How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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- Publication/creation
- London : George Routledge, 1932.
- Physical description
- xiv, 374 pages ; 22 cm
- Contributors
- Wolfe, W. Béran 1900-1935.
- Notes
-
This edition was reprinted in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946 and 1948.
Copy 1 Note: 1937 reprint. X158203
- Attribution and usage
-
Wellcome Collection
Conditions of use: it is possible this item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
The image contains the following text:
book will be devoted to research as to the goals of the
good life, its problems, its tools, its techniques, and finally
to the major satisfactions which it holds for the average,
intelligent, adult human being.
When we examine the artistic process, whether in
music, sculpture, painting, drama, or in creative self¬
sculpture, we find that the artist must master four
fundamental wisdoms. The first wisdom is knowledge
of his material. As the painter must know his pigments,
so the artist in living must understand human nature.
The second wisdom is craftsmanship. Craftsmanship
consists in the art of modifying raw material into a
meaningful design. The writer must know how to mould
his words so that they convey his meaning to the reader.
The sculptor must know how to chisel granite, carve
wood, or mould the plastic clay to his design. The artist
in living must know how to modify human nature. He
must begin by self-education, and he must be capable of
influencing his fellow-men in such a way that the human
community will be a better place in which to live. The
third wisdom is again knowledge, this time knowledge of
the purpose and goal of art. If you know human nature,
and know how to change your own conduct or influence
the lives of your employees, your child, or your house¬
maid, and have no 'plan or design for your own life, you
cannot be very happy in being human. The fourth and
most intangible of these necessary wisdoms is courage.
Every art interposes obstacles in the way of the artist.
Many a newspaper man has dreamed of writing a great
novel only to shrink timidly from his task when faced
with the endless impudence of half a dozen sheets of
white paper. Many a would-be sculptor has dreamed his
heroic figures only to falter at the persistent obstinacy
of cold granite. And so also many a man, knowing his
potentialities, sure of his technique, aware of his goal in
life, has hesitated and been lost because the obstacles of
age, of sex, of time, of money, of geography, climate,
mothers-in-law, public prejudice, hay-fever or religious
belief have discouraged him from carrying on.