WHAT IS MAN? AND OTHER ESSAYS OF MARK TWAIN

is for other reasons. Other spirit-contenting reasons.

Y.M. Always spirit-contenting reasons?

O.M. There are no others.

Y.M. When a man sacrifices his life to save a little child

from a burning building, what do you call that?

O.M. When he does it, it is the law of HIS make. HE can’t

bear to see the child in that peril (a man of a different make

COULD), and so he tries to save the child, and loses his life.

But he has got what he was after–HIS OWN APPROVAL.

Y.M. What do you call Love, Hate, Charity, Revenge,

Humanity, Magnanimity, Forgiveness?

O.M. Different results of the one Master Impulse: the

necessity of securing one’s self approval. They wear diverse

clothes and are subject to diverse moods, but in whatsoever ways

they masquerade they are the SAME PERSON all the time. To change

the figure, the COMPULSION that moves a man–and there is but the

one–is the necessity of securing the contentment of his own

spirit. When it stops, the man is dead.

Y.M. That is foolishness. Love–

O.M. Why, love is that impulse, that law, in its most

uncompromising form. It will squander life and everything else

on its object. Not PRIMARILY for the object’s sake, but for ITS

OWN. When its object is happy IT is happy–and that is what it

is unconsciously after.

Y.M. You do not even except the lofty and gracious passion

of mother-love?

O.M. No, IT is the absolute slave of that law. The mother

will go naked to clothe her child; she will starve that it may

have food; suffer torture to save it from pain; die that it may

live. She takes a living PLEASURE in making these sacrifices.

SHE DOES IT FOR THAT REWARD–that self-approval, that

contentment, that peace, that comfort. SHE WOULD DO IT FOR YOUR

CHILD IF SHE COULD GET THE SAME PAY.

Y.M. This is an infernal philosophy of yours.

O.M. It isn’t a philosophy, it is a fact.

Y.M. Of course you must admit that there are some acts which–

O.M. No. There is NO act, large or small, fine or mean,

which springs from any motive but the one–the necessity of

appeasing and contenting one’s own spirit.

Y.M. The world’s philanthropists–

O.M. I honor them, I uncover my head to them–from habit

and training; and THEY could not know comfort or happiness or

self-approval if they did not work and spend for the unfortunate.

It makes THEM happy to see others happy; and so with money and

labor they buy what they are after–HAPPINESS, SELF-APPROVAL.

Why don’t miners do the same thing? Because they can get a

thousandfold more happiness by NOT doing it. There is no

other reason. They follow the law of their make.

Y.M. What do you say of duty for duty’s sake?

O.M. That IS DOES NOT EXIST. Duties are not performed for

duty’s SAKE, but because their NEGLECT would make the man

UNCOMFORTABLE. A man performs but ONE duty–the duty of

contenting his spirit, the duty of making himself agreeable to

himself. If he can most satisfyingly perform this sole and only

duty by HELPING his neighbor, he will do it; if he can most

satisfyingly perform it by SWINDLING his neighbor, he will do it.

But he always looks out for Number One–FIRST; the effects upon

others are a SECONDARY matter. Men pretend to self-sacrifices,

but this is a thing which, in the ordinary value of the phrase,

DOES NOT EXIST AND HAS NOT EXISTED. A man often honestly THINKS

he is sacrificing himself merely and solely for some one else,

but he is deceived; his bottom impulse is to content a

requirement of his nature and training, and thus acquire peace

for his soul.

Y.M. Apparently, then, all men, both good and bad ones,

devote their lives to contenting their consciences.

O.M. Yes. That is a good enough name for it: Conscience–

that independent Sovereign, that insolent absolute Monarch inside

of a man who is the man’s Master. There are all kinds of

consciences, because there are all kinds of men. You satisfy an

assassin’s conscience in one way, a philanthropist’s in another,

a miser’s in another, a burglar’s in still another. As a GUIDE

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *