 SELF AND SELF MANAGEMENT Essays about existing by Arnold Bennett Recording by Edith Carson Section 1 Running away from life 1. I will take the extreme case of the social butterfly because it has the great advantage of simplicity. This favourite variety of the lepidopteral insects is always spoken of as female, but as the variety persists from generation to generation obviously it cannot be of one sex only, and as a fact there are indubitably male social butterflies those the differences between the male and the female may be slight. I shall however confine myself to the case of the female social butterfly again for the sake of simplicity. This beautiful creature combines the habits of the butterfly with the habits of the moth for whereas the moth flies only by night and the butterfly flies only by day the social butterfly flies both by day and by night. She is universally despised and condemned and almost universally envied one of the strangest among the many strange facts of natural history. She lives with a single purpose to be forever in the movement not any particular movement but the movement which is a grand combined tendency comprising all lesser tendencies. For the social butterfly the constituents of the movement are chiefly men, theatres, restaurants, dances, noise and hurry. The minor constituents may and do frequently change but the major constituents have not changed for a considerable number of years. The minor constituents of the movement are usually serious and hence in a minor way the social butterfly is serious. If books happen to be of the movement she will learn the names of books and authors and in urgent crises will even read. If music she will learn to distinguish from all other sounds the sounds which are of the movement the sounds at which she must shut her eyes in ecstasy and sigh. If social reform she will at once be ready to reform everybody and everything except herself and her existence. If charity or mercifulness she will be charitable or merciful according to the latest devices and in the latest frocks. Yes and if war happens to be of the movement she will be serious about the war. You observe how sarcastic I am about the social butterfly. It is necessary to be so. The social butterfly never has since the earlier...