to reach to goal by going across lots, by crawling
through the grass. Disguise this matter as we may, all people are
not successes, all people have not the brain or the muscle or the
moral stamina necessary to succeed. Some fall in one way, some in
another; some in the net of strong drink, some in the web of
circumstances and others in a thousand ways, and the world itself
cannot grow better unless the unworthy fail. The law is the survival
of the fittest, that is to say, the destruction of the unfit.
There is no scheme of morals, no scheme of government, no scheme
of charity, that can reverse this law. If it could be reversed,
then the result would be the survival of the unfittest, the speedy
end of which would be the extinction of the human race.

Temperance men say that it is wise, in so far as possible, to remove
temptation from our fellow-men.

Let us look at this in regard to other matters. How do we do away
with larceny? We cannot remove property. We cannot destroy the
money of the world to keep people from stealing some of it. In
other words, we cannot afford to make the world valueless to prevent
larceny. All strength by which temptation is resisted must come
from the inside. Virtue does not depend upon the obstacles to be
overcome; virtue depends upon what is inside of the man. A man is
not honest because the safe of the bank is perfectly secure. Upon
the honest man the condition of the safe has no effect. We will
never succeed in raising great and splendid people by keeping them
out of temptation. Great people withstand temptation. Great people
have what may be called moral muscle, moral force. They are poised
within themselves. They understand their relations to the world.
The best possible foundation for honesty is the intellectual
perception that dishonesty can, under no circumstances, be a good
investment--that larceny is not only wicked, but foolish--not only
criminal, but stupid--that crimes are committed only by fools.

On every hand there is what is called temptation. Every man has
the opportunity of doing wrong. Every man, in this country, has
the opportunity of drinking too much, has the opportunity of
acquiring the opium habit, has the opportunity of taking morphine
every day--in other words, has the opportunity of destroying himself.
How are they to be prevented? Most of them are prevented--at least
in a reasonable degree--and they are prevented by their intelligence,
by t