An invitation to give the Nathaniel Taylor lectures at the Divinity School of Yale University in the spring of 1926 jogged me into the present effort to systematize problems and considerations that long had made my roof their habitation. The interest that was shown in the problem of the lectures--for which, as well as the jogging just mentioned I am deeply indebted--instead of making me ready to print, drove me to further study. As a consequence, though the general organization of the discussion still follows the course of the four lectures, additional problems have been attacked, the material has been multiplied, and further solutions have been offered. George A. Coe. _In the Sunshine, Glendora, California, May, 1928._ CONTENTS PAGE Preface v INTRODUCTION I On Having a Good Supply of Wants 3 PART I DISILLUSIONMENT WITH RESPECT TO HIMSELF CREEPS UPON TWENTIETH-CENTURY MAN II Our Belief in Man Yesterday and Today 7 III What the War Did to Our Belief in Man 12 IV Has the Theory of Evolution Degraded Us in Our Own Eyes? 21 V The Irrationality of Man as a Literary Motif 27 VI Has Psychology Undermined Our Self-Respect? 36 VII According to Industrialism, “What Is Man?” 47 VIII The Dilemma of Christianity 56 PART II THIS DISILLUSIONMENT IS ITSELF ILLUSORY IX The Precise Nature of the Issue 69 X “Human Nature Being What It Is” 73 XI Some Notes on the Psychology of Motivation 80 XII Childhood as a Revealer of Human Capacities 95 XIII Capacities Revealed by New Types of Education 104 XIV Smallness in Great Men and Greatness in Small Men 112 XV The Mixed Motives of Business 120 XVI Motives of the Workingman 129 XVII Economic Production as a Mode of Self-Realization 135 XVIII The Motive That Is in All and Through All 143 PART III YET OUR CAPACITIES ARE IN BONDAGE