In praise of idleness.--"Useless" knowledge.--Architecture and social questions.--The modern Midas.--The ancestry of fascism.--Scylla and Charybdis, or, Communism and fascism.--The case for socialism.--Western civilization.--On youthful cynicism.--Modern homogeneity.--Men versus insects.--Education and discipline.--Stoicism and mental health.--On comets.--What is the soul?