r. E. F. Benson exclaims, "God help them!" These sayings are typical
of a widespread literary fashion. Now to slander Mistress Joy to-day
is a serious matter. For we are coming to realize that she is a far
more important person than we had supposed; that she is, in fact, one
of the chief managers of life. Instead of doing a modest little
business in an obscure suburb, she has offices that embrace the whole
first floor of humanity's city hall.

Of course I do not doubt that our writer-friends note down the truth
as they see it. But they see it imperfectly. They merely have a corner
of one eye on a corner of the truth. Therefore they tell untruths that
are the falser for being so charmingly and neatly expressed. What they
say about joy being the bribe that achievement offers us to get itself
realized may be true in a sense. But they are wrong in speaking of the
bribe as if it were an apple rotten at the core, or a bag of
counterfeit coin, or a wisp of artificial hay. It is none of these
things. It is sweet and genuine and well worth the necessary effort,
once we are in a position to appreciate it at anything like its true
worth. We must learn not to trust the beautiful writers too
implicitly. For there is no more treacherous guide than the consummate
artist on the wrong track.

Those who decry the joy of achievement are like tyros at skating who
venture alone upon thin ice, fall down, fall in, and insist on the way
home that winter sports have been grossly overestimated. This outcry
about men being unable to enjoy what they have attained is a
half-truth which cannot skate two consecutive strokes in the right
direction without the support of its better half. And its better half
is the fact that one may enjoy achievement hugely, provided only he
will get himself into proper condition.

Of course I am not for one moment denying that achievement is harder
to enjoy than the hope of achievement. Undoubtedly the former lacks
the glamour of the indistinct, "that sweet bloom of all that is far
away." But our celebrated writer-friends overlook the fact that
glamour and "sweet bloom" are so much pepsin to help weak stomachs
digest strong joy. If you would have the best possible time of it in
the world, develop your joy-digesting apparatus to the point where it
can, without a qualm, dispose of that tough morsel, the present,
obvious and attained. There will always be enough of the unachieved at
table to furnish balanced rations.