n8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Those who affect to be shocked by such a proposition fail to under- 

 stand it in its full breadth. They think that they themselves at least 

 are exceptions to the law, and that they do not always seek their greatest 

 gain, and they give illustrations of actions performed that result in a 

 loss instead of a gain. This is because they understand by gain only 

 pecuniary gain, or only gain in temporary enjoyment or immediate satis- 

 faction. If they could analyze their feelings they would see that they 

 were merely sacrificing a present to a future advantage, or what they 

 regard as a lower to what they regard as a higher satisfaction. When 

 Henry Clay said (if he did say it) that 'every man has his price,' he 

 may have merely stated this law in a new form. If we make the 

 important qualification that the 'price' is not necessarily a money 

 price, we may see that the statement contains a truth. Even in the 

 lobby, which he probably had in mind, it is well known that down- 

 right bribery is very rarely resorted to. It is among the least effective 

 of the lobbyist's methods. There are other far more successful as well 

 as less expensive ways of gaining a legislator's vote. Passes on rail- 

 roads and other favors of that kind are much more common, but even 

 these are relatively coarse and transparent, and the great vested inter- 

 ests of a country know how to accomplish their ends by much more 

 subtle means. It is only necessary to put those whom they desire to 

 influence under some form of obligation, and this is usually easy of 

 accomplishment. Among the most effective means to this end are 

 social amenities and the establishment in apparently the most dis- 

 interested ways of a friendly entente, which appeals to the sense of 

 honor and makes any man ashamed to act contrary to the known wishes 

 of a friend. Under such imperative influences as these constituencies 

 are easily forgotten. 



But this is by no means the whole meaning of the law. It deals 

 solely with motives, and worthy motives are as effective as unworthy 

 ones. It is based, it is true, on interest, but interest is not always bad. 

 It is much more frequently good. It was necessarily good, at least for 

 the individual, in the beginning, since it had the mission to impel life- 

 and race-preserving activities. Interest may be perverted, but this is 

 the exception. Men feel an interest in doing good, and moral interest 

 is as real as any other. Eatzenhofer shows that men have been pro- 

 foundly moved by what he calls 'transcendental interests,' which he 

 defines as a reaching out after the infinite, and to this he attributes the 

 great religious movements of society. If therefore we take into account 

 all these different kinds of interest, physical, racial, moral, social and 

 transcendental, it becomes clear that all action is based on supposed 

 gain of one or other of these orders. 



Still, the world has never reached a stage where the physical and 

 temporary interests have not been paramount, and it is these upon 



