Almost every theme known to man has been classified, amplified, and constituted a science, and the best years of our lives are spent in an absorbing study of these various theories; yet the subject of the most intense interest, the most vital importance to every human being is still, so far as the majority of mankind is concerned, without law or order, left to the dictation of circumstances or individual caprice. The science of living is unlearned, unknown.
Mortals go through the world at the mercy of every wind that blows. With the wisdom of the ages behind them, they sin and suffer as helplessly as ever, and know no way of averting the many ills to which flesh is supposed to be heir.
The average mortal spends the first half of his life in getting into trouble and the other half in trying to get out of it. Toiling early and late, he imagines he has a hard time, but these hardships are as nothing compared to those which he brings upon himself in his efforts to have what he believes to be a "good" time. He rushes headlong into his misfortunes as well as his pleasures, and then sends an agonized prayer to a far-away heaven to avert the very calamities which he has, by his own blunders, produced.
