THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



brains of the nation. There one must move on or be 

 swept under by the remorselessly progressive tide. 

 There is a fascination about this active struggle for 

 existence and supremacy that appeals convincingly to the 

 active mind of youth. To vaulting ambition it seems 

 that the field for work in any profession in a country 

 village, or even in a smaller city, is so narrow, so self- 

 limited that no strong mind can long endure its 

 trammels. 



And there is surely a measure of reason in this view. 

 The world's creative work, has always been accom- 

 plished for the most part under the stimulus of city 

 life. Nor may we too lightly decry the ambition that 

 would test its powers where the game is hottest; for 

 after all ambition is the world's progressive lever. 

 "A contented mind is a perpetual feast," but who 

 wishes to be forever gormandizing. It is also written, 

 " Enough is as good as a feast." And does not every- 

 one know that hunger is more stimulative, not to say 

 inspiring, than satiety? 



There is a stimulus in a gnawing stomach that has 

 been the genesis of all the progress of animate creation. 

 Man would never have evolved from bestiality in a 

 world in which continuous feasting was a practicability. 

 Only when hunger presses does the lion sally forth to 

 seek its quarry. Only when hunger urged did the 

 cave man think of new weapons, new methods of at- 

 tack, that helped him along the road to civilization. 

 Only when that soul-hunger called ambition gnaws at 

 the brain, does civilized man seek to steer his mental 

 bark out of the doldrums of inane satiety. 



