We need in our dispensary work to _find truth_. Yes; but we need to _find joy_ also in our work; we need to see the _foreground_. We do not want to have attached to us the stigma and the weakness which we think of in professional work. We are accustomed to believe that professional philanthropists find no joy in their work, which they do as a matter of routine, for pay, without vision and without a sense of the unexpected and momentary values which are precious. The process of tracing chains, of looking off and away from the patient's present pain, sorrow or poverty for its causes and relations, tends to make us look over the head of the present fact. We all know people who always look over our heads when they talk, and we know how little they get into touch with us. We must not stare into the physical, economic, or mental background so constantly or so fixedly that we cannot see the present fact before us. That is preoccupation. I have often accused myself and my assistants of going about their work with a care-worn air, because we are thinking so much of the fine, helpful plans which we are making and the truths which we are going to discover, or of bothersome details which we have not got round to finishing up. But we shall do no good in the long run unless we enjoy our work. There may be some professions where a man or a woman can be of use who does not draw joy from work, but certainly social work is not such a profession. We have with Stevenson the duty of happiness: "If I have faltered more or less In my great task of happiness," --What are we to do? We must wake up-- "Lord, Thy most pointed pleasure take And stab my spirit broad awake." We are not awake. We are half asleep, dreaming over our plans, our worries, our visions. That is why we are preoccupied; looking over the head of the immediate fact, we miss the amazing beauty of face, word, and character tempered and enhanced by suffering.