stored up within their structure
to burst forth into fresher and larger life; in like manner, though we
should forget every formal statement that we have read, yet we could not
fail to be affected by the incorporation within ourselves in the form of
character of some of these principles of duty and virtue which we have
been considering. It has been said: "Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a
destiny."

THE TEMPTATION.

+Pleasure not a reliable guide to conduct.+--The realization of capacity
brings with it pleasure. The harmonious realization of all our powers
would bring harmonious and permanent pleasure or happiness. Pleasure is
always to be welcomed as a sign of health and activity. Other things
being equal, the more pleasure we have the better. It is possible
however to abstract the pleasure from the activity which gives rise to
it, and make pleasure the end for which we act. This pursuit of pleasure
for pleasure's sake is delusive and destructive. It is delusive, because
the direct aim at pleasure turns us aside from the direct aim at
objects. And when we cease to aim directly at objects, we begin to lose
the pleasure and zest which only a direct pursuit of objects can
produce. For instance, we all know that if we go to a picnic or a party
thinking all the while about having a good time, and asking ourselves
every now and then whether we are having a good time or not, we find the
picnic or party a dreadful bore, and ourselves perfectly miserable. We
know that the whole secret of having a good time on such occasions is to
get interested in something else; a game, a boat-ride, anything that
makes us forget ourselves and our pleasures, and helps us to lose
ourselves in the eager, arduous, absorbing pursuit of something outside
ourselves. Then we have a glorious time.

The direct pursuit of pleasure is destructive of character, because it
judges things by the way they affect our personal feelings; which is a
very shallow and selfish standard of judgment; and because it centers
interest in the merely emotional side of our nature, which is peculiar
to ourselves; instead of in the rational part of our nature which is
common to all men, and unites us to our fellows.

Duty demands not the hap-hazard realization of this or that side of our
nature. Yet this is what the pursuit of pleasure would lead to. Duty
demands the realization of all our faculties, i