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                          THE THREAD OF LIFE

          [Illustration: Infanta Eulalia of Spain; signature]




                                  THE
                            THREAD OF LIFE

                                  BY

                          H.R.H. THE INFANTA
                           EULALIA OF SPAIN

              WITH A REMBRANDT PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE,
               FOUR FULL-PAGE PLATES, AND A NOTE ON THE
                          AUTHOR AND HER BOOK

                       CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD.
                London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
                                 1912




                          ALL RIGHTS RESERVED




PREFACE


Some preface, however short, is needed to this book, the mirror of some
of my ideas, and, first of all, I wish to put my readers on their guard
against a false interpretation of the motives by which I have been
actuated.

In publishing these opinions of mine, it has not been my wish to
accomplish a literary work. I have not aimed at any display of learning,
and I make no pretence of forcing on anyone my different points of view.

As a spectator in close enough contact with present social problems to
understand all the points under discussion, yet at the same time
sufficiently removed from them to analyse them coolly and judge them
without prejudice, I bring forward my evidence unshackled by
conventions. It has seemed to me that such fair, exact evidence might
interest those who seek to glean, amongst all classes of society, the
thousand dissimilar and contradictory elements whence proceed the
lessons needed both for the present and the future.

Those who care to glance through the short chapters of this book will
soon see that they have been written with the sincere conviction with
which I always express my ideas and opinions, or perform any work
independently undertaken.

I only ask my readers to excuse any faults of style, which I have tried
to make up for by straightforwardness of tone.

                                                  EULALIA

                                                      Infanta of Spain




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

GENERAL CAUSES OF HAPPINESS                                            3

THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL                                             11

HONESTY                                                               19

FRIENDSHIP                                                            25

DIVORCE                                                               33

THE FAMILY                                                            45

THE COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE OF WOMAN                                    53

THE WAR AGAINST FEMINISM                                              61

THE EQUALISING OF CLASSES BY EDUCATION                                69

SOCIALISM                                                             77

THE WORKING CLASSES                                                   85

DOMESTIC SERVICE                                                      93

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS                                                101

THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION AND ITS INFLUENCE OVER THE PEOPLE          109

THE PRESS                                                            117

MORALITY                                                             125

PUBLIC OPINION                                                       133

PREJUDICES                                                           139

JUDGMENT                                                             145

THE FEAR OF RIDICULE                                                 151

MORAL COURAGE                                                        159

TRADITIONS                                                           167

CRITICISM                                                            175

THE DANGER OF EXCESSIVE ANALYSIS                                     181

THE LAW OF COMPENSATION                                              187

THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK                                              195




GENERAL CAUSES OF HAPPINESS




THE THREAD OF LIFE




General Causes of Happiness


The most imperative motive of all human actions is the desire to be
happy. But it is difficult to attain happiness if the search for it is
made the constant aim of one’s life, although the primordial craving for
it is an instinct in our nature.

The art of living is one in which we are but ill instructed by
philosophers, scientists and metaphysicians; the first, because they
leave the meaning of life as it is to show us some end in view; the
second, because they are but rationalist theorists; and the last,
because they claim to be able to lift the veil from the Beyond. The
truth is that life is worth living, and that in order to live happily
one must know how to draw from life a relative amount of happiness.

Simply by realising the charm of the pleasures--small though they
be--which every instant of the day offers us, one may create for oneself
a source of happiness, for this realisation gives what is usually called
the _joie de vivre_ (the joy of living), the principle in all happy
nature.

Unfortunately, in the majority of cases, man does not see clearly the
road leading to happiness because he is seeking it in the immediate and
complete satisfaction of his desires, in material or intellectual
delights whose worth he exaggerates; in superfluity, in possession, in
all that he takes for happiness, but which is in reality mere enjoyment
allied to fears, dangers, and regrets.

It is necessary, first of all, to simplify the causes of happiness. To
illustrate my doctrine, I ask everyone to imagine the idyll in its true
form, that is to say, as being the perfect presentment of the sentiment
of love. Simplicity, whether in personal tastes, in the affections, or
in daily actions, is the great secret of happiness.

With our nature, however justifiable it may be to acquaint ourselves
with partial and transitory satisfactions, we cannot build up happiness
on so fragile a foundation. Fortune is unstable; notoriety, whatever its
cause, fades with time; glory is a vain word; health declines, and all
is ruin and sorrow everywhere, save where complete satisfaction has been
built up by continually aspiring towards the True, the Beautiful,