* Mr. William James, in his Principles of Psychology, has
devoted many admirable lines to the relief experienced by a person who suddenly rids his conscience of unnecessary pre- occupations. The instance which he furnishes is that of the man of advanced middle age who suddenly concludes that it does not really matter how obese he becomes. The peace of great freedom descends upon that man and he is able there- after to consider both buns and buttons with unruffled calm. A similar liberation is achieved by the politician who cancels his subscription to a press-cutting agency. Gone for ever is the smart of being mentioned unkindly ; gone for ever the gloom of not being mentioned at all. In the newspapers which he reads regularly he may, or may not, come across references to himself ; he can be certain that if anything really libellous is written about him he will at once be told about it by all his friends ; and meanwhile he can enjoy the flowers of public life without the thorns and comfort himself with the illusion that he is being mentioned frequently and well in all those national and provincial newspapers that he never sees.
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