290 SOCIAL PROGRESS 



These may be reckoned, it appears, at something 

 more than a quarter of the town population. 

 Education may sober them by offering a wider 

 range of interests : much may also be done by 

 efforts of will artificially stimulated, it may be, 

 by the taking of pledges. So great is the evil that 

 the richer classes may not unreasonably be asked 

 to deny themselves for the benefit of the com- 

 munity, and to consent to the absolute prohibi- 

 tion of the sale of intoxicants. But men drink or 

 gamble to satisfy the inherent passion for change 

 or variety of mood, and the most effective method 

 of bridling this propensity is to offer them means 

 of excitement which are less expensive and less 

 degrading. From this point of view we may con- 

 template with satisfaction the growing popularity 

 of football matches, variety entertainments and 

 cinematograph shows. 



More numerous again are those whose cir- 

 cumstances must be described as poor, but 

 suffice to provide them with sufficient subsis- 

 tence, and with some margin for the amenities 

 of civilization. They cannot afford domestic 

 servants : but they live in decent quarters and 

 have some money to spare for simple luxuries. 

 These are the conditions of about half our 

 population. It is easy to be too gloomy in 

 commiserating their lot. Happiness results from 

 the satisfaction of impulses: lacking strong im- 

 pulsesf onejcould not be happy : with impulses 

 unsatisfied one must be miserable. But the 

 impulse of ambition, for instance, may be satisfied 

 by small degrees of promotion : moods may be 

 changed with no large expenditure : children 

 play in the gutter as happily as in the nursery. 

 And the working man who takes a pride in his 

 work satisfies his provident impulses quite as 

 completely as the merchant or stockbroker who 



