a ripe old age. For her sake? No, for theirs.

Does she wish them to be liars and cheats and ingrates, dissipated and
corrupt, if by so doing they can have most pleasure and satisfy
themselves? Oh no--not that. Why not? Because there is something within
her which wants them to be fine and good and worthy of their birthright.
She wants them to cling fast to the best that is in them, not the worst;
to do right and be right, whether it serves their pleasure or not.

If a mother would naturally feel this way on her death-bed, so might a
father, or a grandmother or a grand-father, in any country--in almost
any state of civilization--irrespective of any particular creed or
doctrine, to which they might subscribe.

This is not to be taken as saying that all mothers or fathers would be
conscious of this feeling--or would have this feeling in them to any
appreciable extent--or that all individuals may be said to have any of
the fundamental soul feelings to which we have referred.

Throughout all nature, and in human life as well, there are to be found
individual deficiencies and perversions. Since this is as true to-day,
as it has been always, in all departments of creation, we can be content
to regard it as part of the all-wise but mysterious scheme.

To the best of our knowledge and belief, in practically all communities
of human beings of which there is any record, these few self-same
feelings of man's innermost nature have become plainly, unmistakably,
evident. They appear to be inborn fundamentals of the human soul. As far
as they go, they may be safely and confidently accepted as indications
of man's purpose here on earth: the preservation of life, the
continuation of life, an aspiration in one's own development toward what
is admirable and right, and an equally great aspiration to inculcate and
develop in one's children the essence of what is best in oneself.

In the face of any such conclusion, a question naturally arises, which a
cynical and selfish mind is not slow to make the most of. "If this is
the palpable intention and design of an all-wise Creator, how does it
happen that so many human beings fail to carry out the purpose? How
does it happen that so many are relatively deficient, or totally
unconscious of the feelings themselves? If the general aim and
aspiration is toward constant betterment and an ideal of perfection,
why, after all these centuries of endeavor, haven't we arrived somewhere
near the goal? W