will refuse to eat a cucumber, no matter
how fresh and tempting it looks. There is no question of right or wrong
here involved. There is no outside force or command, to restrain him. It
is his own reason, based on experience, which determines him to give up
a present pleasure for the sake of avoiding a future pain.

In a reverse way, a certain individual who is tired and sleepy and
yearns to go to bed, will force himself to sit up and work over annoying
papers, in order to be free for a game of golf, the following day. He
deliberately denies his desires and accepts present discomfort for the
sake of future enjoyment.

This principle, if we look into it carefully and follow it through its
ramifications and side lights, is an active and important factor in the
conduct of nearly everybody. In its essence, it is personal, its force
springs from within the individual--and in that respect, at least, it is
quite different from the orders of parents, or the commandments of
religion, which are issued from without and which the individual is
called upon to accept and obey, irrespective of his own notions or
preferences.

There is still another main consideration in this question of conduct.
It is a very great factor in the lives of many people, and in some cases
its force and influence are overwhelming. And it is totally different in
its very essence and tendency from the other principles we have noted.

This is the influence of love and affection.

A mother will give up any pleasure, she will accept any pain for the
sake of her sick child. She does not do it because any one has ordered
her, or because of any commandment of any religion, or because of any
reward or punishment in this world, or another. There is no selfish
motive of any kind involved in her thought. Any sacrifice of self, she
is ready to make without the slightest hesitation. What she does, and
what she is willing to do is for her child alone--because she loves it
and, for the time being, its little life seems of more importance than
everything else in the world put together.

Now, if we pause right here a moment and reflect we can hardly fail to
realize that we are in the presence of something strange and wonderful.
It appears to be the very contrary and contradiction of all that has
gone before. The life of the individual, as it unfolds from the first
principle, is a question of self-preservation, self-gratification,
appetites, desires, pleasures, as full