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Eight Pillars of Prosperity - James Allen · Self-Help Library

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Speaker 1: Eight Pillars of Prosperity by James Allen. Preface. It is
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Speaker 1: popularly supposed that a greater prosperity for individuals or nations
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Speaker 1: can only come through political and social reconstruction. This cannot
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Speaker 1: be true apart from the practice of the moral virtues
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Speaker 1: in the individuals that comprise a nation. Better laws and
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Speaker 1: social conditions will always follow a higher realization of morality
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Speaker 1: among the individuals of a community. But no legal enactment
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Speaker 1: can give prosperity too. Nay, it cannot prevent the ruin
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Speaker 1: of a man or a nation that has become lax
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Speaker 1: and decadent in the pursuit and practice of virtue. The
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Speaker 1: moral virtues are the foundation and support of prosperity, as
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Speaker 1: they are the soul of greatness. They endure forever, and
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Speaker 1: all the works of a man which endure are built
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Speaker 1: upon them. Without them, there is neither strength, stability, nor
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Speaker 1: substantial reality, but only ephemeral dreams. To find moral principles
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Speaker 1: is to have found prosperity, greatness, truth, and is therefore
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Speaker 1: to be strong, valiant, joyful, and free. James Allen, end
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Speaker 1: of preface, Eight Pillars Prosperity rests upon a moral foundation
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Speaker 1: it is popularly supposed to rest upon an immoral foundation,
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Speaker 1: that is, upon trickery, sharp practice, deception, and greed. One
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Speaker 1: commonly hears even an otherwise intelligent man declare that no
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Speaker 1: man can be successful in business unless he is dishonest,
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Speaker 1: thus regarding business prosperity a good thing as the effect
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Speaker 1: of dishonesty a bad thing. Such a statement is superficial
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Speaker 1: and thoughtless, and reveals a total lack of knowledge of
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Speaker 1: moral causation, as well as a very limited grasp of
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Speaker 1: the facts of life. It is as though one should
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Speaker 1: so henbane and reap spinach, or erect a brick house
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Speaker 1: on a quagmire. Things impossible in the natural order of causation,
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Speaker 1: and therefore not to be attempted. The spiritual or moral
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Speaker 1: order of causation is not different in principle, but only
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Speaker 1: in nature. The same law obtains in things unseen in
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Speaker 1: thoughts and deeds as in things seen in natural phenomena.
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Speaker 1: Man sees the processes in natural objects and acts in
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Speaker 1: accordance with them, but not seeing the spiritual processes, he
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Speaker 1: imagines that they do not obtain, and so he does
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Speaker 1: not act in harmony with them. Yet these spiritual processes
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Speaker 1: are just as simple and just as sure as the
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Speaker 1: natural processes. They are indeed the same natural modes manifesting
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Speaker 1: in the world of mind. All the parables and a
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Speaker 1: large number of the sayings of the great teachers are
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Speaker 1: designed to illustrate this fact. The natural world is the
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Speaker 1: mental world made visible. The scene is the mirror of
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Speaker 1: the unseen. The upper half of a circle is in
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Speaker 1: no way different from the lower half, but its sphericity
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Speaker 1: is reversed. The material in the mental are not too
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Speaker 1: detached arcs in the universe. They are the two halves
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Speaker 1: of a complete circle. The natural and the spiritual are
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Speaker 1: not at eternal enmity, but in the true order of
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Speaker 1: the universe, are eternally at one. It is in the unnatural,
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Speaker 1: in the abuse of function and faculty, where division arises,
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Speaker 1: and where man is wrestled back with repeated sufferings, from
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Speaker 1: the perfect circle from which he has tried to depart.
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Speaker 1: Every process in matter is also a process in mind.
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Speaker 1: Every natural law has its spiritual counterpart. Take any natural object,
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Speaker 1: and you will find its fundamental processes in the mental
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Speaker 1: sphere if you rightly search. Consider, for instance, the germination
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Speaker 1: of a seed and its growth into a plant, with
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Speaker 1: the final development of a flower, and then back to
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Speaker 1: seed again. This also is a mental process. Thoughts are
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Speaker 1: seeds which, falling in the soil of the mind, germinate
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Speaker 1: and develop until they reach the completed stage, blossoming into
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Speaker 1: deeds good or bad, brilliant or stupid, according to their nature,
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Speaker 1: and ending as seeds of thought, to be again sown
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Speaker 1: in other minds. A teacher is a sower of seed,
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Speaker 1: a spiritual agriculturist, while he who teaches himself is the
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Speaker 1: wise farmer of his own mental plot. The growth of
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Speaker 1: a thought is as the growth of a plant. The
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Speaker 1: seed must be sown seasonably, and time is required for
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Speaker 1: its full development into the plant of knowledge and the
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Speaker 1: flower of wisdom. While writing this, I pause and turn
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Speaker 1: to look through my study window, and there, a hundred
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Speaker 1: yards away is a tall tree, in the top of
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Speaker 1: which some enterprising rook from a rookery close by has
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Speaker 1: for the first time built its nest. A strong northeast
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Speaker 1: wind is blowing, so that the top of the tree
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Speaker 1: is swayed violently to and fro by the onset of
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Speaker 1: the blast. Yet there is no danger to that frail
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Speaker 1: thing of sticks and hair and the mother bird, sitting
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Speaker 1: upon her eggs, has no fear of the storm. Why
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Speaker 1: is this It is because the bird has instinctively built
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Speaker 1: her nest in harmony, which principles which ensure the maximum's
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Speaker 1: strength and security. First, a fork is chosen as the
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Speaker 1: foundation for the nest, and not a space between two
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Speaker 1: separate branches, so that, however great may be the swaying
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Speaker 1: of the top tree, the position of the nest is
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Speaker 1: not altered nor its structure disturbed. Then, the nest is
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Speaker 1: built on a circular plan, so as to offer the
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Speaker 1: greatest resistance to any external pressure, as well as to
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Speaker 1: obtain more perfect compactness within in accordance with its purpose,
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Speaker 1: And so however the tempest may rage, the birds rest
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Speaker 1: in comfort and security. This is a very simple and
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Speaker 1: familiar object, and yet in the strict obedience of its
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Speaker 1: structure to mathematical law, it becomes to the wise a
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Speaker 1: parable of enlightenment, teaching them that only by ordering one's
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Speaker 1: deeds in accordance with fixed principles is perfect surety, perfect security,
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Speaker 1: and perfect piece obtained amid the uncertainty of events and
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Speaker 1: the turbulent tempests of life. A house or a temple
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Speaker 1: built by a man is a much more complicated structure
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Speaker 1: than a bird's nest. Yet it is erected in accordance
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Speaker 1: with those mathematical principles which are everywhere evidenced in nature.
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Speaker 1: And here is seen how man in material things obeys
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Speaker 1: universal principles. He never attempts to put up a building
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Speaker 1: in defiance of geometrical proportions, for he knows that such
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Speaker 1: a building would be unsafe, and that the first storm would,
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Speaker 1: in all probability level it to the ground, if indeed
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Speaker 1: it did not fall about his ears. During the process
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Speaker 1: of erection. Man in his material building scrupulously obeys the
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Speaker 1: fixed principles of circle, square, and angle, and, aided by rule, plumb,
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Speaker 1: line and comfort, he raises a structure which will resist
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Speaker 1: the fiercest storms and affords him a secure shelter and
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Speaker 1: safe protection. All this is very simple, The reader may say, yes,
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Speaker 1: it is simple, because it is true and perfect, so
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Speaker 1: true that it cannot admit the smallest compromise, and so
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Speaker 1: perfect that no man can improve upon it. Man, through
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Speaker 1: long experience, has learned these principles of the material world
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Speaker 1: and sees the wisdom of obeying them. And I have
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Speaker 1: thus referred to them in order to lead up to
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Speaker 1: a consideration of those fixed principles in the mental or
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Speaker 1: spiritual world, which are just as simple and just as
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Speaker 1: eternally true and perfect, yet are at present so little
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Speaker 1: understood by man as he daily violates them, because he
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Speaker 1: is ignorant of their nature and unconscious of the harm
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Speaker 1: he is all the time inflicting upon himself. In mind,
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Speaker 1: as matter, in thoughts, as things, indeeds, as natural processes,
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Speaker 1: there is a fixed foundation of law, which, if consciously
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Speaker 1: or ignorantly ignored, leads to disaster and defeat. It is indeed,
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Speaker 1: the ignorant violation of this law which is the cause
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Speaker 1: of the world's pain and sorrow. In matter, this law
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Speaker 1: is presented as mathematical. In mind it is perceived as moral.
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Speaker 1: But the mathematical and the moral are not separate and opposed.
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Speaker 1: They are but two aspects of a united whole. The
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Speaker 1: fixed principles of mathematics, to which all matter is subject,
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Speaker 1: are the body of which the spirit is ethical, while
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Speaker 1: the eternal principles of morality are mathematical truisms operating in
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Speaker 1: the universe of mind. It is as impossible to live
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Speaker 1: successfully upon for moral principles as to build successfully while
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Speaker 1: ignoring mathematical principles. Characters, like houses, only stand firmly when
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Speaker 1: built on a foundation of moral law, and they are
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Speaker 1: built up slowly and laboriously, deed by deed. For in
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Speaker 1: the building of character, the bricks are deeds. Business in
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Speaker 1: all human enterprises are not exempt from the external order,
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Speaker 1: but can only stand securely by the observance of fixed laws.
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Speaker 1: Prosperity to be stable and enduring, must rest on a
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Speaker 1: solid foundation of moral principle, and be supported by the
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Speaker 1: adamantine pillars of sterling character and moral worth. In the
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Speaker 1: attempt to run a business in defiance of moral principles,
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Speaker 1: disaster of one kind or another is inevitable. The permanently
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Speaker 1: prosperous men in any community are not its tricksters and deceivers,
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Speaker 1: but its reliable and upright men. The Quakers are acknowledged
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Speaker 1: to be the most upright men in the British community,
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Speaker 1: and although their numbers are small, they are the most prosperous.
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Speaker 1: The Jains in India are similar, both in numbers and
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Speaker 1: sterling worth, and they are the most prosperous people in India.
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Speaker 1: Men speak of building up a business and indeed a
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Speaker 1: business is as much a building as is a brick
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Speaker 1: house or a stone church, albeit the process of building
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Speaker 1: is a mental one. Prosperity, like a house, is a
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Speaker 1: roof over a man's head, affording him protection and comfort.
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Speaker 1: A roof presupposes a support, and a support necessitates a foundation.
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Speaker 1: The roof of prosperity, then is supported by the following
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Speaker 1: eight pillars, which are cemented in a foundation of moral
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Speaker 1: concis distancy one, energy, two economy three, integrity four system five,
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Speaker 1: sympathy six, sincerity, seven, impartiality eight self reliance. A business
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Speaker 1: built up on the faultless practice of all these principles
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Speaker 1: would be so firm and enduring as to be invincible.
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Speaker 1: Nothing could injure it, nothing could undermine its prosperity, nothing
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Speaker 1: could interrupt its success or bring it to the ground.
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Speaker 1: But that success would be assured with incessant increase, so
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Speaker 1: long as the principles were adhered to. On the other hand,
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Speaker 1: where these principles were all absent, there could be no
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Speaker 1: success of any kind. There could not even be a
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Speaker 1: business at all, for there would be nothing to produce
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Speaker 1: the adherents of one part with another. But there would
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Speaker 1: be that lack of life, that absence of fiber and consistency,
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Speaker 1: which animates and gives body in form to anything whatsoever.
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Speaker 1: Picture a man with all these principles absent from his
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Speaker 1: mind his daily life, And even if your knowledge of
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Speaker 1: these principles is but slight and imperfect, you could not
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Speaker 1: think of such a man as doing any successful work.
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Speaker 1: You could picture him as leading the confused life of
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Speaker 1: a shiftless tramp. But to imagine him as the head
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Speaker 1: of a business, as the center of an organization, or
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Speaker 1: as a responsible and controlling agent in any department of life,
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Speaker 1: this you could not do, because you realize its impossibility.
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Speaker 1: The fact that no one of moderate morality and intelligence
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Speaker 1: can think of such a man as commanding any success
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Speaker 1: should to all those who have not yet grasped the
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Speaker 1: import of these principles, and therefore declare that morality is
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Speaker 1: not a factor, but rather a hindrance in prosperity, be
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Speaker 1: a sound proof to them that their conclusion is totally wrong.
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Speaker 1: For if it was right, then the greater the lack
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Speaker 1: of these moral principles, the greater would be the success.
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Speaker 1: These eight principles. Then, in greater or lesser degree, are
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Speaker 1: the causative factors in all success of whatsoever kind, underneath
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Speaker 1: all prosperity, they are the strong supports, And, howsoever appearances
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Speaker 1: may be against such a conclusion, a measure of them
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Speaker 1: informs and sustains every effort which is crowned with that
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Speaker 1: excellence which men name success. It is true that comparatively
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Speaker 1: few successful men practice in their entirety and perfection all
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Speaker 1: these eight principles. But there are those who do, and
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Speaker 1: they are the leaders, teachers, and guides of men, the
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Speaker 1: supports of human society, and the strong pioneers of human evolution.
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Speaker 1: But while few achieve that moral perfection which ensures the
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Speaker 1: acme of success, all lesser successes come from the partial
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Speaker 1: observance of these principles, which are so powerful in the
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Speaker 1: production of good results that even perfection in any two
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Speaker 1: or three of them alone is sufficient to ensure an
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Speaker 1: ordinary degree of prosperity and maintain a measure of local influence,
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Speaker 1: at least for a time. While the same perfection in
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Speaker 1: two or three, with partial excellence in all or nearly
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Speaker 1: all the others, will render permanent that limited success and influence,
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Speaker 1: which will necessarily grow and extend in exact ratio with
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Speaker 1: a more intimate knowledge and practice of those principles which
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Speaker 1: at present are only partially incorporated in the character. The
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Speaker 1: boundary lines of a man's morality mark the limits of
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Speaker 1: his success. So true is this that to know a
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Speaker 1: man's moral status would be to know to mathematically gage
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Speaker 1: his ultimate success or failure. The temple of prosperity only
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Speaker 1: stands in so far as it is supported by its
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Speaker 1: moral pillars, and as they are weakened it becomes insecure.
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Speaker 1: In so far as they are withdrawn, it crumbles away
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Speaker 1: and totters to ruin. Ultimate failure and defeat are inevitable
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Speaker 1: where moral principles are ignored or defied, inevitable in the
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Speaker 1: nature of things as cause and effect. As a stone
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Speaker 1: thrown upward returns to the earth, so every deed, good
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Speaker 1: or bad, returns upon him that set it forth. Every
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Speaker 1: unmoral or immoral act frustrates the end at which it aims,
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Speaker 1: and every such succeeding act puts it further and further
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Speaker 1: away as an achieved realization. On the other hand, every
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Speaker 1: moral act is another solid brick in the temple of prosperity,
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Speaker 1: another round of strength and sculptured beauty in the pillars
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Speaker 1: which support it. Individuals, families, nations grow and prosper in
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Speaker 1: harmony with their growth in moral strength and knowledge. They
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Speaker 1: fall and fail in accordance with their moral decadence. Mentally,
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Speaker 1: as physically, only that which has form and solidity can
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Speaker 1: stand and endure. The unmorl is nothingness, and from it
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Speaker 1: nothing can be formed. It is the negation of substance.
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Speaker 1: The immoral is destruction. It is the negation of form.
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Speaker 1: It is a process of spiritual denudation. While it undermines
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Speaker 1: and disintegrates, it leaves a scattered material ready for the
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Speaker 1: wise builder to put it into form again. And the
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Speaker 1: wise builder is morality, the moral substance, form and building
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Speaker 1: power in one. Morality always builds up and preserves, for
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Speaker 1: that is its nature. Being the opposite of immorality, which
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Speaker 1: always breaks down and destroys, Morality is the master builder everywhere,
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Speaker 1: whether in individuals or nations. Morality is invincible, and he
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Speaker 1: who stands upon it to the end stands upon an
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Speaker 1: impregnable rock, so that his defeat is impossible, his triumph
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Speaker 1: is certain. He will be tried, and that to the uttermost,
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Speaker 1: for without fighting there can be no victory, and so
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Speaker 1: only can his moral powers be perfected. And it is
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Speaker 1: in the nature of fixed principles, as of everything finely
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Speaker 1: and perfectly wrought, to have their strength tested and proved.
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Speaker 1: The steel bars, which are to perform the strongest and
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Speaker 1: best uses in the world, must be subjected to a
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Speaker 1: severe strain by the iron master as a test of
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Speaker 1: their texture and efficiency before they are sent from his foundry.
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Speaker 1: The brickmaker throws aside the bricks which have given way
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Speaker 1: under the severe heat. So he who is to be
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Speaker 1: greatly and permanently successful, will pass through the strain of
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Speaker 1: adverse circumstances and the fire of temptation, with his moral
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Speaker 1: nature not merely undermined, but strengthened and beautified. He will
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Speaker 1: be like a bar of well wrought steel, fit for
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Speaker 1: the highest use, and the universe will see, as the
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Speaker 1: iron master his finely wrought steel, that the use does
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Speaker 1: not escape him. Immorality is assailable at every point, and
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Speaker 1: he who tries to stand upon it sinks into the
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Speaker 1: morass of desolution. Even while his efforts seem to stand,
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Speaker 1: they are crumbling away. The climax of failure is inevitable.
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Speaker 1: While the immoral man is chuckling over his ill gotten gains.
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Speaker 1: There is already a hole in his pocket through which
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Speaker 1: his gold is falling. While he who begins with morality
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Speaker 1: yet deserts it for gain in the hour of trial,
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Speaker 1: is like the brick which breaks on the first application
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Speaker 1: of heat. He is not fit for use, and the
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Speaker 1: universe casts him aside. Yet not finally, for he is
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Speaker 1: a being and not a brick, and he can live
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Speaker 1: and learn, can repent and be restored. Moral force is
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Speaker 1: the life of all successes, and the sustaining element in
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Speaker 1: all prosperity. But there are various kinds of successes, and
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Speaker 1: it is frequently necessary that a man should fail in
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Speaker 1: one direction that he may reach up to a greater
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Speaker 1: and more far reaching success. If, for instance, a literary, artistic,
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Speaker 1: or spiritual genius should begin by trying to make money,
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Speaker 1: it may be, and often is, to his advantage and
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Speaker 1: the better men of his genius, that he should fail
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Speaker 1: therein so that he may achieve that more sublime success
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Speaker 1: wherein lies his real power. Many a millionaire would doubtless
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Speaker 1: be willing to barter his millions for the literary success
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Speaker 1: of a Shakespeare or the spiritual success of a Buddha,
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Speaker 1: and would thereby consider that he had made a good bargain.
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Speaker 1: Exceptional spiritual success is rarely accompanied with riches, Yet financial
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Speaker 1: success cannot in any way compare with it in greatness
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Speaker 1: and grandeur. But I am not in this book dealing
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Speaker 1: with the success of the saint or spiritual genius, but
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Speaker 1: with that success which concerns the welfare, well being, and
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Speaker 1: happiness of the broadly average man and woman, in a word,
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Speaker 1: with the prosperity, which, while being more or less connected
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Speaker 1: with money, being present and temporal, yet is not confined
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Speaker 1: there too, but extends to and embraces all human activities,
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Speaker 1: and which particularly relates to that harmony of the individual
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Speaker 1: with his circumstances, which produces that satisfaction called happiness, and
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Speaker 1: that comfort known as prosperity. To the achievement of this
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Speaker 1: end so desirable to the mass of mankind. Let us
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Speaker 1: now see how the eight principles operate, how the roof
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Speaker 1: of prosperity is raised and made secure upon the pillars
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Speaker 1: by which it is supported. Energy. Energy is the working
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Speaker 1: power in all achievement. Inert coal converts it into fire,
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Speaker 1: and water transmutes it into steam. It vivifies and intensifies
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Speaker 1: the commonest talent until it approaches to genius, and when
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Speaker 1: it touches the mind of the dullerd it turns into
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Speaker 1: a living fire that which before was sleeping in inertia.
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Speaker 1: Energy is a moral virtue, its opposing vice being laziness.
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Speaker 1: As a virtue, it can be cultivated, and the lazy
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Speaker 1: man can become energetic by forcibly arousing himself to exertion.
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Speaker 1: Compared with the energetic man, the lazy man is half alive.
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Speaker 1: Even while the latter is talking about the difficulty of
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Speaker 1: doing a thing, the former is doing it. The active
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Speaker 1: man has done a considerable amount of work before the
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Speaker 1: lazy man has roused himself from sleep. While the lazy
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Speaker 1: man is waiting for an opportunity, the active man has
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Speaker 1: gone out and met and utilized half a dozen opportunities.
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Speaker 1: He does things while the other is rubbing his eyes.
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Speaker 1: Energy is one of the primary forces. Without it, nothing
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Speaker 1: can be accomplished. It is the basic element in all
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Speaker 1: forms of action. The entire universe is a manifestation of tireless,
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Speaker 1: though inscrutable energy. Energy is indeed life, and without it
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Speaker 1: there would be no universe, no life. When a man
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Speaker 1: has ceased to act, when the body lies inert and
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Speaker 1: all the functions have ceased to act, then we say
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Speaker 1: he is dead. And in so far as a man
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Speaker 1: fails to act, he is so far dead. Man physically
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Speaker 1: and mentally is framed for action and not for swinish ease.
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Speaker 1: Every muscle of the body, being a lover for exertion,
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Speaker 1: is a rebuke to the lazy man. Every bone and
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Speaker 1: nerve is fashion for resistance. Every function in faculty is
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Speaker 1: there for a legitimate use. All things have their end
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Speaker 1: in action, all things are perfected in use. This being so,
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Speaker 1: there is no prosperity for the lazy man, no happiness,
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Speaker 1: no refuge, and no rest. For him. There is not
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Speaker 1: even the ease which he covets, for he at last
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Speaker 1: becomes a homeless outcast, a troubled, harried, despised man. So
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Speaker 1: that the proverb wisely puts it, the lazy man does
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Speaker 1: the hardest work, in that, avoiding the systematic labor of skill,
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Speaker 1: he brings upon himself the hardest lot. Yet energy misapplied
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Speaker 1: is better than no energy at all. This is powerfully
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Speaker 1: put by Saint John in the words, I would have
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Speaker 1: you either hot or cold. If you are lukewarm, I
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Speaker 1: will spew you out of my mouth. The extremes of
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Speaker 1: heat and cold here symbolize the transforming agency of energy
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Speaker 1: in its good and bad aspects. The lukewarm stage is colorless, lifeless, useless.
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Speaker 1: It can scarcely be said to have either virtue or vice,
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Speaker 1: and is merely barren, empty, fruitless. The man who applies
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Speaker 1: his abounding energy to bad ends has at the very
26:24
Speaker 1: power with which he strives to acquire his selfish ends,
26:28
Speaker 1: will bring upon him such difficulties, pains, and sorrows that
26:33
Speaker 1: will compel him to learn by experience, and so at
26:36
Speaker 1: last to refashion his base of action. At the right moment,
26:41
Speaker 1: he will turn round and cut new and proper channels
26:44
Speaker 1: for the outflow of his power, and he will then
26:48
Speaker 1: be just as strong and good as he was formerly
26:51
Speaker 1: in evil. The truth is beautifully crystallized in the old proverb,
26:56
Speaker 1: the greater the sinner, the greater the saint. Energy is power,
27:02
Speaker 1: and without it there will be no accomplishment. There will
27:05
Speaker 1: not even be virtue, for virtue does not consist of
27:09
Speaker 1: not doing evil, but also primarily of doing good. There
27:15
Speaker 1: are those who try, yet fail through insufficient energy. Their
27:19
Speaker 1: efforts are too feeble to produce positive results. Such are
27:24
Speaker 1: not vicious, and because they never do any deliberate harm,
27:28
Speaker 1: are usually spoken of as good men that fail. But
27:32
Speaker 1: to lack the initiative to do harm is not to
27:35
Speaker 1: be good. It is only to be weak and powerless.
27:39
Speaker 1: He who is truly a good man, having the power
27:42
Speaker 1: to do evil, yet chooses to direct his energies in
27:46
Speaker 1: ways that are good without a considerable degree of energy.
27:50
Speaker 1: Therefore there will be no moral power. What good there
27:55
Speaker 1: is will be latent and sleeping. There will be no
27:59
Speaker 1: going forth of good, just as there can be no
28:02
Speaker 1: mechanical motion without the motive power. Energy is the informing
28:07
Speaker 1: power in all doing, in every department of life, whether
28:12
Speaker 1: it be along material or spiritual lines. The call to action,
28:17
Speaker 1: which comes not only from the soldier, but from the
28:20
Speaker 1: lips or pen of every teacher in every grade of thought,
28:24
Speaker 1: is a call to men to rouse their sleeping energy
28:27
Speaker 1: and to do vigorously the task in hand. Even the
28:31
Speaker 1: men of contemplation and meditation never cease to rouse their
28:35
Speaker 1: disciples to exertion in meditative thought. Energy is alike needed
28:41
Speaker 1: in all spheres of life, and not only are the
28:44
Speaker 1: rules of the soldier, the engineer, and the merchant rules
28:48
Speaker 1: of action, But nearly all precepts of the saviours, sages,
28:53
Speaker 1: and saints are precepts of doing. The advice of one
28:57
Speaker 1: of the great teachers to his disciples, keep wide Awake
29:02
Speaker 1: tersely expresses the necessity for tireless energy if one's purpose
29:07
Speaker 1: is to be accomplished, and is equally good advice to
29:11
Speaker 1: the salesman as to the saint. Eternal vigilance is the
29:15
Speaker 1: price of liberty, and liberty is the reaching of one's
29:19
Speaker 1: fixed end. It was the same teacher that said, if
29:23
Speaker 1: anything is to be done, let a man do it
29:26
Speaker 1: at once, let him attack it vigorously. The wisdom of
29:30
Speaker 1: this advice is seen when it is remembered that action
29:34
Speaker 1: is creative, that increase and development follow upon legitimate use.
29:40
Speaker 1: To get more energy, we must use to the full
29:44
Speaker 1: that which we already possess. Only to him that is
29:48
Speaker 1: given only to him that puts his hand vigorously to
29:52
Speaker 1: some task does power and freedom come. But energy to
29:57
Speaker 1: be productive must not only be erected towards good ends.
30:02
Speaker 1: It must be carefully controlled and conserved. The conservation of
30:07
Speaker 1: energy is a modern term expressive of that principle in nature.
30:12
Speaker 1: By which no energy is wasted or lost. And the
30:15
Speaker 1: man whose energies are to be fruitful in results must
30:19
Speaker 1: work intelligently upon this principle. Noise and hurry are so
30:24
Speaker 1: much energy running to waste, more haste, less speed. The
30:30
Speaker 1: maximum of noise usually accompanies the minimum of accomplishment. With
30:35
Speaker 1: much talk, there is little doing working steam is not heard.
30:40
Speaker 1: It is the escaping steam which makes a great noise.
30:44
Speaker 1: It is the concentrated powder which drives the bullet to
30:47
Speaker 1: its mark. In so far as a man intensifies his
30:52
Speaker 1: energies by conserving them and concentrating them upon the accomplishment
30:56
Speaker 1: of his purpose, just so far does he gain quiet,
31:00
Speaker 1: witness and silence in repose and calmness. It is a
31:05
Speaker 1: great delusion that noise means power. There is no great
31:09
Speaker 1: baby than the blustering boaster. He is but an infant mentally,
31:14
Speaker 1: and having no strength to do anything and no work
31:17
Speaker 1: to show, he tries to make up for it by
31:20
Speaker 1: loudly proclaiming what he has done or could do. Still,
31:24
Speaker 1: waters run deep, and the great universal forces are inaudible.
31:29
Speaker 1: Where calmness is there is the greatest power. Calmness is
31:34
Speaker 1: the sure indication of a strong, well trained, patiently disciplined mind.
31:40
Speaker 1: The calm man knows his business, be sure of it.
31:44
Speaker 1: His words are few, but they tell His schemes are
31:48
Speaker 1: well planned, and they work true. Like a well balanced machine.
31:54
Speaker 1: He sees a long way ahead and makes straight for
31:57
Speaker 1: his object. The enemy difficulty he converts into a friend
32:03
Speaker 1: and makes profitable use of him, for he has studied
32:07
Speaker 1: well how to agree with his adversary while he is
32:11
Speaker 1: in the way with him. Like a wise general, he
32:14
Speaker 1: has anticipated all emergencies. Indeed, he is the man who
32:19
Speaker 1: has prepared beforehand in his meditations, in the counsels of
32:25
Speaker 1: his judgment. He hath conferred with causes, and has caught
32:30
Speaker 1: the bent of all contingencies. He has never taken by surprise,
32:35
Speaker 1: is never in a hurry, is safe in the keeping
32:38
Speaker 1: of his own steadfastness, and is sure of his ground.
32:43
Speaker 1: You may think you have got him, only to find
32:46
Speaker 1: the next moment that you have tripped in your haste
32:50
Speaker 1: and that he has got you, or rather that you,
32:53
Speaker 1: wanting calmness, have hurried yourself into the dilemma which you
32:58
Speaker 1: have prepared for him. Your impulse cannot do battle with
33:02
Speaker 1: his deliberation, but is foiled by the first attack, Your
33:07
Speaker 1: uncurbed energy cannot turn aside the wisely directed steam of
33:12
Speaker 1: his concentrated power. He is armed at all points by
33:17
Speaker 1: a mental jiu jitsu acquired through self discipline. He meets
33:22
Speaker 1: opposition in such a way that it destroys itself Upbraid
33:26
Speaker 1: him with angry words, and the reproof hidden in his
33:30
Speaker 1: gentle reply searches to the very heart of your folly,
33:34
Speaker 1: and the fire of your anger sinks unto the ashes
33:37
Speaker 1: of remorse. Approach him with a vulgar familiarity, and his
33:42
Speaker 1: look at once will fill you with shame and brings
33:45
Speaker 1: you back to your senses. As he is prepared for
33:49
Speaker 1: all events, so is he ready for all men, though
33:53
Speaker 1: no men are ready for him. All weaknesses are betrayed
33:57
Speaker 1: in his presence, and he commands by an inherent force
34:01
Speaker 1: which calmness has rendered habitual and unconscious. Calmness, as distinguished
34:07
Speaker 1: from the dead placidity of languor, is the acme of
34:11
Speaker 1: concentrated energy. There is a focused mentality behind it. In
34:17
Speaker 1: agitation and excitement, the mentality is dispersed. It is irresponsible,
34:23
Speaker 1: and is without force or weight. The fussy, peevish, irritable
34:29
Speaker 1: man has no influence, he repels and not attracts. He
34:34
Speaker 1: wonders why his easygoing neighbor succeeds and is sought after,
34:38
Speaker 1: while he, who is always hurrying, worrying, and troubling the miscalls,
34:44
Speaker 1: is striving false and is avoided. His neighbor, being a
34:50
Speaker 1: calmer man, is not more easy going, but more deliberate,
34:55
Speaker 1: gets through more work, does it more skillfully, and is
34:59
Speaker 1: more self zest and manly. This is the reason of
35:03
Speaker 1: his success and influence. His energy is controlled and used,
35:08
Speaker 1: while the other man's energy is dispersed and abused. Energy, then,
35:14
Speaker 1: is the first pillar in the temple of prosperity, and
35:18
Speaker 1: without it, as the first and most essential equipment, there
35:22
Speaker 1: can be no prosperity. No energy means no capacity, there
35:28
Speaker 1: is no manly self respect and independence. Amongst the unemployed,
35:33
Speaker 1: there will be found many who are unemployable through sheer
35:36
Speaker 1: lack of this first essential work of energy. The man
35:40
Speaker 1: that stands many hours a day at a street corner
35:44
Speaker 1: with his hands in his pockets and a pipe in
35:46
Speaker 1: his mouth, waiting for someone to treat him to a
35:49
Speaker 1: glass of beer is little likely to find employment or
35:54
Speaker 1: to accept it should it come to him. Physically flabby
35:58
Speaker 1: and mentally inert He is every day becoming moresome, is
36:02
Speaker 1: making himself more unfit to work and therefore unfit to live.
36:08
Speaker 1: The energetic man may pass through temporary periods of unemployment
36:12
Speaker 1: and suffering, but it is impossible for him to become
36:15
Speaker 1: one of the permanently unemployed. He will either find work
36:19
Speaker 1: or make it, for inertia is painful to him, and
36:23
Speaker 1: work is a delight, And he who delights in work
36:27
Speaker 1: will not long remain unemployed. The lazy man does not
36:31
Speaker 1: wish to be employed. He is in his element while
36:34
Speaker 1: doing nothing. His chief study is how to avoid exertion,
36:39
Speaker 1: to vegetate, and semi torpor is his idea of happiness.
36:44
Speaker 1: He is unfit and unemployable. Even the extreme socialist, who
36:49
Speaker 1: places all unemployment at the door of the rich, would
36:52
Speaker 1: discharge a lazy, neglectful, and unprofitable servant, and so add
36:57
Speaker 1: one more to the arm of the unemployed. For laziness
37:01
Speaker 1: is one of the lowest vices, repulsive to all active,
37:05
Speaker 1: right minded men. But energy is a composite power. It
37:10
Speaker 1: does not stand alone. Involved in it our qualities, which
37:14
Speaker 1: go into the making of vigorous character and the production
37:17
Speaker 1: of prosperity. Mainly, these qualities are contained in the four
37:23
Speaker 1: following characteristics one promptitude, two vigilance, three industry four earnestness.
37:37
Speaker 1: The pillar of energy is therefore a concrete mass composed
37:41
Speaker 1: of these four tenacious elements. They are thorough, enduring, and
37:46
Speaker 1: are calculated to withstand the wildest weather of adversity. They
37:51
Speaker 1: are all make for life, power, capacity, and progress. Promptitude
37:58
Speaker 1: is valuable possession. It begets reliability. People who are alert, prompt,
38:04
Speaker 1: and punctual are relied upon. They can be trusted to
38:08
Speaker 1: do their duty, and to do it vigorously and well.
38:12
Speaker 1: Masters who are prompt are a tonic to their employees
38:16
Speaker 1: and a whip to those who are inclined to shirk.
38:19
Speaker 1: They are a means of wholesome discipline to those who
38:22
Speaker 1: would not otherwise discipline themselves. Thus, while aiding their own
38:27
Speaker 1: usefulness and success, they contribute to the usefulness and success
38:32
Speaker 1: of others. The perfunctory worker, who is ever procrastinating and
38:37
Speaker 1: is always behind time, becomes a nuisance, if not to himself,
38:43
Speaker 1: to others, and his services come to be regarded as
38:47
Speaker 1: of little economic value. Deliberation and dispatch handmaids of promptitude
38:53
Speaker 1: are valuable aids in the achievement of prosperity in ordinary
38:58
Speaker 1: business channels. Alacrity is a saving power, and promptness spells profit.
39:04
Speaker 1: It is doubtful whether a confirmed procrastinator ever succeeded in business.
39:10
Speaker 1: I have not yet met one such, though I have
39:13
Speaker 1: known many who have failed. Vigilance is the guard of
39:16
Speaker 1: all the faculties and powers of the mind. It is
39:20
Speaker 1: the detective that prevents the entrance of any violent and
39:23
Speaker 1: destructive element. It is the close companion and protector of
39:27
Speaker 1: all success, liberty, and wisdom. Without this watchful attitude of mind,
39:33
Speaker 1: a man is a fool, and there is no prosperity
39:37
Speaker 1: for a fool. The fool allows his mind to be
39:40
Speaker 1: ransacked and robbed of its gravity, serenity, and judgment by
39:46
Speaker 1: mean thoughts and violent passions as they come along to
39:49
Speaker 1: molest him. He is ever on his guard, but leaves
39:53
Speaker 1: open the doors of his mind to every nefarious intruder.
39:57
Speaker 1: He is so weak and unsteady as to be swept
40:00
Speaker 1: off his balance by every gust of impulse that overtakes him.
40:05
Speaker 1: He is an example to others of what they should
40:08
Speaker 1: not be. He is always a failure, for the fool
40:12
Speaker 1: is an offense to all men, and there is no
40:14
Speaker 1: society that can receive him with respect. As wisdom is
40:19
Speaker 1: the acme of strength, so folly is the other extreme
40:23
Speaker 1: of weakness. The lack of vigilance is shown in thoughtlessness
40:28
Speaker 1: and in general looseness in the common details of life.
40:32
Speaker 1: Thoughtlessness is built another name for folly. It lies at
40:36
Speaker 1: the root of a great deal of failure and misery.
40:40
Speaker 1: No one who aims that any kind of usefulness and prosperity,
40:44
Speaker 1: for usefulness in the body politic, and prosperity to one's
40:48
Speaker 1: self cannot be served, can afford to be asleep with
40:52
Speaker 1: regard to his actions and the effect of those actions
40:56
Speaker 1: on others, and reactively on himself. At the outset of
41:01
Speaker 1: his career, wake up to a sense of his personal responsibility.
41:06
Speaker 1: He must know that wherever he is in the home,
41:10
Speaker 1: the counting house, the pulpit, the store, in the schoolroom,
41:15
Speaker 1: or behind the counter, in company or alone, at work
41:19
Speaker 1: or at play, his conduct will materially affect his career,
41:23
Speaker 1: for good or bad. For there is a subtle influence
41:27
Speaker 1: in behavior which leaves its impression on every man, woman
41:31
Speaker 1: and child, that it touches, and that impress is the
41:35
Speaker 1: determining factor in the attitude of persons toward one another.
41:41
Speaker 1: It is for that reason that the cultivation of good
41:44
Speaker 1: manners plays such an important part in all coherent society.
41:49
Speaker 1: If you carry about with you a disturbing or disagreeable
41:53
Speaker 1: mental defect, it needs not to be named and known
41:57
Speaker 1: to work its poison upon your affairs. Its corrosive influence
42:02
Speaker 1: will eat into all of your efforts and disfigure your
42:06
Speaker 1: happiness and prosperity, as powerful acid eats into and disfigures
42:11
Speaker 1: the finest steel. On the other hand, if you carry
42:16
Speaker 1: about in assuring and harmonious mental excellence, those about you
42:21
Speaker 1: will understand it and be influenced by it. They will
42:25
Speaker 1: be drawn towards you in good will, often without knowing why,
42:29
Speaker 1: and that good quality will be the most powerful sport
42:32
Speaker 1: in all your affairs, bringing you friends and opportunities, and
42:36
Speaker 1: greatly aiding in the success of all your enterprises. It
42:41
Speaker 1: will even right your minor incapacities, covering a multitude of faults.
42:46
Speaker 1: Thus we receive at the hands of the world according
42:49
Speaker 1: to the measure of our giving for bad, bad for good, good,
42:55
Speaker 1: for defective conduct, indifferent influence and success for superior conduct,
43:03
Speaker 1: lasting power, and consummate achievement. We act in the world responds.
43:10
Speaker 1: When the foolish man fails, he blames others and sees
43:14
Speaker 1: no error in himself. But the wise man watches and
43:18
Speaker 1: corrects himself, and so is assured of success. The man
43:22
Speaker 1: whose mind is vigilant and alert has thereby a valuable
43:26
Speaker 1: equipment in the achievement of his aims. And if he
43:30
Speaker 1: be fully alive and wide awake on all occasions, to
43:34
Speaker 1: all opportunities and against all marring defects of character, what event,
43:41
Speaker 1: what circumstance, what enemy shall overtake him and find him unprepared?
43:46
Speaker 1: What shall prevent him from achieving the legitimate end at
43:50
Speaker 1: which he aims. Industry brings cheerfulness and plenty. Vigorously industrious
43:57
Speaker 1: people are the happiest members of the community. They are
44:01
Speaker 1: not always the richest, if by riches is meant a
44:04
Speaker 1: superfluity of money, but they are always the most light
44:08
Speaker 1: hearted and joyful, and the most satisfied with what they
44:11
Speaker 1: do have, and therefore are richer if by richer we
44:16
Speaker 1: mean more abundantly blessed. Active people have no time for
44:20
Speaker 1: moping and brooding or for dwelling selfishly upon their ailments
44:24
Speaker 1: and troubles. Things most used are kept the brightest, and
44:29
Speaker 1: people most employed best retain their brightness and buoyancy of spirit.
44:34
Speaker 1: Things unused tarnish quickest, and the time killer is attacked
44:39
Speaker 1: with anwi and morbid fancies. To talk of having to
44:43
Speaker 1: kill time is almost like a confession of imbecility, for who,
44:49
Speaker 1: in the short life at his disposal, and in a
44:52
Speaker 1: world so flooded with resources of knowledge, with sound heads
44:56
Speaker 1: and good hearts, can fill up every moment of every
44:59
Speaker 1: day usefully and happily. And if they refer to time
45:03
Speaker 1: at all, it is to the effect that it is
45:06
Speaker 1: all too short to enable them to do what they
45:09
Speaker 1: would like to do. Industry too promoted health and well being.
45:15
Speaker 1: The active man goes to bed tired every night. His
45:19
Speaker 1: rest is sound and sweet, and he wakes up early
45:22
Speaker 1: in the morning, fresh and strong for another day's delightful toil.
45:27
Speaker 1: His appetite and digestion are good. He has an excellent
45:31
Speaker 1: sauce and recreation, and a good tonic in toil. What
45:36
Speaker 1: companionship can such a man have with moping and melancholy,
45:41
Speaker 1: such morbid spirits hang round those who do little and
45:44
Speaker 1: dine excessively. People who make themselves useful to the community
45:50
Speaker 1: receive back from the community their full share of health, happiness,
45:54
Speaker 1: and prosperity. They brighten the daily task and keep the
45:59
Speaker 1: world moving. They are the gold of the nation and
46:02
Speaker 1: the salt of the earth. Earnestness, said a great teacher,
46:07
Speaker 1: is the path of immortality. They who are in earnest
46:11
Speaker 1: do not die. They who are not in earnest are
46:14
Speaker 1: as if dead already. Earnestness is the dedication of the
46:19
Speaker 1: entire mind to its task. We live only in what
46:23
Speaker 1: we do. Earnest people are dissatisfied with anything short of
46:27
Speaker 1: the highest excellence in whatever they do, and they always
46:31
Speaker 1: reach that excellence. There are so many that are careless
46:36
Speaker 1: and half hearted, so satisfied with a poor performance, that
46:41
Speaker 1: the earnest one shine apart, as it were, in their excellence.
46:45
Speaker 1: There are always plenty of vacancies in the ranks of
46:48
Speaker 1: usefulness and service for earnest people. There never was, and
46:53
Speaker 1: never will be a deeply earnest man or woman who
46:57
Speaker 1: did not feel successfully some suitable sphere. Such people are scrupulous, conscientious,
47:04
Speaker 1: and painstaking, and cannot rest in ease until the very
47:08
Speaker 1: best is done, and the whole world is always on
47:11
Speaker 1: the lookout to reward the best. It stands, ready to
47:15
Speaker 1: pay the full price, whether in fame, money, friends, influence, happiness, scope,
47:23
Speaker 1: or life, for that which is of surpassing excellence, whether
47:27
Speaker 1: it be in things material, intellectual, or spiritual. Whatever you are,
47:33
Speaker 1: whether shopkeeper or saintly teacher, you can safely give the
47:38
Speaker 1: very best to the world without any doubt or misgiving.
47:42
Speaker 1: If the indelible impress of your earnestness be on your
47:45
Speaker 1: goods in the one case, or on your words in
47:48
Speaker 1: the other, your business will flourish, or your precepts will live.
47:54
Speaker 1: Earnest people make rapid progress, both in their work and
47:58
Speaker 1: their character. It is thus that they live and do
48:02
Speaker 1: not die. For stagnation only is death, and where there
48:06
Speaker 1: is incessant progress and ever ascending excellence, stagnation and health
48:12
Speaker 1: are swallowed up in activity in life. Thus is the
48:15
Speaker 1: making and masonry of the first pillar explained. He who
48:20
Speaker 1: builds it well and sets it firm and straight, will
48:24
Speaker 1: have a powerful and enduring support in the business of
48:28
Speaker 1: his life. Economy. It is said of nature that she
48:33
Speaker 1: knows no vacuum. She also knows no waste. In the
48:37
Speaker 1: divine economy, the nature of everything is conserved and turned
48:41
Speaker 1: to good account. Even excreta are chemically transmitted and utilized
48:47
Speaker 1: in the building up of new forms. Nature destroys every foulness,
48:53
Speaker 1: not by annihilation, but by transmutation, by sweetening and purifying it,
48:59
Speaker 1: and make ca he it served the ends of things beautiful, useful,
49:03
Speaker 1: and good. That economy, which in nature is a universal principle,
49:09
Speaker 1: is in man a moral principle, and it is that
49:12
Speaker 1: quality by which he preserves his energies and sustains his
49:16
Speaker 1: place as a working unit in the scheme of things.
49:20
Speaker 1: Financial economy is merely a fragment of this principle, or rather,
49:25
Speaker 1: it is a material symbol of that economy which is
49:28
Speaker 1: purely mental, and its transmutation spiritual. The financial economist exchanges
49:36
Speaker 1: coppers for silver, silver for gold, gold for notes, and
49:41
Speaker 1: the notes he converts into the figures of a bank account.
49:45
Speaker 1: By these conversions of money into more readily transmissible forms,
49:49
Speaker 1: he is the gainer in the financial management of his affairs.
49:54
Speaker 1: The spiritual economist transmutes passions into intelligence, intelligence into principles,
50:01
Speaker 1: principles into wisdom and wisdom is manifested in actions which
50:07
Speaker 1: are few but powerful in effect. By all these transmutations,
50:12
Speaker 1: he is the gainer in character and in the management
50:15
Speaker 1: of his life. True economy is the middle way in
50:19
Speaker 1: all things, whether material or mental, between waste and undue retention.
50:25
Speaker 1: That which is wasted, whether money or mental energy, is
50:29
Speaker 1: rendered powerless. That which is selfishly retained and hoarded up,
50:34
Speaker 1: is equally powerless. To secure power, whether of capital or mentality,
50:40
Speaker 1: there must be concentration, But concentration must be followed by
50:44
Speaker 1: legitimate use. The gathering up of money or energy is
50:48
Speaker 1: only a means. The end is use, and it is
50:52
Speaker 1: use only that produces power. In all round. Economy consists
50:57
Speaker 1: in finding the middle way in the following seven thingss money, food, clothing, recreation, rest, time,
51:08
Speaker 1: and energy. Money is the symbol of exchange and represents
51:13
Speaker 1: purchasing power. He who is anxious to acquire financial wealth,
51:18
Speaker 1: as well as he who wishes to avoid dead, must
51:21
Speaker 1: study how to approportion his expenditure in accordance with his income,
51:26
Speaker 1: so as to leave a margin of ever increasing working capital,
51:30
Speaker 1: or to have a little store ready in hand for
51:33
Speaker 1: any emergency. Money spent in thoughtless expenditure in worthless pleasures
51:39
Speaker 1: or harmful luxuries. Is money wasted in power destroyed. For
51:43
Speaker 1: although a limited and subordinate power, the means and capacity
51:47
Speaker 1: for legitimate and virtuous purchase is nevertheless a power, and
51:52
Speaker 1: one that enters largely into the details of our everyday life.
51:56
Speaker 1: The spendthrift can never become rich, but if he begins
52:00
Speaker 1: with riches, must soon become poor. The miser, with all
52:05
Speaker 1: his stored away gold, cannot be said to be rich,
52:09
Speaker 1: for he is in want, and his gold lying idle,
52:13
Speaker 1: is deprived of its power of purchase. The thrifty and
52:17
Speaker 1: prudent are on the way to riches, for while they
52:20
Speaker 1: spend wisely, they save carefully and gradually enlarge their spheres
52:24
Speaker 1: as their growing means allow. The poor man who is
52:28
Speaker 1: to become rich must begin at the bottom, and must
52:31
Speaker 1: not wish nor try to appear affluent by attempting something
52:35
Speaker 1: far beyond his means. There is always plenty of room
52:39
Speaker 1: and scope at the bottom, and it is a safe
52:41
Speaker 1: place from which to begin, as there is nothing below
52:45
Speaker 1: and everything above. Many a young business man comes at
52:49
Speaker 1: once to grief by swagger and display, which he foolishly
52:53
Speaker 1: imagines are necessary to success, but which deceiving no one
52:58
Speaker 1: but himself. Lead quickly to ruin. A modest and true
53:02
Speaker 1: beginning in any sphere will better ensure success than an
53:07
Speaker 1: exaggerated advertisement of one's standing in importance. The smaller the capital,
53:13
Speaker 1: the smaller should be the sphere of operations. Capital and
53:17
Speaker 1: scope are hand in glove, and they should fit. Concentrate
53:21
Speaker 1: your capital within the circle of its working power, and
53:24
Speaker 1: however circumscribe that circle may be, it will continue to
53:29
Speaker 1: widen and extend as the gathering momentum of power presses
53:33
Speaker 1: for expression. Above all, take care always to avoid the
53:37
Speaker 1: two extremes of parsimony and prodigality. Food represents life, vitality,
53:44
Speaker 1: and both physical and mental strength. There is a middle
53:48
Speaker 1: way in eating and drinking, As in all else. The
53:51
Speaker 1: man who is to achieve prosperity must be well nourished,
53:55
Speaker 1: but not overfed. The man that starves his body, whether
54:00
Speaker 1: through miser winness or asceticism, both forms of false economy,
54:05
Speaker 1: diminishes his mental energy and renders his body too enfeeble
54:10
Speaker 1: to be the instrument for any strong achievement. Such a
54:13
Speaker 1: man court sickly mindedness, a condition conducive only to failure.
54:19
Speaker 1: The glutton however, destroys himself by excess. His bestialized body
54:24
Speaker 1: becomes a stored up reservoir of poisons, which attract disease
54:29
Speaker 1: and corruption, while his mind becomes more and more brutalized
54:32
Speaker 1: and confused, and therefore more incapable. Gluttony is one of
54:37
Speaker 1: the lowest and most animal vices, and is obnoxious to
54:41
Speaker 1: all who pursue a moderate course. The best workers and
54:45
Speaker 1: most successful men are they who are most moderate in
54:49
Speaker 1: eating and drinking. By taking enough nourishment but not too much,
54:54
Speaker 1: they attain the maximum physical and mental fitness. Being thus
54:58
Speaker 1: well equipped by moderates, they are enabled to vigorously and
55:02
Speaker 1: joyfully fight the battle of life. Clothing is covering and
55:06
Speaker 1: protection for the body, though it is frequently wrestled from
55:10
Speaker 1: this economic purpose and made a means of vain display.
55:14
Speaker 1: The two extremes to be avoided here are negligence and vanity.
55:19
Speaker 1: Custom cannot and need not be ignored, and cleanliness is
55:23
Speaker 1: all important. The ill dressed, unkempt man or woman invites
55:28
Speaker 1: failure in loneliness. A man's dress should harmonize with his
55:32
Speaker 1: station in life, and should be of good quality and
55:36
Speaker 1: be well made and appropriate. Clothing should not be cast
55:40
Speaker 1: aside while comparatively new, but should be well worn. If
55:44
Speaker 1: a man be poor, he will not lose in either
55:47
Speaker 1: self respect or the respect of others by wearing threadbare
55:51
Speaker 1: clothing if it be clean, and his whole body be
55:55
Speaker 1: clean and neat. But vanity leading to excessive luxury and
55:59
Speaker 1: clothes is a vice which should be studiously avoided by
56:03
Speaker 1: virtuous people. I know a lady who has forty dresses
56:07
Speaker 1: in her wardrobe, also a man who had twenty walking sticks,
56:11
Speaker 1: about the same number of hats, and some dozen macintoshes,
56:16
Speaker 1: while another had some twenty or thirty pairs of boots.
56:19
Speaker 1: Rich people who thus squander money on piles of superfluous
56:23
Speaker 1: clothing are courting poverty, for it is waste, and waste
56:27
Speaker 1: leads to want the money so heedlessly spent could be
56:31
Speaker 1: better used for suffering a bounds and charity is noble.
56:36
Speaker 1: In obtrusive display in clothing and jewelry bespeaks of vulgar
56:40
Speaker 1: and empty mind. Modest and cultured people are modest and
56:44
Speaker 1: becoming in their dress, and their spare money is wisely
56:49
Speaker 1: used in further enhancing their culture and virtue. Education and
56:53
Speaker 1: progress are of more importance to them than vain and
56:56
Speaker 1: needless apparel and literature, art and science are encouraged thereby.
57:03
Speaker 1: A true refinement is in the mind and behavior, and
57:06
Speaker 1: a mind adorned with virtue and intelligence cannot add to
57:10
Speaker 1: its attractiveness, though it may detract from it by an
57:14
Speaker 1: ostentatious display of the body. Time spent in uselessly adorning
57:19
Speaker 1: the body could be more fruitfully employed. Simplicity and dress,
57:24
Speaker 1: as in other things, is the best. It touches the
57:27
Speaker 1: point of excellence and usefulness, comfort and bodily grace and
57:32
Speaker 1: bespeaks true taste and cultivated refinement. Recreation is one of
57:37
Speaker 1: the necessities of life. Every man and woman should have
57:41
Speaker 1: some definitive work as the main object of life, and
57:44
Speaker 1: to which a considerable amount of time should be devoted,
57:47
Speaker 1: and he should only turn from it at given in
57:50
Speaker 1: limited periods for recreation and rest. The object of recreation
57:55
Speaker 1: is greater buoyancy of both body and mind, with an
57:58
Speaker 1: increase of power in wary serious work. It is therefore
58:02
Speaker 1: means not an end, and this should ever be borne
58:05
Speaker 1: in mind. For to many some forms of recreation, innocent
58:10
Speaker 1: and good in themselves, become so fascinating that they are
58:14
Speaker 1: in danger of making themselves the end of life, and
58:17
Speaker 1: of thus abandoning duty for pleasure. To make of life
58:21
Speaker 1: a ceaseless round of games and pleasures with no other
58:24
Speaker 1: object in life, is to turn living upside down, as
58:28
Speaker 1: it were, and it produces monotony and enervation. People who
58:33
Speaker 1: do it are the most unhappy of mortals, and suffer
58:36
Speaker 1: from languor on wee and peevishness, as sauces an aid
58:41
Speaker 1: to digestion, and can lead only to misery when made
58:45
Speaker 1: the work of life, When a man has done his
58:48
Speaker 1: day's duty, he can turn to his recreation with a
58:51
Speaker 1: free mind and a light heart, and both his work
58:54
Speaker 1: and his pleasure will be to him a source of happiness.
58:58
Speaker 1: It is true economy in the particular, neither to devote
59:02
Speaker 1: the whole of one's time to work, nor to recreation,
59:05
Speaker 1: but to aproportion to each its time and place, and
59:09
Speaker 1: so to fill out life with those changes which are
59:12
Speaker 1: necessary to a long life and a fruitful existence. All
59:17
Speaker 1: agreeable changes are recreation, and the mental worker will gain
59:21
Speaker 1: both in the quality and quantity of his work by
59:24
Speaker 1: laying it down at the time appointed for RESTful and
59:27
Speaker 1: refreshing recreation. While the physical worker will improve in every
59:31
Speaker 1: way by turning to some form of study as a
59:34
Speaker 1: hobby or means of education. As we do not spend
59:38
Speaker 1: all of our time in eating or sleeping or resting,
59:42
Speaker 1: neither should we spend it in exercise or pleasure, but
59:45
Speaker 1: should give recreation its proper place as a natural tonic
59:50
Speaker 1: in the economic scheme of our life. Rest is for
59:54
Speaker 1: the recuperation after toil. Every self respecting human should do
59:59
Speaker 1: sufficient work every day to make his sleep RESTful and
1:00:02
Speaker 1: sweet in his rising up fresh and bright. Enough sleep
1:00:07
Speaker 1: should be taken, but not too much over Indulgence on
1:00:11
Speaker 1: the one hand, or deprivation on the other, are both harmful.
1:00:16
Speaker 1: It is an easy matter to find out how much
1:00:18
Speaker 1: sleep one requires by going to bed early and getting
1:00:22
Speaker 1: up early, rising a little earlier every morning. If one
1:00:26
Speaker 1: has been in the habit of spending long hours in bed,
1:00:29
Speaker 1: one can soon very accurately gauge and adjust the number
1:00:33
Speaker 1: of hours he or she requires for complete recuperation. It
1:00:37
Speaker 1: will be found as the sleeping hours are shortened, that
1:00:40
Speaker 1: the sleep becomes more and more sound and sweet, and
1:00:43
Speaker 1: the waking up more and more alert and bright. People
1:00:47
Speaker 1: who are too prosper in their work must not give
1:00:49
Speaker 1: way to ignoble ease and over indulgence in sleep. Fruitful
1:00:54
Speaker 1: labor and not ease is the true end of life,
1:00:58
Speaker 1: and ease is only good in so far as it
1:01:00
Speaker 1: subserves the ends of work. Sloth and prosperity can never
1:01:05
Speaker 1: be companions, and can never even approach each other. The
1:01:09
Speaker 1: sluggard will never overtake success, but failure will speedily catch
1:01:13
Speaker 1: up with him and leave him defeated. Rest is to
1:01:17
Speaker 1: fit us for greater labor, and not to pamper us
1:01:20
Speaker 1: in indulgence. When the body vigor is restored, the end
1:01:25
Speaker 1: of rest is accomplished. A perfect balance between labor and
1:01:29
Speaker 1: rest contributes considerably to health, happiness, and prosperity. Time is
1:01:35
Speaker 1: that which we all possess an equal measure. The day
1:01:38
Speaker 1: is not lengthened for any man. We should therefore see
1:01:42
Speaker 1: to it that we do not squander its precious minutes
1:01:44
Speaker 1: and unprofitable waste. He who spends his time in self
1:01:48
Speaker 1: indulgence and the pursuit of pleasure presently finds himself old
1:01:53
Speaker 1: and nothing has been accomplished. He who fills full with
1:01:56
Speaker 1: useful pursuits the minutes as they come and go grows
1:02:00
Speaker 1: old in honor and wisdom, and prosperity abides with him.
1:02:05
Speaker 1: Money wasted can be restored, health wasted can be restored,
1:02:10
Speaker 1: but time wasted can never be restored. It is an
1:02:13
Speaker 1: old saying that time is money. It is in the
1:02:17
Speaker 1: same way health and strength, and talent and genius and wisdom,
1:02:22
Speaker 1: in accordance with the manner in which it is used.
1:02:25
Speaker 1: And to properly use it, the minutes must be seized
1:02:29
Speaker 1: upon as they come, for once they pass, they can
1:02:32
Speaker 1: never be recalled. The day should be divided into portions,
1:02:36
Speaker 1: and everything, work, leisure, meals, recreation should be attended to
1:02:42
Speaker 1: in its proper time, and the time of preparation should
1:02:45
Speaker 1: not be overlooked or ignored. Whatever a man does, he
1:02:50
Speaker 1: will do it better and more successfully by utilizing some
1:02:53
Speaker 1: small portion of the day in preparing his mind for
1:02:56
Speaker 1: his work. The man who gets up early in order
1:02:59
Speaker 1: to think and plan that he may weigh and consider
1:03:03
Speaker 1: and forecast will always manifest greater skill and success in
1:03:07
Speaker 1: his particular pursuit than the man who lives in bed
1:03:11
Speaker 1: till the last moment and only gets up just in
1:03:14
Speaker 1: time to begin breakfast. An hour spent in this way
1:03:18
Speaker 1: before breakfast will prove of the greatest value in making
1:03:21
Speaker 1: one's efforts fruitful. It is a means of calming and
1:03:25
Speaker 1: clarifying the mind, and of focusing one's energies so as
1:03:29
Speaker 1: to render them more powerful and effective. The best and
1:03:33
Speaker 1: most abiding success is that which is made before eight
1:03:37
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning. He who is at business at
1:03:40
Speaker 1: six o'clock will always, other conditions being equal, be a
1:03:44
Speaker 1: long way ahead of the man who is in bed
1:03:47
Speaker 1: at eight. The lieabed heavily handicaps himself in the race
1:03:51
Speaker 1: of life. He gives his early rising competitor two or
1:03:55
Speaker 1: three hours start every day. How can he ever hope
1:03:58
Speaker 1: to win with such as self imposed tax upon his time.
1:04:02
Speaker 1: At the end of a year, that two or three
1:04:04
Speaker 1: hours start every day is shown in a success, which
1:04:08
Speaker 1: is the synthesis of accumulated results. What then, must be
1:04:14
Speaker 1: the difference between the efforts of these two men at
1:04:17
Speaker 1: the end of say twenty years. The lyabed, too, after
1:04:22
Speaker 1: he gets up, is always in a hurry trying to
1:04:24
Speaker 1: regain lost time, which results in more loss of time,
1:04:28
Speaker 1: for hurry always defeats its own end. The early rise,
1:04:33
Speaker 1: who thus economizes his time, has no need to hurry,
1:04:37
Speaker 1: for he is always ahead of the hour, is always
1:04:39
Speaker 1: well up with his work. He can well afford to
1:04:42
Speaker 1: be calm and deliberate, and to do carefully and well
1:04:46
Speaker 1: whatever is in his hand. For his good habit shows
1:04:49
Speaker 1: itself at the end of the day in the form
1:04:52
Speaker 1: of a happy frame of mind, and in bigger results
1:04:55
Speaker 1: in the shape of work skillfully and successfully done. In
1:05:00
Speaker 1: the economizing of time, too, there will be many things
1:05:03
Speaker 1: which a man will have to eliminate from his life.
1:05:06
Speaker 1: Some of the things and pursuits which he loves and
1:05:09
Speaker 1: desires to retain will have to be sacrificed to the
1:05:13
Speaker 1: main purpose of his life. The studied elimination of non
1:05:17
Speaker 1: essentials from one's daily life is a vital factor in
1:05:20
Speaker 1: all great achievement. All great men are adepts in this
1:05:24
Speaker 1: branch of economy, and it plays an important role in
1:05:27
Speaker 1: the making of their greatness. It is a form of
1:05:31
Speaker 1: economy which also enters into the mind, the actions and
1:05:35
Speaker 1: the speech, eliminating from them all that is superfluous and
1:05:39
Speaker 1: that impedes and does not subserve the end aimed at.
1:05:44
Speaker 1: Foolish and unsuccessful people talk carelessly and aimlessly, act carelessly
1:05:49
Speaker 1: and aimlessly and allow everything that comes along, good, bad,
1:05:53
Speaker 1: and indifferent to lodge in their mind. The mind of
1:05:57
Speaker 1: the true economist is a sieve which lets everything fall
1:06:01
Speaker 1: through except that which is of use to him in
1:06:04
Speaker 1: the business of his life. He also employs only necessary
1:06:08
Speaker 1: words and does only necessary actions, thus vastly minimizing friction
1:06:14
Speaker 1: and waste of power. To go to bed at bedtime,
1:06:18
Speaker 1: to fill in every working minute with purposeful thought and
1:06:21
Speaker 1: effective action. This is the true economy of time. Energy
1:06:26
Speaker 1: is economized by the formation of good habits. All vices
1:06:30
Speaker 1: are a reckless expenditure of energy. Sufficient energy is thoughtlessly
1:06:35
Speaker 1: wasted in bad habits to enable men to accomplish the
1:06:39
Speaker 1: greatest success if conserved and used in right directions. If
1:06:44
Speaker 1: economy be practiced in the six points already covered, much
1:06:48
Speaker 1: will be done in the conservation of one's energies. But
1:06:51
Speaker 1: a man must still go further and carefully husband his
1:06:55
Speaker 1: vitality by the avoidance of all forms of physical self
1:06:59
Speaker 1: indulgences and impurities, but also all those mental vices such
1:07:04
Speaker 1: as hurry, worry, excitement, despondency, anger, complaining, and envy, which
1:07:11
Speaker 1: deplete the mind and render it unfit for any important
1:07:15
Speaker 1: work or admirable achievement. These are common forms of mental dissipation,
1:07:20
Speaker 1: which a man of character should study how to avoid
1:07:23
Speaker 1: and overcome. The energy wasted in frequent fits of bad temper, would,
1:07:28
Speaker 1: if controlled improperly directed, give a man's strength of mind,
1:07:33
Speaker 1: force of character, and much power to achieve The angry
1:07:37
Speaker 1: man is a strong man made weak by the dissipation
1:07:40
Speaker 1: of his mental energy. He needs self control to manifest
1:07:44
Speaker 1: his strength. The calm man is always superior in any
1:07:48
Speaker 1: department of life, and will always take precedence, both in
1:07:52
Speaker 1: his success and in the estimation of others. No man
1:07:56
Speaker 1: can afford to disperse his energies in fostering bad habits
1:08:00
Speaker 1: and bad tendencies of mind. Every vice, however apparently small,
1:08:05
Speaker 1: will tell against him in the battle of life. Every
1:08:08
Speaker 1: harmful self indulgence will come back to him in the
1:08:12
Speaker 1: form of some trouble or weakness. Every moment of riot
1:08:16
Speaker 1: or of pandering to his lower inclinations will make his
1:08:19
Speaker 1: progress more laborious, and will hold him back from scaling
1:08:23
Speaker 1: the high heaven of his wishes for achievement. On the
1:08:27
Speaker 1: other hand, he who economizes his energies and bends them
1:08:31
Speaker 1: toward the main task of his life will make rapid progress,
1:08:35
Speaker 1: and nothing will prevent him from reaching the golden city
1:08:38
Speaker 1: of success. It will be seen that economy is something
1:08:42
Speaker 1: far more profound and far more reaching than the mere
1:08:46
Speaker 1: saving of money. It touches every part of our nature
1:08:50
Speaker 1: in every phase of our life. The old saying, take
1:08:54
Speaker 1: care of the pence, and the pounds will take care
1:08:56
Speaker 1: of themselves may be regarded as a parable for the
1:09:00
Speaker 1: lower passions as native energy. It is the abuse of
1:09:04
Speaker 1: that energy that is bad. And if this personal energy
1:09:08
Speaker 1: be taken care of and stored up and transmuted, it
1:09:11
Speaker 1: reappears as a force of character. To waste this valuable
1:09:16
Speaker 1: energy in the pursuit of vice is like wasting the
1:09:19
Speaker 1: pence and so losing the pounds. But to take care
1:09:23
Speaker 1: of it for good uses is to store up the
1:09:25
Speaker 1: pence of passions and so gain the golden pounds of good.
1:09:30
Speaker 1: Take care therefore of the lower energies, and the higher
1:09:33
Speaker 1: achievements will take care of themselves. The pillars of economy,
1:09:38
Speaker 1: when soundly built, will be found to be composed largely
1:09:42
Speaker 1: of these four qualities one moderation, two efficiency, three resourcefulness
1:09:52
Speaker 1: four originality. Moderation is the strong core of economy. It
1:09:58
Speaker 1: avoids extremes, finding the middle way in all things. It
1:10:03
Speaker 1: also consists in abstaining from the unnecessary and the harmful.
1:10:07
Speaker 1: There can be no such things as moderation in that
1:10:10
Speaker 1: which is evil, for that would be excess. A true
1:10:13
Speaker 1: moderation of stains from evil. It is not a moderate
1:10:17
Speaker 1: use of fire to put our hands into it, but
1:10:20
Speaker 1: to warm them by it at a safe distance. Evil
1:10:24
Speaker 1: is a fire that will burn a man if you
1:10:26
Speaker 1: touch it. It is a harmful luxury, and is best
1:10:30
Speaker 1: left severely alone. Smoking, snuff taking, alcoholic drinking, gambling, and
1:10:37
Speaker 1: other such common vices. Although they have dragged thousands down
1:10:41
Speaker 1: to ill health, misery and failure, have never helped towards
1:10:45
Speaker 1: one's health, happiness, and success. The man who excuse them
1:10:50
Speaker 1: will always be head of the man that pursues them,
1:10:53
Speaker 1: their talents and opportunities being equal, Happy, healthy, and long
1:10:58
Speaker 1: lived people are old, always moderate, and abstemious in their habits.
1:11:03
Speaker 1: By moderation, the life forces are preserved. By excess, they
1:11:08
Speaker 1: are destroyed. Men also who carry moderation in their thoughts,
1:11:13
Speaker 1: allaying their passions and feelings, avoiding all unwholesome extremes in
1:11:18
Speaker 1: morbid sensations and sentiments add knowledge and wisdom to happiness
1:11:23
Speaker 1: and health, and thereby attained to the highest felicity and power.
1:11:28
Speaker 1: The immoderate destroy themselves by their own folly. They weaken
1:11:32
Speaker 1: their energies and stultify their capabilities. Instead of achieving an
1:11:37
Speaker 1: abiding success, reach only at best a fitful and precarious prosperity.
1:11:44
Speaker 1: Efficiency proceeds from the right conservation of one's forces and powers.
1:11:49
Speaker 1: All skill is the use of concentrated energy. Superior skill
1:11:54
Speaker 1: as talent and genius is a high degree of concentrated force.
1:11:59
Speaker 1: A skillful in that which they love, because the mind
1:12:03
Speaker 1: is almost ceaselessly centered upon it. Skill is the result
1:12:07
Speaker 1: of that mental economy which transmutes thought into invention and action.
1:12:12
Speaker 1: There will be no prosperity without skill, and one's prosperity
1:12:16
Speaker 1: will be the measure of one's skill. By a process
1:12:20
Speaker 1: of natural selection. The insufficient fall into their right places
1:12:25
Speaker 1: among the badly paid or unemployed. For who will employ
1:12:29
Speaker 1: a man who cannot or will not do his work properly?
1:12:34
Speaker 1: An employer may occasionally keep a man out of charity,
1:12:37
Speaker 1: but this will be exceptional as places of business, offices, households,
1:12:43
Speaker 1: in all centers of organized activity are not charitable institutions,
1:12:48
Speaker 1: but industrial bodies, which stand or fall on the fitness
1:12:52
Speaker 1: and efficiency of their individual members. Skill is gained by
1:12:57
Speaker 1: thoughtfulness and attention. Aimless and inattentive people are usually out
1:13:02
Speaker 1: of employment to wit the lounger at the street corner.
1:13:07
Speaker 1: They cannot do the simplest thing properly because they will
1:13:10
Speaker 1: not rouse up the mind to thought and attention. Recently,
1:13:14
Speaker 1: an acquaintance of mind employed a tramp to clean his windows.
1:13:18
Speaker 1: But the man had refrained from work and systematic thought
1:13:21
Speaker 1: for so long that he had become incapable of both,
1:13:24
Speaker 1: and could not even clean a window, even when shown
1:13:28
Speaker 1: how to do it. He could not follow the simple
1:13:30
Speaker 1: instructions given. This is an instance too of the fact
1:13:34
Speaker 1: that the simplest thing requires a measure of skill in
1:13:37
Speaker 1: the doing. Efficiency largely determines a man's place among his fellows,
1:13:43
Speaker 1: and leads one on by steps to higher and higher
1:13:46
Speaker 1: positions as greater powers are developed. The good workman is
1:13:51
Speaker 1: skillful with his tools, while the good man is skillful
1:13:55
Speaker 1: with his thoughts. Wisdom is the highest form of skill aptitude.
1:14:01
Speaker 1: In incipient wisdom, there is one right way of doing everything,
1:14:06
Speaker 1: even the smallest and a thousand wrong ways. Skill consists
1:14:10
Speaker 1: in finding the one right way and adhering to it.
1:14:14
Speaker 1: The insufficient bungle confusedly about among the thousand wrong ways
1:14:20
Speaker 1: and do not adopt the right way even when it
1:14:22
Speaker 1: is pointed out to them. They do this in some
1:14:25
Speaker 1: cases because they think, in their ignorance that they know best,
1:14:30
Speaker 1: thereby placing themselves in a position where it becomes impossible
1:14:34
Speaker 1: to learn, even though it be only to learn how
1:14:37
Speaker 1: to clean a window or sweep a floor. Thoughtlessness and
1:14:41
Speaker 1: inefficiency are all too common. There is plenty of room
1:14:45
Speaker 1: in the world for thoughtful and efficient people. Employers of
1:14:49
Speaker 1: labor know how difficult it is to get the best workmanship.
1:14:53
Speaker 1: The good workman, whether with his tools or brain, whether
1:14:57
Speaker 1: with speech or thought, will always find a place for
1:15:00
Speaker 1: the exercise of his skill. Resourcefulness is the outcome of efficiency.
1:15:06
Speaker 1: It is an important element in prosperity, for the resourceful
1:15:10
Speaker 1: man is never confunded. He may have many falls, but
1:15:14
Speaker 1: he will always be equal to the occasion and will
1:15:17
Speaker 1: be on his feet again immediately. Resourcefulness has its fundamental
1:15:21
Speaker 1: cause in the conservation of energy. It is energy transmuted
1:15:26
Speaker 1: when a man cuts off certain mental or bodily vices
1:15:30
Speaker 1: which have been depleting him of his energy. What becomes
1:15:33
Speaker 1: of the energy so conserved. It is not lost or destroyed,
1:15:38
Speaker 1: for energy can never be lost or destroyed. It becomes
1:15:41
Speaker 1: productive energy. It reappears in the form of fruitful thought.
1:15:46
Speaker 1: The virtuous man is always more successful than the vicious
1:15:49
Speaker 1: man because he is teeming with resources. His entire mentality
1:15:54
Speaker 1: is alive and vigorous, abounding with stored up energy. What
1:15:59
Speaker 1: the vicious man waste and barren indulgence, the virtuous man
1:16:03
Speaker 1: uses in fruitful industry. A new life and a new
1:16:06
Speaker 1: world abounding with all fascinating pursuits and pure delights open
1:16:12
Speaker 1: up to a man who shuts himself off from the
1:16:14
Speaker 1: old world of animal vice, and his place will be
1:16:17
Speaker 1: assured by the resources which will well up within him.
1:16:22
Speaker 1: Barren seed perishes in the earth. There is no place
1:16:25
Speaker 1: for it in the fruitful economy of nature. Barren mind
1:16:29
Speaker 1: sink in the struggle of life. Human society makes for good,
1:16:34
Speaker 1: and there is no room in it for the emptiness
1:16:36
Speaker 1: engendered by vice. But the barren mind will not sink forever.
1:16:41
Speaker 1: When it wills, it can become fruitful and regain itself
1:16:46
Speaker 1: by the very nature of existence, by the eternal law
1:16:49
Speaker 1: of progress. The vicious man must fall. But having fallen,
1:16:54
Speaker 1: he can rise again. He can turn from vice to virtue,
1:16:58
Speaker 1: and stand respecting and secure upon his own resources. The
1:17:04
Speaker 1: resourceful men invent, discover, initiate. They cannot fail, for they
1:17:10
Speaker 1: are in the stream of progress. They are full of
1:17:13
Speaker 1: new schemes, new methods, new hopes, and their life is
1:17:17
Speaker 1: so much fuller and richer. Thereby they are men of
1:17:20
Speaker 1: supple minds. When a man fails to improve his business,
1:17:24
Speaker 1: his work, his methods, he falls out of the line
1:17:28
Speaker 1: of progress and has begun to fail. His mind has
1:17:32
Speaker 1: become stiff and inert, like the body of an aged man,
1:17:36
Speaker 1: and so fails to keep pace with the rapidly moving
1:17:38
Speaker 1: ideas and plans of resourceful minds. A resourceful mind is
1:17:43
Speaker 1: like a river which never runs dry, and which affords
1:17:46
Speaker 1: refreshment and supplies new vigor in times of drought. Men
1:17:51
Speaker 1: of resources are men of new ideas, and men of
1:17:54
Speaker 1: new ideas flourish where others fade and decay. Original is resourcefulness,
1:18:01
Speaker 1: ripened and perfected. Where there is originality, there is genius,
1:18:06
Speaker 1: and men of genius are the lights of the world.
1:18:09
Speaker 1: Whatever work a man does, he should fall back upon
1:18:12
Speaker 1: his own resources in the doing of it, while learning
1:18:16
Speaker 1: from others. He should not slavishly imitate them, but should
1:18:20
Speaker 1: put himself into his work and so make it new
1:18:23
Speaker 1: and original. Original men get the ear of the world.
1:18:27
Speaker 1: They may be neglected at first, but they are always
1:18:30
Speaker 1: ultimately accepted and become patterns for mankind. Once a man
1:18:36
Speaker 1: has acquired the knack of originality, he takes his place
1:18:39
Speaker 1: as a leader among men in his particular department of
1:18:42
Speaker 1: knowledge and skill. But originality cannot be forced. It can
1:18:47
Speaker 1: only be developed, and it is developed by proceeding from
1:18:51
Speaker 1: excellence to excellence, by ascending in the scale of skill,
1:18:55
Speaker 1: by the full and right use of one's mental powers.
1:19:00
Speaker 1: A man consecrate himself to his work. Let him so consecrated,
1:19:05
Speaker 1: concentrate all his energies upon it, and the day will
1:19:08
Speaker 1: come when the world will hail him as one of
1:19:10
Speaker 1: its strong sons. And he too, like Balzac, who after
1:19:15
Speaker 1: many years of strenuous toil, one day exclaimed, I am
1:19:19
Speaker 1: about to become a genius. I am about to become
1:19:22
Speaker 1: a genius, will at least discover to his joy that
1:19:26
Speaker 1: he has joined the company of original minds, the gods
1:19:29
Speaker 1: who lead mankind into newer, higher, and more beneficent ways.
1:19:35
Speaker 1: The composition of the second pillar is thus revealed. Its
1:19:39
Speaker 1: building awaits the ready man, who will skillfully apply his
1:19:43
Speaker 1: mental energies integrity. There is no striking a cheap bargain
1:19:48
Speaker 1: with prosperity. It must be purchased not only with intelligent labor,
1:19:54
Speaker 1: but with a moral force. As the bubble cannot endure,
1:19:58
Speaker 1: so the fraud cannot prospers. He makes a feverish spurt
1:20:02
Speaker 1: in the acquirement of money, and then collapses. Nothing is
1:20:06
Speaker 1: ever gained, Nothing can ever be gained by fraud. It
1:20:11
Speaker 1: is but wrestled for a time, to be again returned
1:20:14
Speaker 1: with heavy interest. But fraud is not confined to the
1:20:18
Speaker 1: unscrupulous swindler. All who are getting or trying to get
1:20:23
Speaker 1: money without giving an equivalent are practicing fraud, whether they
1:20:28
Speaker 1: know it or not. Men who are anxiously scheming how
1:20:31
Speaker 1: to get money without working for it are frauds, and
1:20:36
Speaker 1: mentally they are closely allied to the thief and the swindler,
1:20:41
Speaker 1: under whose influence they come sooner or later, and who
1:20:45
Speaker 1: deprives some of their capital. What is a thief but
1:20:49
Speaker 1: a man who carries to its logical extreme or later,
1:20:52
Speaker 1: and who deprives some of their capital. What is a
1:20:56
Speaker 1: thief but a man who carries it to its logical extreme.
1:21:00
Speaker 1: The desire to possess without giving a just return, that
1:21:04
Speaker 1: is unlawfully. The man that courts prosperity must, in all
1:21:10
Speaker 1: his transactions, whether material or mental, study how to give
1:21:15
Speaker 1: a just return for that which he receives. This is
1:21:18
Speaker 1: the great fundamental principle in all sound commerce, while in
1:21:23
Speaker 1: spiritual things it becomes the doing to others that which
1:21:27
Speaker 1: we would have them do to us, and applied to
1:21:30
Speaker 1: the forces of the universe. It is scientifically stated in
1:21:34
Speaker 1: the formula action and reaction are equal. Human life is reciprocal,
1:21:41
Speaker 1: not rapacious, And the man who regards all others as
1:21:44
Speaker 1: his legitimate prey will soon find himself stranded in the
1:21:48
Speaker 1: desert of ruin, far away from the path of prosperity.
1:21:53
Speaker 1: He is too far behind in the process of evolution
1:21:56
Speaker 1: to cope successfully with honest men. The best always survive,
1:22:03
Speaker 1: and he, being the worst, cannot therefore continue his end
1:22:08
Speaker 1: unless the change in time is sure. It is the
1:22:11
Speaker 1: goal the filthy hovel or the place of the deserted outcast.
1:22:17
Speaker 1: His efforts are destructive and not constructive, and he thereby
1:22:22
Speaker 1: destroys himself. It was Carlyle who, referring to Mohammed, being
1:22:27
Speaker 1: then universally regarded by Christians as an impostor, exclaimed an
1:22:33
Speaker 1: impostor found a religion. An impostor couldn't build a brick house,
1:22:38
Speaker 1: an impostor, a liar, a cheat. The man of dishonesty
1:22:43
Speaker 1: cannot build, as he has neither tools nor material with
1:22:47
Speaker 1: which to build. He can no more build up a business,
1:22:50
Speaker 1: a character, a career, a success, than he can found
1:22:55
Speaker 1: a religion or build a brick house. He not only
1:22:59
Speaker 1: does not build, but all his energies are bent on
1:23:02
Speaker 1: undermining what others have built. But his being impossible, he
1:23:08
Speaker 1: undermines himself. Without integrity, energy and economy will at last fail,
1:23:15
Speaker 1: but aided by integrity, their strength will be greatly augmented.
1:23:20
Speaker 1: There is not an occasion in life in which the
1:23:23
Speaker 1: moral factor does not play an important part stirring integrity
1:23:28
Speaker 1: wherever it is stamps its whole mark on all transactions.
1:23:34
Speaker 1: And it does this because of its wonderful coherence and consistency,
1:23:39
Speaker 1: and its invincible strength, For the man of integrity is
1:23:43
Speaker 1: in line with the fixed laws of things, not only
1:23:47
Speaker 1: with the fundamental principles on which human society rests, but
1:23:51
Speaker 1: with the laws which hold the vast universe together. Who
1:23:55
Speaker 1: shall set all these at nawd? Who then shall undermine
1:24:00
Speaker 1: the man of unblemished integrity? He is like a strong
1:24:04
Speaker 1: tree whose roots are fed by perennial springs, and which
1:24:08
Speaker 1: no tempests can lay low. To be complete and strong,
1:24:12
Speaker 1: integrity must embrace the whole man and extend to all
1:24:16
Speaker 1: the details of his life. And it must be so
1:24:20
Speaker 1: thorough and permanent as to withstand all temptations to swerve
1:24:24
Speaker 1: and to compromise. To fail in one point is to
1:24:28
Speaker 1: fail in all, and to admit under stress a compromise
1:24:33
Speaker 1: with falsehood, howsoever necessary and insignificant it may appear, is
1:24:39
Speaker 1: to throw down the shield of integrity, and to stand
1:24:42
Speaker 1: exposed to the onslaughts of evil. The man who works
1:24:46
Speaker 1: as carefully and conscientiously when his employer is away as
1:24:51
Speaker 1: when his eye is upon him will not long remain
1:24:54
Speaker 1: in an inferior position. Such integrity and duty in performing
1:24:59
Speaker 1: the details of his work will quickly lead him into
1:25:03
Speaker 1: the fertile regions of prosperity. The shirker, on the other hand,
1:25:08
Speaker 1: he who does not scruple or neglect his work when
1:25:12
Speaker 1: his employer is not about, thereby robbing his employer of
1:25:15
Speaker 1: the time and labor for which he is paid, will
1:25:18
Speaker 1: quickly come to the barren reign of unemployment, and will
1:25:22
Speaker 1: look in vain for needful labor. There will come a time, too,
1:25:27
Speaker 1: to the man who is not deeply rooted in integrity,
1:25:30
Speaker 1: when it will seem necessary to his prospects and prosperity
1:25:34
Speaker 1: that he should tell a lie or do a dishonest thing.
1:25:38
Speaker 1: I say to the man who is not deeply rooted
1:25:41
Speaker 1: in this principle, For a man of fixed and enlightened
1:25:44
Speaker 1: integrity knows that lying and dishonesty can never, under any
1:25:49
Speaker 1: circumstance be necessary, And therefore he neither needs to be
1:25:53
Speaker 1: tempted in this particular, nor can he possibly be tempted.
1:25:57
Speaker 1: But the one so tempted must be able to cast
1:26:01
Speaker 1: aside the subtle insinuation of falsehood which, in a time
1:26:05
Speaker 1: of indecision and perplexity arises within him, and he must
1:26:09
Speaker 1: stand firmly by the principle, being willing to lose and
1:26:13
Speaker 1: suffer rather than sink into obliquity. In this way only
1:26:18
Speaker 1: can he become enlightened concerning this moral principle and discover
1:26:23
Speaker 1: the glad truth that integrity does not lead to loss
1:26:26
Speaker 1: and suffering, but to gain and joy, that honesty and
1:26:30
Speaker 1: deprivation are not and cannot be related as cause and effect.
1:26:36
Speaker 1: It is this willingness to sacrifice rather than be untrue
1:26:40
Speaker 1: that leads to enlightenment in all spheres of life. And
1:26:44
Speaker 1: the man who, rather than sacrifice some selfish aim, will
1:26:48
Speaker 1: lie or deceive, has forfeited his right to moral enlightenment,
1:26:53
Speaker 1: and takes his place lower down among the devotees of deceit,
1:26:58
Speaker 1: among the doers of shady tree transactions, than men of
1:27:02
Speaker 1: no character and no reputation. A man is not truly
1:27:06
Speaker 1: armored with integrity until he has become incapable of lying
1:27:10
Speaker 1: or deceiving, either by gesture, word, or act. Until he
1:27:16
Speaker 1: sees clearly, openly, and freed from all doubt, the deadly
1:27:21
Speaker 1: effects of such moral turpitude. The man so enlightened is
1:27:25
Speaker 1: protected from all quarters, and he can no more be
1:27:29
Speaker 1: undermined by dishonest men than the sun can be pulled
1:27:33
Speaker 1: down from the heaven by madmen, and the arrows of
1:27:36
Speaker 1: selfishness and treachery that may be poured upon him will
1:27:40
Speaker 1: rebound from the strong armor of his integrity and the
1:27:43
Speaker 1: bright shield of his righteousness, leaving him unharmed and untouched.
1:27:50
Speaker 1: A lying tradesman will tell you that no man can
1:27:53
Speaker 1: thrive and be honest in these days of keen competition.
1:27:57
Speaker 1: How can such a man know? This? Seem that he
1:28:00
Speaker 1: has never tried honesty. Moreover, such a man has no
1:28:05
Speaker 1: knowledge of honesty, and his statement is therefore a statement
1:28:09
Speaker 1: of ignorance. An ignorance and falsehood so blind a man
1:28:13
Speaker 1: that he foolishly imagines all are as ignorant and false
1:28:17
Speaker 1: as himself. I have known such tradesmen, and I have
1:28:21
Speaker 1: seen them come to ruin. I once heard a business
1:28:24
Speaker 1: man make the following statement in a public meeting. No
1:28:28
Speaker 1: man can be entirely honest in business. He can only
1:28:31
Speaker 1: be approximately honest. He imagined that his statement revealed the
1:28:36
Speaker 1: condition of the business world. It did not. It revealed
1:28:41
Speaker 1: his own condition. He was merely telling his audience that
1:28:45
Speaker 1: he was a dishonest man. But his ignorance moral ignorance
1:28:50
Speaker 1: prevented him from seeing this approximate honesty is only another
1:28:55
Speaker 1: term for dishonesty. The man who deviated a little from
1:28:59
Speaker 1: the straight path will deviate more. He has no fixed
1:29:04
Speaker 1: principle of right, and is only thinking of his own advantage.
1:29:08
Speaker 1: That he persuades himself that his particular dishonesty is of
1:29:13
Speaker 1: a white and harmless kind, and that he is not
1:29:16
Speaker 1: so bad as his neighbor is only one of the
1:29:19
Speaker 1: many forms of self delusion which ignorance of moral principle creates.
1:29:25
Speaker 1: Right doing between men in the varied relations and transactions
1:29:29
Speaker 1: of life is the very soul of integrity. It includes,
1:29:34
Speaker 1: but is more than honesty. It is the backbone of
1:29:38
Speaker 1: human society and the support of human institutions. Without it,
1:29:43
Speaker 1: there would be no trust, no confidence between men, and
1:29:47
Speaker 1: the business world would topple to its fall. As the
1:29:51
Speaker 1: liar thinks all men are liars and treats them as such.
1:29:55
Speaker 1: So the man of integrity treats all men with confidence.
1:29:59
Speaker 1: He trusts them, and they trust him. His clear eye
1:30:03
Speaker 1: and open hand shame the creeping fraud so that he
1:30:07
Speaker 1: cannot practice his fraud on him. As Emerson has so
1:30:12
Speaker 1: finely put it, trust men, and they will be true
1:30:15
Speaker 1: to you, even though they may make an exception in
1:30:18
Speaker 1: your favor to all their rules of trade. The upright man,
1:30:23
Speaker 1: by his very presence, commands the morality of those about him,
1:30:28
Speaker 1: making them better than they were. Men are powerfully influenced
1:30:32
Speaker 1: by one another, and as good is more powerful than evil,
1:30:37
Speaker 1: the strong and good man both shames and elevates by
1:30:41
Speaker 1: his contact the weak and bad. The man of integrity
1:30:46
Speaker 1: carries about with him an unconscious grandeur which both awes
1:30:51
Speaker 1: and inspires. Having lifted himself above the petty, the mean,
1:30:56
Speaker 1: and the false, those coward vices slink from his presence
1:31:00
Speaker 1: and confusion. The highest intellectual gift cannot compare with this
1:31:06
Speaker 1: lofty moral grandeur. In the memory of men and the
1:31:10
Speaker 1: estimation of the world, the man of integrity occupies a
1:31:14
Speaker 1: higher place than the man of genius. Buckminster says the
1:31:19
Speaker 1: moral grandeur of an independent integrity is the sublimest thing
1:31:24
Speaker 1: in nature. It is the quality in man which produces heroes.
1:31:29
Speaker 1: The man of unswerving rectitude is intrinsically always a hero.
1:31:36
Speaker 1: It only needs the occasion to bring about the heroic element.
1:31:40
Speaker 1: He is always too possessed by a permanent happiness. The
1:31:45
Speaker 1: man of genius may be very unhappy, but not to
1:31:48
Speaker 1: the man of integrity. Nothing nor sickness, nor calamity, nor
1:31:53
Speaker 1: death can deprive him of that permanent satisfaction which inheres
1:31:58
Speaker 1: in uprightness. Rectitude leads straight to prosperity by four successive steps. First,
1:32:06
Speaker 1: the upright man wins the confidence of others. Second, having
1:32:11
Speaker 1: gained their confidence, they put trust in him. Third, this trust,
1:32:17
Speaker 1: never being violated, produces a good reputation. And fourth, a
1:32:22
Speaker 1: good reputation spreads further and further, and so brings about success.
1:32:29
Speaker 1: Dishonesty has the reverse effect. By destroying the confidence of others.
1:32:34
Speaker 1: It produces in them suspicion and mistrust, and these bring
1:32:38
Speaker 1: about a bad reputation, which culminates in failure. The pillars
1:32:43
Speaker 1: of integrity are held together by these four virile elements
1:32:48
Speaker 1: one honesty, two fearlessness, three purposefulness four invincibility. Honesty is
1:32:59
Speaker 1: the shoe way to success. The day at last comes
1:33:03
Speaker 1: when the dishonest man repents and sorrow and suffering. But
1:33:07
Speaker 1: no man ever needs to repent of having been honest,
1:33:11
Speaker 1: even when the honest man fails, as he does sometimes
1:33:15
Speaker 1: through the lacking of other of these pillars, such as energy,
1:33:19
Speaker 1: economy or system. His failure is not the grievous thing
1:33:23
Speaker 1: it is to the dishonest man, for he can always
1:33:26
Speaker 1: rejoice in the fact that he has never defrauded a
1:33:29
Speaker 1: fellow being. Even in his darkest hour, he finds repose
1:33:34
Speaker 1: in a clear conscience. Ignorant men imagine that dishonesty is
1:33:39
Speaker 1: a shortcut to prosperity. That is why they practice it.
1:33:44
Speaker 1: The dishonest man is mora always shortsighted, like the drunkard,
1:33:48
Speaker 1: who sees the immediate pleasure of his habit, but not
1:33:51
Speaker 1: the ultimate degradation. He sees the immediate effect of a
1:33:55
Speaker 1: dishonest act, a larger profit, but not its ultimate outcome.
1:34:01
Speaker 1: He does not see that an accumulated number of such
1:34:04
Speaker 1: acts must inevitably undermine his character and bring his business
1:34:09
Speaker 1: toppling upon its ears in ruin. While pocketing his gains
1:34:13
Speaker 1: and thinking how cleverly and successfully he is imposing on others,
1:34:18
Speaker 1: he is all the time imposing on himself. And thus
1:34:21
Speaker 1: every coin gained must be paid back with added interest,
1:34:27
Speaker 1: and from this just retribution there is no possible loophole
1:34:31
Speaker 1: of escape. This moral gravitation is as sure and unvarying
1:34:36
Speaker 1: as the physical gravitation of a stone to the earth.
1:34:40
Speaker 1: The tradesman who demands of his assistance that they shall
1:34:43
Speaker 1: be and misrepresents his goods to customers, is surrounding himself
1:34:48
Speaker 1: on all hands with suspicion, mistrust, and hatred. Even the
1:34:53
Speaker 1: moral weaklings who carry out his instructions despise him while
1:34:58
Speaker 1: defiling themselves with his unc clean work. How can success
1:35:02
Speaker 1: thrive in such a poisonous atmosphere? The spirit of ruin
1:35:07
Speaker 1: is already in such a business, and the day of
1:35:10
Speaker 1: his fall is ordained. An honest man may fail, but
1:35:14
Speaker 1: not because he is honest, and his failure will be
1:35:17
Speaker 1: honorable and will not injure his character and reputation. His failure, too,
1:35:24
Speaker 1: resulting doubtless from his incapacity in the particular direction of
1:35:28
Speaker 1: his failure, will be a means of leading him into
1:35:31
Speaker 1: something more suited to his talents, and thus to ultimate success.
1:35:37
Speaker 1: Fearlessness accompanies honesty. The honest man has a clear eye
1:35:41
Speaker 1: and an unflinching gaze. He looks his fellowmen in the face,
1:35:46
Speaker 1: and his speech is direct and convincing. The lyar in
1:35:50
Speaker 1: cheat hangs his head, his eye is muddy, and his
1:35:53
Speaker 1: gaze oblique. He cannot look another man in the eye.
1:35:57
Speaker 1: In his speech arouses mistrust, for it is ambiguous and unconvincing.
1:36:03
Speaker 1: When a man has fulfilled his obligations, he has nothing
1:36:06
Speaker 1: to fear. All his business relations are safe and secure.
1:36:11
Speaker 1: His methods and actions will endure the light of day.
1:36:14
Speaker 1: Should he pass through a difficult time and get into debt,
1:36:18
Speaker 1: everybody will trust him and be willing to wait for payment,
1:36:22
Speaker 1: and all his debts will be paid. Dishonest people try
1:36:26
Speaker 1: to avoid paying their debts, and they live in fear.
1:36:30
Speaker 1: But the honest man tries to avoid getting into debt.
1:36:33
Speaker 1: But when debt overtakes him, he does not fear, but
1:36:37
Speaker 1: redoubling his exertions, his debts are paid. The dishonest are
1:36:42
Speaker 1: always in fear. They do not fear debt, but fear
1:36:46
Speaker 1: that they will have to pay their debt. They fear
1:36:49
Speaker 1: their fellow men, fear the established authorities, fear the results
1:36:54
Speaker 1: of all that they do, and they are in constant
1:36:57
Speaker 1: fear of their misdeeds being revealed and the consequences which
1:37:01
Speaker 1: may at any moment overtake them. The honest man is
1:37:05
Speaker 1: rid of all this burden of fear. He is light
1:37:08
Speaker 1: hearted and walks erect among his fellows, not assuming a
1:37:13
Speaker 1: part and sulking and cringing, but being himself and meeting
1:37:18
Speaker 1: eye to eye, not deceiving or injuring any There are
1:37:22
Speaker 1: none to fear, and anything and against him can only
1:37:27
Speaker 1: rebound to his advantage. And this fearlessness is in itself
1:37:33
Speaker 1: a tower to strengthen a man's life, supporting him through
1:37:37
Speaker 1: all emergencies, enabling him to battle manfully with difficulties, and
1:37:43
Speaker 1: in the end securing for him that success of which
1:37:48
Speaker 1: he cannot be dispossessed. Purposefulness is the direct outcome of
1:37:53
Speaker 1: that strength of character which integrity fosters. The man of
1:37:57
Speaker 1: integrity is the man of direct aims and strong and
1:38:01
Speaker 1: intelligent purposes. He does not guess and work in the dark.
1:38:07
Speaker 1: All his plans have in them some of that moral
1:38:09
Speaker 1: fiber of which his character is wrought. A man's work
1:38:14
Speaker 1: will always come in some way to reflect himself. And
1:38:17
Speaker 1: the man of sound integrity is the man of sound plan.
1:38:22
Speaker 1: He weighs and considers and looks ahead, and so is
1:38:25
Speaker 1: less likely to make serious mistakes or to bungle into
1:38:29
Speaker 1: a dilemma from which it is difficult to escape. Taking
1:38:33
Speaker 1: a moral view of all things and always considering moral consequences.
1:38:39
Speaker 1: He stands on a firmer and more exalted ground than
1:38:42
Speaker 1: the man of mere policy and expedients, And while commanding
1:38:47
Speaker 1: a more extended view of any situation, he wields the
1:38:50
Speaker 1: greater power which a more comprehensive grasp of details with
1:38:54
Speaker 1: the principles involved confers upon him. Morality always has the
1:39:00
Speaker 1: advantage of expediency. Its purposes always reach down far below
1:39:05
Speaker 1: the surface, and are therefore more firm and secure, more
1:39:09
Speaker 1: strong and lasting. There is a native directness too about integrity,
1:39:15
Speaker 1: which enables the man to get straight to the mark
1:39:18
Speaker 1: in whatever he does, and which makes failure almost impossible.
1:39:23
Speaker 1: Strong men have strong purposes, and strong purposes lead to
1:39:27
Speaker 1: strong achievements. The man of integrity is above all men strong,
1:39:33
Speaker 1: and his strength is manifested in that thoroughness with which
1:39:37
Speaker 1: he does the business of his life, thoroughness which commands respect, admiration,
1:39:43
Speaker 1: and success. Invincibility is a glorious protector, but it only
1:39:49
Speaker 1: envelops the man whose integrity is perfectly pure and unassailable,
1:39:54
Speaker 1: never to violate even in the most insignificant particular. The
1:39:58
Speaker 1: principle of integrity is to be invincible against all the
1:40:02
Speaker 1: assaults of innuendo, slander, and misrepresentation. The man who has
1:40:08
Speaker 1: failed in one point is vulnerable, and the shaft of
1:40:11
Speaker 1: evil entering that point will lay him low, like the
1:40:16
Speaker 1: arrow in the heel of Achilles. Pure imperfect integrity is
1:40:21
Speaker 1: proof against all attack and injury, enabling its possessor to
1:40:25
Speaker 1: meet all opposition and persecution with dauntless courage and sublime equanimity.
1:40:31
Speaker 1: No amount of talent, intellect, or business acumen can give
1:40:36
Speaker 1: a man that power of mind and peace of heart,
1:40:39
Speaker 1: which come from an enlightened acceptance an observance of lofty
1:40:43
Speaker 1: moral principles. Moral force is the greatest power. Let the
1:40:49
Speaker 1: seeker for true prosperity discover this force. Let him foster
1:40:53
Speaker 1: and develop it in his mind and in his deeds,
1:40:56
Speaker 1: And as he succeeds, he will take his place among
1:40:59
Speaker 1: the strong leaders of the earth. Such is the strong
1:41:03
Speaker 1: and adamantine pillar of integrity. Blessed and prosperous above all men,
1:41:09
Speaker 1: will be he who builds its incorruptible masonry into the
1:41:12
Speaker 1: temple of his life. System system is that principle of
1:41:18
Speaker 1: order by which confusion is rendered impossible. In the natural
1:41:23
Speaker 1: and universal order, everything is in its place, so that
1:41:27
Speaker 1: the vast universe runs more perfectly than the most perfect machine.
1:41:32
Speaker 1: Disorder in space would mean the destruction of the universe,
1:41:36
Speaker 1: and disorder in a man's affairs destroys his work and
1:41:40
Speaker 1: his prosperity. All complex organizations are built up by system.
1:41:46
Speaker 1: No business or society can develop into large dimensions apart
1:41:51
Speaker 1: from system, and this system is pre eminently the instrument
1:41:55
Speaker 1: of the merchant, the businessman, and the organizer of institution.
1:42:01
Speaker 1: There are many departments in which a disorderly man may succeed.
1:42:05
Speaker 1: Although attention to order would increase his success, he will
1:42:09
Speaker 1: not succeed in business unless he can place the business
1:42:13
Speaker 1: entirely in the hands of a systematic manager, who will
1:42:17
Speaker 1: thereby remedy his own defect. All large business concerns have
1:42:22
Speaker 1: been evolved along definitely drawn systematic lines, any violation of
1:42:27
Speaker 1: which would be disastrous to the efficiency and welfare of
1:42:31
Speaker 1: the business. Complex business or other organizations are built up,
1:42:36
Speaker 1: like complex bodies in nature by scrupulous attention to details.
1:42:42
Speaker 1: The disorderly man thinks he can be careless about everything
1:42:45
Speaker 1: but the main end, But by ignoring the means, he
1:42:49
Speaker 1: frustrates the end. By the disarrangement of details, organisms perish,
1:42:55
Speaker 1: and by the careless neglect of details, the growth of
1:42:59
Speaker 1: any work or can concern is prevented. Disorderly people waste
1:43:03
Speaker 1: an enormous amount of time and energy. The time frittered
1:43:07
Speaker 1: away and hunting for things is sufficient where if it
1:43:10
Speaker 1: conserved by order to enable them to achieve any success.
1:43:15
Speaker 1: For slovenly people never have a place for anything, and
1:43:18
Speaker 1: have to hunt frequently for a long time for any
1:43:22
Speaker 1: article that they require. In the irritation, bad humor, and
1:43:27
Speaker 1: chagrin which this daily hunting for things brings about as
1:43:31
Speaker 1: much energy is dissipated as would be required to build
1:43:34
Speaker 1: up a big business or scale the highest heights of
1:43:37
Speaker 1: achievement in any direction. Orderly people can serve both their
1:43:42
Speaker 1: time and energy. They never lose anything and therefore never
1:43:46
Speaker 1: have to find anything. Everything is in its place, and
1:43:50
Speaker 1: the hand can be at once placed upon it, though
1:43:53
Speaker 1: it may be in the dark. They can well afford
1:43:55
Speaker 1: to be cool and deliberate, and so use their mental
1:43:59
Speaker 1: energies and something more profitable than irritation, bad temper and
1:44:03
Speaker 1: accusing others for their own lack of order. There is
1:44:07
Speaker 1: a kind of genius in system which can perform apparent
1:44:11
Speaker 1: wonders with ease. A systematic man can get through so
1:44:15
Speaker 1: great a quantity of work in such a short time,
1:44:18
Speaker 1: and with such freedom from such exhaustion, as to appear
1:44:21
Speaker 1: almost miraculous. He scales the heights of success, while his
1:44:26
Speaker 1: slovenly competitor is wallowing hopelessly in the bogs of confusion.
1:44:31
Speaker 1: His strict observance to the law of order enables him
1:44:34
Speaker 1: to reach his ends swiftly and smoothly, without friction or
1:44:39
Speaker 1: loss of time. The demands of system in all departments
1:44:43
Speaker 1: of the business world are as rigid and exacting as
1:44:47
Speaker 1: the holy vows of a saint, and cannot be violated
1:44:50
Speaker 1: in the smallest particular, but at the risk of one's
1:44:53
Speaker 1: financial prospects. In the financial world, the law of order
1:44:58
Speaker 1: is an iron necessity, and he who faultlessly observes it
1:45:03
Speaker 1: saves time, temper and money. Every enduring achievement in human
1:45:08
Speaker 1: society rests upon a basis of system. So true is
1:45:12
Speaker 1: this that where system withdrawn, progress would cease. Think, for instance,
1:45:19
Speaker 1: of the vast achievements of literature, the works of classic
1:45:22
Speaker 1: authors and of great geniuses, the great poems, the innumerable
1:45:27
Speaker 1: prose works, the monumental histories. Think also the social intercourse
1:45:32
Speaker 1: of human society, of its religions, its legal statutes, and
1:45:37
Speaker 1: its vast fund of book knowledge. Think of all these
1:45:40
Speaker 1: wonderful resources and achievements of language, and then reflect that
1:45:44
Speaker 1: they all depend for their origin, growth, and continuance on
1:45:49
Speaker 1: the systematic arrangements of twenty six letters, in arrangement having
1:45:53
Speaker 1: inexhaustible and illimitable results by the fact of its rigid
1:45:57
Speaker 1: limitation within certain fixed rules. Again, all the wonderful achievements
1:46:03
Speaker 1: of mathematics have come from the systematic arrangement of ten figures,
1:46:08
Speaker 1: while the most complex piece of machinery, with its thousands
1:46:12
Speaker 1: of parts working together smoothly and almost noiselessly to the
1:46:17
Speaker 1: achievement of the end for which it was designed, was
1:46:20
Speaker 1: brought forth by the systematic observance of a few mechanical laws.
1:46:25
Speaker 1: Herein we see how system simplifies that which is complex,
1:46:30
Speaker 1: how it makes easy that which was difficult, How it
1:46:33
Speaker 1: relates in infinite variety of details of the one central
1:46:37
Speaker 1: law or order, and so enables them to be dealt
1:46:41
Speaker 1: with and accounted for with perfect regularity and with an
1:46:45
Speaker 1: entire absence of confusion. The scientist's names and classifies the
1:46:50
Speaker 1: myriad details of the universe, from the microscopic rotifer to
1:46:54
Speaker 1: the telescopic star, by his observance of the principles of system,
1:47:00
Speaker 1: that out of many millions of objects, reference can be
1:47:03
Speaker 1: made to any object in at most a few minutes.
1:47:07
Speaker 1: It is this faculty of speedy references and swift dispatch
1:47:12
Speaker 1: which is of such overwhelming importance in every department of
1:47:15
Speaker 1: knowledge and industry. And the amount of time and labor
1:47:19
Speaker 1: thus save to humanity is so vast as to be incomprehensible.
1:47:24
Speaker 1: We speak of religious, political, and business systems, and so on,
1:47:29
Speaker 1: indicating all things in human society are welded together by
1:47:33
Speaker 1: the adhesive qualities of order. System is indeed one of
1:47:38
Speaker 1: the great fundamental principles in progress and in the binding
1:47:42
Speaker 1: together in one complete whole of the world's millions of
1:47:46
Speaker 1: human beings. While they are at the same time each
1:47:49
Speaker 1: striving for a place, and are competing with one another
1:47:53
Speaker 1: in opposing aims and interest. We see here how system
1:47:57
Speaker 1: is allied with greatness. The many separate units whose minds
1:48:01
Speaker 1: are untrained to the discipline of system, are kept in
1:48:04
Speaker 1: their places by the organizing power of the comparatively few
1:48:09
Speaker 1: who perceive the urgent and inescapable necessity for the establishment
1:48:14
Speaker 1: of fixed and inviable rules, whether in business, law, religion, science,
1:48:20
Speaker 1: or politics, in fact, in every sphere of human activity.
1:48:25
Speaker 1: For immediately, when two human beings meet together, they need
1:48:29
Speaker 1: some common ground of understanding for the avoidance of confusion,
1:48:33
Speaker 1: in a word, some system to regulate their actions. Life
1:48:38
Speaker 1: is too short for confusion, and knowledge grows and progress
1:48:42
Speaker 1: proceeds along avenues of system which prevent retardation and retrogression,
1:48:49
Speaker 1: so that he who systematizes his knowledge or business simplifies
1:48:54
Speaker 1: and enhances it for his successor, enabling him to begin
1:48:58
Speaker 1: with a free mind he left off. Every large business
1:49:02
Speaker 1: has its system which renders its vast machinery workable, enabling
1:49:07
Speaker 1: it to run like a well balanced and well oiled machine.
1:49:11
Speaker 1: A remarkable business man, a friend of mine, once told
1:49:15
Speaker 1: me that he could leave his huge business for twelve
1:49:18
Speaker 1: months and it would run on without a hitch till
1:49:22
Speaker 1: his return. And he does occasionally leave it for several
1:49:25
Speaker 1: months while traveling, and on his return. Every man, boy
1:49:30
Speaker 1: and girl, every tool, book and machine, every detail down
1:49:34
Speaker 1: to the smallest is in its place, doing its work
1:49:37
Speaker 1: as when he left, and no trouble, no difficulty, no
1:49:41
Speaker 1: confusion has arisen. There can be no marked success part
1:49:46
Speaker 1: of a love of regularity and discipline and the avoidance
1:49:49
Speaker 1: of friction, along with the restfulness and the efficiency of mind,
1:49:53
Speaker 1: which spring from such regularity. People who abore discipline, whose
1:49:59
Speaker 1: minds are ungote an arctic, and who are careless and
1:50:03
Speaker 1: irregular in their thinking, their habits, and the management of
1:50:06
Speaker 1: their affairs, cannot be highly successful and prosperous, and they
1:50:11
Speaker 1: fill their lives with numerous worries, troubles, difficulties, and petty annoyances,
1:50:17
Speaker 1: all of which would disappear under a proper regulation of
1:50:20
Speaker 1: their lives. An unsystematic mind is an untrained mind, and
1:50:25
Speaker 1: it can no more cope with well disciplined minds in
1:50:27
Speaker 1: the race of life than an untrained athlete can successfully
1:50:32
Speaker 1: compete with a carefully trained competitor in athletic races. The
1:50:37
Speaker 1: ill disciplined mind, who thinks anything will do, rapidly falls
1:50:42
Speaker 1: behind the well disciplined minds who are convinced that only
1:50:46
Speaker 1: the best will do. In the strenuous race for the
1:50:48
Speaker 1: prizes of life, whether they be material, mental, or moral prizes,
1:50:54
Speaker 1: the man who, when he comes to do his work,
1:50:57
Speaker 1: is unable to find his tools, or balance his figures,
1:51:01
Speaker 1: or to find the key of his desk or the
1:51:04
Speaker 1: key to his thoughts, will be struggling in his self
1:51:07
Speaker 1: made toils, while his methodical neighbor will be freely and
1:51:11
Speaker 1: joyfully scaling the invigorating heights of successful achievement. The business
1:51:16
Speaker 1: man whose method is slovenly or cumbersome, or behind the
1:51:20
Speaker 1: most recent developments of skilled minds should only blame himself
1:51:24
Speaker 1: as his prospects are decadent, and should wake up to
1:51:28
Speaker 1: the necessity for more, highly specialized and effective methods in
1:51:31
Speaker 1: his concern. He should seize upon everything, every invention and
1:51:37
Speaker 1: idea that will enable him to economize time and labor
1:51:41
Speaker 1: and aid him in thoroughness, deliberation and dispatch. System is
1:51:46
Speaker 1: the law by which everything, every organism, business, character, nation,
1:51:52
Speaker 1: empire is built. By adding cell to sell, department to department,
1:51:58
Speaker 1: thought to thought, law to law, in colony to colony,
1:52:03
Speaker 1: in orderly sequence and classification, all things, concerns and institutions
1:52:09
Speaker 1: grow in magnitude and evolve to completeness. The man who
1:52:13
Speaker 1: is continually improving his methods is gaining in building power.
1:52:18
Speaker 1: It therefore behooves the business man to be resourceful and
1:52:21
Speaker 1: inventive in the improvement of his methods. For the builders,
1:52:25
Speaker 1: whether of cathedrals or characters, business or religions, are the
1:52:30
Speaker 1: strong ones of the earth, the protectors and pioneers of humanity.
1:52:35
Speaker 1: The systematic builder is a creator and preserver, while the
1:52:38
Speaker 1: man of disorder demolishes and destroys. And no limit can
1:52:42
Speaker 1: be set to the growth of a man's powers, the
1:52:45
Speaker 1: completeness of his character, the influence of his organization, or
1:52:50
Speaker 1: the extent of his business. If he but preserve intact
1:52:54
Speaker 1: the discipline of order, and have every detail in its place,
1:52:58
Speaker 1: keep every department to its special task, and tabulate and
1:53:02
Speaker 1: classify with such efficiency and perfection as to enable him,
1:53:07
Speaker 1: at any moment to bring under examination or into requisition,
1:53:12
Speaker 1: to the remotest detail, in connection with his special work.
1:53:16
Speaker 1: In systems contained these four ingredients one readiness, two accuracy,
1:53:24
Speaker 1: three utility four comprehensiveness. Readiness is a liveness. It is
1:53:32
Speaker 1: that spirit of alertness by which a situation is immediately
1:53:35
Speaker 1: grasp and dealt with. The Observance of system fosters and
1:53:40
Speaker 1: develops this spirit. The successful general must have the power
1:53:44
Speaker 1: of readily meeting any new and unlook for move on
1:53:47
Speaker 1: the part of the enemy. So every business man must
1:53:51
Speaker 1: have the readiness to deal with any unexpected development affecting
1:53:55
Speaker 1: his line of trade, and so also must the man
1:53:58
Speaker 1: of thought be able to deal with the details of
1:54:01
Speaker 1: any new problems which may arise. Dilatoriness is a vice
1:54:06
Speaker 1: that is fatal to prosperity, for it leads to incompatibility
1:54:10
Speaker 1: and stupidity. The men of ready hands, ready hearts, and
1:54:14
Speaker 1: ready brains, who know what they are doing, do it methodically, skillfully,
1:54:19
Speaker 1: and with smooth yet consummate dispatch. Are the men who
1:54:23
Speaker 1: need to think little of prosperity as an end, for
1:54:26
Speaker 1: it comes to them whether they seek it or not.
1:54:29
Speaker 1: Success runs after them and knocks at their door, and
1:54:32
Speaker 1: they unconsciously command it by the superb excellence of their
1:54:36
Speaker 1: faculties and methods. Accuracy is of supreme importance in all
1:54:41
Speaker 1: commercial concerns and enterprises. But there can be no accuracy
1:54:45
Speaker 1: apart from system, and a system which is more or
1:54:48
Speaker 1: less imperfect will involve its originator in mistakes more or
1:54:53
Speaker 1: less disastrous until he improves it. Inaccuracy is one of
1:54:58
Speaker 1: the commonest failings because accuracy is closely allied to self discipline,
1:55:04
Speaker 1: and self discipline, along with that glad subjection to external
1:55:08
Speaker 1: discipline which it involves, is an indication of high moral
1:55:12
Speaker 1: culture to which the majority have not yet attained. If
1:55:16
Speaker 1: the inaccurate man will not willingly subject himself to the
1:55:20
Speaker 1: discipline of his employer or instructor, but thinks he knows better,
1:55:25
Speaker 1: his failing can never be remedied, and he will thereby
1:55:28
Speaker 1: bind himself down to an inferior position, if in the
1:55:31
Speaker 1: business world, or to imperfect knowledge, if in the world
1:55:35
Speaker 1: of thought. The prevalence of the vice of inaccuracy, and
1:55:40
Speaker 1: in view of its disastrous effect, it must be regarded
1:55:43
Speaker 1: as a vice, though perhaps one of the lesser vices,
1:55:47
Speaker 1: is patent to every observe. In the way in which
1:55:50
Speaker 1: the majority of people relate a circumstance or repeat a
1:55:53
Speaker 1: simple statement of fact, it is nearly always made untrue
1:55:58
Speaker 1: by more or less marked and act accuracies. Few people,
1:56:02
Speaker 1: perhaps not reckoning those who deliberately lie, have trained themselves
1:56:06
Speaker 1: to be accurate in what they say, or are so
1:56:09
Speaker 1: careful as to admit and state their liability to error.
1:56:14
Speaker 1: And from this common form of inaccuracy many untruthsome misunderstandings arise.
1:56:20
Speaker 1: More people take pains to be accurate in what they
1:56:23
Speaker 1: do than in what they say. But even here inaccuracy
1:56:27
Speaker 1: is very common, rendering many inefficient and incompetent, and unfitting
1:56:32
Speaker 1: them for any strenuous and well sustained endeavor. The man
1:56:36
Speaker 1: who habitually uses up a portion of his own or
1:56:39
Speaker 1: his employer's time in trying to correct his errors, or
1:56:43
Speaker 1: for the correction of those mistakes another has to be employed,
1:56:47
Speaker 1: is not the man to maintain any position in the
1:56:49
Speaker 1: workaday world, much less to reach a place among the
1:56:53
Speaker 1: ranks of the prosperous. There never yet lived a man
1:56:56
Speaker 1: who did not make some mistakes on his way to
1:56:59
Speaker 1: his particular success. But he is the capable and right
1:57:02
Speaker 1: minded man who perceives his mistakes and quickly remedies them,
1:57:07
Speaker 1: and who is glad when they are pointed out to him.
1:57:10
Speaker 1: It is habitual and persistent inaccuracy, which is a vice.
1:57:14
Speaker 1: And he is the incapable and wrong minded man who
1:57:17
Speaker 1: will not see or admit his mistakes, and who takes
1:57:20
Speaker 1: offense when they are pointed out to him. The progressive
1:57:24
Speaker 1: man learns by his own mistakes as well as by
1:57:27
Speaker 1: the mistakes of others. He is always ready to test
1:57:30
Speaker 1: good advice by practice, and aims a greater and ever
1:57:33
Speaker 1: greater accuracy in his methods, which means higher and higher perfection,
1:57:39
Speaker 1: For accuracy is perfect, and the measure of a man's
1:57:42
Speaker 1: accuracy will be the measure of his uniqueness and perfection.
1:57:47
Speaker 1: Utility or usefulness, is the direct result of method in
1:57:51
Speaker 1: one's work. Labor arrives at fruitful and profitable ends when
1:57:56
Speaker 1: it is systematically pursued. If the gardener is to gather
1:58:00
Speaker 1: in the best produce, he must not only sow in plant,
1:58:04
Speaker 1: but he must so implant at the right time. And
1:58:07
Speaker 1: if any work is to be fruitful in results, it
1:58:10
Speaker 1: must be done seasonably, and the time for doing a
1:58:14
Speaker 1: thing must not be allowed to pass by. Utility considers
1:58:18
Speaker 1: the practical end and employs the best means to reach
1:58:22
Speaker 1: that end. It avoids side issues, dispenses with theories, and
1:58:27
Speaker 1: retains its hold only on those things which can be
1:58:30
Speaker 1: appropriated to good use in the economy of life. Unpractical
1:58:35
Speaker 1: people burden their minds with useless in unverifiable theories and
1:58:39
Speaker 1: court failure by entertaining speculations which, by their very nature
1:58:44
Speaker 1: cannot be applied in practice. The man whose powers are
1:58:48
Speaker 1: shown in what he does and not in mere talking
1:58:51
Speaker 1: or arguing, avoids metaphysical quibbling and quandaries, and applies himself
1:58:56
Speaker 1: to the accomplishment of some good and useful end. That
1:59:00
Speaker 1: which cannot be reduced to practice should not be allowed
1:59:03
Speaker 1: to hamper the mind. It should be thrown aside, abandoned,
1:59:07
Speaker 1: and ignored. A man recently told me that if his
1:59:11
Speaker 1: theory should be proved to have no useful end, he
1:59:14
Speaker 1: should still retain his hold upon it as a beautiful theory.
1:59:17
Speaker 1: If a man chooses to cling to so called beautiful
1:59:20
Speaker 1: theories which are proved to have no use in life
1:59:24
Speaker 1: and no substantial basis of reality, he must not be
1:59:27
Speaker 1: surprised if he fails in his worldly undertakings, for he
1:59:31
Speaker 1: is an unpractical man. When the powers of mind are
1:59:35
Speaker 1: diverted from speculative theorizing to practical doing, whether in material
1:59:40
Speaker 1: or moral directions, skill, power, knowledge, and prosperity increase. A
1:59:46
Speaker 1: man's prosperity is measured by his usefulness to the community,
1:59:51
Speaker 1: and a man is useful in accordance with what he does,
1:59:54
Speaker 1: and not because of the theories which he entertains. The
1:59:58
Speaker 1: carpenter fashions a chair, the builder erects a house, the
2:00:02
Speaker 1: mechanic produces a machine, and the wise man molds a
2:00:06
Speaker 1: perfect character. Not the schismatic, the theorists, and the controversialists,
2:00:12
Speaker 1: but the workers, the makers, and the doers are the
2:00:16
Speaker 1: salt of the earth. Let a man turn away from
2:00:20
Speaker 1: the mirage of intellectual speculation and begin to do something,
2:00:25
Speaker 1: and to do it with all his might, and he
2:00:27
Speaker 1: will thereby gain a special knowledge, wield a special power,
2:00:32
Speaker 1: and reach his own unique position and prosperity among his fellows.
2:00:36
Speaker 1: Comprehensiveness is that quality of mind which enables a man
2:00:40
Speaker 1: to deal with a large number of related details, to
2:00:43
Speaker 1: grasp them in their entirety, along with the single principle
2:00:47
Speaker 1: which governs them and binds them together. It is a
2:00:50
Speaker 1: masterly quality, giving organizing and governing power, and is developed
2:00:55
Speaker 1: by systematic attention to details. The successful merchant holds in
2:01:00
Speaker 1: his mind, as it were, all the details of his business,
2:01:04
Speaker 1: and regulates them by a system adapted to his particular
2:01:08
Speaker 1: form of trade. The inventor has in his mind all
2:01:12
Speaker 1: the details of his machine, along with their relation to
2:01:16
Speaker 1: a central mechanical principle, and so perfects his invention. The
2:01:21
Speaker 1: author of a great poem or story relates all his
2:01:24
Speaker 1: characters and incidents to a central plot, and so produces
2:01:28
Speaker 1: a composite and enduring literary work. Comprehensiveness is analytic and
2:01:34
Speaker 1: synthetic capacity combined in the same individual. A capacious and
2:01:40
Speaker 1: well ordered mind holds within its silent depths an army
2:01:45
Speaker 1: of details in their proper arrangement, and true working order
2:01:49
Speaker 1: is the mind that is near to genius, even if
2:01:52
Speaker 1: it has not already arrived. A man cannot be a genius,
2:01:56
Speaker 1: nor does he need to be, But he can be
2:01:58
Speaker 1: gradually evolving his mental capacity by careful attention to system
2:02:03
Speaker 1: in his thoughts and business, and as his intellect depends
2:02:07
Speaker 1: and broadens, his powers will be intensified in his prosperity accentuated,
2:02:14
Speaker 1: such then are the four corner pillars in the temple
2:02:16
Speaker 1: of prosperity, and of themselves they are sufficient to permanently
2:02:21
Speaker 1: sustain it without the addition of the remaining four. The
2:02:25
Speaker 1: man who perfects himself in energy, economy, integrity, and system
2:02:30
Speaker 1: will achieve an enduring success in the work of his life,
2:02:34
Speaker 1: no matter what the nature of that work. May be,
2:02:38
Speaker 1: it is impossible for one to fail who is full
2:02:40
Speaker 1: of energy, who carefully economizes his time and money, and
2:02:44
Speaker 1: virtuously husbands his vitality, who practices unswerving integrity, and who
2:02:51
Speaker 1: systematizes his work by first systematizing his mind. Such a
2:02:56
Speaker 1: man's efforts will be rightly directed and with concentrated power,
2:03:02
Speaker 1: so that they will be effective and fruitful. In addition,
2:03:06
Speaker 1: he will reach a manliness and an independent dignity, which
2:03:09
Speaker 1: will unconsciously command respect and success, and will strengthen weaker
2:03:14
Speaker 1: ones by its very presence in their midst Seest thou
2:03:18
Speaker 1: a man diligent in business, he shall stand before kings.
2:03:22
Speaker 1: He shall not stand before mean men, says Scripture. Of
2:03:26
Speaker 1: such a one. He will not beg or whimper, or
2:03:29
Speaker 1: complain or cynically blame others, but will be too strong
2:03:33
Speaker 1: and pure and upright a man to sink himself so low,
2:03:38
Speaker 1: and so standing high in the nobility and integrity of
2:03:40
Speaker 1: his character, he will fill a high place in the
2:03:43
Speaker 1: world in the estimation of men. His success will be certain,
2:03:48
Speaker 1: and his prosperity will endure. He will stand and not
2:03:52
Speaker 1: fall in the battle of life. Sympathy the remaining pillars
2:03:58
Speaker 1: are the four central pillars in the temple of prosperity.
2:04:01
Speaker 1: They give it greater strength and stability, and add both
2:04:05
Speaker 1: to its beauty and utility. They contribute greatly to its attractiveness,
2:04:10
Speaker 1: for they belong to the highest moral sphere, and therefore
2:04:13
Speaker 1: to great beauty and nobility of character. They indeed make
2:04:18
Speaker 1: a man great, and place him among the comparatively few,
2:04:21
Speaker 1: whose minds are rare and that shine apart in sparkling
2:04:25
Speaker 1: purity and bright intelligence. Sympathy should not be confounded with
2:04:30
Speaker 1: that maudlin and superficial sentiment, which, like a pretty flower
2:04:34
Speaker 1: without root, presently perishes and leaves behind neither seed nor fruit.
2:04:40
Speaker 1: To fall into hysterics about some suffering abroad is not sympathy.
2:04:46
Speaker 1: Neither are bursts of violent indignation against the cruelties and
2:04:50
Speaker 1: injustices of others any indication of a sympathetic mind. If
2:04:55
Speaker 1: one is cruel at home, if he badgers his wife,
2:04:58
Speaker 1: or beats his children, or abuses his servants, or stabs
2:05:03
Speaker 1: his neighbors with shafts of bitter sarcasm, what hypocrisy is
2:05:08
Speaker 1: his profession of love for the suffering people who are
2:05:11
Speaker 1: outside the immediate range of his influence. What shallow sentiment
2:05:16
Speaker 1: informs his bursts of indignation against the injustice and hard
2:05:20
Speaker 1: heartedness in the world around him, says Emerson, of such,
2:05:26
Speaker 1: go love, thy infant love, thy wood chopper, Be good
2:05:30
Speaker 1: natured and modest, have that grace, and never varnish your hard,
2:05:35
Speaker 1: uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness. For black folk a
2:05:39
Speaker 1: thousand miles off thy love afar is spite at home.
2:05:44
Speaker 1: The test of a man is in his immediate acts,
2:05:48
Speaker 1: not in ultra sentiments. And if those acts are consistently
2:05:52
Speaker 1: informed with selfishness and bitterness, if those at home hear
2:05:56
Speaker 1: his steps with dread and feel a joyful relief on
2:05:59
Speaker 1: his departure, how empty are his expressions of sympathy for
2:06:03
Speaker 1: the suffering or downtrodden. How futile his membership of a
2:06:07
Speaker 1: philanthropic society. Though the well of sympathy may feed the
2:06:12
Speaker 1: spring of tears, that spring more often draws its supply
2:06:16
Speaker 1: from the dark pool of selfishness, For when selfishness is thwarted,
2:06:20
Speaker 1: it spends itself in tears. Sympathy is a deep, silent,
2:06:25
Speaker 1: inexpressible tenderness, which is shown in a consistently self forgetful,
2:06:30
Speaker 1: gentle character. Sympathetic people are not gushing and spasmodic, but
2:06:35
Speaker 1: are permanently self restrained, firm, quiet, unassuming, and gracious. Their
2:06:42
Speaker 1: undisturbed demure where the suffering of others is concerned, is
2:06:47
Speaker 1: frequently mistaken for indifference by shallow minds, but the sympathetic
2:06:51
Speaker 1: and discerning eye recognizes in their quiet strength and their
2:06:56
Speaker 1: swiftness to aid while others are weeping and wringing their
2:06:59
Speaker 1: hands the deepest, soundest sympathy. Lack of sympathy is shown
2:07:05
Speaker 1: in cynicism, ill nature, sarcasm, bitter ridicule, taunting in mockery,
2:07:12
Speaker 1: and anger in condemnation, as well as in that morbid
2:07:16
Speaker 1: and fulse sentiment which is a theoretical and assumes sympathy,
2:07:20
Speaker 1: having no basis in practice. Lack of sympathy arises in egotism.
2:07:26
Speaker 1: Sympathy arises in love. Egotism is involved in ignorance. Love
2:07:32
Speaker 1: is allied to knowledge. It is common with men to
2:07:35
Speaker 1: imagine themselves as separate from their fellows, with separate aims
2:07:39
Speaker 1: and interests, and to regard themselves as right and others
2:07:43
Speaker 1: wrong in their respective ways. Sympathy lifts a man above
2:07:48
Speaker 1: this separate and self centered life, and enables him to
2:07:51
Speaker 1: live in the hearts of his fellows and to think
2:07:54
Speaker 1: and feel with them. He puts himself in their place
2:07:58
Speaker 1: and becomes, for the time being as they are, as witmen.
2:08:03
Speaker 1: The hospital hero expresses it, I do not ask the
2:08:07
Speaker 1: wounded person. It is a kind of impertinence to question
2:08:11
Speaker 1: a suffering creature. Suffering calls for aid and tenderness, not
2:08:16
Speaker 1: for curiosity, and the sympathetic man or woman feels the
2:08:20
Speaker 1: suffering and ministers to its alleviation. Nor can sympathy boast,
2:08:26
Speaker 1: And wherever self praise enters in, sympathy passes out. If
2:08:31
Speaker 1: one speaks of his many deeds of kindness and complains
2:08:34
Speaker 1: of the ill treatment he has received in return, he
2:08:37
Speaker 1: has not done kindly deeds, but has yet to reach
2:08:41
Speaker 1: that self forgetful modesty, which is the sweetness of sympathy. Sympathy,
2:08:47
Speaker 1: in its real and profound sense, is oneness with others
2:08:51
Speaker 1: in their strivings and sufferings, so that the man of
2:08:54
Speaker 1: sympathy is a composite being. He is, as it were,
2:08:59
Speaker 1: a number of men, and he views a thing from
2:09:01
Speaker 1: a number of different sides, and not from one side only,
2:09:05
Speaker 1: and that his own particular side. He sees with other
2:09:09
Speaker 1: men's eyes, hears with their ears, thinks with their minds,
2:09:14
Speaker 1: and feels with their hearts. He is thus able to
2:09:18
Speaker 1: understand men who are vastly different from himself. The meaning
2:09:22
Speaker 1: of their lives is revealed to him, and he is
2:09:25
Speaker 1: united to them in the spirit of good will, said Balzac.
2:09:30
Speaker 1: The poor fascinate me. Their hunger is my hunger. I
2:09:34
Speaker 1: am with them in their homes, their privations, I suffer,
2:09:38
Speaker 1: I feel the beggar's rags upon my back. I for
2:09:42
Speaker 1: the time become the poor and despised man. It reminds
2:09:46
Speaker 1: us of the saying of one greater than Balzac, that
2:09:49
Speaker 1: a deed done for a suffering little one was done
2:09:52
Speaker 1: for him. And so it is. Sympathy leads us to
2:09:56
Speaker 1: the hearts of all men, so that we become spit
2:10:00
Speaker 1: virtually united to them. And when they suffer, we feel
2:10:03
Speaker 1: the pain. When they are glad, we rejoice with them.
2:10:07
Speaker 1: When they are despised and persecuted. We spiritually descend with
2:10:11
Speaker 1: them into the depths and take into our hearts their
2:10:14
Speaker 1: humiliation and distress. And he who has this binding, uniting
2:10:19
Speaker 1: spirit of sympathy can never be cynical and condemnatory, can
2:10:24
Speaker 1: never pass thoughtless and cruel judgments upon his fellows, because
2:10:29
Speaker 1: in his tenderness of heart he is ever with them
2:10:32
Speaker 1: in their pain. But to have reached this ripened sympathy,
2:10:36
Speaker 1: it must be that one has loved much, suffered much,
2:10:40
Speaker 1: and sounded the dark depths of sorrow. It springs from
2:10:44
Speaker 1: acquaintance with the profoundest experiences, so that a man has
2:10:49
Speaker 1: had conceit thoughtlessness and selfishness burnt out of his heart.
2:10:55
Speaker 1: No man can have true sympathy who has not been,
2:10:58
Speaker 1: in some measure at least a man of sorrows and
2:11:02
Speaker 1: acquainted with grief. But the sorrow and grief must have passed,
2:11:07
Speaker 1: must have ripened into a fixed kindness and habitual calm.
2:11:11
Speaker 1: To have suffered so much in a certain direction that
2:11:14
Speaker 1: suffering is finished and only its particular wisdom remains enables
2:11:20
Speaker 1: one wherever that suffering presents itself, to understand and deal
2:11:25
Speaker 1: with it by pure sympathy. And when one has been
2:11:28
Speaker 1: perfected by suffering in many directions, he becomes a center
2:11:32
Speaker 1: of rest and healing for the sorrowing and broken hearted
2:11:36
Speaker 1: who are afflicted with the afflictions which he has experienced
2:11:40
Speaker 1: and conquered. As a mother feels the anguish of her
2:11:43
Speaker 1: suffering child, so the man of sympathy feels the anguish
2:11:47
Speaker 1: of suffering men. Such is the highest and holiest sympathy.
2:11:52
Speaker 1: But a sympathy much less perfect, is a great power
2:11:55
Speaker 1: for good in human life, and a measure of it
2:11:58
Speaker 1: everywhere in every day is needed. While rejoicing in the
2:12:02
Speaker 1: fact that in every walk of life there are truly
2:12:05
Speaker 1: sympathetic people, one also perceives that harshness, resentment, and cruelty
2:12:12
Speaker 1: that are all too common. These hard qualities bring their
2:12:16
Speaker 1: own sufferings, and there are those who fail in their
2:12:19
Speaker 1: business or particular work entirely because of the harshness of
2:12:24
Speaker 1: their disposition. A man who is fiery and resentful, or
2:12:28
Speaker 1: who is hard, cold and calculating, with the springs of
2:12:32
Speaker 1: sympathy dried up within him, even though he be otherwise
2:12:36
Speaker 1: an able man, will in the end scarcely avoid disaster
2:12:41
Speaker 1: in his affairs. His heated folly in the one case,
2:12:45
Speaker 1: or cold cruelty in the other, will gradually isolate him
2:12:49
Speaker 1: from his fellows and from those who are immediately related
2:12:52
Speaker 1: to him. In his particular avocation, so that the elements
2:12:56
Speaker 1: of prosperity will be eliminated from his life, leaving him
2:13:00
Speaker 1: with a lonely failure and perhaps a hopeless despair. Even
2:13:05
Speaker 1: in ordinary business transactions, sympathy is an important factor, for
2:13:10
Speaker 1: people will always be attracted to those who are of
2:13:13
Speaker 1: a kindly and genial nature, preferring to deal with them
2:13:17
Speaker 1: rather than with those who are hard and forbidding. In
2:13:20
Speaker 1: all spheres where direct personal contact plays an important part,
2:13:25
Speaker 1: the sympathetic man with average ability will always take precedence
2:13:29
Speaker 1: of the man of greater ability, but who is unsympathetic.
2:13:33
Speaker 1: If a man be a minister of clergymen, a cruel
2:13:37
Speaker 1: laugh or an unkind sentence from him will seriously injure
2:13:41
Speaker 1: his reputation and influence, but particularly his influence, for even
2:13:47
Speaker 1: they who admire his good qualities will, through his unkindness
2:13:52
Speaker 1: unconsciously have a lower regard for him in their personal esteem.
2:13:56
Speaker 1: If a business man professes religion, people will excite to
2:14:00
Speaker 1: see the good influence of that religion on his business transactions,
2:14:05
Speaker 1: to profess to be a worshiper of the Gentle Jesus
2:14:07
Speaker 1: on Sunday and all the rest of the week be
2:14:10
Speaker 1: a hard grasping worshiper of Mammon will injure his trade
2:14:15
Speaker 1: and detract considerably from his prosperity. Sympathy is a universal
2:14:20
Speaker 1: spiritual language which all, even the animals, instinctively understand and appreciate,
2:14:27
Speaker 1: For all beings and creatures are subject to suffering, and
2:14:30
Speaker 1: this sameness of painful experience leads to that unity of
2:14:34
Speaker 1: feeling which we call sympathy. Selfishness impels men to protect
2:14:39
Speaker 1: themselves at the expense of others, but sympathy impels them
2:14:43
Speaker 1: to protect others by the sacrifice of self. And in
2:14:48
Speaker 1: this sacrifice of self there is no real and ultimate loss.
2:14:52
Speaker 1: For while the pleasure of selfishness are small and few,
2:14:56
Speaker 1: the blessings of sympathy are great and manifold. It can
2:15:01
Speaker 1: be asked, how can a business man whose object is
2:15:05
Speaker 1: to develop his own trade practice self sacrifice? Every man
2:15:10
Speaker 1: can practice self sacrifice just where he is, and in
2:15:13
Speaker 1: the measure that he is capable of understanding it. If
2:15:17
Speaker 1: one contends that he cannot practice a virtue, for were
2:15:21
Speaker 1: his circumstances different, he would still have the same excuse.
2:15:26
Speaker 1: Diligence in business is not incompatible with self sacrifice, for
2:15:31
Speaker 1: devotion to duty, even though that duty betrayed, is not selfishness,
2:15:36
Speaker 1: but may be an unselfish devotion. I know a business
2:15:40
Speaker 1: man who, when a competitor who had tried to cut
2:15:43
Speaker 1: him out of business, cut himself out and failed, set
2:15:47
Speaker 1: that same competitor up in business again. Truly a beautiful
2:15:51
Speaker 1: act of self sacrifice, and the man that did it
2:15:55
Speaker 1: is to day one of the most successful and prosperous
2:15:58
Speaker 1: of business men. The most prosperous commercial traveler I have
2:16:02
Speaker 1: ever known, was overflowing with exuberant kindness and geniality. He
2:16:07
Speaker 1: was as innocent of all tricks of trade as a
2:16:10
Speaker 1: newborn infant, but his great heart and manly uprightness won
2:16:15
Speaker 1: for him fast friends. Wherever he went, men were glad
2:16:19
Speaker 1: to see him come into their office or shop or mill,
2:16:22
Speaker 1: and not alone for the good, embracing influence he brought
2:16:25
Speaker 1: with him, but also because his business was sound and trustworthy.
2:16:31
Speaker 1: This man was successful through sheer sympathy, but sympathy so
2:16:35
Speaker 1: pure and free from policy, that he himself would probably
2:16:39
Speaker 1: have denied that his success could be attributed to it.
2:16:43
Speaker 1: Sympathy can never hinder success. It is selfishness that blights
2:16:47
Speaker 1: and destroys. As good will increases, man's prosperity will increase.
2:16:54
Speaker 1: All interests are mutual and stand or fall together. And
2:16:58
Speaker 1: as sympathy expands the hut Art, it extends the circle
2:17:02
Speaker 1: of influence, making blessings, both spiritual and material, to more
2:17:07
Speaker 1: greatly abound. Fourfold are the qualities which make up the
2:17:11
Speaker 1: great virtue of sympathy, namely one kindness, two generosity, three gentleness,
2:17:22
Speaker 1: four insight. Kindness, when fully developed, is not a passing impulse,
2:17:29
Speaker 1: but a permanent quality. An intermittent and unreliable impulse is
2:17:33
Speaker 1: not kindness, though it often goes under that name. There
2:17:37
Speaker 1: is no kindness in praise if it be followed by abuse.
2:17:41
Speaker 1: The love which seems to prompt the spontaneous kiss will
2:17:45
Speaker 1: be of little account if it be associated with a
2:17:48
Speaker 1: spontaneous spite. The gift, which seems so gracious will lose
2:17:53
Speaker 1: its value, should the giver afterwards wish its value in return.
2:17:58
Speaker 1: To have one's feelings aroused, to do a kind action
2:18:01
Speaker 1: toward another by some external stimulus, pleasing to oneself, and
2:18:05
Speaker 1: shortly afterwards to be swayed to the other extreme towards
2:18:09
Speaker 1: the same person by an external event unpleasing to oneself
2:18:14
Speaker 1: should be regarded as weakness of character. It is also
2:18:17
Speaker 1: a selfish condition to be thinking of oneself only. A
2:18:22
Speaker 1: true kindness is unchangeable and needs no external stimulus to
2:18:26
Speaker 1: force it into action. It is a well from which
2:18:29
Speaker 1: thirsty souls can always drink, and it never runs dry. Kindness,
2:18:35
Speaker 1: when it is a strong virtue, is bestowed not only
2:18:39
Speaker 1: on those who please us, but also upon those whose
2:18:42
Speaker 1: actions go contrary to our wish and will, and is
2:18:46
Speaker 1: a constant and never varying glow of genial warmth. There
2:18:50
Speaker 1: are some actions of which men repent, such are all
2:18:53
Speaker 1: unkind actions. There are other actions of which men do
2:18:58
Speaker 1: not repent, and such are all kind actions. The day
2:19:02
Speaker 1: comes when men are sorry for the cruel things they
2:19:05
Speaker 1: said and did, but the day of gladness is always
2:19:08
Speaker 1: with them for the kindly things they have said and done.
2:19:12
Speaker 1: Unkindness mars a man's character. It mars his face as
2:19:16
Speaker 1: time goes on, and it mars that perfection of success
2:19:20
Speaker 1: which he would otherwise reach. Kindness beautifies the character, It
2:19:25
Speaker 1: beautifies the face with the growth of years, and it
2:19:29
Speaker 1: enables a man to reach that perfection of success to
2:19:32
Speaker 1: which his intellectual abilities entitle him. A man's prosperity is
2:19:37
Speaker 1: mellowed and enriched by the kindness of his disposition. Generosity
2:19:42
Speaker 1: goes with a larger hearted kindness. If kindness be the
2:19:46
Speaker 1: gentle sister, generosity is the strong brother. A free, open handed,
2:19:53
Speaker 1: and magnanimous character is always attractive and influential. Stinginess and
2:19:59
Speaker 1: meanness always repel. They are dark, cramped, narrow and cold.
2:20:05
Speaker 1: Kindness and generosity always attract. They are sunny, genial, open
2:20:10
Speaker 1: and warm. That which repels makes for isolation and failure.
2:20:15
Speaker 1: That which attracts makes for union and success. Giving is
2:20:20
Speaker 1: as important a duty as getting, and he who gets
2:20:24
Speaker 1: all he can and refuses to give, will at last
2:20:28
Speaker 1: be unable to get. For it is as much a
2:20:31
Speaker 1: spiritual law that we cannot get unless we give, as
2:20:35
Speaker 1: that we cannot give unless we get. Giving has always
2:20:39
Speaker 1: been taught as a great and important duty by all
2:20:41
Speaker 1: religious teachers. This is because giving is one of the
2:20:45
Speaker 1: high ways of personal growth and progress. It is a
2:20:49
Speaker 1: means by which we attain to greater and greater unselfishness,
2:20:53
Speaker 1: and by which we prevent the falling back into selfishness.
2:20:57
Speaker 1: It implies that we recognize our spiritual and social kinship
2:21:01
Speaker 1: with our fellow men, and are willing to part with
2:21:04
Speaker 1: a position of that which we have earned or possess.
2:21:07
Speaker 1: For a man who the more he gets, hungers for
2:21:11
Speaker 1: more still and refuses to loosen his grasp upon his
2:21:15
Speaker 1: accumulating store, like a wild beast with its prey, is retrogressing.
2:21:21
Speaker 1: He is shutting himself out from all the higher joy
2:21:23
Speaker 1: giving qualities and from free in life giving communion with unselfish,
2:21:29
Speaker 1: happy human hearts. Dickinson, Scrooge and a Christmas Carol represents
2:21:34
Speaker 1: the condition of such a man with graphic vividness and
2:21:37
Speaker 1: dramatic force. Our public men in England today, probably also
2:21:43
Speaker 1: in America, are nearly all I think I might say all,
2:21:47
Speaker 1: for I have not yet met an exception great givers.
2:21:52
Speaker 1: These men lord mayors, mayors, magistrates, town and city councilors,
2:21:59
Speaker 1: and all men fulfilling responsible public offices. Being men who
2:22:03
Speaker 1: have been singularly successful in the management of their own
2:22:07
Speaker 1: private affairs, are considered the best men for the management
2:22:11
Speaker 1: of public affairs, and numerous noble institutions throughout the land
2:22:16
Speaker 1: are perpetual witnesses to the munificence of their gifts. Nor
2:22:20
Speaker 1: have I been able to find any substantial truth and
2:22:23
Speaker 1: accusation so often hurled against such men by the envious
2:22:27
Speaker 1: and unsuccessful, that their riches are made unjustly without being
2:22:33
Speaker 1: perfect men. They are an honorable class of manly, vigorous, generous,
2:22:39
Speaker 1: and successful men who have acquired riches and honor by sheer, industry, ability,
2:22:44
Speaker 1: and uprightness. Let a man beware of greed, of meanness,
2:22:50
Speaker 1: of envy, of jealousy, of suspicion. For these things, if harbored,
2:22:56
Speaker 1: will rob him of all that is best in life,
2:23:00
Speaker 1: all that is best in material things, as well as
2:23:03
Speaker 1: all that is best in character and happiness. Let him
2:23:07
Speaker 1: be liberal of heart and generous of hand, magnanimous and trusting,
2:23:12
Speaker 1: not only giving cheerfully and often of his substance, but
2:23:16
Speaker 1: allowing his friends and fellow men freedom of thought and action.
2:23:20
Speaker 1: Let him be thus, and honor, plenty and prosperity will
2:23:24
Speaker 1: come knocking at the door for admittance as his friends
2:23:27
Speaker 1: and guests. Gentleness is akin to divinity. Perhaps no quality
2:23:33
Speaker 1: is so far removed from all that is coarse, brutal,
2:23:36
Speaker 1: and selfish as gentleness, so that when one is becoming gentle,
2:23:40
Speaker 1: he is becoming divine. It can only be acquired after
2:23:44
Speaker 1: much experience and through great self discipline. It only becomes
2:23:49
Speaker 1: established in a man's heart when he has controlled and
2:23:52
Speaker 1: brought into subjection his animal voice, a distinct, firm but
2:23:57
Speaker 1: quiet annunciation, and freedom from a excitement, vehemence, or resentment
2:24:03
Speaker 1: in particularly aggravating circumstances. If there is one quality which,
2:24:09
Speaker 1: above all others should distinguish the religious man, it is
2:24:13
Speaker 1: the quality of gentleness. For it is the hall mark
2:24:16
Speaker 1: of spiritual culture. The rudely aggressive man is an affront
2:24:21
Speaker 1: to cultivated minds and unselfish hearts. Our word gentleman has
2:24:27
Speaker 1: not altogether departed from its original meaning. It is still
2:24:31
Speaker 1: applied to one who is modest and self restrained, who
2:24:35
Speaker 1: is considerate for the feelings and welfare of others. A
2:24:39
Speaker 1: gentleman whose good behavior is prompted by thoughtfulness and kindliness,
2:24:44
Speaker 1: is always loved, whatever may be his origin. Quarrelsome people
2:24:49
Speaker 1: make a display in their bickering and recriminations of their
2:24:53
Speaker 1: ignorance and lack of culture. The man who has perfected
2:24:57
Speaker 1: himself in gentleness never quarrels. He never returns the hard word.
2:25:02
Speaker 1: He leaves it alone, or meets it with a gentle word,
2:25:06
Speaker 1: which is far more powerful than wrath. Gentleness is wedded
2:25:10
Speaker 1: to wisdom, and the wise man has overcome all anger
2:25:14
Speaker 1: in himself, and so understands how to overcome it in others.
2:25:19
Speaker 1: The gentleman is saved from most of the disturbances and
2:25:22
Speaker 1: turmoils with which uncontrolled men afflict themselves. While they are
2:25:27
Speaker 1: wearing themselves out with wasteful and needless strain, he is
2:25:31
Speaker 1: quiet and composed, and such quietness and composure are strong
2:25:36
Speaker 1: to win in the battle of life. Insight is the
2:25:40
Speaker 1: gift of sympathy. The sympathetic mind is the profoundly perceiving mind.
2:25:46
Speaker 1: We understand by experience and not by argument. Before we
2:25:50
Speaker 1: can know a thing or being, our life must touch
2:25:54
Speaker 1: it or his life. Argument analyzes the outer skin, but
2:25:59
Speaker 1: sympathy to the heart. The cynics sees the hat and
2:26:03
Speaker 1: coat and thinks he sees the man. The sympathetic seer
2:26:07
Speaker 1: sees the man and is not concerned with the hat
2:26:10
Speaker 1: and coat. In all kinds of hatred, there is a
2:26:14
Speaker 1: separation by which each misjudges the other. In all kinds
2:26:19
Speaker 1: of love, there is a mystic union by which each
2:26:23
Speaker 1: knows the other. Sympathy, being the purest form of this
2:26:27
Speaker 1: the greatest poet, because he has the largest heart. No
2:26:32
Speaker 1: other figure in all literature has shown such a profound
2:26:35
Speaker 1: knowledge of the human heart and of nature, both animate
2:26:39
Speaker 1: and inanimate. The personal Shakespeare is not to be found
2:26:43
Speaker 1: in his works. He is merged by sympathy into his characters,
2:26:49
Speaker 1: the wise man in the Philosopher, the madman in the Fool,
2:26:53
Speaker 1: the drunkard in the Harlot. These he, for the time,
2:26:57
Speaker 1: into their particular experiences, knew them better than they knew themselves.
2:27:03
Speaker 1: Shakespeare has no partiality, no prejudice. His sympathy embraces all,
2:27:09
Speaker 1: from the lowest to the highest. Prejudice is the great
2:27:13
Speaker 1: barrier to sympathy and knowledge. It is impossible to understand
2:27:17
Speaker 1: those against whom one harbors a prejudice. We only see
2:27:21
Speaker 1: men and things as they are. When we divest our
2:27:24
Speaker 1: minds of partial judgments, we become seers as we become sympathizers.
2:27:30
Speaker 1: Sympathy has knowledge for her companion. Inseparable are the feeling
2:27:35
Speaker 1: heart and the seeing eye. The man of pity is
2:27:39
Speaker 1: the man of prophecy, he whose heart beats in tune
2:27:42
Speaker 1: with all hearts. To him the contents of all hearts
2:27:46
Speaker 1: are revealed, nor are past in future any longer insoluble mysteries.
2:27:51
Speaker 1: To the man of sympathy, his moral insight apprehends the
2:27:55
Speaker 1: perfect round of human life. Sympathetic insight lifts a man
2:28:00
Speaker 1: into the consciousness of freedom, gladness, and power, His spirit
2:28:04
Speaker 1: inhales joy as his lungs inhale heir. There are no
2:28:08
Speaker 1: longer any fears of his fellow men, of competition, hard times, enemies,
2:28:14
Speaker 1: and the like. These groveling illusions have disappeared, and there
2:28:19
Speaker 1: has opened up before his awakened vision a realm of
2:28:22
Speaker 1: greatness and grandeur, sincerity. Human society is held together by
2:28:29
Speaker 1: its sincerity. A universal falseness would beget a universal mistrust,
2:28:36
Speaker 1: which would bring about a universal separation, if not destruction.
2:28:41
Speaker 1: Life is made sane, wholesome, and happy by our deep
2:28:45
Speaker 1: rooted belief in one another. If we did not trust men,
2:28:50
Speaker 1: we could not transact business with them, could not even
2:28:53
Speaker 1: associate with them. Shakespeare's timun shows us the wretch condition
2:28:59
Speaker 1: of a man who, through his own folly, has lost
2:29:02
Speaker 1: all faith in the sincerity of human nature. He cuts
2:29:06
Speaker 1: himself off from the company of all men, and finally
2:29:10
Speaker 1: commits suicide. Emerson has said something to the effect that
2:29:15
Speaker 1: if the trust system were withdrawn from commerce, society would
2:29:18
Speaker 1: fall to pieces, that system being an indication of the
2:29:22
Speaker 1: universal confidence men place in each other. Business, commonly supposed
2:29:29
Speaker 1: by the short sighted and foolish to be all fraud
2:29:32
Speaker 1: and deception, is based on great trust, a trust that
2:29:36
Speaker 1: men will meet and fulfill their obligations. Payment is not
2:29:41
Speaker 1: asked until the goods are delivered, and the fact of
2:29:44
Speaker 1: the continuance of this system for ages proves that most
2:29:48
Speaker 1: men do pay their debts and have no wish to
2:29:50
Speaker 1: avoid such payment. Back of all its shortcomings, human society
2:29:56
Speaker 1: rests on a strong basis of truth. Its fundamental note
2:30:00
Speaker 1: is sincerity. Its great leaders are all men of superlative sincerity,
2:30:05
Speaker 1: and their names and achievements are not allowed to perish,
2:30:09
Speaker 1: a proof that the virtue of sincerity is admired by
2:30:12
Speaker 1: all the race. It is easy for the insincere to
2:30:16
Speaker 1: imagine that everyone is like themselves and to speak of
2:30:20
Speaker 1: the rottenness of society, though how could a rotten thing
2:30:24
Speaker 1: endure age after age? For is not everything yellow to
2:30:28
Speaker 1: the jaundiced eye. People who cannot see anything good in
2:30:32
Speaker 1: the constitution of human society should overhaul themselves. Their trouble
2:30:38
Speaker 1: is near home. They call good evil. They have dwelt
2:30:42
Speaker 1: cynically and peevishly on evil until they cannot seek good,
2:30:46
Speaker 1: and everything in everybody appears evil. Society is rotten from
2:30:51
Speaker 1: top to bottom. I heard a man say recently, and
2:30:54
Speaker 1: he asked me if I did not think so. I
2:30:57
Speaker 1: replied that I should be sorry to think so, that
2:31:00
Speaker 1: while society has many blemishes, it was sound at the core,
2:31:05
Speaker 1: and contained within itself the seeds of perfection. Society, indeed,
2:31:11
Speaker 1: is so sound that the man who is playing a
2:31:13
Speaker 1: part for the accomplishment of entirely selfish ends cannot long
2:31:18
Speaker 1: prosper and cannot fill any place as an influence. He
2:31:22
Speaker 1: is soon unmasked. And the fact that such a man can,
2:31:26
Speaker 1: for a brief period batten on human credulity speaks well
2:31:31
Speaker 1: for the trustfulness of men, if it reveals their lack
2:31:35
Speaker 1: of wisdom. An accomplished actor on the stage is admired
2:31:40
Speaker 1: with the designing actor on the stage of life brings
2:31:43
Speaker 1: himself down to ignomy and contempt. In striving to appear
2:31:47
Speaker 1: what he is not. He becomes as one having no individuality,
2:31:51
Speaker 1: no character, and he is deprived of all influence, all power,
2:31:56
Speaker 1: all success. A man of profound sins Sincerity is a
2:32:01
Speaker 1: great moral force, and there is no force, not even
2:32:05
Speaker 1: the highest intellectual force, that can compare with it. Men
2:32:09
Speaker 1: are powerful in influence according to the soundness and perfection
2:32:14
Speaker 1: of their sincerity. Morality and sincerity are so closely bound
2:32:19
Speaker 1: up together that where sincerity is lacking, morality as a
2:32:24
Speaker 1: power is lacking. Also, for insincerity undermines all the other virtues,
2:32:31
Speaker 1: so that they crumble away and become of no account.
2:32:34
Speaker 1: Even a little insincerity robs a character of all its
2:32:38
Speaker 1: nobility and makes it common and contemptible. Falseness is so
2:32:43
Speaker 1: despicable of vice, and no man of moral weight can
2:32:47
Speaker 1: afford to dally with petty compliments, or play the fool
2:32:50
Speaker 1: with trivial and howsoever light in order to please. And
2:32:54
Speaker 1: he is no longer strong and admirable, but has become
2:32:58
Speaker 1: a shallow weakling, whose mind has no deep well of
2:33:01
Speaker 1: power from which men can draw, and no satisfying richness
2:33:05
Speaker 1: to stir them in a worshipful regard, even they who
2:33:09
Speaker 1: are for the moment flattered with a pained lie or
2:33:12
Speaker 1: pleased with the deaftly woven deception will not escape those permanent,
2:33:17
Speaker 1: undercurrent influences which move the heart and shape the judgment
2:33:21
Speaker 1: to fixed and final issues, while these designed illusions create
2:33:26
Speaker 1: but momentary ripples on the surface of the mind. I
2:33:29
Speaker 1: am very pleased with his attentions, said a woman of
2:33:33
Speaker 1: an acquaintance, but I would not marry him. Why not?
2:33:36
Speaker 1: She was asked, he doesn't ring true? Was the reply?
2:33:42
Speaker 1: Ring true? A term full of meaning. It has reference
2:33:46
Speaker 1: to the coin, which, when tested by its ring amidst
2:33:50
Speaker 1: a sound which reveals the sterling metal throughout, without the
2:33:54
Speaker 1: admixture of any base material, it comes up to the
2:33:58
Speaker 1: standard and will pass anywhere and everywhere for its full value.
2:34:04
Speaker 1: So it is with men, their words and actions emit
2:34:07
Speaker 1: their own peculiar influence. There is in them in an
2:34:11
Speaker 1: audible sound which all other men inwardly hear and instinctively detect.
2:34:17
Speaker 1: They know the faults ring from the true, yet know
2:34:20
Speaker 1: not how they know. As the outer ear can make
2:34:24
Speaker 1: the most delicate distinctions and sounds, so the inner ear
2:34:28
Speaker 1: can make equally subtle distinctions between souls. None are ultimately deceived,
2:34:34
Speaker 1: but the deceiver. It is the blind folly of the insincere,
2:34:39
Speaker 1: that while flattering themselves upon their successful simulations, they are
2:34:43
Speaker 1: deceiving none but themselves. Their actions are laid bare before
2:34:48
Speaker 1: all hearts. There is at the heart of man a
2:34:52
Speaker 1: tribunal whose judgments do not miscarry. If the senses faultlessly detect,
2:34:59
Speaker 1: show not the soul infallibly know. This inner infallibility is
2:35:03
Speaker 1: shown in the collective judgment of the race. This judgment
2:35:07
Speaker 1: is perfect, so perfect in literature, art, science, invention, religion.
2:35:14
Speaker 1: In every department of knowledge, it divides the good from
2:35:18
Speaker 1: the bad, the worthy from the unworthy, the true from
2:35:22
Speaker 1: the false, zealously guarding and preserving the former and allowing
2:35:26
Speaker 1: the latter to perish. The works, words, and deeds of
2:35:30
Speaker 1: great men are the heirlooms of the race, and the
2:35:33
Speaker 1: race is not careless of their value. A thousand men
2:35:37
Speaker 1: write a book, and only one is a work of
2:35:40
Speaker 1: original genius. Yet the race singles out that one, elevates
2:35:45
Speaker 1: and preserves it, while it consigns the nine hundred and
2:35:49
Speaker 1: ninety nine copyists to oblivion. Ten thousand men utter a
2:35:54
Speaker 1: sentence under a similar circumstance, and only one is a
2:35:58
Speaker 1: sentence of divine wisdom. Yet the race singles out that
2:36:02
Speaker 1: saying for the guidance of posterity, while the other sentences
2:36:06
Speaker 1: are heard no more. It is true that the race
2:36:09
Speaker 1: slays its profits, but even that slaying becomes a test,
2:36:14
Speaker 1: which reveals the true ring, and men detect its tureens.
2:36:19
Speaker 1: The slain one has come up to the standard, and
2:36:22
Speaker 1: the deed of his slaying is preserved as furnishing, infallible
2:36:26
Speaker 1: proof of his greatness. As the counterfeit coin is detected
2:36:31
Speaker 1: and cast back into the melting pot, while the sterling
2:36:34
Speaker 1: coin circulates among all men and is valued for its worth.
2:36:39
Speaker 1: So the counterfeit word, deed, or character is perceived and
2:36:44
Speaker 1: is left to fall back into nothingness from which it emerged.
2:36:48
Speaker 1: A thing unreal, powerless, and dead. Spurious things have no value,
2:36:55
Speaker 1: whether they be bric a brac or men. We are
2:36:58
Speaker 1: ashamed of imitations that try to pass for the genuine article.
2:37:02
Speaker 1: Falseness is cheap. The masquerader becomes a byword. He is
2:37:07
Speaker 1: less than a man. He has a shadow, a spook,
2:37:11
Speaker 1: a mere mask. Trueness is valuable. The sound hearted man
2:37:16
Speaker 1: becomes an exemplar. He is more than a man. He
2:37:20
Speaker 1: is a reality, a force, a molding, principle. By falseness,
2:37:25
Speaker 1: all is lost, even individuality dissolves, for falseness is nonentity nothingness.
2:37:33
Speaker 1: By trueness, everything is gained, for trueness is fixed, permanent,
2:37:38
Speaker 1: and real. It is important that we be real, that
2:37:42
Speaker 1: we harbor no wish to be other than what we are,
2:37:46
Speaker 1: that we stimulate no virtue, assume no excellency, adopt no disguise.
2:37:52
Speaker 1: The hypocrite thinks he can hoodwink the world and the
2:37:56
Speaker 1: eternal law of the world. There is but one person
2:37:59
Speaker 1: that he hoodwinks, and that is himself. And for that
2:38:03
Speaker 1: the law of the world inflicts its righteous penalty. There
2:38:07
Speaker 1: is an old theory that the excessively wicked are annihilated.
2:38:12
Speaker 1: I think to be a pretender is to come as
2:38:14
Speaker 1: near to annihilation as a man can get. For there
2:38:18
Speaker 1: is a sense in which a man is gone, and
2:38:21
Speaker 1: in his place there is but a mirage of shams,
2:38:24
Speaker 1: the hell of annihilation which so many dread he has
2:38:28
Speaker 1: descended into. And to think that such a man can
2:38:31
Speaker 1: prosper is to think that shadows can do the work
2:38:35
Speaker 1: of entities and displace a real man. If any man
2:38:40
Speaker 1: thinks he can build up a successful career on pretenses
2:38:43
Speaker 1: and appearances. Let him pause before sinking into the abyss
2:38:47
Speaker 1: of shadows. For in insincerity there is no solid ground,
2:38:52
Speaker 1: no substance, no reality. There is nothing on which he
2:38:57
Speaker 1: can stand, and no material with which to be. But
2:39:01
Speaker 1: there are loneliness, poverty, shame, confusion, fears, suspicions, weeping, groaning,
2:39:11
Speaker 1: and lamentations. For if there is one hell, lower, darker,
2:39:15
Speaker 1: and fouler than all the others, it is the hell
2:39:18
Speaker 1: of insincerity. Four beautiful traits adorn the mind of the
2:39:23
Speaker 1: sincere man, and these are one simplicity, two attractiveness, three penetration,
2:39:35
Speaker 1: four power. Simplicity is naturalness. It is a simple being
2:39:42
Speaker 1: without fake or foreign adornment. Why are all things in
2:39:46
Speaker 1: nature so beautiful? Because they are natural? We see them
2:39:51
Speaker 1: as they are, no task they might wish to appear,
2:39:55
Speaker 1: for in sooth they have no wish to appear. Otherwise
2:39:59
Speaker 1: there is no hypocrisy in the world of nature. Outside
2:40:02
Speaker 1: of human nature. The flower, which is so beautiful in
2:40:06
Speaker 1: all eyes, would lose its beauty in all eyes? Would
2:40:10
Speaker 1: nature look upon reality and its beauty and perfection gladden
2:40:14
Speaker 1: and amaze us. We cannot find anywhere a flaw, and
2:40:18
Speaker 1: are conscious of our incapacity to improve upon anything, even
2:40:22
Speaker 1: to the most insignificant. Everything has its own particular perfection
2:40:28
Speaker 1: and shines in the beauty of unconscious simplicity. Of the
2:40:32
Speaker 1: modern social cries. It is back to nature. It is
2:40:36
Speaker 1: generally understood to mean a cottage in the country and
2:40:40
Speaker 1: a piece of land to cultivate. It will be of
2:40:43
Speaker 1: little use to go into the country if we take
2:40:46
Speaker 1: our shams with us, and any even near which we
2:40:49
Speaker 1: may cling to can well be washed off just where
2:40:52
Speaker 1: we are. It is good that they who feel burdened
2:40:55
Speaker 1: with the conventions of society should fly to the country
2:40:59
Speaker 1: and court the nature. But it will fail if it
2:41:02
Speaker 1: by anything but a means to that inward redemption which
2:41:06
Speaker 1: will restore us to the simple and the true. But
2:41:10
Speaker 1: though humanity has wandered from the natural simplicity of the
2:41:13
Speaker 1: animal world, it is moving toward a higher, divine simplicity.
2:41:19
Speaker 1: Men of great genius are such because of their spontaneous simplicity.
2:41:24
Speaker 1: They do not foreign They are lesser mind's study, style
2:41:29
Speaker 1: and effect. They wish to cut a striking figure on
2:41:32
Speaker 1: the stage of the world, and by that unholy wish
2:41:36
Speaker 1: they are doomed to mediocrity. Set a man to me recently,
2:41:41
Speaker 1: I would give twenty years of my life to be
2:41:43
Speaker 1: able to write in immortal hymn. With such an ambition,
2:41:47
Speaker 1: a man cannot write a him he wants to pose.
2:41:51
Speaker 1: He is thinking of himself, of his own glory. Before
2:41:55
Speaker 1: a man can write in immortal hymn or create an
2:41:58
Speaker 1: immortal work, must give not twenty years of his life
2:42:02
Speaker 1: to ambition, but to do anything great, he must sing, paint,
2:42:08
Speaker 1: write out of ten thousand bitter experiences, ten thousand failures,
2:42:14
Speaker 1: ten thousand conquests, and ten thousand joys. He must know gasphemy.
2:42:20
Speaker 1: He must work with blood and tears, restraining his intellect
2:42:25
Speaker 1: and moral powers, and returning to simplicity. A man becomes great.
2:42:31
Speaker 1: He forfeits nothing real. Only the shams are cast aside,
2:42:36
Speaker 1: revealing the standard gold of character. Where there is sincerity,
2:42:40
Speaker 1: there will always be simplicity, a simplicity of the kind
2:42:44
Speaker 1: that we see in nature, the beautiful simplicity of truth.
2:42:49
Speaker 1: Attractiveness is the direct outcome of simplicity. This is seen
2:42:54
Speaker 1: in the attractiveness of all natural objects to which we
2:42:58
Speaker 1: have referred, but in human In nature it is manifested
2:43:01
Speaker 1: as personal influence of recent years, certain pseudomistics have been
2:43:07
Speaker 1: advertising to sell the secret of personal magnetism for so
2:43:11
Speaker 1: many dollars, by which they purport to show vain people
2:43:15
Speaker 1: how they can make themselves attractive to others by certain
2:43:18
Speaker 1: occult means. As though attractiveness can be bought and sold
2:43:23
Speaker 1: and put on an off like powder and paint. Nor
2:43:26
Speaker 1: are people who are anxious to be thought attractive likely
2:43:30
Speaker 1: to become so, for their vanity is a barrier to it.
2:43:34
Speaker 1: The very desire to be thought attractive is in itself
2:43:38
Speaker 1: a deception, and it leads to the practice of numerous deceptions.
2:43:43
Speaker 1: It infers, too, that such people are conscious of lacking
2:43:47
Speaker 1: the genuine attractions and graces of character, and are on
2:43:51
Speaker 1: the lookout for a substitute. But there is no substitute
2:43:55
Speaker 1: for beauty of mind and strength of characters. Like genius
2:44:02
Speaker 1: is lost by being coveted and possessed by those who
2:44:05
Speaker 1: are too solid and sincere of character to desire it.
2:44:09
Speaker 1: There is nothing in human nature, nor talent, nor intellect,
2:44:13
Speaker 1: nor affection, nor beauty of features that can compare an
2:44:17
Speaker 1: attractive power with the soundness of mind and the wholeness
2:44:22
Speaker 1: of heart, which we call sincerity. There is a perennial
2:44:26
Speaker 1: charm about a sincere man or woman, and they can
2:44:29
Speaker 1: draw about themselves the best specimens of human nature. There
2:44:34
Speaker 1: can be no personal charm apart from sincerity. Infatuation there
2:44:38
Speaker 1: may be, and is, but this is a kind of disease,
2:44:43
Speaker 1: and is vastly different from the indissoluble bond by which
2:44:46
Speaker 1: sincere people are attached. Infatuation ends in painful disillusion. But
2:44:53
Speaker 1: as there is nothing hidden between sincere souls, and they
2:44:56
Speaker 1: stand upon that solid ground of reality, there is no
2:45:00
Speaker 1: illusion to be displayed. Leaders among men attract by the
2:45:04
Speaker 1: power of their sincerity. And even if a man's intellect
2:45:08
Speaker 1: may be great, he can never be a permanent leader
2:45:11
Speaker 1: and guide of men unless he be sincere. For a
2:45:14
Speaker 1: time he may sail jauntily upon the stream of popularity
2:45:18
Speaker 1: and believe himself secure, But it is only that he
2:45:22
Speaker 1: may shortly fall the lower and popular odium. He cannot
2:45:26
Speaker 1: long deceive the people with his painted front. They will
2:45:29
Speaker 1: soon look behind and find of what spurious stuff he
2:45:33
Speaker 1: has made. He is like a woman with a painted face.
2:45:37
Speaker 1: She thinks she is admired for her complexion, but all
2:45:40
Speaker 1: know it is paint and despise her for it. She
2:45:43
Speaker 1: has one admirer herself, And the hell of limitation to
2:45:48
Speaker 1: which the insincere commit themselves is the hell of self admiration.
2:45:53
Speaker 1: Sincere people do not think of themselves, of their talent,
2:45:57
Speaker 1: their genius, their virtue, or their beauty. Because they are
2:46:01
Speaker 1: so unconscious of themselves, they attract all and win their confidence, affection,
2:46:07
Speaker 1: and esteem. Penetration belongs to the sincere. All shams are
2:46:12
Speaker 1: unveiled in their presence, All stimulators are transparent to the
2:46:17
Speaker 1: searching eye of the sincere man. With one clear glance,
2:46:21
Speaker 1: he sees through all their flimsy pretenses. He who has
2:46:25
Speaker 1: rid his heart of all falseness and entertains only that
2:46:29
Speaker 1: which is true, has gained the power to distinguish the
2:46:32
Speaker 1: faults from the true in others. He is not deceived,
2:46:35
Speaker 1: who is not self deceived? As men looking around on
2:46:40
Speaker 1: objects of nature infallibly distinguish them as snake, bird, horse, tree, rose,
2:46:47
Speaker 1: and so on. So the sincere man distinguishes the variety
2:46:52
Speaker 1: of characters. He perceives in a movement, a look, a word,
2:46:57
Speaker 1: an act, the nature of the man, and acts accordingly.
2:47:02
Speaker 1: He is on his guard without being suspicious. He is
2:47:06
Speaker 1: prepared for the pretender without being mistrustful. He acts from
2:47:10
Speaker 1: positive knowledge and not from negative suspicion. Men are open
2:47:15
Speaker 1: to him, and he reads their contents. His penetrative judgment
2:47:20
Speaker 1: pierces to the center of actions. His direct and unequivotable
2:47:24
Speaker 1: conduct strengthens in others the good and shames the bad,
2:47:29
Speaker 1: and he is a staff of strength to those who
2:47:32
Speaker 1: have not yet attained to His soundness of heart and head.
2:47:36
Speaker 1: Power goes with penetration, and understanding of the nature of
2:47:40
Speaker 1: actions is accompanied with the power to meet and deal
2:47:44
Speaker 1: with all actions in the right and best way. Knowledge
2:47:48
Speaker 1: is always power, but knowledge of the nature of actions
2:47:52
Speaker 1: is superative power, and he who possesses it becomes a
2:47:56
Speaker 1: presence to all hearts and modifies their actions for good.
2:48:01
Speaker 1: Long after his bodily presence has passed away, he is
2:48:05
Speaker 1: still a molding force in the world, and is a
2:48:08
Speaker 1: spiritual reality, working subtly in the minds of men and
2:48:12
Speaker 1: shaping them towards sublime ends. At first, his power is
2:48:16
Speaker 1: local and limited, but the circle of righteousness which he
2:48:20
Speaker 1: has set moving continues to extend and extend further till
2:48:25
Speaker 1: it embraces the whole world, and all men are influenced
2:48:29
Speaker 1: by it, the sincere man stamps his character upon all
2:48:33
Speaker 1: that he does, and also upon all people with whom
2:48:37
Speaker 1: he comes in contact. He speaks a word in season,
2:48:41
Speaker 1: and some one is impressed. The influence is communicated to
2:48:45
Speaker 1: another and another, and presently some despairing soul ten thousand
2:48:49
Speaker 1: miles away hears it and is restored. Such a power
2:48:54
Speaker 1: is prosperity in itself, and its worth is not to
2:48:58
Speaker 1: be valued in coin. Money cannot purchase the priceless jewels
2:49:02
Speaker 1: of character, but labor and right doing can. And he
2:49:06
Speaker 1: who makes himself sincere, who acquires a robust soundness through
2:49:11
Speaker 1: his entire being, will become a man of singular success
2:49:15
Speaker 1: and rare power, such as the strong pillar of sincerity.
2:49:20
Speaker 1: Its supporting power is so great that, once it is
2:49:24
Speaker 1: completely erected, the temple of prosperity is secure. Its walls
2:49:29
Speaker 1: will not crumble, its rafters will not decay, its roof
2:49:33
Speaker 1: will not fall in. It will stand while the man lives,
2:49:38
Speaker 1: and when he has passed away, it will continue to
2:49:41
Speaker 1: afford a shelter and a home for others through many generations.
2:49:46
Speaker 1: Impartiality to get rid of prejudice is a great achievement
2:49:52
Speaker 1: prejudices pile obstacles in a man's way, obstacles to health, success, happiness,
2:49:59
Speaker 1: and prosperity, so that he is continually running up against
2:50:02
Speaker 1: imaginary enemies, who, when prejudice is removed, are seen to
2:50:08
Speaker 1: be a friend. Life, indeed, is a sort of obstacle
2:50:13
Speaker 1: race to the man of prejudice, a race wherein the
2:50:16
Speaker 1: obstacles cannot be negotiated and the goal is not reached,
2:50:21
Speaker 1: whereas to the impartial man, life is a day's walk
2:50:24
Speaker 1: in a pleasant country, with refreshment and rest at the
2:50:28
Speaker 1: end of the day. To acquire impartiality, a man must
2:50:33
Speaker 1: remove that innate egotism which prevents him from seeing anything
2:50:37
Speaker 1: from any point of view other than his own. A
2:50:41
Speaker 1: great task, truly, but a notable one, and one that
2:50:45
Speaker 1: can be well begun now, even if it cannot be finished.
2:50:49
Speaker 1: Truth can remove mountains, and prejudice is a range of
2:50:54
Speaker 1: mental mountains beyond which the partisan does not see, and
2:50:58
Speaker 1: of which he does not believe there is any beyond.
2:51:02
Speaker 1: These mountains. Removed, however, opens to the view the unending
2:51:06
Speaker 1: vista of mental variety, blended in one glorious picture of
2:51:11
Speaker 1: light and shade, of color and tone, gladdening beholding eyes
2:51:17
Speaker 1: by clinging to stubborn prejudice. What joys are missed, what
2:51:21
Speaker 1: friends are sacrificed, what happiness is destroyed, and what prospects
2:51:26
Speaker 1: are blighted? And yet freedom from prejudice is a rare thing.
2:51:31
Speaker 1: There are few men who are not prejudice partisans upon
2:51:34
Speaker 1: the subjects which are of interest to them. One rarely
2:51:38
Speaker 1: meets a man that will dispassionately discuss his subject from
2:51:41
Speaker 1: both sides, considering all the facts and waiting all the evidence,
2:51:47
Speaker 1: so as to arrive at truth on the matter. Each
2:51:50
Speaker 1: partisan has his own case to make out. He is
2:51:54
Speaker 1: not searching for truth, for he is already convinced that
2:51:57
Speaker 1: his own conclusion is the truth and that all else
2:52:01
Speaker 1: is error. But he is defending his own case and
2:52:05
Speaker 1: striving for victory. Neither does he attempt to prove that
2:52:09
Speaker 1: he has the truth by a calm array of facts
2:52:12
Speaker 1: and evidence, but defends his position with more or less
2:52:15
Speaker 1: heat and agitation. Prejudice causes a man to form a conclusion,
2:52:21
Speaker 1: sometimes without any basis of fact or knowledge, and then
2:52:25
Speaker 1: to refuse to consider anything which does not support that conclusion.
2:52:29
Speaker 1: And in this way prejudice is a complete barrier to
2:52:32
Speaker 1: the attainment of knowledge. It binds a man down to
2:52:36
Speaker 1: darkness and ignorance, and prevents the development of his mind
2:52:41
Speaker 1: in the highest and noblest directions. More than this, it
2:52:45
Speaker 1: shuts him out from communion with the best minds, and
2:52:48
Speaker 1: confines him to the dark and solitary cell of his
2:52:52
Speaker 1: own Egotism prejudice is shutting up the mind against the
2:52:56
Speaker 1: entrance of new light, against the perception of more beauty,
2:53:01
Speaker 1: against the hearing of diviner music. The partisan clings to
2:53:05
Speaker 1: his little, fleeting, flimsy opinion and thinks it is the
2:53:08
Speaker 1: greatest thing in the world. He is so in love
2:53:11
Speaker 1: with his own conclusion, which is his only form of
2:53:15
Speaker 1: self love, that he thinks all men ought to agree
2:53:18
Speaker 1: with him, And he regards men as more or less
2:53:21
Speaker 1: stupid who do not see as he sees, while he
2:53:25
Speaker 1: praises the good judgment of those who are with him.
2:53:27
Speaker 1: In his view, such a man cannot have knowledge, cannot
2:53:31
Speaker 1: have truth. He is confined to the sphere of opinion,
2:53:35
Speaker 1: to his own self created allusions, which is outside the
2:53:39
Speaker 1: realm of reality. He moves in a kind of self
2:53:43
Speaker 1: infatuation which prevents him from seeing the commonest facts of life,
2:53:48
Speaker 1: while his own theories, usually more or less groundless, assume
2:53:53
Speaker 1: in his mind overpower and proportions. He fondly imagines that
2:53:58
Speaker 1: there is but one side to everything, and that side
2:54:01
Speaker 1: is his own. There are at least two sides to everything,
2:54:06
Speaker 1: and he it is who finds the truth in a matter,
2:54:09
Speaker 1: is he who carefully examines both sides, with all freedom
2:54:12
Speaker 1: from excitement, and without any desire for the predominance of
2:54:16
Speaker 1: one side over another. In its divisions and controversies, the
2:54:21
Speaker 1: world at large is like two lawyers defending a case.
2:54:25
Speaker 1: The council for the prosecution presents all the facts which
2:54:28
Speaker 1: prove his side, while the council for the defense presents
2:54:32
Speaker 1: all the facts which support his contention, and each belittles
2:54:37
Speaker 1: or ignores or tries to reason away the facts of
2:54:40
Speaker 1: the other. The judge in this case, however, is like
2:54:44
Speaker 1: the impartial thinker among men. Having listened to all the
2:54:48
Speaker 1: evidence on both sides, he compares and sifts it so
2:54:53
Speaker 1: as to form an impartial summing up in the cause
2:54:56
Speaker 1: of justice. Not that this universal partiality is a bad thing, nor,
2:55:02
Speaker 1: as in all other extremes, nature here reduces the opposition
2:55:06
Speaker 1: of conflicting parties to a perfect balance. Moreover, it is
2:55:10
Speaker 1: a factor in evolution. It stimulates men to think who
2:55:14
Speaker 1: have not yet developed the power to rouse up vigorous
2:55:17
Speaker 1: thought at will. And it is a phase through which
2:55:20
Speaker 1: all men have to pass. But it is only a
2:55:24
Speaker 1: bye way, and a tangled, confused and painful one towards
2:55:28
Speaker 1: the great high way of truth. It is the arc
2:55:31
Speaker 1: of which impartiality is the perfect round. The partisan sees
2:55:35
Speaker 1: a portion of the truth and thinks it the whole,
2:55:39
Speaker 1: But the impartial thinker sees the whole truth, which includes
2:55:43
Speaker 1: all sides. It is necessary that we see truth in sections,
2:55:47
Speaker 1: as it were, until having gathered up all the parts,
2:55:51
Speaker 1: we may piece them together and form the perfect circle.
2:55:55
Speaker 1: And forming such a circle is the attainment of impartiality.
2:56:00
Speaker 1: The impartial man examines, weighs, and considers with freedom from
2:56:05
Speaker 1: prejudice and from l likes and dislikes. His one wish
2:56:10
Speaker 1: is to discover the truth. He abolishes preconceived opinions and
2:56:15
Speaker 1: lets facts and evidence speak for themselves. He makes no
2:56:19
Speaker 1: case to make out for himself, for he knows that
2:56:22
Speaker 1: truth is unalterable, that his opinions can make no difference
2:56:26
Speaker 1: to it, and that it can be investigated and discovered.
2:56:30
Speaker 1: He thereby escapes a vast amount of friction and nervous
2:56:33
Speaker 1: wear and tear to which the feverish partisan is subject.
2:56:38
Speaker 1: And in addition, he looks directly upon the face of reality,
2:56:42
Speaker 1: and so becomes tranquil and peaceful. So rare is freedom
2:56:47
Speaker 1: from prejudice, that wherever the impartial thinker may be, he
2:56:51
Speaker 1: is sure sooner or later to occupy a very high
2:56:55
Speaker 1: position in the estimation of the world and in the
2:56:58
Speaker 1: guidance of his destiny. Not necessarily an office in worldly affairs,
2:57:04
Speaker 1: for that is improbable, but in exalted position in the
2:57:08
Speaker 1: sphere of influence. There may be such a one now,
2:57:12
Speaker 1: And he may be a carpenter, a weaver, a clerk.
2:57:16
Speaker 1: He may be in poverty, or in the home of
2:57:19
Speaker 1: a millionaire. He may be short or tall, or of
2:57:22
Speaker 1: any complexion. But whatever and wherever he may be, he has,
2:57:27
Speaker 1: though unknown, already begun to move the world, and one
2:57:32
Speaker 1: day he will be universally recognized as a new force
2:57:36
Speaker 1: and creative center in evolution. There was one some nineteen
2:57:41
Speaker 1: hundred years ago. He was only a poor, unlettered carpenter.
2:57:45
Speaker 1: He was regarded as a madman by his own relatives,
2:57:49
Speaker 1: and he came to the ignominious end in the eyes
2:57:52
Speaker 1: of his countrymen. But he sowed the seeds of an
2:57:55
Speaker 1: influence which has altered the whole world. There was another
2:57:59
Speaker 1: such in India some twenty five centuries ago. He was accomplished,
2:58:04
Speaker 1: highly educated, was the son of a capitalist and landed
2:58:09
Speaker 1: proprietor a petty king. He became a penniless, homeless mendicant,
2:58:15
Speaker 1: and today one third of the human race worship at
2:58:17
Speaker 1: his shrine and are restrained and elevated by his influence.
2:58:23
Speaker 1: Beware when the Great God lets loose a thinker on
2:58:25
Speaker 1: this plane, says Emerson. And a man is not a
2:58:29
Speaker 1: thinker who is bound by prejudice. He is merely the
2:58:32
Speaker 1: strenuous upholder of an opinion. Every idea must pass through
2:58:36
Speaker 1: the medium of his particular prejudice and receive its color,
2:58:41
Speaker 1: so that dispassionate thinking and impartial judgment are rendered impossible.
2:58:47
Speaker 1: Such a man sees everything only in its relation, or imagine,
2:58:51
Speaker 1: relation to his opinion, whereas the thinker sees things as
2:58:56
Speaker 1: they are. The man who has so purified his mind
2:58:59
Speaker 1: of prejudice and of all imperfections of egotism, as to
2:59:04
Speaker 1: be able to look directly upon reality has reached the
2:59:07
Speaker 1: acme of power. He holds it in his hands, as
2:59:11
Speaker 1: it were, the vastest influence, and he will wield this power,
2:59:15
Speaker 1: whether he knows it or not. It will be inseparable
2:59:18
Speaker 1: from his life, and will go from him as perfume
2:59:22
Speaker 1: from the flower. It will be in his words, his deeds,
2:59:27
Speaker 1: in his bodily postures, and the motions of his mind,
2:59:30
Speaker 1: even in his silence and the stillness of his frame,
2:59:34
Speaker 1: wherever he goes, even though he should fly to the desert,
2:59:38
Speaker 1: he will not escape this lofty destiny. For a great
2:59:42
Speaker 1: thinker is the center of the world. By him all
2:59:45
Speaker 1: men are held in their orbits, and all thought gravitates
2:59:49
Speaker 1: toward him. The truth thinker lives above and beyond the
2:59:53
Speaker 1: seething world pool of passion in which mankind is engulfed.
2:59:58
Speaker 1: He is not swayed by personal conceit, for he has
3:00:01
Speaker 1: grasps the importance of impersonal principles, and thus, being a
3:00:06
Speaker 1: non combatant in the clashing warfare of egotistic desires, he can,
3:00:12
Speaker 1: from the vantage point of an impartial but not indifferent watcher,
3:00:16
Speaker 1: see both sides equally and grasp the cause and meaning
3:00:20
Speaker 1: of the fray. Not only the great teachers, but the
3:00:24
Speaker 1: greatest figures in literature are those who are free from prejudice, who,
3:00:29
Speaker 1: like true mirrors, affect things impartially. Such are whitmen Shakespeare, Balzac, Emerson, Homer.
3:00:40
Speaker 1: These minds are not local, but universal. Their attitude is
3:00:44
Speaker 1: cosmic and not personal. They contain within themselves all things
3:00:49
Speaker 1: and beings, all worlds and laws. They are the gods
3:00:53
Speaker 1: who guide the race, and who will bring it at
3:00:55
Speaker 1: last out of its fever of passion and into their
3:00:59
Speaker 1: own serene life. The true thinker is the greatest of men,
3:01:03
Speaker 1: and his destiny is the most exalted. The altogether impartial
3:01:08
Speaker 1: mind has reached the divine, and it basts in the
3:01:11
Speaker 1: full daylight of reality. The four great elements of impartiality
3:01:17
Speaker 1: are one justice, two patience, three calmness four wisdom. Justice
3:01:29
Speaker 1: is the giving and receiving of equal values. What is
3:01:33
Speaker 1: called striking. A hard bargain is a kind of theft.
3:01:37
Speaker 1: It means that the purchaser gives value for only a
3:01:40
Speaker 1: portion of his purchase, the remainder being appropriated as clear gain.
3:01:46
Speaker 1: The seller also encourages it by closing the bargain. The
3:01:51
Speaker 1: just man does not try to gain an advantage. He
3:01:54
Speaker 1: considers the true values of things and molds his transactions
3:01:58
Speaker 1: in accordance therewith. He does not let what will pay
3:02:03
Speaker 1: come before what is right, for he knows that what
3:02:07
Speaker 1: is right pays best in the end. He does not
3:02:10
Speaker 1: seek his own benefit to the disadvantage of another, for
3:02:14
Speaker 1: he knows that a just action benefits equally and fully
3:02:18
Speaker 1: both parties to a transaction. If one man's loss is
3:02:23
Speaker 1: another man's gain, it is only that the balance may
3:02:26
Speaker 1: be adjusted later on. Unjust gains cannot lead to prosperity,
3:02:32
Speaker 1: but are sure to bring failure. A just man could
3:02:35
Speaker 1: no more take from another an unjust gain by what
3:02:38
Speaker 1: is called a smart transaction, that he could take it
3:02:41
Speaker 1: by picking his pocket. He would regard the one as
3:02:45
Speaker 1: dishonest as the other. The bargaining spirit in business is
3:02:50
Speaker 1: not the true spirit of commerce. It is the selfish
3:02:53
Speaker 1: and thieving spirit, which wants to get something for nothing.
3:02:58
Speaker 1: The upright man purges his business all bargaining and builds
3:03:02
Speaker 1: it on the more dignified basis of justice. He supplies
3:03:06
Speaker 1: a good article at its right price and does not alter.
3:03:11
Speaker 1: He does not soil his hands with any business which
3:03:13
Speaker 1: is tainted and fraud. His goods are genuine, and they
3:03:17
Speaker 1: are properly priced. Customers who try to beat down a
3:03:21
Speaker 1: tradesman in their purchases are degrading themselves. Their practice assumes
3:03:26
Speaker 1: one or both of two things, namely, that either the
3:03:30
Speaker 1: tradesman is dishonest and is overcharging a low and suspicious
3:03:34
Speaker 1: attitude of mind, or that they are eager to cajole
3:03:38
Speaker 1: him out of his profit in equally based attitude, and
3:03:42
Speaker 1: so benefit by his loss. The practice of bearing down
3:03:47
Speaker 1: is altogether a dishonest one, and the people who pursue
3:03:50
Speaker 1: it most deciduously are those who complain most of being
3:03:54
Speaker 1: imposed on. And this is not surprising, seeing that they
3:03:58
Speaker 1: themselves are all the time trying to impose on others.
3:04:02
Speaker 1: On the other hand, the tradesman who is anxious to
3:04:05
Speaker 1: get all he can out of his customers, irrespective of
3:04:09
Speaker 1: justice and the right value of things, is a kind
3:04:12
Speaker 1: of robber, and is slowly poisoning his success, for his
3:04:16
Speaker 1: deeds will assuredly come home to him in the form
3:04:19
Speaker 1: of financial ruin. Set a man of fifty to me
3:04:23
Speaker 1: the other day, I have just discovered that all my
3:04:26
Speaker 1: life I have been paying fifty percent more for everything
3:04:30
Speaker 1: than I ought to. A just man cannot feel that
3:04:33
Speaker 1: he has ever paid too much for anything, for he
3:04:37
Speaker 1: does not close with any transaction which he considers unjust.
3:04:41
Speaker 1: But if a man is eager to get everything at
3:04:43
Speaker 1: half price, then he will always be meanly and miserably
3:04:47
Speaker 1: mourning that he is paying double for everything. The just
3:04:51
Speaker 1: man is glad to pay full value for everything, whether
3:04:54
Speaker 1: in giving or receiving, and his mind is untroubled, and
3:04:58
Speaker 1: his days are full of Let a man avoid all
3:05:03
Speaker 1: meanness and strive to be ever more and more perfectly just.
3:05:07
Speaker 1: For if he be not just, he can be neither honest,
3:05:11
Speaker 1: nor generous, nor manly, but is a kind of disgusted thief,
3:05:16
Speaker 1: trying to get all he can and give back as
3:05:18
Speaker 1: little as possible. Let him aescuw all bargaining, and teach
3:05:23
Speaker 1: bargainers a better way by conducting his business with that
3:05:27
Speaker 1: exalted dignity which commands a large and meritorious success. Patience
3:05:33
Speaker 1: is the brightest jewel in the character of the impartial man.
3:05:37
Speaker 1: Not a particular patience with a particular thing, like a
3:05:40
Speaker 1: girl with her needlework or a boy building his toy engine,
3:05:45
Speaker 1: but in unswerving considerateness, a sweetness of disposition at all
3:05:49
Speaker 1: times and under the most trying circumstances, an unchangeable and
3:05:54
Speaker 1: gentle strength which no trial can mar and no persecution
3:05:59
Speaker 1: can break. A rare possession, it is true, and one
3:06:03
Speaker 1: not to be expected for a long time yet from
3:06:06
Speaker 1: the bulk of mankind. But a virtue that can be
3:06:10
Speaker 1: reached by a degree, and even a partial patience will
3:06:13
Speaker 1: work wonders in a man's life and affairs, as a
3:06:16
Speaker 1: confirmed impatience will work all devastation. The irascable man is
3:06:22
Speaker 1: courting speedy disaster. For who will care to deal with
3:06:26
Speaker 1: a man who is continually going off like ground powder
3:06:29
Speaker 1: when some small spark of complaint or criticism falls upon him?
3:06:34
Speaker 1: Even his friends will one by one desert him, For
3:06:37
Speaker 1: who would court the company of a man who rudely
3:06:40
Speaker 1: assaults him with an impatient in fiery tongue over every
3:06:44
Speaker 1: little difference or misunderstanding. A man must work to wisely
3:06:49
Speaker 1: control himself and to learn the beautiful lessons of patience.
3:06:53
Speaker 1: If he is to be highly prosperous, and if he
3:06:56
Speaker 1: is to be a man of use and power, he
3:06:59
Speaker 1: must learn to think of others, to act for their
3:07:02
Speaker 1: good and not alone for himself. To be considerate forbearing
3:07:07
Speaker 1: and long suffering, he must study how to have a
3:07:10
Speaker 1: heart at peace with men who differ from him on
3:07:13
Speaker 1: those things which he regards as most vital. He must
3:07:17
Speaker 1: avoid quarreling, as he would avoid drinking a deadly poison.
3:07:21
Speaker 1: Discords from without will be continually overtaking him, but he
3:07:26
Speaker 1: must fortify himself against them. He must study how to
3:07:29
Speaker 1: bring harmonies out of them by the exercise of patience.
3:07:34
Speaker 1: Strife is common, It pains the heart and distorts the mind.
3:07:39
Speaker 1: Patience is rare. It enriches the heart and beautifies the mind.
3:07:44
Speaker 1: Every cat can spit in fume. It requires no effort,
3:07:49
Speaker 1: but only a looseness of behavior. It takes a man
3:07:53
Speaker 1: to keep his mournings through all events, and to be
3:07:56
Speaker 1: painstaking and patient with the shortcomings of humanity. But patience
3:08:01
Speaker 1: wins as soft water wears away the hardest rock. So
3:08:06
Speaker 1: patience overcomes all opposition. It gains the hearts of men,
3:08:11
Speaker 1: It conquers and controls. Calmness accompanies patience. It is a
3:08:16
Speaker 1: great and glorious quality. It is the peaceful haven of
3:08:20
Speaker 1: emancipated souls after their long wanderings on the tempest river
3:08:25
Speaker 1: ocean of passion. It makes the man who has suffered much,
3:08:29
Speaker 1: endured much, experienced much, and has finally conquered A man
3:08:35
Speaker 1: cannot be impartial who is not calm. Excitement, prejudice, and
3:08:40
Speaker 1: partiality spring from disturbed passions. When personal feeling is thwarted,
3:08:46
Speaker 1: it rises and seas like a stream of water that
3:08:49
Speaker 1: is dammed. The calm man avoids this disturbance by directing
3:08:54
Speaker 1: his feeling from the personal to the impersonal channel. He
3:08:58
Speaker 1: thinks and feels for others as well as for himself.
3:09:02
Speaker 1: He sets the same value on other men's opinions as
3:09:05
Speaker 1: his own. If he regards his work as important, he
3:09:09
Speaker 1: sees also that the work of other men is equally important.
3:09:13
Speaker 1: He does not contend for the merit of his own
3:09:15
Speaker 1: against the demerit of that of others. He is not
3:09:19
Speaker 1: overthrown like Humpty Dumpty with a sense of self importance.
3:09:24
Speaker 1: He has put aside egotism for truth, and he perceives
3:09:28
Speaker 1: the right relations of things. He has conquered irritability and
3:09:33
Speaker 1: has come to see that there is nothing in itself
3:09:35
Speaker 1: that should cause irritation as well be irritable. With a
3:09:39
Speaker 1: pansy because it is not a rose as with a man.
3:09:42
Speaker 1: Because he does not see as you see. Minds differ,
3:09:47
Speaker 1: and the calm man recognizes the difference as facts. In
3:09:50
Speaker 1: human nature, the calm, impartial man is not only the
3:09:54
Speaker 1: happiest man. He also has all his powers at his command, deliberate, executive,
3:10:02
Speaker 1: and swiftly and easily accomplishes in silence what the irritable
3:10:06
Speaker 1: man slowly and laboriously toils through with much work. His
3:10:11
Speaker 1: mind is purified, poised, concentrated, and ready at any moment
3:10:16
Speaker 1: to be directed upon a given work with unerring power.
3:10:20
Speaker 1: In the calm mind, all contradictions are reconciled, and there
3:10:24
Speaker 1: is a radiant gladness and perpetual peace. As Emerson puts it,
3:10:30
Speaker 1: calmness is joy, fixed and habitual. One should not confound
3:10:35
Speaker 1: indifference with calmness, for it is at the opposite extreme.
3:10:40
Speaker 1: Indifference is lifeless, while calmness is growing life in full
3:10:44
Speaker 1: orbed power. The calm man has partially or entirely conquered self,
3:10:50
Speaker 1: and having successfully battled with the selfishness within, he knows
3:10:55
Speaker 1: how to meet and overcome it successfully in others. In
3:10:59
Speaker 1: any moral the calm man is always the victor. So
3:11:03
Speaker 1: long as he remains calm, defeat is impossible. Self control
3:11:09
Speaker 1: is better than riches and calmness in a perpetual benediction.
3:11:13
Speaker 1: Wisdom abides with the impartial man. Her counsel guides him,
3:11:18
Speaker 1: her wings shield him. She leads him along pleasant ways
3:11:22
Speaker 1: to happy destinations. Wisdom is many sided. The wise man
3:11:27
Speaker 1: adapts himself to others. He acts for their good, yet
3:11:32
Speaker 1: never violates the moral virtues or the principles of right conduct.
3:11:36
Speaker 1: The foolish man cannot adapt himself to others. He acts
3:11:40
Speaker 1: for himself only, and continually violates the moral virtues and
3:11:45
Speaker 1: the principles of right conduct. There is a degree of
3:11:48
Speaker 1: wisdom in every act of impartiality, and once a man
3:11:52
Speaker 1: has touched and experienced the impartial zone, he can recover
3:11:56
Speaker 1: it again and again, until he finally establish wishes himself
3:12:01
Speaker 1: in it. Every thought, word, and act of wisdom tells
3:12:05
Speaker 1: on the world at large, for it is fraught with greatness.
3:12:10
Speaker 1: Wisdom is a well of knowledge and a spring of power.
3:12:13
Speaker 1: It is profound and comprehensive, and so it is exact
3:12:17
Speaker 1: and all inclusive as to embrace the smallest details in
3:12:22
Speaker 1: its spacious greatness. It does not overlook the small. The
3:12:26
Speaker 1: wise mind is like the world. It contains all things
3:12:29
Speaker 1: in their proper place and order, and is not burdened thereby.
3:12:34
Speaker 1: Like the world, also, it is free and unconscious of
3:12:38
Speaker 1: any restrictions. Yet it never loses, is never erring, is
3:12:43
Speaker 1: never sinful, and repentant. Wisdom is the steady, grown up
3:12:48
Speaker 1: being of whom folly was the crying infant. It has
3:12:52
Speaker 1: outgrown the weakness and dependence the errors and punishments of
3:12:56
Speaker 1: infantile ignorance, and is erect, strong, and serene. The understanding
3:13:03
Speaker 1: mind needs no external support. It stands of itself on
3:13:08
Speaker 1: the firm ground of knowledge, not book knowledge, but ripened experience.
3:13:14
Speaker 1: It has passed through all minds, and therefore knows them.
3:13:18
Speaker 1: It has traveled with all hearts, and knows their journeying
3:13:22
Speaker 1: and joy and sorrow. When wisdom touches a man, he
3:13:26
Speaker 1: is lifted up and transfigured. He becomes a new being
3:13:31
Speaker 1: with new aims and powers, and he inhabits a new
3:13:34
Speaker 1: universe in which to accomplish a new and glorious destiny.
3:13:40
Speaker 1: Such is the pillar of impartiality, which adds its massive
3:13:44
Speaker 1: strength and incomparable grace to support and beautify the temple
3:13:49
Speaker 1: of prosperity self reliance. Every young man ought to read
3:13:55
Speaker 1: Emerson's essay on self reliance. It is the manliest, most
3:14:00
Speaker 1: virile essay that was ever penned. It is calculated to
3:14:04
Speaker 1: cure alike those two mental maladies common to youth, namely
3:14:09
Speaker 1: self deprecation and self conceit. It is almost as sure
3:14:14
Speaker 1: to reveal to the prig the smallness and emptiness of
3:14:17
Speaker 1: his vanity as it is to show the bashful man
3:14:20
Speaker 1: the weakness and ineffectuality of his dividends. It is a
3:14:25
Speaker 1: new revelation of manly dignity, as much a revelation as
3:14:29
Speaker 1: any that was vouchsafed to ancient seer and profit, and
3:14:33
Speaker 1: perhaps a more practical, eminently suited to his mechanic age,
3:14:38
Speaker 1: coming as it does from a modern profit of a
3:14:40
Speaker 1: new type, and called in a new race. And its
3:14:44
Speaker 1: chief merit is its powerfully tonic quality. Let not self
3:14:48
Speaker 1: reliance be confounded with self conceit, For as high and
3:14:52
Speaker 1: excellent as the one, just so low and worthless as
3:14:56
Speaker 1: the other, there cannot be anything mean in self reliance,
3:15:00
Speaker 1: while in self conceit there cannot be anything great. The
3:15:05
Speaker 1: man that never says no when questioned on subjects of
3:15:08
Speaker 1: which he is entirely ignorant. To avoid as he imagines
3:15:12
Speaker 1: being thought ignorant, but confidently puts forth guesses and assumptions
3:15:17
Speaker 1: as knowledge, will be known for his ignorance and ill
3:15:21
Speaker 1: esteemed for his added conceit. An honest confession of ignorance
3:15:26
Speaker 1: will command respect, where a conceited assumption of knowledge will
3:15:30
Speaker 1: elicit contempt. The timid, apologetic man who seems almost afraid
3:15:36
Speaker 1: to live, who fears that he will do something not
3:15:38
Speaker 1: in the approved way, and will subject himself to ridicule,
3:15:42
Speaker 1: is not a full man. He must imitate others and
3:15:47
Speaker 1: has no independent action. He needs that self reliance which
3:15:51
Speaker 1: will compel him to fall back on his own initiative,
3:15:54
Speaker 1: and so become a new example instead of the slavish
3:15:58
Speaker 1: follower of an old one. As for ridicule, he who
3:16:02
Speaker 1: is hurt by it is no man. The shafts of
3:16:05
Speaker 1: mockery and sarcasm cannot pierce the strong armor of the
3:16:09
Speaker 1: self reliant man. They cannot reach the invincible citadel of
3:16:13
Speaker 1: his honest heart to sting or wound it. The sharp
3:16:17
Speaker 1: arrows of irony may rain upon him, but he laughs
3:16:21
Speaker 1: as they are deflected by the strong breastplate of his confidence,
3:16:25
Speaker 1: and fall harmless about him. Trust thyself, says Emerson. Every
3:16:30
Speaker 1: heart vibrates to that iron string. Throughout the ages, men
3:16:36
Speaker 1: have so far leaned, and do still lean upon external
3:16:39
Speaker 1: makeshifts instead of standing upon their own native simplicity and
3:16:44
Speaker 1: original dignity. The few who have had the courage so
3:16:48
Speaker 1: to stand have been singled out and elevated as heroes.
3:16:53
Speaker 1: And he is indeed the true hero who has the
3:16:55
Speaker 1: hardihood to let his nature speak for itself, who has
3:16:59
Speaker 1: that strong, long metal that enables him to stand upon
3:17:02
Speaker 1: his own intrinsic worth. It is true that the candidate
3:17:06
Speaker 1: for such heroism must endure the test of strength. He
3:17:10
Speaker 1: must not be shamed from his ground by the bugbears
3:17:13
Speaker 1: of the initiate conventionalist. He must not fear for his
3:17:18
Speaker 1: own reputation or position, or for his standing in the
3:17:21
Speaker 1: church or his prestige in local society. He must learn
3:17:26
Speaker 1: to act and live as independently of these considerations as
3:17:30
Speaker 1: he does of the current fashions in the Antipodes. Yet,
3:17:34
Speaker 1: when he has endured this test, and stander and odium
3:17:38
Speaker 1: have failed to move or afflict him he has become
3:17:41
Speaker 1: a man, indeed, one that society will have to reckon
3:17:45
Speaker 1: with and finally accept on his own terms. Sooner or
3:17:49
Speaker 1: later all men will turn to the guidance of the
3:17:52
Speaker 1: self reliant man. And while the best minds do not
3:17:55
Speaker 1: make a prop of him, they respect and value his
3:17:58
Speaker 1: work and worth, and recognize his place among the goods
3:18:02
Speaker 1: that have gone before. It must not be thought in
3:18:05
Speaker 1: indication of self reliance to scorn to learn. Such an
3:18:09
Speaker 1: attitude is born of a stubborn superciliousness, which has the
3:18:13
Speaker 1: elements of weakness and is prophetic of a fall, rather
3:18:18
Speaker 1: than the elements of strength and the promise of high achievement,
3:18:21
Speaker 1: which are characteristic of self reliance. Pride and vanity must
3:18:26
Speaker 1: not be associated with Self rests upon incidentals and impertinencies
3:18:31
Speaker 1: on money, clothing, property, prestige, position, and these lost all
3:18:37
Speaker 1: is lost. Self reliance rests upon essentials and principles, on worth, probity, purity, sincerity, character, truth,
3:18:49
Speaker 1: and whatever may be lost is of little account, for
3:18:53
Speaker 1: these are never lost. Pride tries to hide its ignorance
3:18:57
Speaker 1: by ostentation and assumption, and is on willing to be
3:19:00
Speaker 1: thought a learner in any direction it stands during its
3:19:04
Speaker 1: little fleeting day on ignorance and appearance, And the higher
3:19:09
Speaker 1: it is lifted up to day, the lower it will
3:19:11
Speaker 1: be cast down tomorrow. Self reliance has nothing to hide
3:19:16
Speaker 1: and is willing to learn. And while there can be
3:19:19
Speaker 1: no humility where pride is, self reliance and humility are compatible.
3:19:24
Speaker 1: Nay more, they are complimentary. And the sublime form of
3:19:28
Speaker 1: self reliance is only found associated with the profoundest humility.
3:19:34
Speaker 1: Extremes meet, says Emerson. And there is no better example
3:19:38
Speaker 1: than the haughtiness of humility. No aristocrat, no prince born
3:19:43
Speaker 1: to the purple, can begin to compare with the self
3:19:45
Speaker 1: respect of the saint. Why is he so lowly, but
3:19:50
Speaker 1: that he knows that he can well afford it, resting
3:19:53
Speaker 1: on the largness of the God in him. It was
3:19:56
Speaker 1: Buddhah who, in this particular said, those who, either now
3:20:00
Speaker 1: or after I Am dead, shall be a lamp unto themselves,
3:20:05
Speaker 1: relying upon themselves only, and not relying upon any external help,
3:20:10
Speaker 1: but holding fast to the truth is their lamp, and
3:20:13
Speaker 1: seeking their salvation in the Truth alone, shall not look
3:20:17
Speaker 1: for assistance to anyone beside themselves. It is they among
3:20:21
Speaker 1: my disciples who shall reach the very topmost height, But
3:20:25
Speaker 1: they must be willing to learn. In this saying, the
3:20:29
Speaker 1: repeated insistence on the necessity for relying upon oneself alone,
3:20:34
Speaker 1: coupled with the final exhortation to be eager to learn,
3:20:38
Speaker 1: is the wisest utterance on self reliance that I know.
3:20:42
Speaker 1: In it, the great teacher comprehends that perfect balance between
3:20:46
Speaker 1: self trust and humility which the man of truth must acquire.
3:20:51
Speaker 1: Self trust is the essence of heroism. All great men
3:20:56
Speaker 1: are self reliant, and we should use them as teachers
3:20:59
Speaker 1: and examine not as props and perambulators. A great man
3:21:04
Speaker 1: comes who leans upon no one, but stands alone in
3:21:07
Speaker 1: the solitary dignity of truth and straightway, the world begins
3:21:12
Speaker 1: to lean upon him, begins to make him an excuse
3:21:15
Speaker 1: for spiritual indolence and a destructive self abasement. Better than
3:21:20
Speaker 1: cradling our vices in the strength of the great would
3:21:23
Speaker 1: be to newly light our virtues at their luminous lamp.
3:21:27
Speaker 1: If we rely upon the light of another, darkness will
3:21:30
Speaker 1: overtake us. But if we rely upon our own light,
3:21:34
Speaker 1: we have to but keep it burning. We may draw
3:21:37
Speaker 1: light from another and communicate with it, But to think
3:21:41
Speaker 1: it sufficient. While our own lamp is rusting, is neglect,
3:21:45
Speaker 1: is shortly to find ourselves abandoned in darkness. Our own
3:21:49
Speaker 1: inner light is the light which never fails us. What
3:21:53
Speaker 1: is the inner light of the Quakers but another name
3:21:56
Speaker 1: for self reliance. We should stand upon what we are,
3:22:00
Speaker 1: not upon what another is. But I am so small
3:22:03
Speaker 1: and poor, you may say, will stand upon that smallness,
3:22:08
Speaker 1: and presently it will become great. A babe's needs are
3:22:12
Speaker 1: to suckle and cling, but not so a man. Henceforth
3:22:16
Speaker 1: he goes upon his own limbs. Men pray to God
3:22:20
Speaker 1: to put their hands that which they are framed to
3:22:22
Speaker 1: reach out for, to put into mouth the food for
3:22:26
Speaker 1: which they should strenuously labor. But men will outgrow this
3:22:30
Speaker 1: spiritual infancy. The time will come when men will no
3:22:33
Speaker 1: more pay a priest to pray for them and preach
3:22:36
Speaker 1: to them. Man's chief trouble is a mistrust of himself,
3:22:41
Speaker 1: so that the self trusting man becomes a rare and
3:22:44
Speaker 1: singular spectacle. If a man look upon himself as a
3:22:48
Speaker 1: warm what can come out of him but an ineffectual wriggling.
3:22:52
Speaker 1: Truly he that humbleth shall be exalted. But not he
3:22:57
Speaker 1: that degradeth himself. A man should see himself as he is,
3:23:02
Speaker 1: and if there is any unworthiness in him, he should
3:23:04
Speaker 1: get rid of it and retain and rely upon that
3:23:07
Speaker 1: which is of worth. A man is only debased when
3:23:11
Speaker 1: he debases himself. He is exalted when he lives an
3:23:14
Speaker 1: exalted life. Why should a man with ceaseless iterations draw
3:23:20
Speaker 1: attention to his fallen nature? There is a false humility
3:23:24
Speaker 1: which takes a sort of pride in vice. If one
3:23:27
Speaker 1: has fallen, it is that he may rise and be
3:23:30
Speaker 1: the wiser for it. If a man falls into a ditch,
3:23:34
Speaker 1: he does not lie there and call upon every passer
3:23:36
Speaker 1: by to mark his fallen state. He gets up and
3:23:40
Speaker 1: goes on his way with greater care. So if one
3:23:43
Speaker 1: has fallen into the ditch of vice, let him rise
3:23:46
Speaker 1: and be cleansed, and go on his way rejoicing. There
3:23:50
Speaker 1: is not a sphere in life wherein a man's influence
3:23:54
Speaker 1: and prosperity will not be considerably increased by even a
3:23:58
Speaker 1: measure of self reliance. And to the teacher, whether secular
3:24:02
Speaker 1: or religious, to organizers, managers, overseers, and in all positions
3:24:08
Speaker 1: of control and command, it is an indispensable equipment. The
3:24:12
Speaker 1: four grand qualities of self reliance are one decision, two steadfastness,
3:24:22
Speaker 1: three dignity four independence. Decision makes a man strong. A
3:24:31
Speaker 1: man who is to play a speaking part, however small,
3:24:34
Speaker 1: in the drama of life, must be decisive and know
3:24:37
Speaker 1: what he is about. Whatever he doubts, He must not
3:24:41
Speaker 1: doubt his power to act. He must know his part
3:24:44
Speaker 1: in life and put all energy into it. He must
3:24:48
Speaker 1: have some solid round of knowledge from which to work
3:24:51
Speaker 1: and stand securely on that. It may only be the
3:24:55
Speaker 1: price and quality of stock, but he must know his
3:24:58
Speaker 1: work thoroughly and know that he knows it. He must
3:25:02
Speaker 1: be ready at any time to answer for himself when
3:25:05
Speaker 1: his duty is impuned. He should be so well grounded
3:25:08
Speaker 1: upon his particular practice as to not be affected with
3:25:12
Speaker 1: hesitation on any point or in any emergence. It is
3:25:16
Speaker 1: a true saying that the man that hesitates is lost.
3:25:20
Speaker 1: No one believes in him who does not believe in himself,
3:25:24
Speaker 1: who doubts, halts and wavers, and cannot extricate himself from
3:25:28
Speaker 1: the tangled threads of two courses. Who would deal with
3:25:32
Speaker 1: a tradesman who did not know the price of his
3:25:34
Speaker 1: own goods? Or was not sure where to find them.
3:25:38
Speaker 1: A man must know his business. If he does not
3:25:41
Speaker 1: know his own, who shall instruct him. He must be
3:25:45
Speaker 1: able to give a good report of the truth that
3:25:47
Speaker 1: is in him. He must have that touch which skill
3:25:51
Speaker 1: and knowledge can only impart. Certainty is a great element
3:25:55
Speaker 1: in self reliance. To have weight, a man must have
3:25:58
Speaker 1: some truth to impart, and all skill is a communication
3:26:02
Speaker 1: of truth. He must speak with authority, and not as
3:26:06
Speaker 1: the scribes. He must master something and know he has
3:26:10
Speaker 1: mastered it, so as to deal with it lucidly and understandingly,
3:26:15
Speaker 1: in the way of a master, and not to remain
3:26:17
Speaker 1: always as an apprentice. Indecision is a disintegrating factor. A
3:26:23
Speaker 1: minute's faltering may turn back the current course of success.
3:26:27
Speaker 1: Men who are afraid to decide quickly for fear of
3:26:30
Speaker 1: making a mistake nearly always make a mistake. When they
3:26:33
Speaker 1: do act, the quickest in thought and action are less
3:26:38
Speaker 1: liable to blunder. And it is better to act with
3:26:41
Speaker 1: decision and make a mistake than to act with indecision
3:26:44
Speaker 1: and make a mistake, for in the former case there
3:26:47
Speaker 1: is but error, but in the latter weakness is added
3:26:51
Speaker 1: to error. A man should be decided always, both where
3:26:55
Speaker 1: he knows and where he does not know. He should
3:26:59
Speaker 1: be as ready to say know as to say yes,
3:27:02
Speaker 1: as quick to acknowledge his ignorance as to impart his knowledge.
3:27:06
Speaker 1: If he stands upon fact and acts from the simple truth,
3:27:10
Speaker 1: he will find no room for halting between two opinions.
3:27:14
Speaker 1: Make up your mind quickly and act decisively. Better still,
3:27:19
Speaker 1: have a mind that is already made up, and then
3:27:22
Speaker 1: the decision will be instinctive and spontaneous. Steadfastness arises in
3:27:28
Speaker 1: the mind that is quick to decide. It is indeed
3:27:31
Speaker 1: a final decision upon the best course of conduct and
3:27:34
Speaker 1: the best path of life. It is the vow of
3:27:37
Speaker 1: the soul to stand firmly by its principles, whatever betide.
3:27:42
Speaker 1: It is neither necessary nor unnecessary that there be any
3:27:45
Speaker 1: written or spoken vow, for unswerving loyalty to a fixed
3:27:49
Speaker 1: principle is the spirit of all vows. The man without
3:27:53
Speaker 1: fixed principles will not accomplish much. Expediency is the quagmire
3:27:58
Speaker 1: in a thorny waste, in which a man is continually
3:28:01
Speaker 1: sticking in the shifting mud of his own moral looseness,
3:28:05
Speaker 1: and is pricked and scratched with the thorns of his
3:28:08
Speaker 1: own self created disappointments. One must have some solid ground
3:28:12
Speaker 1: on which to stand among one's fellows. He cannot stand
3:28:16
Speaker 1: on the bog of concession. Shiftiness is a vice of weakness,
3:28:21
Speaker 1: and the vices of weakness do more to undermine character
3:28:24
Speaker 1: and influence than the vices of strength. The man that
3:28:28
Speaker 1: is vicious through excess of animal strength takes a shorter
3:28:32
Speaker 1: cut to truth. When one understands that power is adaptable
3:28:36
Speaker 1: to both good and bad ends, it will not surprise
3:28:39
Speaker 1: him that the drunkards and harlots should reach the Kingdom
3:28:42
Speaker 1: of Heaven before the diplomatic religionists. They are at least
3:28:46
Speaker 1: thorough in the course which they have adopted, vile though
3:28:50
Speaker 1: it may be, and thoroughness is strength. It only needs
3:28:54
Speaker 1: that strength to be turned from bad to good, and
3:28:57
Speaker 1: lo the loath sinner has become the lawful saint. A
3:29:01
Speaker 1: man should have a firm, fixed, determined mind. He should
3:29:05
Speaker 1: decide upon those principles which are best to stand by
3:29:08
Speaker 1: in all issues, and which will most safely guide him
3:29:11
Speaker 1: through the maze of conflicting opinions and inspire him with
3:29:15
Speaker 1: unflinching courage in the battle of life. Having adopted his principles.
3:29:20
Speaker 1: They should be more to him than gain or happiness,
3:29:24
Speaker 1: more even than life itself. And if he never deserts them,
3:29:28
Speaker 1: he will find that they will never desert him. They
3:29:31
Speaker 1: will defend him from all enemies, deliver him safely from
3:29:35
Speaker 1: all dangers, light his pathway through all darkness and difficulties.
3:29:40
Speaker 1: They will be to him a light in darkness, a
3:29:43
Speaker 1: resting place from sorrow, and a refuge from the conflicts
3:29:47
Speaker 1: of the world. Dignity clothes as with a majestic garment.
3:29:52
Speaker 1: The steadfast mind, he who is as unyielding as a
3:29:56
Speaker 1: bar of steel when he is expected to compromise with evil,
3:30:00
Speaker 1: and as supple as a willow wand in adapting himself
3:30:04
Speaker 1: to that which is good, carries about with him a
3:30:07
Speaker 1: dignity that calms and uplifts others by its presence. The
3:30:12
Speaker 1: unsteady mind, the mind that is not anchor to any
3:30:15
Speaker 1: fixed principles, that is stubborn where its own desires are threatened,
3:30:20
Speaker 1: and yielding where its own moral welfare is at stake,
3:30:24
Speaker 1: has no gravity, no balance, no calm composure. The man
3:30:29
Speaker 1: of dignity cannot be downtrodden and enslaved because he has
3:30:33
Speaker 1: ceased to tread upon and enslave himself. He at once
3:30:37
Speaker 1: disarms with a look, a word, a wise and suggestive silence,
3:30:42
Speaker 1: any attempt to demean him. His mere presence is a
3:30:46
Speaker 1: wholesome reproof to the flippant and the unseemly, while it
3:30:50
Speaker 1: is a rock of strength to the lover of the good.
3:30:54
Speaker 1: But the chief reason why the dignified man commands respect
3:30:57
Speaker 1: is not only that he is arily self respecting, but
3:31:02
Speaker 1: that he graciously treats all others with a due esteem.
3:31:06
Speaker 1: Pride loves itself and treats those beneath it with supercilious contempt.
3:31:11
Speaker 1: For love of self and contempt for others are always
3:31:15
Speaker 1: found together in equal degrees, so that the greater the
3:31:18
Speaker 1: self love, the greater the arrogance. True dignity arises not
3:31:23
Speaker 1: from self love, but from self sacrifice, that is, from
3:31:28
Speaker 1: unbiased adherence to a fixed central principle. The dignity of
3:31:33
Speaker 1: the judge arises from the fact that, in the performance
3:31:36
Speaker 1: of his duty, he sets aside all personal consideration and
3:31:40
Speaker 1: stands solely upon the law. His little personality, impermanent in fleeting,
3:31:46
Speaker 1: becomes nothing, while the law, enduring and majestic, becomes all
3:31:52
Speaker 1: should a judge, in deciding a case forget the law
3:31:56
Speaker 1: and fall into personal feeling and prejudice, his dignity would
3:32:00
Speaker 1: be gone. So the man of a stately pure character
3:32:05
Speaker 1: stands upon the divine law and not upon personal feeling.
3:32:09
Speaker 1: For immediately when a man gives way to passion, he
3:32:12
Speaker 1: has sacrificed dignity and takes his place as one of
3:32:16
Speaker 1: the multitude of the unwise and uncontrolled. Every man will
3:32:20
Speaker 1: have composure and dignity in the measure that he acts
3:32:23
Speaker 1: from a fixed principle. It only needs that the principle
3:32:27
Speaker 1: be right and therefore unassailable, so long as a man
3:32:32
Speaker 1: abides by such a principle and does not waver or
3:32:35
Speaker 1: descend into the personal element attacking passions, prejudices, and interests. However,
3:32:42
Speaker 1: powerful will be weak and ineffectual before the conquerable strength
3:32:46
Speaker 1: of an incorruptible principle, and will at last yield their
3:32:50
Speaker 1: combined and unseemly confusion to his single and majestic right.
3:32:55
Speaker 1: Independence is the birthright of the strong and well controlled man.
3:33:00
Speaker 1: All men love and strive for liberty. All men aspire
3:33:03
Speaker 1: to some sort of freedom. A man should labor for
3:33:07
Speaker 1: himself or for the community. Unless he is a cripple,
3:33:11
Speaker 1: a chronic invalid, or is mentally irresponsible. He should be
3:33:15
Speaker 1: ashamed to depend upon others for all he has, giving
3:33:19
Speaker 1: nothing in return. If one imagines that such a condition
3:33:23
Speaker 1: is freedom, let him know that it is one of
3:33:25
Speaker 1: the lowest forms of slavery. The time will come when
3:33:30
Speaker 1: to be a drone in the human hive, even as
3:33:33
Speaker 1: matters are now a respectable drone and not a poor tramp,
3:33:38
Speaker 1: will be a public disgrace and will no longer be respectable. Independence, freedom,
3:33:44
Speaker 1: glorious liberty come through labor and not from idleness. And
3:33:49
Speaker 1: the self reliant man is too strong, too honorable, too
3:33:53
Speaker 1: upright to depend upon others like a sucking babe for
3:33:56
Speaker 1: his support. He earns, with hand or brain the right
3:34:01
Speaker 1: to live as becomes a man and a citizen, and
3:34:04
Speaker 1: thus he does, whether born rich or poor. For riches
3:34:07
Speaker 1: are no excuse for idleness. Rather, they are an opportunity
3:34:11
Speaker 1: to labor with the rare faculties which they afford for
3:34:15
Speaker 1: the good of the community. Only he who is self
3:34:19
Speaker 1: supporting is free, self reliant, and independent. Thus is the
3:34:24
Speaker 1: nature of the eight pillars explained on what foundation they
3:34:28
Speaker 1: rest The manner of their building, their ingredients, the fourfold
3:34:33
Speaker 1: nature of the material of which each is composed, what
3:34:36
Speaker 1: positions they occupy, and how they support the temple. All
3:34:41
Speaker 1: may now build, and he who knew perfectly may rejoice
3:34:45
Speaker 1: in this systemization and simplification of the moral order and prosperity.
3:34:51
Speaker 1: Let us now consider the temple itself, that we may
3:34:54
Speaker 1: know the might of its pillars, the strength of its walls,
3:34:58
Speaker 1: the endurance of its roos, roof the architectural beauty, and
3:35:02
Speaker 1: perfection of the whole, the Temple of prosperity. The reader
3:35:07
Speaker 1: who has followed the course of this book with a
3:35:10
Speaker 1: view to obtaining information on the details of money making,
3:35:14
Speaker 1: business transactions, profit in lass and various undertakings, prices, markets, agreements, contracts,
3:35:23
Speaker 1: and other matters connected with the achievement of prosperity, will
3:35:27
Speaker 1: have noted an entire absence of any instruction on these
3:35:31
Speaker 1: matters of detail. The reason for this is fourfold. Namely, first,
3:35:38
Speaker 1: details cannot stand alone, but are powerless to build up
3:35:42
Speaker 1: anything unless intelligently related to principles. Second, details are infinite
3:35:49
Speaker 1: and are ceaselessly changing, while principles are few and are
3:35:54
Speaker 1: eternal and unchangeable. Third, principles are the coherent factors in
3:35:59
Speaker 1: all detail, regulating and harmonizing them, so that to have
3:36:04
Speaker 1: right principles is to be right in all the subsidiary details. Fourth,
3:36:10
Speaker 1: a teacher of truth in any direction must adhere rigidly
3:36:14
Speaker 1: to principles, and must not allow himself to be drawn
3:36:17
Speaker 1: away from them into the ever changing ways of private
3:36:21
Speaker 1: particulars and personal details, Because such particulars and details have
3:36:27
Speaker 1: only a local right and are not necessary for certain individuals.
3:36:32
Speaker 1: While principles are universally right and are necessary for all men.
3:36:37
Speaker 1: He who grasps the principles of this book so as
3:36:40
Speaker 1: to be able to intelligently practice them, will be able
3:36:43
Speaker 1: to reach the heart of this fourfold reason. The details
3:36:47
Speaker 1: of a man's affairs are important, but they are his
3:36:51
Speaker 1: details or the details of his particular branch of industry,
3:36:55
Speaker 1: and all outside that branch are not concerned with them.
3:37:00
Speaker 1: Moral principles are the same for all men. They are
3:37:03
Speaker 1: applicable to all conditions and govern all particulars. The man
3:37:08
Speaker 1: who works from fixed principles does not need to harass
3:37:12
Speaker 1: himself over the complications of numerous details. He will grasp,
3:37:17
Speaker 1: as it were, the entire details in one single thought,
3:37:21
Speaker 1: and will see them through and through illumed by the
3:37:24
Speaker 1: light of the principle to which they stand related, and
3:37:27
Speaker 1: this without friction and with freedom from anxiety and strain.
3:37:32
Speaker 1: Until principles are grasped, details are regarded and dealt with
3:37:37
Speaker 1: as primary matters, and so viewed that they lead to
3:37:41
Speaker 1: innumerable complications and confused issues. In the light of principles,
3:37:47
Speaker 1: they are seen to be secondary facts, and so seen
3:37:51
Speaker 1: all difficulties connected with them are at once overcome and
3:37:54
Speaker 1: annulled by a reference to principles. He who is involved
3:37:59
Speaker 1: in numerous details without the regulating and synthesizing element of
3:38:04
Speaker 1: principles is like one lost in a forest with no
3:38:07
Speaker 1: direct path along which to walk. Amid the mass of objects.
3:38:12
Speaker 1: He is swelled up by the details. While the man
3:38:14
Speaker 1: of principles contains all details within himself, he stands outside them,
3:38:19
Speaker 1: as it were, and grasps them in their entirety, while
3:38:23
Speaker 1: the other man can only see the few that are
3:38:25
Speaker 1: nearest to him at the time. All things are contained
3:38:29
Speaker 1: in principles. They are the laws of things, and all
3:38:33
Speaker 1: things observe their own law. It is an error to
3:38:37
Speaker 1: view things apart from their nature. Details are the letter
3:38:40
Speaker 1: of which principles are the spirit. It is as true
3:38:44
Speaker 1: in art, science, literature, commerce, as in religion, that the
3:38:48
Speaker 1: letter killeth the spirit of giveth life. The body of
3:38:53
Speaker 1: a man, with its wonderful combination of parts, is important,
3:38:58
Speaker 1: but only in its relationship to the spirit. The spirit
3:39:02
Speaker 1: being withdrawn, the body is useless and is put away.
3:39:06
Speaker 1: The body of a business, with its complicated details, is important,
3:39:11
Speaker 1: but only in its relation to the vivifying principles by
3:39:14
Speaker 1: which it is controlled. These withdrawn, the business will perish.
3:39:20
Speaker 1: To have the body of prosperity its material presentation, we
3:39:25
Speaker 1: must first have the spirit of prosperity. The spirit of
3:39:29
Speaker 1: prosperity is the quick spirit of moral virtue. Moral blindness prevails.
3:39:35
Speaker 1: Men see money, property, pleasure, leisure, etc. And, mistakening them
3:39:41
Speaker 1: for prosperity, strive to get them for their own enjoyment,
3:39:45
Speaker 1: but when obtained, find no enjoyment in them. Prosperity is
3:39:50
Speaker 1: at first to spirit, an attitude of mind, a moral power,
3:39:55
Speaker 1: a life which manifests outwardly in the form of plenty, happiness,
3:40:00
Speaker 1: and joy. Just as a man cannot become a genius
3:40:03
Speaker 1: by writing poems, essays, and plays, but must develop and
3:40:08
Speaker 1: acquire the soul of genius. Then the writing will follow
3:40:12
Speaker 1: as effect to cause. So one cannot become prosperous by
3:40:16
Speaker 1: hoarding up money and by gaining property in possessions, but
3:40:20
Speaker 1: must develop and acquire the soul of virtue, when the
3:40:24
Speaker 1: material accessories will follow as effect to cause. For the
3:40:28
Speaker 1: spirit of virtue is the spirit of joy, and contains
3:40:31
Speaker 1: within itself all abundance, all satisfaction, all fullness of life.
3:40:38
Speaker 1: There is no joy in money, there is no joy
3:40:41
Speaker 1: in property. There is no joy in material accumulations, or
3:40:46
Speaker 1: in any material things of itself. These things are dead
3:40:49
Speaker 1: and lifeless. The spirit of joy must be in the
3:40:53
Speaker 1: man or it is nowhere. He must have within him
3:40:57
Speaker 1: the capacity for happiness, have the wisdom to know how
3:41:01
Speaker 1: to use things and not merely hoard them. He must
3:41:05
Speaker 1: possess them and not be possessed by them. They must
3:41:09
Speaker 1: be dependent upon him and not he upon them. They
3:41:14
Speaker 1: must follow him and not he be forever running after them,
3:41:19
Speaker 1: and they will inevitably follow him. If he has the
3:41:22
Speaker 1: moral elements withinto which they are related. Nothing is absent
3:41:26
Speaker 1: from the Kingdom of Heaven. It contains all good, true,
3:41:30
Speaker 1: and necessary things, and the Kingdom of God is within you.
3:41:35
Speaker 1: I know rich people who are supremely happy, because they
3:41:38
Speaker 1: are generous, magnanimous, pure and joyful. But I also know
3:41:43
Speaker 1: rich people who are very miserable. And these are they
3:41:47
Speaker 1: who look to money and possessions for their happiness and
3:41:50
Speaker 1: have not developed the spirit of good and of joy
3:41:53
Speaker 1: within themselves. How can it be said of a wretched
3:41:56
Speaker 1: man that he is prosperous, even if his income be
3:41:59
Speaker 1: ten thousand pounds a year. There must be fitness and
3:42:03
Speaker 1: harmony and satisfaction in a true prosperity. When a rich
3:42:08
Speaker 1: man is happy, it is that he brought the spirit
3:42:12
Speaker 1: of happiness to his riches, and not that the riches
3:42:15
Speaker 1: brought happiness to him. He is a full man with
3:42:19
Speaker 1: full material advantages and responsibilities, while the miserable rich man
3:42:24
Speaker 1: is an empty man, looking to riches for that fullness
3:42:27
Speaker 1: of life which can only be evolved from within. Thus,
3:42:32
Speaker 1: prosperity resolves itself into a moral capacity and in wisdom
3:42:37
Speaker 1: to rightfully use and lawfully enjoy the material things which
3:42:41
Speaker 1: are inseparable from our earthly life. If one would be
3:42:45
Speaker 1: free without, let him first be free within. For if
3:42:49
Speaker 1: he be bound in a spirit by weakness, selfishness, or vice.
3:42:54
Speaker 1: How can the possession of money liberate him? Will it
3:42:58
Speaker 1: not rather become in his hands a ready instrument by
3:43:01
Speaker 1: which to further enslave himself. The visible effects of prosperity, then,
3:43:07
Speaker 1: must not be considered alone, but in their relation to
3:43:10
Speaker 1: the mental and moral cause. There is a hidden foundation
3:43:14
Speaker 1: to every building. The fact that it continues to stand
3:43:17
Speaker 1: is proof of that there is a hidden foundation to
3:43:20
Speaker 1: every form of established success. Its permanence proves that it
3:43:25
Speaker 1: is so. Prosperity stands on the foundation of character, and
3:43:30
Speaker 1: there is not, in all the wide universe any other foundation.
3:43:35
Speaker 1: True wealth is welfare, well being, soundness, wholesomeness, and happiness.
3:43:42
Speaker 1: The wretched rich are not truly wealthy. They are merely
3:43:46
Speaker 1: encumbered with money, luxury, and leisure as instruments of self torture.
3:43:52
Speaker 1: By their possessions, they are self cursed. The moral man
3:43:56
Speaker 1: is ever blessed, ever happy in his life, viewed as
3:44:00
Speaker 1: a whole, is always a success to these There is
3:44:04
Speaker 1: no exception for whatever failures he may have. In detail,
3:44:08
Speaker 1: the finished work of his life will be sound, whole,
3:44:12
Speaker 1: complete and thorough, and he will have a quiet conscience.
3:44:16
Speaker 1: An honorable name, and all manifold blessings which are inseparable
3:44:20
Speaker 1: from richness of character, and without this moral richness, financial
3:44:25
Speaker 1: riches will not avail or satisfy. Let us briefly recapitulate
3:44:31
Speaker 1: and again view the eight pillars in their strength and splendor. Energy,
3:44:36
Speaker 1: rousing one's self up to strenuous and unremitting exertion in
3:44:39
Speaker 1: the accomplishment of one's task. Economy, concentration of power, the
3:44:46
Speaker 1: concentration of both capital and character, the latter being mental capital,
3:44:51
Speaker 1: and therefore of the utmost importance. Integrity, unswerving honesty, keeping
3:44:58
Speaker 1: in violate all promises, agreements and contracts, apart from all
3:45:02
Speaker 1: considerations of loss or gain, system making all details subservient
3:45:09
Speaker 1: to order, and thereby relieving the memory in the mind
3:45:12
Speaker 1: of superlifous work and strain by reducing many to one. Sympathy, magnanimity, generosity,
3:45:22
Speaker 1: gentleness and tenderness, being open handed, free and kind, sincerity
3:45:30
Speaker 1: being sound and whole, robust and true, and therefore not
3:45:34
Speaker 1: being one person in public and another in private, and
3:45:38
Speaker 1: not assuming good actions openly while doing bad actions in secret. Impartiality, justice,
3:45:46
Speaker 1: not striving for self, but weighing both sides and acting
3:45:51
Speaker 1: in accordance with equity self reliance, looking to oneself only
3:45:57
Speaker 1: for strength and support, by standing on princes which are
3:46:00
Speaker 1: fixed and invincible, and not relying upon outward things, which
3:46:05
Speaker 1: at any moment may be snatched away. How can any
3:46:08
Speaker 1: life be other than successful which is built on these
3:46:11
Speaker 1: eight pillars. Their strength is such that no physical or
3:46:16
Speaker 1: intellectual strength can compare with it, And to have built
3:46:19
Speaker 1: on all the eight perfectly would render a man invincible.
3:46:24
Speaker 1: It will be found, however, that men are often strong
3:46:27
Speaker 1: in one or several of these qualities and weak in others,
3:46:31
Speaker 1: And it is this weak element that invites failure. It
3:46:35
Speaker 1: is foolish, for instance, to attribute a man's failure in
3:46:38
Speaker 1: business to his honesty. It is impossible for honesty to
3:46:42
Speaker 1: produce failure. The cause of failure must be looked for
3:46:46
Speaker 1: in some other direction, in the lack and not the
3:46:50
Speaker 1: possession of some good necessary quality. Moreover, such attribution of
3:46:56
Speaker 1: failure to honesty is a slur on the integrity of commerce,
3:47:00
Speaker 1: and a false indictment of those men numerous enough who
3:47:05
Speaker 1: are honorably engaged in trade. A man may be strong
3:47:08
Speaker 1: in energy, economy, and system, but comparatively weak in the
3:47:12
Speaker 1: other five. Such a man will just fail of complete
3:47:16
Speaker 1: success by lacking one of the four corner pillars, namely integrity,
3:47:22
Speaker 1: his temple will give way at that weak corner. For
3:47:25
Speaker 1: the four pillars must be well built before the temple
3:47:28
Speaker 1: of prosperity can stand secure. They are the first qualities
3:47:32
Speaker 1: to be acquired in a man's moral evolution, and without them,
3:47:36
Speaker 1: the second four cannot be possessed again. If a man
3:47:41
Speaker 1: be strong in the first three and lack the fourth,
3:47:44
Speaker 1: the absence of order will invite confusion and disaster into
3:47:48
Speaker 1: his affairs, and so on with any partial combination of
3:47:52
Speaker 1: these qualities, especially the first four, for the second four
3:47:56
Speaker 1: are of so lofty a character that at present men
3:48:00
Speaker 1: cannot but possess them with rare exception, in a more
3:48:04
Speaker 1: or less imperfect form. The man of the world, then,
3:48:08
Speaker 1: who wishes to secure an abiding success in any branch
3:48:11
Speaker 1: of commerce, or in any one of the many lines
3:48:14
Speaker 1: of industry in which men are commonly engaged, must build
3:48:18
Speaker 1: into his character by practice the first four moral pillars.
3:48:23
Speaker 1: By these fixed principles. He must regulate his thought, his
3:48:27
Speaker 1: conduct in his affairs, consulting them in every difficulty, making
3:48:32
Speaker 1: every detail serve them. And above all, never deserting them
3:48:37
Speaker 1: under any circumstance to gain some personal advantage or to
3:48:41
Speaker 1: save some personal trouble. For so to desert them is
3:48:45
Speaker 1: to make oneself vulnerable to the disintegrating elements of evil,
3:48:50
Speaker 1: and to become assailable to accusations from others. He who
3:48:55
Speaker 1: so abides by these four principles will achieve a full
3:48:58
Speaker 1: measure of success in his own particular work, whatever it
3:49:02
Speaker 1: may be. His temple of prosperity will be well built
3:49:06
Speaker 1: and well supported, and will stand secure. The perfect practice
3:49:11
Speaker 1: of these four principles is within the scope of all
3:49:14
Speaker 1: men who are willing to study them with that object
3:49:17
Speaker 1: in view. Where they are so simple and plain that
3:49:21
Speaker 1: a child could grasp their meaning, and their perfection and
3:49:24
Speaker 1: conduct does not call for an unusual degree of self sacrifice,
3:49:29
Speaker 1: though it demands some self denial and personal discipline, without
3:49:33
Speaker 1: which there can be no success in this world of action.
3:49:37
Speaker 1: The second four pillars, however, our principles of a more
3:49:40
Speaker 1: profound nature, are more difficult to understand in practice, and
3:49:45
Speaker 1: call from the highest degree of self sacrifice and self effacement.
3:49:50
Speaker 1: Few at present can reach the detachment from the personal
3:49:54
Speaker 1: element which their perfect practice demands. But the few who
3:49:58
Speaker 1: accomplish this in any mark degree will vastly enlarge their
3:50:02
Speaker 1: powers and enrich their life, and will adorn their temple
3:50:06
Speaker 1: of prosperity with a singular and attractive beauty, which will
3:50:10
Speaker 1: gladden and elevate all beholders long after they have passed away.
3:50:15
Speaker 1: But those who are beginning to build their temple of
3:50:18
Speaker 1: prosperity in accordance with the teaching of this book must
3:50:22
Speaker 1: bear in mind that a building requires time to erect,
3:50:26
Speaker 1: and must be patiently raised up brick by brick and
3:50:29
Speaker 1: stone by stone, and the pillars must be firmly fixed
3:50:33
Speaker 1: and cemented, and labor and care will be needed to
3:50:36
Speaker 1: make the whole complete. And the building of this inner
3:50:40
Speaker 1: mental temple is nonetheless real and substantial, because invisible and noiseless.
3:50:45
Speaker 1: For in the raising up of His as in the
3:50:48
Speaker 1: raising of Solomon's temple, which was seven years in building,
3:50:52
Speaker 1: it can be said it was neither hammer, nor axe,
3:50:56
Speaker 1: nor any tool of iron herd in the house while
3:50:59
Speaker 1: it was in the building. Even so, o, reader, construct
3:51:04
Speaker 1: thy character, raise up the house of thy life, build
3:51:08
Speaker 1: up thy temple of prosperity. Be not as the foolish
3:51:12
Speaker 1: who rise and fall upon the uncertain flocks of selfish desires.
3:51:17
Speaker 1: But be at peace in thy labor, crown thy career
3:51:20
Speaker 1: with completeness, and so be numbered among the wise who,
3:51:24
Speaker 1: without uncertainty, build upon a fixed and secure foundation, even
3:51:30
Speaker 1: upon the principles of truth, which endure forever.