Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/324



We can say with probable truth that whatever promotes the comfort, competence, and happiness of man, in a word his well being, must be considered in the direct line of progress and the proper object of human endeavor, but when we come to examine his environment we find him beset, within and without, by enemies that compel him to expend a great part of his time and energy in fighting for the privilege of existence; and examining further we are forced to the conclusion that much of his remaining time and force is expended in useless labor or for the procurement of things which are positively harmful. In a large view and contemplating an ideal career of enlightenment, peace, prosperity, and moral excellence, his history appears to be a perpetual repetition and jumble of inconsistencies whereof no intelligence can see the trend or outcome. And of all his foes, himself is the worst, the most inveterate. That wise and noble woman, Frances E. Willard, condensed the question of progression when she said, "Our problem consists in saving man from himself." That has ever been the problem whether undertaken designedly by such superior characters as Miss Willard or the spontaneous operation of the postulated forces of evolution.

That every human being, from the cradle to the grave, is struggling for the betterment of his condition, as he sees it, (couched in Pope's language, "Oh happiness! our beings end and aim,") and that he follows the line of least resistance to obtain it, may be assumed as an axiom in