l objects, as well as internal forces.
Conduct must have materials to work with; stuff to build character out
of; resistance to overcome; objects to confront.

These objects nature has abundantly provided. They are countless as the
sands of the seashore, or the stars of heaven. In order to bring them
within the range of scientific treatment we must classify them, and
select for study those classes of objects which are most essential to
life and conduct. Each chapter of this book presents one of these
fundamental objects with which life and conduct are immediately
concerned.

A great many different relations are possible between ourselves and each
one of these objects. Of these many possible relations some would be
injurious to ourselves; some would be destructive of the object. Toward
each object there is one relation, and one only, which at the same time
best promotes the development of ourselves and best preserves the
object's proper use and worth. The maintenance of this ideal union of
self and object is our duty with reference to that object.

Which shall come first and count most in determining this right
relation, self or object, depends on the character of the object.

In the case of inanimate objects, such as food, drink, dress, and
property, the interests of the self are supreme. Toward these things it
is our right and duty to be sagaciously and supremely selfish. When
persons and mere things meet, persons have absolute right of way.

When we come to ideal objects, such as knowledge, art, Nature, this cool
selfishness is out of place. The attempt to cram knowledge, appropriate
nature, and "get up" art, defeats itself. These objects have a worth in
themselves, and rights of their own which we must respect. They resent
our attempts to bring them into subjection to ourselves. We must
surrender to them, we must take the attitude of humble and
self-forgetful suitors, if we would win the best gifts they have to
give, and claim them as our own.

As we rise to personal relations, neither appropriation nor surrender,
neither egoism nor altruism, nor indeed any precisely measured
mechanical mixture of the two, will solve the problem. Here the
recognition of a common good, a commonwealth in which each person has an
equal worth with every other, is the only satisfactory solution. "Be a
person, and respect the personality of others," is the duty in this
sphere.

As we approach social institutions we enter the presen