Life*s Value and Aim i35 



tinuing without break in a series of changes normally as- 

 cending the scale of progress without dying, and using death 

 only as a means of rejecting inferiorities and renewing suc- 

 cesses. 



This potential immortality is so far thus revealed as a 

 material reward or achievement, by long continued labor, 

 which, stretching far into the ages, may yet not seem to 

 inspire life with any nobility worthy to be considered in 

 comparison with the struggle. 



In the mind contemplating itself to the exclusion of 

 others, the question arises which has often come up before. 

 Is it worth while? Is this life of struggle worth living? 

 To this there are in nature many answers. The first is that 

 for the place of every individual whose courage fails because 

 he thinks life is undesirable, there are a hundred aspirants 

 who are ready because they think it is desirable, and a 

 thousand unborn seeking room. This is not nature's threat 

 from authority any more than it is an invitation to suicide. 

 It is a calm self-statement of an elementary law. The right 

 to live is earned by fitness; and willingness is the first ele- 

 ment of fitness. For the faint-hearted there is in nature 

 always oblivion without condemnation and without recourse. 



This is the answer of matter to the materialist. It is the 

 same answer which nature makes to life without mind. It 

 throws the question back upon the intellect which framed 

 it. Such a question does not occur until intellect and con- 

 sciousness of self overcome the older dispensation. 



It is to be observed that it is not the unconscious or the 

 poor, or the weak, or the hardly used, who ask this ques- 

 tion of life's worth. These are always brave. They have 



