Part 1

WORKS BY ARNOLD BENNETT

NOVELS

A Man from the North Anna of the Five Towns Leonora A Great Man Sacred and Profane Love Whom God hath Joined Buried Alive The Old Wives’ Tale The Glimpse Helen with the High Hand Clayhanger The Card Hilda Lessways The Regent The Price of Love These Twain The Lion’s Share The Pretty Lady The Roll-Call

FANTASIAS

The Grand Babylon Hotel The Gates of Wrath Teresa of Watling Street The Loot of Cities Hugo The Ghost The City of Pleasure

SHORT STORIES

Tales of the Five Towns The Grim Smile of the Five Towns The Matador of the Five Towns

BELLES-LETTRES

How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day The Human Machine Mental Efficiency Literary Taste Friendship and Happiness Married Life Those United States Paris Nights Books and Persons

DRAMA

Polite Farces Cupid and Common Sense What the Public Wants The Honeymoon The Great Adventure The Title

SELF AND SELF-MANAGEMENT

SELF AND SELF-MANAGEMENT

ESSAYS ABOUT EXISTING

BY ARNOLD BENNETT

HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MCMXVIII

CONTENTS

PAGE

RUNNING AWAY FROM LIFE 3

SOME AXIOMS ABOUT WAR-WORK 25

THE DIARY HABIT 45

A DANGEROUS LECTURE TO A YOUNG WOMAN 65

THE COMPLETE FUSSER 85

THE MEANING OF FROCKS 103

RUNNING AWAY FROM LIFE

RUNNING AWAY FROM LIFE

I WILL take the extreme case of the social butterfly, because it has the great advantage of simplicity. This favourite variety of the lepidopteral insects is always spoken of as female. But as the variety persists from generation to generation obviously it cannot be of one sex only. And, as a fact, there are indubitably male social butterflies, though the differences between the male and the female may be slight. I shall, however, confine myself to the case of the female social butterfly--again for the sake of simplicity.

This beautiful creature combines the habits of the butterfly with the habits of the moth. For whereas the moth flies only by night and the butterfly flies only by day, the social butterfly flies both by day and by night. She is universally despised and condemned, and almost universally envied: one of the strangest among the many strange facts of natural history. She lives with a single purpose--to be for ever in the movement--not any particular movement, but the movement, which is a grand combined tendency comprising all lesser tendencies. For the social butterfly the constituents of the movement are chiefly men, theatres, restaurants, dances, noise, and hurry. The minor constituents may and do frequently change, but the major constituents have not changed for a considerable number of years. The minor constituents of the movement are usually ‘serious,’ and hence in a minor way the social butterfly is serious. If books happen to be of the movement, she will learn the names of books and authors, and in urgent crises will even read. If music, she will learn to distinguish from all other sounds the sounds which are of the movement, the sounds at which she must shut her eyes in ecstasy and sigh. If social reform, she will at once be ready to reform everybody and everything except herself and her existence. If charity or mercifulness, she will be charitable or merciful according to the latest devices and in the latest frocks. Yes, and if war happens to be of the movement, she will be serious about the war.