THE WAR AGAINST FEMINISM 61 THE EQUALISING OF CLASSES BY EDUCATION 69 SOCIALISM 77 THE WORKING CLASSES 85 DOMESTIC SERVICE 93 INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS 101 THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION AND ITS INFLUENCE OVER THE PEOPLE 109 THE PRESS 117 MORALITY 125 PUBLIC OPINION 133 PREJUDICES 139 JUDGMENT 145 THE FEAR OF RIDICULE 151 MORAL COURAGE 159 TRADITIONS 167 CRITICISM 175 THE DANGER OF EXCESSIVE ANALYSIS 181 THE LAW OF COMPENSATION 187 THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK 195 GENERAL CAUSES OF HAPPINESS THE THREAD OF LIFE General Causes of Happiness The most imperative motive of all human actions is the desire to be happy. But it is difficult to attain happiness if the search for it is made the constant aim of one’s life, although the primordial craving for it is an instinct in our nature. The art of living is one in which we are but ill instructed by philosophers, scientists and metaphysicians; the first, because they leave the meaning of life as it is to show us some end in view; the second, because they are but rationalist theorists; and the last, because they claim to be able to lift the veil from the Beyond. The truth is that life is worth living, and that in order to live happily one must know how to draw from life a relative amount of happiness. Simply by realising the charm of the pleasures--small though they be--which every instant of the day offers us, one may create for oneself a source of happiness, for this realisation gives what is usually called the _joie de vivre_ (the joy of living), the principle in all happy nature. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases, man does not see clearly the road leading to happiness because he is seeking it in the immediate and complete satisfaction of his desires, in material or intellectual delights whose worth he exaggerates; in superfluity, in possession, in all that he takes for happiness, but which is in reality mere enjoyment allied to fears, dangers, and regrets.