Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See https://archive.org/details/secretlifebeingb00bisluoft Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). This e-text includes Greek and characters that require UTF-8 (Unicode) file encoding. If any of these characters do not display properly make sure your text reader’s "character set" or "file encoding" is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change the default font. The reader will find a transliteration of the Greek in the iso-8859-1 (Latin-1) text file 46084-8.txt or 46084.zip: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46084/46084-8.txt or http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46084/46084-8.zip THE SECRET LIFE Being the Book of a Heretic "Prove all things: hold fast that which is good." _St. Paul, 1 Thessalonians v. 21._ "Ici l'on voulut que tout fût simple, tranquille, sans ostentation d'esprit ni de science, que personne ne se crût engagé à avoir raison, et que l'on fût toujours en état de céder sans honte, surtout qu'aucun système ne dominât dans l'Académie à l'exclusion des autres, et qu'on laissât toujours toutes les portes ouvert à la vérité." _Fontenelle._ London: John Lane, The Bodley Head New York: John Lane Company. MDCCCCVII Copyright, 1906 By John Lane Company CONTENTS PAGE L'Enfant Terrible 1 An Optimistic Cynic 7 A Poet Sheep-rancher 10 An Eaten Cake 13 Concerning Elbows on the Table 16 An Autumn Impulse 17 John-a'-Dreams 19 The Fountain of Salmacis 41 Two Siegfrieds 44 A Door Ajar 47 At Time of Death 49 The Curse of Babel 49 The Fourth Dimension 52 The Ant and the Lark 58 The Döppelganger 63 "A Young Man's Fancy" 73 An Arabian Looking-glass 78 The Cry of the Women 80 The Beauty of Cruelty 95 The Duke of Wellington's Trees 101 The Boy with the Goose 103 A God Indeed 104 A Question of Skulls 110 The Modern Woman and Marriage 112 The Ideal Husband 120 A New Law of Health 126 "Dead, Dead, Dead" 139 Verbal Magic 140 Hamlet 143 Ghosts 149 Amateur Saints 153 The Zeitgeist 159 The Abdication of Man 187 Life 205 Portable Property 206