xvi FOREWORD 



pletely that we have almost lost the art of 

 spontaneous enjoyment. We can feel com 

 fortable or uncomfortable, annoyed or grati 

 fied, but we cannot feel simple, buoyant, in 

 stinctive enjoyment in anything. We take 

 our very pleasures under the name of duties 

 &quot;We ought to take a walk,&quot; &quot;We ought not 

 to miss that concert,&quot; &quot;We ought to read&quot; 

 a certain book, &quot;We ought&quot; to go and see this 

 friend, or invite that one to see us. Those 

 things that should be our spontaneous pleas 

 ures we have clothed and masked until they 

 no longer know themselves. A pleasure must 

 present itself under the guise of a duty before 

 we feel that we can wholly give ourselves over 

 to it. 



Ah, let us stop all that! Let us take our 

 pleasures without apology. Let us give up 

 this fashion of shoving them away into the 

 left-over corners of our lives, covering their 

 gleaming raiment with sad-colored robes, and 

 visiting them with half-averted faces. Let 

 us consort with them openly, gayly ! 



