Courage is the chief attribute to manliness.” — DanielW ebster . “It is never safe to look into the future with eyes of fear" — E. H. Harriman. “Never take counsel of your fears" — Motto of Stonewall Jackson . “If you persuade yourself that you can do a certain thing, provided this thing be possible, you will do it, however diffi- cult it may be. If, on the contrary, you imagine that you cannot do the simplest thing in the world, it is impossible for you to do it J and molehills become for you unscalable mountains " — Emile Coue. “This is the foundation of success nine times out of ten — having confidence in yourself and applying yourself with all your might to your work " — Thomas E . Wilson, President of Wilson and Company, Packers . “The ability to speak effectively is an acquire?nent rather than a gift ? — William Jennings Bryan. “To secure personal advancement, it is much more profit* able to be eloquent, than to be wise and grave in council f ' — London Daily Telegraph.DEVELOPING COURAGE AND SELF- CONFIDENCE More than eighteen thousand business men, since 1912, have been members of the various public speaking courses conducted by the author. Most of them have, at his request, written stating why they had enrolled for this training and what they hoped to obtain from it. Naturally, the phrase- ology varied ; but the central desire in these letters, the basic want in the vast majority, remained sur- prisingly the same: “When I am called upon to stand up and speak,” man after man wrote, “I be- come so self-conscious, so frightened, that I can’t think clearly, can’t concentrate, can’t remember what I had intended to say. I want to gain self- confidence, poise, and the ability to think on my feet. I want to get my thoughts together in logical order and I want to be able to say my say clearly and convincingly before a business group or audi- ence.” Thousands of their confessions sounded about like that. To cite a concrete case : Years ago, a gentleman here called Mr. D. W. Ghent, joined my public speaking course in Philadelphia. Shortly after the opening session, he invited me to lunch with him in the Manufacturers’ Club. He was a 3 4 PUBLIC SPEAKING man of middle age and had always led an active life; was head of his own manufacturing establish- ment, a leader in church work and civic activities. While we were having lunch that day, he leaned across the table and said: “I have been asked many times to talk before various gatherings, but I have never been able to do so. I get so fussed, my mind becomes an utter blank : so I have sidestepped it all my life. But I am chairman now of a board of col- lege trustees. I must preside at their meetings. I simply have to do some talking. . . . Do you think it will be possible for me to learn to speak at this late date in my life?” “Do I think, Mr. Ghent?” I replied. “It is not a question of my thinking. I know you can, and I know you will if you will only practise and follow the directions and instructions.” He w’anted to believe that, but it seemed too rosy, too optimistic. “I am afraid you are just be- ing kind,” he answered, “that you are merely trying to encourage me.” After he had completed his training, we lost touch with each other for a while. In 1921, we met and lunched together again at the Manufacturers’ Club. We sat in the same corner and occupied the same table that we had had on the first occasion. Re- minding him of our former conversation, I asked him if I had been too sanguine then. He took a little red-backed note book out of his pocket and showed me a list of talks and dates for which he was booked. “And the ability to make these,” he confessed, “the pleasure I get in doing it, the addi= DEVELOPING SELF-CONFIDENCE 5precisely.” And that spoils the whole joke, because youand I have done it. Ninety out of every hundred people here have made that mistake this very day. I say you ought to be rich; you have no right to be poor. To live ifi Philadelphia and not be rich is a misfortune, and it is doubly a misfortune, because you could have been rich just as well as be poor. Phila- delphia furnishes so many opportunities. You ought to be rich. But persons with certain religious prejudice will ask, “How can you spend your time advising the rising genera- tion to give their time to getting money — dollars and cents — * the commercial spirit?” Yet I must say that you ought to spend time getting rich. You and I know there are some things more valuable than money; of course, we do. Ah, yes! By a heart made ACRES OF DIAMONDS 529 unspeakably sad by 1 ) a grave on which the autumn leaves now fall, I know there are some things higher and grander and sublimer than money. Well does the man know, who has suffered, that there are some things sweeter and holier and more sacred than gold. Nevertheless, the man of com- mon sense also knows that there is not any one of these things that is not greatly enhanced by the use of money. Money is power. Love is the grandest thing on God’s earth, but fortunate the lover who has plenty of money. Money is power ; money has powers ; and for a man to say, u l do not want moftey,” is to say, “I do not wish to do any good to my fellowmen.” It is absurd thus to talk. It is* absurd to disconnect them.,, This is a wonderfully great life, and you ought to spend your time getting money, be- cause of the power there is in money. And yet this religious prejudice is so great that some people think it is a great honor to be one of God’s poor. I am looking in the faces of people who think just that way. I heard a man once say in a prayer meeting that he was thankful that he was one of God’s poor, and then I silently wondered what his wife would say to that speech, as she took in washing to support the man while he sat and smoked on the veranda. I don’t want to see any more of that kind of God’s poor. Now, when a man could have been rich just as well, and he is now weak because he is poor, he has done some great wrong ,* he has been untruthful to himself : he has been unkind to ' r\ * his fellowmen. We ought to get rich if we can by hon- orable and Christian methods, and these are the only methods that sweep us quickly toward the goal of riches. I remember, not many years ago, a young theological student who came into my office and said to me that he thought it was his duty to come in and “labor with me.” I asked him what had happened, and he said: “I feel it is my duty to come in and speak to you, sir, and say that the Holy Scriptures declare that money is the root of all evil.” I asked him where he found that saying, and he said he found 530 APPENDIX it in the Bible. I asked him whether %e had made a new Bible, and he said, no, he had not gotten a new Bible, that it was in the old Bible. “Well/’ I said, “If it is in my Bible, I never saw it. Will you please get the* text-book and let me see it?” He left the room and soon came stalk- ing in with his Bible open, with all the bigoted pride of the narrow sectarian, who founds his creed on some misinter- pretation of Scripture, and he put the Bible down on the table before me and fairly squealed into my ear, “There it is. You can read it for yourself.” I said to him, “Young man, you will learn when you get a little older, that you cannot trust another denomination to read the Bible for you.” I said, “Now, you belong to another denomination. Please read it to me, and remember that you are taught in a school where emphasis is exegesis.” So he took the Bible and read it : “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Then he had it right. The Great Book has come back into the esteem and love of the people, and into the respect of the greatest minds of earth, and now you can quote it and rest your life and your death on it without more fear. So. when he quoted right from the Scriptures he quoted the truth. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Oh, that is it. It is the worship of the means instead of the end, though you cannot reach the end without the means. When a man makes an idol of the money instead of the pur- poses for which it may be used, wh&n he squeezes the dollar until the eagle squeals, then it is made the root of all evil. Think, if you only had the money, what you could do for your wife, your child, and for your home and your city. Think how soon you could endow the Temple College yonder if you only had the money and the disposition to give it ; and yet, my friend, people say you and I should not spend the time getting rich. How inconsistent the whole thing is. We ought to be rich, because money has power. I think the best thing for me to do is to illustrate this, for if I say you ought to get rich, I ought, at least, to suggest 531 I ACRES OF DIAMONDS how it is done. get a prejudice against rich men be- cause of the lies that are told about them. The lies that are told about Mr. Rockefeller because he has two hundred million dollars — so many believe them ; yet how false is the representation of that man to the world. How little we can tell what is true nowadays when newspapers try to sell their papers entirely on some sensation ! The way they lie about the rich men is something terrible, and I do not know that there is anything to illustrate this better than what the newspapers now say about the city of Philadelphia. A young man came to me the other day and said, “If Mr. Rockefeller, as you think, is a good man, why is it that everybody says so much against him ?” It is because he has gotten ahead of us; that is the whole of it — just gotten ahead of us. Why is it Mr. Carnegie is criticized so sharply by an envious world ? Because he has gotten more than we have. If a man knows more than I know, don’t I incline to criticize somewhat his learning? Let a man stand in a pulpit and preach to thousands, and if I have fifteen people in my church, and they’re all asleep, don’t I criticize him? We always do that to the man who gets ahead of us. Why, the man you are criticizing has one hundred millions, and you have fifty cents, and both of you have just what you are worth. One of the richest men in this country came into my home and sat down in my parlor and said: “Did you see all those lies about my family in the paper?” “Certainly I did; I knew 'they were lies when I saw them.” “Why do they lie about me the way they do?” “Well,” I said to him, “if you will give me your check for one hundred millions, I will take all the lies along with it.” “Well,” said he, “I don’t see any sense in their thus talking about my family and myself. Conwell, tell me frankly, what do you think the American people think of me?” “Well,” said I, “they think you are the blackest-hearted villain that ever trod the soil!” “But what can I do about it?” There is nothing he can do about it, and yet he is one of the sweetest 532 APPENDIX Christian men I ever knew. If you g^t a hundred millions you will have the lies; you will be lied about, and you can judge your success in any line by the lies that are told about you. I say that you ought to be rich. But thq*e are ever coming to me young men who say, “I would like to go iijto business, but I cannot.” “Why not?” “Because I have no capital to begin on.” Capital, capital to begin on! What! young man! Living in Philadelphia and looking at this wealthy generation, all of whom began as poor boys, and you want capital to begin on? It is fortunate for you that you have no capital. I am glad you ha^e no money. I pity a rich man’s son. A rich man’s son in these days of ours occupies a very difficult position. They are to be pitied. A rich man’s son cannot know the very best things in human life. He cannot. The statistics of Massachusetts show us that not one out of seventeen rich men’s sons ever die rich. They are raised in luxury, they die in poverty. Even if a rich man’s son retains his father’s money even then he can- not know the best things of life. A young man in our college yonder asked me to formulate for him what I thought was the happiest hour in a man’s history, and I studied it long and came back convinced that the happiest hour that any man ever sees in any earthly matter is when a young man takes his bride over the threshold of the door, for the first time, of the house he himself has earned and built, when he turns to his bride and with an eloquence greater than any language of mine, he sayeth to his wife, “My loved one, I earned this home myself; I earned it all. It is all mine, and I divide it with thee.” That is the grandest moment a human heart may ever see. But a rich man’s son cannot know that. He goes into a finer mansion, it may be, but he is obliged to go through the house and say, “Mother gave me this, mother gave me that, my mother gave me that, my mother gave me that,” until his wife wishes she had married his mother. Oh, I pity a rich man’s son. I do, until he gets so far along ACRES OF DIAMONDS 533 in his dudeism tMt he gets his arms up like that and can't get them down. Didn’t you ever see any of them astray at Atlantic City ? I saw one of these scarecrows once and I nearer tire thinking about it. I was at Niagara Falls lecturing, and after the lecture I went to the hotel, and when I went up to the desk there stood there a millionaire’s son from New York. He was an indescribable specimen of anthropologic impotency. He carried a gold-headed cane under his arm — more in its head than he had in his. I do not believe I could describe the young man if I should try. But still I must say that he wore an eye-glass he could not see through; patent leather shoes he could not walk in, and pants he could not sit dowq in — dressed like a grasshopper! Well, this human cricket came up to the clerk’s desk just as I came in. He adjusted his unseeing eyeglass in this vcise and lisped to the clerk, because it’s “Hinglish, you know,” to lisp: “Thir, thir, will you have the kindness to fuhnish me with thome papah and thome envelopehs!” The clerk measured that man quick, and he pulled out a drawer and took some envelopes and paper and cast them across the counter and turned away to his books. You should have seen that specimen of humanity when the paper and en- velopes came across the counter — he whose wants had always been anticipated by servants. He adjusted his unseeing eye- glass and he yelled after that clerk: “Come back here, thir, come right back here. Now, thir, will you order a thervant to take that papah and thothe envelopes and carry them to yondah dethk.” Oh, the poor miserable, contemptible American monkey He couldn’t carry paper and envelopes twenty feet. I suppose he could not get his arms down. I have no pity for such travesties of human nature. If you have no capital, I am glad of it. You don’t need capital; you need common sense, not copper cents. A. T. Stewart, the great princely merchant of New York, the rfchest man in America in his time, was a poor boy; he had a. dollar and a half and went into the mercantile 534 APPENDIX business. But he lost eighty-seven and# a half cents of his first dollar and a half because he bought some needles and thread and buttons to sell, which people didn’t want. Are you poor? It is because you are not wanted and are left on your own hands. There was the great lessor. Apply it whichever way you will it comes to every single person’s life, young or old. He did not know what people needed, and consequently bought something they didn’t want and had the goods left on his hands a dead loss. A. T. Stewart learned there the great lesson of his mercantile life and said, “I will never buy anything more until I first learn what the people want; then I’ll make the purchase.” He went around to the doors # and asked them what they did want, and when he found out what they wanted, he invested his sixty-two and a half cents and began to supply “a known demand.” I care not what your profession or occupation in life may be; I care not whether you are a lawyer, a doctor, a housekeeper, a teacher, or whatever else, the principle is precisely the same. We must know what the world needs first and then invest ourselves to supply that need, and success is almost certain. A. T. Stewart went on until he was worth forty millions. “Well,” you will say, “ a man can do that in New York, but cannot do it here in Philadelphia.” The statistics very carefully gath- ered in New York in 1889 showed one hundred and seven millionaires in the city worth ovef ten millions apiece. It was remarkable and people think they must go there to get rich. Out of that one hundred and seven millionaires only seven of them made their money in New York, and the others moved to New York after their fortunes were made, and sixty-seven out of the remaining hundred made their fortunes in towns of less than six thousand people, and the richest man in the country at that time lived in a town of thirty-five hundred inhabitants, and always lived there and never moved away. It is not so much where you are as what you are. But at the same time if the largeness of the city ACRES OF DIAMONDS 535 comes into the problem, then remember it is the smaller city that furnishes the great opportunity to make the millions of money. The best illustration that I can give is in refer- ence to Jolln Jacob Astor, who was a poor boy and who made all the money of the Astor family. He made more than his successors have ever earned, and yet he once held a mort- gage on a millinery store in New York, and because the people could not make enough money to pay the interest and the rent, he foreclosed the mortgage and took possession of the- store and went into partnership with the man who had failed. He kdpt the same stock, did not give him a dollar capital, and he left him alone and went out and sat down upon a bench in the park. Out there on that bench in the park he had the most important, and to my mind, the pleasantest part of that partnership business. He was watching the ladies as they went by ; and where is the man that wouldn’t get rich at that business? But when John Jacob Astor saw a lady pass, with her shoulders back and her head up, as if she did not care if the whole world looked on her, he studied her bonnet ; and before that bonnet was out of sight he knew the shape of the frame and the color of the trimmings, the curl of the — something on a bonnet. Sometimes I try to describe a woman’s bonnet, but it is of little use, for it would be out of style tomorrow night. So John Jacob Astor went to the store and said: “Now, put in the show wipdow jus? such a bonnet as I describe to you because,” said he, “I have just seen a lady who likes just such a bonnet. Do not make up any more till I come back.” And he went out again and sat on that bench in the park, and another lady of a different form and complexion passed him with a bonnet of different shape and color, of course. “Now,” said he, “put such a bonnet as that in the show window.” He didn’t fill his show window with hats and bonnets which drive people away and then sit in the back of the store and bawl because the people go somewhere else to trade. He didn’t put a hat or bonnet in that show 536 APPENDIX window the like of which he had not 0 seen before it was made up. In our city especially there are great opportunities for manufacturing, and the time has come when the line is drawn very sharply between the stockholders of the factory and their employes. Now, friends, there has also come a discouraging gloom upon this country and the laboring men are beginning to feel that they are being held down by a crust over their heads through which they find it impossible to break, and the aristocratic money-owner himself is so far above that he will never descend to their ^assistance. That is the thought that is in the minds of our people. But, friends, never in the history of our country was there an opportunity so great for the poor man to get rich as there is now in the city of Philadelphia. The very fact that they get discour- aged is what prevents them from getting rich. That is all there is to it. The road is open, and let us keep it open between the poor and the rich. I know that the labor unions have two great problems to contend with, and there is only one way to solve them. The labor unions are doing as much to prevent its solving as are the capitalists today, and there are positively two sides to it. The labor union has two difficulties; the first one is that it began to make a labor scale for all classes on a par, and they scale down a man that can earn five dollars a day to two and a half a day, in order to level up to him Sn imbeqile that cannot earn fifty cents a day. That is one of the most dangerous and discouraging things for the working man. He cannot get the results of his work if he do better work or higher work or work longer; that is a dangerous thing, and in order to get every laboring man free and every American equal to every other American, let the laboring man ask what he is worth and get it — not let any capitalist say to him: “You shall work for me for half of what yqyu are worth;” nor let any labor organization say “You shall work for the capitalist for half your worth.” Be a man, be ACRES OF DIAMONDS 537 independent, and \hen shall the laboring man find the road ever open from poverty to wealth. The other difficulty that the labor union has to , consider, and this problem they have to solve themselves, is the kind of orators who come and talk to them about the oppressive rich. I can in my dreams recite the oration I have heard again and again under such circumstances. My life has been with the laboring man. I am a laboring man myself. I have often^ in their assemblies, heard the speech of the man who has been invited to address the labor union. The man who gets up before the assembled company of honest laboring men and he begins by saying: “Oh, ye honest, industrious laboring men, who have furnished all the capital of the world, who have built all the palaces and constructed all the railroads and covered the ocean with her steamships. Oh, you laboring men! You are nothing but slaves; you are ground down in the dust by the capitalist who is gloat- ing over you as he enjoys his beautiful estates and as he has his banks filled with gold, and every dollar he owns is coined out of the heart's blood of the honest laboring man." Now, that is a lie, and you know it is a lie; and yet that is the kind of speech that they are all the time hearing, representing the capitalists as wicked and the labor- ing men so enslaved. Why, how wrong it is! Let the man who loves his flag and believes in American principles en- deavor with alh his soul to bring the capitalist and the laboring man together until they stand side by side, and arm in arm, and work for the common good of humanity. He is an enemy to his country who sets capital against labor or labor against capital. Suppose I were to go down through this audience and ask you to introduce me to the great inventors who live here in Philadelphia. “The inventors of Philadelphia," you would say, “Why we don’t have any in Philadelphia. It is too slow to invent anything." But you do have just as great inventors, and they are here in this audience, as ever in- 538 APPENDIX vented a machine. But the probability^ that the greatest inventor to benefit the world with his discovery is some per- son, perhaps some lady, who thinks she could not invent anything. Did you ever study the history of invention and see how strange it was that the man who made the greatest discovery did it without any previous idea that he was an inventor? Who are the great inventors? They are persons with plain, straightforward common sense, who saw a need in the world and immediately applied themselves to study that need. If you want to invent anything, don’t Try to find it in the wheels in your head nor in the wheels in your machine, but first find out w 7 hat the people need, and then apply yourself to that need? and this leads to invention on the part of the people you would not dream of before. The great inventors are simply great men; the greater the man the more simple the man, and the more simple a ma- chine, the more valuable it is. Did you ever know 7 a really great man? His ways are so simple, so common, so plain, that you think any one could do what he is doing. So it is with the great men the world over. If you know a really great man, a neighbor of yours, you can go right up to him and say, “How are you, Jim, good morning, Sam.” Of course you can, for they are always so simple. When I w^rote the life of General Garfield, one of his neighbors took me to his back door^and shouted, “Jim, Jim, Jim!” and very soon “Jim” came to the deor and General Garfield let me in — one of the grandest men of our century. The great men of the world are ever so. I was down in Virginia and went up to an educational institution and was directed to a man who was setting out a tree. I approached him and said, “Do you think it would be possible for me to see General Robert E. Lee, the President of the University?” He said, “Sir, I am General Lee.” Of course, when you meet such a man, so noble a man as that, you will fine? him a simple, plain man. Greatness is always just so modest and great inventions are simple. ACRES OF DIAMONDS 539 I asked a class in school once who were the great inventors, and a little girl popped up and said, “Columbus.” Well, now, she was not so far wrong. Columbus bought a farm and he carried on that farm just as I carried on my father’s farm. He took a hoe, and went out and sat down on a rock. But Columbus, as he sat upon that shore and looked out upon the ocean, noticed that the ships, as they sailed away, sank deeper into the sea the farther they went. And since that time some other “Spanish ships” have sunk into the sea. But as Columbus noticed that the tops of the masts dropped down out of sight, he said: “That is the way it is with this hoe handle; if you go around this hoe handle, the farther off you go the farther down you go. I can sail around to the East Indies.” 7 * How plain it all was. How simple the mind — majestic, like the simplicity of a mountain ia its greatness. Who are the great inventors? They are ever the simple, plain, everyday people who see the need and set about to supply it. I was once lecturing in North Carolina, and the cashier of the bank sat directly behind a lady who wore a very large hat. I said to that audience, “Your wealth is too near to you; you are looking right over it.” He whispered to his friend, “Well, then, my wealth is in that hat.” A little later, as he wmote me, I said, “Wherever there is a human need there is a greater fortune than a mine can furnish.” He caught my thought, ^and drew up his plan for a better hat pin than was in the hat before him, and the pin is now being manufactured. He was offered fifty-five thousand dollars for his patent. That man made his fortune before he got out of that hall. This is the whole question: Do you see a need? I remember well a man up in my native hilL, a poor man, who for twenty years was helped by the town^ in his pov- erty, who owned a wide-spreading maple tree that covered the po*9r man’s cottage like a benediction from on high. I remember that tree, for in the spring — there were some I 540 APPENDIX roguish boys around that neighborhood when I was young — in the spring of the year the man would put a bucket there and the spouts to catch the maple sap, and I remember where that bucket was: and when I was young the bojs were, oh, so mean, that they went to that tree before that man had gotten out of bed in the morning, and after he had gone to bed at night, and drank up that sweet sap. I could swear they did it. He didn’t make a great deal of maple sugar from that tree. But one day he made the sugar so white and crystalline that the visitor did not believe it was maple sugar; thought maple sugar must be re$ or black. He said to the old man: “Why don’t you make it that way and sell it for confectionery?” The old man caught his thought and invented the “rock maple crystal,” and before that patent expired he had ninety thousand dollars and had built a beau- tiful palace on the site of that tree. After forty years owning that tree he awoke to find it had fortunes of money indeed in it. And many of us are right by the tree that has a fortune for us, and we own it, possess it, do what we will with it, but we do not learn its value because we do not see the human need; and in these discoveries and inventions this is one of the most romantic things of life. I have received letters from all over the country and from England, where I have lectured, saying that they have discovered this and that, and one man out in Ohio took me through his great factories last spring, and said that they cost him $680,000, and said he, “I was notnvorth a cent in the world when I heard your lecture, ‘Acres of Diamonds’ ; but I made up my mind to stop right here and make my fortune here, and here it is.” He showed me through his unmortgaged possessions. And this is a continual experience now as I travel through the country, after these many years. I mention tliis incident, not to boast, but to show you that you can do the same if you will. Who are the great inventors? I remember a good illus- tration in a man who used to live in East Brookfield, Mass. ACRES OF DIAMONDS 541 He was a shoemaker, and he was out of work, and he sat around the house until his wife told him to “go out doors.” And he did what every husband is compelled by law to do — he obeyed his wife. And he went out and sat down on an *ash barrel in his back yard. Think of it. Stranded on an ash barrel and the enemy in possession of the house! As he sat on that ash barrel, he looked down into that little brook which ran through the back yard into the meadows, and he saw a little trout go flashing up the stream and hiding under the bank. I do not suppose he thought of Tennyson's beautiful poem: o “I chatter, chatter, as I flow, To join the Brimming river; For men may come, and men may go, But I go on forever.” But as this man looked into the brook, he leaped off that ash barrel and managed to catch the trout with his fingers, and sent it to Worcester. They wrote back that they would give him a five dollar bill for another such trout as that, not that it was worth that much, but they wished to help the poor man. So this shoemaker and his wife, now perfectly united, that five dollar bill in prospect, went out to get another trout. They went up the stream to its source and down to the>brimming river, but not another trout could they find in the whole stream ; and so they came home disconsolate and went to the minister. The minister: didn't know how trout grew, but he pointed the way. Said he, “Get Seth Green’s book, and that will give you the in- formation you want.” They did so, and found all about the culture of trout. They found that a trout lays thirty-six hundred eggs every year and every trout gains a quarter of a pound every year, so that in four years a little trout will furnish four tons per annum to sell to the market at fifty cents a pound. When they found that, they said they 542 APPENDIX didn’t believe any such story as that, bi# if they could get five dollars apiece they could make something. And right in that same back yard with the coal sifter up stream and window screen down the stream, they began the culture of trout. They afterwards moved to the Hudson, and since then he has become the authority in the United States upon the raising of fish, and he has been next to the highest on the United States Fish Commission in Washington. My lesson is that man’s wealth was out there in his back yard for twenty years, but he didn’t see it until his wife jdtrove him out with a mop stick. * I remember meeting personally a poor carpenter of King- ham, Massachusetts, who was oi# of work and in poverty. His wife also drove him out of doors. He sat down on the shore and whittled a soaked shingle into a wooden chain. His children quarreled over it in the evening, and while he was whittling a second one, a neighbor came along and said, “Why don’t you whittle toys if you can carve like that?” He said, “I don’t know what to make!” There is the whole thing. His neighbor said to him: “Why don’t you ask your own children?” Said he, “What is the use of doing that? My children are different from other people’s children.” I used to see people like that when I taught school. The next morning when his boy came down the stairway, he said, “Sam, what do you want for a toy?” “I want a wheelbarrow.” When hfe little girl came down, he asked her what she wanted, and she said, “I want a little doll’s washstand, a little doll’s carriage, a little doll’s um- brella,” and went on with a whole lot of things that would have taken his lifetime to supply. He consulted his own children right there in his own house and began to whittle out toys to please them. He began with his jack-knife, and made those unpainted Hingham toys. He is the richest man in the entire New England States, if Mr. Lawson is to be trusted in his statement concerning such things, and yet that man’s fortune was made by consulting his own children in his ACRES OF DIAMONDS 543 a own house. You dop^'t need to go out of your own house to find out what to invent or what to make. I always talk too long on this subject. I would kke to meet the great men who are here tonight. The great men! We don't have any great men in Phila- delphia. Great men! You say that they all come from London, or San Francisco, or Rome, or Manayunk, or any- where else but here — anywhere else but Philadelphia — and yet, in fact, there are just as great men in Philadelphia as in any jjity of its size. There are great men and women in this audience. Great men, I have said, are very simple men. Just as many great men here as are to be found any- where. The greatest error in judging great men is that we think that they always hold an office. The world knows nothing of its greatest men. Who are the great men of the world? The young man and young woman may well ask the question. It is not necessary that they should hold an office, and yet that is the popular idea. That is the idea we teach now in our high schools and common schools, that the great men are those who hold some high office, and unless we change that very soon and do away with that prejudice, we are going to change to an empire. There is no question about it. We must teach that men are great only on their intrinsic value, and not on the position that they may incidentally happen to occup3>\ And yet, don't blame the young men saying that they are going to be great when they get into some official position. I ask this audience again, who of you are going to be great? Says a young man : . “I am going to be great." “When are you going to be great?" “When I am elected to some political office." Won't you learn the lesson, young man, that it is prima facte evidence of littleness to hold public office under our form of government? Think of it. This is a government of the people, and by the people, and for the people, and not fof the office-holder, and if the people in this country rule as they always should rule, an office-holder is only 544 APPENDIX the servant of the people, and the^ Bible says that 4 'the servant cannot be greater than his master.” The Bible says that “he that is sent cannot be greater than him who sent him.” In this country the people are the masters, and the office-holders can never be greater than the people; rthey should be honest servants of the people, but they are not our greatest men. Young man, remember that you never heard of a great man holding any political office in this country unless he took that office at the expense of himself. It is a loss to ever? great man to take a public offig£ in our country. Bear this in mind, young man, that you cannot be made great by a political election. Another young man says, “I am going to be a great man in Philadelphia some time.” “Is that so? When are you going to be great?” “When there comes another war! When we get into difficulty with Mexico, or England, or Russia, or Japan, or with Spain again over Cuba, or with New Jersey, I will march up to the cannon’s mouth, and amid the glistening bayonets I will tear down their flag from its staff, and I will come home with stars on my shoulders, and hold every office in the gift of the govern- ment, and I will be great.” “No, you won’t! No, you won’t ; that is no evidence of true greatness, young man.” But don’t blame that young man for thinking that way; that is the way he is taught in the high school. That is the way history is taught in college, die is taught that the men who held the office did all the fighting. r I remember we had a Peace Jubilee here in Philadelphia soon after the Spanish war. Perhaps some of these visitors think we should not have had it until now in Philadelphia, and as th6 great procession was going up Broad street I was told that the tally-ho coach stopped right in front of my house, and on the coach w T as Hobson, and all the people threw up their hats and swung their handkerchiefs, and shouted “Hurrah for Hobson !” I would have yelled too, because he deserves much more of his country than he has 545 ir» ACRES OF DIAMONDS ever received. Bu| suppose I go into the High School tomorrow and ask, “Boys, who sunk the Merrimac?” If they answer me “Hobson,” they tell me seven-eighths of a lie — seve%eighths of a lie, because there were eight men who spnk the Merrimac. The other seven men, by virtue of their positions, were continually exposed to the Spanish fire, while Hobson, as an officer, might reasonably be behind the smokestack. Why, my friends, in this intelligent audience gathered here tonight I do not believe I could find a single person^ that can name the other seven men who were with Hobson. Why da we teach history in that way? We ought to teach that however humble the station a man may occupy, if he does his full duty in his place, he is just as much entitled to the American people’s honor as is a king upon a throne,, We do teach it as a mother did her little boy in New York when he said, “Mamma, what great building is that?” “That is General Grant’s tomb.” “Who was General Grant?” “He was the man who put down the rebellion.” Is that the way to teach history? Do you think we would have gained a victory if it had depended on General Grant alone? Oh, no. Then why is there a tomb on the Hudson at all? Why, not simply because General Grant was personally a great man himself, but that tomb is there because he was a representative man and represented two hundred thousand men who went down to death for their nation and many of them as great as General Grant? That is why that beautiful tomb stands on the heights over the Hudson. I remember an incident that will illustrate this, the only one that I can give tonight. I am ashamed of it, but I don’t dare leave it out. I close my eyes now ; I look back through the years to 1863; I can see my native town in the Berkshire Hills, I can see that cattle-show ground filled with people; I can see that church there and the town hall crowoed, and hear bands playing, and see flags flying and handkerchiefs streaming — well do I recall at this moment 546 APPENDIX that day. The people had turned out to receive a company of soldiers, and that company came marching up on the Common. They had served out one term in the Civil War and had re-enlisted, and they were being receive^ by their native townsmen. I was but a boy, but I was captain of that company, puffed out with pride on that day — why, a cambric needle would have burst me all to pieces. As I marched on the Common at the head of my company, there was not a man more proud than I. We marched into the town hall and then they seated my soldiers down in the center of the house and I took my place* down on the front seat, and then the town officers filed through the great throng of people, who stood close and packed in that little hall. They came up on the platform, tormed a half circle around it, and the mayor of the town, the “chairman of the Select- men” in New England, took his seat in the middle of that half circle. He was an old man, his hair -was gray; he never held an office before in his life. He thought that an office w T as all he needed to be a truly great man, and when he came up he adjusted his powerful spectacles and glanced calmly around the audience with amazing dignit}^. Suddenly his eyes fell upon me, and then the good old man came right forward and invited me to come up on the stand with the town officers. Invited me up on the stand! No town officer ever took notice of me before I went to war. Now, I should not say that. One town officer was there who ad- vised the teacher to “whale” me, but I meat* no “honorable mention.” So I was invited up on the stand with the town officers. I took my seat and let my sword fall on the floor, and folded my arms across my breast and waited to be received. Napoleon the Fifth! Pride goeth before destruc- tion and a fail. When I had gotten my seat and all became silent through the hall, the chairman of the Selectmen arose and came forward with great dignity to the table, and we all supposed he would introduce the Congregational min- ister, who was the only orator in the town, and who would 547 ACRES OF DIAMONDS give the oration to the returning soldiers. But, friends, you should have seen the surprise that ran over that audience when they discovered that this old farmer was going to deliver that oration himself. He had never made a speech in 1 his life before, but he fell into the same error that others have fallen into, he seemed to think that the office would make him an orator. So he had written out a speech and walked up and down the pasture until he had learned it by heart and frightened the cattle, and he brought that manu^wript with him, and taking it from his pocket, he spread it carefully lT upon the table. Then he adjusted his spectacles to be sure that he might see it, and walked far back on the platform and the ? n stepped forward like this. He must have studied the subject much, for he assumed an elocutionary attitude; he rested heavily upon his left heel, slightly advanced the right foot, threw back his shoulders, opened the organs of speech, and advanced his right hand at an angle of forty-five degrees. As he stood in that elocu- tionary attitude this is just the way that speech went, this is it precisely. Some of my friends have asked me if I do not exaggerate it, but I could not exaggerate it. Impossible! This is the way it went; although I am not here for the story but the lesson that is back of it : “Fellow citizens/' As soon as he heard his voice, his hand began to shake like that, his knees began to tremble, and then he shook all o r Ver. He coughed and choked and finally came around to look at his manuscript. Then he began again: “Fellow citizens: We — are — we are — we are — we are — We are very happy — we are very happy — we are very happy — to welcome back to their native town these soldiers who have fought and bled — and come back to their native town. We are especially — -we are especially — we are especially — we are especially pleased to see with us today this y$ung hero (that meant me) — this young hero who in imagination (friends, remember, he said “imagination," for if he had not said that, I would not be egotistical enough 548 APPENDIX to refer to it) — this young hero who# in imagination, we have seen leading — we have seen leading — we have seen lead- ing his troops on to the deadly breach. We have seen his shining — his shining — we have seen his shining*— we have seen his shining — his shining sword — flashing in the sunlight as he shouted to his troops, ‘Come on P ” Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear! How little that good, old man knew about war. If he had known anything about war, he ought to have known what any soldier in this audi- ence knows is true, that it is next to a crime for aivofficer of infantry ever in time of danger to g?5 ahead of his men. I, with my shining sword flashing in the sunlight, shouting to my troops: “Come on.” I ngver did it. Do you suppose I would go ahead of my men to be shot in the front by the enemy and in the back by my own men? That is no place for an officer. The place for the officer is behind the private soldier in actual fighting. How often, as a staff officer, I rode down the line when the Rebel cry and yell was coming out of the woods, sweeping along over the fields, and shouted, “Officers to the rear! Officers to the rear!” and then every officer goes behind the line of battle, and the higher the officer’s rank, the farther behind he goes. Not because he is any the less brave, but because the laws of war require that to be done. If the general came up on the front line and were killed you would lose your battle any* how, because he has the plan of th£ battle in his brain, and must be kept in comparative safety. I, with my “shining sword flashing in the sunlight.” Ah ! There sat in the hall that day men who had given that boy their last hardtack, who had carried him on their backs through deep rivers. But some were not there; they had gone down to death for their country. The speaker mentioned them, but they were but little noticed, and yet they had gone down to death for their country, gone down for a cause they believed was right and still believe was right, though I grant to the other side the same that I ask for myself. Yet these men who had ACRES OF DIAMONDS 549 $ actually died for the^r country were little noticed, and the hero of the hour was this boy. Why was he the hero? Sim- ply because that man fell into the same foolishness. This boy was ail officer, and those were only private soldiers. I learned a lesson that I will never forget. Greatness consists not in holding some office; greatness really consists in doing some great deed with little means, in the accom- plishment of vast purposes from the private ranks of life ; that is true greatness. He who can give to this people better streets-rdbetter homes, better schools, better churches, more religion, more of happiness, more of God, he that can be a blessing to the community in which he lives tonight will be great anywhere, but he who a cannot be a blessing where he now lives will never be great anywhere on the face of God’s earth. “We live in deeds, not years; in feeling, not in figures on a dial ; in thoughts, not breaths ; we should count time by heart throbs, in the cause of right.” Bailey says: “He most lives who thinks most.” If you forget everything I have said to you, do not forget this, because it contains more in two lines than all I have said. Bailey says: “He most lives who thinks most, who feels the noblest,, and who acts the best.” A MESSAGE TO GARCIA ELBERT HUBBARD This is not a speech . It originally appeared as an article in the March , i8qq, Philistine Magazine. It is given here because it is representative of the messages popular in the business world. About a million and a half copies of this article were dis- tributed by the New York Central Railroad . It has been translated into all written languages. During the war between Russia and Japan , every Russian soldier who went to the front was given a copy of the Mes- sage to Garcia. The Japanese , finding the booklets in possession of the Russian prisoners , concluded that it must be a good thing , and accordingly translated it into Japanese . And on an order of the Mikado, a copy was given to every man in the employ of the Japanese Government, soldier or civilian . Over forty million copies of A Message to Garcia have been printed . This is said to be a larger circulation than any other literary venture has ever attained during the lifetime if the author, in all history . r e A MESSAGE TO GARCIA By Elbert Hubbard In Sethis Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at Perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba — no one knew where. No mail or tele- graph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly. What to do ! Some one said to the President, “There is a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.” Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How the “fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having trav- ersed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia — are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The point that I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal ! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book learning young men need, or in- struction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, 554 APPENDIX concentrate their energies: do the thinjg — “ Carry a message to Garcia.” General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias. No man who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled^ at times by the imbecility of the average man — the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indiffer- ence, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man suc- ceeds, unless by hook, or crook, or threat he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office — six clerks are within call. Summon any one and make this request: “Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio.” Will the clerk quietly say, “Yes, sir,” and go to the task? On your life he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions: Who was he? Which encyclopedia? Where is the encyclopedia? Was I hired for that? Don’t you mean Bismarck? r What’s the matter with Charlie doing if? Is he dead ? Is there any hurry ? ShaVt I bring 5 r ou the book and let you look it up your- self? What do you want to know for ? And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get onC of the other clerks to help him try to find Correggio — and then A MESSAGE TO GARCIA 555 come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average I will not. Now, if you are wise, you will not bother to ex- plain to your “assistant” that Correggio is indexed under the C% not in the K's, but you will smile very sweetly and say, “Never mind,” and go look it up yourself. And this in- capacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift — these are the things that put pure Socialism so faPulto the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first mate with a knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting “the bounce” Saturday night holds many a worker to his place. Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply can neither spell nor punctuate — and do not think it necessary to. Can such a one write a letter to Garcia? “You see that bookkeeper,” said the foreman to me in a large factory. “Yes; what about him?” “Well, he's a fine accountant, but if I'd send him uptown on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street would forget what he had been sent for.” * Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia ? We have recently been hearing much, maudlin sympathy expressed for the “downtrodden denizens of the sweatshop/' and the “ homeless wanderer searching for honest employ- ment,” and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power. Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne'er-do-wells to do intelligent work ; and his long, patient striving after “help” that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process 556 APPENDIX going on. The employer is constantly fending away “help” that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on.. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues ; only, if times are hard and work is scarce., the sorting is done finer — but out, arid forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go. It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best— those who can carry a message, to Garcia. I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and. yet who 4o^abso- lutely worthless to anyone else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppres- sing, or intending to oppress, him. He cannot give orders, and he will not receive them* Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be “Take it yourself !” Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular firebrand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the tee of a thick-soled number nine boot. Of course, I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple ; but in our pitying let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slipshod imbecil- ity, and heartless ingratitude which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless. Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds — the man who, against great odds, has directed the efforts of others, an4 hav- ing succeeded, finds there’s, nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes. I have carried a dinner-pail and w T orked " A MESSAGE TO GARCIA 557 for day s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty ; rags are no recom- mendation; and all employers are not rapacious and high- handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous. My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the “boss” is away, as well as when he is at home; and the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intet^ion of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets “laid off,” nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long, anx- ious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted. He is wanted in every city, town, and village— in every office, shop, store, and factory. The world cries out for such : he is needed and needed badlv— the man who can “Carry a Message to Garcia ” 9 AS A MAN THINKETH JAMES ALLEN This little essay, “As A Man Thinlzeth” is exercising a commanding influence in many lives today . Read it, not hastily , hut thoughtfully and often . You will find in it not a single reference to speaking but you will discover much that has to do with building the prime requisites of a successful speaker : an abiding self- confidence and sincerity and personality.. All effective speaking and real leadership of men issues from effective thinking . We have known of many cases in which this little mes- sage has become a prodigious power in the lives of men. *1 AS A MAN THINKETH ?» By James. Allen THOUGHT AND CHARACTER The aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not Tfrdy embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and cir- cumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks > his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts. As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those which are deliberately executed. Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry. “Thought in the mind hath made us. What we are By thought was wrought and built. If a man’s mind Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes The wheel the gx behind. * * * * * * If one endure In purity of thought, joy follows him As his own shadow — sure.” Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm* of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and God-like character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continuous effort 561 562 APPENDIX and right thinking, the effect of long-therished association with God-like thought. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of grovelling thoughts. Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys him- self ; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for him- self heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong* Appli- cation of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master. Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and con- fidence than this — that man is the master of thought, the moulder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny. As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regener- ative agency by which he may make himself what he wills. Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state; but in his weakness and degradation he is the foolish master who misgoverns his “household.” When he begins to reflect upon his condition, and to search dili- gently for the Law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise master, directing his energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought; which discovery is totally a matter of application, self-analysis, and experience. > Only by such searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his 563 AS A MAN THINKETH being, if he will djg deep into the mine of his soul; and that he is the maker of his character, the moulder of his life, and the builder of his destiny, he may unerringly prove, if he will watch, control, and alter his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, and utilizing his every experience, even to most trivial, every-day occurrence, as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself which is Understanding, Wisdom, Power™, In this direction, as in no other, is the law abso- lute that “He that ^eeketh findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” ; for only by patience, practice, and cease- less importunity can a mag enter the Door of the Temple of Knowledge. EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild ; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth . If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind. Just as the gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man i%nd the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cul- tivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within him- self, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever in- creasing accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind ele- ments operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny. Thought and character are one, and as character can 564 APPENDIX only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will al- ways be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man’s circumstances £t any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that tht)se circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought-element within himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his development. Every man is where he is by law of his being ; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err 0 This is just as true of those *vho feel “out of harmony” with their surroundings as of those who are contented with them. As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances, Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may com- mand the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself. That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for any length of time practiced self-control and self- purification , for he will have noticed that the alteration in his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition. So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes. The soul attracts that which it secretly harbor^; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of * AS A MAN THINKETH 565 its unchastened desires, — and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own. Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner o relate r into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit. The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external condftic&s are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As* the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss. Following the inmost desires, aspirations, thoughts, by w T hich he allows himself to be dominated (pursuing the will-o’-the-wisps of impure imaginings or steadfastly walking the highway of strong and high endeavor), a man at last arrives at their fruition and fulfilment in the outer conditions of his life. The laws of growth and adjustment everywhere obtain. A man does not come to the pothouse or the gaol by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of grovelling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure- minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, an^d the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations; and man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment. Even at birth the soul comes to its own, and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the 566 APPENDIX reflections of its own purity and impuyrity, its strength and weakness. Men do not attract that which they want , but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions ace thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The “divinity that shapes our ends” is in ourselves; it is our very self. Man is manacled only by himself : thought and action are the gaolers of Fate— they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of Freedom — they liberate, being noble. Not jvkit he wishes and prays for does a man get,* but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonise with his thoughts and actions. In the light of truth, what, then, is the meaning of “fight- ing against circumstances? It means that a man is con- tinually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart. That cause may take the form of a conscious vice or an unconscious weakness; but whatever it is, it stubbornly re- tards the efforts of its possessor, and thus calls aloud for remedy. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is true of earthly as of heavenly things. Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be pre- pared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accom- plish his object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and well-poised life? Here is a man who is wretchedly poor. He is extremely anxious that his surroundings and home comforts should be improved, yet all the time he shirks his work, and considers he is justified in trying to deceive his employer on the ground of the insufficiency of his w T ages. Such a man does not under- AS A MAN THINKETH 567 stand the simplest rudiments of these principles which are the basis of true prosperity, and is not only totally unfitted to rise out of his wretchedness, but is actually attracting to himself a still deeper wretchedness by dwelling in, and acting out, in- dolent, deceptive and unmanly thoughts. Here is a rich man who is the victim of a painful and persistent disease as a result of gluttony. He is willing to give large sums of money to get rid of it, but he will not sacrifice his gluttonous desires. He wants to gratify his tasTe for rich and unnatural viands and have his health as well. Such a man is totally unfit to have health, because he has not yet learned the first principles of a healthy life. Here is an employer ok labor who adopts crooked meas- ures to avoid paying the regulation wage, and in the hope of making larger profits, reduces the wages of his work- people. Such a man is altogether unfitted for prosperity, and when he finds himself bankrupt, both as regards to repu- tation and riches, he blames circumstances, not knowing that he is the sole author of his condition. I have introduced these three cases merely as illustrative of the truth that man is the causer (though nearly always unconsciously) of his circumstances, and that, whilst aiming at a good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplish- ment by encouraging thoughts and desires which cannot pos- sibly harmonize with that end. Such cases could be multi- plied and varied almost 1 ' indefinitely, but this is not necessary, as the reader can, if he so resolves, trace the action of the iaw r s of thought in his own mind and life, and until this is done, mere external facts cannot serve as a ground of reasoning. Circumstances, however, are so complicated, thought is so deeply rooted, and the conditions of happiness vary so vastly wdth individuals, that a man’s entire soul-condition (although it m^y be known to himself) cannot be judged by another from the external aspects of his life alone. A man may be honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations ; a man may 568 APPENDIX be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth; but the conclusion usually formed that the one man fails because of his particular honesty , and that the other prospers because of his particular dishonesty , is the result of a superficial judg- ment, which assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest man almost entirely virtuous. In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience, such judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues which the other does not pos- sess ; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are abserft in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts; he also brings upon himself the sufferings which his vices produce* The dishonest man like- wise garners his own suffering and happiness. It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtues; but not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a posi- tion to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good, and not of his bad qualities; and on the way to, yet long before he has reached that supreme perfection he will have found, working in his mind and life, the Great Law which is absolutely just, and which cannot, therefore, give good for evil, evil for good. Possessed of such knowl- edge, he will then know, looking back upon his past ignor- ance and blindness, that his life is, and always was, justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving, yet unevolved self. Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results ; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating f and they, therefore, do not co-operate with it. 569 AS A MAN THINKETH Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being. The sole and sapreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who is pure. There could be no object in burning gold after the dross had been removed, and a perfectly pure and enlight- ened being could not suffer. The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering arWhs result of his own mental inharmony. The circum- stances which a tfian encounters with blessedness are the result of his own mental harmony. Blessedness, not mate- rial possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretched- ness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich ; he may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed. Indigence and indulgence are the two extremes of wretch- edness. They are both equally unnatural and the result of mental disorder. A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjust- ment of the inner with the outer, of the man with his sur- roundings. ^ * A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, but builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts ; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself. Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the 570 APPENDIX universe; justice, not injustice, is the S(jul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the moulding and moving force in the spiritual government of the world. This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the uni- verse is right ; and during the process of putting himself right, he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him. The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore admits of easy investigation by systematic introspectijparrmd self-analysis. Let a man radically alter lfis thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystal- lizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance. Bestial thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality, which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease; impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating and confusing habits, which solidify into distract- ing and adverse circumstances; thoughts of fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly, and irresolute habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence, and slavish dependence ; lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circum- stances of foulness and beggary; hateful and condemnatory •thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury afid persecution; selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of self- seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less dis- tressing. On the other hand, beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances ; pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace ; thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, Miich solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom; AS A MAN THINKETH ' * 571 energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness; gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gen- tleness, which solidify into protective and preservative cir- cumstances; loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity and true riches. A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circum- stances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances. Nature helps every man Cb the gratification of the thoughts which he most encourages, and opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts. Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, and all the world will soften towards him, and be ready to help him ; let him put away his weakly and sickly thoughts, and lo! oppor- tunities will spring up on every hand to aid his strong re- solves; let him encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind him down to wretchedness and shame. The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colors which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts, “You will be what you will to be; Let failure find its false content In that poor world, ‘environment/ But spirit scorns it, and is free. “It masters time, it conquers space ; It cows that boastful trickster, Chance, And bids the tyrant Circumstance Uncrown, and fill a servant’s place. 572 APPENDIX “The human Will, that force ynseen, The offspring of a deathless Soul, Can hew a way to any goal, Though walls of granite intervene. * “Be not impatient in delay, But wait as one who understands ; When spirit rises and commands, The gods are ready to obey.” EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND BODY The body is the servant of th^ mind. It obeys the opera- tions of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty. Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease ; whfle impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system. Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instru- ment, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it. Men will continue to have impure and poisoned blood, so long as they propagate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled AS A MAN THINKETH 573 mind proceeds a defied life and a corrupt body. Thought is the font of action, life, and manifestation ; make the foun- tain pure, and all will be pure. Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food. Clean thoughts make clean habits. The so-called saint who does not w^ash his body is not a saint. He who has strengthened and purified his thoughts does not need to con- sider" th^ malevolent microbe. If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment, despondency, rob the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance ; it is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion, pride. I know a woman of ninety-six who has the bright, innocent face of a girl. I know a man well under middle age whose face is drawn into inharmonious contours. The one is the result of a sweet and sunny disposition; the other is the out- come of passion and discontent. As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and goo4 will and serenity. On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles made by sym- pathy, others by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by passion: who cannot distinguish them? With those who have lived righteously, age is calm, peaceful, and softly mellowed, like the setting sun. I have recently seen a philo- sopher on his death-bed. He was not old except in years. He died as sweetly and peacefully as he had lived. Th^re is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with good will for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. 574 APPENDIX To live continually in thoughts of ili will, cynicism, sus- picion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all — such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day* in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor. Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelli- gent accomplishment. With the majority the barque of thought is allowed to “drift” upon the ocean of life. Aim- lessness is a vice, and such drifting must*not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction. They who have no central punpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and selfpityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe. A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form -of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attain- ment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephem- eral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting-point for future power and triumph. # Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose, should fix the thoughts upon the faultless per- AS A MAN THINKETH 575 formance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focussed, and resolution and energy be de- veloped, which being done, there is nothing which may not be accomplished. The weakest soul, knowing its own weakness, and believ- ing this truth — that strength can only be developed by effort and practice , will, thus believing, at once begin to exert itself, and, adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to^*reqgth, will never cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely strong. r> As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking. To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attain- ment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully. Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally make out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded; they are disintegrating elements which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in. The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step. He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered fail- ure. 1 * His very thought is alive with power, and all difficul- ties are bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes 576 APPENDIX are seasonably planted, and they blo^m and bring forth fruit which does not fall prematurely to the ground. Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become* something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations ; he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers. THE THOUGHT FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT # ** • All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct resuit of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruc- tion, individual responsibility must be absolute. A man's weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man's; they are brought about by himself, and not by another ; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another. His condition is also his own, and not another man’s. His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is ; as he continues to think, so he remains. A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself ; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition. It has been usual for men to think and to say, “Many men are slaves because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor.” Now, however, there is amongst an increasing few a tendency to reverse this judg- ment, and to say, “One man is an oppressor because many are slaves ; let us despise the slaves.” The truth is that op- pressor and slave are co-operators in ignorance, and while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality afflicting them- selves. A perfect Knowledge perceives the action of l^w in the weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of the oppressor ; a perfect Love, seeing the suffering which AS A MAN THINKETH 577 both states entail, condemns neither; a perfect Compassion embraces both oppressor and oppressed. He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish thoughts, belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free. A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject, and miserable by refusing to lift his thoughts. Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he*mus# lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. He may not, in order to succeed, give up all animality and selfishness, by any means ; but a portion of it must, at least, be sacrificed. A man whose first thought is bestial indul- gence could neither think clearly nor plan methodically; he could not find and develop his latent resources, and would fail in any undertaking. Not having commenced to man- fully control his thoughts, he is not in a position to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities. He is not fit to act independently and stand alone. But he is limited only by the thoughts which he chooses. There can be no progress, no achievement, without sacri- fice, and a man's worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more madly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements. The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so; it helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great Teachers of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove and know it a man has but to persist in making himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts. Intellectual achievements are the result of thought conse- 578 APPENDIX # crated to the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature. Such achievements may be some- times connected with vanity and ambition, but they are not the outcome of those characteristics; they are t he natural outgrowth of long and arduous effort, and of pure and unsel- fish thoughts. Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations. He who lives constantly in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely as the sun reaches it^ zarrith and the moon its full, become wise and* noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and blessedness. Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought. By the aicT of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends ; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corrup- tion, and confusion of thought a man descends. A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, self- ish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him. Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure. All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, o t spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law and are of the' same method ; the only difference lies in the object of attainment . He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much ; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly. VISIONS AND IDEALS The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their AS A MAN THINKETH 579 trials and sins and fordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity can- not forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it^hall one day see and know. Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived ; without them, laboring humanity ■would perish. K*e who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day Realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision of a multiplicity -pf worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it; Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect peace, and he entered into it. Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment ; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built. To desire is to obtain ; to aspire is to achieve. Shall man’s basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law : such a Condition of things can never obtain: “Ask and receive.” Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you be- come. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; §nd m the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities. Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall 580 APPENDIX not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without . Here is a youth hard pressed by poverty and labor ; confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop ; unschooled# and lack- ing all the arts of refinement. But he dreams of better things ; he thinks of intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of, mentally builds up, an ideal condi- tion of life; the vision of a wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him; unrest urges him to action, and he, utilizes all his spare time and means, small though tfrey<5:e, to the development of his latent powers zflnd resources. Very soon so altered has his mind become that the workshop can no longer hold him. It has becojne so out of harmony with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a garment is cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities which fit the scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of it forever. Years later we see this youth as. a full-grown man. We find him a master of certain forces of the mind which he wields with world-wide influence and almost unequaled power. In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic responsi- bilities ; he speaks, and lo i lives are changed ; men and women hang upon his words and remold their characters, and, sun- like, he becomes the fixed and luminous center round which innumerable destinies revolve. He has realized the Vision of his youth. He has become one with his Ideal. And you, too, youthful reader, wiM realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or ^beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will re- ceive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will be- come as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration ; in the beautiful words of Stanton*Kirb ham Davis, “You may be keeping accounts, and presently AS A MAM THINKETH 581 you shall walk out of the door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself before an audience — the pen still behind your ear, the inkstains on your fingers — and then and there shall pour out the torrent of* your inspiration. You may be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city — bucolic and open-mouthed; shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of the master, and after a time he shall say, l l have, nothing more to teach you/ And now you have become thonmaster, who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep. You»shall lay down the saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world/* The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves,, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “How lucky he is !** Observing another be- come intellectual, they exclaim, “How highly favored he is!** And noting the saintly character and wide influence of an- other, they remark, “How chance aids him at every turn!” They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable and realize the Vision of their heart. They do not kn*>w the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it “luck * 5 ; do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleas- ant goal, and call it “good fortune’*; do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it “chance/* In all human affairs there are efforts , and there are results , and the strength of effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. “Gifts/* powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort ; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized. The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that 582 APPENDIX you enthrone in your heart — this you will build your life by. ♦.his you will become. SERENITY Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wis- dom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self- control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and oper- ations of thought. A man becomes calm in the measure fchat he understands himself as a thought-evolved being, for such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a ri§ht understanding, and sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss and fume and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast, serene. The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to adapt himself to others; and they, in turn, reverence his spiritual strength, and feel that they can learn of him and rely upon him. The more tranquil a man be- comes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Even the ordinary trader will find his business pros- perity increase as he develops a greater self-control and equanimity, for people will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanor is strongly equable. * The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm. “Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet- tempered, balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise of character which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture ; it is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul. It is precious as wisdom. More to be desired* than jrold — yea, than even fine gold. How insignificant mere AS A MAN THINKETH 583 money-seeking looks ip comparison with a serene life — a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth, beneath the waves, beyond the reach of tempests, in the Eternal Calm. “How many people we know who sour their lives, who rum. all that is sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers, who destroy their poise of character, and make bad blood! It is a question whether the great majority of people do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack of self- control. How few people we meet in life who are well bal- ance, wjio have that exquisite poise which is characteristic of the finished character!” Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with ungoverned ^rief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt. Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him. Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under what- soever conditions ye may live, know this — in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awmits ) r our coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the barque of your soul re- clines the commanding Master; He does but sleep: wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, “Peace, be still P 5
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
PUBLIC SPEAKING- DALE CARNEGIE
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