library
is not without foundation. In more than one case I have seen a course of
lectures or the reading of a single book lead to a course of reading in
economics and sociology, which has entirely changed points of view. New
ideals, higher standards, have made new men with higher lines of action.
Their natures have not been changed, but their visions have been
clarified.

One of the stock arguments which conservatism always brings out to give
a final quietus to any proposal for social reform, is--"Oh, that's
impossible; you'd have to change human nature!" This mental attitude,
which, I am sorry to say, is the prevailing one with the great majority
of mankind, is admirable satirized in some verses which I had great
pleasure in printing in the April number of the St. Louis Public Library
Magazine:

There was once a Neolithic Man, an enterprising wight,
Who made his simple instruments unusually bright,
Unusually clever he, unusually brave.
And he sketched delightful mammoths on the border of his cave,
To his Neolithic neighbors who were startled and surprised,
Said he: "My friends, in course of time we shall be civilized!
We are going to live in cities and build churches and make laws!
We are going to eat three times a day without the natural cause!
We're going to turn life upside down about a thing called Gold!
We're going to want the earth, and take as much as we can hold!
We are going to wear a pile of stuff outside our proper skins;
We're going to have Diseases! and Accomplishments!! and Sins!!!
Then they all rose up in fury against this boastful friend
For prehistoric patience comes quickly to an end.
Said one, "This is chimerical! Uptopian! Absurd!"
Said another, "What a stupid life! Too dull, upon my word!"
Cried all, "Before such things can come, you idiotic child,
You must alter Human Nature!" and they all sat back and smiled!
Thought they, "An answer to that last it will be hard to find!"
It was a clinching argument--to the Neolithic Mind!

Yes, great progress and reform can be accomplished without changing
human nature. The elemental forces in the heart of man are the same now
as in the earliest recorded ages, and they are likely to remain the same
for all time to come. We cannot change the elements of man's nature; but
by changing conditions we can improve the product of reaction. We can
elevate conduct by elevating ideals. Th