Thoughts I Met on the Highway | Page 2

to do. Sufficient to know that the way we live our today determines our tomorrow.
Simply the first hour of this new day, with all its richness and glory, with all its sublime and eternity-determining possibilities, and each succeeding hour as it comes, but _not before_ it comes--this is the secret of character building. This simple method will bring any one to the realization of the highest life that can be even conceived of, and there is nothing in this connection that can be conceived of that cannot be realized somehow, somewhen, somewhere.

The poem hangs on the berry-bush?When comes the poet's eye,?And the whole street is a masquerade?When Shakespeare passes by.

This same Shakespeare, whose mere passing causes all this commotion, is the one who put into the mouth of one of his creations the words: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." And again he gave us a great truth when he said:
"Our doubts are traitors,?And make us lose the good we oft might win?By fearing to attempt."
There is probably no agent that brings us more undesirable conditions than fear. We should live in fear of nothing, nor will we when we come fully to know ourselves. An old French proverb runs:
"Some of your griefs you have cured,?And the sharpest you still have survived;?But what torments of pain you endured?From evils that never arrived."
Fear and lack of faith go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. Tell me how much one is given to fear, and I will tell you how much he lacks in faith. Fear is a most expensive guest to entertain, the same as worry is: so expensive are they that no one can afford to entertain them. We invite what we fear, the same as, by a different attitude of mind, we invite and attract the influences and conditions we desire.

To remain in nature always sweet and simple and humble, and therefore strong.
"Whatever the weather may be," says he,?"Whatever the weather may be,?It's the songs ye sing, an' the smiles ye wear,?That's a-makin' the sun shine everywhere."
_James Whitcomb Riley_

Sweetness of nature, simplicity in manners and conduct, humility without self-abasement, give the truly kingly quality to men, the queenly to women, the winning to children, whatever the rank or the station may be. The life dominated by this characteristic, or rather these closely allied characteristics, is a natural well-spring of joy to itself and sheds a continual benediction upon all who come within the scope of its influence. It makes for a life of great beauty in itself, and it imparts courage and hope and buoyancy to all others.

There is no thing we cannot overcome;
Say not thy evil instinct is inherited,?Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn; And calls down punishment that is not merited.
Back of thy parents and grandparents lies
The Great Eternal Will! That too is thine?Inheritance,--strong, beautiful, divine,?Sure lever of success for one who tries.
Earth has no claim the soul cannot contest;
Know thyself part of the Eternal Source;?Naught can stand before thy spirit's force:?The soul's Divine Inheritance is best.

Thought is at the bottom of all progress or retrogression, of all success or failure, of all that is desirable or undesirable in human life. The type of thought we entertain both creates and draws conditions that crystallize about it, conditions exactly the same in nature as is the thought that gives them form. Thoughts are forces, and each creates of its kind, whether we realize it or not. The great law of the drawing power of the mind, which says that like creates like, and that like attracts like, is continually working in every human life, for it is one of the great immutable laws of the universe. For one to take time to see clearly the things one would attain to, and then to hold that ideal steadily and continually before his mind, never allowing faith--his positive thought-forces--to give way to or to be neutralized by doubts and fears, and then to set about doing each day what his hands find to do, never complaining, but spending the time that he would otherwise spend in complaint in focusing his thought-forces upon the ideal that his mind has built, will sooner or later bring about the full materialization of that for which he sets out.

Beauty seen is never lost,?God's colors all are fast;?The glory of this sunset heaven?Into my soul has passed,--?A sense of gladness unconfined?To mortal, date or clime;?As the soul liveth, it shall live?Beyond the years of time.?Beside the mystic asphodels?Shall bloom the home-born flowers,?And new horizons flush and glow?With sunset hues of ours.
_Whittier_

Would you remain always young, and would you carry all the joyousness and buoyancy of youth into your maturer years? Then have care concerning but one thing,--how