The same insignificance of origin applies to individual, moral and physical deterrents to happiness which afflict otherwise healthy men and women. The _tap-roots_ of all unhappiness are not formidable in the light of present knowledge. Whoever is less than keenly happy is the victim of errors or illusions whose germs are easy to kill when found. It is the especial object of this book to help those who are suffering unhappiness to find the tap-roots of their troubles. Auditorium Annex, Chicago, September 5th, 1898. HAPPINESS AS FOUND IN FORE MINUS FEAR THOUGHT. INTRODUCTION. How to be happy is the one desire common to all humanity. How to be happier is a better statement, for there is no one so miserable but has some degree of happiness at times--enjoys some moments when he forgets to be unhappy, and looks with appreciation, even if with only dull and bleared appreciation, upon the things that are always beautiful and joyful and free. In highly civilized life there is everything to encourage, and there should be nothing to prevent, happiness. The normal condition of man in civilized life is that of happiness. So great, and so greatly increasing, has been the acceleration of progress, that the possibility of unrestrained and unfettered happiness has come to us in advance of our being prepared to accept the freedom of it, owing, mainly, no doubt, to the weight of traditions under the habit of which we are prone to struggle long after the conditions that gave birth to the traditions have ceased to exist. The experience of the world has revealed, and is constantly revealing, simple expedients applicable to every possible combination of evils--except the evil of perverse ignorance--the use of which will insure the success of honest and reasonable aims, no matter how unfavorable the equipment and environment have been or are at the present time. In a singularly adventurous career I have passed through many of the conditions in which discomfort, fear and unhappiness breed, including the direst straits to which life can be exposed, and have also been possessed, at different times, of the means to comfort and happiness that broad opportunity, keen appreciation and affluence are supposed to furnish.