rom a selfish point of view, democracy is
desirable; that because man is a social animal, the best-being of the
one is inseparable from the best-being of the many; that no one can be
perfectly exuberant until all are exuberant. Jean Finot is right:
"True happiness is so much the greater and deeper in the proportion
that it embraces and unites in a fraternal chain more men, more
countries, more worlds."

But the classes may also be moved by instincts less selfish. For the
brimming cup has this at least in common with the cup that inebriates:
its possessor is usually filled with a generous--if sometimes
maudlin--anxiety to have others enjoy his own form of beverage. The
present writer is a case in point. His reason for making this book lay
in a convivial desire to share with as many as possible the contents
of a newly acquired brimming cup. Before getting hold of this cup, the
writer would have looked with an indifferent and perhaps hostile eye
upon the proposition to make such a blessing generally available. But
now he cannot for the life of him see how any one whose body, mind,
and spirit are alive and reasonably healthy can help wishing the same
jolly good fortune for all mankind.

Horace Traubel records that the aged Walt Whitman was once talking
philosophy with some of his friends when an intensely bored youngster
slid down from his high chair and remarked to nobody in particular:
"There's too much old folk here for me!"

"For me, too," cried the poet with one of his hearty laughs. "We are
all of us a good deal older than we need to be, than we think we are.
Let's all get young again."

Even so! Here's to eternal youth for every one. And here's to the hour
when we may catch the eye of humanity and pledge all brother men in
the brimming cup.

III

ENTHUSIASM

Enthusiasm is exuberance-with-a-motive. It is the power that makes the
world go 'round. The old Greeks who christened it knew that it was the
god-energy in the human machine. Without its driving force nothing
worth doing has ever been done. It is man's dearest possession. Love,
friendship, religion, altruism, devotion to hobby or career--all
these, and most of the other good things in life, are forms of
enthusiasm. A medicine for the most diverse ills, it alleviates both
the pains of poverty and the boredom of riches. Apart from it man's
heart is seldom joyful. Therefore it should be husbanded with zeal and
spent with wisdom.

To waste it is f