I used to be able to afford champagne,
but my liver was always wrong, and I dared not drink it. Now I
cannot afford champagne, but I enjoy my beer. That is my theory,
that we are all of us entitled to payment according to our market
value, neither more nor less. You can take it all in cash. I used
to. Or you can take less cash and more fun: that is what I am
getting now."
"It is delightful," I said, "to meet with a philosopher. One hears
about them, of course; but I had got it into my mind they were all
dead."
"People laugh at philosophy," he said. "I never could understand
why. It is the science of living a free, peaceful, happy existence.
I would give half my remaining years to be a philosopher."
"I am not laughing at philosophy," I said. "I honestly thought you
were a philosopher. I judged so from the way you talked."
"Talked!" he retorted. "Anybody can talk. As you have just said, I
talk like a philosopher."
"But you not only talk," I insisted, "you behave like a philosopher.
Sacrificing your income to the joy of living your own life! It is
the act of a philosopher."
I wanted to keep him in good humour. I had three things to talk to
him about: the cow, the donkey, and Dick.
"No, it wasn't," he answered. "A philosopher would have remained a
stockbroker and been just as happy. Philosophy does not depend upon
environment. You put the philosopher down anywhere.
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