The science of life : fully illustrated in tone and line and including many diagrams

MODERN IDEAS OF CONDUCT

utmost and to reproduce and multiply its type.

Clearly, then, it is a primary duty for Mr. Everyman to see that he with his like and kin is fed properly, clothed properly, that he has elbow-room for the development of all his possibilities, and lives as fully as his nature permits him to do. Only through the inflation of his persona in such a fashion that he becomes—to use Aristotle’s terma political animal can he bring himself into an effective relationship with the general problems of the species. He can only do his primary duty to himself and struggle for sustenance, freedom and opportunity with any hope of enduring consequences, by merging his individual push and his individual hopes in some aspect or another of the collective struggle of his kind.

8 4 Of Self-Knowledge and Moods

Since the individuality seems from a biological point of view to be the primary business of the individual, a certain intelligent egotism may be considered as among the more fundamental moral requirements. “ Intelligent,” we say, and not merely egotism. Modern morality differs from all preceding conceptions of goodness in its increased insistence upon the duty of knowing and understanding ourselves and others to the full extent of our capacity. The “simple faith,” the “simple virtue” of former times we are now inclined to dismiss as intellectual sloth. There is no goodness in conscious conduct without criticism.

It is not sufficient for the individual to be generally well-behaved. In that case Nature might just as well have made us all alike. Each individual is an experiment; each individual has special qualities, can do some things better and more effectively and joyously than others. It is the biological obligation of Mr. Everyman to develop his distinctive disposition, to spend rather than bury his talent. Circumstances, lack of education or mis-education may render self-discovery and _self-development perplexing or difficult. That is Mr. Everyman’s personal bad fortune ; that is his fight.

‘To measure ourselves against our fellows and define our differences is not an easy task, but we have all our lives to do it in, and a large part of our daily experiences to do it with. In the great development of psychology that has gone on since this century

began, there has been a steady approach to a classification of temperaments and intellectual types. Of that we have written. It is the business of Mr. and Mrs. Everyman to learn about these things. There is no need now to live in that atmosphere of cloudy illusion about oneself which seems to have been the lot of our grandparents. It is our business to know what we can do well and what we cannot do well. The thing we can do well is what we are for. It is our duty to occupy ourselves with that if we possibly can and not with other things.

It is not only our duty. Doing the thing we can do exceptionally well is also the most agreeable way of living. We should not be deflected from that by snobbish or sordid considerations. It is better to be a good cook than a mediocre hostess, or a good instrumental musician than an unoriginal composer. ‘To do what one can do best as well as one can possibly do it is success in life, and honours, rewards, praise, recognition, and record are mere incidental stimulants that have no part in the final reckoning.

Selfknowledge is not complete with only a realization of our gifts. Equally incumbent is it to define and measure our deficiencies. We have to keep a watch against those pleasant self-delusions for which our egos have an inordinate appetite. None of these things are easy, none can be achieved by a simple prescription, and the duty of modern men and women to keep the edge of selfcriticism keen by a sustained and sedulous study of mental processes is manifest. A time may come when an ignorance of mental science will be scarcely distinguishable from moral imbecility.

One of the most important and one of the most neglected aspects of selfknowledge is a measure of the quality and extent of our moods. ‘The stupid man thinks he is the same man always; children and immature minds cling to the same delusion. ‘The trained observer of mental states knows that he plays the theme of his individuality with many variations; it may even be a fugue with interlacing themes. Many people, the majority of people perhaps, still go through life without realizing how their minds are coloured and diverted by, for instance, physiological states. Unaware of this, they strive to rationalize all they do, insist on a false consistency, and accept and make themselves not merely responsible but advocates for the righteousness of every escapade of the insurgent anima. They cling obstinately to the things they have done or to the attitudes they have adopted long

831