Page:Path of Vision; pocket essays of East and West.djvu/52

, or a clear, healthy consciousness harnessed in inherited prejudices or acquired preconceptions. And everywhere is a dislike, a contempt for change. The ruts of life are congested:; [sic] the highways are almost vacant. And seldom do we, even in a life-time, yield to the impulse that calls us out of the ruts. Safety first, is a false slogan. It should be, Success first, Otherwise, we would cease anon to be strap-hangers and commuters, mere five-cent coupons for the Corporation of Pragmatism. Indeed, we would straightaway change our habit of mind. We would begin to have a mind. But there is a training of the will against such a change, to say nothing of the interests involved. And that is why, I think, the human will nowadays is more developed than it was in the past. That is why, too, it is often mistaken for power. Why, a man who can burrow a rut in the curb between his home and his office, between his faith and his interest, must surely be endowed with the will to conquer. Presumably