no one can understand conduct without knowing something of the psychology of human action. first of all, it must be understood that reason, which so many have idealized and placed in control of the human machine, has little to do with the actions of men. it is a common habit with most men to find fault with and bewail the fact that human beings do not act from reason. however much the truth is impressed upon us, we never seem to realize that the basis of action is in instinct and emotion. it is really useless to quarrel with nature. whether it would have been better to have made man some other way is not worth discussing. he has been evolved in a certain way and we must take him as he is. our impatience with the method that nature has provided for influencing human conduct is largely due to our idea of the meaning of life.
man has fancied himself in a position in the animal world that facts of life and nature do not sustain. we seem to feel that man has some high calling; that he should make something of himself which cannot be accomplished; that he should form some sort of a perfect order that he never can reach; in short that man has a purpose and a mission. it is manifest that all we know is but a mite compared with the unknown, and it may be that sometime a purpose will be revealed of which man never dreamed. still from all that we can see and understand, nature has but one desire, and that is the preservation and perpetuation of life. this is its purpose or, rather, its strongest urge not only with men but with all animal life. sometimes to create one fish a million eggs are spawned. nature is profligate both in spawning life and compassing its destruction. in the human species the capacity for life is immeasurably beyond its fruition. a large portion of those who are born die an early death. and that human life shall not be extinct, nature plants the life-giving desire deep in the constitution of man. the creation of life comes from an instinct so profound and absorbing that it carries a train of evils in its wake. many are overweighted by the sex instinct to their positive harm. nature somehow did not trust such a fundamental duty as the preservation of the race to reason. if intellectual processes were responsible for life, the world no doubt would soon be bare of animate things. neither could the care of the young be trusted to anything but the deep-seated instinct that causes the mother to forget her own life in the preservation of the life of her child.
the functions of body, on which life is founded, do not depend upon reason. the heart begins to beat before birth; it continues to beat until the end of life. the reason has nothing to do with the heart performing its function. man goes to sleep at night confident that it will still be beating in the morning. the blood circulates in the veins independent of the thoughts of man. the digestive processes go on whether he sleeps or is awake. many of his muscles never rest from birth to death. life could not be preserved through the intellectual processes.
human action is governed largely by instinct and emotion. these instincts and emotions are incident to every living machine and are the motor forces that impel the organism. they do not think. they act, and act at once. all the mind can do is to place some restraint on such instincts and emotions through experience, education and settled habits. if the actions are never inhibited, the machine will tear itself to pieces. if too easily inhibited, it will do no work. it is manifest that the perfect machine does not exist.
man is moved by his instinct of flight and his emotion of fear, which are set in motion by apprehended dangers and by unaccustomed sights or sounds. terror sometimes becomes so intense that it prevents flight and brings convulsions and death. it is idle to reason with one in terror. it is idle to reason with a mob in terror or a nation in terror. one might as well expect to calm a tempestuous sea with soft words.
the instinct of repulsion brings hatred and dislike and, combined with the instinct of pugnacity, may lead to crimes of violence. when these instincts are strong enough, the weak and superficial barriers cannot stand against them. an electrical flash showing the scaffold with the noose above it would have no force to stop an instinct and emotion fully aroused. through seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting or smelling, some instinct is called into action. many times several conflicting instincts are aroused. the man is like a tree bent back and forth by the storm. if the storm is hard enough, sooner or later it will break. which way the tree falls has nothing to do with the consciousness of the tree, but has to do only with the direction of the prevailing and controlling force.
the instinct of gregariousness draws animals or men together into communities and close relations. this is one of the strongest instincts and not only preserves life but is fundamental to those human associations that are the basis of civilization. except for this, animals would live a lonely life and probably perish from the earth. through this instinct, man builds his villages and cities and organizes his states and nations. with the gregarious instinct and the parental instinct drawing men together, and the instincts and emotions of flight, fear and pugnacity, repelling and pushing them apart, conflict is inevitable. all that can be done is to create and cultivate as strong habits, customs and laws as possible to stand against the power of instinct and emotion in time of need, and to remove the main inciting causes so far as man has the intelligence and power to remove them. it is evident that this can never be complete. there are too many weak machines, too many defective nervous systems, too many badly organized brains. accidents are inevitable, and some accidents are called "crimes." when the accident is international or world-wide, it means war. those who believe that there is any power to stop all the harmful manifestations of man's instincts, either individually or en masse, do not understand the fundamental nature of man.
many and probably all instincts work both for good and ill. flight, pugnacity, repulsion, sex—all are life-preserving or life-destroying, as the case may be. a certain degree of excitation brings life and pleasure. a stronger or weaker may bring calamity and death. the parental instinct, with the instinct of reproduction, is fundamental to life. it is the basis of tenderness and sympathy, and is likewise the foundation of jealousy and often of hatred and pugnacity. at one time it may mean the deepest and most abiding pleasures of life, and at another it may bring death. life cannot exist without it, and yet, that it may persist, nature seriously overloads many machines with disastrous results. history is replete with the helplessness of reason and judgment in dealing with these emotions. neither when they act for good nor for ill can reason and judgment have the slightest weight when these instincts and emotions are stirred to the depths.
the emotion to acquire and keep property is very strong and perhaps at the base of the deep desire for wealth. this emotion is probably of a comparatively late growth, but today it seems to have taken its place as one of the strongest that move men. this emotion, like all others, prompts man to get what he wants. it of course does not suggest the way, but is simply an urge to acquire and possess. it is modified and hedged about by customs and habits but, like all instincts, its strength is always seeking ways to accomplish results regardless of the rules laid down and thus urging their violation. with weak machines and imperfect systems, where not only are the restrictions imperfect, the habits not well defined, but where it is impossible to satisfy the instinct under the rules laid down, there can be but one result; a large number will take property wherever and however they can get it.
the instinct for acquisition is so strong that men are constantly contriving new and improved methods for getting property. often the new methods come under restraint of the law. the enactment of the law does not give man the feeling that a thing is wrong which before was right and many continue their ways of getting property, regardless of the law. the instinct is too strong, the needs too great, and the barriers too weak.
instincts are primal to man. he has inherited them from the animal world. their strength and weakness depend on the make-up of the machine. some are very strong and some abnormally weak, and there are no two machines that emphasize or repress the same instincts to the same degree. one need but look at his family and neighbors to see the various manifestations of these instincts. some are quarrelsome and combative and will fight on the slightest provocation. others are distinctively social; the gregarious instinct is pronounced in many people. these are always seen in company and cannot be alone. they readily adapt themselves to any sort of associations. others are solitary. they choose to be alone. they shrink from and avoid the society of others. in some the instinct at the basis of sex association is over-strong; they like children; they are generally sympathetic and emotional, and the strength of the instinct often leads them to excesses. others are entirely lacking in this instinct; they neither care for children nor want them; they habitually avoid association with the other sex. the difference is constituent in the elements that make up the machine.
everyone is familiar with the varying strength and weakness of the instincts of getting and hoarding as shown by his neighbors and acquaintances. some seem to have no ambition or thought for getting or keeping money. some can get it but cannot keep it. some have in them from childhood the instinct for getting the better of every trade; for hoarding what they get, and accumulating property all their lives. in this, as in all other respects, no two individuals are alike. history is filled with examples of men who had the instinctive power of getting money combined with the instinct for keeping it. their names are familiar, all the way from midas and croesus down to the prominent captains of industry today. it is common for them and their adherents who criticise new schemes of social organization to remark with the greatest assurance that before wealth can be equal, brains must be equal. the truth is that brains have little to do with either the making or accumulating of money. this depends mainly, like all other activities, on the strength or weakness of the instincts involved. one's brain capacity cannot be measured by his bank account, any more than by the strength of his body or the color of his hair. his bank account simply shows his innate tendencies. there is no doubt that brain capacity as well as physical perfection adds to power, but it is the instinct that determines the tendency and strength of the activity.
to say that the one who gets money the most easily and keeps it the most safely has the best brain is no more reasonable than to say that the foxhound is more intelligent than the bull-dog because it can run faster. nature formed one for running and the other for holding on. the brain power is not involved.
there are manifold ways of gratifying all these instincts. the desire for property calls simply for getting it and keeping it. it does not involve the method to be used. the way is determined by other faculties, by education, by opportunities, by the strength and weakness of inhibitions. it does not follow that all legal ways are morally right and all illegal ones morally wrong. society in its development has established certain ways in which it may be done. these ways are easy for some, they are hard for others, and for many quite impossible.
still the instinct for getting is always present, leading and urging to acquire and to keep. endless are the ways that men have contrived to gratify this instinct. if, perchance, a law stands in the way, means are always sought to get around the law. every desire is always seeking its own gratification or satisfaction. this means life. most men believe that the way they adopt for getting money or gratifying other instincts is really no worse than some other person's way. the man who uses the confidence game contends with great assurance that his methods are like other business methods; that all men are using every means to get the largest return for the least effort, and one way is no better than another. a considerable portion of society has always supported him in these ideas. the law is full of shadowy lines which divide legal acquisition from the illegal, some of which are so fine that no one can see more than a technical difference. for instance, under an indictment for obtaining money by false pretenses, one may make all sorts of statements as to the quality, value, style and desirability of the article sold, if he does not make a specific statement of a fact regarding the material contained in them or the amount, number, quality or the like. he may lie, but to be safe he must know the kind of lie the law permits. many lies pass as "puffing goods" and are within the pale. a trader is not expected to tell the truth. what he can and cannot say may be determined only by a careful examination of the law, and not always then.
infinite are the reasons men give for doing the things that their instincts bid them do. all depends upon the strength of the instinct and the character of the machine; the restrictions and habits formed; and many other factors of which the man knows nothing. in fact, all depends upon his endowment and the outside forces that move to action, and for none of these is he in any way to be praised or blamed.
society seems to be almost oblivious to the emotional life of man. the great masses of men have no capacity or chance to prepare a proper environment in the intense commercialism and mad rush of today. the laws of trade and commerce give most men food, clothing and shelter but nothing more. there is no beauty in their homes or surroundings; no music or art; no adventure or speculation. existence is a dead thing, a dreary round. to many such people crime furnishes the only chance for adventure. take away emotions and life is hopelessly dull and commonplace. the emotions of men must be fed just as the body must be fed. to many religion has furnished this emotional life. churches have provided some art and some music. but aside from the catholic church almost none of this is for the poor. to many if not most people religion cannot take the place of joy. dogma and creed deaden and cannot appeal to the reason of man. still they have furnished a large part of the emotional life to great masses of men, without which existence would hold no hope or joy. but this is not enough to fill most lives. the element of joy is largely lacking. to many it makes no appeal, although music and art and beauty do. in no country has society so utterly neglected and ignored the emotional side of man as in america. this has led many men to a life of adventure that for them has been possible only in crime. many others found this life in the saloon, mixed with influences not conducive to a normal life. the closing of the saloons has added to the already serious need of providing for the innate feelings of men. this is all the more important for america, as a large part of our population has come from lands where beauty and art and music have for generations been made a part of the common life of all.
