How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.

Can we Change Human Nature ? Hardly anyone will consider Robert’s life a happy one, but many will shrug their shoulders and counter with that worn-out cliche, “ You can’t change human nature ! ” Now there is a great deal of truth in that cliche. Really, no one wants to change human nature. But we should know a great deal more about it. The people who usually tell you about the difficulties of changing human nature really mean, “ You cannot change human conduct.” And deep down in their hearts they mean, “I am afraid to change my own pattern of life even though I am unhappy in it. There¬ fore I will screen my fear by calling on this accepted and time-worn old motto to rid me of the responsibility of looking into the matter.” This fallacy, like so many others, is based on ignorance and fear, the two greatest enemies of human happiness. Why does human conduct seem to resist change so stubbornly ? Let us go back to our analogy of self¬ sculpture. We come into the world with a shapeless mass of material from which we must carve out our lives. Our idea of the design is almost universally bad because it is formed when we are ignorant of the world of design, ot material, of technique, and of tools. Nevertheless we choose some design, depending on the circumstances of our childhood situation, pick the most likely tools, and chisel away, in some instances blind to the activities of our fellows who are busily hammering out their destinies at our side, in other instances equally blinded by an aggressive ambition, an early discouragement, or a crippling competition with a parent or brother. As an example let us take the case of Ruth who is the youngest child in a family of four. She is also the only girl in that family. Her father is the golf champion in his town and once played football for his university. He wants his boys to grow up into “ ioo per cent, he- men ”, and he feels that it would be just as well to educate his daughter exactly as he does his boys. Little