THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



But fortunately there is no dearth of less strenuous 

 pursuits from which to choose. The field of mechanics, 

 for example, offers almost boundless opportunities for 

 investigation in lines that lead on and on to realms of 

 unending interest. Whoever will fit himself up a little 

 physical laboratory, with the smallest equipment of 

 apparatus in the line of, let us say, electricity, will find 

 that he has provided a play-house that has infinite 

 possibilities. A chemical laboratory has equal pos- 

 sibilities, and may be inaugurated with the most mea- 

 gre equipment. Dr. Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, 

 made most of his experiments with an old gun -barrel. 

 He was a preacher by profession, and only an amateur 

 in science; yet he will always be remembered as one of 

 the most important figures in the history of scientific 

 discovery. To be sure, the equipment of his eighteenth- 

 century laboratory would not satisfy the investigator 

 of to-day; yet even now a start may be made with a 

 small and inexpensive supply of implements. 



Or, again, the field of optics, in some of its depart- 

 ments, is full of allurements. I know a man, a printer 

 by profession, who devotes all his spare time to the in- 

 vestigation of gases and other substances with the aid of 

 a spectroscope, and who finds new zest in life with each 

 succeeding experiment. Others find a microscope, with 

 its revelations of the mysteries of the unseen world, 

 a source of abiding and ever-growing interest. Or, if 

 you prefer, a small telescope will introduce you to a 

 new universe of constellations, whose mysteries enthrall 

 the mind more and more completely as they are farther 

 and farther investigated. 



