DECISION UNDER EFFORT

DECISION UNDER EFFORT.--The highest type of decision is that in which
effort is the determining factor. The pressure of external circumstances
and inward impulse is not enough to overcome a calm and determined _I
will_. Two possible lines of action may lie open before us. Every
current of our being leads toward the one; in addition, inclination,
friends, honors, all beckon in the same direction. From the other course
our very nature shrinks; duty alone bids us take this line, and promises
no rewards except the approval of conscience. Here is the crucial point
in human experience; the supreme test of the individual; the last
measure of man"s independence and power. Winning at this point man has
exercised his highest prerogative--that of independent choice; failing
here, he reverts toward the lower forms and is a creature of
circumstance, no longer the master of his own destiny, but blown about
by the winds of chance. And it behooves us to win in this battle. We may
lose in a contest or a game and yet not fail, because we have done our
best; if we fail in the conflict of motives we have planted a seed of
weakness from which we shall at last harvest defeat.

The disturbances of health due to weak feet are manifold, just as are

those due to eye-strain
The disturbances of health due to weak feet are manifold, just as are
those due to eye-strain. Pain in the feet, legs and back, often mistaken
for rheumatism, and improperly treated with drugs and liniment, chronic
general fatigue and nervous depression are often due to this rather
common affection.

It is apparent that the make-up of an individual is the result of a very

complex combination of traits
It is apparent that the make-up of an individual is the result of a very
complex combination of traits. For this reason, the makeup is not likely
to fall heir to all 'bad' traits, any more than it is to all 'good'
traits. Even the feeble-minded, who have fallen heir to such an
intensely undesirable trait--or rather, to the lack of intensely
desirable traits--in many instances have simultaneously inherited many
desirable traits, such as kindness, gentleness and generosity, often
lacking in those possessed of scholarly capacities. Many women of the
border-line type of feeble-mindedness, where mental incapacity often
passes for innocence, possess the qualities of charm felt in children,
and are consequently quickly selected in marriage. If a mentally able
man possess as an ideal of womanhood other traits than mental capacity,
no amount of schooling for his child can make up for the difference
between the mental capacity of the offspring of such a mating, and the
offspring of a mating with an able-minded woman. Although the trait of
able-mindedness is dominant, so that the mating of an able and a feeble
mind will result in fairly able-minded offspring, who may even be above
the average, mentally, such offspring carry in their own germ plasm the
defect derived from their feeble-minded parent, which defect may then be
passed on to future generations through the germ plasm from which their
children get their inheritance. A mother"s hereditary influence on the
child is just as important a factor as the father"s, generally speaking.
Where feeble-mindedness exists on a family line, care should be
exercised by the able-minded members of that line not to mate with
another line possessing cases of feeble-mindedness, lest the offspring
then fall heir to feeble-mindedness, which can skip a generation. An
appreciation of what is feeble-minded, and a realization of its
inheritability can not help but modify a man or a woman"s admiration
for the traits or lack of traits which it embraces.

Kissinger, who after several years" service in the army became

disabled, is receiving a pension from the government; Moran, I
hope, is still well and in the employ of the Isthmian Canal
Commission, justly enjoying the friendship and confidence of
his superior officers
Kissinger, who after several years" service in the army became
disabled, is receiving a pension from the government; Moran, I
hope, is still well and in the employ of the Isthmian Canal
Commission, justly enjoying the friendship and confidence of
his superior officers. The names of Kissinger and Moran should
figure upon the roll of honor of the U. S. Army.

Such is the state of our schools that we are obliged to accept as pupils

those who are not qualified, in a literary point of view, for the post
of teachers
Such is the state of our schools that we are obliged to accept as pupils
those who are not qualified, in a literary point of view, for the post
of teachers. By sending better teachers into the public schools, you
will effectually aid in the removal of this difficulty. The Normal
School is, then, no substitute for the high school, academy, or college.
Nor do we ask for any sympathy or aid which properly belongs to those
institutions. He is no friend of education, in its proper signification,
who patronizes some one institution, and neglects all others. We have no
seminaries of learning which can be considered useless, and he only is a
true friend who aids and encourages any and all as he has opportunity.
What is popularly known as learning is to be acquired in the common
school, high school, academy and college, as heretofore. The Normal
School does not profess to give instruction in reading and arithmetic,
but to teach the art of teaching reading and arithmetic. So of all the
elementary branches. But, as the art of teaching a subject cannot be
acquired without at the same time acquiring a better knowledge of the
subject itself, the pupil will always leave the Normal School better
grounded than ever before in the elements and principles of learning. It
is not, however, to be expected that complete success will be realized
here more than elsewhere; yet it is well to elevate the standard of
admission, from time to time, so that a larger part of the exercises may
be devoted to the main purpose of the institution. The struggle should
be perpetual and in the right direction. First, elevate your common
schools so that the education there may be a sufficient basis for a
course of training here. If the Normal School and the public schools
shall each and all do their duty, candidates for admission will be so
well qualified in the branches required, that the art of teaching will
be the only art taught here. When this is the case, the time of
attendance will be diminished, and a much larger number of persons may
be annually qualified for the station of teachers.

(A) Duties to _Self_

(A) Duties to _Self_. These have regard to the one _private_ Aim or End
that a man can make a duty of, viz., his own _Perfection_; for his own
_Happiness_, being provided for by a natural propensity or inclination,
is to himself no duty. They are (a) _perfect_ (negative or restrictive)
as directed to mere Self-Conservation; (b) _imperfect_ (positive or
extensive) as directed to the Advancement or Perfecting of one"s being.
The _perfect_ are concerned about Self (a), as an _Animal_ creature,
and then are directed against--(1) _Self-destruction_, (2) _Sexual
Excess_, (3) _Intemperance in Eating and Drinking_; (B) as a _Moral_
creature, and then are directed against--(1) _Lying_, (2) _Avarice_,
(3) _Servility_. The _imperfect_ have reference to (a) _physical_, (B)
_moral_ advancement or perfection (subjectively. _Purity_ or
_Holiness_).

The new point of view opens up the very fruitful conception of an

_Empire_ or _Realm of Ends_
The new point of view opens up the very fruitful conception of an
_Empire_ or _Realm of Ends_. As a Realm is the systematic union of
rational beings by means of common laws, so the ends determined by the
laws may, abstractly viewed, be taken to form a systematic whole.
Rational beings, as subject to a law requiring them to treat themselves
and others as ends and never merely as means, enter into a systematic
union by means of common objective laws, _i.e._ into an (ideal) Empire
or Realm of Ends, from the laws being concerned about the mutual
relations of rational beings as Ends and Means. In this Realm, a
rational being is either Head or Member: Head, if legislating
universally and with complete independence; Member, if also
universally, but at the same time subject to the laws. When now the
maxim of the will does not by nature accord necessarily with the demand
of the objective principle--that the will through its maxim be able to
regard itself at the same time as legislating; universally--a practical
constraint is exerted by the principle, which is _Duty_, lying on every
Member in the Realm of Ends (not on the Head) alike. This necessity of
practice reposes, not on feeling, impulse, or inclination, but on the
relation between rational beings arising from the fact that each, as
End-in-self, legislates universally. The Reason gives a universal
application to every maxim of the Will; not from any motive of
interest, but from the idea of the _Dignity_ of a rational being that
follows no law that it does not itself at the same time give.

As regards the _method_ of the science, the highest exactness is not

attainable; the political art studies what is just, honourable, and
good; and these are matters about which the utmost discrepancy of
opinion prevails
As regards the _method_ of the science, the highest exactness is not
attainable; the political art studies what is just, honourable, and
good; and these are matters about which the utmost discrepancy of
opinion prevails. From such premises, the conclusions which we draw
can only be probabilities. The man of experience and cultivation will
expect nothing more. Youths, who are inexperienced in the concerns of
life, and given to follow their impulses, can hardly appreciate our
reasoning, and will derive no benefit from it: but reasonable men will
find the knowledge highly profitable (III.).

CHILD AND ADULT THINKING

CHILD AND ADULT THINKING.--What constitutes the difference in the
thinking of the child and that of the sage? Let us see whether we can
discover this difference. In the first place the relations seen by the
child are _immediate_ relations: they exist between simple percepts or
images; the remote and the general are beyond his reach. He has not had
sufficient experience to enable him to discover remote relations. He
cannot think things which are absent from him, or which he has never
known. The child could by no possibility have seen in the falling apple
what Newton saw; for the child knew nothing of the planets in their
orbits, and hence could not see relations in which these formed one of
the terms. The sage, on the other hand, is not limited to his immediate
percepts or their images. He can see remote relations. He can go beyond
individuals, and think in classes. The falling apple is not a mere
falling apple to him, but one of a _class of falling bodies_. Besides a
rich experience full of valuable facts, the trained thinker has acquired
also the habit of looking out for relations; he has learned that this is
the method _par excellence_ of increasing his store of knowledge and of
rendering effective the knowledge he has. He has learned how to think.

Chapter IX

Chapter IX. is on the different Degrees of Virtue and Vice, and the
modes of estimating them; the Difficulties attending the Practice of
Virtue; the use of Trials, and the essentials of a good or a bad
Character. The considerations adduced are a number of perfectly
well-known maxims on the practice of morality, and scarcely add
anything to the elucidation of the author"s Moral Theory. The
concluding chapter, on Natural Religion, contains nothing original.

Certain it is that more people would practise hygiene if they could be

made to realize in some vivid way how much they needed it
Certain it is that more people would practise hygiene if they could be
made to realize in some vivid way how much they needed it. Few persons,
even when they read and accept the statistics on the subject, really
have a picture of the imperative need of hygiene as an integral part of
every human life. It is not brought home to them how widespread is
illness, how numerous are preventable deaths, how many are the
tendencies toward individual and racial deterioration.

The constant little struggles of the Greeks among themselves

made no great showing as to numbers compared to other wars, but
they wiped out the most valuable people, the best blood, the
most promising heredity on earth
The constant little struggles of the Greeks among themselves
made no great showing as to numbers compared to other wars, but
they wiped out the most valuable people, the best blood, the
most promising heredity on earth. This cost the world more than
the killing of millions of barbarians. In two centuries there
were born under the shadow of the Parthenon more men of genius
than the Roman Empire had in its whole existence. Yet this
empire included all the civilized world, even Greece herself.
(La Pouge.)

'Leave now the puny wish, the girlish feeling,

Oh, thrust it far behind thee! Give thou proof
Thou"rt the daughter of the Mighty,--his
Who where he moves creates the wonderful
'Leave now the puny wish, the girlish feeling,
Oh, thrust it far behind thee! Give thou proof
Thou"rt the daughter of the Mighty,--his
Who where he moves creates the wonderful.
Meet and disarm necessity by choice.'

If science produces so much wealth, is there no contrivance

whereby we can cause a small fraction of this wealth to return
automatically to science and to furnish munitions of war for
fresh conquests of nature? A very small investment in research
often produces colossal returns
If science produces so much wealth, is there no contrivance
whereby we can cause a small fraction of this wealth to return
automatically to science and to furnish munitions of war for
fresh conquests of nature? A very small investment in research
often produces colossal returns. In 1911 the income of the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry was only
$21,000. In 1913 the income of the Institute for Experimental
Therapy at Frankfort, where '606' was discovered, was only
$20,000; that of the Imperial Institute for Medical Research at
Petrograd was $95,000, and that of the National Physical
Laboratory in England (not exclusively devoted to research) was
$40,000. Yet these are among the most famous research
institutions in the world and have achieved results of
world-wide fame and inestimable value both from a financial
standpoint and from the standpoint of the physical, moral and
spiritual welfare of mankind.

For some persons the inevitable mode of improvement will be by

substituting the milder drugs for the stronger--beer for spirits, weak
tea for beer
For some persons the inevitable mode of improvement will be by
substituting the milder drugs for the stronger--beer for spirits, weak
tea for beer. The exact extent to which the milder poisons are injurious
has not yet been scientifically settled. Tea, for instance, if very weak
and used moderately, is, presumably, not injurious to any marked degree
to healthy persons. The trouble is, however, that sensitive people do
not keep moderate. In fact, the natural tendency of drug-craving is in
the opposite direction, from weak drugs to strong ones, as from beer to
spirits. In actual fact, it is much easier to abstain than to be
moderate. It should also be noted that the lax spirit in which many
people make an exception to the rules of health in favor of some mild
indulgence is very likely to lead to the making of many other exceptions
until they are, without knowing it, carrying a heavy load made up of
scores of little items of harmful indulgence. Moreover, experiments at
the Pasteur Institute have shown that the long-continued use of very
minute doses of poison ultimately produces appreciable harm. Each person
must decide for himself how far he chooses to depart from previous
habits or common customs for the sake of physical efficiency. The object
here is to state exactly what, in our present state of knowledge, is
believed to be the truth.

And, gentlemen trustees and citizens of Bernardston, may I not

personally and especially invite you to consider the importance of a
fixed standard of admission and a careful examination of candidates?
This course is essential to the improvement of your district and village
schools
And, gentlemen trustees and citizens of Bernardston, may I not
personally and especially invite you to consider the importance of a
fixed standard of admission and a careful examination of candidates?
This course is essential to the improvement of your district and village
schools. It is essential to the true prosperity of this seminary, and it
is also essential to the intellectual advancement of the people within
your influence. You expect pupils from the neighboring towns. Your
object is not pecuniary profit, but the education of the people. If your
requirements are positive, though it may not be difficult to meet them
in the beginning, every town that depends upon this institution for
better learning than it can furnish at home will be compelled to
maintain schools of a high order. On the other hand, negligence in this
particular will not only degrade the school under your care here, but
the schools in this town and the cause of education in the vicinity will
be unfavorably affected. Nor let the objection that a rigid standard of
qualifications will exclude many pupils, and diminish the attendance
upon the school, have great weight; for you perform but half your duty
when you provide the means of a good education for your own students.
You are also, through the power inherent in this authority, to do
something to elevate the standard of learning in other schools, and in
the country around. What harm if this school be small, while by its
influence other schools are made better, and thus every boy and girl in
the vicinity has richer means of education than could otherwise have
been secured? Thus will tens, and hundreds, and thousands, of successive
generations, have cause to bless this school, though they may never have
sat under its teachers, or been within its walls.

NOT A WILL, BUT WILLS

NOT A WILL, BUT WILLS.--First of all we need to remember that, just as
we do not have a memory, but a system of memories, so we do not possess
a will, but many different wills. By this I mean that the will must be
called upon and tested at every point of contact in experience before we
have fully measured its strength. Our will may have served us reasonably
well so far, but we may not yet have met any great number of hard tests
because our experience and temptations have been limited.

On the morning of the eighteenth my friend and classmate

Lazear, whom in spite of our short intercourse I had learned to
respect and in every way appreciate most highly, complained
that he was feeling 'out of sorts
On the morning of the eighteenth my friend and classmate
Lazear, whom in spite of our short intercourse I had learned to
respect and in every way appreciate most highly, complained
that he was feeling 'out of sorts.' He remained all day about
the officers" quarters and that night suffered a moderate
chill. I saw him the next day with all the signs of a severe
attack of yellow fever.

All these would represent only the unavoidable collision,

unrest and ambition of human nature, were it not that every
element involved in it was armed to the teeth
All these would represent only the unavoidable collision,
unrest and ambition of human nature, were it not that every
element involved in it was armed to the teeth. 'When blood is
their argument' in matters of business or politics, all
rational interests are imperilled. The gray old strategists to
whom the control of armament was assigned saw the nations
moving towards peaceful solution of their real and imaginary
difficulties. The young men of Europe had visions of a broader
world, one cleared of lies and hate and the poison of an
ingrowing patriotism. After a generation of doubt and pessimism
in which world progress seemed to end in a blind sack, there
was rising a vision of continental cooperation, a glimpse of
the time when science, always international, should also
internationalize the art of living.

Happiness is unknown to Plotinus as distinct from perfection, and

perfection in the sense of having subdued all material cravings (except
as regards the bare necessities of life), and entered upon the
undisturbed life of contemplation
Happiness is unknown to Plotinus as distinct from perfection, and
perfection in the sense of having subdued all material cravings (except
as regards the bare necessities of life), and entered upon the
undisturbed life of contemplation. If this recalls, at least in name,
the Aristotelian ideal, there are points added that appear to be echoes
of Stoicism. Rapt in the contemplation of eternal verities, the
purified soul is indifferent to external circumstances: pain and
suffering are unheeded, and the just man can feel happy even in the
bull of Phalaris. But in one important respect the Neo-Platonic
teaching is at variance with Stoical doctrine. Though its first and
last precept is to rid the soul from the bondage of matter, it warns
against the attempt to sever body and soul by suicide. By no forcible
separation, which would be followed by a new junction, but only by
prolonged internal effort is the soul so set free from the world of
sense, as to be able to have a vision of its ancient home while still
in the body, and to return to it at death. Small, therefore, as is the
consideration bestowed by Neo-Platonism on the affairs of practical
life, it has no disposition to shirk the burden of them.