<h2><SPAN name="INTRODUCTORY" id="INTRODUCTORY"></SPAN>INTRODUCTORY</h2>
<p>The writer of this book has been in this world some forty-two years.
That may not seem long to some, but it is long enough to have made many
painful mistakes, and to have learned much from them. Looking about him,
he sees others making these same mistakes, suffering for lack of that
same knowledge which he has so painfully acquired. This being the case,
it seems a friendly act to offer his knowledge, minus the blunders and
the pain.</p>
<p>There come to the writer literally thousands of letters every year,
asking him questions, some of them of the strangest. A man is dying of
cancer, and do I think it can be cured by a fast? A man is unable to
make his wife happy, and can I tell him what is the matter with women? A
man has invested his savings in mining stock, and can I tell him what to
do about it? A man works in a sweatshop, and has only a little time for
self-improvement, and will I tell him what books he ought to read? Many
such questions every day make one aware of a vast mass of people,
earnest, hungry for happiness, and groping as if in a fog. The things
they most need to know they are not taught in the schools, nor in the
newspapers they read, nor in the church they attend. Of these agencies,
the first is not entirely competent, the second is not entirely honest,
and the third is not entirely up to date. Nor is there anywhere a book
in which the effort has been made to give to everyday human beings the
everyday information they need for the successful living of their lives.</p>
<p>For the present book the following claims may be made. First, it is a
modern book; its writer watches hour by hour the new achievements of the
human mind, he reaches out for information about them, he seeks to
adjust his own thoughts to them and to test them in his own living.
Second, it is, or tries hard to be, a wise book; its writer is not among
those too-ardent young radicals who leap to the conclusion that because
many old things are stupid and tiresome, therefore everything that is
old is to be spurned with contempt, and everything that proclaims itself
new is to be taken at its own valuation. Third, it is an honest book;
its writer will not pretend to know what he only guesses, and where it
is necessary to guess, he will say so frankly. Finally, it is a kind
book; it is not written for its author's glory, nor for his enrichment,
but to tell you things that may be useful to you in the brief span of
your life. It will attempt to tell you how to live, how to find health
and happiness and success, how to work and how to play, how to eat and
how to sleep, how to love and to marry and to care for your children,
how to deal with your fellow men in business and politics and social
life, how to act and how to think, what religion to believe, what art to
enjoy, what books to read. A large order, as the boys phrase it!</p>
<p>There are several ways for such a book to begin. It might begin with the
child, because we all begin that way; it might begin with love, because
that precedes the child; it might begin with the care of the body,
explaining that sound physical health is the basis of all right living,
and even of right thinking; it might begin as most philosophies do, by
defining life, discussing its origin and fundamental nature.</p>
<p>The trouble with this last plan is that there are a lot of people who
have their ideas on life made up in tabloid form; they have creeds and
catechisms which they know by heart, and if you suggest to them anything
different, they give you a startled look and get out of your way. And
then there is another, and in our modern world a still larger class, who
say, "Oh, shucks! I don't go in for religion and that kind of thing."
You offer them something that looks like a sermon, and they turn to the
baseball page.</p>
<p>Who will read this Book of Life? There will be, among others, the great
American tired business man. He wrestles with problems and cares all
day, and when he sits down to read in the evening, he says: "Make it
short and snappy." There is the wife of the tired business man, the
American perfect lady. She does most of the reading for the family; but
she has never got down to anything fundamental in her life, and mostly
she likes to read about exciting love affairs, which she distinguishes
from the unexciting kind she knows by the word "romance." Then there is
the still more tired American workingman, who has been "speeded up" all
day under the bonus system or the piece-work system, and is apt to fall
asleep in his chair before he finishes supper. Then there is the
workingman's wife, who has slaved all day in the kitchen, and has a
chance for a few minutes' intimacy with her husband before he falls
asleep. She would like to have somebody tell her what to do for croup,
but she is not sure that she has time to discuss the question whether
life is worth living.</p>
<p>Yet, I wonder; is there a single one among all these tired people, or
even among the cynical people, who has not had some moment of awe when
the thought came stabbing into his mind like a knife: "What a strange
thing this life is! What am I anyhow? Where do I come from, and what is
going to become of me? What do I mean, what am I here for?" I have sat
chatting with three hoboes by a railroad track, cooking themselves a
mulligan in an old can, and heard one of them say: "By God, it's a queer
thing, ain't it, mate?" I have sat on the deck of a ship, looking out
over the midnight ocean and talking with a sailor, and heard him use
almost the identical words. It is not only in the class-room and the
schools that the minds of men are grappling with the fundamental
problems; in fact, it was not from the schools that the new religions
and the great moral impulses of humanity took their origin. It was from
lonely shepherds sitting on the hillsides, and from fishermen casting
their nets, and from carpenters and tailors and shoemakers at their
benches.</p>
<p>Stop and think a bit, and you will realize it does make a difference
what you believe about life, how it comes to be, where it is going, and
what is your place in it. Is there a heaven with a God, who watches you
day and night, and knows every thought you think, and will some day take
you to eternal bliss if you obey his laws? If you really believe that,
you will try to find out about his laws, and you will be comparatively
little concerned about the success or failure of your business. Perhaps,
on the other hand, you have knocked about in the world and lost your
"faith"; you have been cheated and exploited, and have set out to "get
yours," as the phrase is; to "feather your own nest." But some gust of
passion seizes you, and you waste your substance, you wreck your life;
then you wonder, "Who set that trap and baited it? Am I a creature of
blind instincts, jealousies and greeds and hates beyond my own control
entirely? Am I a poor, feeble insect, blown about in a storm and
smashed? Or do I make the storm, and can I in any part control it?"</p>
<p>No matter how busy you may be, no matter how tired you may be, it will
pay you to get such things straight: to know a little of what the wise
men of the past have thought about them, and more especially what
science with its new tools of knowledge may have discovered.</p>
<p>The writer of this book spent nine years of his life in colleges and
universities; also he was brought up in a church. So he knows the
orthodox teachings, he can say that he has given to the recognized wise
men of the world every opportunity to tell him what they know. Then,
being dissatisfied, he went to the unrecognized teachers, the
enthusiasts and the "cranks" of a hundred schools. Finally, he thought
for himself; he was even willing to try experiments upon himself. As a
result, he has not found what he claims is ultimate or final truth; but
he has what he might describe as a rough working draft, a practical
outline, good for everyday purposes. He is going to have confidence
enough in you, the reader, to give you the hardest part first; that is,
to begin with the great fundamental questions. What is life, and how
does it come to be? What does it mean, and what have we to do with it?
Are we its masters or its slaves? What does it owe us, and what do we
owe to it? Why is it so hard, and do we have to stand its hardness? And
can we really know about all these matters, or will we be only guessing?
Can we trust ourselves to think about them, or shall we be safer if we
believe what we are told? Shall we be punished if we think wrong, and
how shall we be punished? Shall we be rewarded if we think right, and
will the pay be worth the trouble?</p>
<p>Such questions as these I am going to try to answer in the simplest
language possible. I would avoid long words altogether, if I could; but
some of these long words mean certain definite things, and there are no
other words to serve the purpose. You do not refuse to engage in the
automobile business because the carburetor and the differential are
words of four syllables. Neither should you refuse to get yourself
straight with the universe because it is too much trouble to go to the
dictionary and learn that the word "phenomenon" means something else
than a little boy who can play the piano or do long division in his
head.</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />