JOY AND FELICITY

at the oasis, but not as you march through the waste.

On the other hand, Joy is essentially dynamic, and may be defined, in contrast, as the consciousness of the triomphant ascent of life. It is the song in the heart of wayfarer or warf arer who knows that he is inherently able to rise to what* ever may be demanded of him. It is perhaps the sensé of being just more than eqnal to the situation. It sounds nirherever strength and abUity are just in excess of pressure and requirement. It is the ringing answer to iife's challenge made by the knight who has measurdess trust in himsdf , and is not afraid of a defeat which cannot for him mean ultimate failure. It is something which Henley — ^if one may judge from a famihar poem — ^and Nietzsche just missed; for Joy is not to be equated with dour heroism and stoUd défiance, nor with a zest in life which évidences itself by the pantings of one who is desperatdy hard put to it, or by groanings which can scarcdy be uttered ; about Joy there are always the infaUible marks of undoubted mastery — a certain ease, lightheartedness, in« soudance, cardessness, detachment.

Laughter is as characteristic of Carpenter as it is of Nietzsche ; in each it is full of meaning, but of how différent a quality ! In Nietzsche's laughter there is always the suspidon of something sinister. His " railing alongside the torrent" is magnificent, but terrible. As he laughs, he dde-