THE PLEASURES OF LUNACY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 47, 25 February 1901, Page 2

THE PLEASURES OF LUNACY.

However.much critics may assert thai!;!; lunacy is an undesirable attribute, It hassome exceptional features which may' well excite our envy and make us pause amli consider its real claims. To be a good, healthy lunatic, and have it understood that you are,. is an almost1 ideal state. A great many people border Jon lunacy, but either will not admit it, *'i or keep it so dark that it crops out only.;Y at infrequent intervals. Thus they Have f to bear all the troubles and annoyances t incident upon sanity, wnen a few steps ; further in the right direction wouty re- > move the incubus. Let us calmly consider what common, or, ordinary sanity entaitlg"* upon its Tic-! tini. Let us look this thing squarely in the face and not attempt to hide the / truth. Sanity involves responsibilhWV and duties, which, when we stop to con- : sider them, may well appal us. ■ V Not only are we obliged to earn o«r daily bread, with all the inconvenience ■ and loss of valuable time which, that means, but we have also to return' calls, wear decent clothes, learn to lie so that/; others will

THINK WE ARE TELLING THE TRUTH (a process that in itself requires . long ■; training), pay our bills more or le3»i promptly, be unselfish and wise and as--; sume a constant cheerfulness that we-fto,: not feel. Sanity involves the unremitting^ effort to make others think we are hav-\ ing more fun than they are, and there's • never a time when a recognised sane per- v son can let up and do as he pleases. .. That this: is an irksome task is shotfn* by the number of those who are trying all.• the time to be sane, but who' fail, BP' wholly, but enough to reveal some of th^: delights of unsettled reason. Their very, sanity, however, incomplete as it may fc' prevents them from going too far. Misery, loves sanity: Contrast this stern and forbidding pie: ture with the deltghts of lunacy. It cannot be said that the lunaJtonias shirked; the whole business, for even this stlgina of cowardice will never be attached tojiiS memory. Kind Providence has done him a good stroke, and the whole cargo M' responsibilities that he has been carrying I is thrown overboard. No wonder a Sjjf|| ■ lunatic, fresh perhaps from the horror P*; a bankruptcy or a family row, is so over-, 'enthusiastic. ' A robust lunatic, in the possession of all ;v his faculties, is out for the best time B°~;. ing. He has no thought for the morrow, and all the world, if it loves a lover, dpe.sA GREAT DEAL MORE FOR HIM, for it takes the best of care of him.. W . fact, the lunatic is free ;rom everythtaff that is undesirable In sanity. He Is neverlonesome, for he has himself. He canJ>? \, anything he wants, not only within reason, but without. He can lie arid swear, 3 and get mad and tear things to P^* and backslide ,and cut up to his hearts " content, and all without the slightest re- ;; proach. Nothing within the whole rjaWV of fancy is denied to I'm. To a itinaw of even ordinary ability a millionaire » the merest pebble o the beach of -.Time-:,. He can be on equal terms with Jehovaa or can make worlds while the *effi waits. •■ ■rr ■"' ;: A lunatic creates his own heavei^r "Puck." i i| : ■-•'sHi