Y.M. Oh, come, that won’t do!
O.M. Why won’t it?
Y.M. Because it puts him in the attitude of
always looking out for his own comfort and advantage;
whereas an unselfish man often does a thing solely
for another person’s good when it is a positive
disadvantage to himself.
O.M. It is a mistake. The act must do
him good, first; otherwise he will not do
it. He may think he is doing it solely for
the other person’s sake, but it is not so; he
is contenting his own spirit first—the
other’s person’s benefit has to always
take second place.
Y.M. What a fantastic idea! What becomes
of self-sacrifice? Please answer me that.
O.M. What is self-sacrifice?
Y.M. The doing good to another person where
no shadow nor suggestion of benefit to one’s
self can result from it.
Man’s Sole Impulse—the Securing of
His Own Approval
Old Man. There have been instances of it—you
think?
Young Man. Instances? Millions of
them!
O.M. You have not jumped to conclusions?
You have examined them—critically?
Y.M. They don’t need it: the acts
themselves reveal the golden impulse back of them.
O.M. For instance?
Y.M. Well, then, for instance. Take the
case in the book here. The man lives three miles
up-town. It is bitter cold, snowing hard, midnight.
He is about to enter the horse-car when a gray and
ragged old woman, a touching picture of misery, puts
out her lean hand and begs for rescue from hunger
and death. The man finds that he has a quarter
in his pocket, but he does not hesitate: he gives
it her and trudges home through the storm. There—it
is noble, it is beautiful; its grace is marred by
no fleck or blemish or suggestion of self-interest.
O.M. What makes you think that?
Y.M. Pray what else could I think? Do
you imagine that there is some other way of looking
at it?
O.M. Can you put yourself in the man’s
place and tell me what he felt and what he thought?
Y.M. Easily. The sight of that suffering
old face pierced his generous heart with a sharp pain.
He could not bear it. He could endure the three-mile
walk in the storm, but he could not endure the tortures
his conscience would suffer if he turned his back
and left that poor old creature to perish. He
would not have been able to sleep, for thinking of
it.
O.M. What was his state of mind on his way home?
Y.M. It was a state of joy which only the self-sacrificer
knows. His heart sang, he was unconscious of
the storm.
O.M. He felt well?
Y.M. One cannot doubt it.
