ress. As a basis, however, for the formation of acquaintances, and
for large social gatherings, a good deal of formality is necessary.

THE REWARD.

+The complete expression and outgo of our nature is freedom.+--Since man
is by nature social, since sympathy, friendship, co-operation and
affection are essential attributes of man, it follows that the exercise
of these social virtues is itself the satisfaction of what is
essentially ourselves.

The man who fulfills his social duties is free, for he finds an open
field and an unfettered career for the most essential faculties of his
nature. The social man always has friends whom he loves; work which he
feels to be worth doing; interests which occupy his highest powers;
causes which appeal to his deepest sympathies. Such a life of rounded
activity, of arduous endeavor, of full, free self-expression is in
itself the highest possible reward. It is the only form of satisfaction
worthy of man. It is in the deepest sense of the word success. For as
Lowell says:

All true whole men succeed, for what is worth
Success's name, unless it be the thought,
The inward surety to have carried out
A noble purpose to a noble end.

THE TEMPTATION.

+Instead of regarding society as a whole, and self as a member of that
whole, it is possible to regard self as distinct and separate from
society, and to make the interests of this separated and detached self
the end and aim of action.+--This temptation is self-interest. It
consists in placing the individual self, with its petty, private,
personal interests, above the social self, with the large, public,
generous interests of the social order.

From one point of view it is easy to cheat society, and deprive it of
its due. We can shirk our social obligations; we can dodge
subscriptions; we can stay at home when we ought to be at the committee
meeting, or the public gathering; we can decline invitations and refuse
elections to arduous offices, and at the same time escape many of the
worst penalties which would naturally follow from our neglect. For
others, more generous and noble than we, will step in and take upon
themselves our share of the public burdens in addition to their own. We
may flatter ourselves that we have done a very shrewd thing in
contriving to reap the benefits without bearing the burdens of society.
There is, as we shall see, a penalty for negligence of social duty, and
that too most sure and terrib