Heart and Soul | Page 3

to be the very contrary and contradiction of all that has gone
before. The life of the individual, as it unfolds from the first principle,
is a question of self-preservation, self-gratification, appetites, desires,
pleasures, as full a measure of enjoyment as it is possible to obtain.
This is interfered with by outside force and considerations of reason
and experience; certain desires have to be controlled by the idea of
good and bad, reward and punishment; certain pleasures and pains have
to be balanced against each other to determine a choice. But from
beginning to end, it is all concerned in considerations of
advantage--what is best for self, at the time being, or in the long run--in
this world or the next. Why do this, that, or the other? because you will
gain most by it, in the end. At bottom, the motive is taken for granted,
whether openly admitted or more or less thinly disguised--self,
self-interest, selfishness.
Then we turn and look upon a mother and her child--and we find that
all thought of personal advantage can be transferred to another.
Self-interest can be controlled and obliterated by a new and mysterious
principle--the principle of love.
There are various kinds and degrees of feeling that go under the name
of love and nothing in life is more interesting or more vitally important
to study and understand. But in this preliminary summary it is enough
to signal its existence as one of the factors in the problem of life.

It may be just as well to note, in passing, that mothers are to be found
whose love for their children is not so completely unselfish. Mothers
are to be found who care very little about their children. Mothers are to
be found who regard children as a nuisance and a disadvantage and
prefer to be without them. That will be found to be one of the curious
side-lights of the problem when time comes to discuss it.
It does not alter the fact, however, that love exists, that the true
mother's love of her child is the most complete and universal
illustration of it.
Also in many other forms of love and affection, it is easy to recognize
this same tendency toward unselfishness--a readiness to sacrifice one's
personal pleasures and inclinations for the joy of another. A father may
have this feeling for his son, or his brother, just as he may have it for
his wife, or his mother. A man, or a woman, may have it for a dear and
intimate friend, and be willing to make real sacrifices in order to benefit
them.
This, then, is the fourth consideration--a fourth factor in the problem of
life--and to avoid misunderstanding and confusion of ideas, we will call
it affection--the influence of affection.
There remains one more consideration--one further class and kind of
influence--which has its bearing on conduct. This may be summed up,
in a general way, as love of an ideal, or an idea. Although it is less
wide-spread and less potent in most lives than affection for fellow
beings, yet it is, in varying degrees, a real factor that cannot be left out.
A sense of duty exists, to greater or less extent, in nearly all people. In
people of breeding and good family it may become pride of
race--noblesse oblige. A certain individual may have a strong affection
for his home town, the little community with which he has been
identified as a boy and man. Another is devoted to a cause, a political
party, a Red Cross movement; while others have a strong feeling of
patriotism, they love their country, their flag, and they are ready, at any
time, to give up something for the good cause.

Broadly speaking, and for lack of a better name, we may call this fifth
principle in the problem of life--devotion to an ideal.
As a result of these influences, the character of an individual is formed,
his conduct is determined. At any given time, in the presence of any
given question as to what he will, or will not do, the answer will
depend on the relative force, or sway, of the conflicting considerations.
This is merely stating an application of a general law--that all effects
must have their causes. Only in the conduct of an individual, the causes
at work are often very subtle and complicated.
If the average individual at the present time is behaving differently
from the way he used to act, it is obviously because of some change in
the influences. Certain motives and considerations which used to be
decisive have now ceased to dominate. Other considerations have
superseded them. So much is fairly obvious, and very little reflection is
needed to locate these in a general way. They lie in the second group of
our