The Simple Life

The Simple Life is by Charles Wagner, author of The Better Way, translated from the French by Mary Louise Hendee. The contents list chapters on Our Complex Life, The Essence of Simplicity, Simplicity of Thought, Simplicity of Speech, Simple Duty, Simple Needs and Simple Pleasures. At the home of the Blanchards everything is topsy-turvy, because Mlle. Yvonne is to be married Tuesday, and to-day is Friday.

The text says that for the man enslaved to numerous and exacting needs possession is the supreme good and the source of all other good things. The text names as one of the errors that drag most heavily upon human progress the belief that man becomes happier and better by the increase of outward well-being, and says nothing is falser than this pretended social axiom. The text says a man's labor is not merchandise in the same sense as a sack of flour or a ton of coal, and that there are things which can in no wise be bought, sleep for instance.