GOSPEL OF RELAXATION. 281 



have become honorable. The duty to work has taken 

 the place of the duty to fight ; and in the one case, 

 as in the other, the ideal of life has become so well 

 established that scarcely any dream of questioning it. 

 Practically, business has been substituted for war as 

 the purpose of existence. 



"Is this modern ideal to survive throughout the 

 future ? I think not. While all other things un- 

 dergo continuous change, it is impossible that ideals 

 should remain fixed. The ancient ideal was appro- 

 priate to the ages of conquest by man over man, and 

 spread of the strongest races. The modern ideal is 

 appropriate to ages in which conquest of the earth 

 and subjection of the powers of nature to human use 

 is the predominant need. But hereafter, when both 

 these ends have in the main been achieved, the ideal 

 formed will probably differ considerably from the 

 present one. May we not foresee the nature of the 

 difference ? I think we may. Some twenty years 

 ago, a good friend of mine, and a good friend of yours, 

 too, though you never saw him, John Stuart Mill, de- 

 livered at St. Andrew's an inaugural address on the 

 occasion of his appointment to the Lord Kectorship. 

 It contained much to be admired, as did all he wrote. 

 There ran through it, however, the tacit assumption 

 that life is for learning and working. I felt at the 

 time that I should have liked to take up the opposite 

 thesis. I should have liked to contend that life is not 

 for learning, nor is life for working, but learning and 

 working are for life. The primary use of knowledge 

 is for such guidance of conduct, under all circum- 

 stances, as shall make living complete. All other 



