Lin Yutang on the Wisdom of America

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LIN YUTANG On THE WISDOM OF AMERICA. Originally published in 1907. CONTENTS include: Preface on a Sunday Morning xi I. THE WISDOM OF LIVING 1. The Scope of Wisdom i 2. The Philosophers Blindman s Buff 7 3. The American Sense o Fact 14 4. The Demand for Faith 16 II. COUNSEL FOR LIVING 1. All Is Riddle 21 2. Heed Thy Private Dream 24 3. Who Is the Dreamer 28 4. When Laughter Is Wiser Than Tears 34 m. OUR ANIMAL HERITAGE 1. Modern Man Psychoanalyzed 37 2. Adam and Eve 43 3. We Simians 53 4. What Are We Making o Ourselves 62 IV. THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 1. Where Is Woman 67 2. The Race of Life 73 3. Old Age 79 4. Death and Immortality 84 V. MAN AS SENTIMENT 1. Inadequacy of the Materialistic View 95 2. The Stuff of Human Experience 106 3. The Right to Romance in 4. When the Practical Man Becomes a Lover 115 5. The Soul s Vital Raptures 118 vii viii CONTENTS VI. NEW ENGLAND INTERLUDE 121 VIL LIFE 1. Thoreau and Confucius 137 2. No Apology for Living 139 3. The Joys of Common Life 144 4. The Heroism of Common Toil 155 5. Thoreau and the Values of Life 161 VIII. LIBERTY 1. Why Liberty 169 2. quot Democracy quot versus quot Democratsky quot 173 3. The Common Man 177 4. The State and the Individual 187 5. Jeffersonian Democracy 194 IX. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 1. The Blue Bird 209 2. Physiological Peace 214 3. The Tonic Effect of Work 219 4. The Secret of Contentment 225 5. How to Be Sweet though Sophisticated 229 X. THE ARTS OF LIVING 1. The Art of Doing Nothing 237 2. Friendship and Conversation 243 3. Food and Wine 254 4. Tea and Tobacco 262 5. Hobbies 267 XL NATURE 1. Society and Nature 271 2. This Sense-filled Earth 276 3. The Wonder of It All 287 4. The Power and the Glory 299 5. Pantheistic Revelry 303 CONTENTS ix XIL GOD 1. A Strictly Private Matter 309 2. Our Low Notions of God 312 3. Essay on Black 317 4. Three Great Religious Natures 327 5. The Spirit of Inquiry 338 XIII. LOVE 1. Marriage 345 2. Great Men in Trouble Franklin 353 3. Jefferson in Trouble 363 4. Lincoln in Trouble 367 5. Sex and Modesty 376 6. Whitman s Sex Democracy 381 XIV. LAUGHTER 1. Humor 397 2. Satire 414 XV. WAR AND PEACE 1. World Government 425 2. Woodrow Wilson 433 3. War and Peace 440 XVI. THE SUMMING UP - i. To Every Man His Own Philosophy 445 2. Justice Holmes s Credo 448 3. Einstein s Intimate Credo 451 4. A Toast to Moderation 455 Index 459. PREFACE: ON A SUNDAY MORNING I LIVED for over ten years in the United States without daring to write a book about the country. For that matter, even with my almost ten years in Manhattan, I wouldn t dare to write a book about New York, that dark, fathomless, mysterious city. I wouldn t dare to write even about Eighty-fourth Street. I don t know enough about it. It seems a much easier task to write about the spiritual journey through American writing from which I have just returned...