money and labor they buy what they are
after--HAPPINESS, SELF-APPROVAL. Why don't miners do the same thing?
Because they can get a thousandfold more happiness by NOT doing it.
There is no other reason. They follow the law of their make.

Y.M. What do you say of duty for duty's sake?

O.M. That IS DOES NOT EXIST. Duties are not performed for duty's SAKE,
but because their NEGLECT would make the man UNCOMFORTABLE. A man
performs but ONE duty--the duty of contenting his spirit, the duty of
making himself agreeable to himself. If he can most satisfyingly perform
this sole and only duty by HELPING his neighbor, he will do it; if he
can most satisfyingly perform it by SWINDLING his neighbor, he will
do it. But he always looks out for Number One--FIRST; the effects upon
others are a SECONDARY matter. Men pretend to self-sacrifices, but this
is a thing which, in the ordinary value of the phrase, DOES NOT EXIST
AND HAS NOT EXISTED. A man often honestly THINKS he is sacrificing
himself merely and solely for some one else, but he is deceived; his
bottom impulse is to content a requirement of his nature and training,
and thus acquire peace for his soul.

Y.M. Apparently, then, all men, both good and bad ones, devote their
lives to contenting their consciences.

O.M. Yes. That is a good enough name for it: Conscience--that
independent Sovereign, that insolent absolute Monarch inside of a man
who is the man's Master. There are all kinds of consciences, because
there are all kinds of men. You satisfy an assassin's conscience in one
way, a philanthropist's in another, a miser's in another, a burglar's in
still another. As a GUIDE or INCENTIVE to any authoritatively prescribed
line of morals or conduct (leaving TRAINING out of the account), a man's
conscience is totally valueless. I know a kind-hearted Kentuckian whose
self-approval was lacking--whose conscience was troubling him, to phrase
it with exactness--BECAUSE HE HAD NEGLECTED TO KILL A CERTAIN MAN--a man
whom he had never seen. The stranger had killed this man's friend in a
fight, this man's Kentucky training made it a duty to kill the stranger
for it. He neglected his duty--kept dodging it, shirking it, putting
it off, and his unrelenting conscience kept persecuting him for this
conduct. At last, to get ease of mind, comfort, self-approval, he
hunted up the stranger and took his life. It was an immense act of
SELF-SACRIFICE (as per the usual definition), for he did not want