Thoughts I Met on the Highway | Page 2

with which we have nothing to do. Sufficient is it to
know that the way we lived our yesterday has determined for us our today. And, again,
when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all tomorrows should be tomorrows,
with which we have nothing 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