The excuse for saying so obvious a thing is that, in spite of its obviousness, people do not believe it. If they did, the state of education and of religion, both of which have specifically to do with the ends of living, would be different from what it is. Churches and schools are peddling the wares that they already possess instead of stimulating a demand for better goods than we have in stock. Dr. Faustus, in his meditative search for the foundation of existence, rejects the Johannine dictum, “In the beginning was the Word” (or universal Reason), substituting for it, “In the beginning was the Act.” He might well have said, “In the beginning was the Want.” What then, are the motives of men? In particular, what are we capable of wanting, and what are we capable of doing with our wants? After moving some little distance from the wants of savages, must we pause and merely repeat our wantings henceforth? Or, indeed, are our desires in any significant way different from those of our savage ancestors? If we are able to manage our desires to any degree, what is the main problem of management, and how is it to be solved? PART I DISILLUSIONMENT WITH RESPECT TO HIMSELF CREEPS UPON TWENTIETH-CENTURY MAN II OUR BELIEF IN MAN YESTERDAY AND TODAY A lumber-jack resolved that he would build himself a home, and settle down. Selecting a piece of timberland, he proceeded to clear it. Day after day, week after week, his great muscles worked with axe and saw, and with chain and reins until the trees were felled and burned, and the time for grubbing and planting had come. Then he looked at his cleared land, and behold, the ground was so rocky that it was not worth cultivating. For he was a specialist in subduing mighty forests, not in nurturing food-plants. The western world, having found a key to the knowledge that is power--the key of scientific method--has been engaged for a few generations in unprecedented exploits in the mastery of nature. Her resources have been discovered and seized; processes of control have been devised; tools have been invented; hitherto intractable areas of the universe have been subdued; and power and possessions beyond all the dreams of our fathers are in our hands.[1] The result is, of course, a changed position of man in the physical universe; but it is not merely this. Man’s position in relation to man has changed likewise. For we have been at work upon mankind as well as upon wood and iron. The occupations of men, and their possessions also, have silently wrought within the mind, the servant fashioning his master as well as the master the servant. Our inlooks as well as our outlooks have undergone a metamorphosis. Here, in men’s attitudes toward one another, and in what they think of themselves, we come upon the most significant product of modern science, invention, and industry.