n Francisco, is considerably made up of folk who are not
educated or "cultured" or of necessity filled with unsatiable longings
of the soul.

It is partly due to the fact that only recently--as geologic time is
reckoned--we were swinging in trees, yearning probably for little else
than a nut to crack, a mate, a shelter of sorts, something of ape
company, and now and then a chance for a bit of a scrap. It is partly
due to the fact that for the great majority of people, the life they
live from the cradle up is not the sort that matures them with a
growing ambition or opportunity to experience the "finer" things of
life. One point of view would allow that the reason we have so few
educated, cultured, and aspiring people is due to a combination of
unfortunate circumstances to do with heredity and environment. They
would be cultured and spiritual if only....

The other viewpoint argues that the only reason we have as many cultured
and spiritual people as we have is due to a fortunate--"lucky"--combination
of circumstances to do with heredity and environment. These more
advanced folk would be far fewer in number if it had not happened
that....

It is mostly the "educated and cultured" persons who write the more
serious books we read and who tell us what they and the rest of the
world think and feel and do--or ought to do. The rest of the world
never read what they ought to think and feel and do, and go
blithely--or otherwise--on their way thinking and feeling and
doing--what they please, or as circumstances force them.

After all, the world is a very subjective thing, and what makes life
worth living to one person is not necessarily what makes it worth
living to another. Certain fundamental things everybody is apt to
want: enough to eat (but what a gamut that "enough" can run!); a mate
(the range and variety of mates who do seem amply to satisfy one
another!); a shelter to retire to nights (what a bore if we all had to
live complacently on the Avenue!); children to love and fuss over--but
one child does some parents and ten children do others, and some
mothers go into a decline if everything is not sterilized twice a day
and everybody clean behind the ears, and other mothers get just as
much satisfaction out of their young when there is only one
toothbrush, if that, for everybody (we are writing from the mother's
viewpoint and not the welfare of the offspring); some possessions of
one's own, but not all stocks and bonds