u--me--the other fellow.

Happiness is fundamentally a state of mind--not a state of body.

And mind controls.

Indeed it is possible to stand with one foot on the inevitable "banana
peel" of life with both eyes peering into the Great Beyond, and still be
happy, comfortable, and serene--if we will even so much as smile.

It's all a state of mind, I tell you--and I'm sure of what I say. That's
why I have taken up my fountain pen. I want to talk to my friends--you
hosts of people who have written to me for my recipe. In moving pictures
all I can do is act my part and grin for you. What I say is a matter of
your own inference, but with my pen I have a means of getting around the
"silent drama" which prevents us from organizing a "close-up" with one
another.

In starting I'm going to ask you "foolish question number 1."--

Do you ever laugh?

I mean do you ever laugh right out--spontaneously--just as if the police
weren't listening with drawn clubs and a finger on the button connecting
with the "hurry-up" wagon? Well, if you don't, you should. _Start off
the morning with a laugh and you needn't worry about the rest of the
day._

I like to laugh. It is a tonic. It braces me up--makes me feel
fine!--and keeps me in prime mental condition. Laughter is a
physiological necessity. The nerve system requires it. The deep,
forceful chest movement in itself sets the blood to racing thereby
livening up the circulation--which is good for us. Perhaps you hadn't
thought of that? Perhaps you didn't realize that laughing automatically
re-oxygenates the blood--_your_ blood--and keeps it red? It does all of
that, and besides, it relieves the tension from your brain.

_Laughter is more or less a habit._ To some it comes only with practice.
But what's to hinder practising? Laugh and live long--if you had a
thought of dying--laugh and grow well--if you're sick and
despondent--laugh and grow fat--if your tendency is towards the lean and
cadaverous--laugh and succeed--if you're glum and "unlucky"--laugh and
nothing can faze you--not even the Grim Reaper--for the man who has
laughed his way through life has nothing to fear of the future. His
conscience is clear.

Wherein lies this magic of laughter? For magic it is--a something that
manufactures a state of felicity out of any condition. We've got to
admit its charm; automatically and inevitably a laugh cheers us up. If
we are bored--nothing to do--just laugh--that's something to do, fo