Crudely and briefly stated, it is the same fundamental principle that
begins with the child and nursemaid, and runs up through the highest
forms of church and religious appeal. This is good, you are allowed and
urged to do it, and it will bring reward; that is bad, you are commanded
to resist it, and if you yield, it will bring punishment.
This, then, is what we have called the second consideration in the
problem of life.
There is another consideration, of a different order, which exerts an
influence on the acts of an individual; which causes it to repress
certain appetites and desires, on the one hand, and urges it, on the
other hand, to do certain things against its instincts and inclination.
This third consideration is the influence of reason and experience.
A crude example will suffice to illustrate the principle. A certain
individual eats a plate of sliced cucumbers. Their taste is delicious
and the sensation most enjoyable. An acute indigestion follows, however,
with great discomfort and distress. On a later occasion, another plate
of fresh cucumbers is so tempting that the experiment is tried again,
with the same results.
Before long, this individual 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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