The Importance of Living [By: Lin Yutang]

PREFACE

This is a personal testimony, a testimony of my own experience of thought and life. It is not intended to be objective and makes no claim to establish eternal truths. In fact I rather despise claims to objectivity in philosophy; the point of view is the thing. I should have liked to call it "A Lyrical Philosophy," using the word "lyrical" in the sense of being a highly personal and individual, outlook. But that would be too beautiful a name and I must forego it, for fear of aiming too high and leading the reader to expect too much, and because the main, ingredient of my thought is matter-of- fact prose, a level: easier, to maintain because, more natural. Very much contented am I to lie low, to cling to the soil, to be of kin to the sod. My soul squirms comfortably in the soil and sand and is happy. Sometimes when one is drunk with this earth, one 's spirit seems so light that he thinks' he is in heaven. But actually he seldom rises six feet above the ground.

Lin Yutang

New York City