ignored. If it is true that money does not bring happiness, it is no
less true that the lack of money induces a state of affairs in which
efficient living becomes doubly difficult. These two propositions,
superficially perhaps self-contradictory, are not really so. A modest
income suffices for the fullest realisation of the Ego in terms of
content and dignity; but you must live within it. You cannot righteously
ignore money. A man, for instance, who cultivates himself and instructs
a family of daughters in everything except the ability to earn their own
livelihood, and then has the impudence to die suddenly without leaving a
penny--that man is a scoundrel. Ninety--or should I say
ninety-nine?--per cent. of all those anxieties which render proper
living almost impossible are caused by the habit of walking on the edge
of one's income as one might walk on the edge of a precipice. The
majority of Englishmen have some financial worry or other continually,
everlastingly at the back of their minds. The sacrifice necessary to
abolish this condition of things is more apparent than real. All
spending is a matter of habit.

Speaking generally, a man can contrive, out of an extremely modest
income, to have all that he needs--unless he needs the esteem of snobs.
Habit may, and habit usually does, make it just as difficult to keep a
family on two thousand a year as on two hundred. I suppose that for the
majority of men the suspension of income for a single month would mean
either bankruptcy, the usurer, or acute inconvenience. Impossible, under
such circumstances, to be in full and independent possession of one's
immortal soul! Hence I should be inclined to say that the first
preliminary to a proper control of the machine is the habit of spending
decidedly less than one earns or receives. The veriest automaton of a
clerk ought to have the wherewithal of a whole year as a shield against
the caprices of his employer. It would be as reasonable to expect the