No one can understand conduct without knowing something of the
psychology of human action. First of all, it must be understood that
reason, which so many have idealized and placed in control of the human
machine, has little to do with the actions of men. It is a common habit
with most men to find fault with and bewail the fact that human beings
do not act from reason. However much the truth is impressed upon us, we
never seem to realize that the basis of action is in instinct and
emotion. It is really useless to quarrel with Nature. Whether it would
have been better to have made man some other way is not worth
discussing. He has been evolved in a certain way and we must take him as
he is. Our impatience with the method that Nature has provided for
influencing human conduct is largely due to our idea of the meaning of
life.

Man has fancied himself in a position in the animal world that facts of
life and nature do not sustain. We seem to feel that man has some high
calling; that he should make something of himself which cannot be
accomplished; that he should form some sort of a perfect order that he
never can reach; in short that man has a purpose and a mission. It is
manifest that all we know is but a mite compared with the unknown, and
it may be that sometime a purpose will be revealed of which man never
dreamed. Still from all that we can see and understand, Nature has but
one desire, and that is the preservation and perpetuation of life. This
is its purpose or, rather, its strongest urge not only with men but with
all animal life. Sometimes to create one fish a million eggs are
spawned. Nature is profligate both in spawning life and compassing its
destruction. In the human species the capacity for life is immeasurably
beyond its fruition. A large portion of those who are born die an early
death. And that human life shall not be extinct, Nature plants the
life-giving desire deep in the constitution of man. The creation of life