The thread of life

Some preface, however short, is needed to this book, the mirror of some of my ideas, and, first of all, I wish to put my readers on their guard against a false interpretation of the motives by which I have been actuated.

In publishing these opinions of mine, it has not been my wish to accomplish a literary work. I have not aimed at any display of learning, and I make no pretence of forcing on anyone my different points of view.

As a spectator in close enough contact with present social problems to understand all the points under discussion, yet at the same time sufficiently removed from them to analyse them coolly and judge them without prejudice, I bring forward my evidence unshackled by conventions. It has seemed to me that such fair, exact evidence might interest those who seek to glean, amongst all classes of society, the thousand dissimilar and contradictory elements whence proceed the lessons needed both for the present and the future.

Those who care to glance through the short chapters of this book will soon see that they have been written with the sincere conviction with which I always express my ideas and opinions, or perform any work independently undertaken.

I only ask my readers to excuse any faults of style, which I have tried to make up for by straightforwardness of tone.

EULALIA

Infanta of Spain

CONTENTS

PAGE

GENERAL CAUSES OF HAPPINESS 3

THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL 11

HONESTY 19

FRIENDSHIP 25

DIVORCE 33

THE FAMILY 45

THE COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE OF WOMAN 53

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.