Page:The stuff of manhood (1917).djvu/90

 friendship." That is the thesis of one of the noblest books of our generation, written by the late Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, entitled "Friendship, the Master Passion." Doctor Trumbull told me once that when he first began the work on this theme he spoke about it to his friend Charles Dudley Warner, who said: "Trumbull, you cannot prove that thesis." After the book was done, Doctor Trumbull took the book to him and asked if he would read it. He read it, gave it back, saying: "Well, Trumbull, you have shown that it is true, after all." And that is a lovely view to take of life: that the motive that lies deeper than any other, and that really in the actual conduct of men and women is the most controlling, is the motive of unselfish friendship, of love.

But what would you say if instead of any one of these three or other answers that may suggest themselves, some one were to reply: "Not a bit of it. The motive that really controls human life, that does actually and not theoretically play the largest part in determining the conduct of men and women, is—fear." And before we pass that contention by it may be worth our while to look at it and ask whether, or how far, it is true.

Take it in the matter of dress, for example. Does not fear play a large part there,—either the fear of being unlike everybody else, or the fear of being too much like everybody else? In