How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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honours in chemistry. Explosives were his chief joy. Twice he blew up the college laboratory, and one of the explosions burned his face and the resulting scar left his lips with an almost satanic twist. He enjoyed the disfigurement because it gave him* an actual excuse for avoiding the company of his classmates, especially women. During his holidays he worked unstintingly in chemical works in order to repay his father for his education, and thus to sever (as he thought) the last sentimental associations with his home. Women he scorned. At the age of twenty-four he had never attended a dance, never entered a picture gallery except when compelled to do so as part of his school curriculum. He disliked music, art, poetry. He spent any leisure moments in his private laboratory, or hunting and fishing when the opportunity offered. After graduation, he joined a great chemical combine, and within a year had invented a new explosive which made him financially independent. He continued his experiments, this time attempting to develop a poison gas which would be of great interest in a future war. He is a tireless worker, sleeps only five hours a night, has no real friends, has never contributed a farthing to any charity, has never kissed a girl, has never danced. He wears a suit of clothes until it falls apart or is so badly burned with chemicals that it no longer covers him. His most cherished ambition is to develop an explosive or a poison gas which will immediately wipe out an entire battleship or an army corps. This unhappy man is considered a success in his pro¬ fession, but he is a great and unhappy failure as a human being. We can see how the unfortunate circumstances of his youth have given him a warped pattern of life. His goal, a compensation for his own inability to cooperate in the fellowship of human beings, may be formulated thus : “ I want to be the master of the power of life and death. Since I cannot belong to mankind, I will use my knowledge to destroy it.” To this end he excludes every interest and activity which does not lead him immediately