,,works ,,by ,,arnold ,,bennett ,,novels ,a ,man from the ,north ,anna of the ,five ,towns ,leonora ,a ,great ,man ,sacred and ,profane ,love ,whom ,god hath ,joined ,buried ,alive ,the ,old ,wives' ,tale ,the ,glimpse ,helen with the ,high ,hand ,clayhanger ,the ,card ,hilda ,lessways ,the ,regent ,the ,price of ,love ,these ,twain ,the ,lion's ,share ,the ,pretty ,lady ,the ,roll-,call ,,fantasias ,the ,grand ,babylon ,hotel ,the ,gates of ,wrath ,teresa of ,watling ,street ,the ,loot of ,cities ,hugo ,the ,ghost ,the ,city of ,pleasure ,,short ,,stories ,tales of the ,five ,towns ,the ,grim ,smile of the ,five ,towns ,the ,matador of the ,five ,towns ,,belles-,,lettres ,how to ,live on ,twenty-,four ,hours a ,day ,the ,human ,machine ,mental ,efficiency ,literary ,taste ,friendship and ,happiness ,married ,life ,those ,united ,states ,paris ,nights ,books and ,persons ,,drama ,polite ,farces ,cupid and ,common ,sense ,what the ,public ,wants ,the ,honeymoon ,the ,great ,adventure ,the ,title ,,self ,,and ,,self-,,management ,,self ,,and ,,self-,,management ,,essays ,,about ,,existing ,,by ,,arnold ,,bennett ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton ,,london ,,new ,,york ,,toronto ,,mcmxviii ,,contents ,,page ,,running ,,away ,,from ,,life #c ,,some ,,axioms ,,about ,,war-,,work #be ,,the ,,diary ,,habit #de ,a ,,dangerous ,,lecture ,,to ,a ,,young ,,woman #fe ,,the ,,complete ,,fusser #he ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,,frocks #ajc ,,running ,,away ,,from ,,life ,,running ,,away ,,from ,,life ,i ,i ,,will take the extreme case of the social butterfly1 because it has the great advantage of simplicity4 ,this favourite variety of the lepidopteral insects is always spoken of as female4 ,but as the variety persists from generation to generation obviously it cannot be of one sex only4 ,and1 as a fact1 there are indubitably male social butterflies1 though the differences between the male and the female may be slight4 ,i shall1 however1 confine myself to the case of the female social butterfly--again for the sake of simplicity4 ,this beautiful creature combines the habits of the butterfly with the habits of the moth4 ,for whereas the moth flies only by night and the butterfly flies only by day1 the social butterfly flies both by day and by night4 ,she is universally despised and condemned1 and almost universally envied3 one of the strangest among the many strange facts of natural history4 ,she lives with a single purpose--to be for ever in the movement--not any particular movement1 but the movement1 which is a grand combined tendency comprising all lesser tendencies4 ,for the social butterfly the constituents of the movement are chiefly men1 theatres1 restaurants1 dances1 noise1 and hurry4 ,the minor constituents may and do frequently change1 but the major constituents have not changed for a considerable number of years4 ,the minor constituents of the movement are usually #8serious1' and hence in a minor way the social butterfly is serious4 ,if books happen to be of the movement1 she will learn the names of books and authors1 and in urgent crises will even read4 ,if music1 she will learn to distinguish from all other sounds the sounds which are of the movement1 the sounds at which she must shut her eyes in ecstasy and sigh4 ,if social reform1 she will at once be ready to reform everybody and everything except herself and her existence4 ,if charity or mercifulness1 she will be charitable or merciful according to the latest devices and in the latest frocks4 ,yes1 and if war happens to be of the movement1 she will be serious about the war4 ,you observe how sarcastic ,i am about the social butterfly4 ,it is necessary to be so4 ,the social butterfly never has since the earliest times been mentioned in print without sarcasm or pity1 and she never will be4 ,she is greatly to be pitied4 ,what is her aim8 ,her aim1 like the aim of most people except the very poor 7whose aim is simply to keep alive71 is happiness4 ,but the unfortunate creature1 as you and ,i can so clearly see1 has confused happiness with pleasure4 ,she runs day and night after pleasure--that is to say1 after distraction3 eating1 drinking1 posing1 seeing1 being seen1 laughing1 jostling1 and the singular delight of continual imitation4 ,she is only alive in public1 and the whole of her days and nights are spent in being in public1 or in preparing to be in public1 or in recovering from the effects of being in public4 ,habit drives her on from one excitement to another4 ,she flies eternally from something mysterious and sinister which is eternally overtaking her4 ,you and ,i know that she is never happy--she is only intoxicated or narcotised by a drug that she calls pleasure4 ,and her youth is going2 her figure is going2 her complexion is practically gone4 ,she is laying up naught for the future save disappointment1 dissatisfaction1 disillusion1 and no doubt rheumatism4 ,and all this inordinate1 incredible folly springs from a wrong and childish interpretation of the true significance of happiness4 ,,ii ,how much wiser1 you say1 and indeed we all say1 is that other young woman who has chosen the part of content4 ,she has come to terms with the universe4 ,she is not for ever gadding about in search of something which she has not got1 and which not one person in a hundred round about her has got4 ,she has said3 #8,the universe is stronger than ,i am4 ,i will accommodate myself to the universe4' ,and she acts accordingly4 ,she makes the best of her lot4 ,she treats her body in a sane manner1 and she treats her mind in a sane manner4 ,she has perceived the futility of what is known as pleasure in circles where they play bridge and organise charity ftes on the ,field of the ,cloth of ,gold4 ,she has frankly admitted that youth is fleeting1 and that part of it must be spent in making preparations against the rigours of old age4 ,she seeks her pleasure in literature and the arts because such pleasure strengthens instead of weakening the mind1 and never palls4 ,she is prudent4 ,she is aware that there can be no happiness where duty has been left undone1 and that loving-kindness is a main source of felicity4 ,hence she is attentive to duty1 and she practises the altruism which is at once the cause and the result of loving-kindness4 ,she deliberately cultivates cheerfulness and resignation2 she discourages discontent as gardeners discourage a weed4 ,she has duly noted that the kingdom of heaven is #8within you1' not near the band at the expensive restaurant1 nor in the trying-on room of the fashionable dressmaker's next door to the expensive restaurant1 nor in the salons of the well-advertised great4 ,her life is reflected in her face1 which is a much better face than the face of the social butterfly4 ,whatever may occur--within reason--she is armed against destiny1 married or single4 ,,iii ,what can there be in common between these two types8 ,well1 the point ,i am coming to is that they may have one tragic similarity which vitiates their lives equally1 or almost equally4 ,one may be vastly more admirable than the other1 and in many matters vastly more sensible4 ,and yet they may both have made the same stupendous mistake3 the misinterpretation of the significance of the word happiness4 ,towards the close of existence1 and even throughout existence1 the second1 in spite of all her precautions1 may suffer the secret and hidden pangs of unhappiness just as acutely as the first2 and her career may in the end present itself to her as just as much a sham4 ,and for the same reason4 ,the social butterfly was running after something absurd1 and the other woman knew that it was absurd and left it alone4 ,but the root of the matter was more profound4 ,the social butterfly's chief error was not that she was running after something1 but that she was running away from something--something which ,i have described as mysterious and sinister4 ,and the other woman also may be--and as a fact frequently is--running away from just that mysterious and sinister something4 ,and that something is neither more nor less than life itself in its every essence4 ,both may be afraid of life and may have to pay an equal price for their cowardice4 ,both may have refused to listen to the voice within them1 and will suffer equally for the wilful shutting of the ear4 7,it is true that the other woman may just possibly have a true vocation for a career of resignation and altruism1 and the spreading of a sort of content in a thin layer over the entire length of existence4 ,if so1 well and good4 ,but it is also true that the social butterfly may have a true vocation for being a social butterfly1 and the thick squandering of a sort of pleasure on the earlier part of existence1 to the deprivation of the latter part4 ,then neither the one nor the other will have been guilty of the cowardice of running away from life47 ,my point is that you may take refuge in good works or you may take refuge in bad works1 but that the supreme offence against life lies in taking refuge from it1 and that if you commit this offence you will miss the only authentic happiness--which springs no more from content and resignation than it springs from mere pleasure4 ,it is indisputable that the conscience can be1 and is constantly narcotised as much by relatively good deeds as by relatively bad deeds4 ,nevertheless1 to dope the conscience is always a crime1 and is always punished by the ultimate waking up of the conscience4 ,,iv ,to take refuge from life is to refuse it4 ,life generally offers due scope for the leading instinct in a man or a woman2 and sometimes it offers the scope at a very low price1 at no price at all4 ,for example1 a young man may have a very marked instinct for engineering1 and his father may be a celebrated and wealthy engineer who is only too anxious that the son should follow the same profession4 ,life has offered the scope and charged nothing for it4 ,but1 on the other hand1 a man may have a very marked instinct for authorship1 and his father may be a celebrated and wealthy engineer who1 being convinced that literature is an absurd and despicable profession1 has determined that his son shall not be an author but an engineer4 #8,become an engineer1' says the father1 #8and ,i will give you unique help1 and you are a made man4 ,become an author1 and you get nothing whatever from me except opposition4' ,life1 however1 which has provided the instinct for literature1 has also provided the scope for its fulfilment4 ,the scope for young authors is vaster to-day on two continents than ever it was4 ,but the price which in this case life quotes is very high4 ,the young man hesitates4 ,the price quoted includes comfort1 parental approval1 domestic peace1 money1 luxury1 and perhaps also a comfortable and not unsatisfactory marriage4 ,it includes practically all the ingredients of the mixture commonly known as happiness4 ,of course1 by following literature the young man may recover all and more than all the price paid4 ,but also he may not4 ,the chances are about a hundred to one that he will not4 ,he is risking nearly everything in order to buy a ticket in a lottery4 ,let us say that1 being a prudent and obedient young fellow1 he declines to beggar himself for a ticket in a lottery4 ,his instinct towards literature has not developed very far2 he sacrifices it and becomes the engineer4 ,by industry and goodwill and native brains he becomes a very fair engineer1 the prop of the firm1 the aid1 and in due course the successor1 of his father4 ,he treats his work-people well4 ,he marries a delightful girl1 and he even treats her well4 ,he has delightful children4 ,he is a terrific worldly success1 and a model to his fellow-creatures4 ,that man's attention to duty1 his altruism1 his real kindness1 are the theme of conversation among all his friends4 ,he treats his conscience with the most extraordinary respect4 ,and yet1 if his instinct towards literature was genuine1 he is not fundamentally happy1 and when he chances to meet an author1 or to read about authors 7even about their suicides of despair71 or to be deeply impressed by a book1 he is acutely aware that he has committed the sin of taking refuge from life2 he knows that the extraordinary respect which he pays to his conscience is at bottom a doping of that organ2 he perceives that the smooth path is in fact the rough path1 and that the rough path1 which he dared not face1 might have been1 with all its asperities1 the smooth one4 ,his existence is a vast secret and poisonous regret2 and there is nothing whatever to be done2 there is no antidote for the poison2 the dope is a drug--and insufficient at that4 ,v ,women1 even in these latter days when reason is supposed to have got human nature by the neck1 have far greater opportunities and temptations than men to run away from life4 ,indeed1 many of them are taught and encouraged to do so4 ,the practice of the three ancient cardinal female virtues--shutting your eyes1 stopping your ears1 and burying your head in the sand--is very carefully inculcated2 and then1 of course1 people turn round on young women and upbraid them because they are afraid of existence6 ,and1 though things are changing1 they have not yet definitely changed4 ,i would not blame a whole sex--no matter which--for anything whatever4 ,but to state a fact is not to blame4 ,the fact is that women1 when they get a chance1 do show a tendency to shirk life4 ,large numbers of them come to grips with life simply because they are compelled to do so4 ,a woman whose material existence is well assured will not as a rule go out into the world4 ,further1 she will not marry as willingly as the woman who needs a home and cannot see the prospect of it except through marriage4 ,by which ,i mean to imply that with women the achievement of marriage is due less to the instinct to mate than to an economic instinct4 ,men are wicked animals and know not righteousness1 but it may be said of them generally that with them the achievement of marriage is due to the instinct to mate4 ,examining the cases of certain women who put off marrying1 ,i have been forced to the conclusion that their only reason for hesitating to marry is that men are not perfect1 and that to marry an imperfect man involves risk4 ,it does1 but the reason is not valid4 ,risk is the very essence of life1 and the total absence of danger is equal to death4 ,i do not say that to follow an unsatisfactory vocation and to fail in it is better than to follow no vocation4 ,but ,i am inclined to say that any marriage is better than no marriage--for both sexes4 ,and ,i think that the most tragic spectacle on earth is an old woman metaphorically wrapped in cotton-wool who at some period of her career has refused life because of the peril of inconvenience and unhappiness4 ,both men and women can run away from life in ways far more subtle and less drastic than those which ,i have named4 ,for the sake of clearness ,i have confined myself to rather crude and obvious examples of flight4 ,there are probably few of us who are not conscious of having declined at least some minor challenge of existence4 ,and there are still fewer of us who can charge ourselves with having been consistently too bold in our desire to get the full savour of existence4 ,,vi ,each individual must define happiness for himself or herself4 ,for my part1 ,i rule out practically all the dictionary definitions4 ,in most dictionaries you will find that the principal meaning attached to the word is #8good fortune' or #8prosperity4' ,which is notoriously absurd4 ,then come such definitions as #8a state of well-being characterised by relative permanence1 by dominantly agreeable emotion 444 and by a natural desire for its continuation4' ,this last is from ,webster1 and it is very clever4 ,yet ,i will have none of it1 unless ,i am allowed to define the word #8well-being' in my own way4 ,for me1 an individual cannot be in a state of well-being if any of his faculties are permanently idle through any fault of his own4 ,the full utilisation of all the faculties seems to me to be the foundation of well-being4 ,but ,i doubt if a full utilisation of all the faculties necessarily involves the idea of good fortune1 or prosperity1 or tranquillity1 or contentedness with one's lot1 or even a #8dominantly agreeable emotion'2 very often it rather involves the contrary4 ,in my view happiness includes chiefly the idea of #8satisfaction after full honest effort4' ,everybody is guilty of mistakes and of serious mistakes1 and the contemplation of these mistakes must darken1 be it ever so little1 the last years of existence4 ,but it need not be fatal to a general satisfaction4 ,men and women may in the end be forced to admit3 #8,i made a fool of myself1' and still be fairly happy4 ,but no one can possibly be satisfied1 and therefore no one can in my sense be happy1 who feels that in some paramount affair he has failed to take up the challenge of life4 ,for a voice within him1 which none else can hear1 but which he cannot choke1 will constantly be murmuring3 #8,you lacked courage4 ,you hadn't the pluck4 ,you ran away4' ,and it is happier to be unhappy in the ordinary sense all one's life than to have to listen at the end to that dreadful interior verdict4 ,,some ,,axioms ,,about ,,war-,,work ,,some ,,axioms ,,about ,,war-,,work ,i ,,this essay concerns men1 but it concerns women more4 ,when citizens begin to learn1 through newspapers and general rumour1 that voluntary war-work is afoot1 and that volunteers are badly wanted1 and that there is work for all who love their country1 then those who love their country are at once sharply divided into two classes--the people to whom the work comes1 and the people who have to go out to seek the work4 ,the former are the people of prominent social position2 the latter are the remainder of the population4 ,the prominent persons will see work rolling up to their front doors in quantities huge enough to overthrow the entire house4 ,the remainder will look out of the window and see nothing at all unusual in the street4 ,they are then apt to say3 #8,this is very odd4 ,there is much work to do4 ,i am ready to do my share4 ,why doesn't somebody come along and ask me to do it8' ,and they feel rather hurt at the neglect1 and finally they sigh3 #8,well1 if no one gives me anything to do1 of course ,i can't do anything4' ,such an attitude would be quite reasonable if society was like a telephone-exchange1 and anybody could get precisely the person he or she was after by paying a girl a pound or two a week to stick plugs into holes4 ,but society not being like a telephone-exchange1 the attitude is unreasonable4 ,patriots cannot expect the organisers of war-work to run up and down streets knocking at doors and crying3 #8,come6 ,you are the very woman ,i need6' ,however much urgent war-work is waiting to be done1 nine-tenths of the individuals who are anxious to do it will have to put themselves to a certain amount of trouble in order to discover the work1 perhaps to a great deal of trouble4 ,having located the work1 they may even have almost to beg for the privilege of doing it4 ,again1 they are rather hurt4 ,they demand1 why should they go on their knees8 ,they are not asking a favour4 ,a woman will say3 #8,i went and offered my services4 ,and he looked at me as if ,i was a doubtful character1 and you never heard such a cross-examination as ,i had to go through6 ,it was most humiliating4' ,true6 ,true6 ,but could she reasonably expect the cross-examiner to see into the inside of her head8 ,the first use and the last use of the gift of speech is to ask questions4 ,moreover1 respected madam1 it is quite probable that the cross-examiner was not a bit suspicious1 and that his manner was simply due to dumbfoundedness1 to mere inability to believe that so ideal a person as yourself had1 so to speak1 fallen from heaven straight into his net4 ,and further1 respected madam1 are not you yourself suspicious8 ,if the cross-examiner had come to you1 instead of you going to him1 might not your first thought have been3 #8,what advantage is he trying to gain by coming to me8 ,i shall say ,no6' ,if it is true that people who ask for work are stared at1 it is equally true that people who are asked to work also stare--a little haughtily4 ,and when the latter graciously promise assistance1 they often say to themselves3 #8,i shall do as little as ,i can1 because ,i'm not going to be taken advantage of4' ,and they almost invariably end by doing more than they can1 and by insisting on being taken advantage of4 ,human nature is mean1 but it is also noble4 ,axiom3 ,the preliminary trouble and weariness and annoyance incidental to getting the work are themselves a necessary and inevitable part of war-work1 just as much as bandaging the brows of heroes4 ,,ii ,life is a continual passage from one illusion to another4 ,no sooner has the eager volunteer found out that the desire to help is apt to be treated as evidence of a criminal disposition1 and that war-work is as shy as deer in the depths of a forest--no sooner has he or she discovered these things than yet another discovery destroys yet another illusion4 ,the war-work when brought to bay and caught is not the right kind of war-work4 ,you--for ,i may as well admit that ,i am talking direct to the eager volunteer--you had expected something else4 ,this war-work that presents itself is either beneath your powers1 or it is beyond your powers2 or it is unsuited to your individuality or to your social station or to your health or to your hands or feet4 ,you can scarcely say what you had expected1 but at any rate 444 ,i will tell you what you had expected4 ,you had expected the ideal--work that showed you at your best1 picturesque work1 interesting work1 work free from monotony1 work of which you could see the immediate beautiful results1 work which taxed you without overtaxing you1 really important work without the moral risks attaching to real responsibility4 ,such was the work you had expected1 and the chances are ten to one that the work you have actually got is dull1 monotonous1 apparently futile2 any fool could do it1 though it is exhausting and inconvenient4 ,or1 on the other hand1 it is1 while dull and monotonous1 too exacting for a well-intentioned mediocre brain like yours 7you don't actually mean that1 but you try to be modest7--in short it is not suitable work4 ,axiom3 ,there is not enough suitable work to go round1 nor the thousandth part of what would be enough4 ,unsuitableness is a characteristic of nearly all war-work4 ,lowering your great powers down1 or forcing your little powers up1 to the level of the work offered--this1 too1 is part of war-work4 ,,iii ,again1 you have to get away from the illusion that you can live a new life and still keep on living the old life4 ,everybody1 as has somewhere been stated1 possesses twenty-four hours in each day4 ,everybody occupies every one of his twenty-four hours4 ,you do1 though you may think you don't4 ,if you do not occupy them in labour then you occupy them in idleness2 if not in usefulness1 then in futility4 ,now idleness and futility are much more difficult to expel from hours which they have appropriated than labour and usefulness are difficult to expel4 ,but if war-work is brought in1 something will have to be expelled4 ,habits of labour and usefulness are sometimes hard enough to change2 habits of idleness and futility are still harder4 ,if you were previously spending your afternoons in giving and accepting elaborate afternoon teas1 you will have more trouble in devoting your afternoons to war-work than if you had been spending them1 for example1 in the pursuit of knowledge4 ,it is child's play to abandon the pursuit of knowledge2 no moral stamina is required2 but to give up the exciting sociabilities of afternoon tea is a tremendous feat4 ,so much so1 that if you are a votary of this indigestive practice1 you will infallibly endeavour to persuade yourself at first3 #8,i can manage the two--war-work and afternoon teas as well4 ,i can fit them in4' ,you cannot fit them in--at any rate successfully4 ,the essence of war-work is that it may not be fitted in4 ,if it does not mean sacrifice1 it means naught4 ,sacrifice is giving something for nothing4 ,you cannot give something and yet stick to it4 ,certain persons are apt to buy an article to give away1 and then are so pleased with the article that they decide to keep it for themselves4 ,they thus obtain for a period the sensation of benevolence without any ultimate corresponding sacrifice4 ,this is the nearest approach1 that ,i know of1 to giving something and yet sticking to it2 but it has no relation whatever to war-work4 ,axiom3 ,if a tea-cup is full you cannot pour anything into it until you have poured something out4 ,,iv ,the next1 and the next to the last1 illusion to go is a masterpiece of simple-mindedness1 and yet nearly all who take up war-work are found at first to be under its sway4 ,it is the illusion that war-work1 being a fine and noble thing1 ought to change people's natures and dispositions1 in such a manner as to produce the maximum of co-operating effort with the minimum of friction4 ,now the very heart of all war-work is the grand and awe-inspiring institution of the ,committee4 ,if you are engaged on war-work you are bound to sit on a ,committee2 or1 in default of a ,committee1 a ,sub-,committee 7which usually has more real power than the bumptious and unwieldy body that overlords it74 ,and1 if you are on neither a ,committee nor a ,sub-,committee1 then you are bound sooner or later to be called up before a ,committee or a ,sub-,committee1 and to be in a position to give the ,committee or ,sub-,committee a piece of your mind4 ,thus your legitimate ambition will somehow be satisfied4 ,but let us suppose that you are at once elected to a ,committee4 ,well1 among the members of the ,committee are three persons you know--,miss ,x1 ,mr4 ,y1 and ,mrs4 ,z4 ,miss ,x used to be a mannish and reckless and cheeky young maid4 ,mr4 ,y used to be an interfering and narrow-minded old maid4 ,mrs4 ,z used to be nothing in particular4 ,you enter the ,committee-room1 and you see these three1 together with a few others who have not a very promising air4 7,probably no sight is more depressing than the cordon of faces round a ,committee-room table47 ,you1 however1 are not downcast4 ,you feel in yourself the uplifting power of a great ideal4 ,you are determined to make the best of yourself and of everybody4 ,and you are convinced that everybody is determined to do the same4 ,but in less than five minutes ,miss ,x1 despite her obvious lack of experience1 is offering the most absurd proposals2 she has put her elbows on the table2 and she is calmly teaching all her grandmothers to suck eggs4 ,mr4 ,y is objecting to the ruling of the ,chairman1 and obstinately arguing against a resolution that has been carried1 and indeed implying that the ,committee ought not to do anything at all4 ,as for ,mrs4 ,z she has scarcely opened her mouth2 when the ,chairman asked her for her opinion she blushed and said she rather agreed1 and she voted both for and against the first resolution4 #8,is it conceivable1' you exclaim in your soul1 #8is it conceivable that these individuals can behave so in such a supreme crisis of the nation's history1 at a moment when the nation has need of every citizen's loyal goodwill1 of every--8' etc4 etc4 #8,no6 ,they cannot have realised that we are at war6' ,and sundry other members of the ,committee are not much better than the ignoble three4 ,indeed1 your faith in ,committees is practically destroyed4 ,you say to yourself1 with your blunt1 vigorous common sense3 #8,if only the ,committee would adjourn and leave the whole matter to me1 ,i am sure ,i could manage it much better than they are doing4' ,you consider that a ,committee is a device for wasting time and for flattering the conceit of opinionated fools4444 ,then ,mr4 ,y becomes absolutely impossible4 ,you feel that you are prepared to stand a lot1 but that there is a limit and that ,mr4 ,y has gone beyond it4 ,you are ready to work1 and to work hard1 but you cannot be expected to work with people who are impossible4 ,you decide to send in your resignation to the ,chairman at once4 ,i hope you will not send it in4 ,for at least half the ,committee are thinking just as you are thinking4 ,and one or two of them are thinking these things1 not apropos of ,miss ,x1 ,mr4 ,y1 or ,mrs4 ,z1 but apropos of you6 ,and if you are startled at the spectacle of people persisting in being just themselves in war-work1 then the fault is yours1 and you should be gently ashamed4 ,you ought to have known that people are never more themselves than in a great crisis1 especially when the crisis is prolonged4 ,you ought to be thankful that the ,committee has unscaled your eyes to so fundamental a truth4 ,you have realised that we are at war1--you ought also to realise that it takes all sorts to make a world1 even a world at war4 ,you ought to imagine what would happen if every member of the ,committee1 like you1 resigned because ,mr4 ,y was impossible1 and thus left the impossible ,mr4 ,y in possession of the table and the secretary4 ,axiom3 ,the most valorous and morally valuable war-work is the work of working with impossible people4 ,and may ,i warn you that you will later on1 if you succeed as a war-worker1 encounter more terrible phenomena than ,mr4 ,y1 who at the worst can always be out-voted8 ,you will encounter1 for example1 the famous and fashionable lady who1 justifiably relying on human nature's profound and incurable snobbishness1 will give all the hard work to you and those like you1 while appropriating all the glory and advertisement for herself4 ,and1 more terrible even than the famous and fashionable lady1 you will run up against the ,official ,mind4 ,the ,official ,mind is the worst of all obstacles to getting things done4 ,and the gravest danger of the war-worker1 particularly if he attains high rank on ,committees1 is the danger of becoming official-minded himself4 ,v ,when you have proved that in war-work you are a decent human being--and you will prove this by sticking to the work long after you are weary of it1 and by refusing to fly off to something else because it promises to be more diverting and less annoying than your present job--then you will part company with the war-workers' last illusion4 ,namely1 the illusion that her efforts will meet with gratitude4 ,gratitude is going to be an extremely rare commodity1 and it is not a very good thing to receive1 anyhow4 ,you see1 there will be so few people with leisure to devote to gratitude4 ,everybody is or will be war-working4 ,even soldiers and sailors are doing something for the war1 though to listen to some civilians one would suppose the military side of war to be relatively quite unimportant4 ,no6 ,gratitude will not choke the market4 ,on the contrary1 criticism will be rife1 for we are all experts in war-work4 ,the highest hope of the average war-worker must be to escape censure4 ,official food-controllers1 who are possibly the supreme type of war-worker1 are thankful if they escape with their heads4 ,and herein is a great lesson4 ,axiom3 ,the reward of war-work will be in the treaty of peace4 ,,the ,,diary ,,habit ,,the ,,diary ,,habit ,i ,,let us consider1 first1 a strange quality of the written word4 ,the spoken word is bad enough4 ,such things as misfortunes1 blunders1 sins1 and apprehensions become more serious when they have been described even in conversation4 ,a woman who secretly fears cancer will fear it much more once she has mentioned her fear to another person4 ,the spoken word has somehow given reality to her fear4 ,but the written word is far more formidable than the spoken word4 ,it is said that the ignorant and the uncultured have a superstitious dread of writing4 ,the dread is not superstitious2 it is based on a mysterious and intimidating phenomenon which nearly anybody can test for himself4 ,the fact is that almost all people are afraid of writing--,i mean true1 honest writing4 ,vast numbers of people hate and loathe it1 as though it were a high explosive that might suddenly go off and blow them to pieces4 7,that is one reason why realistic novels never have a very large sale47 ,but the difference between one man's dread of writing and another man's dread of writing is merely a difference of degree1 not of kind4 ,and if any among you asserts that he has no fear of the written word1 merely because it is written1 let him try the following experiment4 ,take--,o exceptional individual6--take some concealed and blameworthy action or series of thoughts of your own4 ,i do not mean necessarily murder or embezzlement2 not everybody has committed murder or embezzlement1 or even desires to do so2 ,i mean some matter--any matter--of which you are so ashamed1 or about which you are so nervous1 that you have never mentioned it to a soul4 ,all of us--even you--have such matters hidden beneath waistcoat or corsage4 ,write down that matter2 put it in black and white4 ,the chances are that you won't2 the chances are that you will find some excuse for not writing it down4 ,you may say3 #8,ah6 ,but suppose some one happened to see it6' ,to which ,i would reply3 #8,write it and lock it up in your safe4' ,to which you may rejoin3 #8,ah6 ,but ,i might lose the key of the safe and some one might find it and open the safe4 ,also ,i might die suddenly4' ,to which ,i would retort3 #8,if you are dead you needn't mind discovery4' ,to which you might respond3 #8,how do you know that if ,i was dead ,i needn't mind discovery8' ,well1 ,i will yield you that point1 and still prove to you that your objection to the written word does not spring from the fear of giving yourself away4 ,the experiment shall be performed under strict conditions4 ,empty your house of all its inhabitants save yourself4 ,lock the front-door and the back-door4 ,go upstairs to your own room4 ,lock the door of your own room4 ,pile furniture before the door1 so that you cannot possibly be surprised4 ,light a fire4 ,place the writing-table near the fire4 ,arrange it so that at the slightest alarm of discovery you can with a single movement thrust your writing into the fire4 ,then begin to write down that of which you are ashamed4 ,you are absolutely safe4 ,nevertheless you will hesitate to write4 ,and you will not have got very far in your narration before you find yourself writing down something that is not quite so unpleasant as the truth1 or before you find yourself omitting some detail which ought not to be omitted4 ,you will have great difficulty in forcing yourself to be utterly frank on paper4 ,you may fail in being utterly frank2 you probably will so fail2 most people do4 ,when you have finished and hold the document in your hand1 you will start guiltily if the newly moved furniture creaks in front of the door4 ,you will read through the document with discomfort and constraint4 ,and you will stick it in the fire and watch it burn with a very clear feeling of relief4 ,why all these strange sensations8 ,you could not have been caught in the act4 ,moreover1 there was nothing on the paper of which you were not fully aware1 and which you had not fully realised4 ,nobody can write down that which he does not know and realise4 ,quite possibly the whole matter had been thoroughly familiar to you1 a commonplace of your brain1 for weeks1 months1 years4 ,quite possibly you had recalled every detail of it hundreds of times1 and it had never caused you any grave inconvenience4 ,but1 instantly it is written down it becomes acutely1 intolerably disturbing--so much so that you cannot rest until the written word is destroyed4 ,you are precisely the same man as you were before beginning to write2 naught is altered2 you have committed no new crime4 ,but you have a new shame4 ,i repeat1 why8 ,the only immediate answer is that the honest written word possesses a mysterious and intimidating power4 ,this power has to do with the sense of sight4 ,you see something4 ,you do not see your action or your thoughts as it might be on the cinema screen--happily6--but you do see something in regard to the matter4 ,,ii ,the above considerations are offered to that enormous class of people1 springing up afresh every year1 who say to themselves3 #8,i will keep a diary and it shall be absolutely true4' ,you may keep a diary1 but beyond question it will not be absolutely true4 ,you will be lucky1 or you must be rather gifted1 if it is not studded with untruths4 ,you protest that you have a well-earned reputation for veracity4 ,i would not doubt it4 ,when ,i say #8untruths' ,i do not mean1 for instance1 that if the day was beautifully fine you would write in your diary3 #8,a very wet day to-day2 went for a walk and got soaked through4' ,i am convinced that you would be above such lying perversions4 ,but also ,i am convinced that if a husband and wife1 both as veracious and conscientious as yourself1 had a quarrel and described the history of the quarrel each in a private diary1 the two accounts would by no means coincide1 and the whole truth would be in neither of them4 ,some people start a diary as casually as they start golf1 stamps1 or a new digestive cure4 ,whereas to start a diary ought to be a solemn and notable act1 done with a due appreciation of the difficulties thereby initiated4 ,the very essence of a diary is truth--a diary of untruth would be pointless--and to attain truth is the hardest thing on earth4 ,to attain partial truth is not a bit easy1 and even to avoid falsehood is decidedly a feat4 ,,iii ,having discouraged1 ,i now wish to encourage4 ,many who want to keep diaries and who ought to keep diaries do not1 because they are too diffident4 ,they say3 #8,my life is not interesting enough4' ,i ask3 #8,interesting to whom8 ,to the world in general or to themselves8' ,it is necessary only that a life should be interesting to the person who lives that life4 ,if you have a desire to keep a diary1 it follows that your existence is interesting to you4 ,otherwise obviously you would not wish to make a record of it4 ,the greatest diarists did not lead very palpitating lives4 ,ninety-five per cent4 of ,pepys's ,diary deals with tiny daily happenings of the most banal sort--such happenings as we all go through4 ,if ,pepys re-read his entries the day after he wrote them1 he must have found them somewhat tedious4 ,certainly he had not the slightest notion that he was writing one of the great outstanding books of ,english literature4 ,but diaries are the opposite of novels1 in that time increases instead of decreasing their interest4 ,after a reasonable period every sentence in a diary blossoms into interest1 and the diarist simply cannot be dull--any more than a great wit such as ,sidney ,smith could be unfunny4 ,if ,sidney ,smith asked ,helen to pass him the salt1 the entire table roared with laughter because it was inexplicably so funny4 ,if the diarist writes in his diary1 #8,i asked ,helen to pass me the salt1' within three years he will find the sentence inexplicably interesting to himself4 ,in thirty years his family will be inexplicably interested to read that on a certain day he asked ,helen to pass him the salt4 ,in three hundred years a whole nation will be reading with inexplicable and passionate interest that centuries earlier he asked ,helen to pass him the salt1 and critics will embroider theories upon both ,helen and the salt and will even earn a living by producing new annotated editions of ,helen and the salt4 ,and if the diary turns up after three thousand years1 the entire world will hum with the inexplicable thrilling fact that he asked ,helen to pass him the salt2 which fact will be cabled round the globe as a piece of latest news2 and immediately afterwards there will be cabled round the globe the views of expert scholars of all nationalities on the problem whether1 when he had asked ,helen to pass him the salt1 ,helen did actually pass him the salt1 or not4 ,timid prospective diarists in need of encouragement should keep this great principle in mind4 ,you will say3 #8,but what do ,i care about posterity8 ,i would not keep a diary for the sake of posterity4' ,possibly not1 but some people would4 ,some people1 if they thought their diaries would be read three hundred years hence1 or even a hundred years hence1 would begin diaries to-morrow and persevere with them to the day of death4 ,some people of course are peculiar4 ,and ,i admit that ,i am of your opinion4 ,the thought of posterity leaves me stone cold4 ,there is only one valid reason for beginning a diary--namely1 that you find pleasure in beginning it2 and only one valid reason for continuing a diary--namely1 that you find pleasure in continuing it4 ,you may find profit in doing so1 but that is not the main point--though it is a point4 ,you will most positively experience pleasure in reading it after a long interval2 but that is not the main point either--though it is an important point4 ,a diary should find its sufficient justification in the writing of it4 ,if the act of writing is not its own reward1 then let the diary remain for ever unwritten4 ,,iv ,but beware of that word #8writing'4 ,just as some persons are nervous when entering a drawing-room 7or even a restaurant671 so some persons are nervous when taking up a pen4 ,all persons1 as ,i have tried to show1 are nervous about the psychological effects of the written word1 but some persons--indeed many--are additionally nervous about the mere business of writing the word4 ,they begin to hanker1 with awe1 after a mysterious ideal known as #8correct style4' ,they are actually under the delusion that writing is essentially different from talking--a secret trade process6--and they are not aware that he who says or thinks interesting things can write interesting things1 and that he who can make himself understood in speech can make himself understood in writing--if he goes the right way to work6 ,i have known people1 especially the young1 who could discourse on themselves in the most attractive manner for hours1 and yet who simply could not discover in their heads sufficient material for a short letter4 ,they would bemoan3 #8,i can't think of anything to say4' ,it was true4 ,and1 of course1 they could not think of anything to say1 the reason being that they were trying to think of something to write1 and very wrongly assuming that writing is necessarily different from saying6 ,writing may be different from saying1 but it need not be different1 and for the diarist it should not be different4 ,and1 above all1 it should not be superficially different4 ,the inexperienced1 when they use ink1 have a pestilent notion that saying has to be translated or transmogrified into writing4 ,they conceive an idea in spoken words1 and then they subconsciously or consciously ask themselves3 #8,i should say it like that--but how ought ,i to write it8' ,they alter the forms of their sentences4 ,they worry about grammar and phrase-construction and even spelling4 ,as for grammar and spelling1 in the greatest age of ,english literature neither subject was understood1 and no writer could be trusted either in spelling or in grammar4 ,to this day very few writers of genius are to be trusted either in spelling or in grammar4 ,as for phrase-construction1 the phrase that comes to your tongue is more likely to be well constructed than the phrase which you bring forcibly into being at the point of your pen4 ,if you know enough grammar to talk comprehensibly1 you know enough to write comprehensibly1 and you need not trouble about anything else2 in fact1 you ought not to do so1 and you must not4 ,formality in a diary is a mistake4 ,write as you think1 as you speak1 and it may be given to you to produce literature4 ,but if while you are writing you remember that there is such a thing as literature1 you will assuredly never produce literature4 ,this does not mean that you are entitled to write anyhow1 without thought and without effort4 ,not a bit4 ,good diaries are not achieved thus4 ,although you may and should ignore the preoccupations of what ,i will call1 sarcastically1 #8literary composition1' you must have always before you the ideal of effectively getting your thought on to the paper4 ,you would1 sooner or later1 say your thought effectively1 but in writing it down some travail is needed to imagine what the perhaps unstudied spoken words would be4 ,and also1 the memory must be fully and honestly exercised to recall the scene or the incident described4 ,by carelessness you run the risk of #8leaving out the interesting part4' ,by being conscientious you ensure that the maximum of interest is attained4 ,lastly1 it is necessary to conquer the human objection to hard labour of any sort4 ,it is not a paradox to assert that man often dislikes the work which he likes4 ,for myself1 every day anew1 ,i hate to start work4 ,you may end your day with the full knowledge that you have had experiences that day worthy to go into the diary1 which experiences remain in your mind obstinately4 ,and yet you hate to open the diary1 and even when you have opened it you hate to put your back into the business of writing4 ,you are tempted to write without reflection1 without order1 and too briefly4 ,to resist the temptation to be slack and casual and second-rate involves constant effort4 ,diary-keeping should be a pastime1 but properly done it is also a task--like many other pastimes4 ,i have kept a diary for over twenty-one years1 and ,i know a little about it4 ,i know more than a little about the remorse--alas1 futile6--which follows negligence4 ,in diary-keeping negligence cannot be repaired4 ,that which is gone is gone beyond return4 ,a ,,dangerous ,,lecture ,,to ,a ,,young ,,woman ,a ,,dangerous ,,lecture ,,to ,a ,,young ,,woman ,i ,,it was at a war-charity sale1 in a hot1 crowded public room of a fashionable hotel1 amid the humorous bellowings of an amateur auctioneer and the guffaws of amused bidders1 that this thing happened to me4 ,a young woman was passing1 and1 as she passed1 she looked and stopped1 and abruptly charged me with being myself4 ,i admitted the undeniable4 #8,i hope you'll excuse me1' she said4 #8,i've read all your books4' #8,the usual amiable chatter1' ,i thought1 and made aloud my usual1 stilted1 self-conscious reply to such a conversational opening3 #8,you must have worked very hard4' ,she frowned--just a little frown in the middle of her forehead4 ,she was very well-dressed 7which is not a fault71 and she had a pleasant1 sympathetic1 serious face4 ,she said3 #8,i've often wanted to tell you2 in fact1 ,i thought ,i ought to tell you about all those little books of yours about life and improving oneself1 and being efficient and not wasting time1 and so on1 and so on4 ,they're very nice to read1 but they've never done me any good--practically4' ,she smiled4 7,no2 it was not to be the usual amiable chatter67 #8,i'm sorry1' ,i said4 #8,but1 of course1 books don't act by themselves4 ,you can't expect them to be of much practical good until you begin to put them into practice4' #8,but that's just the point1' she answered4 #8,i can't begin to put them into practice4 ,i can't resolve1 and ,i can't concentrate1 and ,i can't clench my teeth and make up my mind4 ,and if ,i do make a sort of start1 it's a failure after the first day4 ,and this goes on year after year4 ,no use blaming me--,i can't help myself4 ,i want awfully--but ,i can't4' #8,but what do you want8' #8,i want to make the best of myself4 ,i want to stop wasting time and to perfect my 8human machine40 ,i want to succeed in life4 ,i want to live properly and bring out all my faculties4 ,only1 you see1 ,i haven't got any resolution4 ,i simply have not got it in me4 ,you tell me to make up my mind1 steel myself1 resolve1 stick to it1 and so forth4 ,well1 ,i just can't4 ,and yet ,i do want to4 ,you've never dealt with my case--and1 what's more1 ,i don't think you can deal with it4 ,i hope you'll pardon all this bluntness4 ,but ,i thought that1 as a student of human nature1 you might be interested4' ,i stood silent for a moment4 ,she bowed with much charm and fled away4 ,i gazed everywhere4 ,but she was lost in the huge room4 ,i could not very well run in pursuit of her--these things are not done in literary circles4 ,she had vanished4 ,and ,i knew naught of her4 ,she might be young girl1 young wife1 young mother1 anything--but ,i knew naught of her except that she had a sympathetic1 rather sad face1 and that she had left an arrow quivering in my side4 ,,ii ,a few hours later1 however1 ,i spoke to the young creature as follows3 #8,it seems to me that you may have been running your delightful head up against an impossible proposition4 ,perhaps you have been hoping to create energy in yourself4 ,now1 you cannot create energy1 either in yourself or elsewhere4 ,nobody can4 ,you can only set energy free1 loosen it1 transform it1 direct it4 #8,you may take a ton of coal and warm a house with it4 ,the heat-energy of the coal is transformed1 set free1 and directed to a certain purpose4 ,but if you try to warm the house by means of open coal fires in old-fashioned fire-grates1 you will warm the chimneys and some of the air above the chimneys--and yet the rooms of the house will not be appreciably warmer than they were when you began4 ,on the other hand1 you may take a ton of exactly the same kind of coal and by means of a steam-heating system in the cellar warm the rooms of the house to such an extent that you have to wear your summer clothes in the depth of winter4 ,the steam-heating system1 however1 has not increased the heat-energy of the coal2 it has merely set free1 utilised1 and directed the heat-energy of the coal in a common-sense--that is to say1 a scientific--manner4 ,no amount of common sense and ingenuity will get as much heat-energy out of half a ton as out of a ton of coal4 ,you may devise the most marvellous steam-heating system that exists on this side of the grave1 but if there is no fuel in the furnace1 or if there is in the furnace a quantity of coal inadequate to the size of the house1 the house will never be comfortable except for polar bears and lovers4 ,the available coal is the prime factor4 #8,well1 an individual is born with a certain amount of energy--and no more4 ,just as you cannot pour five quarts out of a gallon 7as a rule1 you cannot pour even four quarts71 so you cannot extract from that individual more energy than there is in him4 ,and1 what is more important1 you cannot put additional quantities of energy into him4 ,you may sometimes seem to be putting energy into him1 but you are not2 you are simply setting his original energy free1 applying a match to the coal or fanning the fire4 ,an individual is an island on whose rocky shores no ship can ever land that most mysterious commodity--energy4 ,you may transfuse blood1 but not the inexplicable force that makes the heart beat and defies circumstance4 #8,some individuals appear to lack energy1 when1 as a fact1 they are full of energy which is merely dormant1 waiting for the match1 or waiting for direction4 ,other individuals appear to lack energy1 and1 in fact1 do lack energy4 ,and you cannot supply their need any more than you can stop their hair from growing4 #8,no1 young lady2 it is useless to interrupt me by asking me to define what ,i mean by the word 8energy40 ,to define some words is to cripple them4 ,you know well enough what ,i mean by energy4 ,i mean the most fundamental thing in you4 #8,being a reasonable woman1 you admit this--and then go on to demand1 first1 how you can be quite sure whether you have been born with a large or medium or a small quantity of energy1 and1 second1 how you can be quite sure that you have not lots of energy lying dormant within you4 ,you cannot be quite sure of anything4 ,this is not a perfect world4 #8,but1 as regards the second part of your question1 you can be reasonably sure after a certain number of years--,i will not suggest how many--that energy is not lying dormant within you1 awaiting the match4 ,it is impossible for anybody indefinitely to continue to wander in a world full of lighted matches without one day encountering the particular match that will set fire to his fuel4 ,and beware of that match1 for sometimes the result of the contact is an explosion which shatters everything in the vicinity4 ,if you have dormant energy1 one day it will wake up and worry you1 and you will know it is there4 #8,as regards the first part of your question1 the usual index of the amount of energy possessed by an individual is the intensity of the desires of that individual4 ,it is desire that uses energy4 ,strong desires generally betoken much energy1 and they are definite desires4 ,without desires1 energy is rendered futile4 ,nobody will consume energy in action unless he desires to perform the action1 either for itself or as a means to a desired end4 #8,but now you complain that ,i am once more avoiding your case4 ,you assert that you have desires without the corresponding energy or corresponding will to put them into execution4 ,i doubt it4 ,i do not admit it4 ,you must not confuse vague1 general aspirations with desire4 ,a real desire is definite1 concrete4 ,if you have a real desire1 you know what you want4 ,you cannot merely want--you are bound to want something4 #8,further1 to want something only at intervals1 when the mind is otherwise unoccupied1 is no proof of a real desire2 it amounts to nothing more than a sweet1 sad diversion1 a spiritual pastime1 a simple and pleasant way of making yourself believe that you are a serious person4 ,the desire which indicates great energy is always there1 worrying4 ,it is an obsession2 it is a nuisance2 it is a whip and a scorpion2 it has no mercy4 #8,and individuals having immense energy have commonly been actuated by a single paramount desire1 which monopolises and canalises all their force4 ,the pity is that these individuals have become the special symbols of success4 ,when they have achieved their single paramount desire1 they are said to have 8got on10 to have succeeded4 ,and every one points an admiring finger at them and cries1 8,this is success in life60 ,and the majority of books about success in life deal with this particular brand of success1 and assume that it is the only brand of success worth a bilberry1 and exhort all people to imitate the notorious exemplars of the art of 8getting on0 and in that narrow sense4 ,which is absurd4 #8,and now1 perhaps1 we both feel that ,i am at last approaching your case4 #8,but ,i do not wish to be personal4 ,let us take the case of ,mr4 ,flack1 who died last week1 unknown4 ,his discerning friends said of him3 8,he had a wonderful financial gift4 ,if he'd concentrated on it1 he might have rivalled ,harriman4 ,but he wouldn't concentrate either on that or on anything else4 ,he was interested in too many different subjects--books1 pictures1 music1 travel1 physical science1 love1 economics--in fact1 everything interested him1 and he was always interested in something4 ,he was too all-round4 ,he frittered his energy away1 and wasted enormous quantities of time4 ,and so he never succeeded40 #8,such was the verdict of some of ,flack's admirers4 ,but it occurs to me that ,flack may have succeeded after all4 ,certainly he did not succeed in being a financial magnate4 ,but he succeeded in being interested in a large number of things1 and therefore in having a wide mind4 ,he succeeded in being always interested4 ,and he succeeded in not being lop-sided1 which men of one supreme desire as a rule are4 7,men who are successful in the narrow sense generally pay a fearful price for their success47 ,his friends regret that he wasted his time1 but really1 if he accomplished all that he admittedly did accomplish1 he couldn't have wasted a very great deal of time4 #8,quite possibly the late ,mr4 ,flack used to wake up in the night and curse himself because he could not concentrate1 and because he could not stick to one thing1 and because he wasted his time1 and because1 with all his gifts1 he did not materially progress1 and because he made no impression on the great public4 ,quite possibly1 in moments of gloom1 he had regrets about the dissipation of his energy4 ,but he could not honestly have regarded himself as a failure4 #8,i should like to know why it is necessarily more righteous to confine one's energy to a single direction than to let it spread out in various directions4 ,it is not more righteous4 ,if a man has one imperious desire1 his righteousness is to satisfy it fully4 ,but if a man has many mild1 equal desires1 his righteousness is to satisfy all of them as reasonably well as circumstances permit4 ,and ,i see no reason why one should be deemed more successful than the other4 #8,yes1 young woman2 ,i know what your excellent modesty is going to say4 ,it is going to say that the late ,mr4 ,flack did show energy1 though he 8frittered it away10 and that you do not show energy4 ,now1 ,i do not want to defend you against yourself 7for possibly you enjoy denouncing yourself and proving that you are worthless74 ,nevertheless1 ,i would point out that energy is often used in ways quite unsuspected4 ,energy is a very various thing4 ,some people use energy in arranging time-tables and sticking to them1 and in clenching their teeth and making terrific resolves and executing them1 and in never wasting a moment1 and in climbing--climbing4 ,and this is all very laudable4 ,but energy can be used in other ways--in contemplation1 in self-understanding1 in understanding other people1 in pleasing other people1 in appreciating the world1 in lessening the friction of life4 #8,i have personally come across persons--especially women--who were idle1 who were mentally inefficient1 who made no material contribution to the enterprise of remaining alive1 but whose mere manner of existence was such that ,i would say to them in my heart1 8,it is enough for me that you exist40 #8,we have all of us come across such persons4 ,and the world would be a markedly inferior sort of place if they did not exist exactly as they are4 #8,you1 dear young woman1 may or may not be one of these4 ,i cannot decide4 ,but1 anyhow1 if you are not one of the hard-striving1 resolute1 persevering1 teeth-clenching1 totally efficient1 one-ideaed1 ambitious species1 you need not despair4 #8,imagine what the world would be like if we were all ruthlessly set on 8succeeding06 ,it would be like a scene of carnage4 ,and it is conceivable that you are1 in fact1 much more efficient than you think1 and that you are wasting much less time than you think1 and that you are employing much more energy than you think4 ,you complained that you lacked resolution1 which means that you lacked one steady desire4 ,but perhaps your steady desire and resolution are so instinctive1 so profoundly a part of you1 that they function without being noticed4 ,and if you do indeed lack one steady desire and the energy firmly to resolve--well1 you just do4 ,and you will have to be content with your lot4 ,why envy others8 ,an over-mastering desire and its accompanying energy are not necessarily to be envied4 #8,a dangerous doctrine1 you say4 ,you say that ,i am leaving the door open to sloth and slackness and other evils4 ,you say that ,i am finding an excuse for every unserious person under the sun4 ,perhaps so2 but what ,i have said is true1 and ,i will not be afraid of the truth because it happens to be dangerous4 ,moreover1 every person ought to know in his heart whether or not he is conducting his existence satisfactorily4 ,but he must interrogate his conscience fairly4 ,it is not fair1 either to one's conscience or to oneself1 to listen to it always1 for example1 in the desolating dark hour before the dawn1 and never to listen to it1 for example1 after one has had a good meal or a good slice of any sort of honest pleasure4 #8,and1 lastly1 ,i have mentioned envy4 ,we are apt to mistake mere envy of the successful for an individual desire to succeed4 ,yet an envious realisation of all the advantages 7and none of the disadvantages7 of success is scarcely the same thing as a genuine instinct for 8getting on0--is it8' ,,iii ,this long speech which ,i made to the young1 dissatisfied creature might have been extremely effective if ,i could have made it to her face4 ,i ought1 however1 to mention that ,i did not make it to her face4 ,i have been reporting a harangue which ,i delivered in the sleepless middle of the night to her imagined image4 ,it is easier to be effective in reply when the argumentative opponent is not present4 ,,the ,,complete ,,fusser ,,the ,,complete ,,fusser ,i ,,frequenters of lunatic asylums are familiar with the person who1 being convinced that he is a poached egg1 continually demands to be put on hot toast1 and is continually unhappy because nobody will put him on hot toast4 ,this man is quite harmless2 he is merely a bore by reason of a ridiculous delusion about the fulfilment of his true destiny being bound up with hot toast2 in character he is one of the most amiable individuals that ever lived1 amiable even to the point of offering himself for consumption to those of his fellow-patients who are hungry1 and who happen to fancy a poached egg with their tea4 ,nevertheless1 on the score of his undeniable delusion he is segregated from ordinary society1 and indeed imprisoned for life4 ,such may be the consequence of a delusion4 ,but not all deluded people are treated alike4 ,a lady went for the week-end to stay in a country cottage4 ,now1 this lady was accustomed to smoke a cigarette in her bath of a morning4 ,let there be no mistake4 ,she was a perfectly respectable lady4 ,in former days respectable ladies neither smoked cigarettes nor took baths4 ,the one habit was nearly as disreputable as the other4 ,in the present epoch they do both with impunity1 and though possibly a section of the public may consider that while for a woman to smoke a cigarette is quite nice1 and for a woman to have a bath is quite nice1 to smoke a cigarette in a bath is not quite nice for a woman1 that section of the public is in a very small minority and should therefore be howled down4 ,anyhow the lady in question was everything that a lady ought to be4 ,she was in fact a well-known social worker and writer on social subjects4 ,on the ,sunday morning a terrible rumour was propagated throughout the country cottage4 ,the lady did not smoke merely a cigarette in her bath--she smoked a special brand of cigarette in her bath4 ,and she had forgotten to bring a due supply of the special brand1 and her cigarette-case had been emptied on the previous night4 ,it became known that she was in a fearful state1 and would not be comforted4 ,the brand was ,egyptian4 ,at first none but the brand would do for her1 but after a period of agony she announced that she was ready to smoke any ,egyptian or ,turkish cigarette4 ,the cottage1 however1 was neither ,egyptian nor ,turkish1 but a ,virginian cottage4 ,she could not be induced to try a ,virginian cigarette1 and the cottage was miles from anywhere1 and the day was the ,sabbath4 ,she came downstairs miserable1 unnerved1 futile1 a nuisance to herself and to her hosts4 ,she could not discuss important social matters1 which she had come on purpose to discuss4 ,she could do naught except sympathise with herself1 and this she did on a tremendous scale4 ,in the afternoon a visitor called who possessed ,egyptian cigarettes4 ,the lady got one1 and at the first puff was instantly restored to her normal condition4 ,the hot toast had been brought to the poached egg4 ,the lady1 ,i maintain1 was suffering from a delusion at least as outrageous as the poached egg delusion1 the delusion that her body and brain could not function properly--in other words that her destiny could not be fulfilled--unless she took into her mouth at a certain time a particular variety of gaseous fluid scarcely distinguishable from a thousand other similar varieties of gaseous fluid4 ,her physical perceptions were not at all delicate4 ,like most women1 for example1 she could not tell the difference between tea stewed and tea properly infused4 ,if a ,virginian cigarette had been falsely marked in an ,egyptian manner she would have smoked it with gusto4 ,and if she had been smoking in the dark she could not have told whether her cigarette was in or out--unless she inhaled4 ,the delusion was nothing but a delusion4 ,her mind1 by a habitual process1 had imagined it1 and she had ended by being victimised by it4 ,she had ended by seriously believing that she was physically and spiritually dependent upon a factor which had no appreciable power beyond the power mistakenly and insanely attributed to it by her morbid imagination4 ,but1 did any one suggest that she ought to be confined in a lunatic asylum8 ,assuredly not4 ,if ever she goes to a lunatic asylum it will be as a visitor1 to smile superiorly at the man whose welfare depends utterly on hot toast4 ,from the moral height of a cigarette she will pity hot toast4 ,far from scheming to get the lady into a lunatic asylum1 her hosts were extraordinarily sympathetic1 and even when they were by themselves the worst thing they said was3 #8,poor thing6 ,she's rather fussy about cigarettes4' ,,ii ,no one1 ,i think1 will assert that ,i have overdrawn the picture of a person victimised by a delusion and yet not inhabiting a lunatic asylum4 ,every one will be able out of his own experience of the world to match my example with examples of his own4 ,and indeed there are few of us who are not familiar with at least one example immensely worse than the lady who staked her daily existence on getting an ,egyptian cigarette in her bath4 ,few of us have not met the gentleman who can only be described as #8the complete fusser4' ,this gentleman has slowly convinced himself that the proper fulfilment of his destiny depends absolutely upon about ten thousand different things4 ,all things of course have their importance1 but this gentleman attaches a supreme and quite fatal importance to all the ten thousand things4 ,he begins to be fussy on waking up1 and he stops being fussy when he goes to sleep4 ,he may not smoke a cigarette in his bath1 but he will probably keep a thermometer in his bath because he is convinced that there is a #8right' temperature for the bath-water1 and that any other temperature would impair his efficiency4 ,he may detest smoking1 in which case he will probably have rigid ideas about the precise sort of woven stuff he must wear next to his skin4 ,he may be almost any kind of character1 and yet be fussy4 ,he may be so tidy that he cannot exist in a room1 either in his own house or in anybody else's1 until he has been round the walls and made all the pictures exactly horizontal4 ,he may be so untidy that if his wife privily tidies his desk he is put off work for the rest of the day4 ,he may be so fond of open air that he can only sleep with his head out of a window1 or so afraid of open air that a draught deranges all his activities for a fortnight4 ,he may be so regular that he kisses his wife by the clock1 or so irregular that he is never conscious of appetite until a meal has been going cold for half an hour4 ,and so on endlessly4 ,but whatever he does and thinks he does and thinks under the conviction that if he did and thought otherwise the consequences would be disastrous to himself if not to others4 ,whereas the truth is that to change all his habits from morn to eve would result in great benefit to him4 ,he spends his days attaching vast quantities of importance to a vast number of things4 ,whereas the truth is1 that scarcely any of the said things are important in more than the slightest degree4 ,he is the victim of not one delusion but of hundreds of delusions1 and especially the grand delusion that the world is ready to come to an end on the most trifling provocation4 ,but there is no hope of him being sent to join the poached egg in the lunatic asylum4 ,his friends are content to say of him3 #8,he's rather a particular man4' ,true1 his enemies scorn and objurgate him1 and proclaim him pernicious to society4 ,you naturally are his enemy1 and you scorn him4 ,but you should beware how you scorn him1 because you may unconsciously be on the way to becoming a complete fusser yourself4 ,all of us--or at any rate ninety-nine out of every hundred of us--have within us the insidious microbe of fussiness4 ,,iii ,the way to becoming a complete fusser is obscure at the start of it4 ,to determine the predisposing causes to fussiness would necessitate volumes of research into the secrets of individuality and the origins of character--and would assuredly lead to no practical result1 because these creative mysteries lie beyond our influence--at any rate for the present4 ,a man is born with or without the instinct to fuss--that must suffice for us4 ,nevertheless the real instinct to fuss ought not to be confused with perfectly normal impulses which may superficially resemble it4 ,thus it is often assumed that domestic servants as a class are fussy1 especially about their food4 ,i can see no reason why domestic servants as a class should be fussy1 and ,i do not believe they are4 ,what is mistaken for fussiness in them is merely the universal human prejudice against anything to which one is not accustomed4 ,labouring people are1 unfortunately for themselves1 used to a narrow diet4 ,a hundred comestibles which to their alleged superiors may seem quite commonplace are fearsomely strange to labouring people4 ,a rural girl goes to serve in a large house2 she is offered excellent fish1 and she refuses it2 she #8can't fancy it4' ,whereupon the mistress exclaims upon the astounding fussiness of the poor6 ,the explanation of the affair is simply that the rural girl has never had opportunity to regard fish as an article of diet4 ,similar phenomena may be observed in children of even the superior unfussy classes4 ,and1 for another instance1 gardeners will grow the most superb asparagus who would not dream of eating it1 and could scarcely bring themselves to eat it4 ,for them asparagus is not a luxury1 but something unnatural in the mouth1 like snails or the hind-legs of frogs4 ,snails and the hind-legs of frogs are luxuries in various parts of the world2 the ,anglo-,saxon maid-scorning mistress would certainly recoil from them if they were put on her plate1 and in so doing she would not lay herself open to a charge of fussiness4 ,yet in recoiling from them she would be behaving exactly like the rural maid whom she scorns4 ,nor must fussiness be confused with certain profound and incurable antipathies1 such as the strong repulsion of some individuals for cats1 apples1 horses1 etc4 ,the real instinct to fuss can always be distinguished from the other thing by this--the real instinct to fuss is progressive4 ,if it is not checked with extreme firmness it goes steadily on its way4 ,and though the start of the way to becoming a complete fusser may be obscure1 the later portions of the journey are not so obscure4 ,pride1 if not conceit1 presides over them1 and is always pushing forward the traveller from one abnormality to the next4 ,thus a man discloses a dislike to black clothes4 ,his aunt dies at a great distance and leaves him some money4 ,his wife asks him3 #8,shall you wear black8' ,he answers with somewhat pained dignity3 #8,darling1 you know ,i never wear black4' ,he is now known to himself and to his wife as the man who will not wear black4 ,then his father dies1 in the same town where the son lives2 the objector to black will have to attend the funeral4 ,after a little conversation with him the wife says to friends3 #8,you know ,edward objects to black4 ,he does really4 ,he never wears it1 and ,i'm afraid he won't wear it even for his father's funeral4' ,henceforth ,edward is known not merely to himself and his wife but to the whole town as the man who won't wear black4 ,it is a distinction4 ,he is proud of it4 ,his wife is rather impressed by the sturdiness of his resolution4 ,he has suffered a little for his objection to black4 ,his reputation is made4 ,an anti-black clause inserts itself into his religion4 ,pride develops into conceit4 ,success and renown encourage the instinct to fuss1 and soon he has grown fussy about something else4 ,and thus does the fellow reach his goal of being a complete fusser4 ,,iv ,there is no cure for the complete fusser4 ,you might think that some tremendous disaster--such as marrying a shrew who hated fussing1 or being cast on a desert island1 or being imprisoned--would cure him4 ,but it would not4 ,it would only cause a change in the symptoms2 for every human environment whatsoever gives occasion for fussiness to the complete fusser4 ,even in the army1 even in the lowest and most order-ridden grades of the army1 the complete fusser contrives to flourish4 ,and he is incurable because he is unconscious of being fussy4 ,what the world regards as fussiness he regards as wisdom essential to a reasonable existence4 ,he sincerely looks down upon the rest of mankind4 ,spiritual pride puts him into the category of the hopeless case--along with the alcoholic drunkard1 the genuine kleptomaniac1 and other specimens whom he would chillingly despise4 ,apparently the sole use of the complete fusser is to serve as a terrible warning to those who are on the way to becoming complete fussers themselves--a terrible warning to pull up4 ,that fussiness in its earlier stages can be cured is certain4 ,but the cure is very drastic in nature4 ,there are lucid moments in the life of the as yet incomplete fusser when he suspects his malady1 when he guiltily says to himself3 #8,i know ,i am peculiar1 but--' ,such a moment must be seized1 and immediate action taken4 7,the #8but' must be choked4 ,the #8but' may be full of wisdom1 but it must be choked2 the #8but' is fatal47 ,if the fusser is anti-black let him proceed to the shopping quarter at once4 ,let him not order a suit-to-measure of black4 ,let him buy a ready-made suit4 ,let him put it on in the store or shop1 and let him have the other suit sent home4 ,let him then walk about the town in black4444 ,he is saved6 ,no less thorough procedure will save him4 ,and similarly for all other varieties of fussiness4 ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,,frocks ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,,frocks ,i ,,being a man1 ,i know that on the subject of women's fashions men still talk a vast amount of nonsense1 partly sincere and partly insincere--especially when there are no women present4 ,the fact is that the whole subject is deeply misunderstood1 and the great majority of people1 both men and women1 live and dress and die without getting anywhere near the truth of it4 ,men try to explain the feminine cult of clothes by asserting that women as a sex are vain4 ,it is a profound truth that women as a sex are vain4 ,it is also a profound truth that men as a sex are vain4 ,have you ever been with a man into a hosier's shop8 ,if you are a woman you certainly have not1 because1 though a woman is often glad to be accompanied by a man when she is choosing her adornments1 a man will not allow a woman to watch him at the same work4 ,fashionable dressmakers are delighted to welcome the accompanying man4 ,but at the sight of a woman in his establishment the fashionable hosier would begin to fear for the safety of the commonwealth4 ,even if you are a man you probably have not been with another man into a hosier's shop4 ,men prefer to do these deeds quite alone2 they shun even their own sex2 the shopman does not count4 ,why this secrecy8 ,the answer is clear4 ,men are ashamed of themselves on such occasions because on such occasions their real vanity is exposed4 ,tailors1 hosiers1 and hatters are a loyal clan2 but it must be admitted that they all have a strange look on their faces4 ,that look is due to the revelations of male vanity which they carry locked eternally in their breasts4 ,to these purveyors men give themselves away and are shameless before them4 ,the ordinary man well knows that he is vain4 ,besides1 you can see him surreptitiously glancing at himself in shop windows any day4 ,and in some ,american periodicals there are positively more advertisements of men's finery than of women's4 ,again1 men try to explain the feminine cult of clothes by asserting that women are like sheep and must follow one another4 ,what one does all must do4 ,this argument is more than insincere2 it is impudent4 ,for women show much wider originality and variations of attire among themselves than men do among themselves4 ,half a dozen average well-dressed women will be as different one from another as half a dozen flowers of different species2 you could distinguish between them half a mile off4 ,but half a dozen well-dressed men would be indistinguishably alike if you decapitated them4 ,it is notorious that men are the slaves of fashion4 ,if a new shade of cravat or sock comes out1 the city will be painted with that shade in less than a week4 ,one year every handkerchief is worn in the sleeve4 ,another year it will be shocking to wear a handkerchief in the sleeve1 because the only proper place for wearing a handkerchief is in a pocket over the heart4 ,at the slightest change in the fashionable diameter of the leg of a pair of trousers every man with adequate cash or credit will rush privily to his tailor's1 and in sixty hours a parcel will arrive at that man's home marked3 #8,very urgent4 ,deliver at once4' ,men have a perfect passion for being exactly like other men--not merely in clothes1 but in everything4 ,so much so that they cannot bear to think that there are men unlike themselves4 ,thus men will form clubs of which all the members are alike in some important point1 so that while they are in the club they will live under the beautiful illusion of universal resemblance4 ,they loathe opinions which are unfashionable1 or unfashionable in their particular set and environment2 they will not even read about such opinions if they can help it2 they are ready to imprison or kill 7and often actually have imprisoned or killed7 the holders of such opinions1 solely because they are not in the fashion4 ,and could a man with a bag-wig walk down the ,strand or ,fifth ,avenue without having it knocked off or being arrested for obstruction8 ,he could not4 ,nevertheless a bag-wig is less preposterous than a silk hat4 ,yet again1 men try to explain the feminine cult of clothes by asserting that women as a sex really enjoy the huge task of dressing1 and really enjoy spending money for the sake of spending money1 and have no brains above personal embellishment4 ,all these arguments are patently ridiculous4 ,to very many well-dressed women the task of dressing is naught but a tedious and heavy burden4 ,as for brains1 it frequently occurs that the women with the most intelligence 7intelligence far surpassing that of the average man7 are the most chic4 ,in regard to the enjoyment of mere spending1 the charge is true4 ,it is1 however1 equally true of men4 ,i could refer to tailors1 hosiers1 and hatters1 but ,i will not4 ,take1 for a change1 two dining parties at a restaurant1 one consisting of three men and three women1 the other consisting of six men4 ,the bill of the six men will be the heavier4 ,as a sex men1 in the ,french phrase1 #8refuse themselves nothing4' ,and their felicity in spending for the sake of spending is touchingly boyish4 ,whatever may be the explanation of the subjection of women to costly fashion1 we are now1 at any rate1 in a position to say what the explanation is not4 ,it is not that women are specially vain4 ,it is not that women are specially like sheep4 ,it is not that they lack intelligence4 ,it is not that they enjoy the tyranny4 ,and it is not that they are spendthrift4 ,if the explanation lay in any of these directions men would read fashion papers1 go to sales1 and change their suits four times a day4 ,,ii ,you will say3 #8,women adorn themselves in order to be attractive to the other sex4' ,this is true1 but only to a limited extent4 ,and men also adorn themselves in order to be attractive to the other sex4 ,moreover1 a woman who has found the man of her desire1 and is utterly satisfied therewith1 will still go on adorning herself1 even though the man in question has made it quite clear that she would attract him just as strongly in a sack as in a ,poiret gown4 ,further1 some fashions do not attract2 they excite ridicule rather than admiration2 yet they are persisted in4 ,and women of the classes who do not and cannot cultivate fashionableness succeed at least as well as the other woman in attracting men1 even when these men by reason of laborious lives have almost no leisure for dalliance4 ,the truth is that the competition among women for men is chiefly a legend--not wholly4 ,there are more women than men1 but not many more4 ,women want marriage more than men want marriage1 but not much more4 ,competition is by no means so fierce that women have to perform prodigies of self-ornamentation in order to inveigle a fellow-creature so simple that he worries about the tint of his own necktie and socks2 and the idea of such a phenomenon is derogatory to women4 ,after all1 nature has the business of sex-attraction in hand1 and she is not dependent on fashions4 ,long before fashions had been evolved she managed it precisely as well as she manages it to-day4 ,she relies1 not upon textile stuffs1 but upon the stuff that dreams are made on2 namely1 glances1 gestures1 actions1 and speech4 ,the authentic major explanation of the expensive fashionableness of women must be sought in another direction4 ,as usual1 men are at the bottom of the affair4 ,when woman gloriously dresses herself up to go out1 she does so in order to prove to the world something which man wants to be proved to the world4 ,in old days the two attributes which man held in the highest esteem were wealth and idleness4 ,to be poor was shameful1 and to work for a living was shameful4 ,man1 therefore1 had to demonstrate publicly that he was neither needy nor industrious4 ,one of the best methods of demonstration was costume1 and the costume of the successful man in those days was very expensive1 and so gorgeous and delicate as to make toil impossible for him4 ,the time came when man ceased to be proud of his own idleness1 and his costume altered accordingly4 ,then the duty of demonstrating wealth and idleness by means of costume fell on woman4 ,man could not do the demonstration on his own person--he was too busy--and hence he employed the lady to be expensive on his behalf4 ,such was her function1 and still is her function4 ,the ,rue de la ,paix is based firmly on the distant past4 ,assuredly long years will elapse before feminine costume ceases to be used as a demonstration that man possesses the attributes that are most admired4 ,estates demonstrate the possession of those attributes2 bonds demonstrate the possession of those attributes4 ,but estates are a fixture1 and bonds are kept in a safe4 ,costume walks about2 your wife can take it to the seaside with her2 the world cannot help noticing it2 and it has the further advantage of ministering to the senses4 ,the proofs of the substantial correctness of this explanation of women's dress are innumerable4 ,perhaps the principal proof is that the very man who grumbles at fashionableness in women would be the first to complain if his wife started to ignore fashion and to dress merely for comfort1 utility1 and charm4 ,no man objects to the inexpensiveness of his wife's clothes1 but every man objects to them looking inexpensive4 ,the advertised lure of a blouse marked one pound at a sale is that it has the air of a blouse costing two pounds4 ,suppose a rich man sees a delightful typewriting young woman walking down the street1 falls in love with her1 and marries her4 ,now1 although the clothes in which he saw her suited her admirably in every way1 and although she has simple tastes1 and more elaborate clothes do not suit her so well1 the first thing she has to do on marriage is to alter her style of dress for a more expensive style4 ,otherwise the man will say3 #8,i don't want my wife to look like a clerk4' ,in other words3 #8,i insist on my wife demonstrating to the universe that ,i possess wealth and can afford to keep her idle on my behalf4' ,even in small provincial towns where personal adornment is theoretically discouraged1 and where people preach the entirely false maxim that externals don't matter--even there the theory holds good4 ,the middle-class wife will have her sealskin coat before she has her automobile4 ,fur coats are detestable garments to walk in1 but real sealskin is a symbol which cannot be denied4 ,and it is as important that that costume should prove idleness as that it should prove wealth4 ,hence the fragility of extremely fashionable costumes1 and their unpracticalness4 ,the fashionable costume must be of such a nature that the least touch of the workaday world will ruin it2 and it must go beyond this--it must be of such a nature that the wearer is actually prevented by it from her full and proper activity4 ,an unconsidered movement would rip it to pieces4 ,rich ,chinese males till recently kept their finger-nails so long that it was impossible for them to use their hands1 and they maimed females so that they could not walk4 ,both sexes were thus rendered helpless1 and the ability to be futile was proved like a problem of ,euclid4 ,we laugh at that4 ,crinolines were admirably designed to hinder honest work4 ,and we laugh at crinolines too4 ,but we still have the corset1 though the corset is not the homicidal contrivance it once was4 ,and we have the high-heeled shoe1 higher than ever4 ,you say3 #8,but women have high heels to increase their apparent height4' ,not a bit6 ,all women whose business it is to demonstrate idleness to the universe wear high heels1 because high heels are a clear presumption that the wearer is not obliged really to exert herself4 ,if a woman with a rich husband is so inordinately tall that she is ashamed of her height1 she will wear high heels to prove that her husband is rich4 ,and1 not to be outdone1 the delightful typewriting girl walking down the street at #h4cj ,a4,m4 will also wear high heels--and each hurried step she takes is a miracle of balance1 pluck1 and endurance4 ,life is marvellous4 ,,iii ,you will say3 #8,life may be marvellous1 but these revelations about human motives are terrible1 and they depress us4' ,they ought not to depress you4 ,the saving quality about human motives is that they are so human1 and therefore so forgivable4 ,and1 be it remembered1 ,i have not asserted that the demonstration of wealth and leisure is the sole explanation of fashionableness4 ,i have already referred to the desire to be attractive2 and to this must be added the sense of beauty1 which is nearly allied to it4 ,the woman who bedecks herself is actuated by all three motives--the motive of ostentation 7to satisfy primarily the man71 the motive to attract1 and the motive to satisfy the sense of beauty4 ,as regards the last1 it may be said that the sense of beauty does not regularly improve in mankind1 like1 for instance1 the sense of justice4 ,no feminine raiment has ever equalled the classic ,greek1 which was not costly4 ,but then the ,greeks were not worried by too much wealth4 ,and the ,greek dress would be highly inconvenient without the ,greek daily life1 and especially without the ,greek climate4 ,and ,i doubt if nowadays we should care greatly for the ,greek life4 ,still1 the sense of beauty does emphatically exist among us1 and the desire of women to be attractive is quite as powerful as it was in the time of ,aspasia4 ,these two motives are constantly1 and often victoriously1 fighting against the motive of ostentation1 and it is probably the interplay of the three motives that produces the continual confusing and expensive changes of fashion1 as has been well argued by ,professor ,franklin ,henry ,giddings1 one of the most brilliant social philosophers in the ,united ,states4 #8,but all this must be altered6' the ardent among you will cry out4 #8,in future women must dress solely to be attractive and to satisfy the sense of beauty4' ,well1 they just won't4 ,men will never allow it1 and women themselves would never agree to it4 ,costume will always be more than costume2 costume is so handy and effective as a symbol of something else2 and that something else will always be--success4 ,when wealth ceases to be the standard of success1 then costume will cease to be employed as a proof of wealth1 and not before4 ,meanwhile1 we must admit that1 if the possession of wealth has to be proved to the world1 it could not be proved in a more charming and less offensive way than in the costumes of women4 ,the spectacle of a stylish dress stylishly worn is extremely agreeable4 ,the spectacle of a room full of stylish dresses stylishly worn is thrilling4 ,he among you who has never been to a ball should go to one and try the experience for himself4 ,leisure1 the ability to be idle and useless1 is still to a certain extent a standard of success in life1 but not anything like so much as in the past4 ,people are gradually perceiving that to be idle and useless is vicious4 ,hence the unpracticalness of women's costumes will gradually decrease4 ,beyond question high heels1 for example1 will vanish from our pavements and from our drawing-rooms4 ,i even have hope that women will one day wear dresses which they can put on and fasten unaided without the help of one1 two1 or three assistants4 ,but such changes will arrive slowly4 ,you cannot hurry nature4 ,it is a great truth that the present is firmly rooted in the past4 ,it refuses to be pulled up by the roots4 ,futile to announce that you will in future be guided by nothing but common sense6 ,whose common sense8 ,common sense is a purely relative thing4 ,the common sense of the past often seems silly to us1 and the common sense of the present will often seem silly to the future4 ,the progress of mankind is an extraordinarily complex business4 ,it cannot be settled in a phrase4 ,nothing in it is simple2 nothing in it is unrelated to the rest4 ,everything in it has a reason which will appeal to true intelligence4 ,and men should bear this in mind when they talk lightly and scornfully 7and foolishly7 about women's fashions4 ,to conclude1 let me utter one word about the secret fear that lies always at the back of most men's minds--the fear that such-and-such a change in the habits of women will destroy their femininity4 ,this fear is groundless4 ,femininity--thank heaven6--is entirely indestructible4 ,it will survive all progress and all revolutions of taste4 ,and when the end comes on this cooling planet the last vestige of it will be there1 fronting the last vestige of masculinity4 ,printed in ,great ,britain by ,t4 and ,a4 ,,constable1 ,printers to ,his ,majesty at the ,edinburgh ,university ,press4 ,,transcriber',s ,,notes ,simple typographical errors have been silently corrected2 unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious1 and otherwise left unbalanced4 ,punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book2 otherwise they were not changed4 ,inconsistent hyphens left as printed4