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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8067d74 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51469 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51469) diff --git a/old/51469-0.txt b/old/51469-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 75d6df8..0000000 --- a/old/51469-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2907 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Self-Control Its Kingship and Majesty, by -William George Jordan - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Self-Control Its Kingship and Majesty - -Author: William George Jordan - -Release Date: March 16, 2016 [EBook #51469] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELF-CONTROL ITS KINGSHIP *** - - - - -Produced by Mardi Desjardins & the online Distributed -Proofreaders Canada team (http://www.pgdpcanada.net) - - - - - - SELF-CONTROL - ITS KINGSHIP - AND MAJESTY - - - by - - WILLIAM - GEORGE - JORDAN - - - FLEMING H. - REVELL - COMPANY - - CHICAGO LONDON - TORONTO NEW YORK EDINBURGH - - - - - Republished from the _Saturday Evening Post_ through - the courtesy of the Curtis Publishing Company, - - Copyright, 1898 and 1899, by - CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY - - - Copyright, 1899 and 1905, by - FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY - - - New York: 158 Fifth Avenue - Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. - London: 21 Paternoster Square - Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street - - * * * * * - - CONTENTS - - PAGE - - _I._ _The Kingship of Self-Control_ 7 - - _II._ _The Crimes of the Tongue_ 18 - - _III._ _The Red Tape of Duty_ 28 - - _IV._ _The Supreme Charity of the World_ 38 - - _V._ _Worry, the Great American Disease_ 49 - - _VI._ _The Greatness of Simplicity_ 60 - - _VII._ _Living life Over Again_ 71 - - _VIII._ _Syndicating our Sorrows_ 82 - - _IX._ _The Revelations of Reserve Power_ 93 - - _X._ _The Majesty of Calmness_ 104 - - _XI._ _Hurry, the Scourge of America_ 113 - - _XII._ _The Power of Personal Influence_ 124 - - _XIII._ _The Dignity of Self-Reliance_ 135 - - _XIV._ _Failure as a Success _ 147 - - _XV._ _Doing Our Best at All Times_ 161 - - _XVI._ _The Royal Road to Happiness_ 178 - - * * * * * - - _Self-Control_ - - - - - I - - The Kingship _of_ Self-Control - - -Man has two creators,—his God and himself. His first creator -furnishes him the raw material of his life and the laws in conformity -with which he can make that life what he will. His second -creator,—himself,—has marvellous powers he rarely realizes. It is what -a man makes of himself that counts. - -When a man fails in life he usually says, “I am as God made me.” When he -succeeds he proudly proclaims himself a “self-made man.” Man is placed -into this world not as a finality,—but as a possibility. Man’s greatest -enemy is,—himself. Man in his weakness is the creature of -circumstances; man in his strength is the creator of circumstances. -Whether he be victim or victor depends largely on himself. - -Man is never truly great merely for what he _is_, but ever for what he -may become. Until man be truly filled with the knowledge of the majesty -of his possibility, until there come to him the glow of realization of -his privilege to live the life committed to him, as an individual life -for which he is individually responsible, he is merely groping through -the years. - -To see his life as he might make it, man must go up alone into the -mountains of spiritual thought as Christ went alone into the Garden, -leaving the world to get strength to live in the world. He must there -breathe the fresh, pure air of recognition of his divine importance as -an individual, and with mind purified and tingling with new strength he -must approach the problems of his daily living. - -Man needs less of the “I am a feeble worm of the dust” idea in his -theology, and more of the conception “I am a great human soul with -marvellous possibilities” as a vital element in his daily working -religion. With this broadening, stimulating view of life, he sees how he -may attain his kingship through self-control. And the self-control that -is seen in the most spectacular instances in history, and in the -simplest phases of daily life, is precisely the same in kind and in -quality, differing only in degree. This control man can attain, if he -only will; it is but a matter of paying the price. - -The power of self-control is one of the great qualities that -differentiates man from the lower animals. He is the only animal capable -of a moral struggle or a moral conquest. - -Every step in the progress of the world has been a new “control.” It has -been escaping from the tyranny of a fact, to the understanding and -mastery of that fact. For ages man looked in terror at the lightning -flash; to-day he has begun to understand it as electricity, a force he -has mastered and made his slave. The million phases of electrical -invention are but manifestations of our control over a great force. But -the greatest of all “control” is self-control. - -At each moment of man’s life he is either a King or a slave. As he -surrenders to a wrong appetite, to any human weakness; as he falls -prostrate in hopeless subjection to any condition, to any environment, -to any failure, he is a slave. As he day by day crushes out human -weakness, masters opposing elements within him, and day by day -re-creates a new self from the sin and folly of his past,—then he is a -King. He is a King ruling with wisdom over himself. Alexander conquered -the whole world except,—Alexander. Emperor of the earth, he was the -servile slave of his own passions. - -We look with envy upon the possessions of others and wish they were our -own. Sometimes we feel this in a vague, dreamy way with no thought of -real attainment, as when we wish we had Queen Victoria’s crown, or -Emperor William’s self-satisfaction. Sometimes, however, we grow bitter, -storm at the wrong distribution of the good things of life, and then -relapse into a hopeless fatalistic acceptance of our condition. - -We envy the success of others, when we should emulate the process by -which that success came. We see the splendid physical development of -Sandow, yet we forget that as a babe and child he was so weak there was -little hope that his life might be spared. - -We may sometimes envy the power and spiritual strength of a Paul, -without realizing the weak Saul of Tarsus from which he was transformed -through his self-control. - -We shut our eyes to the thousands of instances of the world’s -successes,—mental, moral, physical, financial or spiritual,—wherein -the great final success came from a beginning far weaker and poorer than -our own. - -Any man may attain self-control if he only will. He must not expect to -gain it save by long continued payment of price, in small progressive -expenditures of energy. Nature is a thorough believer in the installment -plan in her relations with the individual. No man is so poor that he -cannot _begin_ to pay for what he wants, and every small, individual -payment that he makes, Nature stores and accumulates for him as a -reserve fund in his hour of need. - -The patience man expends in bearing the little trials of his daily life -Nature stores for him as a wondrous reserve in a crisis of life. With -Nature, the mental, the physical or the moral energy he expends daily in -right-doing is all stored for him and transmuted into strength. Nature -never accepts a cash payment in full for anything,—this would be an -injustice to the poor and to the weak. - -It is only the progressive installment plan Nature recognizes. No man -can make a habit in a moment or break it in a moment. It is a matter of -development, of growth. But at any moment man may _begin_ to make or -begin to break any habit. This view of the growth of character should be -a mighty stimulus to the man who sincerely desires and determines to -live nearer to the limit of his possibilities. - -Self-control may be developed in precisely the same manner as we tone up -a weak muscle,—by little exercises day by day. Let us each day do, as -mere exercises of discipline in moral gymnastics, a few acts that are -disagreeable to us, the doing of which will help us in instant action in -our hour of need. The exercises may be very simple—dropping for a time -an intensely interesting book at the most thrilling page of the story; -jumping out of bed at the first moment of waking; walking home when one -is perfectly able to do so, but when the temptation is to take a car; -talking to some disagreeable person and trying to make the conversation -pleasant. These daily exercises in moral discipline will have a wondrous -tonic effect on man’s whole moral nature. - -The individual can attain self-control in great things only through -self-control in little things. He must study himself to discover what is -the weak point in his armor, what is the element within him that ever -keeps him from his fullest success. This is the characteristic upon -which he should begin his exercise in self-control. Is it selfishness, -vanity, cowardice, morbidness, temper, laziness, worry, mind-wandering, -lack of purpose?—whatever form human weakness assumes in the masquerade -of life he must discover. He must then live each day as if his whole -existence were telescoped down to the single day before him. With no -useless regret for the past, no useless worry for the future, he should -live that day as if it were his only day,—the only day left for him to -assert all that is best in him, the only day left for him to conquer all -that is worst in him. He should master the weak element within him at -each slight manifestation from moment to moment. Each moment then must -be a victory for it or for him. Will he be King, or will he be -slave?—the answer rests with him. - - - - - II - - The Crimes _of the_ Tongue - - -The second most deadly instrument of destruction is the dynamite -gun,—the first is the human tongue. The gun merely kills bodies; the -tongue kills reputations and, ofttimes, ruins characters. Each gun works -alone; each loaded tongue has a hundred accomplices. The havoc of the -gun is visible at once. The full evil of the tongue lives through all -the years; even the eye of Omniscience might grow tired in tracing it to -its finality. - -The crimes of the tongue are words of unkindness, of anger, of malice, -of envy, of bitterness, of harsh criticism, gossip, lying and scandal. -Theft and murder are awful crimes, yet in any single year the aggregate -sorrow, pain and suffering they cause in a nation is microscopic when -compared with the sorrows that come from the crimes of the tongue. Place -in one of the scale-pans of Justice the evils resulting from the acts of -criminals, and in the other the grief and tears and suffering resulting -from the crimes of respectability, and you will start back in amazement -as you see the scale you thought the heavier shoot high in air. - -At the hands of thief or murderer few of us suffer, even indirectly. But -from the careless tongue of friend, the cruel tongue of enemy, who is -free? No human being can live a life so true, so fair, so pure as to be -beyond the reach of malice, or immune from the poisonous emanations of -envy. The insidious attacks against one’s reputation, the loathsome -innuendoes, slurs, half-lies, by which jealous mediocrity seeks to ruin -its superiors, are like those insect parasites that kill the heart and -life of a mighty oak. So cowardly is the method, so stealthy the -shooting of the poisoned thorns, so insignificant the separate acts in -their seeming, that one is not on guard against them. It is easier to -dodge an elephant than a microbe. - -In London they have recently formed an Anti-Scandal League. The members -promise to combat in every way in their power “the prevalent custom of -talking scandal, the terrible and unending consequences of which are not -generally estimated.” - -Scandal is one of the crimes of the tongue, but it is only one. Every -individual who breathes a word of scandal is an active stockholder in a -society for the spread of moral contagion. He is instantly punished by -Nature by having his mental eyes dimmed to sweetness and purity, and his -mind deadened to the sunlight and glow of charity. There is developed a -wondrous, ingenious perversion of mental vision, by which every act of -others is explained and interpreted from the lowest possible motives. -They become like certain carrion flies, that pass lightly over acres of -rose-gardens, to feast on a piece of putrid meat. They have developed a -keen scent for the foul matter upon which they feed. - -There are pillows wet by sobs; there are noble hearts broken in the -silence whence comes no cry of protest; there are gentle, sensitive -natures seared and warped; there are old-time friends separated and -walking their lonely ways with hope dead and memory but a pang; there -are cruel misunderstandings that make all life look dark,—these are but -a few of the sorrows that come from the crimes of the tongue. - -A man may lead a life of honesty and purity, battling bravely for all he -holds dearest, so firm and sure of the rightness of his life that he -never thinks for an instant of the diabolic ingenuity that makes evil -and evil report where naught but good really exists. A few words lightly -spoken by the tongue of slander, a significant expression of the eyes, a -cruel shrug of the shoulders, with a pursing of the lips,—and then, -friendly hands grow cold, the accustomed smile is displaced by a sneer, -and one stands alone and aloof with a dazed feeling of wonder at the -vague, intangible something that has caused it all. - -For this craze for scandal, sensational newspapers of to-day are largely -responsible. Each newspaper is not one tongue, but a thousand or a -million tongues, telling the same foul story to as many pairs of -listening ears. The vultures of sensationalism scent the carcass of -immorality afar off. From the uttermost parts of the earth they collect -the sin, disgrace and folly of humanity, and show them bare to the -world. They do not even require _facts_, for morbid memories and fertile -imaginations make even the worst of the world’s happenings seem tame -when compared with their monstrosities of invention. These stories, and -the discussions they excite, develop in readers a cheap, shrewd power of -distortion of the acts of all around them. - -If a rich man give a donation to some charity, they say: “He is doing it -to get his name talked about,—to help his business.” If he give it -anonymously, they say, “Oh, it’s some millionaire who is clever enough -to know that refraining from giving his name will pique curiosity; he -will see that the public is informed later.” If he do not give to -charity, they say: “Oh, he’s stingy with his money, of course, like the -rest of the millionaires.” To the vile tongue of gossip and slander, -Virtue is ever deemed but a mask, noble ideals but a pretense, -generosity a bribe. - -The man who stands above his fellows must expect to be the target for -the envious arrows of their inferiority. It is part of the price he must -pay for his advance. One of the most detestable characters in all -literature is Iago. - -Envious of the promotion of Cassio above his head, he hated Othello. His -was one of those low natures that become absorbed in sustaining his -dignity, talking of “preserving his honor,”—forgetting it has so long -been dead that even embalming could not preserve it. Day by day Iago -dropped his poison; day by day did subtle resentment and studied -vengeance distill the poison of distrust and suspicion into more -powerfully insidious doses. With a mind wonderfully concentrated by the -blackness of his purpose, he wove a network of circumstantial evidence -around the pure-hearted Desdemona, and then murdered her vicariously, by -the hand of Othello. Her very simplicity, confidence, innocence and -artlessness made Desdemona the easier mark for the diabolic tactics of -Iago. - -Iago still lives in the hearts of thousands, who have all his despicable -meanness without his cleverness. The constant dropping of their lying -words of malice and envy have in too many instances at last worn away -the noble reputations of their superiors. - -To sustain ourselves in our own hasty judgments we sometimes say, as we -listen, and accept without investigation, the words of these modern -Iagos: “Well, where there is so much smoke, there must be _some_ fire.” -Yes, but the fire may be only the fire of malice, the incendiary firing -of the reputation of another by the lighted torch of envy, thrown into -the innocent facts of a life of superiority. - - - - - III - - The Red Tape _of_ Duty - - -Duty is the most overlauded word in the whole vocabulary of life. Duty -is the cold, bare anatomy of righteousness. Duty looks at life as a debt -to be paid; love sees life as a debt to be collected. Duty is ever -paying assessments; love is constantly counting its premiums. - -Duty is forced, like a pump; love is spontaneous, like a fountain. Duty -is prescribed and formal; it is part of the red tape of life. It means -running on moral rails. It is good enough as a beginning; it is poor as -a finality. - -The boy who “stood on the burning deck,” and who committed suicide on a -technical point of obedience, has been held up to the school children of -this century as a model of faithfulness to duty. The boy was the victim -of a blind adherence to the red tape of duty. He was placing the whole -responsibility for his acts on someone outside himself. He was -helplessly waiting for instruction in the hour of emergency when he -should have acted for himself. His act was an empty sacrifice. It was a -useless throwing away of a human life. It did no good to the father, to -the boy, to the ship, or to the nation. - -The captain who goes down with his sinking vessel, when he has done -everything in his power to save others and when he can save his own life -without dishonor, is the victim of a false sense of duty. He is cruelly -forgetful of the loved ones on shore that he is sacrificing. His death -means a spectacular exit from life, the cowardly fear of an -investigating committee, or a brave man’s loyal, yet misguided, sense of -duty. A human life, with its wondrous possibilities, is too sacred an -individual trust to be thus lightly thrown into eternity. - -They tell us of the “sublime nobleness” of the Roman soldier at Pompeii, -whose skeleton was found centuries afterward, imbedded in the once -molten lava which swept down upon the doomed city. He was still standing -at one of the gates, at his post of duty, still grasping a sword in his -crumbling fingers. His was a morbid faithfulness to a discipline from -which a great convulsion of Nature had released him. An automaton would -have stood there just as long, just as boldly, just as uselessly. - -The man who gives one hour of his life to loving, consecrated service to -humanity is doing higher, better, truer work in the world than an army -of Roman sentinels paying useless tribute to the red tape of duty. There -is in this interpretation of duty no sympathy with the man who deserts -his post when needed; it is but a protest against losing the essence, -the realness of true duty in worshipping the mere form. - -Analyze, if you will, any of the great historic instances of loyalty to -duty, and whenever they ring true you will find the presence of the real -element that made the act almost divine. It was duty,—plus love. It was -no mere sense of duty that made Grace Darling risk her life in the awful -storm of sixty years ago, when she set out in the darkness of night, on -a raging sea, to rescue the survivors of the wreck of “The Forfarshire.” -It was the sense of duty, warmed and vivified by a love of humanity, it -was heroic courage of a heart filled with divine pity and sympathy. - -Duty is a hard, mechanical process for making men do things that love -would make easy. It is a poor understudy to love. It is not a high -enough motive with which to inspire humanity. Duty is the body to which -love is the soul. Love, in the divine alchemy of life, transmutes all -duties into privileges, all responsibilities into joys. - -The workman who drops his tools at the stroke of twelve, as suddenly as -if he had been struck by lightning, may be doing his duty,—but he is -doing nothing more. No man has made a great success of his life or a fit -preparation for immortality by doing merely his duty. He must do -that,—and more. If he puts love into his work, the “more” will be easy. - -The nurse may watch faithfully at the bedside of a sick child as a duty. -But to the mother’s heart the care of the little one, in the battle -against death, is never a duty; the golden mantle of love thrown over -every act makes the word “duty” have a jarring sound as if it were the -voice of desecration. - -When a child turns out badly in later years, the parent may say, “Well, -I always did my duty by him.” Then it is no wonder the boy turned out -wrong. “Doing his duty by his son” too often implies merely food, -lodging, clothes and education supplied by the father. Why, a public -institution would give that! What the boy needed most was deep draughts -of love; he needed to live in an atmosphere of sweet sympathy, counsel -and trust. The parent should ever be an unfailing refuge, a constant -resource and inspiration, not a mere larder, or hotel, or wardrobe, or -school that furnishes these necessities free. The empty boast of mere -parental duty is one of the dangers of modern society. - -Christianity stands forth as the one religion based on love, not duty. -Christianity sweeps all duties into one word,—love. Love is the one -great duty enjoined by the Christian religion. What duty creeps to -laboriously, love reaches in a moment on the wings of a dove. Duty is -not lost, condemned or destroyed in Christianity; it is dignified, -purified and exalted and all its rough ways are made smooth by love. - -The supreme instance of generosity in the world’s history is not the -giving of millions by someone of great name; it is the giving of a mite -by a widow whose name does not appear. Behind the widow’s mite was no -sense of duty; it was the full, free and perfect gift of a heart filled -with love. In the Bible “duty” is mentioned but five times; “love,” -hundreds. - -In the conquest of any weakness in our mental or moral make-up; in the -attainment of any strength; in our highest and truest relation to -ourselves and to the world, let us ever make “love” our watchword, not -mere “duty.” - -If we desire to live a life of truth and honesty, to make our word as -strong as our bond, let us not expect to keep ourselves along the narrow -line of truth under the constant lash of the whip of duty. Let us begin -to love the truth, to fill our mind and life with the strong white light -of sincerity and sterling honesty. Let us love the truth so strongly -that there will develop within us, without our conscious effort, an -ever-present horror of a lie. - -If we desire to do good in the world, let us begin to love humanity, to -realize more truly the great dominant note that sounds in every mortal, -despite all the discords of life, the great natural bond of unity that -makes all men brothers. Then jealousy, malice, envy, unkind words and -cruel misjudging will be eclipsed and lost in the sunshine of love. - -The greatest triumph of the nineteenth century is not its marvellous -progress in invention; its strides in education; its conquests of the -dark regions of the world; the spread of a higher mental tone throughout -the earth; the wondrous increase in material comfort and wealth,—the -greatest triumph of the century is not any nor all of these; it is the -sweet atmosphere of Peace that is covering the nations, it is the -growing closer and closer of the peoples of the earth. Peace is but the -breath, the perfume, the life of love. Love is the wondrous angel of -life that rolls away all the stones of sorrow and suffering from the -pathway of duty. - - - - - IV - - The Supreme Charity _of the_ World - - -True charity is not typified by an almsbox. The benevolence of a check -book does not meet all the wants of humanity. Giving food, clothing and -money to the poor is only the beginning, the kindergarten class, of real -charity. Charity has higher, purer forms of manifestation. Charity is -but an instinctive reaching out for justice in life. Charity seeks to -smooth down the rough places of living, to bridge the chasms of human -sin and folly, to feed the heart-hungry, to give strength to the -struggling, to be tender with human weakness, and greatest of all, it -means—obeying the Divine injunction: “Judge not.” - -The true symbol of the greatest charity is the scales of judgment held -on high, suspended from the hand of Justice. So perfectly are they -poised that they are never at rest; they dare not stop for a moment to -pronounce final judgment; each second adds its grain of evidence to -either side of the balance. With this ideal before him, man, conscious -of his own weakness and frailty, dare not arrogate to himself the Divine -prerogative of pronouncing severe or final judgment on any individual. -He will seek to train mind and heart to greater keenness, purity, and -delicacy in watching the trembling movement of the balance in which he -weighs the characters and reputations of those around him. - -It is a great pity in life that all the greatest words are most -degraded. We hear people say: “I do so love to study character, in the -cars and on the street.” They are not studying character; they are -merely observing characteristics. The study of character is not a puzzle -that a man may work out over night. Character is most subtle, elusive, -changing and contradictory—a strange mingling of habits, hopes, -tendencies, ideals, motives, weaknesses, traditions and -memories—manifest in a thousand different phases. - -There is but one quality necessary for the perfect understanding of -character, one quality that, if man have it, he may _dare to -judge_—that is, omniscience. Most people study character as a -proofreader pores over a great poem: his ears are dulled to the majesty -and music of the lines, his eyes are darkened to the magic imagination -of the genius of the author; that proofreader is busy watching for an -inverted comma, a mis-spacing, or a wrong-font letter. He has an eye -trained for the imperfections, the weaknesses. Men who pride themselves -on being shrewd in discovering the weak points, the vanity, dishonesty, -immorality, intrigue and pettiness of others, think they understand -character. They know only part of character—they know only the depths -to which some men may sink; they know not the heights to which some men -may rise. An optimist is a man who has succeeded in associating with -humanity for some time without becoming a cynic. - -We never see the target a man aims at in life; we see only the target he -hits. We judge from results, and we imagine an infinity of motives that -we say must have been in his mind. No man since the creation has been -able to live a life so pure and noble as to exempt him from the -misjudgment of those around him. It is impossible to get aught but a -distorted image from a convex or a concave mirror. - -If misfortune comes to someone, people are prone to say, “It is a -judgment upon him.” How do they know? Have they been eavesdropping at -the door of Paradise? When sorrow and failure come to us, we regard them -as misdirected packages that should be delivered elsewhere. We do too -much watching of our neighbor’s garden, too little weeding in our own. - -Bottles have been picked up at sea thousands of miles from the point -where they have been cast into the waters. They have been the sport of -wind and weather; carried along by ocean currents, they have reached a -destination undreamed of. Our flippant, careless words of judgment of -the character of someone, words lightly and perhaps innocently spoken, -may be carried by unknown currents and bring sorrow, misery and shame to -the innocent. A cruel smile, a shrug of the shoulders or a cleverly -eloquent silence may ruin in a moment the reputation a man or woman has -been building for years. It is as a single motion of the hand may -destroy the delicate geometry of a spider’s web, spun from its own body -and life, though all the united efforts of the universe could not put it -back as it was. - -We do not need to judge nearly so much as we think we do. This is the -age of snap judgments. The habit is greatly intensified by the -sensational press. Twenty-four hours after a great murder there is -difficulty in getting enough men who have not already formulated a -judgment, to try the case. These men, in most instances, have read and -accepted the garbled, highly colored newspaper account; they have to -their own satisfaction discovered the murderer, practically tried him -and—sentenced him. We hear readers state their decisions with all the -force and absoluteness of one who has had the whole Book of Life made -luminant and spread out before him. If there be one place in life where -the attitude of the agnostic is beautiful, it is in this matter of -judging others. It is the courage to say: “I don’t know. I am waiting -further evidence. I must hear both sides of the question. Till then I -suspend all judgment.” It is this suspended judgment that is the supreme -form of charity. - -It is strange that in life we recognize the right of every criminal to -have a fair, open trial, yet we condemn unheard the dear friends around -us on mere circumstantial evidence. We rely on the mere evidence of our -senses, trust it implicitly, and permit it to sweep away like a mighty -tide the faith that has been ours for years. We see all life grow dark, -hope sink before our eyes, and the golden treasures of memory turn to -cruel thoughts of loss to sting us with maddening pain. Our hasty -judgment, that a few moments of explanation would remove, has estranged -the friend of our life. If we be thus unjust to those we hold dear, what -must be the cruel injustice of our judgment of others? - -We know nothing of the trials, sorrows and temptations of those around -us, of pillows wet with sobs, of the life-tragedy that may be hidden -behind a smile, of the secret cares, struggles and worries that shorten -life and leave their mark in hair prematurely whitened, and in character -changed and almost re-created in a few days. - -We say sometimes to one who seems calm and smiling: “You ought to be -supremely happy; you have everything that heart could wish.” It may be -that at that very moment the person is passing alone through some agony -of sorrow, where the teeth seem almost to bite into the lips in the -attempt to keep feelings under control, when life seems a living death -from which there is no relief. Then these light, flippant phrases jar -upon us, and we seem as isolated and separated from the rest of humanity -as if we were living on another planet. - -Let us not dare to add to the burden of another the pain of our -judgment. If we would guard our lips from expressing, we must control -our mind, we must stop this continual sitting in judgment on the acts of -others, even in private. Let us by daily exercises in self-control learn -to turn off the process of judging—as we would turn off the gas. Let us -eliminate pride, passion, personal feeling, prejudice and pettiness from -our mind, and higher, purer emotions will rush in, as air seeks to fill -a vacuum. Charity is not a formula; it is an atmosphere. Let us -cultivate charity in judging; let us seek to draw out latent good in -others rather than to discover hidden evil. It requires the eye of -charity to see the undeveloped butterfly in the caterpillar. Let us, if -we would rise to the full glory of our privilege, to the dignity of true -living, make for our watchword the injunction of the supreme charity of -the world—“Judge not.” - - - - - V - - Worry, _the_ Great American Disease - - -Worry is the most popular form of suicide. Worry impairs appetite, -disturbs sleep, makes respiration irregular, spoils digestion, irritates -disposition, warps character, weakens mind, stimulates disease, and saps -bodily health. It is the real cause of death in thousands of instances -where some other disease is named in the death certificate. Worry is -mental poison; work is mental food. - -When a child’s absorption in his studies keeps him from sleeping, or -when he tosses and turns from side to side, muttering the multiplication -table or spelling words aloud, when sleep does come, then that child -shows he is worrying. It is one of Nature’s danger-signals raised to -warn parents, and in mercy the parent should take a firm stand. The -burden of that child’s daily tasks should be lightened, the tension of -its concentration should be lessened, the hours of its slavery to -education should be cut short. - -When a man or woman works over in dreams the problems of the day, when -the sleeping hours are spent in turning the kaleidoscope of the day’s -activities, then there is either overwork or worry, and most likely it -is the worry that comes from overwork. The Creator never intended a -healthy mind to dream of the day’s duties. Either dreamless sleep or -dreams of the past should be the order of the night. - -When the spectre of one grief, one fear, one sorrow, obtrudes itself -between the eye and the printed page; when the inner voice of this -irritating memory, or fear, looms up so loud as to deaden outside -voices, there is danger to the individual. When all day, every hour, -every moment, there is the dull, insistent, numb pain of something that -makes itself felt through, above and below all our other thinking, we -must know that we are worrying. Then there is but one thing to do,—we -must stop that worry; we must kill it. - -The wise men of this wondrous century have made great discoveries in -their interviews with Nature. They have discovered that everything that -has been created has its uses. They will teach you not to assassinate -flies with paper coated with sweetened glue, for “the flies are Nature’s -scavengers.” They will tell you just what are the special duties and -responsibilities of each of the microscopic microbes with telescopic -names. In their wildest moods of scientific enthusiasm they may venture -to persuade you into believing that even the _mosquito_ serves some real -purpose in Nature, but no man that has ever lived can truthfully say a -good word about worry. - -Worry is forethought gone to seed. Worry is discounting possible future -sorrows so that the individual may have present misery. Worry is the -father of insomnia. Worry is the traitor in our camp that dampens our -powder, weakens our aim. Under the guise of helping us to bear the -present, and to be ready for the future, worry multiplies enemies within -our own mind to sap our strength. - -Worry is the dominance of the mind by a single vague, restless, -unsatisfied, fearing and fearful idea. The mental energy and force that -should be concentrated on the successive duties of the day is constantly -and surreptitiously abstracted and absorbed by this one fixed idea. The -full rich strength of the _unconscious_ working of the mind, that which -produces our best success, that represents our finest activity, is -tapped, led away and wasted on worry. - -Worry must not be confused with anxiety, though both words agree in -meaning, originally, a “choking,” or a “strangling,” referring, of -course, to the throttling effect upon individual activity. Anxiety faces -large issues of life seriously, calmly, with dignity. Anxiety always -suggests hopeful possibility; it is active in being ready, and devising -measures to meet the outcome. - -Worry is not one large individual sorrow; it is a colony of petty, -vague, insignificant, restless imps of fear, that become important only -from their combination, their constancy, their iteration. - -When Death comes, when the one we love has passed from us, and the -silence and the loneness and the emptiness of all things make us stare -dry-eyed into the future, we give ourselves up, for a time, to the agony -of isolation. This is not a petty worry we must kill ere it kills us. -This is the awful majesty of sorrow that mercifully benumbs us, though -it may later become, in the mysterious working of omnipotence, a -rebaptism and a regeneration. It is the worry _habit_, the constant -magnifying of petty sorrows to eclipse the sun of happiness, against -which I here make protest. - -To cure worry, the individual must be his own physician; he must give -the case heroic treatment. He must realize, with every fibre of his -being, the utter, absolute uselessness of worry. He must not think this -is commonplace,—a bit of mere theory; it is a reality that he must -translate for himself from mere words to a real, living fact. He must -fully understand that if it were possible for him to spend a whole -series of eternities in worry, it would not change the fact one jot or -tittle. It is a time for action, not worry, because worry paralyzes -thought and action, too. If you set down a column of figures in -addition, no amount of worry can change the sum total of those figures. -That result is wrapped up in the inevitability of mathematics. The -result can be made different only by changing the figures as they are -set down, one by one, in that column. - -The one time that a man cannot afford to worry is when he _does_ worry. -Then he is facing, or imagines he is, a critical turn in affairs. This -is the time when he needs one hundred per cent. of his mental energy to -make his plans quickly, to see what is his wisest decision, to keep a -clear eye on the sky and on his course, and a firm hand on the helm -until he has weathered the storm in safety. - -There are two reasons why man should not worry, either one of which must -operate in every instance. First, because he _cannot_ prevent the -results he fears. Second, because he _can_ prevent them. If he be -powerless to avert the blow, he needs perfect mental concentration to -meet it bravely, to lighten its force, to get what salvage he can from -the wreck, to sustain his strength at this time when he must plan a new -future. If he _can_ prevent the evil he fears, then he has no need to -worry, for he would by so doing be dissipating energy in his very hour -of need. - -If man do, day by day, ever the best he can by the light he has, he has -no need to fear, no need to regret, no need to worry. No agony of worry -would do aught to help him. Neither mortal nor angel can do more than -his best. - -If we look back upon our past life we will see how, in the marvellous -working of events, the cities of our greatest happiness and of our -fullest success have been built along the rivers of our deepest sorrows, -our most abject failures. We then realize that our present happiness or -success would have been impossible had it not been for some terrible -affliction or loss in the past,—some wondrous potent force in the -evolution of our character or our fortune. This should be a wondrous -stimulus to us in bearing the trials and sorrows of life. - -To cure one’s self of worry is not an easy task; it is not to be removed -in two or three applications of the quack medicine of any cheap -philosophy, but it requires only clear, simple commonsense applied to -the business of life. Man has no right to waste his own energies, to -weaken his own powers and influence, for he has inalienable duties to -himself, to his family, to society, and to the world. - - - - - VI - - The Greatness _of_ Simplicity - - -Simplicity is the elimination of the non-essential in all things. It -reduces life to its minimum of real needs; raises it to its maximum of -powers. Simplicity means the survival,—not of the fittest, but of the -best. In morals it kills the weeds of vice and weakness so that the -flowers of virtue and strength may have room to grow. Simplicity cuts -off waste and intensifies concentration. It converts flickering torches -into searchlights. - -All great truths are simple. The essence of Christianity could be given -in a few words; a lifetime would be but continued seeking to make those -words real and living in thoughts and acts. The true Christian’s -individual belief is always simpler than his church creed, and upon -these vital, foundation elements he builds his life. Higher criticism -never rises to the heights of his simplicity. He does not care whether -the whale swallowed Jonah or Jonah swallowed the whale. Hair-splitting -interpretation of words and phrases is an intellectual dissipation he -has no time for. He cares naught for the anatomy of religion; he has its -soul. His simple faith he lives,—in thought and word and act, day by -day. Like the lark he lives nearest the ground; like the lark he soars -highest toward heaven. - -The minister whose sermons are made up merely of flowers of rhetoric, -sprigs of quotation, sweet fancy, and perfumed commonplaces, -is—consciously or unconsciously—posing in the pulpit. His literary -charlotte-russes, sweet froth on a spongy, pulpy base, never helped a -human soul,—they give neither strength nor inspiration. If the mind and -heart of the preacher were really thrilled with the greatness and -simplicity of religion, he would, week by week, apply the ringing truths -of his faith to the vital problems of daily living. The test of a -strong, simple sermon is results,—not the Sunday praise of his -auditors, but their bettered lives during the week. People who pray on -their knees on Sunday and prey on their neighbors on Monday, need -simplicity in their faith. - -No character can be simple unless it is based on truth—unless it is -lived in harmony with one’s own conscience and ideals. Simplicity is the -pure white light of a life lived from within. It is destroyed by any -attempt to live in harmony with public opinion. Public opinion is a -conscience owned by a syndicate,—where the individual is merely a -stockholder. But the individual has a conscience of which he is sole -proprietor. Adjusting his life to his own ideals is the royal road to -simplicity. Affectation is the confession of inferiority; it is an -unnecessary proclamation that one is not living the life he pretends to -live. - -Simplicity is restful contempt for the non-essentials of life. It is -restless hunger for the non-essentials that is the secret of most of the -discontent of the world. It is constant striving to outshine others that -kills simplicity and happiness. - -Nature, in all her revelations, seeks to teach man the greatness of -simplicity. Health is but the living of a physical life in harmony with -a few simple, clearly defined laws. Simple food, simple exercise, simple -precautions will work wonders. But man grows tired of the simple things, -he yields to subtle temptations in eating and drinking, listens to his -palate instead of to Nature,—and he suffers. He is then led into -intimate acquaintance with dyspepsia, and he sits like a child at his -own bounteous table, forced to limit his eating to simple food that he -scorned. - -There is a tonic strength, in the hour of sorrow and affliction, in -escaping from the world and society and getting back to the simple -duties and interests we have slighted and forgotten. Our world grows -smaller, but it grows dearer and greater. Simple things have a new charm -for us, and we suddenly realize that we have been renouncing all that is -greatest and best, in our pursuit of some phantom. - -Simplicity is the characteristic that is most difficult to simulate. The -signature that is most difficult to imitate is the one that is most -simple, most individual and most free from flourishes. The bank note -that is the most difficult to counterfeit successfully is the one that -contains the fewest lines and has the least intricate detail. So simple -is it that any departure from the normal is instantly apparent. So is it -also in mind and in morals. - -Simplicity in act is the outward expression of simplicity in thought. -Men who carry on their shoulders the fate of a nation are quiet, modest, -unassuming. They are often made gentle, calm and simple by the -discipline of their responsibility. They have no room in their minds for -the pettiness of personal vanity. It is ever the drum-major who grows -pompous when he thinks that the whole world is watching him as he -marches at the head of the procession. The great general, bowed with the -honors of many campaigns, is simple and unaffected as a child. - -The college graduate assumes the airs of one to whom is committed the -wisdom of the ages, while the great man of science, the Columbus of some -great continent of investigation, is simple and humble. - -The longest Latin derivatives seem necessary to express the thoughts of -young writers. The world’s great masters in literature can move mankind -to tears, give light and life to thousands in darkness and doubt, or -scourge a nation for its folly,—by words so simple as to be -commonplace. But transfigured by the divinity of genius, there seems -almost a miracle in words. - -Life grows wondrously beautiful when we look at it as simple, when we -can brush aside the trivial cares and sorrows and worries and failures -and say: “They don’t count. They are not the real things of life; they -are but interruptions. There is something within me, my individuality, -that makes all these gnats of trouble seem too trifling for me to permit -them to have any dominion over me.” Simplicity is a mental soil where -artifice, lying, deceit, treachery and selfish, low ambition,—cannot -grow. - -The man whose character is simple looks truth and honesty so straight in -the face that he has no consciousness of intrigue and corruption around -him. He is deaf to the hints and whispers of wrongs that a suspicious -nature would suspect even before they existed. He scorns to meet -intrigue with intrigue, to hold power by bribery, to pay weak tribute to -an inferior that has a temporary inning. To true simplicity, to perceive -a truth is to begin to live it, to see a duty is to begin to do it. -Nothing great can ever enter into the consciousness of a man of -simplicity and remain but a theory. Simplicity in a character is like -the needle of a compass,—it knows only one point, its North, its ideal. - -Let us seek to cultivate this simplicity in all things in our life. The -first step toward simplicity is “simplifying.” The beginning of mental -or moral progress or reform is always renunciation or sacrifice. It is -rejection, surrender or destruction of separate phases of habit or life -that have kept us from higher things. Reform your diet and you simplify -it; make your speech truer and higher and you simplify it; reform your -morals and you begin to cut off your immorals. The secret of all true -greatness is simplicity. Make simplicity the keynote of your life and -you will be great, no matter though your life be humble and your -influence seem but little. Simple habits, simple manners, simple needs, -simple words, simple faiths,—all are the pure manifestations of a mind -and heart of simplicity. - -Simplicity is never to be associated with weakness and ignorance. It -means reducing tons of ore to nuggets of gold. It means the light of -fullest knowledge; it means that the individual has seen the folly and -the nothingness of those things that make up the sum of the life of -others. He has lived _down_ what others are blindly seeking to live _up_ -to. Simplicity is the sun of a self-centred and pure life,—the secret -of any specific greatness in the life of the individual. - - - - - VII - - Living Life Over Again - - -During a terrific storm a few years ago a ship was driven far out of -her course, and, helpless and disabled, was carried into a strange bay. -The water supply gave out, and the crew suffered the agony of thirst, -yet dared not drink of the salt water in which their vessel floated. In -the last extremity they lowered a bucket over the ship’s side, and in -desperation quaffed the beverage they thought was sea-water. But to -their joy and amazement the water was fresh, cool and life-giving. They -were in a fresh-water arm of the sea, and they did not know it. They had -simply to reach down and accept the new life and strength for which they -prayed. - -Man, to-day, heart-weary with the sorrow, sin and failure of his past -life, feels that he could live a better life if he could only have -another chance, if he could only live life over again, if he could only -start afresh with his present knowledge and experience. He looks back -with regretful memory to the golden days of youth and sadly mourns his -wasted chances. He then turns hopefully to the thought of a life to -come. But, helpless, he stands between the two ends of life, yet -thirsting for the chance to live a new life, according to his bettered -condition for living it. In his blindness and unknowing, he does not -realize, like the storm-driven sailors, that the new life is all around -him; he has but to reach out and take it. Every day is a new life, every -sunrise but a new birth for himself and the world, every morning the -beginning of a new existence for him, a new, great chance to put to new -and higher uses the results of his past living. - -The man who looks back upon his past life and says, “I have nothing to -regret,” has lived in vain. The life without regret is the life without -gain. Regret is but the light of fuller wisdom, from our past, -illumining our future. It means that we are wiser to-day than we were -yesterday. This new wisdom means new responsibility, new privileges; it -is a new chance for a better life. But if regret remain merely “regret,” -it is useless; it must become the revelation of new possibilities, and -the inspiration and source of strength to realize them. Even omnipotence -could not change the past, but each man, to a degree far beyond his -knowing, holds his future in his own hands. - -If man were sincere in his longing to live life over he would get more -help from his failures. If he realize his wasted golden hours of -opportunity, let him not waste other hours in useless regret, but seek -to forget his folly and to keep before him only the lessons of it. His -past extravagance of time should lead him to minify his loss by -marvellous economy of present moments. If his whole life be darkened by -the memory of a cruel wrong he has done another, if direct amends be -impossible to the injured one, passed from life, let him make the world -the legatee to receive his expressions of restitution. Let his regret -and sorrow be manifest in words of kindness and sympathy, and acts of -sweetness and love given to all with whom he comes in contact. If he -regrets a war he has made against one individual, let him place the -entire world on his pension list. If a man make a certain mistake once, -the only way he can properly express his recognition of it is not to -make a similar mistake later. Josh Billings once said: “A man who is -bitten twice by the same dog is better adapted to that business than any -other.” - -There are many people in this world who want to live life over because -they take such pride in their past. They resemble the beggars in the -street who tell you they “have seen better days.” It is not what man -_was_ that shows character; it is what he progressively _is_. Trying to -obtain a present record on a dead past is like some present-day -mediocrity that tries to live on its ancestry. We look for the fruit in -the branches of the family tree, not in the roots. Showing how a family -degenerated from a noble ancestor of generations ago to its present -representative is not a boast;—it is an unnecessary confession. Let man -think less of his own ancestors and more of those he is preparing for -his posterity; less of his past virtue, and more of his future. - -When man pleads for a chance to live life over, there is always an -implied plea of inexperience, of a lack of knowledge. This is unworthy, -even of a coward. We know the laws of health, yet we ignore them or defy -them every day. We know what is the proper food for us, individually, to -eat, yet we gratify our appetites and trust to our cleverness to square -the account with Nature somehow. We know that success is a matter of -simple, clearly defined laws, of the development of mental essentials, -of tireless energy and concentration, of constant payment of price,—we -know all this, and yet we do not live up to our knowledge. We constantly -eclipse ourselves by ourselves, and then we blame Fate. - -Parents often counsel their children against certain things, and do them -themselves, in the foolish hope that the children will believe their -ears in preference to their eyes. Years of careful teaching of a child -to be honest and truthful may be nullified in an instant by a parent’s -lying to a conductor about a child’s age to save a nickel. That may be a -very expensive street-car ride for the child,—and for the parent. It -may be part of the spirit of the age to believe that it is no sin to -cheat a corporation or a trust, but it is unwise to give the child so -striking an example at an age when it cannot detect the sophistry. - -Man’s only plea for a chance to live life again is that he has gained in -wisdom and experience. If he be really in earnest, then he can live life -over, he can live life anew, he can live the new life that comes to him -day by day. Let him leave to the past, to the aggregated thousands of -yesterdays, all their mistakes, sin, sorrow, misery and folly, and start -afresh. Let him close the books of his old life, let him strike a -balance, and start anew, crediting himself with all the wisdom he has -gained from his past failure and weakness, and charging himself with the -new duties and responsibilities that come from the possession of his new -capital of wisdom. Let him criticise others less and himself more,—and -start out bravely in this new life he is to live. - -What the world needs is more day-to-day living; starting in the morning -with fresh, clear ideals for that day, and seeking to live that day, and -each successive hour and moment of that day, as if it were all time and -all eternity. This has in it no element of disregard for the future, for -each day is set in harmony with that future. It is like the sea-captain -heading his vessel toward his port of destination, and day by day -keeping her steaming toward it. This view of living kills morbid regret -of the past, and morbid worry about the future. Most people want large, -guaranteed slices of life; they would not be satisfied with manna fresh -every day, as was given to the children of Israel; they want grain -elevators filled with daily bread. - -Life is worth living if it be lived in a way that is worth living. Man -does not own his life,—to do with as he will. He has merely a -life-interest in it. He must finally surrender it,—with an accounting. -At each New Year tide it is common to make new resolutions, but in the -true life of the individual each day is the beginning of a New Year if -he will only make it so. A mere date on the calendar of eternity is no -more a divider of time than a particular grain of sand divides the -desert. - -Let us not make heroic resolutions so far beyond our strength that the -resolution becomes a dead memory within a week; but let us promise -ourselves that each day will be the new beginning of a newer, better and -truer life for ourselves, for those around us, and for the world. - - - - - VIII - - Syndicating Our Sorrows - - -The most selfish man in the world is the one who is most -unselfish,—with his sorrows. He does not leave a single misery of his -untold to you, or unsuffered by you,—he gives you all of them. The -world becomes to him a syndicate formed to take stock in his private -cares, worries and trials. His mistake is in forming a syndicate; he -should organize a trust and control it all himself, then he could keep -everyone from getting any of his misery. - -Life is a great, serious problem for the individual. All our greatest -joys and our deepest sorrows come to us,—alone. We must go into our -Gethsemane,—alone. We must battle against the mighty weakness within -us,—alone. We must live our own life,—alone. We must die,—alone. We -must accept the full responsibility of our life,—alone. If each one of -us has this mighty problem of life to solve for himself, if each of us -has his own cares, responsibilities, failures, doubts, fears, -bereavements, we surely are playing a coward’s part when we syndicate -our sorrows to others. - -We should seek to make life brighter for others; we should seek to -hearten them in their trials by the example of our courage in bearing -our sorrows. We should seek to forget our failures, and remember only -the new wisdom they gave us; we should live down our griefs by counting -the joys and privileges still left to us; put behind us our worries and -regrets, and face each new day of life as bravely as we can. But we have -no right to retail our sorrow and unhappiness through the community. - -Autobiography constitutes a large part of the conversation of some -people. It is not really conversation,—it is an uninterrupted -monologue. These people study their individual lives with a microscope, -and then they throw an enlarged view of their miseries on a screen and -lecture on them, as a stereopticon man discourses on the microbes in a -drop of water. They tell you that “they did not sleep a wink all night; -they heard the clock strike every quarter of an hour.” Now, there is no -real cause for thus boasting of insomnia. It requires no peculiar -talent,—even though it does come only to wide-awake people. - -If you ask such a man how he is feeling, he will trace the whole -genealogy of his present condition down from the time he had the grippe -four years ago. You hoped for a word; he gives you a treatise. You asked -for a sentence; he delivers an encyclopedia. His motto is: “Every man -his own Boswell.” He is syndicating his sorrows. - -The woman who makes her trials with her children, her troubles with her -servants, her difficulties with her family, the subjects of conversation -with her callers is syndicating her sorrows. If she has a dear little -innocent child who recites “Curfew Shall Not Ring To-night,” is it not -wiser for the mother to bear it calmly and discreetly and in silence, -than to syndicate this sorrow? - -The business man who lets his dyspepsia get into his disposition, and -who makes everyone around him suffer because he himself is ill, is -syndicating ill-health. We have no right to make others the victims of -our moods. If illness makes us cross and irritable, makes us unjust to -faithful workers who cannot protest, let us quarantine ourselves so that -we do not spread the contagion. Let us force ourselves to speak slowly, -to keep anger away from the eyes, to prevent temper showing in the -voice. If we feel that we _must_ have dyspepsia, let us keep it out of -our head, let us keep it from getting north of the neck. - -Most people sympathize too much with themselves. They take themselves as -a single sentence isolated from the great text of life. They study -themselves too much as separated from the rest of humanity, instead of -being vitally connected with their fellow-men. There are some people who -surrender to sorrow as others give way to dissipation. There is a vain -pride of sorrow as well as of beauty. Most individuals have a strange -glow of vanity in looking back upon their past and feeling that few -others in life have suffered such trials, hardships and disappointments -as have come to them. - -When Death comes into the little circle of loved ones who make up our -world, all life becomes dark to us. We seem to have no reason for -existing, no object, no incentive, no hope. The love that made struggle -and effort bearable for us,—is gone. We stare, dry-eyed, into the -future, and see no future; we want none. Life has become to us a -past,—with no future. It is but a memory, without a hope. - -Then in the divine mystery of Nature’s processes, under the tender, -soothing touch of Time, as days melt into weeks, we begin to open our -eyes gently to the world around us, and the noise and tumult of life -jars less and less upon us. We have become emotionally convalescent. As -the days go on, in our deep love, in the fullness of our loyalty, we -protest often, with tears in our eyes, against our gradual return to the -spirit and atmosphere of the days of the past. We feel in a subtle way a -new pain, as if we were disloyal to the dear one, as if we were -faithless to our love. Nature sweetly turns aside our protesting hands, -and says to us, “There is no disloyalty in permitting the wounds to -lessen their pain, to heal gradually, if Time foreordain that they can -heal.” There are some natures, all-absorbed in a mighty love, wherein no -healing is possible,—but these are rare souls in life. - -Bitter though our anguish be, we have no right to syndicate our sorrow. -We have no right to cast a gloom over happy natures by our heavy weight -of crape, by serving the term prescribed by Society for wearing the -livery of mourning,—as if real grief thought of a uniform. We have no -right to syndicate our grief by using notepaper with a heavy black -border as wide as a hatband, thus parading our personal sorrow to others -in their happiest moments. - -If life has not gone well with us, if fortune has left us disconsolate, -if love has grown cold, and we sit alone by the embers; if life has -become to us a valley of desolation, through which weary limbs must drag -an unwilling body till the end shall come,—let us not radiate such an -atmosphere to those round us; let us not take strangers through the -catacombs of our life, and show the bones of our dead past; let us not -pass our cup of sorrow to others, but, if we must drink it, let us take -it as Socrates did his poison hemlock,—grandly, heroically and -uncomplainingly. - -If your life has led you to doubt the existence of honor in man and -virtue in woman; if you feel that religion is a pretense, that -spirituality is a sham, that life is a failure, and death the entrance -to nothingness; if you have absorbed all the poison philosophy of the -world’s pessimists, and committed the folly of believing it,—don’t -syndicate it. - -If your fellow-man be clinging to one frail spar, the last remnant of a -noble, shipwrecked faith in God and humanity, let him keep it. Do not -loosen his fingers from his hope, and tell him it is a delusion. How do -you know? Who told you it was so? - -If these high-tide moments of life sweep your faith in Omnipotence into -nothingness, if the friend in whom you have put all faith in humanity -and humanity’s God betray you, do not eagerly accept the teachings of -those modern freethinkers who syndicate their infidelity at so much per -reserved seat. Seek to recover your lost faith by listening to the -million voices that speak of infinite wisdom, infinite love, that -manifest themselves in nature and humanity, and then build up as rapidly -as you can a new faith, a faith in something higher, better and truer -than you have known before. - -You may have _one_ in the world to whom you may dare show with the -fullness of absolute confidence and perfect faith any thought, any hope, -any sorrow,—but you dare not trust them to the world. Do not show the -world through your Bluebeard chamber; keep your trials and sorrows as -close to you as you can till you have mastered them. Don’t weaken others -by thus—syndicating your miseries. - - - - - IX - - The Revelations _of_ Reserve Power - - -Every individual is a marvel of unknown and unrealized possibilities. -Nine-tenths of an iceberg is always below water. Nine-tenths of the -possibilities of good and evil of the individual is ever hidden from his -sight. - -Burns’ prayer,—that we might “see oursels as ithers see us,”—was weak. -The answer could minister only to man’s vanity,—it would show him only -what others think him to be, not what he is. We should pray to see -ourselves as we _are_. But no man could face the radiant revelation of -the latent powers and forces within him, underlying the weak, narrow -life he is living. He would fall blinded and prostrate as did Moses -before the burning bush. Man is not a mechanical music-box wound up by -the Creator and set to play a fixed number of prescribed tunes. He is a -human harp, with infinite possibilities of unawakened music. - -The untold revelations of Nature are in her Reserve Power. Reserve Power -is Nature’s method of meeting emergencies. Nature is wise and economic. -Nature saves energy and effort, and gives only what is absolutely -necessary for life and development under any given condition, and when -new needs arise Nature always meets them by her Reserve Power. - -In animal life Nature reveals this in a million phases. Animals placed -in the darkness of the Mammoth Cave gradually have the sense of sight -weakened and the senses of smell, touch and hearing intensified. Nature -watches over all animals, making their color harmonize with the general -tone of their surroundings to protect them from their enemies. Those -arctic animals which in the summer inhabit regions free from snow, turn -white when winter comes. In the desert, the lion, the camel and all the -desert antelopes have more or less the color of the sand and rocks among -which they live. In tropical forests parrots are usually green; -turacous, barbets and bee-eaters have a preponderance of green in their -plumage. The colors change as the habits of the animals change from -generation to generation. Nature, by her Reserve Power, always meets the -new needs of animals with new strength,—new harmony with new -conditions. - -About forty-five years ago three pairs of enterprising rabbits were -introduced into Australia. To-day, the increase of these six immigrants -may be counted by millions. They became a pest to the country. Fortunes -have been spent to exterminate them. Wire fences many feet high and -thousands of miles long have been built to keep out the invaders. The -rabbits had to fight awful odds to live, but they have now outwitted -man. They have developed a new nail,—a long nail by which they can -retain their hold on the fence while climbing. With this same nail they -can burrow six or eight inches under the netting, and thus enter the -fields that mean food and life to them. They are now laughing at man. -Reserve Power has vitalized for these rabbits latent possibilities -because they did not tamely accept their condition, but in their -struggle to live learned _how_ to live. - -In plant life, Nature is constantly revealing Reserve Power. The -possibilities of almost infinite color are present in _every_ green -plant, even in roots and stems. Proper conditions only are needed to -reveal them. By obeying Nature’s laws man could make leaves as -beautifully colored as flowers. The _wild_ rose has only a single -corolla; but, when cultivated in rich soil, the numerous yellow stamens -change into the brilliant red leaves of the full-grown cabbage-rose. -This is but one of Nature’s miracles of Reserve Power. Once the banana -was a tropical lily; the peach was at one time a bitter almond. To tell -the full story of Reserve Power in Nature would mean to write the -history of the universe, in a thousand volumes. - -Nature is a great believer in “double engines.” Man is equipped with -nearly every organ in duplicate—eyes, ears, lungs, arms and legs, so -that if one be weakened, its mate, through Reserve Power, is stimulated -to do enough for both. Even where the organ itself is not duplicated, as -in the nose, there is a division of parts so there is constant reserve. -Nature, for still further protection, has for every part of the body an -understudy in training, to be ready in a crisis,—as the sense of touch -for the blind. - -Birds when frightened ruffle their feathers; a dog that has been in the -water shakes its coat so that each hair stands out of itself; the -startled hedgehog projects every quill. These actions are produced by -“skin muscles” that are rudimentary in man, and over which in ordinary -conditions he has no control. But in a moment of terrible fear Reserve -Power quickens their action in a second, and the hair on his head -“stands on end” in the intensity of his fright. - -Nature, that thus watches so tenderly over the physical needs of man, is -equally provident in storing for him a mental and a moral Reserve Power. -Man may fail in a dozen different lines of activity and then succeed -brilliantly in a phase wherein he was unconscious of any ability. We -must never rest content with what we _are_, and say: “There is no use -for me to try. I can never be great. I am not even clever now.” But the -law of Reserve Power stands by us as a fairy godmother and says: “There -is one charm by which you can transmute the dull dross of your present -condition into the pure gold of strength and power,—that charm is ever -doing your best, ever daring more, and the full measure of your final -attainment can never be told in advance. Rely upon me to help you with -new revelations of strength in new emergencies. Never be cast down -because your power seems so trifling, your progress so slow. The world’s -greatest and best men were failures in some line, failures many times -before failure was crowned with success.” - -There is in the mythology of the Norsemen a belief that the strength of -an enemy we kill enters into us. This is true in character. As we -conquer a passion, a thought, a feeling, a desire; as we rise superior -to some impulse, the strength of that victory, trifling though it may -be, is stored by Nature as a Reserve Power to come to us in the hour of -our need. - -Were we to place before almost any individual the full chart of his -future,—his trials, sorrows, failures, afflictions, loss, sickness and -loneliness,—and ask him if he could bear it, he would say: “No! I could -not bear all that and live.” But he _can_ and he _does_. The hopes upon -the realization of which he has staked all his future turn to air as he -nears them; friends whom he has trusted betray him; the world grows cold -to him; the child whose smile is the light of his life dishonors his -name; death takes from him the wife of his heart. Reserve Power has been -watching over him and ever giving him new strength,—even while he -sleeps. - -If we be conscious of any weakness, and desire to conquer it, we can -force ourselves into positions where we _must_ act in a way to -strengthen ourselves through that weakness, cut off our retreat, burn -our bridges behind us, and fight like Spartans till the victory be ours. - -Reserve Power is like the manna given to the children of Israel in the -wilderness,—only enough was given them to keep them for one day. Each -successive day had its new supply of strength. There is in the leaning -tower of Pisa a spiral stairway so steep in its ascent that only one -step at a time is revealed to us. But as each step is taken the next is -made visible, and thus, step by step, to the very highest. So in the -Divine economy of the universe, Reserve Power is a gradual and constant -revelation of strength within us to meet each new need. And no matter -what be our line of life, what our need, we should feel that we have -within us infinite, untried strength and possibility, and that, if we -believe and do our best, the Angel of Reserve Power will walk by our -side, and will even divide the waters of the Red Sea of our sorrows and -trials so we may walk through in safety. - - - - - X - - The Majesty _of_ Calmness - - -Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a -great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral -atmosphere of a life self-centred, self-reliant, and self-controlled. -Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious -power,—ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis. - -The Sphinx is not a true type of calmness,—petrifaction is not -calmness; it is death, the silencing of all the energies; while no one -lives his life more fully, more intensely and more consciously than the -man who is calm. - -The Fatalist is not calm. He is the coward slave of his environment, -hopelessly surrendering to his present condition, recklessly indifferent -to his future. He accepts his life as a rudderless ship, drifting on the -ocean of time. He has no compass, no chart, no known port to which he is -sailing. His self-confessed inferiority to all nature is shown in his -existence of constant surrender. It is not,—calmness. - -The man who is calm has his course in life clearly marked on his chart. -His hand is ever on the helm. Storm, fog, night, tempest, danger, hidden -reefs,—he is ever prepared and ready for them. He is made calm and -serene by the realization that in these crises of his voyage he needs a -clear mind and a cool head; that he has naught to do but to do each day -the best he can by the light he has; that he will never flinch nor -falter for a moment; that, though he may have to tack and leave his -course for a time, he will never drift, he will get back into the true -channel, he will keep ever headed toward his harbor. _When_ he will -reach it, _how_ he will reach it matters not to him. He rests in -calmness, knowing he has done his best. If his best seem to be -overthrown or overruled, then he must still bow his head,—in calmness. -To no man is permitted to know the future of his life, the finality. God -commits to man ever only new beginnings, new wisdom, and new days to use -to the best of his knowledge. - -Calmness comes ever from within. It is the peace and restfulness of the -depths of our nature. The fury of storm and of wind agitate only the -surface of the sea; they can penetrate only two or three hundred -feet,—below that is the calm, unruffled deep. To be ready for the great -crises of life we must learn serenity in our daily living. Calmness is -the crown of self-control. - -When the worries and cares of the day fret you, and begin to wear upon -you, and you chafe under the friction,—be calm. Stop, rest for a -moment, and let calmness and peace assert themselves. If you let these -irritating outside influences get the better of you, you are confessing -your inferiority to them, by permitting them to dominate you. Study the -disturbing elements, each by itself, bring all the will-power of your -nature to bear upon them, and you will find that they will, one by one, -melt into nothingness, like vapors fading before the sun. The glow of -calmness that will then pervade your mind, the tingling sensation of an -inflow of new strength, may be to you the beginning of the revelation of -the supreme calmness that is possible for you. Then, in some great hour -of your life, when you stand face to face with some awful trial, when -the structure of your ambition and life-work crumbles in a moment, you -will be brave. You can then fold your arms calmly, look out undismayed -and undaunted upon the ashes of your hope, upon the wreck of what you -have faithfully built, and with brave heart and unfaltering voice you -may say: “So let it be,—I will build again.” - -When the tongue of malice and slander, the persecution of inferiority, -tempts you for just a moment to retaliate, when for an instant you -forget yourself so far as to hunger for revenge,—be calm. When the grey -heron is pursued by its enemy, the eagle, it does not run to escape; it -remains calm, takes a dignified stand, and waits quietly, facing the -enemy unmoved. With the terrific force with which the eagle makes its -attack, the boasted king of birds is often impaled and run through on -the quiet, lance-like bill of the heron. The means that man takes to -kill another’s character becomes suicide of his own. - -No man in the world ever attempted to wrong another without being -injured in return,—someway, somehow, sometime. The only weapon of -offence that Nature seems to recognize is the boomerang. Nature keeps -her books admirably; she puts down every item, she closes all accounts -finally, but she does not always balance them at the end of the month. -To the man who is calm, revenge is so far beneath him that he cannot -reach it,—even by stooping. When injured, he does not retaliate; he -wraps around him the royal robes of Calmness, and he goes quietly on his -way. - -When the hand of Death touches the one we hold dearest, paralyzes our -energy, and eclipses the sun of our life, the calmness that has been -accumulating in long years becomes in a moment our refuge, our reserve -strength. - -The most subtle of all temptations is the _seeming_ success of the -wicked. It requires moral courage to see, without flinching, material -prosperity coming to men who are dishonest; to see politicians rise into -prominence, power and wealth by trickery and corruption; to see virtue -in rags and vice in velvets; to see ignorance at a premium, and -knowledge at a discount. To the man who is really calm these puzzles of -life do not appeal. He is living his life as best he can; he is not -worrying about the problems of justice, whose solution must be left to -Omniscience to solve. - -When man has developed the spirit of Calmness until it becomes so -absolutely part of him that his very presence radiates it, he has made -great progress in life. Calmness cannot be acquired of itself and by -itself; it must come as the culmination of a series of virtues. What the -world needs and what individuals need is a higher standard of living, a -great realizing sense of the privilege and dignity of life, a higher and -nobler conception of individuality. - -With this great sense of calmness permeating an individual, man becomes -able to retire more into himself, away from the noise, the confusion and -strife of the world, which come to his ears only as faint, far-off -rumblings, or as the tumult of the life of a city heard only as a -buzzing hum by the man in a balloon. - -The man who is calm does not selfishly isolate himself from the world, -for he is intensely interested in all that concerns the welfare of -humanity. His calmness is but a Holy of Holies into which he can retire -_from_ the world to get strength to live _in_ the world. He realizes -that the full glory of individuality, the crowning of his self-control -is,—the majesty of calmness. - - - - - XI - - Hurry, _the_ Scourge _of_ America - - -The first sermon in the world was preached at the Creation. It was a -Divine protest against Hurry. It was a Divine object lesson of perfect -law, perfect plan, perfect order, perfect method. Six days of work -carefully planned, scheduled and completed were followed by,—rest. -Whether we accept the story as literal or as figurative, as the account -of successive days or of ages comprising millions of years, matters -little if we but learn the lesson. - -Nature is very un-American. Nature never hurries. Every phase of her -working shows plan, calmness, reliability, and the absence of hurry. -Hurry always implies lack of definite method, confusion, impatience of -slow growth. The Tower of Babel, the world’s first sky-scraper, was a -failure because of hurry. The workers mistook their arrogant ambition -for inspiration. They had too many builders,—and no architect. They -thought to make up the lack of a head by a superfluity of hands. This is -a characteristic of Hurry. It seeks ever to make energy a substitute for -a clearly defined plan,—the result is ever as hopeless as trying to -transform a hobbyhorse into a real steed by brisk riding. - -Hurry is a counterfeit of haste. Haste has an ideal, a distinct aim to -be realized by the quickest, direct methods. Haste has a single compass -upon which it relies for direction and in harmony with which its course -is determined. Hurry says: “I must move faster. I will get three -compasses; I will have them different; I will be guided by all of them. -One of them will probably be right.” Hurry never realizes that slow, -careful foundation work is the quickest in the end. - -Hurry has ruined more Americans than has any other word in the -vocabulary of life. It is the scourge of America; and is both a cause -and a result of our high-pressure civilization. Hurry adroitly assumes -so many masquerades of disguise that its identity is not always -recognized. - -Hurry always pays the highest price for everything, and, usually the -goods are not delivered. In the race for wealth men often sacrifice -time, energy, health, home, happiness and honor,—everything that money -cannot buy, the very things that money can never bring back. Hurry is a -phantom of paradoxes. Business men, in their desire to provide for the -future happiness of their family, often sacrifice the present happiness -of wife and children on the altar of Hurry. They forget that their place -in the home should be something greater than being merely “the man that -pays the bills;” they expect consideration and thoughtfulness that they -are not giving. - -We hear too much of a wife’s duties to a husband and too little of the -other side of the question. “The wife,” they tell us, “should meet her -husband with a smile and a kiss, should tactfully watch his moods and be -ever sweetness and sunshine.” Why this continual swinging of the censer -of devotion to the man of business? Why should a woman have to look up -with timid glance at the face of her husband, to “size up his mood?” Has -not her day, too, been one of care, and responsibility, and -watchfulness? Has not mother-love been working over perplexing problems -and worries of home and of the training of the children that wifely love -may make her seek to solve in secret? Is man, then, the weaker sex that -he must be pampered and treated as tenderly as a boil trying to keep -from contact with the world? - -In their hurry to attain some ambition, to gratify the dream of a life, -men often throw honor, truth, and generosity to the winds. Politicians -dare to stand by and see a city poisoned with foul water until, they -“see where they come in” on a waterworks appropriation. If it be -necessary to poison an army,—that, too, is but an incident in the hurry -for wealth. - -This is the Age of the Hothouse. The element of natural growth is pushed -to one side and the hothouse and the force-pump are substituted. Nature -looks on tolerantly as she says: “So far you may go, but no farther, my -foolish children.” - -The educational system of to-day is a monumental institution dedicated -to Hurry. The children are forced to go through a series of studies that -sweep the circle of all human wisdom. They are given everything that the -ambitious ignorance of the age can force into their minds; they are -taught everything but the essentials,—how to use their senses and how -to think. Their minds become congested by a great mass of undigested -facts, and still the cruel, barbarous forcing goes on. You watch it -until it seems you cannot stand it a moment longer, and you -instinctively put out your hand and say: “Stop! This modern slaughter of -the Innocents must _not_ go on!” Education smiles suavely, waves her -hand complacently toward her thousands of knowledge-prisons over the -country, and says: “Who are you that dares speak a word against our -sacred school system?” Education is in a hurry. Because she fails in -fifteen years to do what half the time should accomplish by better -methods, she should not be too boastful. Incompetence is not always a -reason for pride. And they hurry the children into a hundred text-books, -then into ill-health, then into the colleges, then into a diploma, then -into life,—with a dazed mind, untrained and unfitted for the real -duties of living. - -Hurry is the deathblow to calmness, to dignity, to poise. The old-time -courtesy went out when the new-time hurry came in. Hurry is the father -of dyspepsia. In the rush of our national life, the bolting of food has -become a national vice. The words “Quick Lunches” might properly be -placed on thousands of headstones in our cemeteries. Man forgets that he -is the only animal that dines; the others merely feed. Why does he -abrogate his right to dine and go to the end of the line with the mere -feeders? His self-respecting stomach rebels, and expresses its -indignation by indigestion. Then man has to go through life with a -little bottle of pepsin tablets in his vest-pocket. He is but another -victim to this craze for speed. Hurry means the breakdown of the nerves. -It is the royal road to nervous prostration. - -Everything that is great in life is the product of slow growth; the -newer, and greater, and higher, and nobler the work, the slower is its -growth, the surer is its lasting success. Mushrooms attain their full -power in a night; oaks require decades. A fad lives its life in a few -weeks; a philosophy lives through generations and centuries. If you are -sure you are right, do not let the voice of the world, or of friends, or -of family swerve you for a moment from your purpose. Accept slow growth -if it must be slow, and know the results _must_ come, as you would -accept the long, lonely hours of the night,—with absolute assurance -that the heavy-leaded moments _must_ bring the morning. - -Let us as individuals banish the word “Hurry” from our lives. Let us -care for nothing so much that we would pay honor and self-respect as the -price of hurrying it. Let us cultivate calmness, restfulness, poise, -sweetness,—doing our best, bearing all things as bravely as we can; -living our life undisturbed by the prosperity of the wicked or the -malice of the envious. Let us not be impatient, chafing at delay, -fretting over failure, wearying over results, and weakening under -opposition. Let us ever turn our face toward the future with confidence -and trust, with the calmness of a life in harmony with itself, true to -its ideals, and slowly and constantly progressing toward their -realization. - -Let us see that cowardly word Hurry in all its most degenerating phases, -let us see that it ever kills truth, loyalty, thoroughness; and let us -determine that, day by day, we will seek more and more to substitute for -it the calmness and repose of a true life, nobly lived. - - - - - XII - - The Power _of_ Personal Influence - - -The only responsibility that a man cannot evade in this life is the -one he thinks of least,—his personal influence. Man’s conscious -influence, when he is on dress-parade, when he is posing to impress -those around him,—is woefully small. But his unconscious influence, the -silent, subtle radiation of his personality, the effect of his words and -acts, the trifles he never considers,—is tremendous. Every moment of -life he is changing to a degree the life of the whole world. Every man -has an atmosphere which is affecting every other. So silent and -unconsciously is this influence working, that man may forget that it -exists. - -All the forces of Nature,—heat, light, electricity and -gravitation,—are silent and invisible. We never _see_ them; we only -know that they exist by seeing the effects they produce. In all Nature -the wonders of the “seen” are dwarfed into insignificance when compared -with the majesty and glory of the “unseen.” - -The great sun itself does not supply enough heat and light to sustain -animal and vegetable life on the earth. We are dependent for nearly half -of our light and heat upon the stars, and the greater part of this -supply of life-giving energy comes from _invisible_ stars, millions of -miles from the earth. In a thousand ways Nature constantly seeks to lead -men to a keener and deeper realization of the power and wonder of the -invisible. - -Into the hands of every individual is given a marvellous power for good -or for evil,—the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. -This is simply the constant radiation of what a man really _is_, not -what he pretends to be. Every man, by his mere living, is radiating -sympathy, or sorrow, or morbidness, or cynicism, or happiness, or hope, -or any of a hundred other qualities. Life is a state of constant -radiation and absorption; to exist is to radiate; to exist is to be the -recipient of radiations. - -There are men and women whose presence seems to radiate sunshine, cheer -and optimism. You feel calmed and rested and restored in a moment to a -new and stronger faith in humanity. There are others who focus in an -instant all your latent distrust, morbidness and rebellion against life. -Without knowing why, you chafe and fret in their presence. You lose your -bearings on life and its problems. Your moral compass is disturbed and -unsatisfactory. It is made untrue in an instant, as the magnetic needle -of a ship is deflected when it passes near great mountains of iron ore. - -There are men who float down the stream of life like icebergs,—cold, -reserved, unapproachable and self-contained. In their presence you -involuntarily draw your wraps closer around you, as you wonder who left -the door open. These refrigerated human beings have a most depressing -influence on all those who fall under the spell of their radiated -chilliness. But there are other natures, warm, helpful, genial, who are -like the Gulf Stream, following their own course, flowing undaunted and -undismayed in the ocean of colder waters. Their presence brings warmth -and life and the glow of sunshine, the joyous, stimulating breath of -spring. - -There are men who are like malarious swamps,—poisonous, depressing and -weakening by their very presence. They make heavy, oppressive and gloomy -the atmosphere of their own homes; the sound of the children’s play is -stilled, the ripples of laughter are frozen by their presence. They go -through life as if each day were a new big funeral, and they were always -chief mourners. There are other men who seem like the ocean; they are -constantly bracing, stimulating, giving new draughts of tonic life and -strength by their very presence. - -There are men who are insincere in heart, and that insincerity is -radiated by their presence. They have a wondrous interest in your -welfare,—when they need you. They put on a “property” smile so -suddenly, when it serves their purpose, that it seems the smile must be -connected with some electric button concealed in their clothes. Their -voice has a simulated cordiality that long training may have made almost -natural. But they never play their part absolutely true, the mask _will_ -slip down sometimes; their cleverness cannot teach their eyes the look -of sterling honesty; they may deceive some people, but they cannot -deceive all. There is a subtle power of revelation which makes us say: -“Well, I cannot explain how it is, but I know that man is not honest.” - -Man cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character, -this constantly weakening or strengthening of others. He cannot evade -the responsibility by saying it is an unconscious influence. He can -_select_ the qualities that he will permit to be radiated. He can -cultivate sweetness, calmness, trust, generosity, truth, justice, -loyalty, nobility,—make them vitally active in his character,—and by -these qualities he will constantly affect the world. - -Discouragement often comes to honest souls trying to live the best they -can, in the thought that they are doing so little good in the world. -Trifles unnoted by us may be links in the chain of some great purpose. -In 1797, William Godwin wrote The Inquirer, a collection of -revolutionary essays on morals and politics. This book influenced Thomas -Malthus to write his Essay on Population, published in 1798. Malthus’ -book suggested to Charles Darwin a point of view upon which he devoted -many years of his life, resulting, in 1859, in the publication of The -Origin of Species,—the most influential book of the nineteenth century, -a book that has revolutionized all science. These were but three links -of influence extending over sixty years. - -It might be possible to trace this genealogy of influence back from -Godwin, through generation and generation, to the word or act of some -shepherd in early Britain, watching his flock upon the hills, living his -quiet life, and dying with the thought that he had done nothing to help -the world. - -Men and women have duties to others,—and duties to themselves. In -justice to ourselves we should refuse to live in an atmosphere that -keeps us from living our best. If the fault be in us, we should master -it. If it be the personal influence of others that, like a noxious -vapor, kills our best impulses, we should remove from that -influence,—if we can _possibly_ move without forsaking duties. If it be -wrong to move, then we should take strong doses of moral quinine to -counteract the malaria of influence. It is not what those around us _do_ -for us that counts,—it is what they _are_ to us. We carry our -houseplants from one window to another to give them the proper heat, -light, air and moisture. Should we not be at least as careful of -ourselves? - -To make our influence felt we must live our faith, we must practice what -we believe. A magnet does not attract iron, as iron. It must first -convert the iron into another magnet before it can attract it. It is -useless for a parent to try to teach gentleness to her children when she -herself is cross and irritable. The child who is told to be truthful and -who hears a parent lie cleverly to escape some little social -unpleasantness is not going to cling very zealously to truth. The -parent’s words say “don’t lie,” the influence of the parent’s life says -“do lie.” - -No man can ever isolate himself to evade this constant power of -influence, as no single corpuscle can rebel and escape from the general -course of the blood. No individual is so insignificant as to be without -influence. The changes in our varying moods are all recorded in the -delicate barometers of the lives of others. We should ever let our -influence filter through human love and sympathy. We should not be -merely an influence,—we should be an inspiration. By our very presence -we should be a tower of strength to the hungering human souls around us. - - - - - XIII - - The Dignity _of_ Self-Reliance - - -Self-confidence, without self-reliance, is as useless as a cooking -recipe,—without food. Self-confidence sees the possibilities of the -individual; self-reliance realizes them. Self-confidence sees the angel -in the unhewn block of marble; self-reliance carves it out for himself. - -The man who is self-reliant says ever: “No one can realize my -possibilities for me, but me; no one can make me good or evil but -myself.” He works out his own salvation,—financially, socially, -mentally, physically, and morally. Life is an individual problem that -man must solve for himself. Nature accepts no vicarious sacrifice, no -vicarious service. Nature never recognizes a proxy vote. She has nothing -to do with middlemen,—she deals only with the individual. Nature is -constantly seeking to show man that he is his own best friend, or his -own worst enemy. Nature gives man the option on which he will be to -himself. - -All the athletic exercises in the world are of no value to the -individual unless he compel those bars and dumb-bells to yield to him, -in strength and muscle, the power for which he, himself, pays in time -and effort. He can never develop his muscles by sending his valet to a -gymnasium. - -The medicine-chests of the world are powerless, in all the united -efforts, to help the individual until he reach out and take for himself -what is needed for his individual weakness. - -All the religions of the world are but speculations in morals, mere -theories of salvation, until the individual realize that he must save -himself by relying on the law of truth, as he sees it, and living his -life in harmony with it, as fully as he can. But religion is not a -Pullman car, with soft-cushioned seats, where he has but to pay for his -ticket,—and someone else does all the rest. In religion, as in all -other great things, he is ever thrown back on his self-reliance. He -should accept all helps, but,—he must live his own life. He should not -feel that he is a mere passenger; he is the engineer, and the train is -his life. We must rely on ourselves, live our own lives, or we merely -drift through existence,—losing all that is best, all that is greatest, -all that is divine. - -All that others can do for us is to give us opportunity. We must ever be -prepared for the opportunity when it comes, and to go after it and find -it when it does not come, or that opportunity is to us,—nothing life is -but a succession of opportunities. They are for good or evil,—as we -make them. - -Many of the alchemists of old felt that they lacked but one element; if -they could obtain that one, they believed they could transmute the baser -metals into pure gold. It is so in character. There are individuals with -rare mental gifts, and delicate spiritual discernment who fail utterly -in life because they lack the one element,—self-reliance. This would -unite all their energies, and focus them into strength and power. - -The man who is not self-reliant is weak, hesitating and doubting in all -he does. He fears to take a decisive step, because he dreads failure, -because he is waiting for someone to advise him or because he dare not -act in accordance with his own best judgment. In his cowardice and his -conceit he sees all his non-success due to others. He is “not -appreciated,” “not recognized,” he is “kept down.” He feels that in some -subtle way “society is conspiring against him.” He grows almost vain as -he thinks that no one has had such poverty, such sorrow, such -affliction, such failure as have come to him. - -The man who is self-reliant seeks ever to discover and conquer the -weakness within him that keeps him from the attainment of what he holds -dearest; he seeks within himself the power to battle against all outside -influences. He realizes that all the greatest men in history, in every -phase of human effort, have been those who have had to fight against the -odds of sickness, suffering, sorrow. To him, defeat is no more than -passing through a tunnel is to a traveller,—he knows he must emerge -again into the sunlight. - -The nation that is strongest is the one that is most self-reliant, the -one that contains within its boundaries all that its people need. If, -with its ports all blockaded it has not within itself the necessities of -life and the elements of its continual progress then,—it is weak, held -by the enemy, and it is but a question of time till it must surrender. -Its independence is in proportion to its self-reliance, to its power to -sustain itself from within. What is true of nations is true of -individuals. The history of nations is but the biography of individuals -magnified, intensified, multiplied, and projected on the screen of the -past. History is the biography of a nation; biography is the history of -an individual. So it must be that the individual who is most strong in -any trial, sorrow or need is he who can live from his inherent strength, -who needs no scaffolding of commonplace sympathy to uphold him. He must -ever be self-reliant. - -The wealth and prosperity of ancient Rome, relying on her slaves to do -the real work of the nation, proved the nation’s downfall. The constant -dependence on the captives of war to do the thousand details of life for -them, killed self-reliance in the nation and in the individual. Then, -through weakened self-reliance and the increased opportunity for idle, -luxurious ease that came with it, Rome, a nation of fighters, became,—a -nation of men more effeminate than women. As we depend on others to do -those things we should do ourselves, our self-reliance weakens and our -powers and our control of them becomes continuously less. - -Man to be great must be self-reliant. Though he may not be so in all -things, he must be self-reliant in the one in which he would be great. -This self-reliance is not the self-sufficiency of conceit. It is daring -to stand alone. Be an oak, not a vine. Be ready to give support, but do -not crave it; do not be dependent on it. To develop your true -self-reliance, you must see from the very beginning that life is a -battle you must fight for yourself,—you must be your own soldier. You -cannot buy a substitute, you cannot win a reprieve, you can never be -placed on the retired list. The retired list of life is,—death. The -world is busy with its own cares, sorrows and joys, and pays little heed -to you. There is but one great password to success,—self-reliance. - -If you would learn to converse, put yourself into positions where you -_must_ speak. If you would conquer your morbidness, mingle with the -bright people around you, no matter how difficult it may be. If you -desire the power that someone else possesses, do not envy his strength, -and dissipate your energy by weakly wishing his force were yours. -Emulate the process by which it became his, depend on your -self-reliance, pay the price for it, and equal power may be yours. The -individual must look upon himself as an investment of untold -possibilities if rightly developed,—a mine whose resources can never be -known but by going down into it and bringing out what is hidden. - -Man can develop his self-reliance by seeking constantly to surpass -himself. We try too much to surpass others. If we seek ever to surpass -ourselves, we are moving on a uniform line of progress, that gives a -harmonious unifying to our growth in all its parts. Daniel Morrell, at -one time President of the Cambria Rail Works, that employed 7,000 men -and made a rail famed throughout the world, was asked the secret of the -great success of the works. “We have no secret,” he said, “but this,—we -always try to beat our last batch of rails.” Competition is good, but it -has its danger side. There is a tendency to sacrifice real worth to mere -appearance, to have seeming rather than reality. But the true -competition is the competition of the individual with himself,—his -present seeking to excel his past. This means real growth from within. -Self-reliance develops it, and it develops self-reliance. Let the -individual feel thus as to his own progress and possibilities, and he -can almost create his life as he will. Let him never fall down in -despair at dangers and sorrows at a distance; they may be harmless, like -Bunyan’s stone lions, when he nears them. - -The man who is self-reliant does not live in the shadow of someone -else’s greatness; he thinks for himself, depends on himself, and acts -for himself. In throwing the individual thus back upon himself it is not -shutting his eyes to the stimulus and light and new life that come with -the warm pressure of the hand, the kindly word and sincere expressions -of true friendship. But true friendship is rare; its great value is in a -crisis,—like a lifeboat. Many a boasted friend has proved a leaking, -worthless “lifeboat” when the storm of adversity might make him useful. -In these great crises of life, man is strong only as he is strong from -within, and the more he depends on himself the stronger will he become, -and the more able will he be to help others in the hour of their need. -His very life will be a constant help and a strength to others, as he -becomes to them a living lesson of the dignity of self-reliance. - - - - - XIV - - Failure _as a_ Success - - -It ofttimes requires heroic courage to face fruitless effort, to take -up the broken strands of a life-work, to look bravely toward the future, -and proceed undaunted on our way. But what, to our eyes, may seem -hopeless failure is often but the dawning of a greater success. It may -contain in its débris the foundation material of a mighty purpose, or -the revelation of new and higher possibilities. - -Some years ago, it was proposed to send logs from Canada to New York, by -a new method. The ingenious plan of Mr. Joggins was to bind great logs -together by cables and iron girders and to tow the cargo as a raft. When -the novel craft neared New York and success seemed assured, a terrible -storm arose. In the fury of the tempest, the iron bands snapped like -icicles and the angry water scattered the logs far and wide. The chief -of the Hydrographic Department at Washington heard of the failure of the -experiment, and at once sent word to shipmasters the world over, urging -them to watch carefully for these logs which he described; and to note -the precise location of each in latitude and longitude and the time the -observation was made. Hundreds of captains, sailing over the waters of -the earth, noted the logs, in the Atlantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean, -in the South Seas—for into all waters did these venturesome ones -travel. Hundreds of reports were made, covering a period of weeks and -months. These observations were then carefully collated, systematized -and tabulated, and discoveries were made as to the course of ocean -currents that otherwise would have been impossible. The loss of the -Joggins raft was not a real failure, for it led to one of the great -discoveries in modern marine geography and navigation. - -In our superior knowledge we are disposed to speak in a patronizing tone -of the follies of the alchemists of old. But their failure to transmute -the baser metals into gold resulted in the birth of chemistry. They did -not succeed in what they attempted, but they brought into vogue the -natural processes of sublimation, filtration, distillation, and -crystallization; they invented the alembic, the retort, the sand-bag, -the water-bath and other valuable instruments. To them is due the -discovery of antimony, sulphuric ether and phosphorus, the cupellation -of gold and silver, the determining of the properties of saltpetre and -its use in gunpowder, and the discovery of the distillation of essential -oils. This was the success of failure, a wondrous process of Nature for -the highest growth,—a mighty lesson of comfort, strength, and -encouragement if man would only realize and accept it. - -Many of our failures sweep us to greater heights of success than we ever -hoped for in our wildest dreams. Life is a successive unfolding of -success from failure. In discovering America Columbus failed absolutely. -His ingenious reasoning and experiment led him to believe that by -sailing westward he would reach India. Every redman in America carries -in his name “Indian,” the perpetuation of the memory of the failure of -Columbus. The Genoese navigator did not reach India; the cargo of -“souvenirs” he took back to Spain to show to Ferdinand and Isabella as -proofs of his success, really attested his failure. But the discovery of -America was a greater success than was any finding of a “back-door” to -India. - -When David Livingstone had supplemented his theological education by a -medical course, he was ready to enter the missionary field. For over -three years he had studied tirelessly, with all energies concentrated on -one aim,—to spread the gospel in China. The hour came when he was ready -to start out with noble enthusiasm for his chosen work, to consecrate -himself and his life to his unselfish ambition. Then word came from -China that the “opium war” would make it folly to attempt to enter the -country. Disappointment and failure did not long daunt him; he offered -himself as missionary to Africa,—and he was accepted. His glorious -failure to reach China opened a whole continent to light and truth. His -study proved an ideal preparation for his labors as physician, explorer, -teacher and evangel in the wilds of Africa. - -Business reverses and the failure of his partner threw upon the broad -shoulders and the still broader honor and honesty of Sir Walter Scott a -burden of responsibility that forced him to write. The failure spurred -him to almost superhuman effort. The masterpieces of Scotch historic -fiction that have thrilled, entertained and uplifted millions of his -fellow-men are a glorious monument on the field of a seeming failure. - -When Millet, the painter of the “Angelus” worked on his almost divine -canvas, in which the very air seems pulsing with the regenerating -essence of spiritual reverence, he was painting against time, he was -antidoting sorrow, he was racing against death. His brush strokes, put -on in the early morning hours before going to his menial duties as a -railway porter, in the dusk like that perpetuated on his canvas,—meant -strength, food and medicine for the dying wife he adored. The art -failure that cast him into the depths of poverty unified with marvellous -intensity all the finer elements of his nature. This rare spiritual -unity, this purging of all the dross of triviality, as he passed through -the furnace of poverty, trial, and sorrow, gave eloquence to his brush -and enabled him to paint as never before,—as no prosperity would have -made possible. - -Failure is often the turning-point, the pivot of circumstance that -swings us to higher levels. It may not be financial success, it may not -be fame; it may be new draughts of spiritual, moral or mental -inspiration that will change us for all the later years of our life. -Life is not really what comes to us, but what we get from it. - -Whether man has had wealth or poverty, failure or success, counts for -little when it is past. There is but one question for him to answer, to -face boldly and honestly as an individual alone with his conscience and -his destiny: - -“How will I let that poverty or wealth affect me? If that trial or -deprivation has left me better, truer, nobler, then,—poverty has been -riches, failure has been a success. If wealth has come to me and has -made me vain, arrogant, contemptuous, uncharitable, cynical, closing -from me all the tenderness of life, all the channels of higher -development, of possible good to my fellow-man, making me the mere -custodian of a money-bag, then,—wealth has lied to me, it has been -failure, not success; it has not been riches, it has been dark, -treacherous poverty that stole from me even Myself.” All things become -for us then what we take from them. - -Failure is one of God’s educators. It is experience leading man to -higher things; it is the revelation of a way, a path hitherto unknown to -us. The best men in the world, those who have made the greatest real -successes look back with serene happiness on their failures. The turning -of the face of Time shows all things in a wondrously illuminated and -satisfying perspective. - -Many a man is thankful to-day that some petty success for which he once -struggled, melted into thin air as his hand sought to clutch it. Failure -is often the rock-bottom foundation of real success. If man, in a few -instances of his life can say, “Those failures were the best things in -the world that could have happened to me,” should he not face new -failures with undaunted courage and trust that the miraculous ministry -of Nature may transform these new stumbling-blocks into new -stepping-stones? - -Our highest hopes are often destroyed to prepare us for better things. -The failure of the caterpillar is the birth of the butterfly; the -passing of the bud is the becoming of the rose; the death or destruction -of the seed is the prelude to its resurrection as wheat. It is at night, -in the darkest hours, those preceding dawn, that plants grow best, that -they most increase in size. May this not be one of Nature’s gentle -showings to man of the times when he grows best, of the darkness of -failure that is evolving into the sunlight of success. Let us fear only -the failure of not living the right as we see it, leaving the results to -the guardianship of the Infinite. - -If we think of any supreme moment of our lives, any great success, -anyone who is dear to us, and then consider how we reached that moment, -that success, that friend, we will be surprised and strengthened by the -revelation. As we trace each one back, step by step, through the -genealogy of circumstances, we will see how logical has been the course -of our joy and success from sorrow and failure, and that what gives us -most happiness to-day is inextricably connected with what once caused us -sorrow. Many of the rivers of our greatest prosperity and growth have -had their source and their trickling increase into volume among the -dark, gloomy recesses of our failure. - -There is no honest and true work, carried along with constant and -sincere purpose that ever really fails. If it sometimes seem to be -wasted effort, it will prove to us a new lesson of “how” to walk; the -secret of our failures will prove to us the inspiration of possible -successes. Man living with the highest aims, ever as best he can, in -continuous harmony with them, is a success, no matter what statistics of -failure a near-sighted and half-blind world of critics and commentators -may lay at his door. - -High ideals, noble efforts will make seeming failures but trifles, they -need not dishearten us; they should prove sources of new strength. The -rocky way may prove safer than the slippery path of smoothness. Birds -cannot fly best with the wind but against it; ships do not progress in -calm, when the sails flap idly against the unstrained masts. - -The alchemy of Nature, superior to that of the Paracelsians, constantly -transmutes the baser metals of failure into the later pure gold of -higher success, if the mind of the worker be kept true, constant, and -untiring in the service, and he have that sublime courage that defies -fate to its worst while he does his best. - - - - - XV - - Doing Our Best _at_ All Times - - -Life is a wondrously complex problem for the individual, until, some -day, in a moment of illumination, he awakens to the great realization -that he can make it simple,—never quite simple, but always simpler. -There are a thousand mysteries of right and wrong that have baffled the -wise men of the ages. There are depths in the great fundamental question -of the human race that no plummet of philosophy has ever sounded. There -are wild cries of honest hunger for truth that seek to pierce the -silence beyond the grave, but to them ever echo back,—only a repetition -of their unanswered cries. - -To us all, comes, at times, the great note of questioning despair that -darkens our horizon and paralyzes our effort: - -“If there really be a God, if eternal justice really rule the world,” we -say, “why should life be as it is? Why do some men starve while others -feast; why does virtue often languish in the shadow while vice triumphs -in the sunshine; why does failure so often dog the footsteps of honest -effort, while the success that comes from trickery and dishonor is -greeted with the world’s applause? How is it that the loving father of -one family is taken by death, while the worthless incumbrance of another -is spared? Why is there so much unnecessary pain, sorrowing and -suffering in the world—why, indeed, should there be any?” - -Neither philosophy nor religion can give any final satisfactory answer -that is capable of logical demonstration, of absolute proof. There is -ever, even after the best explanations, a residuum of the unexplained. -We must then fall back in the eternal arms of faith, and be wise enough -to say, “I will not be disconcerted by these problems of life, I will -not permit them to plunge me into doubt, and to cloud my life with -vagueness and uncertainty. Man arrogates much to himself when he demands -from the infinite the full solution of all His mysteries. I will found -my life on the impregnable rock of a simple fundamental truth: ‘This -glorious creation with its millions of wondrous phenomena pulsing ever -in harmony with eternal law must have a Creator, that Creator must be -omniscient and omnipotent. But that Creator Himself cannot, in justice, -demand of any creature more than the best that that individual can -give.’ I will do each day, in every moment, the best I can by the light -I have; I will ever seek more light, more perfect illumination of truth, -and ever live as best I can in harmony with the truth as I see it. If -failure come I will meet it bravely; if my pathway then lie in the -shadow of trial, sorrow and suffering, I shall have the restful peace -and the calm strength of one who has done his best, who can look back -upon the past with no pang of regret, and who has heroic courage in -facing the results, whatever they be, knowing that he could not make -them different.” - -Upon this life-plan, this foundation, man may erect any superstructure -of religion or philosophy that he conscientiously can erect; he should -add to his equipment for living every shred of strength and inspiration, -moral, mental, or spiritual that is in his power to secure. - -This simple working faith is opposed to no creed, is a substitute for -none; it is but a primary belief, a citadel, a refuge where the -individual can retire for strength when the battle of life grows hard. - -A mere theory of life, that remains but a theory, is about as useful to -a man as a gilt-edged menu is to a starving sailor on a raft in -mid-ocean. It is irritating but not stimulating. No rule for higher -living will help a man in the slightest, until he reach out and -appropriate it for himself, until he make it practical in his daily -life, until that seed of theory in his mind blossom into a thousand -flowers of thought and word and act. - -If a man honestly seek to live his best at all times, that determination -is visible in every moment of his living, and no trifle in his life can -be too insignificant to reflect his principle of living. The sun -illuminates and beautifies a fallen leaf by the roadside as impartially -as a towering mountain peak in the Alps. Every drop of water in the -ocean is an epitome of the chemistry of the whole ocean; every drop is -subject to precisely the same laws as dominate the united infinity of -billions of drops that make that miracle of Nature, men call the Sea. No -matter how humble the calling of the individual, how uninteresting and -dull the round of his duties, he should do his best. He should dignify -what he is doing by the mind he puts into it, he should vitalize what -little he has of power or energy or ability or opportunity, in order to -prepare himself to be equal to higher privileges when they come. This -will never lead man to that weak content that is satisfied with whatever -falls to his lot. It will rather fill his mind with that divine -discontent that cheerfully accepts the best—merely as a temporary -substitute for something better. - -The man who is seeking ever to do his best is the man who is keen, -active, wide-awake, and aggressive. He is ever watchful of himself in -trifles; his standard is not “What will the world say?” but “Is it -worthy of me?” - -Edwin Booth, one of the greatest actors on the American stage, would -never permit himself to assume an ungraceful attitude, even in his hours -of privacy. In this simple thing, he ever lived his best. On the stage -every move was one of unconscious grace. Those of his company who were -conscious of their motions were the awkward ones, who were seeking in -public to undo or to conceal the carelessness of the gestures and -motions of their private life. The man who is slipshod and thoughtless -in his daily speech, whose vocabulary is a collection of anæmic -commonplaces, whose repetitions of phrases and extravagance of -interjections act but as feeble disguises to his lack of ideas, will -never be brilliant on an occasion when he longs to outshine the stars. -Living at one’s best is constant preparation for instant use. It can -never make one over-precise, self-conscious, affected, or priggish. -Education, in its highest sense, is _conscious_ training of mind or body -to act _unconsciously_. It is conscious formation of mental habits, not -mere acquisition of information. - -One of the many ways in which the individual unwisely eclipses himself, -is in his worship of the fetich of luck. He feels that all others are -lucky, and that whatever he attempts, fails. He does not realize the -untiring energy, the unremitting concentration, the heroic courage, the -sublime patience that is the secret of some men’s success. Their “luck” -was that they had prepared themselves to be equal to their opportunity -when it came and were awake to recognize it and receive it. His own -opportunity came and departed un-noted, it could not waken him from his -dreams of some untold wealth that would fall into his lap. So he grows -discouraged and envies those whom he should emulate, and he bandages his -arms and chloroforms his energies, and performs his duties in a -perfunctory way, or he passes through life, just ever “sampling” lines -of activity. - -The honest, faithful struggler should always realize that failure is but -an episode in a true man’s life—never the whole story. It is never easy -to meet, and no philosophy can make it so, but the steadfast courage to -master conditions, instead of complaining of them, will help him on his -way; it will ever enable him to get the best out of what he has. He -never knows the long series of vanquished failures that give solidity to -someone else’s success; he does not realize the price that some rich -man, the innocent football of political malcontents and demagogues, has -heroically paid for wealth and position. - -The man who has a pessimist’s doubt of all things; who demands a -certified guarantee of his future; who ever fears his work will not be -recognized or appreciated; or that after all, it is really not worth -while, will never live his best. He is dulling his capacity for real -progress by his hypnotic course of excuses for inactivity, instead of a -strong tonic of reasons for action. - -One of the most weakening elements in the individual make-up is the -surrender to the oncoming of years. Man’s self-confidence dims and dies -in the fear of age. “This new thought,” he says of some suggestion -tending to higher development, “is good; it is what we need. I am glad -to have it for my children; I would have been happy to have had some -such help when I was at school, but it is too late for me. I am a man -advanced in years.” - -This is but blind closing of life to wondrous possibilities. The knell -of lost opportunity is never tolled in this life. It is never too late -to recognize truth and to live by it. It requires only greater effort, -closer attention, deeper consecration; but the impossible does not exist -for the man who is self-confident and is willing to pay the price in -time and struggle for his success or development. Later in life, the -assessments are heavier in progress, as in life insurance, but that -matters not to that mighty self-confidence that _will_ not grow old -while knowledge can keep it young. - -Socrates, when his hair whitened with the snow of age, learned to play -on instruments of music. Cato, at fourscore, began his study of Greek, -and the same age saw Plutarch beginning, with the enthusiasm of a boy, -his first lessons in Latin. The Character of Man, Theophrastus’ greatest -work, was begun on his ninetieth birthday. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales -was the work of the poet’s declining years. Ronsard, the father of -French poetry, whose sonnets even translation cannot destroy, did not -develop his poetic faculty until nearly fifty. Benjamin Franklin at this -age had just taken his really first steps of importance in philosophic -pursuits. Arnauld, the theologian and sage, translated Josephus in his -eightieth year. Winckelmann, one of the most famous writers on classic -antiquities, was the son of a shoemaker, and lived in obscurity and -ignorance until the prime of life. Hobbes, the English philosopher, -published his version of the Odyssey in his eighty-seventh year, and his -Iliad one year later. Chevreul, the great French scientist, whose -untiring labors in the realm of color have so enriched the world, was -busy, keen and active when Death called him, at the age of 103. - -These men did not fear age; these few names from the great muster-roll -of the famous ones who defied the years, should be voices of hope and -heartening to every individual whose courage and confidence is weak. The -path of truth, higher living, truer development in every phase of life, -is never shut from the individual—until he closes it himself. Let man -feel this, believe it and make this faith a real and living factor in -his life and there are no limits to his progress. He has but to live his -best at all times, and rest calm and untroubled no matter what results -come to his efforts. The constant looking backward to what might have -been, instead of forward to what may be, is a great weakener of -self-confidence. This worry for the old past, this wasted energy, for -that which no power in the world can restore, ever lessens the -individual’s faith in himself, weakens his efforts to develop himself -for the future to the perfection of his possibilities. - -Nature in her beautiful love and tenderness, says to man, weakened and -worn and weary with the struggle, “Do in the best way you can the trifle -that is under your hand at this moment; do it in the best spirit of -preparation for the future your thought suggests; bring all the light of -knowledge from all the past to aid you.” Do this and you have done your -best. The past is forever closed to you. It is closed forever to you. - -No worry, no struggle, no suffering, no agony of despair can alter it. -It is as much beyond your power as if it were a million years of -eternity behind you. Turn all that past, with its sad hours, weakness -and sin, its wasted opportunities as light, in confidence and hope, upon -the future. Turn it all in fuller truth and light so as to make each -trifle of this present a new past it will be joy to look back to; each -trifle a grander, nobler, and more perfect preparation for the future. -The present and the future you can make from it, is yours; the past has -gone back, with all its messages, all its history, all its records to -the God who loaned you the golden moments to use in obedience to His -law. - - - - - XVI - - The Royal Road _to_ Happiness - - -“During my whole life I have not had twenty-four hours of happiness.” -So said Prince Bismarck, one of the greatest statesmen of the nineteenth -century. Eighty-three years of wealth, fame, honors, power, influence, -prosperity and triumph,—years when he held an empire in his -fingers,—but not one day of happiness! - -Happiness is the greatest paradox in Nature. It can grow in any soil, -live under any conditions. It defies environment. It comes from within; -it is the revelation of the depths of the inner life as light and heat -proclaim the sun from which they radiate. Happiness consists not of -having, but of being; not of possessing, but of enjoying. It is the warm -glow of a heart at peace with itself. A martyr at the stake may have -happiness that a king on his throne might envy. Man is the creator of -his own happiness; it is the aroma of a life lived in harmony with high -ideals. For what a man _has_, he may be dependent on others; what he -_is_, rests with him alone. What he _ob_tains in life is but -acquisition; what he _at_tains, is growth. Happiness is the soul’s joy -in the possession of the intangible. Absolute, perfect, continuous -happiness in life, is impossible for the human. It would mean the -consummation of attainments, the individual consciousness of a perfectly -fulfilled destiny. Happiness is paradoxic because it may coexist with -trial, sorrow and poverty. It is the gladness of the heart rising -superior to all conditions. - -Happiness has a number of under-studies,—gratification, satisfaction, -content and pleasure,—clever imitators that simulate its appearance -rather than emulate its method. Gratification is a harmony between our -desires and our possessions. It is ever incomplete, it is the thankful -acceptance of part. It is a mental pleasure in the quality of what one -receives, an unsatisfiedness as to the quantity. It may be an element in -happiness, but, in itself,—it is not happiness. - -Satisfaction is perfect identity of our desires and our possessions. It -exists only so long as this perfect union and unity can be preserved. -But every realized ideal gives birth to new ideals, every step in -advance reveals large domains of the unattained; every feeding -stimulates new appetites—then the desires and possessions are no longer -identical, no longer equal; new cravings call forth new activities, the -equipoise is destroyed, and dissatisfaction reënters. Man might possess -everything tangible in the world and yet not be happy, for happiness is -the satisfying of the soul, not of the mind or the body. -Dissatisfaction, in its highest sense, is the keynote of all advance, -the evidence of new aspirations, the guarantee of the progressive -revelation of new possibilities. - -Content is a greatly overrated virtue. It is a kind of diluted despair; -it is the feeling with which we continue to accept substitutes, without -striving for the realities. Content makes the trained individual swallow -vinegar and try to smack his lips as if it were wine. Content enables -one to warm his hands at the fire of a past joy that exists only in -memory. Content is a mental and moral chloroform that deadens the -activities of the individual to rise to higher planes of life and -growth. Man should never be contented with anything less than the best -efforts of his nature can possibly secure for him. Content makes the -world more comfortable for the individual, but it is the death-knell of -progress. Man should be content with each step of progress merely as a -station, discontented with it as a destination; contented with it as a -step; discontented with it as a finality. There are times when a man -should be content with what he _has_, but never with what he _is_. - -But content is not happiness; neither is pleasure. Pleasure is -temporary, happiness is continuous; pleasure is a note, happiness is a -symphony; pleasure may exist when conscience utters protests; happiness, -never. Pleasure may have its dregs and its lees; but none can be found -in the cup of happiness. - -Man is the only animal that can be really happy. To the rest of the -creation belong only weak imitations of the understudies. Happiness -represents a peaceful attunement of a life with a standard of living. It -can never be made by the individual, by himself, for himself. It is one -of the incidental by-products of an unselfish life. No man can make his -own happiness the one object of his life and attain it, any more than he -can jump on the far end of his shadow. If you would hit the bull’s-eye -of happiness on the target of life, aim above it. Place other things -higher than your own happiness and it will surely come to you. You can -buy pleasure, you can acquire content, you can become satisfied,—but -Nature never put real happiness on the bargain-counter. It is the -undetachable accompaniment of true living. It is calm and peaceful; it -never lives in an atmosphere of worry or of hopeless struggle. - -The basis of happiness is the love of something outside self. Search -every instance of happiness in the world, and you will find, when all -the incidental features are eliminated, there is always the constant, -unchangeable element of love,—love of parent for child; love of man and -woman for each other; love of humanity in some form, or a great life -work into which the individual throws all his energies. - -Happiness is the voice of optimism, of faith, of simple, steadfast love. -No cynic or pessimist can be really happy. A cynic is a man who is -morally near-sighted,—and brags about it. He sees the evil in his own -heart, and thinks he sees the world. He lets a mote in his eye eclipse -the sun. An incurable cynic is an individual who should long for -death,—for life cannot bring him happiness, death might. The keynote of -Bismarck’s lack of happiness was his profound distrust of human nature. - -There is a royal road to happiness; it lies in Consecration, -Concentration, Conquest and Conscience. - -Consecration is dedicating the individual life to the service of others, -to some noble mission, to realizing some unselfish ideal. Life is not -something to be lived _through_; it is something to be lived _up_ to. It -is a privilege, not a penal servitude of so many decades on earth. -Consecration places the object of life above the mere acquisition of -money, as a finality. The man who is unselfish, kind, loving, tender, -helpful, ready to lighten the burden of those around him, to hearten the -struggling ones, to forget himself sometimes in remembering others, is -on the right road to happiness. Consecration is ever active, bold and -aggressive, fearing naught but possible disloyalty to high ideals. - -Concentration makes the individual life simpler and deeper. It cuts away -the shams and pretences of modern living and limits life to its truest -essentials. Worry, fear, useless regret—all the great wastes that sap -mental, moral or physical energy—must be sacrificed, or the individual -needlessly destroys half the possibilities of living. A great purpose in -life, something that unifies the strands and threads of each day’s -thinking, something that takes the sting from the petty trials, sorrows, -sufferings and blunders of life, is a great aid to Concentration. -Soldiers in battle may forget their wounds, or even be unconscious of -them, in the inspiration of battling for what they believe is right. -Concentration dignifies an humble life; it makes a great life,—sublime. -In morals it is a short-cut to simplicity. It leads to right for right’s -sake, without thought of policy or of reward. It brings calm and rest to -the individual,—a serenity that is but the sunlight of happiness. - -Conquest is the overcoming of an evil habit, the rising superior to -opposition and attack, the spiritual exaltation that comes from -resisting the invasion of the grovelling material side of life. -Sometimes when you are worn and weak with the struggle; when it seems -that justice is a dream, that honesty and loyalty and truth count for -nothing, that the devil is the only good paymaster; when hope grows dim -and flickers, then is the time when you must tower in the great sublime -faith that Right must prevail, then must you throttle these imps of -doubt and despair, you must master yourself to master the world around -you. This is Conquest; this is what counts. Even a log can float with -the current; it takes a man to fight sturdily against an opposing tide -that would sweep his craft out of its course. When the jealousies, the -petty intrigues and the meannesses and the misunderstandings in life -assail you, rise above them. Be like a lighthouse that illumines and -beautifies the snarling, swashing waves of the storm that threaten it, -that seek to undermine it and seek to wash over it. This is Conquest. -When the chance to win fame, wealth, success or the attainment of your -heart’s desire, by sacrifice of honor or principle, comes to you and it -does not affect you long enough even to seem a temptation, you have been -the victor. That too is Conquest. And Conquest is part of the royal road -to Happiness. - -Conscience, as the mentor, the guide and compass of every act, leads -ever to Happiness. When the individual can stay alone with his -conscience and get its approval, without using force or specious logic, -then he begins to know what real Happiness is. But the individual must -be careful that he is not appealing to a conscience perverted or -deadened by the wrongdoing and consequent deafness of its owner. The man -who is honestly seeking to live his life in Consecration, Concentration -and Conquest, living from day to day as best he can, by the light he -has, may rely implicitly on his Conscience. He can shut his ears to -“what the world says” and find in the approval of his own conscience the -highest earthly tribune—the voice of the Infinite communing with the -Individual. - -Unhappiness is the hunger to get; Happiness is the hunger to give. True -happiness must ever have the tinge of sorrow outlived, the sense of pain -softened by the mellowing years, the chastening of loss that in the -wondrous mystery of time transmutes our suffering into love and sympathy -with others. - -If the individual should set out for a single day to give Happiness, to -make life happier, brighter and sweeter, not for himself, but for -others, he would find a wondrous revelation of what Happiness really is. -The greatest of the world’s heroes could not by any series of acts of -heroism do as much real good as any individual living his whole life in -seeking, from day to day, to make others happy. - -Each day there should be fresh resolution, new strength, and renewed -enthusiasm. “Just for To-day” might be the daily motto of thousands of -societies through the country, composed of members bound together to -make the world better through constant simple acts of kindness, constant -deeds of sweetness and love. And Happiness would come to them, in its -highest and best form, not because they would seek to _absorb_ it, -but—because they seek to _radiate_ it. - - _Printed in the United States of America_ - - - - - * * * * * - - William George Jordan’s - - T A L K S - - - _The Trusteeship of Life_ - 12mo, cloth, net, $1.25 - - - _Little Problems of Married Life_ - Decorated in Two Colors - 12mo, cloth, net, $1.25 - - - _The Crown of Individuality_ - Decorated in Two Colors - 12mo, cloth, net, $1.25 - - - _Self-Control_ - Its Kingship and Majesty - Decorated in Two Colors - 12mo, cloth, net, $1.25 - - * * * * * - - _COMRADE SERIES_ - - _The Power of Purpose_ - 12mo, Decorated Boards, net 60c. - - - _The Kingship of Self-Control_ - 12mo, Decorated Boards, net 60c. - - - _The Majesty of Calmness_ - 12mo, Decorated Boards, net 60c. - - * * * * * - -_Transcriber’s Notes:_ - -Hyphenation, and spellings have been retained as in the original. -Punctuation has been corrected without note. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Self-Control Its Kingship and Majesty - -Author: William George Jordan - -Release Date: March 16, 2016 [EBook #51469] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELF-CONTROL ITS KINGSHIP *** - - - - -Produced by Mardi Desjardins & the online Distributed -Proofreaders Canada team (http://www.pgdpcanada.net) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<div class='figcenter'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0000' style='width:375px;height:auto;'/> -</div> - -<hr class='pbk'/> - -<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> -<p class='line' style='margin-top:1.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:2em;font-weight:bold;'>SELF-CONTROL</p> -<p class='line' style='margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:1.5em;font-weight:bold;'>ITS KINGSHIP</p> -<p class='line' style='margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:1.5em;font-weight:bold;'>AND MAJESTY</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'>by</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line' style='font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'>WILLIAM</p> -<p class='line' style='font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'>GEORGE</p> -<p class='line' style='font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'>JORDAN</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line' style='font-weight:bold;'>FLEMING H.</p> -<p class='line' style='font-weight:bold;'>REVELL</p> -<p class='line' style='margin-bottom:2em;font-weight:bold;'>COMPANY</p> -</div> <!-- end rend --> - -<table id='tab1' summary='' class='center'> -<colgroup> -<col span='1' style='width: 5em;'/> -<col span='1' style='width: 7em;'/> -<col span='1' style='width: 5em;'/> -<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/> -</colgroup> -<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>CHICAGO</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle0'></td><td class='tab1c3 tdStyle0'>LONDON</td><td class='tab1c4 tdStyle1'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'>TORONTO</td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle0'> NEW YORK</td><td class='tab1c3 tdStyle0'>EDINBURGH</td><td class='tab1c4 tdStyle1'></td></tr> -</table> - -<hr class='pbk'/> - -<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> -<p class='line'>Republished from the <span class='it'>Saturday Evening Post</span> through</p> -<p class='line'>the courtesy of the Curtis Publishing Company,</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'>Copyright, 1898 and 1899, by</p> -<p class='line'>CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'>Copyright, 1899 and 1905, by</p> -<p class='line'>FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'>New York: 158 Fifth Avenue</p> -<p class='line'>Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.</p> -<p class='line'>London: 21 Paternoster Square</p> -<p class='line'>Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street</p> -</div> <!-- end rend --> - -<hr class='tbk100'/> - -<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:1.3em;font-weight:bold;'>CONTENTS</p> - -<table id='tab2' summary='' class='center'> -<colgroup> -<col span='1' style='width: 4em;'/> -<col span='1' style='width: 0em;'/> -<col span='1' style='width: 17em;'/> -<col span='1' style='width: 0em;'/> -<col span='1' style='width: 2em;'/> -<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/> -</colgroup> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>PAGE</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>I.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#king'><span class='it'>The Kingship of Self-Control</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>7</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>II.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#two'><span class='it'>The Crimes of the Tongue</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>18</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>III.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#three'><span class='it'>The Red Tape of Duty</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>28</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>IV.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#four'><span class='it'>The Supreme Charity of the World</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>38</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>V.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#five'><span class='it'>Worry, the Great American Disease</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>49</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>VI.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#six'><span class='it'>The Greatness of Simplicity</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>60</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>VII.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#seven'><span class='it'>Living life Over Again</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>71</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>VIII.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#eight'><span class='it'>Syndicating our Sorrows</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>82</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>IX.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#nine'><span class='it'>The Revelations of Reserve Power</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>93</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>X.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#ten'><span class='it'>The Majesty of Calmness</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>104</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>XI.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#eleven'><span class='it'>Hurry, the Scourge of America</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>113</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>XII.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#twelve'><span class='it'>The Power of Personal Influence</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>124</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>XIII.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#thirt'><span class='it'>The Dignity of Self-Reliance</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>135</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>XIV.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#fourt'><span class='it'>Failure as a Success </span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>147</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>XV.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#fift'><span class='it'>Doing Our Best at All Times</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>161</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'> </td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'> </td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'> </td></tr> -<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle2'><span class='it'>XVI.</span></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c3 tdStyle2'><a href='#sixt'><span class='it'>The Royal Road to Happiness</span></a></td><td class='tab2c4 tdStyle2'></td><td class='tab2c5 tdStyle3'>178</td><td class='tab2c6 tdStyle2'></td></tr> -</table> - -<hr class='tbk101'/> - -<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:2em;font-size:1.8em;font-weight:bold;'><span class='it'>Self-Control</span></p> - -<div><h1 class='nobreak'><a id='king'></a>I<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Kingship <span class='it'>of</span> Self-Control</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/M.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='M'/>an has two creators,—his -God and himself. His first -creator furnishes him the -raw material of his life and -the laws in conformity with which he -can make that life what he will. His -second creator,—himself,—has marvellous -powers he rarely realizes. It is -what a man makes of himself that -counts.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When a man fails in life he usually -says, “I am as God made me.” When -he succeeds he proudly proclaims himself -a “self-made man.” Man is placed -into this world not as a finality,—but -as a possibility. Man’s greatest -enemy is,—himself. Man in his weakness -is the creature of circumstances; -man in his strength is the creator of -circumstances. Whether he be victim -or victor depends largely on himself.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Man is never truly great merely for -what he <span class='it'>is</span>, but ever for what he may -become. Until man be truly filled with -the knowledge of the majesty of his -possibility, until there come to him the -glow of realization of his privilege to -live the life committed to him, as an -individual life for which he is individually -responsible, he is merely groping -through the years.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>To see his life as he might make it, -man must go up alone into the mountains -of spiritual thought as Christ -went alone into the Garden, leaving -the world to get strength to live in the -world. He must there breathe the -fresh, pure air of recognition of his -divine importance as an individual, -and with mind purified and tingling -with new strength he must approach -the problems of his daily living.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Man needs less of the “I am a -feeble worm of the dust” idea in his -theology, and more of the conception -“I am a great human soul with marvellous -possibilities” as a vital element -in his daily working religion. With -this broadening, stimulating view of -life, he sees how he may attain his kingship -through self-control. And the -self-control that is seen in the most -spectacular instances in history, and in -the simplest phases of daily life, is precisely -the same in kind and in quality, -differing only in degree. This control -man can attain, if he only will; it is -but a matter of paying the price.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The power of self-control is one of -the great qualities that differentiates -man from the lower animals. He is -the only animal capable of a moral -struggle or a moral conquest.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Every step in the progress of the -world has been a new “control.” It -has been escaping from the tyranny of -a fact, to the understanding and -mastery of that fact. For ages man -looked in terror at the lightning flash; -to-day he has begun to understand it -as electricity, a force he has mastered -and made his slave. The million phases -of electrical invention are but manifestations -of our control over a great -force. But the greatest of all “control” -is self-control.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>At each moment of man’s life he is -either a King or a slave. As he surrenders -to a wrong appetite, to any -human weakness; as he falls prostrate -in hopeless subjection to any condition, -to any environment, to any failure, he -is a slave. As he day by day crushes -out human weakness, masters opposing -elements within him, and day by -day re-creates a new self from the sin -and folly of his past,—then he is a -King. He is a King ruling with wisdom -over himself. Alexander conquered -the whole world except,—Alexander. -Emperor of the earth, he -was the servile slave of his own -passions.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We look with envy upon the possessions -of others and wish they were our -own. Sometimes we feel this in a -vague, dreamy way with no thought of -real attainment, as when we wish we -had Queen Victoria’s crown, or -Emperor William’s self-satisfaction. -Sometimes, however, we grow bitter, -storm at the wrong distribution of the -good things of life, and then relapse -into a hopeless fatalistic acceptance of -our condition.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We envy the success of others, when -we should emulate the process by -which that success came. We see the -splendid physical development of Sandow, -yet we forget that as a babe and -child he was so weak there was little -hope that his life might be spared.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We may sometimes envy the power -and spiritual strength of a Paul, without -realizing the weak Saul of Tarsus -from which he was transformed -through his self-control.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We shut our eyes to the thousands -of instances of the world’s successes,—mental, -moral, physical, financial or -spiritual,—wherein the great final success -came from a beginning far weaker -and poorer than our own.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Any man may attain self-control if -he only will. He must not expect to -gain it save by long continued payment -of price, in small progressive -expenditures of energy. Nature is a -thorough believer in the installment -plan in her relations with the individual. -No man is so poor that he cannot -<span class='it'>begin</span> to pay for what he wants, -and every small, individual payment -that he makes, Nature stores and accumulates -for him as a reserve fund in -his hour of need.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The patience man expends in bearing -the little trials of his daily life -Nature stores for him as a wondrous -reserve in a crisis of life. With Nature, -the mental, the physical or the -moral energy he expends daily in right-doing -is all stored for him and transmuted -into strength. Nature never -accepts a cash payment in full for anything,—this -would be an injustice to -the poor and to the weak.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>It is only the progressive installment -plan Nature recognizes. No man -can make a habit in a moment or break -it in a moment. It is a matter of -development, of growth. But at any -moment man may <span class='it'>begin</span> to make or -begin to break any habit. This view of -the growth of character should be a -mighty stimulus to the man who sincerely -desires and determines to live -nearer to the limit of his possibilities.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Self-control may be developed in -precisely the same manner as we tone -up a weak muscle,—by little exercises -day by day. Let us each day do, as -mere exercises of discipline in moral -gymnastics, a few acts that are disagreeable -to us, the doing of which will -help us in instant action in our hour of -need. The exercises may be very -simple—dropping for a time an intensely -interesting book at the most -thrilling page of the story; jumping -out of bed at the first moment of waking; -walking home when one is perfectly -able to do so, but when the -temptation is to take a car; talking to -some disagreeable person and trying to -make the conversation pleasant. These -daily exercises in moral discipline will -have a wondrous tonic effect on man’s -whole moral nature.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The individual can attain self-control -in great things only through self-control -in little things. He must study -himself to discover what is the weak -point in his armor, what is the element -within him that ever keeps him from -his fullest success. This is the characteristic -upon which he should begin his -exercise in self-control. Is it selfishness, -vanity, cowardice, morbidness, -temper, laziness, worry, mind-wandering, -lack of purpose?—whatever form -human weakness assumes in the masquerade -of life he must discover. He -must then live each day as if his whole -existence were telescoped down to the -single day before him. With no useless -regret for the past, no useless -worry for the future, he should live -that day as if it were his only day,—the -only day left for him to assert all -that is best in him, the only day left -for him to conquer all that is worst in -him. He should master the weak element -within him at each slight manifestation -from moment to moment. -Each moment then must be a victory -for it or for him. Will he be King, or -will he be slave?—the answer rests with -him.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='two'></a>II<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Crimes <span class='it'>of the</span> Tongue</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/T.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='T'/>he second most deadly instrument -of destruction is -the dynamite gun,—the first -is the human tongue. The -gun merely kills bodies; the tongue -kills reputations and, ofttimes, ruins -characters. Each gun works alone; -each loaded tongue has a hundred -accomplices. The havoc of the gun is -visible at once. The full evil of the -tongue lives through all the years; even -the eye of Omniscience might grow -tired in tracing it to its finality.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The crimes of the tongue are words -of unkindness, of anger, of malice, of -envy, of bitterness, of harsh criticism, -gossip, lying and scandal. Theft and -murder are awful crimes, yet in any -single year the aggregate sorrow, pain -and suffering they cause in a nation is -microscopic when compared with the -sorrows that come from the crimes of -the tongue. Place in one of the scale-pans -of Justice the evils resulting from -the acts of criminals, and in the other -the grief and tears and suffering -resulting from the crimes of respectability, -and you will start back in -amazement as you see the scale you -thought the heavier shoot high in -air.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>At the hands of thief or murderer -few of us suffer, even indirectly. But -from the careless tongue of friend, the -cruel tongue of enemy, who is free? -No human being can live a life so true, -so fair, so pure as to be beyond the -reach of malice, or immune from the -poisonous emanations of envy. The -insidious attacks against one’s reputation, -the loathsome innuendoes, slurs, -half-lies, by which jealous mediocrity -seeks to ruin its superiors, are like those -insect parasites that kill the heart and -life of a mighty oak. So cowardly is -the method, so stealthy the shooting of -the poisoned thorns, so insignificant the -separate acts in their seeming, that one -is not on guard against them. It is -easier to dodge an elephant than a -microbe.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>In London they have recently -formed an Anti-Scandal League. The -members promise to combat in every -way in their power “the prevalent custom -of talking scandal, the terrible and -unending consequences of which are -not generally estimated.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Scandal is one of the crimes of the -tongue, but it is only one. Every individual -who breathes a word of scandal -is an active stockholder in a society for -the spread of moral contagion. He is -instantly punished by Nature by having -his mental eyes dimmed to sweetness -and purity, and his mind deadened -to the sunlight and glow of charity. -There is developed a wondrous, ingenious -perversion of mental vision, by -which every act of others is explained -and interpreted from the lowest possible -motives. They become like certain -carrion flies, that pass lightly over -acres of rose-gardens, to feast on a -piece of putrid meat. They have -developed a keen scent for the foul -matter upon which they feed.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There are pillows wet by sobs; there -are noble hearts broken in the silence -whence comes no cry of protest; there -are gentle, sensitive natures seared and -warped; there are old-time friends -separated and walking their lonely -ways with hope dead and memory but -a pang; there are cruel misunderstandings -that make all life look dark,—these -are but a few of the sorrows -that come from the crimes of the -tongue.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>A man may lead a life of honesty -and purity, battling bravely for all he -holds dearest, so firm and sure of the -rightness of his life that he never thinks -for an instant of the diabolic ingenuity -that makes evil and evil report where -naught but good really exists. A few -words lightly spoken by the tongue of -slander, a significant expression of the -eyes, a cruel shrug of the shoulders, -with a pursing of the lips,—and then, -friendly hands grow cold, the accustomed -smile is displaced by a sneer, -and one stands alone and aloof with a -dazed feeling of wonder at the vague, -intangible something that has caused -it all.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>For this craze for scandal, sensational -newspapers of to-day are largely -responsible. Each newspaper is not -one tongue, but a thousand or a million -tongues, telling the same foul story to -as many pairs of listening ears. The -vultures of sensationalism scent the -carcass of immorality afar off. From -the uttermost parts of the earth they -collect the sin, disgrace and folly of -humanity, and show them bare to the -world. They do not even require <span class='it'>facts</span>, -for morbid memories and fertile imaginations -make even the worst of the -world’s happenings seem tame when -compared with their monstrosities of -invention. These stories, and the discussions -they excite, develop in readers -a cheap, shrewd power of distortion of -the acts of all around them.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If a rich man give a donation to -some charity, they say: “He is doing -it to get his name talked about,—to -help his business.” If he give it anonymously, -they say, “Oh, it’s some millionaire -who is clever enough to know -that refraining from giving his name -will pique curiosity; he will see that -the public is informed later.” If he do -not give to charity, they say: “Oh, he’s -stingy with his money, of course, like -the rest of the millionaires.” To the -vile tongue of gossip and slander, -Virtue is ever deemed but a mask, -noble ideals but a pretense, generosity -a bribe.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who stands above his fellows -must expect to be the target for -the envious arrows of their inferiority. -It is part of the price he must pay for -his advance. One of the most detestable -characters in all literature is -Iago.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Envious of the promotion of Cassio -above his head, he hated Othello. His -was one of those low natures that -become absorbed in sustaining his -dignity, talking of “preserving his -honor,”—forgetting it has so long -been dead that even embalming could -not preserve it. Day by day Iago -dropped his poison; day by day did -subtle resentment and studied vengeance -distill the poison of distrust and -suspicion into more powerfully insidious -doses. With a mind wonderfully -concentrated by the blackness of his -purpose, he wove a network of circumstantial -evidence around the pure-hearted -Desdemona, and then murdered -her vicariously, by the hand of -Othello. Her very simplicity, confidence, -innocence and artlessness made -Desdemona the easier mark for the -diabolic tactics of Iago.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Iago still lives in the hearts of -thousands, who have all his despicable -meanness without his cleverness. The -constant dropping of their lying words -of malice and envy have in too many -instances at last worn away the noble -reputations of their superiors.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>To sustain ourselves in our own -hasty judgments we sometimes say, as -we listen, and accept without investigation, -the words of these modern Iagos: -“Well, where there is so much smoke, -there must be <span class='it'>some</span> fire.” Yes, but the -fire may be only the fire of malice, the -incendiary firing of the reputation of -another by the lighted torch of envy, -thrown into the innocent facts of a life -of superiority.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='three'></a>III<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Red Tape <span class='it'>of</span> Duty</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/D.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='D'/>uty is the most overlauded -word in the whole vocabulary -of life. Duty is the -cold, bare anatomy of -righteousness. Duty looks at life as a -debt to be paid; love sees life as a debt -to be collected. Duty is ever paying -assessments; love is constantly counting -its premiums.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Duty is forced, like a pump; love is -spontaneous, like a fountain. Duty is -prescribed and formal; it is part of the -red tape of life. It means running on -moral rails. It is good enough as a -beginning; it is poor as a finality.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The boy who “stood on the burning -deck,” and who committed suicide on a -technical point of obedience, has been -held up to the school children of this -century as a model of faithfulness to -duty. The boy was the victim of a -blind adherence to the red tape of duty. -He was placing the whole responsibility -for his acts on someone outside -himself. He was helplessly waiting -for instruction in the hour of emergency -when he should have acted for -himself. His act was an empty sacrifice. -It was a useless throwing away of -a human life. It did no good to the -father, to the boy, to the ship, or to the -nation.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The captain who goes down with his -sinking vessel, when he has done everything -in his power to save others and -when he can save his own life without -dishonor, is the victim of a false sense -of duty. He is cruelly forgetful of -the loved ones on shore that he is sacrificing. -His death means a spectacular -exit from life, the cowardly fear of an -investigating committee, or a brave -man’s loyal, yet misguided, sense of -duty. A human life, with its wondrous -possibilities, is too sacred an individual -trust to be thus lightly thrown into -eternity.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>They tell us of the “sublime nobleness” -of the Roman soldier at Pompeii, -whose skeleton was found centuries -afterward, imbedded in the once -molten lava which swept down upon -the doomed city. He was still standing -at one of the gates, at his post of -duty, still grasping a sword in his -crumbling fingers. His was a morbid -faithfulness to a discipline from which -a great convulsion of Nature had -released him. An automaton would -have stood there just as long, just as -boldly, just as uselessly.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who gives one hour of his -life to loving, consecrated service to -humanity is doing higher, better, truer -work in the world than an army of -Roman sentinels paying useless tribute -to the red tape of duty. There is in -this interpretation of duty no sympathy -with the man who deserts his post -when needed; it is but a protest against -losing the essence, the realness of -true duty in worshipping the mere -form.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Analyze, if you will, any of the -great historic instances of loyalty to -duty, and whenever they ring true you -will find the presence of the real element -that made the act almost divine. -It was duty,—plus love. It was no -mere sense of duty that made Grace -Darling risk her life in the awful storm -of sixty years ago, when she set out in -the darkness of night, on a raging sea, -to rescue the survivors of the wreck of -“The Forfarshire.” It was the sense -of duty, warmed and vivified by a love -of humanity, it was heroic courage of -a heart filled with divine pity and -sympathy.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Duty is a hard, mechanical process -for making men do things that love -would make easy. It is a poor understudy -to love. It is not a high enough -motive with which to inspire humanity. -Duty is the body to which love is the -soul. Love, in the divine alchemy of -life, transmutes all duties into privileges, -all responsibilities into joys.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The workman who drops his tools at -the stroke of twelve, as suddenly as if -he had been struck by lightning, may -be doing his duty,—but he is doing -nothing more. No man has made -a great success of his life or a fit -preparation for immortality by doing -merely his duty. He must do that,—and -more. If he puts love into his -work, the “more” will be easy.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The nurse may watch faithfully at -the bedside of a sick child as a duty. -But to the mother’s heart the care of -the little one, in the battle against -death, is never a duty; the golden -mantle of love thrown over every act -makes the word “duty” have a jarring -sound as if it were the voice of -desecration.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When a child turns out badly in -later years, the parent may say, “Well, -I always did my duty by him.” Then -it is no wonder the boy turned out -wrong. “Doing his duty by his son” -too often implies merely food, lodging, -clothes and education supplied by the -father. Why, a public institution -would give that! What the boy needed -most was deep draughts of love; he -needed to live in an atmosphere of -sweet sympathy, counsel and trust. -The parent should ever be an unfailing -refuge, a constant resource and -inspiration, not a mere larder, or hotel, -or wardrobe, or school that furnishes -these necessities free. The empty -boast of mere parental duty is one of -the dangers of modern society.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Christianity stands forth as the one -religion based on love, not duty. -Christianity sweeps all duties into one -word,—love. Love is the one great -duty enjoined by the Christian religion. -What duty creeps to laboriously, -love reaches in a moment on the -wings of a dove. Duty is not lost, condemned -or destroyed in Christianity; -it is dignified, purified and exalted and -all its rough ways are made smooth -by love.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The supreme instance of generosity -in the world’s history is not the giving -of millions by someone of great name; -it is the giving of a mite by a widow -whose name does not appear. Behind -the widow’s mite was no sense of duty; -it was the full, free and perfect gift of -a heart filled with love. In the Bible -“duty” is mentioned but five times; -“love,” hundreds.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>In the conquest of any weakness in -our mental or moral make-up; in the -attainment of any strength; in our -highest and truest relation to ourselves -and to the world, let us ever make -“love” our watchword, not mere -“duty.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If we desire to live a life of truth -and honesty, to make our word as -strong as our bond, let us not expect to -keep ourselves along the narrow line -of truth under the constant lash of the -whip of duty. Let us begin to love -the truth, to fill our mind and life with -the strong white light of sincerity and -sterling honesty. Let us love the truth -so strongly that there will develop -within us, without our conscious effort, -an ever-present horror of a lie.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If we desire to do good in the world, -let us begin to love humanity, to realize -more truly the great dominant note -that sounds in every mortal, despite all -the discords of life, the great natural -bond of unity that makes all men -brothers. Then jealousy, malice, envy, -unkind words and cruel misjudging -will be eclipsed and lost in the sunshine -of love.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The greatest triumph of the nineteenth -century is not its marvellous -progress in invention; its strides in -education; its conquests of the dark -regions of the world; the spread of a -higher mental tone throughout the -earth; the wondrous increase in material -comfort and wealth,—the greatest -triumph of the century is not any nor -all of these; it is the sweet atmosphere -of Peace that is covering the nations, -it is the growing closer and closer of -the peoples of the earth. Peace is but -the breath, the perfume, the life of -love. Love is the wondrous angel of -life that rolls away all the stones of -sorrow and suffering from the pathway -of duty.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='four'></a>IV<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Supreme Charity <span class='it'>of the</span> World</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/T.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='T'/>rue charity is not typified -by an almsbox. The benevolence -of a check book does -not meet all the wants of -humanity. Giving food, clothing and -money to the poor is only the beginning, -the kindergarten class, of real -charity. Charity has higher, purer -forms of manifestation. Charity is -but an instinctive reaching out for justice -in life. Charity seeks to smooth -down the rough places of living, to -bridge the chasms of human sin and -folly, to feed the heart-hungry, to give -strength to the struggling, to be tender -with human weakness, and greatest of -all, it means—obeying the Divine -injunction: “Judge not.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The true symbol of the greatest -charity is the scales of judgment held -on high, suspended from the hand of -Justice. So perfectly are they poised -that they are never at rest; they dare -not stop for a moment to pronounce -final judgment; each second adds its -grain of evidence to either side of the -balance. With this ideal before him, -man, conscious of his own weakness -and frailty, dare not arrogate to himself -the Divine prerogative of pronouncing -severe or final judgment on -any individual. He will seek to train -mind and heart to greater keenness, -purity, and delicacy in watching the -trembling movement of the balance in -which he weighs the characters and -reputations of those around him.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>It is a great pity in life that all the -greatest words are most degraded. -We hear people say: “I do so love to -study character, in the cars and on the -street.” They are not studying character; -they are merely observing -characteristics. The study of character -is not a puzzle that a man may work -out over night. Character is most -subtle, elusive, changing and contradictory—a -strange mingling of habits, -hopes, tendencies, ideals, motives, -weaknesses, traditions and memories—manifest -in a thousand different -phases.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There is but one quality necessary -for the perfect understanding of -character, one quality that, if man have -it, he may <span class='it'>dare to judge</span>—that is, -omniscience. Most people study character -as a proofreader pores over a -great poem: his ears are dulled to the -majesty and music of the lines, his -eyes are darkened to the magic imagination -of the genius of the author; -that proofreader is busy watching for -an inverted comma, a mis-spacing, or -a wrong-font letter. He has an eye -trained for the imperfections, the -weaknesses. Men who pride themselves -on being shrewd in discovering -the weak points, the vanity, dishonesty, -immorality, intrigue and pettiness of -others, think they understand character. -They know only part of character—they -know only the depths to which -some men may sink; they know not the -heights to which some men may rise. -An optimist is a man who has succeeded -in associating with humanity for -some time without becoming a cynic.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We never see the target a man aims -at in life; we see only the target he -hits. We judge from results, and we -imagine an infinity of motives that we -say must have been in his mind. No -man since the creation has been able to -live a life so pure and noble as to -exempt him from the misjudgment of -those around him. It is impossible to -get aught but a distorted image from -a convex or a concave mirror.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If misfortune comes to someone, -people are prone to say, “It is a judgment -upon him.” How do they know? -Have they been eavesdropping at the -door of Paradise? When sorrow and -failure come to us, we regard them as -misdirected packages that should be -delivered elsewhere. We do too much -watching of our neighbor’s garden, -too little weeding in our own.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Bottles have been picked up at sea -thousands of miles from the point -where they have been cast into the -waters. They have been the sport of -wind and weather; carried along by -ocean currents, they have reached a -destination undreamed of. Our flippant, -careless words of judgment -of the character of someone, words -lightly and perhaps innocently spoken, -may be carried by unknown currents -and bring sorrow, misery and shame to -the innocent. A cruel smile, a shrug -of the shoulders or a cleverly eloquent -silence may ruin in a moment the reputation -a man or woman has been building -for years. It is as a single motion -of the hand may destroy the delicate -geometry of a spider’s web, spun from -its own body and life, though all the -united efforts of the universe could -not put it back as it was.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We do not need to judge nearly so -much as we think we do. This is the -age of snap judgments. The habit is -greatly intensified by the sensational -press. Twenty-four hours after a -great murder there is difficulty in getting -enough men who have not already -formulated a judgment, to try the -case. These men, in most instances, -have read and accepted the garbled, -highly colored newspaper account; -they have to their own satisfaction discovered -the murderer, practically tried -him and—sentenced him. We hear -readers state their decisions with all the -force and absoluteness of one who has -had the whole Book of Life made -luminant and spread out before him. -If there be one place in life where the -attitude of the agnostic is beautiful, it -is in this matter of judging others. It -is the courage to say: “I don’t know. -I am waiting further evidence. I must -hear both sides of the question. Till -then I suspend all judgment.” It is -this suspended judgment that is the -supreme form of charity.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>It is strange that in life we recognize -the right of every criminal to have a -fair, open trial, yet we condemn unheard -the dear friends around us on -mere circumstantial evidence. We rely -on the mere evidence of our senses, -trust it implicitly, and permit it to -sweep away like a mighty tide the faith -that has been ours for years. We see -all life grow dark, hope sink before -our eyes, and the golden treasures of -memory turn to cruel thoughts of loss -to sting us with maddening pain. Our -hasty judgment, that a few moments -of explanation would remove, has -estranged the friend of our life. If -we be thus unjust to those we hold -dear, what must be the cruel injustice -of our judgment of others?</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We know nothing of the trials, sorrows -and temptations of those around -us, of pillows wet with sobs, of the life-tragedy -that may be hidden behind a -smile, of the secret cares, struggles and -worries that shorten life and leave their -mark in hair prematurely whitened, -and in character changed and almost -re-created in a few days.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We say sometimes to one who seems -calm and smiling: “You ought to be -supremely happy; you have everything -that heart could wish.” It may be that -at that very moment the person is passing -alone through some agony of -sorrow, where the teeth seem almost to -bite into the lips in the attempt to keep -feelings under control, when life seems -a living death from which there is no -relief. Then these light, flippant -phrases jar upon us, and we seem as -isolated and separated from the rest -of humanity as if we were living on -another planet.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Let us not dare to add to the burden -of another the pain of our judgment. -If we would guard our lips from -expressing, we must control our mind, -we must stop this continual sitting in -judgment on the acts of others, even -in private. Let us by daily exercises -in self-control learn to turn off the -process of judging—as we would turn -off the gas. Let us eliminate pride, -passion, personal feeling, prejudice -and pettiness from our mind, and -higher, purer emotions will rush in, as -air seeks to fill a vacuum. Charity is -not a formula; it is an atmosphere. -Let us cultivate charity in judging; -let us seek to draw out latent good in -others rather than to discover hidden -evil. It requires the eye of charity to -see the undeveloped butterfly in the -caterpillar. Let us, if we would rise -to the full glory of our privilege, to -the dignity of true living, make for -our watchword the injunction of the -supreme charity of the world—“Judge -not.”</p> - -<div><h1><a id='five'></a>V<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>Worry, <span class='it'>the</span> Great American Disease</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/W.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='W'/>orry is the most popular -form of suicide. Worry -impairs appetite, disturbs -sleep, makes respiration -irregular, spoils digestion, irritates disposition, -warps character, weakens -mind, stimulates disease, and saps -bodily health. It is the real cause of -death in thousands of instances where -some other disease is named in the -death certificate. Worry is mental -poison; work is mental food.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When a child’s absorption in his -studies keeps him from sleeping, or -when he tosses and turns from side to -side, muttering the multiplication table -or spelling words aloud, when sleep -does come, then that child shows he is -worrying. It is one of Nature’s -danger-signals raised to warn parents, -and in mercy the parent should take a -firm stand. The burden of that child’s -daily tasks should be lightened, the -tension of its concentration should be -lessened, the hours of its slavery to -education should be cut short.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When a man or woman works over -in dreams the problems of the day, -when the sleeping hours are spent in -turning the kaleidoscope of the day’s -activities, then there is either overwork -or worry, and most likely it is the -worry that comes from overwork. The -Creator never intended a healthy mind -to dream of the day’s duties. Either -dreamless sleep or dreams of the -past should be the order of the -night.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When the spectre of one grief, one -fear, one sorrow, obtrudes itself between -the eye and the printed page; -when the inner voice of this irritating -memory, or fear, looms up so loud as -to deaden outside voices, there is danger -to the individual. When all day, every -hour, every moment, there is the dull, -insistent, numb pain of something that -makes itself felt through, above and -below all our other thinking, we must -know that we are worrying. Then -there is but one thing to do,—we must -stop that worry; we must kill it.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The wise men of this wondrous -century have made great discoveries in -their interviews with Nature. They -have discovered that everything that -has been created has its uses. They will -teach you not to assassinate flies with -paper coated with sweetened glue, for -“the flies are Nature’s scavengers.” -They will tell you just what are the -special duties and responsibilities of -each of the microscopic microbes with -telescopic names. In their wildest -moods of scientific enthusiasm they -may venture to persuade you into -believing that even the <span class='it'>mosquito</span> serves -some real purpose in Nature, but no -man that has ever lived can truthfully -say a good word about worry.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Worry is forethought gone to seed. -Worry is discounting possible future -sorrows so that the individual may -have present misery. Worry is the -father of insomnia. Worry is the -traitor in our camp that dampens our -powder, weakens our aim. Under the -guise of helping us to bear the present, -and to be ready for the future, worry -multiplies enemies within our own mind -to sap our strength.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Worry is the dominance of the mind -by a single vague, restless, unsatisfied, -fearing and fearful idea. The mental -energy and force that should be concentrated -on the successive duties of -the day is constantly and surreptitiously -abstracted and absorbed by this -one fixed idea. The full rich strength -of the <span class='it'>unconscious</span> working of the -mind, that which produces our best -success, that represents our finest -activity, is tapped, led away and wasted -on worry.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Worry must not be confused with -anxiety, though both words agree in -meaning, originally, a “choking,” or -a “strangling,” referring, of course, -to the throttling effect upon individual -activity. Anxiety faces large issues of -life seriously, calmly, with dignity. -Anxiety always suggests hopeful -possibility; it is active in being ready, -and devising measures to meet the outcome.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Worry is not one large individual -sorrow; it is a colony of petty, -vague, insignificant, restless imps of -fear, that become important only from -their combination, their constancy, -their iteration.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When Death comes, when the one -we love has passed from us, and the -silence and the loneness and the emptiness -of all things make us stare dry-eyed -into the future, we give ourselves -up, for a time, to the agony of isolation. -This is not a petty worry we -must kill ere it kills us. This is the -awful majesty of sorrow that mercifully -benumbs us, though it may later -become, in the mysterious working of -omnipotence, a rebaptism and a regeneration. -It is the worry <span class='it'>habit</span>, the -constant magnifying of petty sorrows -to eclipse the sun of happiness, against -which I here make protest.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>To cure worry, the individual must be -his own physician; he must give the case -heroic treatment. He must realize, -with every fibre of his being, the utter, -absolute uselessness of worry. He -must not think this is commonplace,—a -bit of mere theory; it is a reality that he -must translate for himself from mere -words to a real, living fact. He must -fully understand that if it were possible -for him to spend a whole series of -eternities in worry, it would not change -the fact one jot or tittle. It is a time -for action, not worry, because worry -paralyzes thought and action, too. If -you set down a column of figures in -addition, no amount of worry can -change the sum total of those figures. -That result is wrapped up in the inevitability -of mathematics. The result -can be made different only by changing -the figures as they are set down, one by -one, in that column.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The one time that a man cannot -afford to worry is when he <span class='it'>does</span> worry. -Then he is facing, or imagines he is, a -critical turn in affairs. This is the time -when he needs one hundred per cent. of -his mental energy to make his plans -quickly, to see what is his wisest decision, -to keep a clear eye on the sky and -on his course, and a firm hand on the -helm until he has weathered the storm -in safety.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There are two reasons why man -should not worry, either one of which -must operate in every instance. First, -because he <span class='it'>cannot</span> prevent the results he -fears. Second, because he <span class='it'>can</span> prevent -them. If he be powerless to avert the -blow, he needs perfect mental concentration -to meet it bravely, to lighten its -force, to get what salvage he can from -the wreck, to sustain his strength at this -time when he must plan a new future. -If he <span class='it'>can</span> prevent the evil he fears, then -he has no need to worry, for he would -by so doing be dissipating energy in his -very hour of need.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If man do, day by day, ever the best -he can by the light he has, he has no -need to fear, no need to regret, no -need to worry. No agony of worry -would do aught to help him. Neither -mortal nor angel can do more than his -best.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If we look back upon our past -life we will see how, in the marvellous -working of events, the cities of our -greatest happiness and of our fullest -success have been built along the rivers -of our deepest sorrows, our most abject -failures. We then realize that our -present happiness or success would have -been impossible had it not been for some -terrible affliction or loss in the past,—some -wondrous potent force in the -evolution of our character or our fortune. -This should be a wondrous -stimulus to us in bearing the trials and -sorrows of life.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>To cure one’s self of worry is not an -easy task; it is not to be removed in -two or three applications of the quack -medicine of any cheap philosophy, but -it requires only clear, simple commonsense -applied to the business of life. -Man has no right to waste his own -energies, to weaken his own powers and -influence, for he has inalienable duties -to himself, to his family, to society, and -to the world.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='six'></a>VI<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Greatness <span class='it'>of</span> Simplicity</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/S.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='S'/>implicity is the elimination -of the non-essential in -all things. It reduces life to -its minimum of real needs; -raises it to its maximum of powers. -Simplicity means the survival,—not of -the fittest, but of the best. In morals it -kills the weeds of vice and weakness so -that the flowers of virtue and strength -may have room to grow. Simplicity -cuts off waste and intensifies concentration. -It converts flickering torches -into searchlights.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>All great truths are simple. The -essence of Christianity could be given -in a few words; a lifetime would be but -continued seeking to make those words -real and living in thoughts and acts. -The true Christian’s individual belief is -always simpler than his church creed, -and upon these vital, foundation elements -he builds his life. Higher criticism -never rises to the heights of his simplicity. -He does not care whether the -whale swallowed Jonah or Jonah swallowed -the whale. Hair-splitting interpretation -of words and phrases is an intellectual -dissipation he has no time for. -He cares naught for the anatomy of -religion; he has its soul. His simple -faith he lives,—in thought and word -and act, day by day. Like the lark he -lives nearest the ground; like the lark -he soars highest toward heaven.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The minister whose sermons are made -up merely of flowers of rhetoric, sprigs -of quotation, sweet fancy, and perfumed -commonplaces, is—consciously -or unconsciously—posing in the pulpit. -His literary charlotte-russes, sweet -froth on a spongy, pulpy base, never -helped a human soul,—they give neither -strength nor inspiration. If the mind -and heart of the preacher were really -thrilled with the greatness and simplicity -of religion, he would, week by -week, apply the ringing truths of his -faith to the vital problems of daily living. -The test of a strong, simple sermon -is results,—not the Sunday praise -of his auditors, but their bettered lives -during the week. People who pray on -their knees on Sunday and prey on their -neighbors on Monday, need simplicity -in their faith.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>No character can be simple unless it -is based on truth—unless it is lived in -harmony with one’s own conscience and -ideals. Simplicity is the pure white -light of a life lived from within. It is -destroyed by any attempt to live in harmony -with public opinion. Public -opinion is a conscience owned by a -syndicate,—where the individual is -merely a stockholder. But the individual -has a conscience of which he is -sole proprietor. Adjusting his life to -his own ideals is the royal road to simplicity. -Affectation is the confession -of inferiority; it is an unnecessary proclamation -that one is not living the life -he pretends to live.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Simplicity is restful contempt for the -non-essentials of life. It is restless -hunger for the non-essentials that is the -secret of most of the discontent of the -world. It is constant striving to outshine -others that kills simplicity and -happiness.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Nature, in all her revelations, seeks to -teach man the greatness of simplicity. -Health is but the living of a physical -life in harmony with a few simple, -clearly defined laws. Simple food, -simple exercise, simple precautions will -work wonders. But man grows tired -of the simple things, he yields to subtle -temptations in eating and drinking, listens -to his palate instead of to Nature,—and -he suffers. He is then led into -intimate acquaintance with dyspepsia, -and he sits like a child at his own bounteous -table, forced to limit his eating to -simple food that he scorned.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There is a tonic strength, in the hour -of sorrow and affliction, in escaping -from the world and society and getting -back to the simple duties and interests -we have slighted and forgotten. Our -world grows smaller, but it grows -dearer and greater. Simple things -have a new charm for us, and we suddenly -realize that we have been renouncing -all that is greatest and best, in our -pursuit of some phantom.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Simplicity is the characteristic that is -most difficult to simulate. The signature -that is most difficult to imitate is -the one that is most simple, most individual -and most free from flourishes. -The bank note that is the most difficult -to counterfeit successfully is the one -that contains the fewest lines and has -the least intricate detail. So simple is -it that any departure from the normal -is instantly apparent. So is it also in -mind and in morals.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Simplicity in act is the outward expression -of simplicity in thought. Men -who carry on their shoulders the fate of -a nation are quiet, modest, unassuming. -They are often made gentle, calm and -simple by the discipline of their responsibility. -They have no room in their -minds for the pettiness of personal vanity. -It is ever the drum-major who -grows pompous when he thinks that the -whole world is watching him as he -marches at the head of the procession. -The great general, bowed with the honors -of many campaigns, is simple and -unaffected as a child.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The college graduate assumes the airs -of one to whom is committed the wisdom -of the ages, while the great man of -science, the Columbus of some great -continent of investigation, is simple and -humble.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The longest Latin derivatives seem -necessary to express the thoughts of -young writers. The world’s great -masters in literature can move mankind -to tears, give light and life to thousands -in darkness and doubt, or scourge a -nation for its folly,—by words so simple -as to be commonplace. But transfigured -by the divinity of genius, there -seems almost a miracle in words.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Life grows wondrously beautiful -when we look at it as simple, when we -can brush aside the trivial cares and -sorrows and worries and failures and -say: “They don’t count. They are -not the real things of life; they are but -interruptions. There is something -within me, my individuality, that makes -all these gnats of trouble seem too trifling -for me to permit them to have any -dominion over me.” Simplicity is a -mental soil where artifice, lying, deceit, -treachery and selfish, low ambition,—cannot -grow.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man whose character is simple -looks truth and honesty so straight in -the face that he has no consciousness of -intrigue and corruption around him. -He is deaf to the hints and whispers of -wrongs that a suspicious nature would -suspect even before they existed. He -scorns to meet intrigue with intrigue, to -hold power by bribery, to pay weak tribute -to an inferior that has a temporary -inning. To true simplicity, to perceive -a truth is to begin to live it, to see -a duty is to begin to do it. Nothing -great can ever enter into the consciousness -of a man of simplicity and remain -but a theory. Simplicity in a character -is like the needle of a compass,—it -knows only one point, its North, its -ideal.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Let us seek to cultivate this simplicity -in all things in our life. The first step -toward simplicity is “simplifying.” -The beginning of mental or moral -progress or reform is always renunciation -or sacrifice. It is rejection, surrender -or destruction of separate -phases of habit or life that have kept -us from higher things. Reform your -diet and you simplify it; make your -speech truer and higher and you simplify -it; reform your morals and you -begin to cut off your immorals. The -secret of all true greatness is simplicity. -Make simplicity the keynote of your -life and you will be great, no matter -though your life be humble and your influence -seem but little. Simple habits, -simple manners, simple needs, simple -words, simple faiths,—all are the pure -manifestations of a mind and heart of -simplicity.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Simplicity is never to be associated -with weakness and ignorance. It -means reducing tons of ore to nuggets -of gold. It means the light of fullest -knowledge; it means that the individual -has seen the folly and the nothingness -of those things that make up the sum -of the life of others. He has lived -<span class='it'>down</span> what others are blindly seeking to -live <span class='it'>up</span> to. Simplicity is the sun of a -self-centred and pure life,—the secret -of any specific greatness in the life of -the individual.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='seven'></a>VII<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>Living Life Over Again</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/D.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='D'/>uring a terrific storm a -few years ago a ship was -driven far out of her course, -and, helpless and disabled, -was carried into a strange bay. The -water supply gave out, and the crew -suffered the agony of thirst, yet dared -not drink of the salt water in which their -vessel floated. In the last extremity -they lowered a bucket over the ship’s -side, and in desperation quaffed the -beverage they thought was sea-water. -But to their joy and amazement the -water was fresh, cool and life-giving. -They were in a fresh-water arm of the -sea, and they did not know it. They -had simply to reach down and accept -the new life and strength for which -they prayed.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Man, to-day, heart-weary with the -sorrow, sin and failure of his past life, -feels that he could live a better life if he -could only have another chance, if -he could only live life over again, if he -could only start afresh with his present -knowledge and experience. He looks -back with regretful memory to the -golden days of youth and sadly mourns -his wasted chances. He then turns -hopefully to the thought of a life -to come. But, helpless, he stands -between the two ends of life, yet thirsting -for the chance to live a new life, -according to his bettered condition for -living it. In his blindness and unknowing, -he does not realize, like the -storm-driven sailors, that the new life -is all around him; he has but to reach -out and take it. Every day is a new -life, every sunrise but a new birth for -himself and the world, every morning -the beginning of a new existence for -him, a new, great chance to put to new -and higher uses the results of his past -living.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who looks back upon his -past life and says, “I have nothing to -regret,” has lived in vain. The life -without regret is the life without gain. -Regret is but the light of fuller wisdom, -from our past, illumining our -future. It means that we are wiser to-day -than we were yesterday. This new -wisdom means new responsibility, new -privileges; it is a new chance for a -better life. But if regret remain -merely “regret,” it is useless; it must -become the revelation of new possibilities, -and the inspiration and source of -strength to realize them. Even omnipotence -could not change the past, but -each man, to a degree far beyond his -knowing, holds his future in his own -hands.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If man were sincere in his longing to -live life over he would get more help -from his failures. If he realize his -wasted golden hours of opportunity, let -him not waste other hours in useless -regret, but seek to forget his folly and -to keep before him only the lessons of -it. His past extravagance of time -should lead him to minify his loss by -marvellous economy of present moments. -If his whole life be darkened -by the memory of a cruel wrong he has -done another, if direct amends be impossible -to the injured one, passed from -life, let him make the world the legatee -to receive his expressions of restitution. -Let his regret and sorrow be manifest -in words of kindness and sympathy, -and acts of sweetness and love given to -all with whom he comes in contact. If -he regrets a war he has made against -one individual, let him place the entire -world on his pension list. If a man -make a certain mistake once, the only -way he can properly express his recognition -of it is not to make a similar mistake -later. Josh Billings once said: -“A man who is bitten twice by the same -dog is better adapted to that business -than any other.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There are many people in this world -who want to live life over because they -take such pride in their past. They -resemble the beggars in the street who -tell you they “have seen better days.” -It is not what man <span class='it'>was</span> that shows character; -it is what he progressively <span class='it'>is</span>. -Trying to obtain a present record on a -dead past is like some present-day mediocrity -that tries to live on its ancestry. -We look for the fruit in the branches -of the family tree, not in the roots. -Showing how a family degenerated -from a noble ancestor of generations -ago to its present representative is not -a boast;—it is an unnecessary confession. -Let man think less of his own -ancestors and more of those he is preparing -for his posterity; less of his past -virtue, and more of his future.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When man pleads for a chance to live -life over, there is always an implied plea -of inexperience, of a lack of knowledge. -This is unworthy, even of a -coward. We know the laws of health, -yet we ignore them or defy them every -day. We know what is the proper -food for us, individually, to eat, yet we -gratify our appetites and trust to our -cleverness to square the account with -Nature somehow. We know that success -is a matter of simple, clearly defined -laws, of the development of mental -essentials, of tireless energy and -concentration, of constant payment of -price,—we know all this, and yet we do -not live up to our knowledge. We -constantly eclipse ourselves by ourselves, -and then we blame Fate.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Parents often counsel their children -against certain things, and do them -themselves, in the foolish hope that the -children will believe their ears in preference -to their eyes. Years of careful -teaching of a child to be honest and -truthful may be nullified in an instant -by a parent’s lying to a conductor about -a child’s age to save a nickel. That -may be a very expensive street-car ride -for the child,—and for the parent. It -may be part of the spirit of the age to -believe that it is no sin to cheat a corporation -or a trust, but it is unwise to -give the child so striking an example -at an age when it cannot detect the -sophistry.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Man’s only plea for a chance to live -life again is that he has gained in wisdom -and experience. If he be really in -earnest, then he can live life over, he -can live life anew, he can live the new -life that comes to him day by day. Let -him leave to the past, to the aggregated -thousands of yesterdays, all their mistakes, -sin, sorrow, misery and folly, and -start afresh. Let him close the books -of his old life, let him strike a balance, -and start anew, crediting himself with -all the wisdom he has gained from his -past failure and weakness, and charging -himself with the new duties and -responsibilities that come from the -possession of his new capital of wisdom. -Let him criticise others less and -himself more,—and start out bravely in -this new life he is to live.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>What the world needs is more day-to-day -living; starting in the morning with -fresh, clear ideals for that day, and -seeking to live that day, and each successive -hour and moment of that day, -as if it were all time and all eternity. -This has in it no element of disregard -for the future, for each day is set in -harmony with that future. It is like -the sea-captain heading his vessel toward -his port of destination, and day by -day keeping her steaming toward it. -This view of living kills morbid regret -of the past, and morbid worry about the -future. Most people want large, guaranteed -slices of life; they would not be -satisfied with manna fresh every day, as -was given to the children of Israel; they -want grain elevators filled with daily -bread.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Life is worth living if it be lived in a -way that is worth living. Man does -not own his life,—to do with as he will. -He has merely a life-interest in it. He -must finally surrender it,—with an accounting. -At each New Year tide it is -common to make new resolutions, but -in the true life of the individual each -day is the beginning of a New Year if -he will only make it so. A mere date -on the calendar of eternity is no more a -divider of time than a particular grain -of sand divides the desert.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Let us not make heroic resolutions so -far beyond our strength that the resolution -becomes a dead memory within a -week; but let us promise ourselves that -each day will be the new beginning of -a newer, better and truer life for ourselves, -for those around us, and for the -world.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='eight'></a>VIII<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>Syndicating Our Sorrows</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/T.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='T'/>he most selfish man in the -world is the one who is most -unselfish,—with his sorrows. -He does not leave a single -misery of his untold to you, or unsuffered -by you,—he gives you all of -them. The world becomes to him a -syndicate formed to take stock in his -private cares, worries and trials. His -mistake is in forming a syndicate; he -should organize a trust and control it all -himself, then he could keep everyone -from getting any of his misery.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Life is a great, serious problem for -the individual. All our greatest joys -and our deepest sorrows come to us,—alone. -We must go into our Gethsemane,—alone. -We must battle against -the mighty weakness within us,—alone. -We must live our own life,—alone. We -must die,—alone. We must accept the -full responsibility of our life,—alone. -If each one of us has this mighty problem -of life to solve for himself, if each -of us has his own cares, responsibilities, -failures, doubts, fears, bereavements, -we surely are playing a coward’s part -when we syndicate our sorrows to -others.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We should seek to make life brighter -for others; we should seek to hearten -them in their trials by the example of -our courage in bearing our sorrows. -We should seek to forget our failures, -and remember only the new wisdom -they gave us; we should live down our -griefs by counting the joys and privileges -still left to us; put behind us our -worries and regrets, and face each new -day of life as bravely as we can. But -we have no right to retail our sorrow -and unhappiness through the community.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Autobiography constitutes a large -part of the conversation of some -people. It is not really conversation,—it -is an uninterrupted monologue. -These people study their individual -lives with a microscope, and then they -throw an enlarged view of their miseries -on a screen and lecture on them, as a -stereopticon man discourses on the microbes -in a drop of water. They tell -you that “they did not sleep a wink all -night; they heard the clock strike every -quarter of an hour.” Now, there is no -real cause for thus boasting of insomnia. -It requires no peculiar talent,—even -though it does come only to wide-awake -people.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If you ask such a man how he is feeling, -he will trace the whole genealogy -of his present condition down from the -time he had the grippe four years ago. -You hoped for a word; he gives you a -treatise. You asked for a sentence; he -delivers an encyclopedia. His motto -is: “Every man his own Boswell.” -He is syndicating his sorrows.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The woman who makes her trials with -her children, her troubles with her servants, -her difficulties with her family, -the subjects of conversation with her -callers is syndicating her sorrows. If -she has a dear little innocent child who -recites “Curfew Shall Not Ring To-night,” -is it not wiser for the mother to -bear it calmly and discreetly and in -silence, than to syndicate this sorrow?</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The business man who lets his dyspepsia -get into his disposition, and who -makes everyone around him suffer because -he himself is ill, is syndicating ill-health. -We have no right to make -others the victims of our moods. If illness -makes us cross and irritable, makes -us unjust to faithful workers who cannot -protest, let us quarantine ourselves -so that we do not spread the contagion. -Let us force ourselves to speak slowly, -to keep anger away from the eyes, to -prevent temper showing in the voice. If -we feel that we <span class='it'>must</span> have dyspepsia, -let us keep it out of our head, let us -keep it from getting north of the -neck.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Most people sympathize too much -with themselves. They take themselves -as a single sentence isolated from the -great text of life. They study themselves -too much as separated from the -rest of humanity, instead of being -vitally connected with their fellow-men. -There are some people who surrender -to sorrow as others give way to dissipation. -There is a vain pride of sorrow -as well as of beauty. Most individuals -have a strange glow of vanity in looking -back upon their past and feeling -that few others in life have suffered -such trials, hardships and disappointments -as have come to them.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When Death comes into the little circle -of loved ones who make up our -world, all life becomes dark to us. We -seem to have no reason for existing, no -object, no incentive, no hope. The love -that made struggle and effort bearable -for us,—is gone. We stare, dry-eyed, -into the future, and see no future; we -want none. Life has become to us a -past,—with no future. It is but a -memory, without a hope.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Then in the divine mystery of Nature’s -processes, under the tender, -soothing touch of Time, as days melt -into weeks, we begin to open our eyes -gently to the world around us, and the -noise and tumult of life jars less and -less upon us. We have become emotionally -convalescent. As the days go -on, in our deep love, in the fullness of -our loyalty, we protest often, with tears -in our eyes, against our gradual return -to the spirit and atmosphere of the days -of the past. We feel in a subtle way a -new pain, as if we were disloyal to the -dear one, as if we were faithless to our -love. Nature sweetly turns aside our -protesting hands, and says to us, -“There is no disloyalty in permitting -the wounds to lessen their pain, to heal -gradually, if Time foreordain that they -can heal.” There are some natures, all-absorbed -in a mighty love, wherein no -healing is possible,—but these are rare -souls in life.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Bitter though our anguish be, we -have no right to syndicate our sorrow. -We have no right to cast a gloom over -happy natures by our heavy weight of -crape, by serving the term prescribed -by Society for wearing the livery of -mourning,—as if real grief thought of -a uniform. We have no right to syndicate -our grief by using notepaper with -a heavy black border as wide as a hatband, -thus parading our personal sorrow -to others in their happiest moments.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If life has not gone well with us, if -fortune has left us disconsolate, if love -has grown cold, and we sit alone by the -embers; if life has become to us a valley -of desolation, through which weary -limbs must drag an unwilling body till -the end shall come,—let us not radiate -such an atmosphere to those round us; -let us not take strangers through the -catacombs of our life, and show the -bones of our dead past; let us not pass -our cup of sorrow to others, but, if we -must drink it, let us take it as Socrates -did his poison hemlock,—grandly, heroically -and uncomplainingly.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If your life has led you to doubt the -existence of honor in man and virtue in -woman; if you feel that religion is a -pretense, that spirituality is a sham, -that life is a failure, and death the entrance -to nothingness; if you have -absorbed all the poison philosophy of -the world’s pessimists, and committed -the folly of believing it,—don’t syndicate -it.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If your fellow-man be clinging to -one frail spar, the last remnant of a -noble, shipwrecked faith in God and -humanity, let him keep it. Do not -loosen his fingers from his hope, and tell -him it is a delusion. How do you -know? Who told you it was so?</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If these high-tide moments of life -sweep your faith in Omnipotence into -nothingness, if the friend in whom you -have put all faith in humanity and -humanity’s God betray you, do not -eagerly accept the teachings of those -modern freethinkers who syndicate -their infidelity at so much per reserved -seat. Seek to recover your lost faith -by listening to the million voices that -speak of infinite wisdom, infinite love, -that manifest themselves in nature and -humanity, and then build up as rapidly -as you can a new faith, a faith in something -higher, better and truer than you -have known before.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>You may have <span class='it'>one</span> in the world to -whom you may dare show with the fullness -of absolute confidence and perfect -faith any thought, any hope, any sorrow,—but -you dare not trust them to -the world. Do not show the world -through your Bluebeard chamber; keep -your trials and sorrows as close to you -as you can till you have mastered them. -Don’t weaken others by thus—syndicating -your miseries.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='nine'></a>IX<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Revelations <span class='it'>of</span> Reserve Power</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/E.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='E'/>very individual is a marvel -of unknown and unrealized -possibilities. Nine-tenths of -an iceberg is always below -water. Nine-tenths of the possibilities -of good and evil of the individual is -ever hidden from his sight.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Burns’ prayer,—that we might “see -oursels as ithers see us,”—was weak. -The answer could minister only to -man’s vanity,—it would show him only -what others think him to be, not what -he is. We should pray to see ourselves -as we <span class='it'>are</span>. But no man could face the -radiant revelation of the latent powers -and forces within him, underlying the -weak, narrow life he is living. He -would fall blinded and prostrate as did -Moses before the burning bush. Man -is not a mechanical music-box wound up -by the Creator and set to play a fixed -number of prescribed tunes. He is a -human harp, with infinite possibilities -of unawakened music.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The untold revelations of Nature -are in her Reserve Power. Reserve -Power is Nature’s method of meeting -emergencies. Nature is wise and economic. -Nature saves energy and effort, -and gives only what is absolutely necessary -for life and development under -any given condition, and when new -needs arise Nature always meets them -by her Reserve Power.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>In animal life Nature reveals this in -a million phases. Animals placed in -the darkness of the Mammoth Cave -gradually have the sense of sight weakened -and the senses of smell, touch and -hearing intensified. Nature watches -over all animals, making their color harmonize -with the general tone of their -surroundings to protect them from -their enemies. Those arctic animals -which in the summer inhabit regions -free from snow, turn white when winter -comes. In the desert, the lion, the -camel and all the desert antelopes have -more or less the color of the sand and -rocks among which they live. In tropical -forests parrots are usually green; -turacous, barbets and bee-eaters have a -preponderance of green in their plumage. -The colors change as the habits -of the animals change from generation -to generation. Nature, by her Reserve -Power, always meets the new needs of -animals with new strength,—new harmony -with new conditions.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>About forty-five years ago three -pairs of enterprising rabbits were introduced -into Australia. To-day, the -increase of these six immigrants may be -counted by millions. They became a -pest to the country. Fortunes have -been spent to exterminate them. Wire -fences many feet high and thousands -of miles long have been built to keep -out the invaders. The rabbits had to -fight awful odds to live, but they have -now outwitted man. They have developed -a new nail,—a long nail by -which they can retain their hold on the -fence while climbing. With this same -nail they can burrow six or eight inches -under the netting, and thus enter the -fields that mean food and life to them. -They are now laughing at man. -Reserve Power has vitalized for these -rabbits latent possibilities because they -did not tamely accept their condition, -but in their struggle to live learned <span class='it'>how</span> -to live.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>In plant life, Nature is constantly -revealing Reserve Power. The possibilities -of almost infinite color are -present in <span class='it'>every</span> green plant, even in -roots and stems. Proper conditions -only are needed to reveal them. By -obeying Nature’s laws man could make -leaves as beautifully colored as flowers. -The <span class='it'>wild</span> rose has only a single corolla; -but, when cultivated in rich soil, the -numerous yellow stamens change into -the brilliant red leaves of the full-grown -cabbage-rose. This is but one of -Nature’s miracles of Reserve Power. -Once the banana was a tropical lily; the -peach was at one time a bitter almond. -To tell the full story of Reserve Power -in Nature would mean to write the -history of the universe, in a thousand -volumes.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Nature is a great believer in “double -engines.” Man is equipped with nearly -every organ in duplicate—eyes, ears, -lungs, arms and legs, so that if one be -weakened, its mate, through Reserve -Power, is stimulated to do enough for -both. Even where the organ itself is -not duplicated, as in the nose, there is -a division of parts so there is constant -reserve. Nature, for still further protection, -has for every part of the body -an understudy in training, to be ready -in a crisis,—as the sense of touch for -the blind.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Birds when frightened ruffle their -feathers; a dog that has been in the -water shakes its coat so that each hair -stands out of itself; the startled hedgehog -projects every quill. These actions -are produced by “skin muscles” that -are rudimentary in man, and over which -in ordinary conditions he has no control. -But in a moment of terrible fear -Reserve Power quickens their action in -a second, and the hair on his head -“stands on end” in the intensity of his -fright.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Nature, that thus watches so tenderly -over the physical needs of man, is -equally provident in storing for him a -mental and a moral Reserve Power. -Man may fail in a dozen different lines -of activity and then succeed brilliantly -in a phase wherein he was unconscious -of any ability. We must never rest content -with what we <span class='it'>are</span>, and say: “There -is no use for me to try. I can never be -great. I am not even clever now.” But -the law of Reserve Power stands by us -as a fairy godmother and says: “There -is one charm by which you can transmute -the dull dross of your present condition -into the pure gold of strength -and power,—that charm is ever doing -your best, ever daring more, and the -full measure of your final attainment -can never be told in advance. Rely -upon me to help you with new revelations -of strength in new emergencies. -Never be cast down because your power -seems so trifling, your progress so -slow. The world’s greatest and best -men were failures in some line, failures -many times before failure was crowned -with success.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There is in the mythology of the -Norsemen a belief that the strength of -an enemy we kill enters into us. This -is true in character. As we conquer a -passion, a thought, a feeling, a desire; -as we rise superior to some impulse, the -strength of that victory, trifling though -it may be, is stored by Nature as a -Reserve Power to come to us in the -hour of our need.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Were we to place before almost any -individual the full chart of his future,—his -trials, sorrows, failures, afflictions, -loss, sickness and loneliness,—and -ask him if he could bear it, he would -say: “No! I could not bear all that and -live.” But he <span class='it'>can</span> and he <span class='it'>does</span>. The -hopes upon the realization of which he -has staked all his future turn to air as -he nears them; friends whom he has -trusted betray him; the world grows -cold to him; the child whose smile is the -light of his life dishonors his name; -death takes from him the wife of his -heart. Reserve Power has been watching -over him and ever giving him new -strength,—even while he sleeps.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If we be conscious of any weakness, -and desire to conquer it, we can force -ourselves into positions where we <span class='it'>must</span> -act in a way to strengthen ourselves -through that weakness, cut off our -retreat, burn our bridges behind us, and -fight like Spartans till the victory be -ours.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Reserve Power is like the manna -given to the children of Israel in the -wilderness,—only enough was given -them to keep them for one day. Each -successive day had its new supply of -strength. There is in the leaning tower -of Pisa a spiral stairway so steep in its -ascent that only one step at a time is -revealed to us. But as each step is -taken the next is made visible, and thus, -step by step, to the very highest. So in -the Divine economy of the universe, -Reserve Power is a gradual and constant -revelation of strength within us -to meet each new need. And no matter -what be our line of life, what our need, -we should feel that we have within us -infinite, untried strength and possibility, -and that, if we believe and do our -best, the Angel of Reserve Power will -walk by our side, and will even divide -the waters of the Red Sea of our sorrows -and trials so we may walk through -in safety.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='ten'></a>X<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Majesty <span class='it'>of</span> Calmness</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/C.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='C'/>almness is the rarest -quality in human life. It is -the poise of a great nature, -in harmony with itself and -its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of -a life self-centred, self-reliant, and self-controlled. -Calmness is singleness of -purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious -power,—ready to be focused in -an instant to meet any crisis.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The Sphinx is not a true type of -calmness,—petrifaction is not calmness; -it is death, the silencing of all the -energies; while no one lives his life more -fully, more intensely and more consciously -than the man who is calm.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The Fatalist is not calm. He is the -coward slave of his environment, hopelessly -surrendering to his present condition, -recklessly indifferent to his -future. He accepts his life as a rudderless -ship, drifting on the ocean of -time. He has no compass, no chart, -no known port to which he is sailing. -His self-confessed inferiority to all -nature is shown in his existence of constant -surrender. It is not,—calmness.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who is calm has his course -in life clearly marked on his chart. His -hand is ever on the helm. Storm, fog, -night, tempest, danger, hidden reefs,—he -is ever prepared and ready for them. -He is made calm and serene by the -realization that in these crises of his -voyage he needs a clear mind and a cool -head; that he has naught to do but to do -each day the best he can by the light he -has; that he will never flinch nor falter -for a moment; that, though he may have -to tack and leave his course for a time, -he will never drift, he will get back into -the true channel, he will keep ever -headed toward his harbor. <span class='it'>When</span> he -will reach it, <span class='it'>how</span> he will reach it -matters not to him. He rests in calmness, -knowing he has done his best. If -his best seem to be overthrown or overruled, -then he must still bow his head,—in -calmness. To no man is permitted -to know the future of his life, the -finality. God commits to man ever -only new beginnings, new wisdom, and -new days to use to the best of his -knowledge.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Calmness comes ever from within. -It is the peace and restfulness of the -depths of our nature. The fury of -storm and of wind agitate only the surface -of the sea; they can penetrate only -two or three hundred feet,—below that -is the calm, unruffled deep. To be ready -for the great crises of life we must -learn serenity in our daily living. -Calmness is the crown of self-control.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When the worries and cares of the -day fret you, and begin to wear upon -you, and you chafe under the friction,—be -calm. Stop, rest for a moment, -and let calmness and peace assert themselves. -If you let these irritating outside -influences get the better of you, -you are confessing your inferiority to -them, by permitting them to dominate -you. Study the disturbing elements, -each by itself, bring all the will-power -of your nature to bear upon them, and -you will find that they will, one by one, -melt into nothingness, like vapors fading -before the sun. The glow of calmness -that will then pervade your mind, -the tingling sensation of an inflow of -new strength, may be to you the beginning -of the revelation of the supreme -calmness that is possible for you. -Then, in some great hour of your life, -when you stand face to face with some -awful trial, when the structure of your -ambition and life-work crumbles in a -moment, you will be brave. You can -then fold your arms calmly, look out -undismayed and undaunted upon the -ashes of your hope, upon the wreck of -what you have faithfully built, and with -brave heart and unfaltering voice you -may say: “So let it be,—I will build -again.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When the tongue of malice and -slander, the persecution of inferiority, -tempts you for just a moment to retaliate, -when for an instant you forget -yourself so far as to hunger for -revenge,—be calm. When the grey -heron is pursued by its enemy, the eagle, -it does not run to escape; it remains -calm, takes a dignified stand, and waits -quietly, facing the enemy unmoved. -With the terrific force with which the -eagle makes its attack, the boasted king -of birds is often impaled and run -through on the quiet, lance-like bill of -the heron. The means that man takes -to kill another’s character becomes -suicide of his own.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>No man in the world ever attempted -to wrong another without being injured -in return,—someway, somehow, sometime. -The only weapon of offence that -Nature seems to recognize is the -boomerang. Nature keeps her books -admirably; she puts down every item, -she closes all accounts finally, but she -does not always balance them at the end -of the month. To the man who is calm, -revenge is so far beneath him that he -cannot reach it,—even by stooping. -When injured, he does not retaliate; he -wraps around him the royal robes of -Calmness, and he goes quietly on his -way.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When the hand of Death touches the -one we hold dearest, paralyzes our -energy, and eclipses the sun of our life, -the calmness that has been accumulating -in long years becomes in a moment -our refuge, our reserve strength.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The most subtle of all temptations is -the <span class='it'>seeming</span> success of the wicked. It -requires moral courage to see, without -flinching, material prosperity coming -to men who are dishonest; to see politicians -rise into prominence, power and -wealth by trickery and corruption; to -see virtue in rags and vice in velvets; to -see ignorance at a premium, and knowledge -at a discount. To the man who is -really calm these puzzles of life do not -appeal. He is living his life as best he -can; he is not worrying about the problems -of justice, whose solution must be -left to Omniscience to solve.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When man has developed the spirit -of Calmness until it becomes so -absolutely part of him that his very -presence radiates it, he has made great -progress in life. Calmness cannot be -acquired of itself and by itself; it must -come as the culmination of a series of -virtues. What the world needs and -what individuals need is a higher standard -of living, a great realizing sense -of the privilege and dignity of life, a -higher and nobler conception of -individuality.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>With this great sense of calmness -permeating an individual, man becomes -able to retire more into himself, away -from the noise, the confusion and strife -of the world, which come to his ears -only as faint, far-off rumblings, or as -the tumult of the life of a city heard -only as a buzzing hum by the man in a -balloon.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who is calm does not selfishly -isolate himself from the world, -for he is intensely interested in all that -concerns the welfare of humanity. His -calmness is but a Holy of Holies into -which he can retire <span class='it'>from</span> the world to -get strength to live <span class='it'>in</span> the world. He -realizes that the full glory of individuality, -the crowning of his self-control -is,—the majesty of calmness.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='eleven'></a>XI<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>Hurry, <span class='it'>the</span> Scourge <span class='it'>of</span> America</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/T.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='T'/>he first sermon in the world -was preached at the Creation. -It was a Divine protest -against Hurry. It was -a Divine object lesson of perfect law, -perfect plan, perfect order, perfect -method. Six days of work carefully -planned, scheduled and completed were -followed by,—rest. Whether we accept -the story as literal or as figurative, as -the account of successive days or of -ages comprising millions of years, -matters little if we but learn the lesson.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Nature is very un-American. Nature -never hurries. Every phase of her -working shows plan, calmness, reliability, -and the absence of hurry. Hurry -always implies lack of definite method, -confusion, impatience of slow growth. -The Tower of Babel, the world’s first -sky-scraper, was a failure because of -hurry. The workers mistook their -arrogant ambition for inspiration. -They had too many builders,—and no -architect. They thought to make up -the lack of a head by a superfluity of -hands. This is a characteristic of -Hurry. It seeks ever to make energy -a substitute for a clearly defined plan,—the -result is ever as hopeless as trying -to transform a hobbyhorse into a real -steed by brisk riding.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Hurry is a counterfeit of haste. -Haste has an ideal, a distinct aim to be -realized by the quickest, direct methods. -Haste has a single compass upon which -it relies for direction and in harmony -with which its course is determined. -Hurry says: “I must move faster. I -will get three compasses; I will have -them different; I will be guided by all -of them. One of them will probably -be right.” Hurry never realizes that -slow, careful foundation work is the -quickest in the end.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Hurry has ruined more Americans -than has any other word in the vocabulary -of life. It is the scourge of -America; and is both a cause and a -result of our high-pressure civilization. -Hurry adroitly assumes so many masquerades -of disguise that its identity is -not always recognized.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Hurry always pays the highest price -for everything, and, usually the goods -are not delivered. In the race for -wealth men often sacrifice time, energy, -health, home, happiness and honor,—everything -that money cannot buy, the -very things that money can never bring -back. Hurry is a phantom of paradoxes. -Business men, in their desire to -provide for the future happiness of -their family, often sacrifice the present -happiness of wife and children on the -altar of Hurry. They forget that their -place in the home should be something -greater than being merely “the man -that pays the bills;” they expect consideration -and thoughtfulness that they -are not giving.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>We hear too much of a wife’s duties -to a husband and too little of the other -side of the question. “The wife,” they -tell us, “should meet her husband with -a smile and a kiss, should tactfully -watch his moods and be ever sweetness -and sunshine.” Why this continual -swinging of the censer of devotion to -the man of business? Why should a -woman have to look up with timid -glance at the face of her husband, to -“size up his mood?” Has not her day, -too, been one of care, and responsibility, -and watchfulness? Has not -mother-love been working over perplexing -problems and worries of home and -of the training of the children that -wifely love may make her seek to solve -in secret? Is man, then, the weaker sex -that he must be pampered and treated -as tenderly as a boil trying to keep from -contact with the world?</p> - -<p class='pindent'>In their hurry to attain some ambition, -to gratify the dream of a life, men -often throw honor, truth, and generosity -to the winds. Politicians dare -to stand by and see a city poisoned with -foul water until, they “see where they -come in” on a waterworks appropriation. -If it be necessary to poison an -army,—that, too, is but an incident in -the hurry for wealth.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>This is the Age of the Hothouse. -The element of natural growth is -pushed to one side and the hothouse -and the force-pump are substituted. -Nature looks on tolerantly as she says: -“So far you may go, but no farther, -my foolish children.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The educational system of to-day is -a monumental institution dedicated to -Hurry. The children are forced to go -through a series of studies that sweep -the circle of all human wisdom. They -are given everything that the ambitious -ignorance of the age can force into -their minds; they are taught everything -but the essentials,—how to use their -senses and how to think. Their minds -become congested by a great mass of -undigested facts, and still the cruel, -barbarous forcing goes on. You watch -it until it seems you cannot stand it a -moment longer, and you instinctively -put out your hand and say: “Stop! -This modern slaughter of the Innocents -must <span class='it'>not</span> go on!” Education -smiles suavely, waves her hand complacently -toward her thousands of -knowledge-prisons over the country, -and says: “Who are you that dares -speak a word against our sacred school -system?” Education is in a hurry. -Because she fails in fifteen years to do -what half the time should accomplish -by better methods, she should not be too -boastful. Incompetence is not always -a reason for pride. And they hurry the -children into a hundred text-books, then -into ill-health, then into the colleges, -then into a diploma, then into life,—with -a dazed mind, untrained and -unfitted for the real duties of living.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Hurry is the deathblow to calmness, -to dignity, to poise. The old-time -courtesy went out when the new-time -hurry came in. Hurry is the father of -dyspepsia. In the rush of our national -life, the bolting of food has become a -national vice. The words “Quick -Lunches” might properly be placed on -thousands of headstones in our cemeteries. -Man forgets that he is the only -animal that dines; the others merely -feed. Why does he abrogate his right -to dine and go to the end of the line -with the mere feeders? His self-respecting -stomach rebels, and expresses -its indignation by indigestion. -Then man has to go through life with -a little bottle of pepsin tablets in his -vest-pocket. He is but another victim -to this craze for speed. Hurry means -the breakdown of the nerves. It is -the royal road to nervous prostration.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Everything that is great in life is the -product of slow growth; the newer, and -greater, and higher, and nobler the -work, the slower is its growth, the surer -is its lasting success. Mushrooms attain -their full power in a night; oaks require -decades. A fad lives its life in a few -weeks; a philosophy lives through -generations and centuries. If you are -sure you are right, do not let the voice -of the world, or of friends, or of family -swerve you for a moment from your -purpose. Accept slow growth if it -must be slow, and know the results -<span class='it'>must</span> come, as you would accept the -long, lonely hours of the night,—with -absolute assurance that the heavy-leaded -moments <span class='it'>must</span> bring the -morning.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Let us as individuals banish the word -“Hurry” from our lives. Let us care -for nothing so much that we would pay -honor and self-respect as the price of -hurrying it. Let us cultivate calmness, -restfulness, poise, sweetness,—doing -our best, bearing all things as bravely -as we can; living our life undisturbed -by the prosperity of the wicked or the -malice of the envious. Let us not be -impatient, chafing at delay, fretting -over failure, wearying over results, and -weakening under opposition. Let us -ever turn our face toward the future -with confidence and trust, with the -calmness of a life in harmony with -itself, true to its ideals, and slowly and -constantly progressing toward their -realization.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Let us see that cowardly word Hurry -in all its most degenerating phases, let -us see that it ever kills truth, loyalty, -thoroughness; and let us determine -that, day by day, we will seek more and -more to substitute for it the calmness -and repose of a true life, nobly lived.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='twelve'></a>XII<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Power <span class='it'>of</span> Personal Influence</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/T.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='T'/>he only responsibility that a -man cannot evade in this life -is the one he thinks of least,—his -personal influence. -Man’s conscious influence, when he is -on dress-parade, when he is posing to -impress those around him,—is woefully -small. But his unconscious influence, -the silent, subtle radiation of his personality, -the effect of his words and -acts, the trifles he never considers,—is -tremendous. Every moment of -life he is changing to a degree the life -of the whole world. Every man has an -atmosphere which is affecting every -other. So silent and unconsciously is -this influence working, that man may -forget that it exists.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>All the forces of Nature,—heat, -light, electricity and gravitation,—are -silent and invisible. We never <span class='it'>see</span> them; -we only know that they exist by seeing -the effects they produce. In all Nature -the wonders of the “seen” are dwarfed -into insignificance when compared with -the majesty and glory of the “unseen.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The great sun itself does not supply -enough heat and light to sustain animal -and vegetable life on the earth. We are -dependent for nearly half of our light -and heat upon the stars, and the greater -part of this supply of life-giving -energy comes from <span class='it'>invisible</span> stars, millions -of miles from the earth. In a -thousand ways Nature constantly seeks -to lead men to a keener and deeper -realization of the power and wonder of -the invisible.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Into the hands of every individual is -given a marvellous power for good or -for evil,—the silent, unconscious, -unseen influence of his life. This is -simply the constant radiation of what -a man really <span class='it'>is</span>, not what he pretends to -be. Every man, by his mere living, is -radiating sympathy, or sorrow, or morbidness, -or cynicism, or happiness, or -hope, or any of a hundred other qualities. -Life is a state of constant radiation -and absorption; to exist is to -radiate; to exist is to be the recipient of -radiations.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There are men and women whose -presence seems to radiate sunshine, -cheer and optimism. You feel calmed -and rested and restored in a moment to -a new and stronger faith in humanity. -There are others who focus in an instant -all your latent distrust, morbidness and -rebellion against life. Without knowing -why, you chafe and fret in their -presence. You lose your bearings on -life and its problems. Your moral -compass is disturbed and unsatisfactory. -It is made untrue in an instant, -as the magnetic needle of a ship is -deflected when it passes near great -mountains of iron ore.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There are men who float down the -stream of life like icebergs,—cold, -reserved, unapproachable and self-contained. -In their presence you involuntarily -draw your wraps closer around -you, as you wonder who left the door -open. These refrigerated human -beings have a most depressing influence -on all those who fall under the spell of -their radiated chilliness. But there are -other natures, warm, helpful, genial, -who are like the Gulf Stream, following -their own course, flowing undaunted -and undismayed in the ocean -of colder waters. Their presence brings -warmth and life and the glow of sunshine, -the joyous, stimulating breath of -spring.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There are men who are like malarious -swamps,—poisonous, depressing -and weakening by their very presence. -They make heavy, oppressive and -gloomy the atmosphere of their own -homes; the sound of the children’s play -is stilled, the ripples of laughter are -frozen by their presence. They go -through life as if each day were a new -big funeral, and they were always chief -mourners. There are other men who -seem like the ocean; they are constantly -bracing, stimulating, giving new -draughts of tonic life and strength by -their very presence.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There are men who are insincere in -heart, and that insincerity is radiated -by their presence. They have a wondrous -interest in your welfare,—when -they need you. They put on a “property” -smile so suddenly, when it serves -their purpose, that it seems the smile -must be connected with some electric -button concealed in their clothes. Their -voice has a simulated cordiality that -long training may have made almost -natural. But they never play their part -absolutely true, the mask <span class='it'>will</span> slip down -sometimes; their cleverness cannot -teach their eyes the look of sterling -honesty; they may deceive some people, -but they cannot deceive all. There is -a subtle power of revelation which -makes us say: “Well, I cannot explain -how it is, but I know that man is not -honest.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Man cannot escape for one moment -from this radiation of his character, -this constantly weakening or strengthening -of others. He cannot evade the -responsibility by saying it is an unconscious -influence. He can <span class='it'>select</span> the -qualities that he will permit to be -radiated. He can cultivate sweetness, -calmness, trust, generosity, truth, justice, -loyalty, nobility,—make them -vitally active in his character,—and by -these qualities he will constantly affect -the world.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Discouragement often comes to -honest souls trying to live the best they -can, in the thought that they are doing -so little good in the world. Trifles -unnoted by us may be links in the chain -of some great purpose. In 1797, William -Godwin wrote The Inquirer, a -collection of revolutionary essays on -morals and politics. This book influenced -Thomas Malthus to write his -Essay on Population, published in -1798. Malthus’ book suggested to -Charles Darwin a point of view upon -which he devoted many years of his -life, resulting, in 1859, in the publication -of The Origin of Species,—the -most influential book of the nineteenth -century, a book that has revolutionized -all science. These were but three links -of influence extending over sixty -years.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>It might be possible to trace this -genealogy of influence back from -Godwin, through generation and generation, -to the word or act of some -shepherd in early Britain, watching his -flock upon the hills, living his quiet life, -and dying with the thought that he had -done nothing to help the world.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Men and women have duties to -others,—and duties to themselves. In -justice to ourselves we should refuse to -live in an atmosphere that keeps us -from living our best. If the fault be -in us, we should master it. If it be the -personal influence of others that, like -a noxious vapor, kills our best impulses, -we should remove from that influence,—if -we can <span class='it'>possibly</span> move without forsaking -duties. If it be wrong to move, -then we should take strong doses of -moral quinine to counteract the malaria -of influence. It is not what those -around us <span class='it'>do</span> for us that counts,—it is -what they <span class='it'>are</span> to us. We carry our -houseplants from one window to -another to give them the proper heat, -light, air and moisture. Should we -not be at least as careful of ourselves?</p> - -<p class='pindent'>To make our influence felt we must -live our faith, we must practice what -we believe. A magnet does not attract -iron, as iron. It must first convert the -iron into another magnet before it can -attract it. It is useless for a parent to -try to teach gentleness to her children -when she herself is cross and irritable. -The child who is told to be truthful and -who hears a parent lie cleverly to escape -some little social unpleasantness is not -going to cling very zealously to truth. -The parent’s words say “don’t lie,” the -influence of the parent’s life says “do -lie.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>No man can ever isolate himself to -evade this constant power of influence, -as no single corpuscle can rebel and -escape from the general course of the -blood. No individual is so insignificant -as to be without influence. The changes -in our varying moods are all recorded -in the delicate barometers of the lives -of others. We should ever let our -influence filter through human love and -sympathy. We should not be merely -an influence,—we should be an inspiration. -By our very presence we should -be a tower of strength to the hungering -human souls around us.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='thirt'></a>XIII<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Dignity <span class='it'>of</span> Self-Reliance</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/S.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='S'/>elf-confidence, without -self-reliance, is as useless -as a cooking recipe,—without -food. Self-confidence -sees the possibilities of the individual; -self-reliance realizes them. -Self-confidence sees the angel in the -unhewn block of marble; self-reliance -carves it out for himself.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who is self-reliant says -ever: “No one can realize my possibilities -for me, but me; no one can make -me good or evil but myself.” He works -out his own salvation,—financially, -socially, mentally, physically, and -morally. Life is an individual problem -that man must solve for himself. -Nature accepts no vicarious sacrifice, -no vicarious service. Nature never -recognizes a proxy vote. She has nothing -to do with middlemen,—she deals -only with the individual. Nature is -constantly seeking to show man that he -is his own best friend, or his own worst -enemy. Nature gives man the option -on which he will be to himself.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>All the athletic exercises in the world -are of no value to the individual unless -he compel those bars and dumb-bells to -yield to him, in strength and muscle, -the power for which he, himself, pays -in time and effort. He can never -develop his muscles by sending his valet -to a gymnasium.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The medicine-chests of the world are -powerless, in all the united efforts, to -help the individual until he reach out -and take for himself what is needed for -his individual weakness.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>All the religions of the world are but -speculations in morals, mere theories of -salvation, until the individual realize -that he must save himself by relying on -the law of truth, as he sees it, and living -his life in harmony with it, as fully as -he can. But religion is not a Pullman -car, with soft-cushioned seats, where -he has but to pay for his ticket,—and -someone else does all the rest. In -religion, as in all other great things, he -is ever thrown back on his self-reliance. -He should accept all helps, but,—he -must live his own life. He should not -feel that he is a mere passenger; he is -the engineer, and the train is his life. -We must rely on ourselves, live our own -lives, or we merely drift through existence,—losing -all that is best, all that is -greatest, all that is divine.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>All that others can do for us is to -give us opportunity. We must ever be -prepared for the opportunity when it -comes, and to go after it and find it -when it does not come, or that opportunity -is to us,—nothing life is but -a succession of opportunities. They -are for good or evil,—as we make -them.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Many of the alchemists of old felt -that they lacked but one element; if -they could obtain that one, they believed -they could transmute the baser metals -into pure gold. It is so in character. -There are individuals with rare mental -gifts, and delicate spiritual discernment -who fail utterly in life because -they lack the one element,—self-reliance. -This would unite all their energies, -and focus them into strength and -power.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who is not self-reliant is -weak, hesitating and doubting in all he -does. He fears to take a decisive step, -because he dreads failure, because he is -waiting for someone to advise him or -because he dare not act in accordance -with his own best judgment. In his -cowardice and his conceit he sees all his -non-success due to others. He is “not -appreciated,” “not recognized,” he is -“kept down.” He feels that in some -subtle way “society is conspiring -against him.” He grows almost vain -as he thinks that no one has had such -poverty, such sorrow, such affliction, -such failure as have come to him.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who is self-reliant seeks -ever to discover and conquer the weakness -within him that keeps him from -the attainment of what he holds dearest; -he seeks within himself the power to -battle against all outside influences. -He realizes that all the greatest men in -history, in every phase of human effort, -have been those who have had to fight -against the odds of sickness, suffering, -sorrow. To him, defeat is no more than -passing through a tunnel is to a traveller,—he -knows he must emerge again -into the sunlight.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The nation that is strongest is the -one that is most self-reliant, the one -that contains within its boundaries all -that its people need. If, with its ports -all blockaded it has not within itself the -necessities of life and the elements of -its continual progress then,—it is -weak, held by the enemy, and it is but -a question of time till it must surrender. -Its independence is in proportion to its -self-reliance, to its power to sustain -itself from within. What is true of -nations is true of individuals. The -history of nations is but the biography -of individuals magnified, intensified, -multiplied, and projected on the screen -of the past. History is the biography -of a nation; biography is the history of -an individual. So it must be that the -individual who is most strong in any -trial, sorrow or need is he who can live -from his inherent strength, who needs -no scaffolding of commonplace sympathy -to uphold him. He must ever be -self-reliant.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The wealth and prosperity of ancient -Rome, relying on her slaves to do the -real work of the nation, proved the -nation’s downfall. The constant dependence -on the captives of war to do -the thousand details of life for them, -killed self-reliance in the nation and -in the individual. Then, through -weakened self-reliance and the increased -opportunity for idle, luxurious -ease that came with it, Rome, a nation -of fighters, became,—a nation of men -more effeminate than women. As we -depend on others to do those things we -should do ourselves, our self-reliance -weakens and our powers and our control -of them becomes continuously less.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Man to be great must be self-reliant. -Though he may not be so in all things, -he must be self-reliant in the one in -which he would be great. This self-reliance -is not the self-sufficiency of -conceit. It is daring to stand alone. -Be an oak, not a vine. Be ready to give -support, but do not crave it; do not be -dependent on it. To develop your true -self-reliance, you must see from the -very beginning that life is a battle you -must fight for yourself,—you must be -your own soldier. You cannot buy a -substitute, you cannot win a reprieve, -you can never be placed on the retired -list. The retired list of life is,—death. -The world is busy with its own cares, -sorrows and joys, and pays little heed -to you. There is but one great password -to success,—self-reliance.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If you would learn to converse, put -yourself into positions where you <span class='it'>must</span> -speak. If you would conquer your -morbidness, mingle with the bright -people around you, no matter how difficult -it may be. If you desire the -power that someone else possesses, do -not envy his strength, and dissipate your -energy by weakly wishing his force -were yours. Emulate the process by -which it became his, depend on your -self-reliance, pay the price for it, and -equal power may be yours. The individual -must look upon himself as an -investment of untold possibilities if -rightly developed,—a mine whose -resources can never be known but by -going down into it and bringing out -what is hidden.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Man can develop his self-reliance by -seeking constantly to surpass himself. -We try too much to surpass others. If -we seek ever to surpass ourselves, we -are moving on a uniform line of progress, -that gives a harmonious unifying -to our growth in all its parts. -Daniel Morrell, at one time President -of the Cambria Rail Works, that employed -7,000 men and made a rail -famed throughout the world, was asked -the secret of the great success of the -works. “We have no secret,” he said, -“but this,—we always try to beat our -last batch of rails.” Competition is -good, but it has its danger side. There -is a tendency to sacrifice real worth to -mere appearance, to have seeming -rather than reality. But the true competition -is the competition of the individual -with himself,—his present seeking -to excel his past. This means real -growth from within. Self-reliance -develops it, and it develops self-reliance. -Let the individual feel thus as -to his own progress and possibilities, -and he can almost create his life as he -will. Let him never fall down in despair -at dangers and sorrows at a distance; -they may be harmless, like Bunyan’s -stone lions, when he nears them.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who is self-reliant does not -live in the shadow of someone else’s -greatness; he thinks for himself, depends -on himself, and acts for himself. -In throwing the individual thus back -upon himself it is not shutting his eyes -to the stimulus and light and new life -that come with the warm pressure of -the hand, the kindly word and sincere -expressions of true friendship. But -true friendship is rare; its great value is -in a crisis,—like a lifeboat. Many a -boasted friend has proved a leaking, -worthless “lifeboat” when the storm of -adversity might make him useful. In -these great crises of life, man is strong -only as he is strong from within, and -the more he depends on himself the -stronger will he become, and the more -able will he be to help others in the -hour of their need. His very life will -be a constant help and a strength to -others, as he becomes to them a living -lesson of the dignity of self-reliance.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='fourt'></a>XIV<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>Failure <span class='it'>as a</span> Success</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/I.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='I'/>t ofttimes requires heroic -courage to face fruitless effort, -to take up the broken -strands of a life-work, to -look bravely toward the future, and -proceed undaunted on our way. But -what, to our eyes, may seem hopeless -failure is often but the dawning of a -greater success. It may contain in its -débris the foundation material of a -mighty purpose, or the revelation of -new and higher possibilities.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Some years ago, it was proposed to -send logs from Canada to New York, -by a new method. The ingenious plan -of Mr. Joggins was to bind great logs -together by cables and iron girders and -to tow the cargo as a raft. When the -novel craft neared New York and success -seemed assured, a terrible storm -arose. In the fury of the tempest, the -iron bands snapped like icicles and the -angry water scattered the logs far and -wide. The chief of the Hydrographic -Department at Washington heard of -the failure of the experiment, and at -once sent word to shipmasters the world -over, urging them to watch carefully -for these logs which he described; and -to note the precise location of each in -latitude and longitude and the time the -observation was made. Hundreds of -captains, sailing over the waters of the -earth, noted the logs, in the Atlantic -Ocean, in the Mediterranean, in the -South Seas—for into all waters did -these venturesome ones travel. Hundreds -of reports were made, covering a -period of weeks and months. These observations -were then carefully collated, -systematized and tabulated, and discoveries -were made as to the course of -ocean currents that otherwise would -have been impossible. The loss of the -Joggins raft was not a real failure, for -it led to one of the great discoveries in -modern marine geography and navigation.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>In our superior knowledge we are -disposed to speak in a patronizing tone -of the follies of the alchemists of old. -But their failure to transmute the baser -metals into gold resulted in the birth of -chemistry. They did not succeed in -what they attempted, but they brought -into vogue the natural processes of sublimation, -filtration, distillation, and -crystallization; they invented the -alembic, the retort, the sand-bag, the -water-bath and other valuable instruments. -To them is due the discovery -of antimony, sulphuric ether and phosphorus, -the cupellation of gold and silver, -the determining of the properties -of saltpetre and its use in gunpowder, -and the discovery of the distillation of -essential oils. This was the success of -failure, a wondrous process of Nature -for the highest growth,—a mighty lesson -of comfort, strength, and encouragement -if man would only realize and -accept it.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Many of our failures sweep us to -greater heights of success than we ever -hoped for in our wildest dreams. Life -is a successive unfolding of success -from failure. In discovering America -Columbus failed absolutely. His ingenious -reasoning and experiment led -him to believe that by sailing westward -he would reach India. Every redman -in America carries in his name “Indian,” -the perpetuation of the memory -of the failure of Columbus. The -Genoese navigator did not reach India; -the cargo of “souvenirs” he took back -to Spain to show to Ferdinand and -Isabella as proofs of his success, really -attested his failure. But the discovery -of America was a greater success than -was any finding of a “back-door” to -India.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When David Livingstone had supplemented -his theological education by -a medical course, he was ready to enter -the missionary field. For over three -years he had studied tirelessly, with all -energies concentrated on one aim,—to -spread the gospel in China. The hour -came when he was ready to start out -with noble enthusiasm for his chosen -work, to consecrate himself and his life -to his unselfish ambition. Then word -came from China that the “opium -war” would make it folly to attempt to -enter the country. Disappointment -and failure did not long daunt him; he -offered himself as missionary to Africa,—and -he was accepted. His glorious -failure to reach China opened a whole -continent to light and truth. His -study proved an ideal preparation -for his labors as physician, explorer, -teacher and evangel in the wilds of -Africa.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Business reverses and the failure of -his partner threw upon the broad -shoulders and the still broader honor -and honesty of Sir Walter Scott a -burden of responsibility that forced -him to write. The failure spurred him -to almost superhuman effort. The -masterpieces of Scotch historic fiction -that have thrilled, entertained and uplifted -millions of his fellow-men are a -glorious monument on the field of a -seeming failure.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>When Millet, the painter of the -“Angelus” worked on his almost divine -canvas, in which the very air seems -pulsing with the regenerating essence -of spiritual reverence, he was painting -against time, he was antidoting sorrow, -he was racing against death. His -brush strokes, put on in the early morning -hours before going to his menial -duties as a railway porter, in the dusk -like that perpetuated on his canvas,—meant -strength, food and medicine for -the dying wife he adored. The art -failure that cast him into the depths of -poverty unified with marvellous intensity -all the finer elements of his nature. -This rare spiritual unity, this purging -of all the dross of triviality, as he passed -through the furnace of poverty, trial, -and sorrow, gave eloquence to his brush -and enabled him to paint as never before,—as -no prosperity would have -made possible.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Failure is often the turning-point, -the pivot of circumstance that swings -us to higher levels. It may not be -financial success, it may not be fame; it -may be new draughts of spiritual, moral -or mental inspiration that will change -us for all the later years of our life. -Life is not really what comes to us, but -what we get from it.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Whether man has had wealth or poverty, -failure or success, counts for little -when it is past. There is but one question -for him to answer, to face boldly -and honestly as an individual alone with -his conscience and his destiny:</p> - -<p class='pindent'>“How will I let that poverty or -wealth affect me? If that trial or deprivation -has left me better, truer, -nobler, then,—poverty has been riches, -failure has been a success. If wealth -has come to me and has made me vain, -arrogant, contemptuous, uncharitable, -cynical, closing from me all the tenderness -of life, all the channels of higher -development, of possible good to my -fellow-man, making me the mere custodian -of a money-bag, then,—wealth -has lied to me, it has been failure, not -success; it has not been riches, it has -been dark, treacherous poverty that -stole from me even Myself.” All -things become for us then what we take -from them.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Failure is one of God’s educators. -It is experience leading man to higher -things; it is the revelation of a way, a -path hitherto unknown to us. The -best men in the world, those who have -made the greatest real successes look -back with serene happiness on their -failures. The turning of the face of -Time shows all things in a wondrously -illuminated and satisfying perspective.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Many a man is thankful to-day that -some petty success for which he once -struggled, melted into thin air as his -hand sought to clutch it. Failure is -often the rock-bottom foundation of -real success. If man, in a few instances -of his life can say, “Those failures were -the best things in the world that could -have happened to me,” should he not -face new failures with undaunted courage -and trust that the miraculous ministry -of Nature may transform these -new stumbling-blocks into new stepping-stones?</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Our highest hopes are often destroyed -to prepare us for better things. -The failure of the caterpillar is the -birth of the butterfly; the passing of the -bud is the becoming of the rose; the -death or destruction of the seed is the -prelude to its resurrection as wheat. It -is at night, in the darkest hours, those -preceding dawn, that plants grow best, -that they most increase in size. May -this not be one of Nature’s gentle showings -to man of the times when he grows -best, of the darkness of failure that is -evolving into the sunlight of success. -Let us fear only the failure of not living -the right as we see it, leaving the -results to the guardianship of the -Infinite.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If we think of any supreme moment -of our lives, any great success, anyone -who is dear to us, and then consider how -we reached that moment, that success, -that friend, we will be surprised and -strengthened by the revelation. As we -trace each one back, step by step, -through the genealogy of circumstances, -we will see how logical has been -the course of our joy and success from -sorrow and failure, and that what gives -us most happiness to-day is inextricably -connected with what once caused us -sorrow. Many of the rivers of our -greatest prosperity and growth have -had their source and their trickling increase -into volume among the dark, -gloomy recesses of our failure.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There is no honest and true work, -carried along with constant and sincere -purpose that ever really fails. If it -sometimes seem to be wasted effort, it -will prove to us a new lesson of “how” -to walk; the secret of our failures will -prove to us the inspiration of possible -successes. Man living with the highest -aims, ever as best he can, in continuous -harmony with them, is a success, no -matter what statistics of failure a near-sighted -and half-blind world of critics -and commentators may lay at his door.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>High ideals, noble efforts will make -seeming failures but trifles, they need -not dishearten us; they should prove -sources of new strength. The rocky -way may prove safer than the slippery -path of smoothness. Birds cannot fly -best with the wind but against it; ships -do not progress in calm, when the sails -flap idly against the unstrained masts.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The alchemy of Nature, superior to -that of the Paracelsians, constantly -transmutes the baser metals of failure -into the later pure gold of higher success, -if the mind of the worker be kept -true, constant, and untiring in the service, -and he have that sublime courage -that defies fate to its worst while he does -his best.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='fift'></a>XV<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>Doing Our Best <span class='it'>at</span> All Times</span></h1></div> - -<p class='noindent'><img src='images/L.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='L'/>ife is a wondrously complex -problem for the individual, -until, some day, in a moment -of illumination, he awakens -to the great realization that he can make -it simple,—never quite simple, but always -simpler. There are a thousand -mysteries of right and wrong that have -baffled the wise men of the ages. There -are depths in the great fundamental -question of the human race that no -plummet of philosophy has ever -sounded. There are wild cries of honest -hunger for truth that seek to pierce -the silence beyond the grave, but to -them ever echo back,—only a repetition -of their unanswered cries.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>To us all, comes, at times, the great -note of questioning despair that darkens -our horizon and paralyzes our effort:</p> - -<p class='pindent'>“If there really be a God, if eternal -justice really rule the world,” we -say, “why should life be as it is? -Why do some men starve while others -feast; why does virtue often languish -in the shadow while vice triumphs in the -sunshine; why does failure so often dog -the footsteps of honest effort, while -the success that comes from trickery -and dishonor is greeted with the world’s -applause? How is it that the loving -father of one family is taken by death, -while the worthless incumbrance of -another is spared? Why is there so -much unnecessary pain, sorrowing and -suffering in the world—why, indeed, -should there be any?”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Neither philosophy nor religion can -give any final satisfactory answer that -is capable of logical demonstration, of -absolute proof. There is ever, even -after the best explanations, a residuum -of the unexplained. We must then -fall back in the eternal arms of faith, -and be wise enough to say, “I will not -be disconcerted by these problems of -life, I will not permit them to plunge -me into doubt, and to cloud my life with -vagueness and uncertainty. Man arrogates -much to himself when he demands -from the infinite the full solution -of all His mysteries. I will found my -life on the impregnable rock of a simple -fundamental truth: ‘This glorious creation -with its millions of wondrous -phenomena pulsing ever in harmony -with eternal law must have a Creator, -that Creator must be omniscient and -omnipotent. But that Creator Himself -cannot, in justice, demand of any -creature more than the best that that -individual can give.’ I will do each day, -in every moment, the best I can by the -light I have; I will ever seek more -light, more perfect illumination of -truth, and ever live as best I can in harmony -with the truth as I see it. If -failure come I will meet it bravely; if -my pathway then lie in the shadow of -trial, sorrow and suffering, I shall have -the restful peace and the calm strength -of one who has done his best, who can -look back upon the past with no pang -of regret, and who has heroic courage -in facing the results, whatever they be, -knowing that he could not make them -different.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Upon this life-plan, this foundation, -man may erect any superstructure of -religion or philosophy that he conscientiously -can erect; he should add to his -equipment for living every shred of -strength and inspiration, moral, mental, -or spiritual that is in his power to secure.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>This simple working faith is opposed -to no creed, is a substitute for -none; it is but a primary belief, a citadel, -a refuge where the individual can -retire for strength when the battle of -life grows hard.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>A mere theory of life, that remains -but a theory, is about as useful to a man -as a gilt-edged menu is to a starving -sailor on a raft in mid-ocean. It is -irritating but not stimulating. No rule -for higher living will help a man in the -slightest, until he reach out and appropriate -it for himself, until he make it -practical in his daily life, until that seed -of theory in his mind blossom into a -thousand flowers of thought and word -and act.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If a man honestly seek to live his best -at all times, that determination is visible -in every moment of his living, and no -trifle in his life can be too insignificant -to reflect his principle of living. The -sun illuminates and beautifies a fallen -leaf by the roadside as impartially as a -towering mountain peak in the Alps. -Every drop of water in the ocean is -an epitome of the chemistry of the -whole ocean; every drop is subject -to precisely the same laws as dominate -the united infinity of billions of -drops that make that miracle of Nature, -men call the Sea. No matter how -humble the calling of the individual, -how uninteresting and dull the round of -his duties, he should do his best. He -should dignify what he is doing by the -mind he puts into it, he should vitalize -what little he has of power or energy -or ability or opportunity, in order to -prepare himself to be equal to higher -privileges when they come. This will -never lead man to that weak content -that is satisfied with whatever falls to -his lot. It will rather fill his mind with -that divine discontent that cheerfully -accepts the best—merely as a temporary -substitute for something better.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who is seeking ever to do -his best is the man who is keen, active, -wide-awake, and aggressive. He is -ever watchful of himself in trifles; -his standard is not “What will the -world say?” but “Is it worthy of -me?”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Edwin Booth, one of the greatest -actors on the American stage, would -never permit himself to assume an ungraceful -attitude, even in his hours of -privacy. In this simple thing, he ever -lived his best. On the stage every move -was one of unconscious grace. Those -of his company who were conscious of -their motions were the awkward ones, -who were seeking in public to undo or to -conceal the carelessness of the gestures -and motions of their private life. The -man who is slipshod and thoughtless in -his daily speech, whose vocabulary is a -collection of anæmic commonplaces, -whose repetitions of phrases and extravagance -of interjections act but as -feeble disguises to his lack of ideas, will -never be brilliant on an occasion when -he longs to outshine the stars. Living -at one’s best is constant preparation for -instant use. It can never make one -over-precise, self-conscious, affected, or -priggish. Education, in its highest -sense, is <span class='it'>conscious</span> training of mind or -body to act <span class='it'>unconsciously</span>. It is conscious -formation of mental habits, not -mere acquisition of information.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>One of the many ways in which the -individual unwisely eclipses himself, is -in his worship of the fetich of luck. He -feels that all others are lucky, and that -whatever he attempts, fails. He does -not realize the untiring energy, the unremitting -concentration, the heroic courage, -the sublime patience that is the -secret of some men’s success. Their -“luck” was that they had prepared -themselves to be equal to their opportunity -when it came and were awake to -recognize it and receive it. His own -opportunity came and departed un-noted, -it could not waken him from -his dreams of some untold wealth that -would fall into his lap. So he grows -discouraged and envies those whom he -should emulate, and he bandages his -arms and chloroforms his energies, and -performs his duties in a perfunctory -way, or he passes through life, just ever -“sampling” lines of activity.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The honest, faithful struggler should -always realize that failure is but an episode -in a true man’s life—never the -whole story. It is never easy to meet, -and no philosophy can make it so, but -the steadfast courage to master conditions, -instead of complaining of them, -will help him on his way; it will ever -enable him to get the best out of what -he has. He never knows the long series -of vanquished failures that give solidity -to someone else’s success; he does -not realize the price that some rich man, -the innocent football of political malcontents -and demagogues, has heroically -paid for wealth and position.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The man who has a pessimist’s doubt -of all things; who demands a certified -guarantee of his future; who ever fears -his work will not be recognized or appreciated; -or that after all, it is really -not worth while, will never live his best. -He is dulling his capacity for real progress -by his hypnotic course of excuses -for inactivity, instead of a strong tonic -of reasons for action.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>One of the most weakening elements -in the individual make-up is the surrender -to the oncoming of years. Man’s -self-confidence dims and dies in the fear -of age. “This new thought,” he says -of some suggestion tending to higher -development, “is good; it is what we -need. I am glad to have it for my children; -I would have been happy to have -had some such help when I was at -school, but it is too late for me. I am a -man advanced in years.”</p> - -<p class='pindent'>This is but blind closing of life to -wondrous possibilities. The knell of -lost opportunity is never tolled in this -life. It is never too late to recognize -truth and to live by it. It requires only -greater effort, closer attention, deeper -consecration; but the impossible does -not exist for the man who is self-confident -and is willing to pay the price in -time and struggle for his success or development. -Later in life, the assessments -are heavier in progress, as in life -insurance, but that matters not to that -mighty self-confidence that <span class='it'>will</span> not -grow old while knowledge can keep it -young.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Socrates, when his hair whitened with -the snow of age, learned to play on instruments -of music. Cato, at fourscore, -began his study of Greek, and the same -age saw Plutarch beginning, with the -enthusiasm of a boy, his first lessons in -Latin. The Character of Man, Theophrastus’ -greatest work, was begun on -his ninetieth birthday. Chaucer’s Canterbury -Tales was the work of the -poet’s declining years. Ronsard, the -father of French poetry, whose sonnets -even translation cannot destroy, did not -develop his poetic faculty until nearly -fifty. Benjamin Franklin at this age -had just taken his really first steps of -importance in philosophic pursuits. Arnauld, -the theologian and sage, translated -Josephus in his eightieth year. -Winckelmann, one of the most famous -writers on classic antiquities, was the -son of a shoemaker, and lived in obscurity -and ignorance until the prime of -life. Hobbes, the English philosopher, -published his version of the Odyssey in -his eighty-seventh year, and his Iliad -one year later. Chevreul, the great -French scientist, whose untiring labors -in the realm of color have so enriched -the world, was busy, keen and active -when Death called him, at the age of -103.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>These men did not fear age; these -few names from the great muster-roll -of the famous ones who defied the -years, should be voices of hope and -heartening to every individual whose -courage and confidence is weak. The -path of truth, higher living, truer development -in every phase of life, is -never shut from the individual—until -he closes it himself. Let man feel this, -believe it and make this faith a real and -living factor in his life and there are -no limits to his progress. He has but -to live his best at all times, and rest -calm and untroubled no matter what -results come to his efforts. The constant -looking backward to what might -have been, instead of forward to what -may be, is a great weakener of self-confidence. -This worry for the old -past, this wasted energy, for that which -no power in the world can restore, ever -lessens the individual’s faith in himself, -weakens his efforts to develop himself -for the future to the perfection of his -possibilities.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Nature in her beautiful love and tenderness, -says to man, weakened and -worn and weary with the struggle, “Do -in the best way you can the trifle that -is under your hand at this moment; do -it in the best spirit of preparation for -the future your thought suggests; bring -all the light of knowledge from all the -past to aid you.” Do this and you have -done your best. The past is forever -closed to you. It is closed forever to -you.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>No worry, no struggle, no suffering, -no agony of despair can alter it. -It is as much beyond your power as if -it were a million years of eternity behind -you. Turn all that past, with its -sad hours, weakness and sin, its wasted -opportunities as light, in confidence and -hope, upon the future. Turn it all in -fuller truth and light so as to make -each trifle of this present a new past it -will be joy to look back to; each trifle -a grander, nobler, and more perfect -preparation for the future. The present -and the future you can make from -it, is yours; the past has gone back, with -all its messages, all its history, all its -records to the God who loaned you the -golden moments to use in obedience to -His law.</p> - -<div><h1><a id='sixt'></a>XVI<br/> <br/><span style='font-size:smaller'>The Royal Road <span class='it'>to</span> Happiness</span></h1></div> - -<div style="position:absolute;margin-left:-.5em; font-size:150%;">“</div><p class='noindent'><img src='images/D.jpg' style='float:left;' alt='D'/>uring my whole life I have -not had twenty-four hours of -happiness.” So said Prince -Bismarck, one of the greatest -statesmen of the nineteenth century. -Eighty-three years of wealth, fame, -honors, power, influence, prosperity and -triumph,—years when he held an empire -in his fingers,—but not one day of -happiness!</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Happiness is the greatest paradox in -Nature. It can grow in any soil, live -under any conditions. It defies environment. -It comes from within; it is -the revelation of the depths of the inner -life as light and heat proclaim the -sun from which they radiate. Happiness -consists not of having, but of -being; not of possessing, but of enjoying. -It is the warm glow of a heart at -peace with itself. A martyr at the stake -may have happiness that a king on his -throne might envy. Man is the creator -of his own happiness; it is the aroma -of a life lived in harmony with high -ideals. For what a man <span class='it'>has</span>, he may be -dependent on others; what he <span class='it'>is</span>, rests -with him alone. What he <span class='it'>ob</span>tains in -life is but acquisition; what he <span class='it'>at</span>tains, -is growth. Happiness is the soul’s joy -in the possession of the intangible. Absolute, -perfect, continuous happiness in -life, is impossible for the human. It -would mean the consummation of attainments, -the individual consciousness -of a perfectly fulfilled destiny. Happiness -is paradoxic because it may coexist with trial, sorrow and poverty. It -is the gladness of the heart rising superior -to all conditions.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Happiness has a number of under-studies,—gratification, -satisfaction, -content and pleasure,—clever imitators -that simulate its appearance rather -than emulate its method. Gratification -is a harmony between our desires and -our possessions. It is ever incomplete, -it is the thankful acceptance of part. -It is a mental pleasure in the quality of -what one receives, an unsatisfiedness as -to the quantity. It may be an element -in happiness, but, in itself,—it is not -happiness.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Satisfaction is perfect identity of our -desires and our possessions. It exists -only so long as this perfect union and -unity can be preserved. But every -realized ideal gives birth to new ideals, -every step in advance reveals large domains -of the unattained; every feeding -stimulates new appetites—then the desires -and possessions are no longer identical, -no longer equal; new cravings call -forth new activities, the equipoise is -destroyed, and dissatisfaction reënters. -Man might possess everything tangible -in the world and yet not be happy, for -happiness is the satisfying of the soul, -not of the mind or the body. Dissatisfaction, -in its highest sense, is the keynote -of all advance, the evidence of new -aspirations, the guarantee of the -progressive revelation of new possibilities.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Content is a greatly overrated virtue. -It is a kind of diluted despair; it is the -feeling with which we continue to accept -substitutes, without striving for -the realities. Content makes the trained -individual swallow vinegar and try to -smack his lips as if it were wine. Content -enables one to warm his hands at -the fire of a past joy that exists only in -memory. Content is a mental and -moral chloroform that deadens the activities -of the individual to rise to higher -planes of life and growth. Man should -never be contented with anything less -than the best efforts of his nature can -possibly secure for him. Content makes -the world more comfortable for the -individual, but it is the death-knell of -progress. Man should be content with -each step of progress merely as a station, -discontented with it as a destination; -contented with it as a step; -discontented with it as a finality. There -are times when a man should be content -with what he <span class='it'>has</span>, but never with what -he <span class='it'>is</span>.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>But content is not happiness; neither -is pleasure. Pleasure is temporary, happiness -is continuous; pleasure is a note, -happiness is a symphony; pleasure may -exist when conscience utters protests; -happiness, never. Pleasure may have -its dregs and its lees; but none can be -found in the cup of happiness.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Man is the only animal that can be -really happy. To the rest of the creation -belong only weak imitations of the -understudies. Happiness represents a -peaceful attunement of a life with a -standard of living. It can never be -made by the individual, by himself, for -himself. It is one of the incidental by-products -of an unselfish life. No man -can make his own happiness the one -object of his life and attain it, any more -than he can jump on the far end of his -shadow. If you would hit the bull’s-eye -of happiness on the target of life, aim -above it. Place other things higher -than your own happiness and it will -surely come to you. You can buy -pleasure, you can acquire content, you -can become satisfied,—but Nature never -put real happiness on the bargain-counter. -It is the undetachable accompaniment -of true living. It is calm -and peaceful; it never lives in an atmosphere -of worry or of hopeless -struggle.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>The basis of happiness is the love of -something outside self. Search every -instance of happiness in the world, and -you will find, when all the incidental -features are eliminated, there is always -the constant, unchangeable element of -love,—love of parent for child; love of -man and woman for each other; love of -humanity in some form, or a great life -work into which the individual throws -all his energies.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Happiness is the voice of optimism, -of faith, of simple, steadfast love. No -cynic or pessimist can be really happy. -A cynic is a man who is morally near-sighted,—and -brags about it. He sees -the evil in his own heart, and thinks he -sees the world. He lets a mote in his -eye eclipse the sun. An incurable cynic -is an individual who should long for -death,—for life cannot bring him happiness, -death might. The keynote of -Bismarck’s lack of happiness was his -profound distrust of human nature.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>There is a royal road to happiness; it -lies in Consecration, Concentration, -Conquest and Conscience.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Consecration is dedicating the individual -life to the service of others, to some -noble mission, to realizing some unselfish -ideal. Life is not something to be -lived <span class='it'>through</span>; it is something to be lived -<span class='it'>up</span> to. It is a privilege, not a penal -servitude of so many decades on earth. -Consecration places the object of life -above the mere acquisition of money, as -a finality. The man who is unselfish, -kind, loving, tender, helpful, ready to -lighten the burden of those around him, -to hearten the struggling ones, to forget -himself sometimes in remembering -others, is on the right road to happiness. -Consecration is ever active, bold -and aggressive, fearing naught but -possible disloyalty to high ideals.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Concentration makes the individual -life simpler and deeper. It cuts away -the shams and pretences of modern living -and limits life to its truest essentials. -Worry, fear, useless regret—all the -great wastes that sap mental, moral or -physical energy—must be sacrificed, or -the individual needlessly destroys half -the possibilities of living. A great -purpose in life, something that unifies -the strands and threads of each day’s -thinking, something that takes the sting -from the petty trials, sorrows, sufferings -and blunders of life, is a great aid -to Concentration. Soldiers in battle -may forget their wounds, or even be -unconscious of them, in the inspiration -of battling for what they believe is -right. Concentration dignifies an -humble life; it makes a great life,—sublime. -In morals it is a short-cut to -simplicity. It leads to right for right’s -sake, without thought of policy or of -reward. It brings calm and rest to the -individual,—a serenity that is but the -sunlight of happiness.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Conquest is the overcoming of an evil -habit, the rising superior to opposition -and attack, the spiritual exaltation that -comes from resisting the invasion of the -grovelling material side of life. Sometimes -when you are worn and weak with -the struggle; when it seems that justice -is a dream, that honesty and loyalty and -truth count for nothing, that the devil -is the only good paymaster; when hope -grows dim and flickers, then is the time -when you must tower in the great sublime -faith that Right must prevail, -then must you throttle these imps of -doubt and despair, you must master -yourself to master the world around -you. This is Conquest; this is what -counts. Even a log can float with the -current; it takes a man to fight sturdily -against an opposing tide that would -sweep his craft out of its course. When -the jealousies, the petty intrigues and -the meannesses and the misunderstandings -in life assail you, rise above them. -Be like a lighthouse that illumines and -beautifies the snarling, swashing waves -of the storm that threaten it, that seek -to undermine it and seek to wash over -it. This is Conquest. When the chance -to win fame, wealth, success or the -attainment of your heart’s desire, by -sacrifice of honor or principle, comes to -you and it does not affect you long -enough even to seem a temptation, you -have been the victor. That too is Conquest. -And Conquest is part of the -royal road to Happiness.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Conscience, as the mentor, the guide -and compass of every act, leads ever to -Happiness. When the individual can -stay alone with his conscience and get its -approval, without using force or -specious logic, then he begins to know -what real Happiness is. But the individual -must be careful that he is not -appealing to a conscience perverted or -deadened by the wrongdoing and consequent -deafness of its owner. The man -who is honestly seeking to live his life -in Consecration, Concentration and -Conquest, living from day to day as -best he can, by the light he has, may -rely implicitly on his Conscience. He -can shut his ears to “what the world -says” and find in the approval of his -own conscience the highest earthly tribune—the -voice of the Infinite communing -with the Individual.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Unhappiness is the hunger to get; -Happiness is the hunger to give. True -happiness must ever have the tinge of -sorrow outlived, the sense of pain -softened by the mellowing years, the -chastening of loss that in the wondrous -mystery of time transmutes our suffering -into love and sympathy with others.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>If the individual should set out for a -single day to give Happiness, to make -life happier, brighter and sweeter, not -for himself, but for others, he would -find a wondrous revelation of what -Happiness really is. The greatest of -the world’s heroes could not by any -series of acts of heroism do as much -real good as any individual living his -whole life in seeking, from day to day, -to make others happy.</p> - -<p class='pindent'>Each day there should be fresh -resolution, new strength, and renewed -enthusiasm. “Just for To-day” might -be the daily motto of thousands of -societies through the country, composed -of members bound together to make the -world better through constant simple -acts of kindness, constant deeds of -sweetness and love. And Happiness -would come to them, in its highest and -best form, not because they would seek -to <span class='it'>absorb</span> it, but—because they seek to -<span class='it'>radiate</span> it.</p> - -<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:2em;'><span class='it'>Printed in the United States of America</span></p> - -<hr class='pbk'/> - -<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> -<p class='line'><span style='font-size:larger'>William George Jordan’s</span></p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line' style='font-weight:bold;'><span class='ul'><span style='font-size:x-large'><span class='gesp'>TALKS</span></span></span></p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'><span class='it'>The Trusteeship of Life</span></p> -<p class='line'> 12mo, cloth, net, $1.25</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'><span class='it'>Little Problems of Married Life</span></p> -<p class='line'>Decorated in Two Colors</p> -<p class='line'> 12mo, cloth, net, $1.25</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'><span class='it'>The Crown of Individuality</span></p> -<p class='line'> Decorated in Two Colors</p> -<p class='line'> 12mo, cloth, net, $1.25</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'><span class='it'>Self-Control</span></p> -<p class='line'> Its Kingship and Majesty</p> -<p class='line'> Decorated in Two Colors</p> -<p class='line'> 12mo, cloth, net, $1.25</p> -</div> <!-- end rend --> - -<hr class='tbk102'/> - -<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> -<p class='line'><span class='ul'><span class='it'>COMRADE SERIES</span></span></p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'><span class='it'>The Power of Purpose</span></p> -<p class='line'>12mo, Decorated Boards, net 60c.</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'><span class='it'>The Kingship of Self-Control</span></p> -<p class='line'>12mo, Decorated Boards, net 60c.</p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'> </p> -<p class='line'><span class='it'>The Majesty of Calmness</span></p> -<p class='line'>12mo, Decorated Boards, net 60c.</p> -</div> <!-- end rend --> - -<hr class='tbk103'/> - -<p class='line' style='margin-top:2em;font-size:1.1em;'><span class='bold'>Transcriber’s Notes:</span></p> - -<p class='noindent'>Hyphenation, and spellings have been retained as in the original. Punctuation -has been corrected without note. 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