ideration--one further class and kind of
influence--which has its bearing on conduct. This may be summed up, in a
general way, as love of an ideal, or an idea. Although it is less
wide-spread and less potent in most lives than affection for fellow
beings, yet it is, in varying degrees, a real factor that cannot be left
out.

A sense of duty exists, to greater or less extent, in nearly all people.
In people of breeding and good family it may become pride of
race--_noblesse oblige_. A certain individual may have a strong
affection for his home town, the little community with which he has been
identified as a boy and man. Another is devoted to a cause, a political
party, a Red Cross movement; while others have a strong feeling of
patriotism, they love their country, their flag, and they are ready, at
any time, to give up something for the good cause.

Broadly speaking, and for lack of a better name, we may call this fifth
principle in the problem of life--devotion to an ideal.

As a result of these influences, the character of an individual is
formed, his conduct is determined. At any given time, in the presence of
any given question as to what he will, or will not do, the answer will
depend on the relative force, or sway, of the conflicting
considerations.

This is merely stating an application of a general law--that all effects
must have their causes. Only in the conduct of an individual, the causes
at work are often very subtle and complicated.

If the average individual at the present time is behaving differently
from the way he used to act, it is obviously because of some change in
the influences. Certain motives and considerations which used to be
decisive have now ceased to dominate. Other considerations have
superseded them. So much is fairly obvious, and very little reflection
is needed to locate these in a general way. They lie in the second group
of our summary--the control of desires from without, enforced by rewards
and punishments.

In the life of the average individual, this influence has become weaker
all along the line. It is probably less dominating and decisive to-day,
than it has ever been before in any period of civilization, ancient or
modern. And the weakening of the influence begins in the earliest
childhood, with the punishments of nurse and parents and extends right
on to the end, through neighbors and public opinion, the police and the
laws, and finally to the church and religion, with the