Project Gutenberg's Is Life Worth Living?, by William Hurrell Mallock

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Title: Is Life Worth Living?

Author: William Hurrell Mallock

Release Date: December 2, 2005 [EBook #17201]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?

BY

WILLIAM HURRELL MALLOCK

AUTHOR OF 'THE NEW REPUBLIC' ETC.

* * * * *

'Man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain.'

'How dieth the wise man? As the fool.... That which befalleth the
sons of men befalleth the beasts, even one thing befalleth them; as
the one dieth so dieth the other, yea they have all one breath; so
that man hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity.'

'[Greek: talaiporos ego anthropos, tis me rudetai ek tou somatos
tou thanatou toutou];'

* * * * *

NEW YORK
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
182 Fifth Avenue
1879

I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK

TO

JOHN RUSKIN

_TO JOHN RUSKIN._

My dear Mr. Ruskin,--You have given me very great pleasure
by allowing me to inscribe this book to you, and for two reasons;
for I have two kinds of acknowledgment that I wish to make to
you--first, that of an intellectual debtor to a public teacher;
secondly, that of a private friend to the kindest of private
friends. The tribute I have to offer you is, it is true, a small
one; and it is possibly more blessed for me to give than it is for
you to receive it. In so far, at least, as I represent any
influence of yours, you may very possibly not think me a
satisfactory representative. But there is one fact--and I will lay
all the stress I can on it--which makes me less diffident than I
might be, in offering this book either to you or to the world
generally.

The import of the book is independent of the book itself, and of
the author of it; nor do the arguments it contains stand or fall
with