There are doubtless many higher motives in life, more elevated goals toward which struggling humanity should strive.If you examine the average mind, however, you will be pretty sure to find that success is the touchstone by which we judge our fellows and what, in our hearts, we admire the most.That is not to be wondered at, either, for we have done all we can to implant it there.From a child's first opening thought, it is impressed upon him that the great object of existence is to succeed.Did a parent ever tell a child to try and stand last in his class? And yet humility is a virtue we admire in the abstract.Are any of us willing to step aside and see our inferiors pass us in the race?
That is too much to ask of poor humanity.Were other and higher standards to be accepted, the structure of civilization as it exists to-day would crumble away and the great machine run down.