you thought of them8 ,no4 ,you have not4 ,i have not the pleasure of your acquaintance4 ,but ,i know you because ,i know myself4 ,your failure in the past was due to one or more of three causes4 ,and the first was that you undertook too much at the beginning4 ,you started off with a magnificent programme4 ,you are something of an expert in physical exercises--you would be ashamed not to be1 in these physical days--and so you would never attempt a hurdle race or an uninterrupted hour's club-whirling without some preparation4 ,the analogy between the body and the mind ought to have struck you4 ,this time1 please do not form an elaborate programme4 ,do not form any programme4 ,simply content yourself with a preliminary canter1 a ridiculously easy preliminary canter4 ,for example 7and ,i give this merely as an example71 you might say to yourself3 ,within one month from this date ,i will read twice ,herbert ,spencer's little book on ',education'--sixpence--and will make notes in pencil inside the back cover of the things that particularly strike me4 ,you remark that that is nothing1 that you can do it on your head1 and so on4 ,well1 do it4 ,when it is done you will at any rate possess the satisfaction of having resolved to do something and having done it4 ,your mind will have gained tone and healthy pride4 ,you will be even justified in setting yourself some kind of a simple programme to extend over three months4 ,and you will have acquired some general principles by the light of which to construct the programme4 ,but best of all1 you will have avoided failure1 that dangerous wound4 ,the second possible cause of previous failure was the disintegrating effect on the will-power of the ironic1 superior smile of friends4 ,whenever a man turns over a new leaf he has this inane giggle to face4 ,the drunkard may be less ashamed of getting drunk than of breaking to a crony the news that he has signed the pledge4 ,strange1 but true6 ,and human nature must be counted with4 ,of course1 on a few stern spirits the effect of that smile is merely to harden the resolution4 ,but on the majority its influence is deleterious4 ,therefore don't go and nail your flag to the mast4 ,don't raise any flag4 ,say nothing4 ,work as unobtrusively as you can4 ,when you have won a battle or two you can begin to wave the banner1 and then you will find that that miserable1 pitiful1 ironic1 superior smile will die away ere it is born4 ,the third possible cause was that you did not rearrange your day4 ,idler and time-waster though you have been1 still you had done something during the twenty-four hours4 ,you went to work with a kind of dim idea that there were twenty-six hours in every day4 ,something large and definite has to be dropped4 ,some space in the rank jungle of the day has to be cleared and swept up for the new operations4 ,robbing yourself of sleep won't help you1 nor trying to squeeze in a time for study between two other times4 ,use the knife1 and use it freely4 ,if you mean to read or think half an hour a day1 arrange for an hour4 ,a hundred per cent4 margin is not too much for a beginner4 ,do you ask me where the knife is to be used8 ,i should say that in nine cases out of ten the rites of the cult of the body might be abbreviated4 ,i recently spent a week-end in a ,london suburb1 and ,i was staggered by the wholesale attention given to physical recreation in all its forms4 ,it was a gigantic debauch of the muscles on every side4 ,it shocked me4 ,poor withering mind6 ,i thought4 ,cricket1 and football1 and boating1 and golf1 and tennis have their 'seasons1' but not thou6 ,these considerations are general and prefatory4 ,now ,i must come to detail4 ,,mental ,,calisthenics ,i have dealt with the state of mind in which one should begin a serious effort towards mental efficiency1 and also with the probable causes of failure in previous efforts4 ,we come now to what ,i may call the calisthenics of the business1 exercises which may be roughly compared to the technical exercises necessary in learning to play a musical instrument4 ,it is curious that a person studying a musical instrument will have no false shame whatever in doing mere exercises for the fingers and wrists while a person who is trying to get his mind into order will almost certainly experience a false shame in going through performances which are undoubtedly good for him4 ,herein lies one of the great obstacles to mental efficiency4 ,tell a man that he should join a memory class1 and he will hum and haw1 and say1 as ,i have already remarked1 that memory isn't everything2 and1 in short1 he won't join the memory class1 partly from indolence1 ,i grant1 but more from false shame4 7,is not this true87 ,he will even hesitate about learning things by heart4 ,yet there are few mental exercises better than learning great poetry or prose by heart4 ,twenty lines a week for six months3 what a cure for debility6 ,the chief1 but not the only1 merit of learning by heart as an exercise is that it compels the mind to concentrate4 ,and the most important preliminary to self-development is the faculty of concentrating at will4 ,another excellent exercise is to read a page of no-matter-what1 and then immediately to write down--in one's own words or in the author's--one's full recollection of it4 ,a quarter of an hour a day6 ,no more6 ,and it works like magic4 ,this brings me to the department of writing4 ,i am a writer by profession2 but ,i do not think ,i have any prejudices in favour of the exercise of writing4 ,indeed1 ,i say to myself every morning that if there is one exercise in the world which ,i hate1 it is the exercise of writing4 ,but ,i must assert that in my opinion the exercise of writing is an indispensable part of any genuine effort towards mental efficiency4 ,i don't care much what you write1 so long as you compose sentences and achieve continuity4 ,there are forty ways of writing in an unprofessional manner1 and they are all good4 ,you may keep a full diary1 as ,mr4 ,arthur ,christopher ,benson says he does4 ,this is one of the least good ways4 ,diaries1 save in experienced hands like those of ,mr4 ,benson1 are apt to get themselves done with the very minimum of mental effort4 ,they also tend to an exaggeration of egotism1 and if they are left lying about they tend to strife4 ,further1 one never knows when one may not be compelled to produce them in a court of law4 ,a journal is better4 ,do not ask me to define the difference between a journal and a diary4 ,i will not and ,i cannot4 ,it is a difference that one feels instinctively4 ,a diary treats exclusively of one's self and one's doings2 a journal roams wider1 and notes whatever one has observed of interest4 ,a diary relates that one had lobster mayonnaise for dinner and rose the next morning with a headache1 doubtless attributable to mental strain4 ,a journal relates that ,mrs4 ----1 whom one took into dinner1 had brown eyes1 and an agreeable trick of throwing back her head after asking a question1 and gives her account of her husband's strange adventures in ,colorado1 etc4 ,a diary is ,all ,i1 ,i1 ,i1 ,i1 itself ,i 7to quote a line of the transcendental poetry of ,mary ,baker ,g4 ,eddy74 ,a journal is the large spectacle of life4 ,a journal may be special or general4 ,i know a man who keeps a journal of all cases of current superstition which he actually encounters4 ,he began it without the slightest suspicion that he was beginning a document of astounding interest and real scientific value2 but such was the fact4 ,in default of a diary or a journal1 one may write essays 7provided one has the moral courage72 or one may simply make notes on the book one reads4 ,or one may construct anthologies of passages which have made an individual and particular appeal to one's tastes4 ,anthology construction is one of the pleasantest hobbies that a person who is not mad about golf and bridge--that is to say1 a thinking person--can possibly have2 and ,i recommend it to those who1 discreetly mistrusting their power to keep up a fast pace from start to finish1 are anxious to begin their intellectual course gently and mildly4 ,in any event1 writing--the act of writing--is vital to almost any scheme4 ,i would say it was vital to every scheme1 without exception1 were ,i not sure that some kind correspondent would instantly point out a scheme to which writing was obviously not vital4 ,after writing comes thinking4 7,the sequence may be considered odd1 but ,i adhere to it47 ,in this connexion ,i cannot do better than quote an admirable letter which ,i have received from a correspondent who wishes to be known only as ,an ,oxford ,lecturer4 ,the italics 7except the last7 are mine1 not his4 ,he says3 ,till a man has got his physical brain completely under his control--suppressing its too-great receptivity1 its tendencies to reproduce idly the thoughts of others1 and to be swayed by every passing gust of emotion--,i hold that he cannot do a tenth part of the work that he would then be able to perform with little or no effort4 ,moreover1 work apart1 he has not entered upon his kingdom1 and unlimited possibilities of future development are barred to him4 ,mental efficiency can be gained by constant practice in meditation--i4e41 by concentrating the mind1 say1 for but ten minutes daily1 but with absolute regularity1 on some of the highest thoughts of which it is capable4 ,failures will be frequent1 but they must be regarded with simple indifference and dogged perseverance in the path chosen4 ,if that path be followed without intermission even for a few weeks the results will speak for themselves4 ,i thoroughly agree with what this correspondent says1 and am obliged to him for having so ably stated the case4 ,but ,i regard such a practice of meditation as he indicates as being rather an advanced exercise for a beginner4 ,after the beginner has got under way1 and gained a little confidence in his strength of purpose1 and acquired the skill to define his thoughts sufficiently to write them down--then it would be time enough1 in my view1 to undertake what ,an ,oxford ,lecturer suggests4 ,by the way1 he highly recommends ,mrs4 ,annie ,besant's book1 ,thought ,power3 ,its ,control and ,culture4 ,he says that it treats the subject with scientific clearness1 and gives a practical method of training the mind1 ,i endorse the latter part of the statement4 ,so much for the more or less technical processes of stirring the mind from its sloth and making it exactly obedient to the aspirations of the soul4 ,and here ,i close4 ,numerous correspondents have asked me to outline a course of reading for them4 ,in other words1 they have asked me to particularize for them the aspirations of their souls4 ,my subject1 however1 was not self-development ,my subject was mental efficiency as a means to self-development4 ,of course1 one can only acquire mental efficiency in the actual effort of self-development4 ,but ,i was concerned1 not with the choice of route2 rather with the manner of following the route4 ,you say to me that ,i am busying myself with the best method of walking1 and refusing to discuss where to go4 ,precisely4 ,one man cannot tell another man where the other man wants to go4 ,if he can't himself decide on a goal he may as well curl up and expire1 for the root of the matter is not in him4 ,i will content myself with pointing out that the entire universe is open for inspection4 ,too many people fancy that self-development means literature4 ,they associate the higher life with an intimate knowledge of the life of ,charlotte ,bronte1 or the order of the plays of ,shakespeare4 ,the higher life may just as well be butterflies1 or funeral customs1 or county boundaries1 or street names1 or mosses1 or stars1 or slugs1 as ,charlotte ,bronte or ,shakespeare4 ,choose what interests you4 ,lots of finely-organized1 mentally-efficient persons can't read ,shakespeare at any price1 and if you asked them who was the author of ,the ,tenant of ,wildfell ,hall they might proudly answer ,emily ,bronte1 if they didn't say they never heard of it4 ,an accurate knowledge of any subject1 coupled with a carefully nurtured sense of the relativity of that subject to other subjects1 implies an enormous self-development4 ,with this hint ,i conclude4 ,,ii ,,expressing ,,one',s ,,individuality ,a most curious and useful thing to realize is that one never knows the impression one is creating on other people4 ,one may often guess pretty accurately whether it is good1 bad1 or indifferent--some people render it unnecessary for one to guess1 they practically inform one--but that is not what ,i mean4 ,i mean much more than that4 ,i mean that one has one's self no mental picture corresponding to the mental picture which one's personality leaves in the minds of one's friends4 ,has it ever struck you that there is a mysterious individual going around1 walking the streets1 calling at houses for tea1 chatting1 laughing1 grumbling1 arguing1 and that all your friends know him and have long since added him up and come to a definite conclusion about him--without saying more than a chance1 cautious word to you2 and that that person is you8 ,supposing that you came into a drawing-room where you were having tea1 do you think you would recognize yourself as an individuality8 ,i think not4 ,you would be apt to say to yourself1 as guests do when disturbed in drawing-rooms by other guests3 ,who's this chap8 ,seems rather queer1 ,i hope he won't be a bore4 ,and your first telling would be slightly hostile4 ,why1 even when you meet yourself in an unsuspected mirror in the very clothes that you have put on that very day and that you know by heart1 you are almost always shocked by the realization that you are you4 ,and now and then1 when you have gone to the glass to arrange your hair in the full sobriety of early morning1 have you not looked on an absolute stranger1 and has not that stranger piqued your curiosity8 ,and if it is thus with precise external details of form1 colour1 and movement1 what may it not be with the vague complex effect of the mental and moral individuality8 ,a man honestly tries to make a good impression4 ,what is the result8 ,the result merely is that his friends1 in the privacy of their minds1 set him down as a man who tries to make a good impression4 ,if much depends on the result of a single interview1 or a couple of interviews1 a man may conceivably force another to accept an impression of himself which he would like to convey4 ,but if the receiver of the impression is to have time at his disposal1 then the giver of the impression may just as well sit down and put his hands in his pockets1 for nothing that he can do will modify or influence in any way the impression that he will ultimately give4 ,the real impress is1 in the end1 given unconsciously1 not consciously2 and further1 it is received unconsciously1 not consciously4 ,it depends partly on both persons4 ,and it is immutably fixed beforehand4 ,there can be no final deception4 ,take the extreme case1 that of the mother and her son4 ,one hears that the son hoodwinks his mother4 ,not he6 ,if he is cruel1 neglectful1 overbearing1 she is perfectly aware of it4 ,he does not deceive her1 and she does not deceive herself4 ,i have often thought3 ,if a son could look into a mother's heart1 what an eye-opener he would have6 ,what6 he would cry4 ,this cold1 impartial judgment1 this keen vision for my faults1 this implacable memory of little slights1 and injustices1 and callousnesses committed long ago1 in the breast of my mother6 ,yes1 my friend1 in the breast of your mother4 ,the only difference between your mother and another person is that she takes you as you are1 and loves you for what you are4 ,she isn't blind3 do not imagine it4 ,the marvel is1 not that people are such bad judges of character1 but that they are such good judges1 especially of what ,i may call fundamental character4 ,the wiliest person cannot for ever conceal his fundamental character from the simplest4 ,and people are very stern judges1 too4 ,think of your best friends--are you oblivious of their defects8 ,on the contrary1 you are perhaps too conscious of them4 ,when you summon them before your mind's eye1 it is no ideal creation that you see4 ,when you meet them and talk to them you are constantly making reservations in their disfavour--unless1 of course1 you happen to be a schoolgirl gushing over like a fountain with enthusiasm4 ,it is well1 when one is judging a friend1 to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality4 ,it is well to grasp the fact that you are going through life under the scrutiny of a band of acquaintances who are subject to very few illusions about you1 whose views of you are1 indeed1 apt to be harsh and even cruel4 ,above all it is advisable to comprehend thoroughly that the things in your individuality which annoy your friends most are the things of which you are completely unconscious4 ,it is not until years have passed that one begins to be able to form a dim idea of what one has looked like to one's friends4 ,at forty one goes back ten years1 and one says sadly1 but with a certain amusement3 ,i must have been pretty blatant then4 ,i can see how ,i must have exasperated 'em4 ,and yet ,i hadn't the faintest notion of it at the time4 ,my intentions were of the best4 ,only ,i didn't know enough4 ,and one recollects some particularly crude action1 and kicks one's self4444 ,yes1 that is all very well2 and the enlightenment which has come with increasing age is exceedingly satisfactory4 ,but you are forty now4 ,what shall you be saying of yourself at fifty8 ,such reflections foster humility1 and they foster also a reluctance1 which it is impossible to praise too highly1 to tread on other people's toes4 ,a moment ago ,i used the phrase fundamental character4 ,it is a reminiscence of ,stevenson's phrase fundamental decency4 ,and it is the final test by which one judges one's friends4 ,after all1 he's a decent fellow4 ,we must be able to use that formula concerning our friends4 ,kindliness of heart is not the greatest of human qualities--and its general effect on the progress of the world is not entirely beneficent--but it is the greatest of human qualities in friendship4 ,it is the least dispensable quality4 ,we come back to it with relief from more brilliant qualities4 ,and it has the great advantage of always going with a broad mind4 ,narrow-minded people are never kind-hearted4 ,you may be inclined to dispute this statement3 please think it over2 ,i am inclined to uphold it4 ,we can forgive the absence of any quality except kindliness of heart4 ,and when a man lacks that1 we blame him1 we will not forgive him4 ,this is1 of course1 scandalous4 ,a man is born as he is born4 ,and he can as easily add a cubit to his stature as add kindliness to his heart4 ,the feat never has been done1 and never will be done4 ,and yet we blame those who have not kindliness4 ,we have the incredible1 insufferable1 and odious audacity to blame them4 ,we think of them as though they had nothing to do but go into a shop and buy kindliness4 ,i hear you say that kindliness of heart can be cultivated4 ,well1 ,i hate to have even the appearance of contradicting you1 but it can only be cultivated in the botanical sense4 ,you can't cultivate violets on a nettle4 ,a philosopher has enjoined us to suffer fools gladly4 ,he had more usefully enjoined us to suffer ill-natured persons gladly4444 ,i see that in a fit of absentmindedness ,i have strayed into the pulpit4 ,i descend4 ,,iii ,,breaking ,,with ,,the ,,past ,on that dark morning we woke up1 and it instantly occurred to us--or at any rate to those of us who have preserved some of our illusions and our naivete--that we had something to be cheerful about1 some cause for a gay and strenuous vivacity2 and then we remembered that it was ,new ,year's ,day1 and there were those ,resolutions to put into force6 ,of course1 we all smile in a superior manner at the very mention of ,new ,year's ,resolutions2 we pretend they are toys for children1 and that we have long since ceased to regard them seriously as a possible aid to conduct4 ,but we are such deceivers1 such miserable1 moral cowards1 in such terror of appearing naive1 that ,i for one am not to be taken in by that smile and that pretence4 ,the individual who scoffs at ,new ,year's ,resolutions resembles the woman who says she doesn't look under the bed at nights2 the truth is not in him1 and in the very moment of his lying1 could his cranium suddenly become transparent1 we should see ,resolutions burning brightly in his brain like lamps in ,trafalgar ,square4 ,of this ,i am convinced1 that nineteen-twentieths of us got out of bed that morning animated by that special feeling of gay and strenuous vivacity which ,resolutions alone can produce4 ,and nineteen-twentieths of us were also conscious of a high virtue1 forgetting that it is not the making of ,resolutions1 but the keeping of them1 which renders pardonable the consciousness of virtue4 ,and at this hour1 while the activity of the ,resolution is yet in full blast1 ,i would wish to insist on the truism1 obvious perhaps1 but apt to be overlooked1 that a man cannot go forward and stand still at the same time4 ,just as moralists have often animadverted upon the tendency to live in the future1 so ,i would animadvert upon the tendency to live in the past4 ,because all around me ,i see men carefully tying themselves with an unbreakable rope to an immovable post at the bottom of a hill and then struggling to climb the hill4 ,if there is one ,resolution more important than another it is the ,resolution to break with the past4 ,if life is not a continual denial of the past1 then it is nothing4 ,this may seem a hard and callous doctrine1 but you know there are aspects of common sense which decidedly are hard and callous4 ,and one finds constantly in plain common-sense persons 7,o rare and select band67 a surprising quality of ruthlessness mingled with softer traits4 ,have you not noticed it8 ,the past is absolutely intractable4 ,one can't do anything with it4 ,and an exaggerated attention to it is like an exaggerated attention to sepulchres--a sign of barbarism4 ,moreover1 the past is usually the enemy of cheerfulness1 and cheerfulness is a most precious attainment4 ,personally1 ,i could even go so far as to exhibit hostility towards grief1 and a marked hostility towards remorse--two states of mind which feed on the past instead of on the present4 ,remorse1 which is not the same thing as repentance1 serves no purpose that ,i have ever been able to discover4 ,what one has done1 one has done1 and there's an end of it4 ,as a great prelate unforgettably said1 ,things are what they are1 and the consequences of them will be what they will be4 ,why1 then1 attempt to deceive ourselves--that remorse for wickedness is a useful and praiseworthy exercise8 ,much better to forget4 ,as a matter of fact1 people indulge in remorse2 it is a somewhat vicious form of spiritual pleasure4 ,grief1 of course1 is different1 and it must be handled with delicate consideration4 ,nevertheless1 when ,i see1 as one does see1 a man or a woman dedicating existence to sorrow for the loss of a beloved creature1 and the world tacitly applauding1 my feeling is certainly inimical4 ,to my idea1 that man or woman is not honouring1 but dishonouring1 the memory of the departed2 society suffers1 the individual suffers1 and no earthly or heavenly good is achieved4 ,grief is of the past2 it mars the present2 it is a form of indulgence1 and it ought to be bridled much more than it often is4 ,the human heart is so large that mere remembrance should not be allowed to tyrannize over every part of it4 ,but cases of remorse and absorbing grief are comparatively rare4 ,what is not rare is that misguided loyalty to the past which dominates the lives of so many of us4 ,i do not speak of leading principles1 which are not likely to incommode us by changing2 ,i speak of secondary yet still important things4 ,we will not do so-and-so because we have never done it--as if that was a reason6 ,or we have always done so-and-so1 therefore we must always do it--as if that was logic6 ,this disposition to an irrational ,toryism is curiously discoverable in advanced ,radicals1 and it will show itself in the veriest trifles4 ,i remember such a man whose wife objected to his form of hat 7not that ,i would call so crowning an affair as a hat a trifle674 ,my dear1 he protested1 ,i have always worn this sort of hat4 ,it may not suit me1 but it is absolutely impossible for me to alter it now4 ,however1 she took him by means of an omnibus to a hat shop and bought him another hat and put it on his head1 and made a present of the old one to the shop assistant1 and marched him out of the shop4 ,there6 she said1 you see how impossible it is4 ,this is a parable4 ,and ,i will not insult your intelligence by applying it4 ,the faculty that we chiefly need when we are in the resolution-making mood is the faculty of imagination1 the faculty of looking at our lives as though we had never looked at them before--freshly1 with a new eye4 ,supposing that you had been born mature and full of experience1 and that yesterday had been the first day of your life1 you would regard it to-day as an experiment1 you would challenge each act in it1 and you would probably arrange to-morrow in a manner that showed a healthy disrespect for yesterday4 ,you certainly would not say3 ,i have done so-and-so once1 therefore ,i must keep on doing it4 ,the past is never more than an experiment4 ,a genuine appreciation of this fact will make our new ,resolutions more valuable and drastic than they usually are4 ,i have a dim notion that the most useful ,resolution for most of us would be to break quite fifty per cent4 of all the vows we have ever made4 ,do not accustom yourself to enchain your volatility with vows4444 ,take this warning2 it is of great importance4 7,the wisdom is ,johnson's1 but ,i flatter myself on the italics47 ,,iv ,,settling ,,down ,,in ,,life ,the other day a well-known ,english novelist asked me how old ,i thought she was1 really4 ,well1 ,i said to myself1 since she has asked for it1 she shall have it2 ,i will be as true to life as her novels4 ,so ,i replied audaciously3 ,thirty-eight4 ,i fancied ,i was erring if at all1 on the side of really1 and ,i trembled4 ,she laughed triumphantly4 ,i am forty-three1 she said4 ,the incident might have passed off entirely to my satisfaction had she not proceeded3 ,and now tell me how old you are4 ,that was like a woman4 ,women imagine that men have no reticences1 no pretty little vanities4 ,what an error6 ,of course ,i could not be beaten in candour by a woman4 ,i had to offer myself a burnt sacrifice to her curiosity1 and ,i did it1 bravely but not unflinchingly4 ,and then afterwards the fact of my age remained with me1 worried me1 obsessed me4 ,i saw more clearly than ever before that age was telling on me4 ,i could not be blind to the deliberation of my movements in climbing stairs and in dressing4 ,once upon a time the majority of persons ,i met in the street seemed much older than myself4 ,it is different now4 ,the change has come unperceived4 ,there is a generation younger than mine that smokes cigars and falls in love4 ,astounding6 ,once ,i could play left-wing forward for an hour and a half without dropping down dead4 ,once ,i could swim a hundred and fifty feet submerged at the bottom of a swimming-bath4 ,incredible6 ,simply incredible6444 ,can it be that ,i have already lived8 ,and lo6 ,i1 at the age of nearly forty1 am putting to myself the old questions concerning the intrinsic value of life1 the fundamentally important questions3 ,what have ,i got out of it8 ,what am ,i likely to get out of it8 ,in a word1 what's it worth8 ,if a man can ask himself a question more momentous1 radical1 and critical than these questions1 ,i would like to know what it is4 ,innumerable philosophers have tried to answer these questions in a general way for the average individual1 and possibly they have succeeded pretty well4 ,possibly ,i might derive benefit from a perusal of their answers4 ,but do you suppose ,i am going to read them8 ,not ,i6 ,do you suppose that ,i can recall the wisdom that ,i happen already to have read8 ,not ,i6 ,my mind is a perfect blank at this moment in regard to the wisdom of others on the essential question4 ,strange1 is it not8 ,but quite a common experience1 ,i believe4 ,besides1 ,i don't actually care twopence what any other philosopher has replied to my question4 ,in this1 each man must be his own philosopher4 ,there is an instinct in the profound egoism of human nature which prevents us from accepting such ready-made answers4 ,what is it to us what ,plato thought8 ,nothing4 ,and thus the question remains ever new1 and ever unanswered1 and ever of dramatic interest4 ,the singular1 the highly singular thing is--and here ,i arrive at my point--that so few people put the question to themselves in time1 that so many put it too late1 or even die without putting it4 ,i am firmly convinced that an immense proportion of my instructed fellow-creatures do not merely omit to strike the balance-sheet of their lives1 they omit even the preliminary operation of taking stock4 ,they go on1 and on1 and on1 buying and selling they know not what1 at unascertained prices1 dropping money into the till and taking it out4 ,they don't know what goods are in the shop1 nor what amount is in the till1 but they have a clear impression that the living-room behind the shop is by no means as luxurious and as well-ventilated as they would like it to be4 ,and the years pass1 and that beautiful furniture and that system of ventilation are not achieved4 ,and then one day they die1 and friends come to the funeral and remark3 ,dear me6 ,how stuffy this room is1 and the shop's practically full of trash6 ,or1 some little time before they are dead1 they stay later than usual in the shop one evening1 and make up their minds to take stock and count the till1 and the disillusion lays them low1 and they struggle into the living-room and murmur3 ,i shall never have that beautiful furniture1 and ,i shall never have that system of ventilation4 ,if ,i had known earlier1 ,i would have at least got a few inexpensive cushions to go on with1 and ,i would have put my fist through a pane in the window4 ,but it's too late now4 ,i'm used to ,windsor chairs1 and ,i should feel the draught horribly4 ,if ,i were a preacher1 and if ,i hadn't got more than enough to do in minding my own affairs1 and if ,i could look any one in the face and deny that ,i too had pursued for nearly forty years the great ,british policy of muddling through and hoping for the best--in short1 if things were not what they are1 ,i would hire the ,alhambra ,theatre or ,exeter ,hall of a ,sunday night--preferably the ,alhambra1 because more people would come to my entertainment--and ,i would invite all men and women over twenty-six4 ,i would supply the seething crowd with what they desired in the way of bodily refreshment 7except spirits--,i would draw the line at poisons71 and having got them and myself into a nice amiable expansive frame of mind1 ,i would thus address them--of course in ringing eloquence that ,john ,bright might have envied3 ,men and women 7,i would say71 companions in the universal pastime of hiding one's head in the sand1--,i am about to impart to you the very essence of human wisdom4 ,it is not abstract4 ,it is a principle of daily application1 affecting the daily round in its entirety1 from the straphanging on the ,district ,railway in the morning to the straphanging on the ,district ,railway the next morning4 ,beware of hope1 and beware of ambition6 ,each is excellently tonic1 like ,german competition1 in moderation4 ,but all of you are suffering from self-indulgence in the first1 and very many of you are ruining your constitutions with the second4 ,be it known unto you1 my dear men and women1 that existence rightly considered is a fair compromise between two instincts--the instinct of hoping one day to live1 and the instinct to live here and now4 ,in most of you the first instinct has simply got the other by the throat and is throttling it4 ,prepare to live by all means1 but for heaven's sake do not forget to live4 ,you will never have a better chance than you have at present4 ,you may think you will have1 but you are mistaken4 ,pardon this bluntness4 ,surely you are not so naive as to imagine that the road on the other side of that hill there is more beautiful than the piece you are now traversing6 ,hopes are never realized2 for in the act of realization they become something else4 ,ambitions may be attained1 but ambitions attained are rather like burnt coal1 ninety per cent4 of the heat generated has gone up the chimney instead of into the room4 ,nevertheless1 indulge in hopes and ambitions1 which1 though deceiving1 are agreeable deceptions2 let them cheat you a little1 a lot4 ,but do not let them cheat you too much4 ,this that you are living now is life itself--it is much more life itself than that which you will be living twenty years hence4 ,grasp that truth4 ,dwell on it4 ,absorb it4 ,let it influence your conduct1 to the end that neither the present nor the future be neglected4 ,you search for happiness8 ,happiness is chiefly a matter of temperament4 ,it is exceedingly improbable that you will by struggling gain more happiness than you already possess4 ,in fine1 settle down at once into life4 7,loud cheers47 ,the cheers would of course be for the refreshments4 ,there is no doubt that the mass of the audience would consider that ,i had missed my vocation1 and ought to have been a caterer instead of a preacher4 ,but1 once started1 ,i would not be discouraged4 ,i would keep on1 ,sunday night after ,sunday night4 ,our leading advertisers have richly proved that the public will believe anything if they are told of it often enough4 ,i would practise iteration1 always with refreshments4 ,in the result1 it would dawn upon the corporate mind that there was some glimmering of sense in my doctrine1 and people would at last begin to perceive the folly of neglecting to savour the present1 the folly of assuming that the future can be essentially different from the present1 the fatuity of dying before they have begun to live4 ,v ,,marriage ,,the ,,duty ,,of ,,it ,every now and then it becomes necessary to deal faithfully with that immortal type of person1 the praiser of the past at the expense of the present4 ,i will not quote ,horace1 as by all the traditions of letters ,i ought to do1 because ,horace1 like the incurable trimmer that he was1 hedged on this question2 and ,i do not admire him much either4 ,the praiser of the past has been very rife lately4 ,he has told us that pauperism and lunacy are mightily increasing1 and though the exact opposite has been proved to be the case and he has apologized1 he will have forgotten the correction in a few months1 and will break out again into renewed lamentation4 ,he has told us that we are physically deteriorating1 and in such awful tones that we have shuddered1 and many of us have believed4 ,and considering that the death-rate is decreasing1 that slums are decreasing1 that disease is decreasing1 that the agricultural labourer eats more than ever he did1 our credence does not do much credit to our reasoning powers1 does it8 ,of course1 there is that terrible influx into the towns1 but ,i for one should be much interested to know wherein the existence of the rustic in times past was healthier than the existence of the town-dwellers of to-day4 ,the personal appearance of agricultural veterans does not help me2 they resemble starved 'bus-drivers twisted out of shape by lightning4 ,but the piece de resistance of the praiser of the past is now marriage1 with discreet hints about the birth-rate4 ,the praiser of the past is going to have a magnificent time with the subject of marriage4 ,the first moanings of the tempest have already been heard4 ,bishops have looked askance at the birth-rate1 and have mentioned their displeasure4 ,the matter is serious4 ,as the phrase goes1 it strikes at the root4 ,we are marrying later1 my friends4 ,some of us1 in the hurry and pre-occupation of business1 are quite forgetting to marry4 ,it is the duty of the citizen to marry and have children1 and we are neglecting our duty1 we are growing selfish6 ,no longer are produced the glorious quiverfuls of old times6 ,our fathers married at twenty2 we marry at thirty-five4 ,why8 ,because a gross and enervating luxury has overtaken us4 ,what will become of ,england if this continues8 ,there will be no ,england6 ,hence we must look to it6 ,and so on1 in the same strain4 ,i should like to ask all those who have raised and will raise such outcries4 ,have you read ,x8 ,now1 the book that ,i refer to as ,x is a mysterious work1 written rather more than a hundred years ago by an ,english curate4 ,it is a classic of ,english science2 indeed1 it is one of the great scientific books of the world4 ,it has immensely influenced all the scientific thought of the nineteenth century1 especially ,darwin's4 ,mr4 ,h4,g4 ,wells1 as cited in ,chambers's ,cyclopaedia of ,english ,literature1 describes it as the most 'shattering' book that ever has or will be written4 ,if ,i may make a personal reference1 ,i would say that it affected me more deeply than any other scientific book that ,i have read4 ,although it is perfectly easy to understand1 and free from the slightest technicality1 it is the most misunderstood book in ,english literature1 simply because it is not read4 ,the current notion about it is utterly false4 ,it might be a powerful instrument of education1 general and sociological1 but publishers will not reprint it--at least1 they do not4 ,and yet it is forty times more interesting and four hundred times more educational than ,gilbert ,white's remarks on the birds of ,selborne4 ,i will leave you to guess what ,x is1 but ,i do not offer a prize for the solution of a problem which a vast number of my readers will certainly solve at once4 ,if those who are worrying themselves about the change in our system of marriage would read ,x1 they would probably cease from worrying4 ,for they would perceive that they had been putting the cart before the horse2 that they had elevated to the dignity of fundamental principles certain average rules of conduct which had sprung solely from certain average instincts in certain average conditions1 and that they were now frightened because1 the conditions having changed1 the rules of conduct had changed with them4 ,one of the truths that ,x makes clear is that conduct conforms to conditions1 and not conditions to conduct4 ,the payment of taxes is a duty which the citizen owes to the state4 ,marriage1 with the begetting of children1 is not a duty which the citizen owes to the state4 ,marriage1 with its consequences1 is a matter of personal inclination and convenience4 ,it never has been anything else1 and it never will be anything else4 ,how could it be otherwise8 ,if a man goes against inclination and convenience in a matter where inclination is of the essence of the contract1 he merely presents the state with a discontented citizen 7if not two7 in exchange for a contented one6 ,the happiness of the state is the sum of the happiness of all its citizens2 to decrease one's own happiness1 then1 is a singular way of doing one's duty to the state6 ,do you imagine that when people married early and much they did so from a sense of duty to the state--a sense of duty which our modern luxury has weakened8 ,i imagine they married simply because it suited 'em4 ,they married from sheer selfishness1 as all decent people do marry4 ,and do those who clatter about the duty of marriage kiss the girls of their hearts with an eye to the general welfare8 ,i can fancy them saying1 ,my angel1 ,i love you--from a sense of duty to the state4 ,let us rear innumerable progeny--from a sense of duty to the state4 ,how charmed the girls would be6 ,if the marrying age changes1 if the birth-rate shows a sympathetic tendency to follow the death-rate 7as it must--see ,x71 no one need be alarmed4 ,elementary principles of right and wrong are not trembling on their bases4 ,the human conscience is not silenced4 ,the nation is not going to the dogs4 ,conduct is adjusting itself to new conditions1 and that is all4 ,we may not be able to see exactly how conditions are changing2 that is a detail2 our descendants will see exactly2 meanwhile the change in our conduct affords us some clew4 ,and although certain nervous persons do get alarmed1 and do preach1 and do take measures1 the rest of us may remain placid in the sure faith that measures will avail nothing whatever4 ,if there are two things set high above legislation1 movements1 crusades1 and preaching1 one is the marrying age and the other is the birth-rate4 ,for there the supreme instinct comes along and stamps ruthlessly on all insincere reasonings and sham altruisms2 stamps on everything1 in fact1 and blandly remarks3 ,i shall suit my own convenience1 and no one but ,nature herself 7with a big1 big ,n7 shall talk to me4 ,don't pester me with ,right and ,wrong4 ,i am ,right and ,wrong4444 ,having thus attempted to clear the ground a little of fudge1 ,i propose next to offer a few simple remarks on marriage4 ,,the ,,adventure ,,of ,,it ,having endeavoured to show that men do not1 and should not1 marry from a sense of duty to the state or to mankind1 but simply and solely from an egoistic inclination to marry1 ,i now proceed to the individual case of the man who is in a position to marry and whose affections are not employed4 ,of course1 if he has fallen in love1 unless he happens to be a person of extremely powerful will1 he will not weigh the pros and cons of marriage2 he will merely marry1 and forty thousand cons will not prevent him4 ,and he will be absolutely right and justified1 just as the straw as it rushes down the current is absolutely right and justified4 ,but the privilege of falling in love is not given to everybody1 and the inestimable privilege of falling deeply in love is given to few4 ,however1 the man whom circumstances permit to marry but who is not in love1 or is only slightly amorous1 will still think of marriage4 ,how will he think of it8 ,i will tell you4 ,in the first place1 if he has reached the age of thirty unscathed by ,aphrodite1 he will reflect that that peculiar feeling of romantic expectation with which he gets up every morning would cease to exist after marriage--and it is a highly agreeable feeling6 ,in its stead1 in moments of depression1 he would have the feeling of having done something irremediable1 of having definitely closed an avenue for the outlet of his individuality4 7,kindly remember that ,i am not describing what this human man ought to think4 ,i am describing what he does think47 ,in the second place1 he will reflect that1 after marriage1 he could no longer expect the charming welcomes which bachelors so often receive from women2 he would be done with as a possibility1 and he does not relish the prospect of being done with as a possibility4 ,such considerations1 all connected more or less with the loss of freedom 7oh1 mysterious and thrilling word671 will affect his theoretical attitude4 ,and be it known that even the freedom to be lonely and melancholy is still freedom4 ,other ideas will suggest themselves4 ,one morning while brushing his hair he will see a gray hair1 and1 however young he may be1 the anticipation of old age will come to him4 ,a solitary old age6 ,a senility dependent for its social and domestic requirements on condescending nephews and nieces1 or even more distant relations6 ,awful6 ,unthinkable6 ,and his first movement1 especially if he has read that terrible novel1 ,fort comme la ,mort1 of ,de ,maupassant1 is to rush out into the street and propose to the first girl he encounters1 in order to avoid this dreadful nightmare of a solitary old age4 ,but before he has got as far as the doorstep he reflects further4 ,suppose he marries1 and after twenty years his wife dies and leaves him a widower6 ,he will still have a solitary old age1 and a vastly more tragical one than if he had remained single4 ,marriage is not1 therefore1 a sure remedy for a solitary old age2 it may intensify the evil4 ,children8 ,but suppose he doesn't have any children6 ,suppose1 there being children1 they die--what anguish6 ,suppose merely that they are seriously ill and recover--what an ageing experience6 ,suppose they prove a disappointment--what endless regret6 ,suppose they turn out badly 7children do7--what shame6 ,suppose he finally becomes dependent upon the grudging kindness of an ungrateful child--what a supreme humiliation6 ,all these things are occurring constantly everywhere4 ,suppose his wife1 having loved him1 ceased to love him1 or suppose he ceased to love his wife6 ,ces choses ne se commandent pas--these things do not command themselves4 ,personally1 ,i should estimate that in not one per cent4 even of romantic marriages are the husband and wife capable of passion for each other after three years4 ,so brief is the violence of love6 ,in perhaps thirty-three per cent4 passion settles down into a tranquil affection--which is ideal4 ,in fifty per cent4 it sinks into sheer indifference1 and one becomes used to one's wife or one's husband as to one's other habits4 ,and in the remaining sixteen per cent4 it develops into dislike or detestation4 ,do you think my percentages are wrong1 you who have been married a long time and know what the world is8 ,well1 you may modify them a little--you won't want to modify them much4 ,the risk of finding one's self ultimately among the sixteen per cent4 can be avoided by the simple expedient of not marrying4 ,and by the same expedient the other risks can be avoided1 together with yet others that ,i have not mentioned4 ,it is entirely obvious1 then 7in fact1 ,i beg pardon for mentioning it71 that the attitude towards marriage of the heart-free bachelor must be at best a highly cautious attitude4 ,he knows he is already in the frying-pan 7none knows better71 but1 considering the propinquity of the fire1 he doubts whether he had not better stay where he is4 ,his life will be calmer1 more like that of a hibernating snake2 his sensibilities will be dulled2 but the chances of poignant suffering will be very materially reduced4 ,so that the bachelor in a position to marry but not in love will assuredly decide in theory against marriage--that is to say1 if he is timid1 if he prefers frying-pans1 if he is lacking in initiative1 if he has the soul of a rat1 if he wants to live as little as possible1 if he hates his kind1 if his egoism is of the miserable sort that dares not mingle with another's4 ,but if he has been more happily gifted he will decide that the magnificent adventure is worth plunging into2 the ineradicable and fine gambling instinct in him will urge him to take1 at the first chance1 a ticket in the only lottery permitted by the ,british ,government4 ,because1 after all1 the mutual sense of ownership felt by the normal husband and the normal wife is something unique1 something the like of which cannot be obtained without marriage4 ,i saw a man and a woman at a sale the other day2 ,i was too far off to hear them1 but ,i could perceive they were having a most lively argument--perhaps it was only about initials on pillowcases2 they were absorbed in themselves2 the world did not exist for them4 ,and ,i thought3 ,what miraculous exquisite ,force is it that brings together that strange1 sombre1 laconic organism in a silk hat and a loose1 black overcoat1 and that strange1 bright1 vivacious1 querulous1 irrational organism in brilliant fur and feathers8 ,and when they moved away the most interesting phenomenon in the universe moved away4 ,and ,i thought3 ,just as no beer is bad1 but some beer is better than other beer1 so no marriage is bad4 ,the chief reward of marriage is something which marriage is bound to give--companionship whose mysterious interestingness nothing can stale4 ,a man may hate his wife so that she can't thread a needle without annoying him1 but when he dies1 or she dies1 he will say3 ,well1 ,i was interested4 ,and one always is4 ,said a bachelor of forty-six to me the other night3 ,anything is better than the void4 ,,the ,,two ,,ways ,,of ,,it ,sabine and other summary methods of marrying being now abandoned by all nice people1 there remain two broad general ways4 ,the first is the ,english way4 ,we let nature take her course4 ,we give heed to the heart's cry4 ,when1 amid the hazards and accidents of the world1 two souls find each other1 we rejoice4 ,our instinctive wish is that they shall marry1 if the matter can anyhow be arranged4 ,we frankly recognise the claim of romance in life1 and we are prepared to make sacrifices to it4 ,we see a young couple at the altar2 they are in love4 ,good6 ,they are poor4 ,so much the worse6 ,but nevertheless we feel that love will pull them through4 ,the revolting ,french system of bargain and barter is the one thing that we can neither comprehend nor pardon in the customs of our great neighbours4 ,we endeavour to be polite about that system2 we simply cannot4 ,it shocks our finest1 tenderest feelings4 ,it is so obviously contrary to nature4 ,the second is the ,french way1 just alluded to as bargain and barter4 ,now1 if there is one thing a ,frenchman can neither comprehend nor pardon in the customs of a race so marvellously practical and sagacious as ourselves1 it is the ,english marriage system4 ,he endeavours to be polite about it1 and he succeeds4 ,but it shocks his finest1 tenderest feelings4 ,he admits that it is in accordance with nature2 but he is apt to argue that the whole progress of civilisation has been the result of an effort to get away from nature4 ,what6 ,leave the most important relation into which a man can enter to the mercy of chance1 when a mere gesture may arouse passion1 or the colour of a corsage induce desire6 ,no1 you ,english1 you who are so self-controlled1 you are not going seriously to defend that6 ,you talk of love as though it lasted for ever4 ,you talk of sacrificing to love2 but what you really sacrifice1 or risk sacrificing1 is the whole of the latter part of married existence for the sake of the first two or three years4 ,marriage is not one long honeymoon4 ,we wish it were4 ,when you agree to a marriage you fix your eyes on the honeymoon4 ,when we agree to a marriage we try to see it as it will be five or ten years hence4 ,we assert that1 in the average instance1 five years after the wedding it doesn't matter whether or not the parties were in love on the wedding-day4 ,hence we will not yield to the gusts of the moment4 ,your system is1 moreover1 if we may be permitted the observation1 a premium on improvidence2 it is1 to some extent1 the result of improvidence4 ,you can marry your daughters without dowries1 and the ability to do so tempts you to neglect your plain duty to your daughters1 and you do not always resist the temptation4 ,do your marriages of 'romance' turn out better than our marriages of prudence1 of careful thought1 of long foresight8 ,we do not think they do4 ,so much for the two ways4 ,patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel1 according to ,doctor ,johnson1 ,i have no intention of judging between them1 as my heart prompts me to do1 lest ,i should be accused of it4 ,nevertheless1 ,i may hint that1 while perfectly convinced by the admirable logic of the ,french1 ,i am still1 with the charming illogicalness of the ,english1 in favour of romantic marriages 7it being1 of course1 understood that dowries ought to be far more plentiful than they are in ,england74 ,if a ,frenchman accuses me of being ready to risk sacrificing the whole of the latter part of married life for the sake of the first two or three years1 ,i would unhesitatingly reply3 ,yes1 ,i am ready to risk that sacrifice4 ,i reckon the first two or three years are worth it4 ,but1 then1 ,i am ,english1 and therefore romantic by nature4 ,look at ,london1 that city whose outstanding quality is its romantic quality2 and look at the ,englishwomen going their ways in the wonderful streets thereof6 ,their very eyes are full of romance4 ,they may1 they do1 lack chic1 but they are heroines of drama4 ,then look at ,paris2 there is little romance in the fine right lines of ,paris4 ,look at the ,parisiennes4 ,they are the most astounding and adorable women yet invented by nature4 ,but they aren't romantic1 you know4 ,they don't know what romance is4 ,they are so matter-of-fact that when you think of their matter-of-factness it gives you a shiver in the small of your back4 ,to return4 ,one may view the two ways in another light4 ,perhaps the difference between them is1 fundamentally1 less a difference between the ideas of two races than a difference between the ideas of two times of life2 and in ,france the elderly attitude predominates4 ,as people get on in years1 even ,english people1 they are more and more in favour of the marriage of reason as against the marriage of romance4 ,young people1 even ,french people1 object strongly to the theory and practice of the marriage of reason4 ,but with them the unique and precious ecstasy of youth is not past1 whereas their elders have forgotten its savour4 ,which is right8 ,no one will ever be able to decide4 ,but neither the one system nor the other will apply itself well to all or nearly all cases4 ,there have been thousands of romantic marriages in ,england of which it may be said that it would have been better had the ,french system been in force to prevent their existence4 ,and1 equally1 thousands of possible romantic marriages have been prevented in ,france which1 had the ,english system prevailed there1 would have turned out excellently4 ,the prevalence of dowries in ,england would not render the ,english system perfect 7for it must be remembered that money is only one of several ingredients in the ,french marriage71 but it would considerably improve it4 ,however1 we are not a provident race1 and we are not likely to become one4 ,so our young men must reconcile themselves to the continued absence of dowries4 ,the reader may be excused for imagining that ,i am at the end of my remarks4 ,i am not4 ,all that precedes is a mere preliminary to what follows4 ,i want to regard the case of the man who has given the ,english system a fair trial and found it futile4 ,thus1 we wait on chance in ,england4 ,we wait for love to arrive4 ,suppose it doesn't arrive8 ,where is the ,english system then8 ,assume that a man in a position to marry reaches thirty-five or forty without having fallen in love4 ,why should he not try the ,french system for a change8 ,any marriage is better than none at all4 ,naturally1 in ,england1 he couldn't go up to the ,chosen ,fair and announce3 ,i am not precisely in love with you1 but will you marry me8 ,he would put it differently4 ,and she would understand4 ,and do you think she would refuse8 ,,vi ,,books ,,the ,,physical ,,side ,the chief interest of many of my readers is avowedly books2 they may1 they probably do1 profess other interests1 but they are primarily bookmen1 and when one is a bookman one is a bookman during about twenty-three and three-quarter hours in every day4 ,now1 bookmen are capable of understanding things about books which cannot be put into words2 they are not like mere subscribers to circulating libraries2 for them a book is not just a book--it is a book4 ,if these lines should happen to catch the eye of any persons not bookmen1 such persons may imagine that ,i am writing nonsense2 but ,i trust that the bookmen will comprehend me4 ,and ,i venture1 then1 to offer a few reflections upon an aspect of modern bookishness that is becoming more and more actual as the enterprise of publishers and the beneficent effects of education grow and increase together4 ,i refer to popular editions of classics4 ,now1 ,i am very grateful to the devisers of cheap and handy editions4 ,the first book ,i ever bought was the first volume of the first modern series of presentable and really cheap reprints1 namely1 ,macaulay's ,warren ,hastings1 in ,cassell's ,national ,library 7sixpence1 in cloth74 ,that foundation stone of my library has unfortunately disappeared beneath the successive deposits1 but another volume of the same series1 ,f4,t4 ,palgrave's ,visions of ,england 7an otherwise scarce book71 still remains to me through the vicissitudes of seventeen years of sale1 purchase1 and exchange1 and ,i would not care to part with it4 ,i have over two hundred volumes of that inestimable and incomparable series1 ,the ,temple ,classics1 besides several hundred assorted volumes of various other series4 ,and when ,i heard of the new ,everyman's ,library1 projected by that benefactor of bookmen1 ,mr4 ,j4,m4 ,dent1 my first impassioned act was to sit down and write a postcard to my bookseller ordering ,george ,finlay's ,the ,byzantine ,empire1 a work which has waited sixty years for popular recognition4 ,so that ,i cannot be said to be really antagonistic to cheap reprints4 ,strong in this consciousness1 ,i beg to state that cheap and handy reprints are all very well in their way--which is a manner of saying that they are not the ,alpha and ,omega of bookishness4 ,by expending ,l#bj yearly during the next five years a man might collect1 in cheap and handy reprints1 all that was worth having in classic ,english literature4 ,but ,i for one would not be willing to regard such a library as a real library4 ,i would regard it as only a cheap edition of a library4 ,there would be something about it that would arouse in me a certain benevolent disdain1 even though every volume was well printed on good paper and inoffensively bound4 ,why8 ,well1 although it is my profession in life to say what ,i feel in plain words1 ,i do not know that in this connection ,i can say what ,i feel in plain words4 ,i have to rely on a sympathetic comprehension of my attitude in the bookish breasts of my readers4 ,in the first place1 ,i have an instinctive antipathy to a series4 ,i do not want ,the ,golden ,legend and ,the ,essays of ,elia uniformed alike in a regiment of books4 ,it makes me think of conscription and barracks4 ,even the noblest series of reprints ever planned 7not at all cheap1 either1 nor heterogeneous in matter71 the ,tudor ,translations1 faintly annoys me in the mass4 ,its appearances in a series seems to me to rob a book of something very delicate and subtle in the aroma of its individuality--something which1 it being inexplicable1 ,i will not try to explain4 ,in the second place1 most cheap and handy reprints are small in size4 ,they may be typographically excellent1 with large type and opaque paper2 they may be convenient to handle2 they may be surpassingly suitable for the pocket and the very thing for travel2 they may save precious space where shelf-room is limited2 but they are small in size4 ,and there is1 as regards most literature1 a distinct moral value in size4 ,do ,i carry my audience with me8 ,i hope so4 ,let ,paradise ,lost be so produced that you can put it in your waistcoat pocket1 and it is no more ,paradise ,lost4 ,milton needs a solid octavo form1 with stoutish paper and long primer type4 ,i have ,walpole's ,letters in ,newnes's ,thin ,paper ,classics1 a marvellous volume of near nine hundred pages1 with a portrait and a good index and a beautiful binding1 for three and six1 and ,i am exceedingly indebted to ,messrs4 ,newnes for creating that volume4 ,it was sheer genius on their part to do so4 ,i get charming sensations from it1 but sensations not so charming as ,i should get from ,mrs4 ,paget ,toynbee's many-volumed and grandiose edition1 even aside from ,mrs4 ,toynbee's erudite notes and the extra letters which she has been able to print4 ,the same letter in ,mrs4 ,toynbee's edition would have a higher aesthetic and moral value for me than in the editionlet of ,messrs4 ,newnes4 ,the one cheap series which satisfies my desire for size is ,macmillan's ,library of ,english ,classics1 in which ,i have the ,travels of that mythical personage1 ,sir ,john ,mandeville4 ,but it is only in paying for it that you know this edition to be cheap1 for it measures nine inches by six inches by two inches4 ,and in the third place1 when one buys series1 one only partially chooses one's books2 they are mainly chosen for one by the publisher4 ,and even if they are not chosen for one by the publisher1 they are suggested to one by the publisher4 ,not so does the genuine bookman form his library4 ,the genuine bookman begins by having specific desires4 ,his study of authorities gives him a demand1 and the demand forces him to find the supply4 ,he does not let the supply create the demand4 ,such a state of affairs would be almost humiliating1 almost like the parvenu who calls in the wholesale furnisher and decorator to provide him with a home4 ,a library must be1 primarily1 the expression of the owner's personality4 ,let me assert again that ,i am strongly in favour of cheap series of reprints4 ,their influence though not the very finest1 is undisputably good4 ,they are as great a boon as cheap bread4 ,they are indispensable where money or space is limited1 and in travelling4 ,they decidedly help to educate a taste for books that are neither cheap nor handy2 and the most luxurious collectors may not afford to ignore them entirely4 ,but they have their limitations1 their disadvantages4 ,they cannot form the backbone of a proper library4 ,they make1 however1 admirable embroidery to a library4 ,my own would look rather plain if it was stripped of them4 ,,the ,,philosophy ,,of ,,book-,,buying ,for some considerable time ,i have been living1 as regards books1 with the minimum of comfort and decency--with1 in fact1 the bare necessaries of life1 such necessaries being1 in my case1 sundry dictionaries1 ,boswell1 an atlas1 ,wordsworth1 an encyclopaedia1 ,shakespere1 ,whitaker1 some ,de ,maupassant1 a poetical anthology1 ,verlaine1 ,baudelaire1 a natural history of my native county1 an old directory of my native town1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 ,poe1 ,walpole's ,letters1 and a book of memoirs that ,i will not name4 ,a curious list1 you will say4 ,well1 never mind6 ,we do not all care to eat beefsteak and chip potatoes off an oak table1 with a foaming quart to the right hand4 ,we have our idiosyncrasies4 ,the point is that ,i existed on the bare necessaries of life 7very healthy--doctors say7 for a long time4 ,and then1 just lately1 ,i summoned energy and caused fifteen hundred volumes to be transported to me2 and ,i arranged them on shelves2 and ,i re-arranged them on shelves2 and ,i left them to arrange themselves on shelves4 ,well1 you know1 the way that ,i walk up and down in front of these volumes1 whose faces ,i had half-forgotten1 is perfectly infantile4 ,it is like the way of a child at a menagerie4 ,there1 in its cage1 is that #ahci edition of ,shelley1 edited by ,mrs4 ,shelley1 that ,i once nearly sold to the ,british ,museum because the ,keeper of ,printed ,books thought he hadn't got a copy--only he had6 ,and there1 in a cage by himself1 because of his terrible hugeness1 is the #afeb ,paris edition of ,montaigne's ,essays4 ,and so ,i might continue1 and so ,i would continue1 were it not essential that ,i come to my argument4 ,do you suppose that the presence of these books1 after our long separation1 is making me read more than ,i did8 ,do you suppose ,i am engaged in looking up my favourite passages8 ,not a bit4 ,the other evening ,i had a long tram journey1 and1 before starting1 ,i tried to select a book to take with me4 ,i couldn't find one to suit just the tram-mood4 ,as ,i had to catch the tram ,i was obliged to settle on something1 and in the end ,i went off with nothing more original than ,hamlet1 which ,i am really too familiar with4444 ,then ,i bought an evening paper1 and read it all through1 including advertisements4 ,so ,i said to myself3 ,this is a nice result of all my trouble to resume company with some of my books6 ,however1 as ,i have long since ceased to be surprised at the eccentric manner in which human nature refuses to act as one would have expected it to act1 ,i was able to keep calm and unashamed during this extraordinary experience4 ,and ,i am still walking up and down in front of my books and enjoying them without reading them4 ,i wish to argue that a great deal of cant is talked 7and written7 about reading4 ,papers such as the ,anthenaeum1 which nevertheless ,i peruse with joy from end to end every week1 can scarcely notice a new edition of a classic without expressing1 in a grieved and pessimistic tone1 the fear that more people buy these agreeable editions than read them4 ,and if it is so8 ,what then8 ,are we only to buy the books that we read8 ,the question has merely to be thus bluntly put1 and it answers itself4 ,all impassioned bookmen1 except a few who devote their whole lives to reading1 have rows of books on their shelves which they have never read1 and which they never will read4 ,i know that ,i have hundreds such4 ,my eye rests on the works of ,berkeley in three volumes1 with a preface by the ,right ,honourable ,arthur ,james ,balfour4 ,i cannot conceive the circumstances under which ,i shall ever read ,berkeley2 but ,i do not regret having bought him in a good edition1 and ,i would buy him again if ,i had him not2 for when ,i look at him some of his virtue passes into me2 ,i am the better for him4 ,a certain aroma of philosophy informs my soul1 and ,i am less crude than ,i should otherwise be4 ,this is not fancy1 but fact4 ,taking ,berkeley simply as an instance1 ,i will utilise him a little further4 ,i ought to have read ,berkeley1 you say2 just as ,i ought to have read ,spenser1 ,ben ,jonson1 ,george ,eliot1 ,victor ,hugo4 ,not at all4 ,there is no ought about it4 ,if the mass of obtainable first-class literature were1 as it was perhaps a century ago1 not too large to be assimilated by a man of ordinary limited leisure in his leisure and during the first half of his life1 then possibly there might be an ought about it4 ,but the mass has grown unmanageable1 even by those robust professional readers who can grapple with whole libraries4 ,and ,i am not a professional reader4 ,i am a writer1 just as ,i might be a hotel-keeper1 a solicitor1 a doctor1 a grocer1 or an earthenware manufacturer4 ,i read in my scanty spare time1 and ,i don't read in all my spare time1 either4 ,i have other distractions4 ,i read what ,i feel inclined to read1 and ,i am conscious of no duty to finish a book that ,i don't care to finish4 ,i read in my leisure1 not from a sense of duty1 not to improve myself1 but solely because it gives me pleasure to read4 ,sometimes it takes me a month to get through one book4 ,i expect my case is quite an average case4 ,but am ,i going to fetter my buying to my reading8 ,not exactly6 ,i want to have lots of books on my shelves because ,i know they are good1 because ,i know they would amuse me1 because ,i like to look at them1 and because one day ,i might have a caprice to read them4 7,berkeley1 even thy turn may come67 ,in short1 ,i want them because ,i want them4 ,and shall ,i be deterred from possessing them by the fear of some sequestered and singular person1 some person who has read vastly but who doesn't know the difference between a ,j4,s4 ,muria cigar and an ,r4,p4 ,muria1 strolling in and bullying me with the dreadful query3 ,sir1 do you read your books8 ,therefore ,i say3 ,in buying a book1 be influenced by two considerations only4 ,are you reasonably sure that it is a good book8 ,have you a desire to possess it8 ,do not be influenced by the probability or the improbability of your reading it4 ,after all1 one does read a certain proportion of what one buys4 ,and further1 instinct counts4 ,the man who spends half a crown on ,stubbs's ,early ,plantagenets instead of going into the ,gaiety pit to see ,the ,spring ,chicken1 will probably be the sort of man who can suck goodness out of ,stubbs's ,early ,plantagenets years before he bestirs himself to read it4 ,,vii ,,success ,,candid ,,remarks ,there are times when the whole free and enlightened ,press of the ,united ,kingdom seems to become strangely interested in the subject of success1 of getting on in life4 ,we are passing through such a period now4 ,it would be difficult to name the prominent journalists who have not lately written1 in some form or another1 about success4 ,most singular phenomenon of all1 ,dr4 ,emil ,reich has left ,plato1 duchesses1 and ,claridge's ,hotel1 in order to instruct the million readers of a morning paper in the principles of success6 ,what the million readers thought of the ,doctor's stirring and strenuous sentences ,i will not imagine2 but ,i know what ,i thought1 as a plain man4 ,after taking due cognizance of his airy play with the constants and variables of success1 after watching him treat energetics 7his wonderful new name for the science of success7 as though because he had made it end in ics it resembled mathematics1 ,i thought that the sublime and venerable art of mystification could no further go4 ,if my fellow-pilgrim through this vale of woe1 the average young man who arrives at ,waterloo at #i4dj every morning with a cigarette in his mouth and a second-class season over his heart and vague aspirations in his soul1 was half as mystified as ,i was1 he has probably ere this decided that the science of success has all the disadvantages of algebra without any of the advantages of cricket1 and that he may as well leave it alone lest evil should befall him4 ,on the off-chance that he has come as yet to no decision about the science of success1 ,i am determined to deal with the subject in a disturbingly candid manner4 ,i feel that it is as dangerous to tell the truth about success as it is to tell the truth about the ,united ,states2 but being thoroughly accustomed to the whistle of bullets round my head1 ,i will nevertheless try4 ,most writers on success are1 through sheer goodness of heart1 wickedly disingenuous4 ,for the basis of their argument is that nearly any one who gives his mind to it can achieve success4 ,this is1 to put it briefly1 untrue4 ,the very central idea of success is separation from the multitude of plain men2 it is perhaps the only idea common to all the various sorts of success--differentiation from the crowd4 ,to address the population at large1 and tell it how to separate itself from itself1 is merely silly4 ,i am now1 of course1 using the word success in its ordinary sense4 ,if human nature were more perfect than it is1 success in life would mean an intimate knowledge of one's self and the achievement of a philosophic inward calm1 and such a goal might well be reached by the majority of mortals4 ,but to us success signifies something else4 ,it may be divided into four branches3 7#a7 ,distinction in pure or applied science4 ,this is the least gross of all forms of success as we regard it1 for it frequently implies poverty1 and it does not by any means always imply fame4 7#b7 ,distinction in the arts4 ,fame and adulation are usually implied in this1 though they do not commonly bring riches with them4 7#c7 ,direct influence and power over the material lives of other men2 that is to say1 distinction in politics1 national or local4 7#d7 ,success in amassing money4 ,this last is the commonest and easiest4 ,most forms of success will fall under one of these heads4 ,are they possible to that renowned and much-flattered person1 the man in the street8 ,they are not1 and well you know it1 all you professors of the science of success6 ,only a small minority of us can even become rich4 ,happily1 while it is true that success in its common acceptation is1 by its very essence1 impossible to the majority1 there is an accompanying truth which adjusts the balance2 to wit1 that the majority do not desire success4 ,this may seem a bold saying1 but it is in accordance with the facts4 ,conceive the man in the street suddenly1 by some miracle1 invested with political power1 and1 of course1 under the obligation to use it4 ,he would be so upset1 worried1 wearied1 and exasperated at the end of a week that he would be ready to give the eyes out of his head in order to get rid of it4 ,as for success in science or in art1 the average person's interest in such matters is so slight1 compared with that of the man of science or the artist1 that he cannot be said to have an interest in them4 ,and supposing that distinction in them were thrust upon him he would rapidly lose that distinction by simple indifference and neglect4 ,the average person certainly wants some money1 and the average person does not usually rest until he has got as much as is needed for the satisfaction of his instinctive needs4 ,he will move the heaven and earth of his environment to earn sufficient money for marriage in the station to which he has been accustomed2 and precisely at that point his genuine desire for money will cease to be active4 ,the average man has this in common with the most exceptional genius1 that his career in its main contours is governed by his instincts4 ,the average man flourishes and finds his ease in an atmosphere of peaceful routine4 ,men destined for success flourish and find their ease in an atmosphere of collision and disturbance4 ,the two temperaments are diverse4 ,naturally the average man dreams vaguely1 upon occasion2 he dreams how nice it would be to be famous and rich4 ,we all dream vaguely upon such things4 ,but to dream vaguely is not to desire4 ,i often tell myself that ,i would give anything to be the equal of ,cinquevalli1 the juggler1 or to be the captain of the largest ,atlantic liner4 ,but the reflective part of me tells me that my yearning to emulate these astonishing personages is not a genuine desire1 and that its realization would not increase my happiness4 ,to obtain a passably true notion of what happens to the mass of mankind in its progress from the cradle to the grave1 one must not attempt to survey a whole nation1 nor even a great metropolis1 nor even a very big city like ,manchester or ,liverpool4 ,these panoramas are so immense and confusing that they defeat the observing eye4 ,it is better to take a small town of1 say1 twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants--such a town as most of us know1 more or less intimately4 ,the extremely few individuals whose instincts mark them out to take part in the struggle for success can be identified at once4 ,for the first thing they do is to leave the town4 ,the air of the town is not bracing enough for them4 ,their nostrils dilate for something keener4 ,those who are left form a microcosm which is representative enough of the world at large4 ,between the ages of thirty and forty they begin to sort themselves out4 ,in their own sphere they take their places4 ,a dozen or so politicians form the town council and rule the town4 ,half a dozen business men stand for the town's commercial activity and its wealth4 ,a few others teach science and art1 or are locally known as botanists1 geologists1 amateurs of music1 or amateurs of some other art4 ,these are the distinguished1 and it will be perceived that they cannot be more numerous than they are4 ,what of the rest8 ,have they struggled for success and been beaten8 ,not they4 ,do they1 as they grow old1 resemble disappointed men8 ,not they4 ,they have fulfilled themselves modestly4 ,they have got what they genuinely tried to get4 ,they have never even gone near the outskirts of the battle for success4 ,but they have not failed4 ,the number of failures is surprisingly small4 ,you see a shabby1 disappointed1 ageing man flit down the main street1 and someone replies to your inquiry3 ,that's ,so-and-so1 one of life's failures1 poor fellow6 ,and the very tone in which the words are uttered proves the excessive rarity of the real failure4 ,it goes without saying that the case of the handful who have left the town in search of the ,success with the capital ,s has a tremendous interest of curiosity for the mass who remain4 ,i will consider it4 ,,the ,,successful ,,and ,,the ,,unsuccessful ,having boldly stated that success is not1 and cannot be1 within grasp of the majority1 ,i now proceed to state1 as regards the minority1 that they do not achieve it in the manner in which they are commonly supposed to achieve it4 ,and ,i may add an expression of my thankfulness that they do not4 ,the popular delusion is that success is attained by what ,i may call the ,benjamin ,franklin method4 ,franklin was a very great man2 he united in his character a set of splendid qualities as various1 in their different ways1 as those possessed by ,leonardo da ,vinci4 ,i have an immense admiration for him4 ,but his ,autobiography does make me angry4 ,his ,autobiography is understood to be a classic1 and if you say a word against it in the ,united ,states you are apt to get killed4 ,i do not1 however1 contemplate an immediate visit to the ,united ,states1 and ,i shall venture to assert that ,benjamin ,franklin's ,autobiography is a detestable book and a misleading book4 ,i can recall only two other volumes which ,i would more willingly revile4 ,one is ,samuel ,budgett3 ,the ,successful ,merchant1 and the other is ,from ,log ,cabin to ,white ,house1 being the history of ,president ,garfield4 ,such books may impose on boys1 and it is conceivable that they do not harm boys 7,franklin1 by the way1 began his ,autobiography in the form of a letter to his son71 but the grown man who can support them without nausea ought to go and see a doctor1 for there is something wrong with him4 ,i began now1 blandly remarks ,franklin1 to have some acquaintance among the young people of the town that were lovers of reading1 with whom ,i spent my evenings very pleasantly2 and gained money by my industry and frugality4 ,or again3 ,it was about this time ,i conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection4444 ,i made a little book1 in which ,i allotted a page for each of the virtues4 ,i ruled each page with red ink1 so as to have seven columns1 one for each day of the week4444 ,i crossed these columns with thirteen red lines1 marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues2 on which line1 and in its proper column1 ,i might mark1 by a little black spot1 every fault ,i found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue1 upon that day4 ,shade of ,franklin1 where'er thou art1 this is really a little bit stiff6 ,a man may be excused even such infamies of priggishness1 but truly he ought not to go and write them down1 especially to his son4 ,and why the detail about red ink8 ,if ,franklin's son was not driven to evil courses by the perusal of that monstrous ,autobiography1 he must have been a man almost as astounding as his father4 ,now ,franklin could only have written his immortal classic from one of three motives3 7#a7 ,sheer conceit4 ,he was a prig1 but he was not conceited4 7#b7 ,a desire that others should profit by his mistakes4 ,he never made any mistakes4 ,now and again he emphasizes some trifling error1 but that is only his fun4 7#c7 ,a desire that others should profit by the recital of his virtuous sagacity to reach a similar success4 ,the last was undoubtedly his principal motive4 ,honest fellow1 who happened to be a genius6 ,but the point is that his success was in no way the result of his virtuous sagacity4 ,i would go further1 and say that his dreadful virtuous sagacity often hindered his success4 ,no one is a worse guide to success than your typical successful man4 ,he seldom understands the reasons of his own success2 and when he is asked by a popular magazine to give his experiences for the benefit of the youth of a whole nation1 it is impossible for him to be natural and sincere4 ,he knows the kind of thing that is expected from him1 and if he didn't come to ,london with half a crown in his pocket he probably did something equally silly1 and he puts that down1 and the note of the article or interview is struck1 and good-bye to genuine truth6 ,there recently appeared in a daily paper an autobiographic-didactic article by one of the world's richest men which was the most inadequate article of the sort that ,i have ever come across4 ,successful men forget so much of their lives6 ,moreover1 nothing is easier than to explain an accomplished fact in a nice1 agreeable1 conventional way4 ,the entire business of success is a gigantic tacit conspiracy on the part of the minority to deceive the majority4 ,are successful men more industrious1 frugal1 and intelligent than men who are not successful8 ,i maintain that they are not1 and ,i have studied successful men at close quarters4 ,one of the commonest characteristics of the successful man is his idleness1 his immense capacity for wasting time4 ,i stoutly assert that as a rule successful men are by habit comparatively idle4 ,as for frugality1 it is practically unknown among the successful classes3 this statement applies with particular force to financiers4 ,as for intelligence1 ,i have over and over again been startled by the lack of intelligence in successful men4 ,they are1 indeed1 capable of stupidities that would be the ruin of a plain clerk4 ,and much of the talk in those circles which surround the successful man is devoted to the enumeration of instances of his lack of intelligence4 ,another point3 successful men seldom succeed as the result of an ordered arrangement of their lives2 they are the least methodical of creatures4 ,naturally when they have arrived they amuse themselves and impress the majority by being convinced that right from the start1 with a steady eye on the goal1 they had carefully planned every foot of the route4 ,no6 ,great success never depends on the practice of the humbler virtues1 though it may occasionally depend on the practice of the prouder vices4 ,use industry1 frugality1 and common sense by all means1 but do not expect that they will help you to success4 ,because they will not4 ,i shall no doubt be told that what ,i have just written has an immoral tendency1 and is a direct encouragement to sloth1 thriftlessness1 etc4 ,one of our chief national faults is our hypocritical desire to suppress the truth on the pretext that to admit it would encourage sin1 whereas the real explanation is that we are afraid of the truth4 ,i will not be guilty of that fault4 ,i do like to look a fact in the face without blinking4 ,i am fully persuaded that1 per head1 there is more of the virtues in the unsuccessful majority than in the successful minority4 ,in ,london alone are there not hundreds of miles of streets crammed with industry1 frugality1 and prudence8 ,some of the most brilliant men ,i have known have been failures1 and not through lack of character either4 ,and some of the least gifted have been marvellously successful4 ,it is impossible to point to a single branch of human activity in which success can be explained by the conventional principles that find general acceptance4 ,i hear you1 ,o reader1 murmuring to yourself3 ,this is all very well1 but he is simply being paradoxical for his own diversion4 ,i would that ,i could persuade you of my intense seriousness6 ,i have endeavoured to show what does not make success4 ,i will next endeavour to show what does make it4 ,but my hope is forlorn4 ,,the ,,inwardness ,,of ,,success ,of course1 one can no more explain success than one can explain ,beethoven's ,c minor symphony4 ,one may state what key it is written in1 and make expert reflections upon its form1 and catalogue its themes1 and relate it to symphonies that preceded it and symphonies that followed it1 but in the end one is reduced to saying that the ,c minor symphony is beautiful--because it is4 ,in the same manner one is reduced to saying that the sole real difference between success and failure is that success succeeds4 ,this being frankly admitted at the outset1 ,i will allow myself to assert that there are three sorts of success4 ,success ,a is the accidental sort4 ,it is due to the thing we call chance1 and to nothing else4 ,we are all of us still very superstitious1 and the caprices of chance have a singular effect upon us4 ,suppose that ,i go to ,monte ,carlo and announce to a friend my firm conviction that red will turn up next time1 and ,i back red for the maximum and red does turn up2 my friend1 in spite of his intellect1 will vaguely attribute to me a mysterious power4 ,yet chance alone would be responsible4 ,if ,i did that six times running all the players at the table would be interested in me4 ,if ,i did it a dozen times all the players in the ,casino would regard me with awe4 ,yet chance alone would be responsible4 ,if ,i did it eighteen times my name would be in every newspaper in ,europe4 ,yet chance alone would be responsible4 ,i should be1 in that department of human activity1 an extremely successful man1 and the vast majority of people would instinctively credit me with gifts that ,i do not possess4 ,if such phenomena of superstition can occur in an affair where the agency of chance is open and avowed1 how much more probable is it that people should refuse to be satisfied with the explanation of sheer accident in affairs where it is to the interest of the principal actors to conceal the role played by chance6 ,nevertheless1 there can be no doubt in the minds of persons who have viewed success at close quarters that a proportion of it is due solely and utterly to chance4 ,successful men flourish to-day1 and have flourished in the past1 who have no quality whatever to differentiate them from the multitude4 ,red has turned up for them a sufficient number of times1 and the universal superstitious instinct not to believe in chance has accordingly surrounded them with a halo4 ,it is merely ridiculous to say1 as some do say1 that success is never due to chance alone4 ,because nearly everybody is personally acquainted with reasonable proof1 on a great or a small scale1 to the contrary4 ,the second sort of success1 ,b1 is that made by men who1 while not gifted with first-class talents1 have1 beyond doubt1 the talent to succeed4 ,i should describe these men by saying that1 though they deserve something1 they do not deserve the dazzling reward known as success4 ,they strike us as overpaid4 ,we meet them in all professions and trades1 and we do not really respect them4 ,they excite our curiosity1 and perhaps our envy4 ,they may rise very high indeed1 but they must always be unpleasantly conscious of a serious reservation in our attitude towards them4 ,and if they could read their obituary notices they would assuredly discern therein a certain chilliness1 however kindly we acted up to our great national motto of ,de mortuis nil nist bunkum4 ,it is this class of success which puzzles the social student4 ,how comes it that men without any other talent possess a mysterious and indefinable talent to succeed8 ,well1 it seems to me that such men always display certain characteristics4 ,and the chief of these characteristics is the continual1 insatiable wish to succeed4 ,they are preoccupied with the idea of succeeding4 ,we others are not so preoccupied4 ,we dream of success at intervals1 but we have not the passion for success4 ,we don't lie awake at nights pondering upon it4 ,the second characteristic of these men springs naturally from the first4 ,they are always on the look-out4 ,this does not mean that they are industrious4 ,i stated in a previous article my belief that as a rule successful men are not particularly industrious4 ,a man on a raft with his shirt for a signal cannot be termed industrious1 but he will keep his eyes open for a sail on the horizon4 ,if he simply lies down and goes to sleep he may miss the chance of his life1 in a very special sense4 ,the man with the talent to succeed is the man on the raft who never goes to sleep4 ,his indefatigable orb sweeps the main from sunset to sunset4 ,having sighted a sail1 he gets up on his hind legs and waves that shirt in so determined a manner that the ship is bound to see him and take him off4 ,occasionally he plunges into the sea1 risking sharks and other perils4 ,if he doesn't get there1 we hear nothing of him4 ,if he does1 some person will ultimately multiply by ten the number of sharks that he braved3 that person is called a biographer4 ,let me drop the metaphor4 ,another characteristic of these men is that they seem to have the exact contrary of what is known as common sense4 ,they will become enamoured of some enterprise which infallibly impresses the average common-sense person as a mad and hopeless enterprise4 ,the average common-sense person will demolish the hopes of that enterprise by incontrovertible argument4 ,he will point out that it is foolish on the face of it1 that it has never been attempted before1 and that it responds to no need of humanity4 ,he will say to himself3 ,this fellow with his precious enterprise has a twist in his brain4 ,he can't reply to my arguments1 and yet he obstinately persists in going on4 ,and the man destined to success does go on4 ,perhaps the enterprise fails2 it often fails2 and then the average common-sense person expends much breath in ,i told you so's4 ,but the man continues to be on the look-out4 ,his thirst is unassuaged2 his taste for enterprises foredoomed to failure is incurable4 ,and one day some enterprise foredoomed to failure develops into a success4 ,we all hear of it4 ,we all open our mouths and gape4 ,of the failures we have heard nothing4 ,once the man has achieved success1 the thing becomes a habit with him4 ,the difference between a success and a failure is often so slight that a reputation for succeeding will ensure success1 and a reputation for failing will ensure failure4 ,chance plays an important part in such careers1 but not a paramount part4 ,one can only say that it is more useful to have luck at the beginning than later on4 ,these men of success generally have pliable temperaments4 ,they are not frequently un-moral1 but they regard a conscience as a good servant and a bad master4 ,they live in an atmosphere of compromise4 ,there remains class ,c of success--the class of sheer high merit4 ,i am not a pessimist1 nor am ,i an optimist4 ,i try to arrive at the truth1 and ,i should say that in putting success ,c at ten per cent4 of the sum total of all successes1 ,i am being generous to class ,c4 ,not that ,i believe that vast quantities of merit go unappreciated4 ,my reason for giving to ,class ,c only a modest share is the fact that there is so little sheer high merit4 ,and does it not stand to reason that high merit must be very exceptional8 ,this sort of success needs no explanation1 no accounting for4 ,it is the justification of our singular belief in the principle of the triumph of justice1 and it is among natural phenomena perhaps the only justification that can be advanced for that belief4 ,and certainly when we behold the spectacle of genuine distinguished merit gaining1 without undue delay and without the sacrifice of dignity or of conscience1 the applause of the kind-hearted but obtuse and insensible majority of the human race1 we have fair reason to hug ourselves4 ,,viii ,,the ,,petty ,,artificialities ,the phrase petty artificialities1 employed by one of the correspondents in the great ,simple ,life argument1 has stuck in my mind1 although ,i gave it a plain intimation that it was no longer wanted there4 ,perhaps it sheds more light than ,i had at first imagined on the mental state of the persons who use it when they wish to arraign the conditions of modern life4 ,a vituperative epithet is capable of making a big show4 ,artificialities is a sufficiently scornful word1 but when you add petty you somehow give the quietus to the pretensions of modern life4 ,modern life had better hide its diminished head1 after that4 ,modern life is settled and done for--in the opinion of those who have thrown the dart4 ,only it isn't done for1 really1 you know4 ,petty1 after all1 means nothing in that connexion4 ,are there1 then1 artificialities which are not petty1 which are noble1 large1 and grand8 ,petty means merely that the users of the word are just a little cross and out of temper4 ,what they think they object to is artificialities of any kind1 and so to get rid of their spleen they refer to petty artificialities4 ,the device is a common one1 and as brilliant as it is futile4 ,rude adjectives are like blank cartridge4 ,they impress a vain people1 including the birds of the air1 but they do no execution4 ,at the same time1 let me admit that ,i deeply sympathize with the irritated users of the impolite phrase petty artificialities4 ,for it does at any rate show a divine discontent2 it does prove a high dissatisfaction with conditions which at best are not the final expression of the eternal purpose4 ,it does make for a sort of crude and churlish righteousness4 ,i well know that feeling which induces one to spit out savagely the phrase petty artificialities of modern life4 ,one has it usually either on getting up or on going to bed4 ,what a petty artificial business it is1 getting up1 even for a male6 ,shaving6 ,why shave8 ,and then going to a drawer and choosing a necktie4 ,fancy an immortal soul1 fancy a fragment of the eternal and indestructible energy1 which exists from everlasting to everlasting1 deliberately expending its activity on the choice of a necktie6 ,why a necktie8 ,then one goes downstairs and exchanges banal phrases with other immortals4 ,and one can't start breakfast immediately1 because some sleepy mortal is late4 ,why babble8 ,why wait8 ,why not say straight out3 ,go to the deuce1 all of you6 ,here it's nearly ten o'clock1 and me anxious to begin living the higher life at once instead of fiddling around in petty artificialities4 ,shut up1 every one of you4 ,give me my bacon instantly1 and let me gobble it down quick and be off4 ,i'm sick of your ceremonies6 ,this would at any rate not be artificial4 ,it would save time4 ,and if a similar policy were strictly applied through the day1 one could retire to a well-earned repose in the full assurance that the day had been simplified4 ,the time for living the higher life1 the time for pushing forward those vast schemes of self-improvement which we all cherish1 would decidedly have been increased4 ,one would not have that maddening feeling1 which one so frequently does have when the shades of night are falling fast1 that the day had been frittered away4 ,and yet--and yet--,i gravely doubt whether this wholesale massacre of those poor petty artificialities would bring us appreciably nearer the millennium4 ,for there is one thing1 and a thing of fundamental importance1 which the revolutionists against petty artificialities always fail to appreciate1 and that is the necessity and the value of convention4 ,i cannot in a paragraph deal effectively with this most difficult and complex question4 ,i can only point the reader to analogous phenomena in the arts4 ,all the arts are a conventionalization1 an ordering of nature4 ,even in a garden you put the plants in rows1 and you subordinate the well-being of one to the general well-being4 ,the sole difference between a garden and the wild woods is a petty artificiality4 ,in writing a sonnet you actually cramp the profoundest emotional conceptions into a length and a number of lines and a jingling of like sounds arbitrarily fixed beforehand6 ,wordsworth's ,the world is too much with us is a solid1 horrid mass of petty artificiality4 ,why couldn't the fellow say what he meant and have done with it1 instead of making powers rhyme with ours1 and worrying himself to use exactly a hundred and forty syllables8 ,as for music1 the amount of time that must have been devoted to petty artificiality in the construction of an affair like ,bach's ,chaconne is simply staggering4 ,then look at pictures1 absurdly confined in frames1 with their ingenious contrasts of light and shade and mass against mass4 ,nothing but petty artificiality6 ,in other words1 nothing but form--form which is the basis of all beauty1 whether material or otherwise4 ,now1 what form is in art1 conventions 7petty artificialities7 are in life4 ,just as you can have too much form in art1 so you can have too much convention in life4 ,but no art that is not planned in form is worth consideration1 and no life that is not planned in convention can ever be satisfactory4 ,convention is not the essence of life1 but it is the protecting garment and preservative of life1 and it is also one very valuable means by which life can express itself4 ,it is largely symbolic2 and symbols1 while being expressive1 are also great time-savers4 ,the despisers of petty artificialities should think of this4 ,take the striking instance of that pettiest artificiality1 leaving cards4 ,well1 searchers after the real1 what would you substitute for it8 ,if you dropped it and substituted nothing1 the result would tend towards a loosening of the bonds of society1 and it would tend towards the diminution of the number of your friends4 ,and if you dropped it and tried to substitute something less artificial and more real1 you would accomplish no more than you accomplish with cards1 you would inconvenience everybody1 and waste a good deal of your own time4 ,i cannot too strongly insist that the basis of convention is a symbolism1 primarily meant to display a regard for the feelings of other people4 ,if you do not display a regard for the feelings of other people1 you may as well go and live on herbs in the desert4 ,and if you are to display such a regard you cannot do it more expeditiously1 at a smaller outlay of time and brains1 than by adopting the code of convention now generally practised4 ,it comes to this--that you cannot have all the advantages of living in the desert while you are living in a society4 ,it would be delightful for you if you could1 but you can't4 ,there are two further reasons for the continuance of conventionality4 ,and one is the mysterious but indisputable fact that the full beauty of an activity is never brought out until it is subjected to discipline and strict ordering and nice balancing4 ,a life without petty artificiality would be the life of a tiger in the forest4 ,a beautiful life1 perhaps1 a life of burning bright1 but not reaching the highest ideal of beauty6 ,laws and rules1 forms and ceremonies are good in themselves1 from a merely aesthetic point of view1 apart from their social value and necessity4 ,and the other reason is that one cannot always be at the full strain of self-improvement1 and evolutionary progress1 and generally beating the big drum4 ,human nature will not stand it4 ,there is1 if we will only be patient1 ample time for the artificial as well as for the real4 ,those persons who think that there isn't1 ought to return to school and learn arithmetic4 ,supposing that all petty artificialities were suddenly swept away1 and we were able to show our regard and consideration for our fellow creatures by the swift processes of thought alone1 we should find ourselves with a terrible lot of time hanging heavy on our hands4 ,we can no more spend all our waking hours in consciously striving towards higher things than we can dine exclusively off jam4 ,what frightful prigs we should become if we had nothing to do but cultivate our noblest faculties6 ,i beg the despisers of artificiality to reflect upon these observations1 however incomplete these observations may be1 and to consider whether they would be quite content if they got what they are crying out for4 ,,ix ,,the ,,secret ,,of ,,content ,i have said lightly a propos of the conclusion arrived at by several correspondents and by myself that the cry for the simple life was merely a new form of the old cry for happiness1 that ,i would explain what it was that made life worth living for me4 ,the word has gone forth1 and ,i must endeavour to redeem my promise4 ,but ,i do so with qualms and with diffidence4 ,first1 there is the natural instinct against speaking of that which is in the core of one's mind4 ,second1 there is the fear1 nearly amounting to certainty1 of being misunderstood or not comprehended at all4 ,and third1 there is the absurd insufficiency of space4 ,however6444 ,for me1 spiritual content 7,i will not use the word happiness1 which implies too much7 springs essentially from no mental or physical facts4 ,it springs from the spiritual fact that there is something higher in man than the mind1 and that that something can control the mind4 ,call that something the soul1 or what you will4 ,my sense of security amid the collisions of existence lies in the firm consciousness that just as my body is the servant of my mind1 so is my mind the servant of me4 ,an unruly servant1 but a servant--and possibly getting less unruly every day6 ,often have ,i said to that restive brain3 ,now1 ,o mind1 sole means of communication between the divine me and all external phenomena1 you are not a free agent2 you are a subordinate2 you are nothing but a piece of machinery2 and obey me you shall4 ,the mind can only be conquered by regular meditation1 by deciding beforehand what direction its activity ought to take1 and insisting that its activity takes that direction2 also by never leaving it idle1 undirected1 masterless1 to play at random like a child in the streets after dark4 ,this is extremely difficult1 but it can be done1 and it is marvellously well worth doing4 ,the fault of the epoch is the absence of meditativeness4 ,a sagacious man will strive to correct in himself the faults of his epoch4 ,in some deep ways the twelfth century had advantages over the twentieth4 ,it practised meditation4 ,the twentieth does ,sandow exercises4 ,meditation 7,i speak only for myself7 is the least dispensable of the day's doings4 ,what do ,i force my mind to meditate upon8 ,upon various things1 but chiefly upon one4 ,namely1 that ,force1 ,energy1 ,life--the ,incomprehensible has many names--is indestructible1 and that1 in the last analysis1 there is only one single1 unique ,force1 ,energy1 ,life4 ,science is gradually reducing all elements to one element4 ,science is making it increasingly difficult to conceive matter apart from spirit4 ,everything lives4 ,even my razor gets tired4 ,and the fatigue of my razor is no more nor less explicable than my fatigue after a passage of arms with my mind4 ,the ,force in it1 and in me1 has been transformed1 not lost4 ,all ,force is the same force4 ,science just now has a tendency to call it electricity2 but ,i am indifferent to such baptisms4 ,the same ,force pervades my razor1 my cow in my field1 and the central me which dominates my mind3 the same force in different stages of evolution4 ,and that ,force persists forever4 ,in such paths do ,i compel my mind to walk daily4 ,daily it has to recognize that the mysterious ,ego controlling it is a part of that divine ,force which exists from everlasting to everlasting1 and which1 in its ultimate atoms1 nothing can harm4 ,by such a course of training1 even the mind1 the coarse1 practical mind1 at last perceives that worldly accidents don't count4 ,but1 you will exclaim1 this is nothing but the immortality of the soul over again6 ,well1 in a slightly more abstract form1 it is4 7,i never said ,i had discovered anything new47 ,i do not permit myself to be dogmatic about the persistence of personality1 or even of individuality after death4 ,but1 in basing my physical and mental life on the assumption that there is something in me which is indestructible and essentially changeless1 ,i go no further than science points4 ,yes1 if it gives you pleasure1 let us call it the immortality of the soul4 ,if ,i miss my train1 or my tailor disgraces himself1 or ,i lose that earthly manifestation of ,force that happens to be dearest to me1 ,i say to my mind3 ,mind1 concentrate your powers upon the full realization of the fact that ,i1 your master1 am immortal and beyond the reach of accidents4 ,and my mind1 knowing by this time that ,i am a hard master1 obediently does so4 ,am ,i1 a portion of the ,infinite ,force that existed billions of years ago1 and which will exist billions of years hence1 going to allow myself to be worried by any terrestrial physical or mental event8 ,i am not4 ,as for the vicissitudes of my body1 that servant of my servant1 it had better keep its place1 and not make too much fuss4 ,not that any fuss occurring in either of these outward envelopes of the eternal me could really disturb me4 ,the eternal is calm2 it has the best reason for being so4 ,so you say to yourselves3 ,here is a man in a penny weekly paper advocating daily meditation upon the immortality of the soul as a cure for discontent and unhappiness6 ,a strange phenomenon6 ,that it should be strange is an indictment of the epoch4 ,my only reply to you is this3 ,try it4 ,of course1 ,i freely grant that such meditation1 while it casts out fear1 slowly kills desire and makes for a certain high indifference2 and that the extinguishing of desire1 with an accompanying indifference1 be it high or low1 is bad for youth4 ,but ,i am not a youth1 and to-day ,i am writing for those who have tasted disillusion3 which youth has not4 ,yet ,i would not have you believe that ,i scorn the brief joys of this world4 ,my attitude towards them would fain be that of ,socrates1 as stated by the incomparable ,marcus ,aurelius3 ,he knew how to lack1 and how to enjoy1 those things in the lack whereof most men show themselves weak2 and in the fruition1 intemperate4 ,besides commanding my mind to dwell upon the indestructibly and final omnipotence of the ,force which is me1 ,i command it to dwell upon the logical consequence of that unity of force which science is now beginning to teach4 ,the same essential force that is me is also you4 ,says the ,indian proverb3 ,i met a hundred men on the road to ,delhi1 and they were all my brothers4 ,yes1 and they were all my twin brothers1 if ,i may so express it1 and a thousand times closer to me even than the common conception of twin brothers4 ,we are all of us the same in essence2 what separates us is merely differences in our respective stages of evolution4 ,constant reflection upon this fact must produce that universal sympathy which alone can produce a positive content4 ,it must do away with such ridiculous feelings as blame1 irritation1 anger1 resentment4 ,it must establish in the mind an all-embracing tolerance4 ,until a man can look upon the drunkard in his drunkenness1 and upon the wife-beater in his brutality1 with pure and calm compassion2 until his heart goes out instinctively to every other manifestation of the unique ,force2 until he is surcharged with an eager and unconquerable benevolence towards everything that lives2 until he has utterly abandoned the presumptuous practice of judging and condemning--he will never attain real content4 ,ah6 you exclaim again1 he has nothing newer to tell us than that 'the greatest of these is charity'6 ,i have not4 ,it may strike you as excessively funny1 but ,i have discovered nothing newer than that4 ,i merely remind you of it4 ,thus it is1 twins on the road to ,delhi1 by continual meditation upon the indestructibility of ,force1 that ,i try to cultivate calm1 and by continual meditation upon the oneness of ,force that ,i try to cultivate charity1 being fully convinced that in calmness and in charity lies the secret of a placid if not ecstatic happiness4 ,it is often said that no thinking person can be happy in this world4 ,my view is that the more a man thinks the more happy he is likely to be4 ,i have spoken4 ,i am overwhelmingly aware that ,i have spoken crudely1 abruptly1 inadequately1 confusedly4 ,,the ,,end ,,the ,,novels ,,of ,,arnold ,,bennett ,,whom ,,god ,,hath ,,joined3 ,price #a4bj ,net ,,whom ,,god ,,hath ,,joined is a dramatic presentation of the working of the ,english divorce laws4 ,their injustice to woman has long been acknowledged2 ,arnold ,bennett proves them almost as unjust to man4 ,the novel is a stern morality1 with laughter interspersed4 ,it possesses the sincerity and vitality which come of a careful study of the problem4 ,it contains passages of the most brilliant motive analysis which have been written in recent years4 ,it presents a vivid world of actual personages4 ,,the ,,glimpse3 ,the ,adventures of a ,soul4 ,price #a4bj ,net ,the story is told of a man who passed over to the ,other ,side and remained there long enough to gain a glimpse--only to return again4 ,written with the careful realism which distinguishes all ,arnold ,bennett's work1 it is curious to note the fine use that he makes of his realistic genius in the handling of a visionary situation4 ,a ,,man ,,from ,,the ,,north3 ,price #a4bj ,net ,the story of a young man from the ,five ,towns1 who comes up ,london to seek his fortune4 ,he is grossly ignorant of life and naively curious about love4 ,this is the history of his adventures towards love and of his enlightenment4 ,all the loneliness1 passion and quenchless curiosity of youth are in these pages--and the magic power of youth to wrap about the commonplace the cloak of romance4 ,,george ,h4 ,,doran ,,company1 ,publishers ,,arnold ,,bennett3 ,,plays ,,cupid ,,and ,,common-,,sense3 ,a ,play in ,four ,acts1 with a ,preface on the ,crisis in the ,theatre4 ,price #a4jj ,net ,cupid and ,common-,sense reads well1 and reads as if it would prove still more effective and enjoyable when acted4--,the ,scotsman4 ,,what ,,the ,,public ,,wants3 ,a ,play4 ,price #a4jj ,net ,this clever comedy1 based on modern neswpaperdom1 reveals ,arnold ,bennett in another phase4 ,,polite ,,farces3 ,three ,plays4 ,price #a4jj ,net ,the three farces which comprise this book deal with possible domestic and refined crises of everyday life4 ,,the ,,honeymoon3 ,a ,comedy in ,three ,acts4 ,price #a4jj ,net ,originality without grotesquerie and satire without malice combine to make a play that is full of sparkle and genuine charm4 ,,the ,,great ,,adventure3 ,a ,play of ,fancy in ,four ,acts4 ,price #a4jj ,net ,the play based on ,mr4 ,bennett's successful novel1 ,buried ,alive4 ,as the novel stands out among humorous fiction so ,,the ,,great ,,adventure stands out among modern comedies4 ,,arnold ,,bennett ,,and ,,edward ,,knoblauch ,,milestones3 ,a ,play in ,three ,acts4 ,price #a4jj ,net ,this is the play which has created a sensation because of its boldness and novelty4 ,it passes1 in rapid survey1 three generations--the milestones of the last half century4 ,a big ,new ,york success4 ,,george ,h4 ,,doran ,,company1 ,publishers 99 99 99 99 99 ---------------------------------------- ------------------- ,typographical errors corrected in text3 ,page #aaj3 artificialties replaced with artificialities ,page #aad3 prevades replaced with pervades ---------------------------------------- ------------------- 99 99 99 99 99