unt, and had counted on you as a main
consideration in her whole affair? Your absence upsets her completely,
spoils her party, and robs her of something on which she had spent a
good deal of time and effort and on which her heart was set.

If she ever discovers or suspects the true reason for your desertion,
you will have inflicted a wound in her feelings that few friendships can
survive and the loss of a friend in this world is hardly to be regarded
as a trifling matter.

These few examples which we have cited and a countless multitude of
others, of a more or less similar nature, which might be drawn from the
everyday experiences of any human being, tend to make plain the palpable
truth--that very often other people besides ourselves are concerned in
our actions and we do violence to our better feelings and theirs, if we
leave them out of consideration. Even up-to-date young people of the
most selfish order can hardly fail to recognize that and admit it, in
certain instances--when the others are before their eyes, or the effect
upon them is so direct and immediate that it cannot escape their
attention. In such instances they respond instinctively to the finer
side of their natures, where sympathy and affection are found. But just
as soon as an effort of reflection and imagination is required to
realize this same effect on others, there is no longer the same
response. The will and the faculty to do this appear, somehow, to be
lacking; so that they lose sight of this consideration very easily, and
leave it out of account as a controlling influence. Some one else has to
direct their attention, do the thinking for them and appeal to their
feelings, in order to restore the equilibrium.

This difficulty of voluntary reflection and understanding on their part
is still greater when it comes to another phase of the question, which
is one degree more complicated, but no less vital in its bearing on the
affections. You cannot do evil things, or act in such a way as will
bring harmful consequences upon yourself, without causing suffering to
those who love you. If your mother is very sweet and gentle and loves
you devotedly and you have a good deal of tender affection for her, you
would not think of striking her a blow on the face with your clenched
fist. No impulse within you, however selfish, could make you do that.
Yet the pain from such a blow would be as nothing compared to the
suffering you might cause her by smoking opium