s
harmonious with the ultimate nature of things, or stands for the promise
of reality. In this wise, thought about life expands into some
conception of the deeper forces of the world, and life itself, in
respect of its fundamental attachment to an ideal, implies some belief
concerning the fundamental nature of its environment.

But lest in this account life be credited with too much gravity and
import, or it seem to be assumed that life is all knight-errantry, let
us turn to our less quixotic, and perhaps more effectual, man of
affairs. He works for his daily bread, and for success in his vocation.
He has selected his vocation for its promise of return in the form of
wealth, comfort, fame, or influence. He likewise performs such
additional service to his family and his community as is demanded of him
by public opinion and his own sense of responsibility. He may have a
certain contempt for the man who sees visions. This may be his manner of
testifying to his own preference for the ideal of usefulness and
immediate efficiency. But even so he would never for an instant admit
that he was pursuing a merely conventional good. He may be largely
imitative in his standards of value, recognizing such aims as are common
to some time or race; nevertheless none would be more sure than he of
the truth of his ideal. Question him, and he will maintain that his is
the reasonable life under the conditions of human existence. He may
maintain that if there be a God, he can best serve Him by promoting the
tangible welfare of himself and those dependent upon him. He may
maintain that, since there is no God, he must win such rewards as the
world can give. If he have something of the heroic in him, he may tell
you that, since there is no God, he will labor to the uttermost for his
fellow-men. Where he has not solved the problem of life for himself, he
may believe himself to be obeying the insight of some one wiser than
himself, or of society as expressed in its customs and institutions. But
no man ever admitted that his life was purely a matter of expediency, or
that in his dominant ideal he was the victim of chance. In the
background of the busiest and most preoccupied life of affairs, there
dwells the conviction that such living is appropriate to the universe;
that it is called for by the circumstances of its origin, opportunities,
and destiny.

Finally, the man who makes light of life has of all men the most
transparent inner consciousnes