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POSITIVELY SELFISH: No man can be genuinely satisfied with the overall pattern of his life as long as he leads a relatively negative existence, which is to say as long as he is insufficiently selfish during the day. For whereas after a day of comparative selfishness one's selflessness is established to a greater extent in the evening, it is one's selfishness that is established to a greater extent in the evening after a day of comparative selflessness. Hence to live in a relatively positive manner, a manner in which an intelligent person should live, one would have to adopt the former mode of existence and be comparatively selfish, i.e. industriously preoccupied in a manner suitable to one's nature and abilities, during the day, since, by contrast with the day, the evening is always negative, and a relatively positive approach then will, of necessity, be somewhat reduced both in its strength and its effect.

As is well known, the evening is generally a time of repose, of acceptance and resignation, a negative counterbalance to the positive struggles one is usually obliged to experience during the day. It is not, ideally, a time for selfishness. Only those who are compelled, against their wishes, to lead a relatively negative existence during the day would endeavour to make it so, though their selfishness will, as already remarked, lose much of its effect and intensity in the process.