Latest / SECRETS OF SUCCESS & WEALTH: Hidden Laws of Money, Power & Success / ATKINSON - THE INFINITE MIND: Divine Power Behind Success, Wealth & Universal Consciousness - William Walker Atkinson

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ATKINSON - THE INFINITE MIND: Divine Power Behind Success, Wealth & Universal Consciousness - William Walker Atkinson · SECRETS OF SUCCESS & WEALTH: Hidden Laws of Money, Power & Success

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Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth, eighteen eighty nine. The problem of
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our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood
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may still bind together the rich and poor inharmonious relationship. The conditions of human
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life have not only been changed, but revolutionized within the past few hundred years.
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In former days, there was little difference between the dwelling, dress,
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food, and environment of the chief and those of his retainers. The Indians
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are today where civilized man then was. When visiting the Sioux, I was
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led to the wigwam of the chief. It was just like the others in
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external appearance, and even within the difference was trifling between it and those of
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the poorest of his braves. The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and
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the cottage of the labor with us today measures the change which has come with
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civilization. This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed
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as highly beneficial. It is well, nay essential, for the progress of
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the race, that the houses of some should be homes for all that is
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highest and best in literature and the arts, and for all the refinements of
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civilization, Rather than that none should be so much better this great irregularity than
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universal squalor. Without wealth, there can be no messiness. The good old
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times were not good old times. Neither master nor servant was as well situated
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then as today. A relapse to old conditions would be disastrous to both,
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not the least so to him who serves, and would sweep away civilization with
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it. But whether the change be for good or ill, it is upon
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us beyond our power to alter, and therefore to be accepted and made the
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best of. It is a waste of time to criticize the inevitable. It
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is easy to see how the change has come. One illustration will serve for
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almost every phase of the cause. In the manufacture of products, we have
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the whole story. It applies to all combinations of human industry, as stimulated
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and enlarged by the inventions of this scientific age. Formerly articles were manufactured at
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the domestic hearth or in small shops which formed part of the household. The
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master and his apprentices worked side by side, the latter living with the master
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and therefore subject to the same conditions. When these apprentices rose to be masters,
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there was little or no change in their mode of life, and they
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in turn educated in the same routine, succeeding apprentices. There was substantially social
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equality and even political equality for those engaged in industrial pursuits had then little or
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no political voice in the state. But the inevitable result of such a mode
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of manufacture was crude articles at high prices. Today the world obtains commodities of
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excellent quality at prices which even the generation preceding this would have deemed incredible.
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In the commercial worlds, similar causes have produced similar results, and the race
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is benefited thereby. The poor enjoy what the rich could not before afford.
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What were the luxuries have become the necessaries of life. The laborer has now
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more comforts than the landlord had a few generations ago. The farmer has more
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luxuries than the landlord had, and is more richly clad and better housed.
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The landlord has books and pictures, rarer and appointments more artistic than the king
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could then obtain. The price we pay for this salutary change is no doubt
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great. We assemble thousands of operatives in the factory, in the mine,
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and in accounting house, of whom the employer can no little or nothing,
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and to whom the employer is little better than a myth. All intercourse between
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them is at an end. Rigid casts are formed, and as usual,
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mutual ignorance breeds mutual distrust. Each cast is without sympathy for the other,
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and ready to credit at anything disparaging in regard to it. Under the law
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of competition, the employer of thousands is forced into the strictest economies, among
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which the rates paid to labor figure prominently, and often there is friction between
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the employer and the employed, between capital and labor, between rich and poor.
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Human society loses homogeneity. The price which society pays for the law of
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competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is also
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great. But the advantage of this law are also greater still, For it
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is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development, which brings improved
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conditions in its train. But whether the law be benign or not, we
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must say of it as we say of the change in the conditions of men
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to which we have referred. It is here we cannot evade it. No
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substitutes for it have been found. And while the law may be sometimes hard
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for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the
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survival of the fittest in every department. We accept and welcome therefore as conditions
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to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment, the concentration of
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business, industrial and commercial in the hands of a few, and the law
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of competition between these as being not only beneficial but essential for the future progress
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of the race. Having accepted these, it follows that there must be great
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scope for the exercise of special ability in the merchant and in the manufacturer,
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who has to conduct affairs upon a great scale. That this talent for organization
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and management is rare among men is proved by the fact that it invariably secures
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for its possessor enormous rewards. No matter where or under what laws or conditions,
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the experienced in affairs always rate the man whose services can be obtained as
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a partner as not only the first consideration, but such as to render the
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question of his capital scarcely worth considering. For such men soon create capital,
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while without the special talent required, capital soon takes wings. Such men become
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interested in firms or corporations using millions and estimating only simple interest to be made
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upon the capital invested. It is inevitable that their income must exceed their expenditures,
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and that they must accumulate wealth. Nor is there any middle ground which
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such men can occupy. Because the great manufacturing or commercial concern which does not
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earn at least interest upon its capital, soon becomes bankrupt. It must either
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go forward or fall behind. To stand still is impossible. It is a
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condition essential for its successful operation that it should be thus far profitable, and
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even that in addition to interest upon capital, it should make profit. It
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is a law as certain as any of the others named, that men possessed
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of this peculiar talent for affair under the free play of economic forces, must,
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of necessity soon be in receipt of more revenue than can be judiciously expended
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upon themselves. And this law is as beneficial for the race as the others.
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Objections to the foundations upon which society is based are not in order,
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because the condition of the race is better with these than it has been with
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any others which have been tried. Of the effect of any new substitutes proposed,
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we cannot be sure. The socialist or anarchist who seeks to overturn present
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conditions is to be regarded as attacking the foundation upon which civilization itself rests.
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For civilization took its start from the day that the capable, industrious workmen said
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to his incompetent and lazy fellow, if thou dost not sow, thou shalt
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not reap and thus end a primitive communism by separating the drones from the bees.
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One who studies this subject will soon be brought face to face with the
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conclusion that upon the sacredness of property, civilization itself depends the right of the
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laborer to his hundred dollars in the savings bank, and equally the legal right
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of the millionaire to his millions. To these who propose to substitute communism for
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this intense individualism, the answer therefore is, the race has tried, that
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all progress from that barbarous day to the present time has resulted from its displacement.
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Not evil, but good has come to the race from the cumulation of
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wealth by those who have the ability and energy that produce it. But even
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if we admit for a moment that it might be better for the race to
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discard its present foundation individualism, that it is a nobler ideal that man should
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labor not for himself alone, but in and for a brotherhood of his fellows,
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and share with them all in common, realizing Spedenborg's idea of heaven,
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where as he says, the angels derive their happiness not from laboring for self
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but for each other. Even admit all this, and a sufficient answer is
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this is not evolution but revolution. It necessitates the changing of human nature itself
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a work of e ends. Even if it were good to change it,
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which we cannot know, it is not practicable in our day or in our
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age, even if desirable. Theoretically it belongs to another and law succeeding sociological
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stratum. Our duty is with what is practicable now, with the next step
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possible in our day and generation. It is criminal to waste our energies in
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endeavoring to a pruit, when all we can profitably or possibly accomplish is to
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bend the universal tree of humanity a little in the direction most favorable to the
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production of good fruit. Under existing circumstances. We might as well urge the
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destruction of the highest existing type of man because he failed to reach our ideal
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as favor. The destruction of individualism, private property, the law of accumulation
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of wealth, and the law of competition. For these are the highest results
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of human experience, the soil in which society so far has produced the best
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fruit. Unequally or unjustly, perhaps as these laws sometimes operate, and imperfect
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as they appear to the idealist, they are nevertheless, like the highest type
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of man, the best and most valuable of all that humanity has yet accomplished.
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We start, then with a condition of affairs under which the best interests
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of the race are promoted, but which inevitably gives wealth to the few.
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Thus far accepting conditions as they exist, the situation can be surveyed and pronounced
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good. The question then arises, and if the foregoing be correct, it
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is the only question with which we have to deal. What is the proper
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mode of administering wealth? After the laws upon which civilization is found it have
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thrown it into the hands of the few. And it is of this great
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question that I believe I offer the true solution. It will be understood that
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fortunes are here spoken of, not moderate sums saved by many years of effort,
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the returns on which are required for the comfortable maintenance and education of families.
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This is not wealth, but only competence, which it should be the
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aim of all to acquire. There are but three modes in which surplus wealth
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can be disposed of. It can be left to the families of the decedents,
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or it can be bequeathed for public purposes. Or finally, it can
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be administered during their lives by its possessors. Under the first and second modes,
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most of the wealth of the world that has reached the few has hitherto
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been applied. Let us, in turn consider each of these modes. The
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first is the most injudicious. In monarchical countries, the estates and the greatest
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portion of the wealth are left to the first son, that the vanity of
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the parent may be gratified by the thought that his name and title are to
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descend to succeeding generations unimpaired. The condition of this class in Europe to day
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teaches the futility of such hopes or ambitions. The successors have become impoverished through
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their follies or from the fall in the value of land. Even in Great
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Britain, the strict law of entail has been found inadequate to maintain the status
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of an hereditary class, its soil is rapidly passing into the hands of the
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stranger. Under republican institutions, the division of property among the children is much
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fairer. But the question which forces itself upon thoughtful men in all lands is
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why should men leave great fortunes to their children? If this is done from
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affection, is it not misguided? Affection? Observation teaches that generally speaking,
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it is not well for the children that they should be so burdened. Neither
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is it well for the state beyond providing for the wife and daughters moderate sources
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of income and very moderate allowances. Indeed, if any for the sons,
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men may well hesitate. For it is no longer questionable that great sums bequeathed
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oftener work more for the injury than for the good of the recipients. Wise
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men will soon conclude that for the best interests of the members of their families
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and of the state, such bequests are an improper use of their means.
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It is not suggested that men who have failed to educate their sons to earn
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a livelihood shall cast them adrift in poverty. If any man has seen fit
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to rear his sons with a view to their living idle lives, or what
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is highly commendable as instilled in them the sentiment that they are in a position
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to labor for public ends without reference to pecuniary considerations. Then, of course
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the duty of the parent is to see that such are provided for in moderation.
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There are instances of millionaires sons unspoiled by wealth, who, being rich,
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still perform great services in the community. Such are the very salt of
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the earth, as valuable as unfortunately they are rare. Still, it is
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not the exception, but the rule that men must regard. And, looking
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at the usual result of enormous sums conferred upon legatees, the thoughtful man must
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shortly say, I would as soon leave to my son a curse as the
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almighty dollar, and admit to himself that it is not the welfare of the
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children, but family pride which inspires these enormous legacies. As to the second
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mode, that of leaving wealth at death for public uses, it may be
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said that this is only a means for the disposal of wealth, provided a
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man is content to wait until he is dead, before it becomes of much
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good in the world. Knowledge of the results of legacies bequeathed is not calculated
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to inspire the brightest hopes of much posthumous good being accomplished. The cases are
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not few in which the real object sought by the testator is not attained,
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nor are they few in which his real wishes are thwarted. In many cases
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the bequests are so used as to become only monuments of his folly. It
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is well to remember that it requires the exercise of not less ability than that
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which acquired the wealth, to use it so as to be really beneficial to
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the community. Besides this, it may fairly be said that no man is
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to be extolled for doing what he cannot help doing, nor is he to
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be thanked by the community to which he only leaves wealth at death. Men
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who leave vast sums in this way may fairly be thought men who would not
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have left it at all, had they been able to take it with them.
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The memories of such cannot be held in grateful remembrance, for there is
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no grace in their gifts. It is not to be wondered at that such
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bequests seems so generally to lack the blessing the growing disposition to tax more and
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more heavily large estates left at death is a cheering indication of the growth of
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a salutary change in public opinion. The state of Pennsylvania now takes, subject
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to some exceptions, one tenth of the property left by its citizens. The
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budget presented in the British Parliament the other day proposes to increase the death duties,
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and most significant of all, the new tax is to be a graduated
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one of all forms of taxation. This seems the wisest men who continue holding
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great sums all their lives the proper use of which four public ends would work
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good to the community, should be made to feel that the community, in
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the form of the state, cannot thus be deprived of its proper share.
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By taxing estates heavily at death, the state marks its condemnation of the selfish
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millionaire's unworthy life. It is desirable that nations should go much further in this
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direction. Indeed, it is difficult to set bounds to the share of a
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rich man's estate which should go at his death to the public. Through the
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agency of the state, and by all means, such taxes should be graduated,
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beginning at nothing upon moderate sums to dependence, and increasing rapidly as the
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amount swell, until of the millionaire's horde, as of Shylock's, at least
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the other half comes to the privy coffer of the state. This policy would
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work powerfully to induce the rich man to attend to the administration of wealth during
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his life, which is the end that society should always have in view,
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as being that by far most fruitful for the people. Nor need it be
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feared that this policy would sap the root of enterprise and render men less anxious
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to accumulate. For to the class whose ambition it is to leave great fortunes
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and be talked about after their death, it will attract even more attention,
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and indeed be a somewhat nobler ambition to have enormous sums paid over to the
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state from their fortunes. There remains, then, only one mode of using
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great fortun But in this we have the true antidote for the temporary unequal distribution
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of wealth, the reconciliation of the rich and the poor, a reign of
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harmony. Another ideal differing indeed from that of the communist in requiring only the
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further evolution of existing conditions, not the total overthrow of our civilization. It
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is founded upon the present most intense individualism, and the race is projected to
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put it in practice by degree whenever it pleases. Under its sway, we
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shall have an ideal state in which the surplus wealth of the few will become,
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in the best sense, the property of the many, because administered for
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the common good, and this wealth passing through the hands of the few,
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can be made a much more potent force for the elevation of our race than
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if it had been distributed in small sums to the people themselves. Even the
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poorest can be made to see this and to agree that great sums gathered by
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some of their fellow citizens, and spent for public purposes, from which the
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masses reap the principal benefit, are more valuable to them than if scattered among
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them through the course of many years in trifling amounts through the course of many
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years. If we consider what results flow from the Cooper Institute, for instance,
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to the best portion of the race in New York not possessed of means,
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and compare these with those which would have arisen for the good of the
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masses from an equal sum distributed by mister Cooper in his lifetime in the form
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of wages, which is the highest form of distribution, being for work done
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and not for charity, we can form some estimate of the possibilities for the
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improvement of the race which lie embedded in them present law of the accumulation of
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wealth. Much of this sum, if distributed in small quantities among the people,
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would have been wasted in the indulgence of appetite, some of it in
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excess. And it may be doubted whether even the part put to the best
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use, that of adding to the comforts of the home, would have yielded
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results for the race as a race at all comparable to those which are flowing
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and are to flow from the Cooper Institute from generation to generation. Let the
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advocate of violent or radical change ponder well this thought. We might even go
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so far as to take another instance, that of mister Tilden's bequest of five
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millions of dollars for a free library in the city of New York. But
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in referring to this one cannot help saying, involuntarily, how much better if
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mister Tilden had devoted the last years of his own life to the proper administration
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of this immense sum, in which case neither legal contest nor any other cause
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of delay could have interfered with his aims. But let us assume that mister
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Tilden's millions finally become the means of giving to this city a noble public library,
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where the treasures of the world contained in books will be open to all
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forever, without money and without price. Considering the good of that part of
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the race which congregates in and around Manhattan Island, would its permanent benefit have
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been better promoted had these millions been allowed to circulate in small sums through the
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hands of the masses. Even the most strenuous advocate of communism must entertain a
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doubt upon this subject. Most of those who think will probably enter attain no
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doubt. Whatever poor and restricted are our opportunities in this life, narrow our
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horizon, our best work most imperfect, But rich men should be thankful for
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one inestimable boon. They have it in their power during their lives to busy
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themselves in organizing benefactions from which the masses of their fellows will derive lasting advantage,
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and thus dignify their own lives. The highest life is probably to be
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reached not by such imitation of the life of Christ, as Count Tolstoy gives
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us, but while animated by Christ's spirit, by recognizing the changed conditions of
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this age, and adopting modes of expressing this spirit suitable to the changed conditions
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under which we live, still laboring for the good of our fellows, which
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was the essence of his life and teaching, but laboring in a different manner.
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This then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth,
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first to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or
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extravagance, to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him,
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and after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply
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as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound
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as a matter of duty, to administer in the manner which, in his
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judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community.
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The man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren,
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bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer,
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doing for them better than they would or could do. For themselves.
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We are met here with the difficulty of determining what are moderate sums to leave
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to members of the family, What is modest unostentatious living, What is the
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test of extravagance? There must be different standards for different conditions. The answer
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is that it is as impossible to name exact amounts or actions as it is
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to define good manners, good taste, or the rules of propriety. But
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nevertheless, these are verities well known, although indefinable. Public sentiment is quick
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to know and to feel what offends these. So in the case of wealth,
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the rule in regard to good taste in the dress of men or women
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applies here. Whatever makes one conspicuous offends the canon. If any family be
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chiefly known for display, for extravagance in home table, equipage, for enormous
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sums, ostentatiously spent in any form upon itself, if these be its chief
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distinctions, we have no difficulty in estimating its nature or culture. So likewise,
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in regard to the use or abuse of its surplus wealth, or to
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generous free hand cooperation in good public uses, or to unabated efforts to accumulate
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and hoard to the last, Whether they administer or bequeath, the verdict rests
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with the best and most enlightened public sentiment. The community will surely judge,
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and its judgments will not often be wrong. The best uses to which surplus
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wealth can be put have already been indicated. These who would administer wisely must
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indeed be wise. For one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our
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race's indiscriminate charity, it were better for mankind that the millions of the rich
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were thrown into the seat than so spent as to encourage the slothful, the
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drunken, the unworthy. Of every thousand dollars spent in so called charity,
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today, it is probable that nine hundred and fifty dollars is unwisely spent,
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so spent indeed, as to produce the very evils which it proposes to mitigate
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or cure. A well known writer of philosophic books admitted the other day that
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he had given a quarter of a dollar to a man who approached him as
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he was coming to visit the house of his friend. He knew nothing of
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the habits of this beggar, knew not the use that would be made of
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this money, although he had every reason to suspect that it would be spent
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improperly. This man professed to be a disciple of Herbert Spencer. Yet the
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quarter dollars given that night will probably work more injury than all the money which
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its thoughtless donor will ever be able to give in true charity will do good.
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He only gratified his own feelings, saved himself from annoyance, and this
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was probably one of the most selfish and very worst actions of his life,
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For in all respects he is most worthy. In bestowing charity, the main
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consideration should be to help those who will help themselves, to provide part of
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the means by which those who desire to improve may do so, to give
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those who desire to use the aids by which they may rise to assist,
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but rarely or never to do all. Neither the individual or the race is
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improved by almsgiving. Those worthy of assistance, except in rare cases, seldom
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require assistance. The really valuable men of the race never do, except in
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cases of accident or sudden change. Every one has, of course, cases
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of individuals brought to his own knowledge, where temporary assistance can do genuine good,
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and these he will not overlook. But the amount which can be wisely
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given by the individual for individuals is necessarily limited by his lack of knowledge of
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the circumstances connected with each. He is the only true reformer who is as
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careful and as anxious not to aid the unworthy as he is to aid the
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worthy, and perhaps even more so, for in arms giving more injury is
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probably done by rewarding vice than by relieving virtue. The rich man is thus
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almost restricted to following the examples of Peter Cooper, Enoch Pratt of Baltimore,
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Mister Pratt of Brooklyn, Senator Stanford, and others, who know that the
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best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the latters upon
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which the aspiring can rise, parks and means of recreation by which men are
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helped in body and mind, works of art certain to give pleasure and improve
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the public taste, and public institutions of various kinds which will improve them general
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condition of the people, in this manner, returning their surplus wealth to the
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mass of their fellows in the forms best calculated to do them lasting good.
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Thus is the problem of rich and poor to be solved, the laws of
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accumulation will be left free, the laws of distribution, free individualism will continue,
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But the millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor, intrusted for
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a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but
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administering it for the community far better than it could or would have done for
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itself. The best minds will thus have reached a stage in the development of
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the race which it is clearly seen that there is no mode of disposing of
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surplus wealth creditable to thoughtful and earnest men into whose hands it flows, save
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by using it year by year for the general good. This day already dawns
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but a little while, and although without incurring the pity of their fellows,
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men may die shares in great business enterprises from which their capital cannot be or
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has not been withdrawn, and is left chiefly at death for public uses.
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Yet the man who dies, leaving behind many millions of available wealth which was
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his to administer during life, will pass away unwept, ann and unsung,
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no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take with him.
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Of such as these, the public verdict will then be the man who
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dies thus rich dies disgraced. Such, in my opinion, is the true
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Gospel concerning wealth, obedience to which is destined some day to solve the problem
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of the rich and the poor, and to bring peace on earth among men, good will