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 cons