say, this relationship is among the most beautiful on earth, the
source of an incalculable amount of joy and gain. However, as we have
already suggested, there lurks here, as in every beneficent force, a
danger. If parents forget what they are for, and try to foster a more
than ordinary tie, they make themselves a menace to those whom they
most love. Any exaggeration is abnormal. If the childhood bond is
over-strong, or the childhood dependence too long cultivated, then the
relationship has overstepped its purpose, and, as we shall later see,
has laid the foundation for a future neurosis.

=Mothering the World.= Probably no instinct has so many ways of
indirect expression as this mothering impulse of protection. Aroused
by the cry of a child in distress, or by the thought of the weakness,
or need, or ill-treatment of any defenseless creature, this
mother-father impulse is at the root of altruism, gratitude, love,
pity, benevolence, and all unselfish actions.

There is still a great difference of opinion as to how man's spiritual
nature came into being; still discussion as to whether it developed
out of crude beginnings as the rest of his physical and mental
endowment has developed, or whether it was added from the outside as
something entirely new. Be that as it may, the fact remains that man
has as an innate part of his being an altruistic tendency, an
unselfish care for the welfare of others, a relationship to society as
a whole,--a relationship which is the only foundation of health and
happiness and which brings sure disaster if ignored. The egoistic
tendencies are only a part of human nature. Part of us is naturally
socially minded, unselfish, spiritual, capable of responding to the
call to lose our lives in order that others may find theirs.