THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



prevents evolution from taking such strides as would 

 lead the race to disaster. 



In one sense, perhaps, we are all "born criminals," 

 for we inherit from remote ancestors traits that if they 

 had free play would ill accord with the customs of our 

 modern civilization. The child who, in a moment of 

 impotent anger, claws viciously at the face of its mother 

 manifests an emotion no different from that with which 

 the remote feudal ancestor fell upon his enemy and gave 

 him battle. The proverbial cruelty of children to 

 animals is perhaps reminiscent of those days when the 

 ancestors of the race lived by the chase. But these are 

 single phases of a most complex personality. The same 

 infant that at one moment is so vicious will the next 

 moment hold up for the kiss of the mother cheeks wet 

 with penitent tears. The boy who feels an instinctive 

 desire to hurl stones at a strange dog, will just as 

 instinctively bestow upon the same dog acts inspired 

 by regret and pity if his missile unfortunately find its 

 mark. 



The two sets of emotions are antagonistic, but they 

 are alike "instinctive." 



We need but watch for an hour the conduct of a 

 child yet so young that his deeds express instead of 

 masking his emotions, to gain tangible evidence of 

 those complex hosts of antagonistic tendencies that are 

 battling within the budding mind. And when we 

 realize at its full value the fact that no one of these 

 tendencies can, by any possibility, be altogether blotted 

 out from the personality of that being while it lives, 

 we shall realize, also, that such flippant phrases as 



