Excerpt from The Steps of Life: Further Essays on Happiness Happiness is ever plain and open to all, yet not all who have seen it succeed in really finding it. Like poor Pliable in the Pil grim's Progress, they turn back when once they have fallen into the Slough of Despond and it is they, and not those who have never tried it, who give the narrow path to genuine happiness the poor repute it has with so-called realists. Such deserters are Often highly gifted and, at first, earnest; and they are by no means always lacking in the courage need ed to seek the truth and for its sake to give up the enticing illusions of life. But on the very threshold Of that better life which alone brings peace stand two dark figures, like the guardians at the mouth of Hell in the Paradise Lost and before them even the stoutest heart trembles, and they let no man by who has not first had it out with them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.