A Note On The Book
“If you just understand the fact that you’re either joyful or miserable only by choice, the question is only whether you make your choices consciously or unconsciously. If you’re aware of this, yes, any moment when you understand it is you who is creating misery and not somebody else, you would definitively stop it.”
These words from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev have changed my complete perception of Joy. Till then, I had all kinds of hallucinatory ideas about Joy (and still do) but the 2 days that I spent with him, seeking his thoughts on Joy showed me a whole new world.
While I would like to talk about Sadhguru, the “Guru” and the dispeller of darkness, whose power helped me realize a new dimension of Joy which I had not experienced until now, the dimension which is so much beyond… I would love to talk about Sadhguru the man.
As a man he is the most Joyful. He is so much 100% in the moment in whatever he does – intense and involved. A fascinating storyteller, he has the most incredible sense of humour and presents the deepest concepts most lucidly through his by now famous anecdotes. He is an amazing person to have a discussion with on any topic ranging from frisbees to books to BMW bikes to politics. He is quite incisive and has great clarity about anything he speaks. He
can make anything sound simple. His precision with words and the ability to put across the most profound thought in a way that “you” will understand is most precious for the listener.
Sadhguru, the man, is most playful. Watch him when he makes twenty people chase the Frisbee that he has flung with his intensity. He is humility personified and you can feel it when he serves you food with his own hands. When he is talking you, he is talking only to you. He talks about his most incredible achievements with so much simplicity as though he were talking about his morning walk.
These aspects of Sadhguru as the human being are a source of inspiration for me and a source of Joy. Sadhguru, that dimension beyond the human being I see, is Joy itself.
This book is a journey about Joy.
It is not a guidebook. It is not a “how to” book. It is not going to give you “an instant formula for Joy”. On the contrary it is going to make you restless to seek Joy, as it has done for me. It will change the context of your life.
I have not written this book. I am only a fortunate medium for what Sadhguru has to say since I wanted to share this Joy with so many people around the world like you. The parts in the book which are about the characters Dev, Lila and Arya have been written by me. Sadhguru’s words on Joy begin with a marking of his name in each chapter.
No matter what your circumstances are, I wish you boundless Joy that this creation has to offer. It is your birthright and all you need is openness to seek it!
Actually you have no option but to seek Joy, no option but to choose Joy.
May Joy be with you, always!
—Jeetendra Jain
August 20, 2008
Special mentions of some Joyful people
There are several people whose names have to be mentioned and these individuals thanked simply because they have helped make this book happen.
Swami Nisarga has been handholding this book through so many roles – as a motivator, as an editor, as a critic and as a co-ordinator for this project at the Ashram. Shobha Kadur quietly edited this book many times over and with much Joy and patience. Hoda Durham helped nail the process to the elusive last chapter. Swami Devasatwa for his patience while helping design the book. Maa Gambhiri for helping co-ordinate and linking up with the publishers.
Mr. Ashwin Shah, Akash Shah and Mr. R.H. Sharma of Jaico publishers need to be thanked for their whole-hearted involvement in the vision for this book and for bringing the book out in an incredibly short time.
Vivek of Vivek Sahni Design, New Delhi and their team for magical cover design of the book and the inside pages. Preeti Vyas and her young dynamic team at Depot (Big Bazaar) for encouraging this effort so well without knowing much about us.
For Kumar at the Ashram for his tremendous efforts in the launch of the book. Swami Udhava for his dogged efforts in the last stages before the book publishing.
For many Isha Yoga meditators, who joyfully became a part of this process of developing ideas for the book including sessions with Sadhguru : Kavita Pasricha, Revathi Shivkumar, Tina, Natalie, Angela, Maa Kashyapi, Swami Ullasa. My friends Gangadharan Menon, Sabina Verma and scores of other well wishers who motivated me and helped the efforts on this book.
For Ashok Jain and several employees at Oxygen Communications in Mumbai for helping on the book designs, initial conceptualisation, etc.
For my wife and Isha meditator, Shilpa and my daughter Isha for their joyful and constant support for this book and in this journey.
Their small and large inputs have made the journey of putting this book together a very joyful one.
What is the way out?
“What is Joy, Dad? Are all of us joyful?” asked Arya, the 6-year old son of Dev & Lila with a very innocent look in his eyes. His parents were stumped with this question and could only exchange a bewildered look.
Arya was a fun loving, mischievous and playful child who often had a bagful of wonderful and innocent questions for his parents which occasionally brought a smile to their otherwise burdened life of ambitions and responsibility.
This time, Arya immediately knew that his parents could not really answer the question. So, he went on happily to his room to play with his new whirring top even as Dev and Lila stared blankly at the poster displayed in Arya’s room which said, “THE WAY OUT IS THROUGH THE IN DOOR!”. Neither Dev nor Arya liked this poster nor knew what it meant. A friend at Isha Yoga had got them this poster and Arya liked it very much for some unknown reason.
The question that Arya had asked his father and mother seemed to play on their minds for several months.
You are a Joy industry
Dev and Lila were smiling at the little toy that Arya was playing with which was a mechanically wound toy shaped like a monkey that wouldclap andsmile.
“No matter which direction you set this toy and let it go it seems to smile andclap. Dad”saida beaming Arya.
“Surely son” said Lila “ and the day it stops doing this, you will notplay withthe toy anymore. Isn’tthat true?”
Arya laughed.
Sadhguru: Let us pose a question – In the last 24 hours, how many moments of Joy have you known? Every person should constantly look at it, at the end of the day. Every night before going to bed, spend just 5-10 minutes checking your accounts – how many moments of Joy have I known today? From yesterday to today has it improved or has it fallen? Are my Joys in profit or loss? Do this like a checkout everyday.
Right now if you look at your life, everything that you are doing is in pursuit of Joy, so you are a Joy industry. If you are a Joy industry you need to check if from the age of 5 your production has been improving or depleting.
When you were a child, other people considered you a child but actually you were a slave because you just obeyed commands. If somebody said ‘stand up’, you stood up. If somebody said ‘sleep’, you slept and if somebody said ‘go to school’, you went to school.
They thought you were a child but in your experience, you were a slave who was so terribly eager to grow up soon. Now that you have grown up, have got your own life, your own bank account, your own stuff going and everything of your own, has your Joy multiplied? It has got subtracted or divided, isn’t it?
Please see, everything that you did is in pursuit of Joy. Whether you went for a job, sought a career, built businesses, made money or built families, everything has been in pursuit of your Joy. So when the basic thing doesn’t happen, you are badly caught up in the process. It is like the example of running a power loom. When we want to manufacture cloth we work round the clock and put in a lot of raw material, but when we don’t find any end product generated, what do we do with the unit?
We shut it down or overhaul it – that’s all the choice that you have. Either the loom needs to be shut down, or it needs to be overhauled, that’s all.
Right now, if you look at your life, everything that you are doing is in pursuit of Joy. In other words, you are a Joy industry!
Square one of your life
“Such a wonderful tree, Mom!” shouted Arya when he looked up at the huge banyan tree in thegarden.
“Yes suchhuge branches andsuchbeautifulleaves,”addedLila.
“And such a huge trunk mom, it’s so wonderful!” Arya said while hugging the tree trunkfondly.
“But my son, do you see what supports all this?” Lila asked Arya andthen pointedto some ofthe roots ofthe tree that had sprung above theground
Arya lookedat them curiously.
Sadhguru: Joy is not the end of the world. I am talking about Joy as the square one of your life, as a solid foundation for your life to flower upon.
I am not talking about Joy as the ultimate possibility in your life; I am talking about Joy as the ‘A’ of your life, not the ‘Z’ of your life. When the ‘A’ has not happened, what else are you talking about? You are trying to build a house without laying the foundations. Do you know what a feat it will be to hold up a house that doesn’t have foundations? If you let it go for one moment, it will fall on your head. That’s how your life is, isn’t it? If you are off guard for one moment, everything will crash upon your head.
But if you have a solid foundation of Joy, you can do whatever you want to do on that. You can even build a huge mansion and it is fine because it has got good foundations. Now you have no foundations or you have shaky foundations and you are trying to hold the building up. What a torture every little activity of life must be!
I am not talking about Joy as the ultimate possibility in your life; I am talking about Joy as the ‘A’ ofyour life, not the ‘Z’ of your life.
Phantom strikes again!
Lila was very annoyed with Arya and did not know what to do withthe cookies thatshe hadboughtat the supermarket.
Each time she bought cookies and hid them, Arya would sniff them out. Even ifshe lied that she had not bought any cookies, Arya would quickly find them and would consume a good half ofthem before she foundout.
Lila feltthat her delightofbuying cookies wouldnever last.
Sadhguru: The whole science and wisdom of what we refer to as inner nature or inner engineering or inner sciences, means, not seeing Joy as something that we could achieve in our life but seeing Joy as the very basis of our lives.
Is this the only goal of our life? Joy is not the goal; it is the square one of your life. Other things can happen, only if this one thing happens. Otherwise, you’ll live constantly with the fear of misery striking at you. Anything can happen to you at any moment, that’s the way of life.
Externally, physically just about anything can happen. Right now you’re in existence but the next moment you may evaporate. It is a possibility. We’re not wishing it, but it is a possibility (Laughs). But more than what can happen externally, your fear and your concern
about what can happen within you is your experience of you becoming miserable, anxious, or stressed. These are your concerns, and no matter how you try to handle it, misery keeps striking back again and again.
Once a kindergarten teacher walked into the classroom and found a muddy puddle, right in the middle of the classroom, intentionally made by somebody. She looked at it and asked ‘Who made this mess in the class?’ None of the tiny tots opened their mouths because they had a certain camaraderie about not squealing.
The teacher asked again, but nobody answered. The teacher then thought there is no point pushing it, so she said, “Now boys and girls, we will all close our eyes and give whoever made this mess five minutes, to just clean it up, go back and sit. Nobody needs to know who did it, but this mess must be cleaned up”.
Everybody closed their eyes and suddenly the teacher heard a patter of feet, the bucket and some other noises. She gave this enough time. After some time they again heard the patter of feet running back and sitting down. Everything was quiet and that meant the job was done. When everybody opened their eyes, they found one more muddy pool, and alongside it was written ‘Phantom strikes again!’.
So, every time in your life, at every stage in your life, you think ‘Oh if I just get this job, this is it, my life is made’ but a little while later, it strikes back. You thought ‘If I get married to this particular person, that’s it, my life is made’, and it strikes back like hell! (Laughs).
At every stage you think ‘this is it’, but life always strikes back again and again, isn’t it? Life strikes back not because there is something wrong with creation, but because you’re not in tune with your own basic existence, because you have got identified with petty things that you gathered. You have become an accumulation, you have no existence of your own.
At every stage, you think ‘this is it’, but life strikes back again and again because you are not in tune with your own basic existence.
The fruit of action
Dev would never find Lila free for a chat. Her mornings were busy with preparing breakfast and other household chores while late evenings were spent in winding up for the day. Even her weekends were busy withshopping or helping Arya withhis schoolassignments.
“You are never free Lila …to talkto me,”grumbledDev.
“Oh come on Dev” smiled Lila “you can never see me free even ifIam, becauseyou are alwaysgrumbling!”
Sadhguru: Right now, you are living on the surface, so every contradiction that happens around you, upsets your inner experience.
Life is nurturing you with such a deep sense of Joy that if you were rooted into the core of life, then outside situations would have no impact on you.
You can handle the outside situations only to the best of your capability. Some things happen the way you want them, some things don’t happen the way you want them. What about it? That’s how life is, and you have no issue with it. Some things work for you, some things don’t work for you. Even if it doesn’t work for you, obviously it is working for somebody else. Isn’t it? What’s the hassle?
You become unhappy and depressed when what you want does not happen. When you are already joyful, what happens or does not happen is not the issue. You are released from the fruit of action even before you start the action. This is not because you develop some dispassion or renunciation about it but simply because you are so joyful. If you do not know Joy within yourself as a way of being, you cannot be free from the fruit of action because the fruit of action is the source of your Joy. How can you be free from it? You cannot be free from it.
Ifyou do not know Joy within yourself as a way of being, you cannot be free from the fruit of action because the fruit of action is the source ofyour Joy.
The collector’s item
“Why do you collect these stupid marbles Arya” Dev asked his son who hada box fullofassortedmarbles.
Arya thought for a moment and then retorted “But Dad these are better than those funny pictures of football and cricket players that you collect…andyou were very angry when I once satonyour collection book!”
Lila who had just stepped into the room laughed and Arya immediately admonished her too saying, “…and Mom don’tyou laugh! You collect all those old recipes for your kitchen too and you were so upset when Idroppedketchup on them…!”
Sadhguru: The problem is that you get identified with the accumulations. Accumulation can enrich your life: in any sphere of life, who is the rich man? The one who has accumulated plenty, isn’t it? So accumulation is not the problem, it enriches your life. But, you’re identified with your accumulations and since you can only accumulate things, you have reduced yourself into a thing.
I know you accumulate people, but they are also things in your experience, because they’re your property isn’t it? People are your property. Your husband or your wife, your children, they are your property. Somehow, because accumulating inanimate things is not sufficient for your ego, you accumulate animate things; otherwise
you don’t feel good. They may be living beings, but in your experience, they’re just things that you possess.
So accumulation by itself is not the problem, your getting identified with it and your reducing yourself into a thing, is the problem. It is in this identification and reducing yourself into a thing that you have lost the experience of this being. You live as if this being doesn’t exist, only accumulation exists, because you get identified with it.
If you do not identify yourself with any aspect of your accumulation, you still have an existence, a very large sense of existence, a very powerful sense of existence without any accumulation. But you chose to identify yourself because you never allowed yourself to taste the vastness of your existence for a moment.
You identified with one thing, and you became that and it felt insufficient after some time. So you accumulated one more thing. That too felt good only for some time and then it felt insufficient. So you accumulate one more thing, one more thing, and one more thing.
If you gather all the galaxies into your accumulation, you will still feel insufficient because there is something within you, which will not settle for any little thing, because its nature is that of the creator himself. That which is within you, which is the basis of creation cannot be limited to any particular identification.
The moment you tie it down with an identity, it struggles. This struggle is what you’re experiencing as lack of Joy or misery. If you untie it from all identities, joyfulness is not something that you run after. Joyfulness is an attainment that you’re looking up to. It is not a fruit hanging from the sky that you reach out for, it is something that will naturally play at your feet.
If you gather all the galaxies into your accumulation, you will still feel insufficient because there is something within you,
which will not settle for any little thing, because its nature is thatofthe creator himself.
An outside chance
Lila’s mood changed. She suddenly looked delighted after being so dullthe whole day.
When Dev asked her why she suddenly felt good, Lila pointed outat the rain andsaid “Rains always cheer me up”.
“So we will get you under the water spray the next time you are in a foul mood” said a visibly upset Dev. “And if that is not the real thing then Arya and I will go up to the roof and sprinkle water with our lawn sprayer” he added with an impish smile. Arya was laughing andhe ran outtoplay in the rain.
Arya then opened an umbrella and held it over Lila’s head and this made her smile. She realized it had been so stupid of her to wait for the rain so thatshe couldsmile.
Sadhguru: If there is no foundation of Joy, I cannot do what I intend to do with people. So irrespective of who you are, where you are or what you are, I’m constantly laying the foundation which you’re always trying to uproot! (Laughs). Laying up the foundation is not in terms of teaching, not in terms of understanding.
Joy is not because you know something, Joy is not because you understand something, Joy is because the deepest core of you functions, finds expression. When you sit with me, my energies are
such, your physical body, mind and your emotions get naturally aligned in a certain way, so you feel joyful.
But, you need to understand this, even though the induction is from outside, the actual Joy is always from within. In poetry we would say ‘I will shower Joy upon you’. But, no, we cannot shower Joy upon you. We can create a situation where you cannot help being aligned in a certain way whereby, you naturally feel joyful. Joy is always an inner experience, if it was showered upon you, your skin should feel it first, but that’s not how it happens. It is a certain alignment within you, which naturally allows the innermost core to find expression and Joy happens.
There’s nothing else wrong with people except that they’re miserable, isn’t it? (Laughs) They are miserable in whatever they do and they don’t do. If they get to do something they make themselves miserable, if they don’t, they become miserable. They just need an excuse.
But you will see if you’re in a certain level of alignment on a particular day, suddenly you will find all you need is an excuse to burst into laughter. But if you’re in a certain level of misalignment, all you need is an excuse to burst into tears and depression. So you need to understand, whatever you are thinking right now as the source of your Joy is just an excuse.
There’s nothing else wrong with people except that they’re miserable, if they get to do something they make themselves miserable, if they don’t, they become miserable. They just needan excuse!
Somehow, sometime
Dev had a colleague who was having a tough time with his boss.
Each time his boss hollered and asked him for an update on a project, the colleague would run around the department looking for information and come back with some sketchy details. Even though the work was going on at the required pace, his boss was seldom happy withthe status oftheproject.
Every time the boss heard from his colleague “Somehow we will do it sir!” the boss’s face would turn red with anger. He did not like the term “somehow”.
“Somehow you may have to find another job!” he would retort when he heard this rather naïve reassurance that his junior gave. Dev found this very amusing after a while and he smiled at this routine.
Sadhguru: Generally people look at their Joy emotionally. I want you to look at this technically because emotions are fine and juicy but you can’t recreate them. If you try to recreate them, they will become pretentious and painful. If you look at it technically, if you understand the mechanics of Joy, then you can create it all the time. So right now, in so many ways you’re trying to bullshit yourself into Joy, but it is not working.
Can I tell you a joke? Are you okay? You are so serious, I’m afraid to even tell you a joke. On a certain day, a bull and a pheasant who were partners were grazing on a field. The bull was grazing while the pheasant was picking ticks off the bull. The pheasant looked up at a huge tree on the edge of the field and very nostalgically said, “Alas! There was a time when I could fly to the topmost branch of the tree. Now I don’t have strength in my wings to even fly to the lowest branch of the tree.”
The bull very nonchalantly said, “That’s no problem. Just eat a little bit of my dung and within a fortnight you will reach the topmost branch of the tree.” The pheasant said, “Come on! What kind of nonsense is that?” The bull replied, “Really! Try and see! The whole humanity is on it.” The pheasant very hesitantly pecked at the dung and lo! On the very first day it reached the lowest branch of the tree.
In a fortnight’s time it did reach the topmost branch of the tree. It went and sat on the topmost branch of the tree and trilled and looked around, enjoying the scenery. An old farmer, who saw the fat old pheasant on the topmost branch of the tree pulled out his shotgun and shot the bird down.
So the moral of the story is: many times, even bullshit can get you to the top, but it never lets you stay there. It never lets you stay there isn’t it? That’s what you’re trying to do with your happiness, to be happy somehow. One moment up there, one moment there, down. You cannot get there like that.
So, your Joy keeps crashing down repeatedly. It doesn’t matter how many times you think ‘This is it’, it keeps falling down simply because you don’t understand the mechanics of it. You’re just trying to get there somehow but you can’t get there somehow. If you want to get there, if you want to do something, if you want to create a certain result either externally or internally, you must be able to do the right thing.
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A volume of nature essays, one for each month of the year, with such titles as: Faces of Janus; A woodland valentine; Ways of the March hare; The April moment; The crest of spring; Hay harvest time. The author has a keen eye for the delicate shadings of the seasons ’ changes, and the book will appeal to those of similar tastes. In addition to the twelve essays for the months, she writes of
Landscapes seen in dreams; Hiding places; The play of leaves; The brown frontier; Far altars.
“The style is full of color and highly charged with meaning. It is not a smooth papershelled almond, but a shagbark hickory nut. If you want the full sweetness of the kernel, you must pick it out carefully. It well rewards the trouble. I am glad she has chosen to send out her first book, not in some strange form of free verse, but in clear, spicy, juicy prose. It is alluring and refreshing, a cupful of cordial.” H: Van Dyke
M. SOMMERVILLE (FRANKFORT SOMMERVILLE, pseud.).
Present day Paris and the battlefields. *$1.50 (3½c)
Appleton 914.4
20–15940
“The visitor’s handbook with the chief excursions to the battlefields.” (Sub-title) All but one of the fifteen chapters are devoted to Paris. There are chapters on Paris of today; Fashionable Paris; Intellectual Paris; The origins of Paris; Paris of the middle ages; The art, gayety and genius of Paris; Aristocratic and pious Paris; etc. The excursions to the battlefields are outlined in the final chapter. The style is intimate and many of the conventional guide book features are omitted. There is no index.
“It is well written, interesting, accurate as far as it goes, but it is not a handbook. It has no index, no maps. A more important omission, however, is its failure to live up to its title. The book has little concern with ‘present-day’ Paris.”
Springf’d Republican p10 N 5 ’20 540w
STRATON, JOHN ROACH. Menace of immorality in church and state; messages of wrath and judgment. il *$1.75 (2½c) Doran 176
20–6996
A series of sermons preached in Calvary Baptist church, New York city, all dealing with “the rank paganism and ever widening indecencies of the modern age. ” The author says, “After every war, there is a wave of immorality. We have just passed through the greatest war of all time, and we are now witnessing the widest wave of immorality in the history of the human race. ” Among the subjects of the sixteen chapters are: Slaves of fashion: the connection between women ’ s dress and social vice; The awful corruption of the modern theater: should Christians attend? The scarlet stain of sexual impurity: will America go the way of the great empires of the past? The great American gambling craze; God or Mammon? a message to the millionaires of New York; Sabbath observance as social sanity.
“The book is all emphasis. Ring the bell for church a few times and it has an effect; toll the bell and the stridence of its tone wearies.”
Boston Transcript p6 Je 16 ’20 400w
N Y Times 25:224 My 2 ’20 700w
“The value and importance of his appeal, which might have been great, are largely lost by lack of perspective, grotesque exaggeration, superficial reasoning, and inaccurate statements of important facts. To those abreast of the times in the field of social hygiene effort and accomplishment, the book offers an object lesson in unscientific method and presentation.”
B. J.
− +
Social Hygiene 6:580 O ’20 240w
Springf’d Republican p8 My 28 ’20 450w
Reviewed by F: H. Whitin
Survey 44:308 My 29 ’20 500w
20–12400
“This book on public speaking attempts to provide fundamental rules and enough exercises to train members of a class to become effective speakers before audiences. It aims to be practical. The idea underlying the treatment is that the student will be continually doing much more speaking than studying.” (Prefatory note) The chapters take up: Speech; The voice; Words and sentences; Beginning the speech; Concluding the speech; Getting material; Planning the
“The chief value of the book is its excellent organization of the large variety of activities which make up a worthy course in public speaking.”
+ speech; Making the outline or brief; Explaining; Proving and persuading; Refuting; Debating; Speaking upon special occasions; Dramatics. Additional exercises are given in the two appendixes and there is an index. The author is a member of the English department of Central high school, St Louis, and of the Division of university extension, Washington university.
School R 28:635 O ’20 180w
STRAUS, RALPH. Pengard awake. *$2 Appleton
20–17317
Pengard was first discovered by some English tourists, as a bookdealer in Chicago. According to the testimony of his friends, he had been queer for some time and was getting queerer, disappearing from time to time for increasingly long intervals. As he also appeared to be suffering, Sir Robert Graeme sets himself to fathoming the mystery. A famous English physician is requisitioned for the probe. That Pengard is a victim of amnesia, is coming more and more under the influence of another personality and is living in dread of complete surrender, is certain from the start. And this is what gradually reveals itself: John Pengard and Hartley Sylvester are one and the same person, and the latter, author of a book that has made him famous, is gaining in sinister influence. By the aid of psychoanalysis, hypnotism and shrewd guesses, Dr Arne achieves the unexpected result that Pengard fades away as a dream person and Sylvester comes to stay. After more patient experimenting, more
startling disclosures, Sylvester transforms himself into John Mathieson, one-time pal and brother-in-arms to Sir Robert’s dead brother.
“We must admit that even an inveterate novel reader will scarcely be able to forecast the various developments which arise, and in particular the utterly unlooked-for conclusion.”
Ath p555 O 22 ’20 130w
“The story becomes more and more baffling as we proceed. The mystery is well worked out and the unraveling is exciting up to the very close.”
Boston Transcript p4 D 24 ’20 190w
“An uncommonly good story of this kind. Based upon actual psychological fact.”
Cleveland p107 D ’20 50w
Grinnell R 16:355 F ’21 200w
“While the plot is clever enough to carry the book, the pleasant literary style it is that will attract the average reader.”
N Y Times p29 Ja 2 ’21 470w
“Anybody who wants to be entertained will thoroughly enjoy this story, but most readers will probably agree that Lucius Arne is the least convincing part of it.”
STRAUS, SIMON WILLIAM. History of the thrift movement in America. il *$1.50 (2c) Lippincott
331.84
20–7771
The book is one of Lippincott’s thrift text series edited by Arthur H. Chamberlain. In his introduction Mr Chamberlain says of the author: “He clearly saw the wasteful tendencies of our people, and deplored the results, bound, he well knew, to come from them. He saw the problem in its totality. He appreciated thoroughly the distinction between proper spending and useless wasting; between common-sense saving and narrow parsimony.... He alone could write the history, indicate the need and significance and point the way of the thrift movement, of which he is the apostle.” The book falls into two parts. Some of the chapters in part 1 are: Characterization of thrift; America’s record of thriftlessness; The organization of the American society for thrift; The international congress for thrift; Resolutions recommending the teachings of thrift in the public schools of America. Among the contents of part 2 are: Little talks on thrift; Money-making and money-saving; How thrift shapes the character; The need of personal account keeping; Waste in the kitchen; Personal standards of thrift; Thriftlessness among the poor. There is an index and five symbolic cartoons by Rollin Kirby.
Booklist 17:7 O ’20
“Certainly, the gospel of thrift which Mr Straus expounds needs to be spread far and wide. The little talks on thrift contained in part II will be helpful to teachers as illustrations of the thrift idea.” G: F. Zook
Survey 44:310 My 29 ’20 330w The Times [London] Lit Sup p385 Je 17
100w
STRAYER, GEORGE DRAYTON, and ENGELHARDT, NICKOLAUS LOUIS.
Classroom teacher at work in American school. il *$1.48 Am. bk. 371.2
20–7789
“This volume is one of the American education series, of which Prof. Strayer is the general editor. It treats exhaustively of the organization and administration of public education, as well as of the technique employed by the teacher in his daily work. Chapters are included dealing with records and reports, the organization of public education, the classification and progress of children, the measurement of the achievements of children, the health of school children, as well as extra-curricula activities that make possible an intelligent and sympathetic cooperation with the plans of the administrator.” Springf’d Republican
“Contains little that is new, but is a restatement of material which is already familiar to all except elementary students of education. It will doubtless be used in many introductory courses. ” El School J 21:152 O ’20 500w
STREET, JULIAN LEONARD. Sunbeams, Inc.
Doubleday
20–16499
Henry Bell Brown is introduced to us first as he is leaving the staff of the New York Evening Dispatch, and is given a farewell banquet. He is leaving to join a firm of “advertising engineers,” and subsequently becomes H. Bell Brown. It is only when he goes into business for himself that he rises to the glory of “Belwyn Brown.” It is his big idea of “merchandising” (one of his favorite verbs) sunshine that brings him success. He becomes a sort of a commercial Pollyanna spreading Gloomer Chasers broadcast on boiler-plate pages something on this order: “No business is busted when there’s a smile left in the bank.” The war threatens the business of Sunbeams, Inc., but he enlarges its scope, goes to France and helps “win the war with sunshine.” Upon his return he is more convinced than ever that his name and fame shall be a household word and spares no effort to accomplish this result. At the end of a successful
banquet given in his honor by the Pundits he is able to “indulge himself in a brief self-gratulatory yet philosophical reflection. ‘One thing is sure, ’ he said to himself; ‘In this world a fellow gets just about what’s coming to him.’”
“Not only is the story so thin that it will hardly hold together, but it is impossible to feel any sympathy with the leading character a state of things which often is fatal in a work of this kind. That it is not so in this instance is immeasurably to the credit of the author. It affords whimsical entertainment of unique quality.”
N Y Times p22 S 19 ’20 350w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
Review 3:269 S 29 ’20 200w
“Short story with a lot of humor and various amusing exhibitions of psychology.” Springf’d Republican p9a O 24 ’20 120w
“The movement toward a scientific and philosophical conception of God is materially aided by the publication of a book called ‘The spirit,’ edited by Canon B. H. Streeter of the Church of England. ‘This volume,’ says the editor, ‘puts forward a conception of spirit considered as God in action which is definite but not scholastic, and which is capable of affording a basis both for a coherent philosophy and for a religion passionate and ethical, mystical and practical.’ The chapter on Immanence and transcendance is by Prof. A. PringlePattison. Miss Lily Dougall writes on God in action. The psychology of power is treated by Capt. J. A. Hadfield of the Ashhurst neurological war hospital at Oxford. A. Clutton-Brock’s customary distinction of mind and style is apparent in two chapters on Spiritual experience and Spirit and matter. Other chapters are What happened at Pentecost by Rev. C. A. Anderson Scott, The psychology of grace, by Rev. C. W. Emmet, The language of the soul, by Miss Dougall and Christ, the revolutionary by Canon Streeter.” Springf’d Republican
Bib World 54:428 Jl ’20 320w
“Its temper is frank, its thought, for the most part, keen and clear, and its language, though frequently employing the terms of traditional theology, simple and eloquent.”
Springf’d Republican p6 Ja 19 ’20 680w
“Alike in its fearlessness, in its refusal to make terms with narrow types of orthodoxy, and in its strong Christocentric theology it is a characteristic product of modern English religious thought. Its main defect is that it only implicitly recognizes the affirmation of modern research that Christianity is a synthesis.”
STREIT, CLARENCE K.
“Where iron is, there is the fatherland!” il *$1; pa *50c Huebsch 940.318
20–19447
The booklet comes under the “Freeman pamphlets” series and is “ a note on the relation of privilege and monopoly to war. ” (Subtitle) It is an exposé of the stock and bond morality of big business and shows “that the interests of a nation and the interests of private property are two separate and distinct things. Whether the money and mineral international did or did not prepare and start the war ... it is certain that the fifty-one months during which millions of men were killed was a most profitable era for these interests.” Some of the topics discussed are: The basin of Briey; Interlocking directorates; Nickel not contraband; The French trust favors Krupps; Patrioteers; When is a fort not a fort? The agreement for a Lorraine offensive; The flag of big business; Bloody profits.
“Mr Streit tells the story simply, straightforwardly, with ample citation of authority, but almost too unjournalistically. The booklet is marred by awkward translations and by careless proof-reading of place names. ”
Nation 111:276 S 4 ’20 300w
