THE CULT OF JOY 815 
Professor Dearborn’s thesis is in a line with 
many other, characteristically American, studies in 
psychobiology, which aim at a cultivation of the 
personality on what one may call direct lines. The 
danger ahead is well known, that just as the direct 
pursuit of health is apt to engender hypochondria 
and valetudinarianism, and just as the direct pur- 
suit of happiness is apt to defeat its own end, so 
the direct pursuit of joy for the sake of the “ joy- 
reward” may prove consummately futile. But it is 
possible to make a bogy of this risk. Forced cheer- 
fulness is, of course, a horror, but “the persistent 
will to be glad,” if worthily satisfied with some 
of the real joys of life, may soon become a habit 
which requires no artificial stimulation. A con- 
ventional approach to Nature and Art is often 
rewarded much beyond its deserts, and men who 
began with taking walks for duty’s sake have often 
become genuine enthusiasts for the open country. 
The pursuit of joy may be futile and the faking of 
it an abomination, but there is nothing absurd, for 
instance, in humbly learning to know the endless 
things of beauty which are joys for ever. If we 
make sure of these, the euphoria will look after 
itself. 
