Man may superinduce upon them what he
calls _improvements_, because they better fit them for _his_ purposes.
But said improvements are never transmitted from generation to its
successor; left to itself, the race reverts to proper life, the same it
has lived from the beginning.
Man here presents a singular exception to the general rule of earth's
inhabitants. The favorite pursuits of one age are abandoned in the
next. This generation looks back on the earnest occupations of a
preceding, as the adult looks back on the sports and toys of childhood.
It is more than supposable, that the planning for the chances of
office, the competition for making most gain out of the least
productiveness--these earnest pursuits of the men of this age--in the
next will be resigned to the children of larger growth; just as are
now resigned the trappings of military glory. Where then is the human
mind ultimately to fix? Where is man to find so essentially his good,
as to fix his earnest pursuit in one direction, in which the race is
still to hold on? Such seems to be the question, What is life?
The elements of that darkness, which excludes the light of life, may be
considered as these three: First, the excessive preponderance of
self-love, as the ruling motive of human conduct.
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