206 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



cannot afford it. If he is to succeed, lie must do 

 as others do and walk in the beaten track. He wins 

 wealth and position, or learning and fame. He now 

 has the ability and means to help others, but he no 

 longer cares to do so. Loyalty to truth, sterling hon- 

 esty the genuine, not the conventional counterfeit- 

 unselfishness, in one word, character, these are plants 

 of slow growth. They require cultivation by habit 

 through long years. In his case they have become 

 aborted and incapable of rejuvenescence. But his 

 rudiment of a moral nature feels twinges of remorse. 

 He ought not to have reversed the sequence of func- 

 tions, and he knows it. But he cannot retrace his 

 steps. He made the development of character impos- 

 sible when he made wealth his first and chief aim. 

 If he has a million dollars he tries to insure his soul 

 by leaving in his will one-tenth to build a church, or, 

 possibly, one-half for foreign missions. In the latter 

 case he will be held up as a shining example to all 

 the youth of the land, and the churches will ring with 

 his praises. But what has been the effect of his life 

 on the moral, social capital of the community ? Is the 

 world better or worse for his life ? He has all his 

 life been disseminating the germs of a soul-blight 

 more infectious and deadly than any bodily disease. 



If he has made learning or fame his chief aim, he 

 probably has not the money to buy soul-insurance. 

 He takes refuge in agnosticism, like an ostrich in a 

 bush. His agnosticism is in his will ; he does not 

 wish to see. Or its cause is atrophy, through disuse, of 

 moral vision. He cannot see. There are agnostics of 

 quite another stamp, whom we must respect and honor 

 for their sterling honesty and high character, though 



