impulses--are direct and immediate and entirely
material. They serve well enough to answer a question and illustrate a
principle and that is all they were intended for. The principle is worth
bearing in mind, because its application extends to all sorts of
complicated questions of conduct. One reason that the young people of
to-day are so confused in their moral ideas is just because they have
been allowed to overlook this simple, fundamental principle.

It frequently happens that the most important consequences of the thing
you do, or fail to do, are not direct and immediate but fairly remote
and obscure. An individual without much experience or knowledge of the
world may easily neglect to consider them.

For instance, I have known several cases where young men of good family
forged their fathers' names. They were up-to-date young men, of course.
But even so, how could they come to do such a thing?

By gratifying their inclinations, in the first place, in accordance with
the up-to-date idea. One natural consequence of this is that, in order
to gratify a new inclination, or as a result of having gratified the
last one, it becomes necessary to have more money. That is one of the
annoyances of civilization, which even the most advanced of the new
generation haven't yet been able to change. Many of their pet impulses
cannot be indulged without money. It is an old-fashioned convention and
very irksome, but for the time being, at least, it has to be made the
best of.

The young men in question eventually found themselves faced with this
problem. They had to have money. How could they get it? Not by asking
their mother, or father, for it. That source of supply had been used up
to the last drop, with the help of all sorts of pretexts, subterfuges
and broken promises. There was no longer any available friend or
relative to borrow from. That resource had also been used up. They had
no jewelry left to pawn--that had been used up, too.

So finally, for the want of a better way, they arrived at this scheme of
signing their fathers' names to checks.

After all, looking at it from their point-of-view, and bearing in mind
the freedom of the individual, why shouldn't they?

It would do no great harm to their fathers--no real harm at all. They
had plenty of money in the bank.

But it would constitute forgery--a serious offense, against the law.
"What of that? So is speeding an automobile against the law. Who's
afraid of breakin