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'JSNJA
ompensaiion
Georae G.Hat^rap &^C9
COMPENSATION
Compensation
EVER
was a boy
since I
I
have wished to
write a discourse on Compensation; for
seemed
me when
to
ject Life
was ahead
knew more than
of theology
and the people
my
The docu-
the preachers taught.
drawn endless variety, and
ments too from which the doctrine
charmed
it
very young that on this sub-
fancy by their
is
to be
lay always before me, even in sleep; for they are
the tools in our hands, the bread in our basket,
the transactions of the street, the farm
dwelhng-house
and the
the greetings, the relations, the
;
debts and credits, the influence of character, the
nature and
me
endowment
also that in
it
of all
men.
might be shown
divinity, the present action of the
world, clean from the heart of
all
It
seemed to
men
a ray of
Soul of this
vestige of tradition;
man might
and so
be bathed by an inunda-
tion of eternal love, conversing with that
which
he knows was always and always must be, because it
really is
now.
this doctrine could
It
appeared moreover that
if
be stated in terms with any
[3]
458
— Compensation resemblance to those bright intuitions in which this truth is
sometimes revealed to
be a star in
many dark
us,
would
it
hours and crooked pas-
sages in our journey, that would not suffer us to lose
our way.
was lately confirmed in these desires by hearing a sermon at church. The preacher, a man I
esteemed for his orthodoxy, unfolded in the ordi-
nary manner the doctrine of the Last Judgment.
He assumed
that
judgment
is
not executed in this
world; that the wicked are successful; that the
good are miserable; and then urged from reason
and from Scripture a compensation to both parties in the next
life.
No
to be
made
offence ap-
peared to be taken by the congregation at
this
when
the
doctrine.
As
far as I could observe
meeting broke up they separated without remark
on the sermon.
Yet what was the import
What
did the preacher
good are miserable
of this
mean by
teaching?
saying that the
in the present life?
Was
it
and lands, offices, wine, horses, dress, luxury, are had by unprincipled men, whilst the saints are poor and despised; and that a compensation is to be made to these last hereafter, by
that houses
giving
them the
like gratifications
another day,
bank-stock and doubloons, venison and cham-
[4]
Compensation This must be the compensation intended; what else? Is it that they are to have leave to pray and praise to love and serve men ? Why, that they can do now. The legitimate inference the disciple would draw was, " We are to have such a good time as the sinners have now " or, to push it to its extreme import, " You sin now, we shall sin by-and-by; we would sin now, if we
pagne ?
for
;
;
—
could not being successful ;
we
—
expect our revenge
to-morrow."
The the
The
immense concession
fallacy lay in the
bad are
successful; that justice
is
that
not done now.
blindness of the preacher consisted in defer-
ring to the base estimate of the constitutes a
manly
market of what
success, instead of confronting
and convicting the world from the truth; announcing the Presence of the Soul; the omnipotence of the Will and so establishing the standard ;
of
good and
ill,
of success
moning the dead
to
its
and falsehood, and sum-
present tribunal.
I find a similar base tone in the popular religious
works of the day and the same doctrines assumed
by the
literary
men when
the related topics.
ogy has gained
in
occasionally they treat
I think that
our popular theol-
decorum, and not in principle,
over the superstitions
it
has displaced.
are better than this theology.
[5]
But men
Their daily
life
Compensation gives
it
the
Every ingenuous and aspiring soul
lie.
leaves the doctrine behind
and
ence,
all
men
feel
him
in his
own
experi-
sometimes the falsehood
For men are That which they hear in
which they cannot demonstrate. wiser than they know.
and
schools
pulpits without afterthought,
if
said
would probably be questioned in If a man dogmatize in a mixed company silence. on Providence and the divine laws, he is answered in conversation
by a
silence
which conveys well enough
to
an ob-
server the dissatisfaction of the hearer, but his in-
capacity to
make
own
his
statement.
attempt in this and the following chapter
I shall to record
some
facts that indicate the path of the
my
expec-
draw the smallest arc
of this
law of Compensation; happy beyond tation
if
I shall truly
circle.
Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature in darkness and ;
and
cold; in the
in the centrifugal tricity,
heat
and expiration of and diastole of the undulations of fluids and of sound;
and female; in the plants and animals the heart; in
light, in
ebb and flow of waters; in male inspiration
;
in the systole
and
centripetal gravity; in elec-
galvanism, and chemical
aflinity.
Super-
induce magnetism at one end of a needle, the opIf posite magnetism takes place at the other end.
[6]
Compensation
To empty
the south attracts, the north repels.
you must condense
here,
there.
An
inevitable
dualism bisects nature, so that each thing
a half,
is
and suggests another thing to make it whole: as, spirit, matter; man, woman; subjective, objective; in,
out; upper, under; motion, rest; yea, nay.
Whilst the world parts.
its
The
is
thus dual, so
is
every one of
entire system of things gets repre-
There
sented in every particle.
is
somewhat that
resembles the ebb and flow of the sea, day and night,
man and woman,
pine, in a kernel of
animal
tribe.
ments,
is
in each individual of every
reaction, so
grand
in the ele-
repeated within these small boundaries.
For example, ogist
com,
The
in a single needle of the
in the
animal kingdom the physiol-
has observed that no creatures are favorites,
but a certain compensation balances every
and every is
A
defect.
gift
surplusage given to one part
paid out of a reduction from another part of
same
If the head and neck are and extremities are cut short. The theory of the mechanic forces is another example. What we gain in power is lost in time, and
the
creature.
enlarged, the trunk
the converse.
The
rors of the planets
fluences of
are another.
periodic or compensating eris
another instance.
cHmate and
The
soil
in political
The
cold climate invigorates.
[7]
in-
history
The
Compensation barren
does not breed fevers, crocodiles, tigers,
soil
or scorpions.
The same dualism of
dition
underlies the nature
Every sweet hath
every defect an excess. every evil
its
good.
Every faculty which
ceiver of pleasure has
abuse.
It is to
its
sour;
is
a re-
an equal penalty put on
its
moderation with
its
answer for
For every grain
life.
and con-
Every excess causes a defect;
man.
its
of wit there
is
a grain of
For every thing you have missed, you have else; and for every thing you
folly.
gained something gain,
are
you
lose something.
If riches increase,
increased that use them.
If
gathers too much, nature takes out of the
what she puts kills
man
into his chest; swells the estate, but
Nature hates monopolies and
the owner.
exceptions.
they
the gatherer
The waves
of the sea
do not more
speedily seek a level from their loftiest tossing than
the varieties of condition tend to equalize themselves.
There
stance that puts
is
always some levelling circum-
down
the overbearing, the strong,
same ground with all others. Is a man too strong and fierce for society and by temper and position a bad the rich, the fortunate, substantially on the
citizen,
—a morose —
ruffian,
with a dash of the pirate
him ? nature sends him a troop of pretty sons and daughters who are getting along in the dame's
in
[8]
Compensation classes at the village school,
them smooths
his
and love and
grim scowl to courtesy.
fear for
Thus
she contrives to intenerate the granite and felspar, takes the boar out and puts the
lamb
in
and keeps
her balance true.
The farmer
imagines power and place are fine But the President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To
things.
preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appear-
ance before the world, he before the real masters
who
content to eat dust
is
stand erect behind the
Or do men desire the more substantial and permanent grandeur of genius ? Neither has
throne.
this
He who by force of will or of and overlooks thousands, has the
an immunity.
thought
is
great
With every influx Has he light? he
responsibility of overlooking.
comes new danger.
of light
must bear witness to the light, and always outrun which gives him such keen satis-
that sjTnpathy faction,
by
his fidelity to
cessant soul.
wife
and
new
He must
child.
Has he
and admires and covets
him
all
that the world loves
—he
must cast behind and afflict them by faithfultruth and become a byword and a .f^
their admiration
ness to his
revelations of the in-
hate father and mother,
hissing.
[9]
Compensation This tions.
Law
writes the laws of the cities
not be baulked of
It will
smallest iota.
in the
vain to build or plot or com-
Things refuse to be mismanaged Res nolunt din male adminislrari. Though
bine against long.
no checks and
It is in
and na-
end
its
it.
to a
new
will appear.
governor's
life is
appear, the checks exist,
evil
If the
government
not safe.
If
is
cruel, the
you tax too high,
the revenue will yield nothing.
If
you make the
criminal code sanguinary, juries will not convict.
Nothing arbitrary, nothing
artificial
can endure.
The true life and satisfactions of man seem to elude the utmost rigors or
felicities of
condition and to
establish themselves with great indifferency all varieties
Under
of circumstance.
all
under
govern-
ments the influence of character remains the same,
—
in
Turkey and
New England
about
alike.
Un-
der the primeval despots of Egypt, history honestly confesses that
ure could
man must have
been as free as
These appearances indicate the universe
is
fact that the
represented in every one of
Every thing nature.
cult-
make him. its particles.
in nature contains all the
Every thing
is
made
powers of
of one hidden stuff;
as the naturalist sees one type under every meta-
morphosis, and regards a horse as a running man,
a
fish as
a swimming man, a bird as a flying man,
[10]
Compensation Each new form
a tree as a rooted man.
repeats
not only the main character of the type, but part for part all the details, all the aims, furtherances,
hindrances, energies and whole system of every
Every occupation, trade,
other. is
art, transaction,
a compend of the world and a correlative of
Each one
every other.
human mies,
life;
its
of
its
course and
its
somehow accommodate all his
an entire emblem of
is
good and
its
ill,
And
end.
ene-
trials, its
each one must
man and
recite
a drop of dew.
The
the whole
destiny.
The world
globes
itself in
microscope cannot find the animalcule which less
perfect for being
little.
is
Eyes, ears, taste,
smell, motion, resistance, appetite,
and organs of
reproduction that take hold on eternity,
—
room
So do we
to consist in the small creature.
put our
life
into every act.
omnipresence parts in every
is
that
God
The
If the
moss and cobweb.
afiinity, so
good
is
The
;
if
all his
value of
itself into
there, so is the evil;
the repulsion
find
true doctrine of
reappears \\ath
the universe contrives to throw point.
all
every if
the
the force, so the limi-
tation.
Thus is the universe alive. All things are moral. That soul which within us is a sentiment, outside of us
is
a law.
We
feel its inspirations;
[11]
out there
Compensation in history
we can
almighty.
All nature feels
see
Justice
it
enacts
A
justs its balance in all parts of del
The
eiyiriTTTovcn,
made by
It
is
is
in
It is
it."
time and space.
in
itself
not postponed.
is
"It
grasp.
its
the world, and the world was eternal but
strength.
fatal
its
perfect equity ad-
01 kv^oi
life.
God
dice of
A to?
are always
loaded.
The world
table, or
a mathematical equation, which, turn
how you
will,
you
will, its
Every
secret
told, every
is
crime
punished, every virtue rewarded, every wrong
and
redressed, in silence retribution
is
What we
certainty.
call
the universal necessity by which the
whole appears wherever a part appears. see smoke, there
must be
fire.
If
you
you see a hand or
If
a limb, you know that the trunk to which is
it
balances itself. Take what figure exact value, nor more nor less, still
returns to you. is
looks like a multipHcation-
it
belongs
there behind.
Every act rewards grates
itself,
itself,
in a twofold
or in other words inte-
manner
:
first in
the thing,
or in real nature; and secondly in the circumstance, or in apparent nature. the retribution.
thing and
is
Men
is
call the
circumstance
casual retribution
seen by the soul.
the circumstance is
The
The
is
in the
retribution in
seen by the understanding;
inseparable from the thing, but
[12]
is
it
often spread
Compensation over a long time and so does not become distinct until after
many
The
years.
specific stripes
may
follow late after the offence, but they follow be-
cause they accompany
grow out
Crime and punishment
it.
Punishment
of one stem.
is
a
fruit that
unsuspected ripens within the flower of the pleas-
Cause and
means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end ure which concealed
it.
effect,
preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.
Whilst thus the world will be whole and refuses to be disparted,
we
seek to act partially, to sunder,
to appropriate; for example,
we
—
to gratify the senses
sever the pleasure of the senses from the needs
man
has been
dedicated to the solution of one problem,
—how to
The
of the character.
ingenuity of
detach the sensual sweet, the sensual strong, the sensual bright,
from the moral sweet, the
etc.,
moral deep, the moral
fair; that is, again, to
upper surface so thin as
trive to cut clean off this
to leave
it
bottomless to get a one end, without an
other end. feast.
be one
;
The
soul says. Eat; the
body would
The man and woman
The
soul says.
flesh
and one soul the body would join the
flesh only. all
con-
shall
;
The
soul says.
Have dominion over
things to the ends of virtue; the
have the power over things to
[13]
its
own
body would ends.
— Compensation The
amain to live and work through would be the only fact. All things be added unto it, power, pleasure, knowlsoul strives
all things.
shall
It
—
edge, beauty.
somebody; to
The
set
particular
man
aims to be
up for himself; to truck and higgle
for a private good; and, in particulars, to ride that
he
may
ride; to dress that
eat that he seen. offices,
he
may
may eat; and to govern,
Men
They
wealth, power, and fame. is
is this
dividing
Up
jector has
think
to get only one side of nature,
the sweet, without the other side, Steadily
may be
that he
seek to be great; they would have
that to be great
acted.
be dressed; to
—the
bitter.
and detaching countermust be owned no pro-
to this day it had the smallest
The
success.
water reunites behind our hand.
Pleasure
parted
is
taken
out of pleasant things, profit out of profitable things,
power out
of strong things, the
moment we
We can no
seek to separate them from the whole.
more halve things and get the sensual good, by itself, than we can get an inside that shall have no " Drive out
outside, or a light without a shadow.
nature with a fork, she comes running back." Life invests
itself
with inevitable conditions,
which the unwise seek
to dodge,
which one and
another brags that he does not know, brags that they do not touch him;
—but the brag [14]
is
on
his lips,
— Compensation the conditions are in his soul. in
If
he escapes them
one part they attack him in another more
part.
appearance,
and
it is
because he has resisted his
from himself, and the retribution
fled
much
vital
he has escaped them in form and in the
If
death.
So signal
make
is
the failure of
is
all
life
so at-
the tax, that the experiment
good from would not be tried,
mad,
—but for the circum-
tempts to
this separation of the
since to try
it is
stance that
when
to be
the disease began in the will, of
rebelHon and separation, the intellect infected, so that the in
each object, but
ment
is
man
ceases to see
is
at once
God whole
able to see the sensual allure-
an object and not see the sensual hurt; he
of
mermaid's head but not the dragon's tail, and thinks he can cut off that which he would have from that which he would not have. " How secret sees the
art thou silence,
who
dwellest in the highest heavens in
O thou only great God, sprinkling with an
unwearied providence certain penal blindnesses
upon such
!
as have unbridled desires "
The human
soul
^
true to these facts in the
is
painting of fable, of history, of law, of proverbs, of conversation.
It finds
a tongue in literature un-
awares. Thus the Greeks called Jupiter, Supreme Mind; but having traditionally ascribed to him ^
St.
Augustine, Confessions, B.
[15]
I.
Compensation many
base
actions,
they
involuntarily
made
amends to Reason by tying up the hands of so bad a god. He is made as helpless as a king of England. Prometheus knows one secret which Jove must bargain for; Minerva, another. He cannot get his own thunders; Minerva keeps the key of them: Of
all
the gods, I only
know
the keys
That ope the sohd doors within whose His thunders
vaults
sleep.
A plain confession of the in-working of the All and of
its
moral aim.
The Indian mythology ends
in
same ethics; and indeed it would seem impossible for any fable to be invented and get any currency which was not moral. Aurora forgot to ask youth for her lover, and though so Tithonus is imthe
mortal, he
is old.
Achilles
is
not quite invulner-
him by the heel when she the Styx and the sacred waters did
able; for Thetis held
dipped him in
not wash that part.
Siegfried, in the Nibelungen,
fell on his back was bathing in the Dragon's blood, and And so it that spot which it covered is mortal. thing God is. crack in every always There is a has made. Always it would seem there is this vindictive circumstance stealing in at unawares is
not quite immortal, for a leaf
whilst he
[16]
Compensation even into the wild poesy in which the
attempted to itself free
make bold
human
fancy
holiday and to shake
of the old laws,
—
this back-stroke, this
kick of the gun, certifying that the law that in nature nothing can be given,
all
is
fatal;
things are
sold.
This
is
that ancient doctrine of Nemesis,
keeps watch in the Universe and unchastised.
on
Justice,
The
and
if
that
who
no offence go
Furies they said are attendants
the sun in heaven should trans-
gress his path they related
lets
The
would punish him.
poets
stone walls and iron swords and
had an occult sympathy with the belt which Ajax Trojan hero over the field dragged the gave Hector at the wheels of the car of Achilles, and the sword which Hector gave Ajax was that on whose point Ajax fell. They recorded that when the Thasleathern thongs
wrongs of their owners; that the
ians erected a statue to Theogenes, a victor in the
games, one of his
rivals
deavored to throw at last
he moved
it
went to
it
it
from
crushed to death beneath
This voice of fable has
its
in
it
came from thought above the That is the best part of each it;
that
blows, until
pedestal
and was
its fall.
It
nothing private in
by night and en-
down by repeated
is
[171
somewhat \^^ll
divine.
of the writer.
writer which has
the best part of each
Compensation which he does not know; that which flowed out of and not from his too active in-
his constitution
vention; that which in the study of a single artist
you might not
easily find, but in the study of
you would abstract as the ias
it is
not, but the
Hellenic world that
and circumstance
of Phidias,
We
highest criticism.
you
if
all.
many Phid-
however convenient
when we come
to the
are to see that which
man
in
a given period, and was hin-
will,
modified in doing, by the in-
do
to
dered, or,
them
work of man in that early I would know. The name
for history, embarrasses
was tending
spirit of
terfering volitions of Phidias, of Dante, of Shak-
speare, the organ
whereby man
at the
moment
wrought. Still
more
striking
the proverbs of literature of
all
is
the expression of this fact in
nations,
which are always the
Reason, or the statements of an absoProverbs, like
lute truth without qualification.
the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the Intuitions.
That which
the droning world,
chained to appearances, will not allow the to say in his
own
words,
it
will suffer
And
proverbs without contradiction. laws,
deny,
which the is
pulpit, the senate
hourly preached in
languages by
all
flights of proverbs,
ri8i
him
realist
to say in
this
law of
and the
college
markets and
all
whose teaching
Compensation is
as true
and as omnipresent as that
of birds
and
flies.
All things are double, one against another.
—Tit
for tat; an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth; blood for blood; measure for measure; love for love.
—Give, and
it
shall
—He that —^What you and take —Noth-
be given you.
watereth shall be watered himself.
have? quoth God; pay
for
it
ing venture, nothing have.
will
it.
—Thou
shalt be paid
what thou hast done, no more, no less. Who doth not work shall not eat. Harm watch, harm catch. Curses always recoil on the head of him who imprecates them. If you put a chain exactly for
—
—
—
—
around the neck of a itself
around your own.
the adviser.
—The devil
It is thus written,
action
our
slave, the other
is
will
end fastens
—Bad counsel confounds is
an
because
ass.
it is
thus in
life.
Our
overmastered and characterized above
by the law
of nature.
We
aim
at
a petty
end quite aside from the public good, but our act arranges itself by irresistible magnetism in a line with the poles of the world.
A man With
cannot speak but he judges himself.
his will or against his will
trait to
he draws his por-
the eye of his companions
Every opinion reacts on him who
by every word.
utters
it.
It is
a
thread-ball thrown at a mark, but the other end
[19]
Compensation remains in the thrower's bag.
harpoon thrown flies, is
a
coil of
Or, rather,
it is
at the whale, unwinding, as
cord in the boat, and,
not good, or not well thrown,
it
if
a it
the harpoon
will
go nigh to
cut the steersman in twain or to sink the boat.
You
cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.
"No man had
ever a point of pride that was not
The
injurious to him," said Burke.
fashionable self
life
from enjoyment,
The
it.
exclusive in
does not see that he excludes himin the
attempt to appropriate
exclusionist in religion does not see that
he shuts the door of heaven on himself, in striving to shut out others.
Treat
men
as
pawns and
pins and you shall suffer as well as they.
leave out their heart, you shall lose your own.
senses
will get
it
from
The
vulgar proverb, " I
his purse or get
it
from
his skin,"
sound philosophy. All infractions of love
and equity
relations are speedily punished.
ished by Fear. to
in our social
They
are pun-
Whilst I stand in simple relations
my fellow-man, I have no displeasure in meeting
him.
We
meet as water meets water, or as two
currents of air mix, with perfect diffusion
and
in-
But as soon as there any departure from simplicity and attempt at
terpenetration of nature. is
you
The
would make things of all persons; of women,
of children, of the poor.
is
nine-
If
[20]
Compensation halfness, or
my
good for
neighbor
me
seek mine; there
him and
is
fear in
is
not good for him,
wrong; he shrinks from
feels the
as far as I have shrunk
in
that
from him
;
his eyes
war between
us; there
is
hate
me.
All the old abuses in society, the great
and the petty and
versal
me
no longer
and uni-
particular, all unjust ac-
cumulations of property and power, are avenged
same manner. Fear is an instructor of great One sagacity and the herald of all revolutions.
in the
thing he always teaches, that there
where he appears.
He
rottenness
is
a carrion crow, and
is
though you see not well what he hovers is
Our
death somewhere.
property
is
for, there
timid, our
laws are timid, our cultivated classes are timid.
Fear for ages has boded and
mowed and
over government and property. bird
is
not there for nothing.
wrongs which must be
Of
the like nature
He
indicates great
revised.
is
that expectation of change
which instantly follows the suspension untary
activity.
The
gibbered
That obscene
of our vol-
terror of cloudless noon, the
emerald of Polycrates, the awe of prosperity, the instinct
on
which leads every generous soul to impose
itself
tasks of a noble asceticism
and vicarious
virtue, are the tremblings of the balance of justice
through the heart and mind of man.
[-1]
Compensation Experienced that
it is
men
best to
pay
of the world scot
and
and that a man often pays dear
The borrower
gality.
a
man
runs in his
gained any thing
know
lot as
who has
very well
they go along,
for a small fru-
own
Has
debt.
received a hun-
dred favors and rendered none.^ Has he gained by borrowing, through indolence or cunning, his
arises
money
There on the deed the instant acknowledgment of
neighbor's wares, or horses, or
.'^
benefit
on the one part and of debt on the other;
that
of superiority
is,
action remains in the
neighbor; and every
cording to
He may
its
and
inferiority.
The
trans-
memory of himself and new transaction alters
his
ac-
nature their relation to each other.
soon come to see that he had better have
broken his own bones than to have ridden
in his
neighbor's coach, and that "the highest price he
can pay for a thing
is
to ask for it."
A wise man will extend this lesson to all parts of and know that it is always the part of prudence and pay every just demand on your time, your talents, or your heart. Always pay; for first or last you must pay your entire debt. life,
to face every claimant
Persons and events
you and
justice,
You must pay
may
but
at last
it
stand for a time between is
only a postponement.
your own debt.
If
you are
wise you will dread a prosperity which only loads
[22]
Compensation you with more.
But
He
levied.
He
Benefit
is
base,
universe,
is
who
great
—and that
is
end of nature.
the
receive, a tax
those from
the one base thing in the
we cannot render
whom we receive them,
benefit
line for line,
we
receive
Beware
hand.
It
or only seldom.
must be rendered again,
will
much good
staying in your
corrupt and
worm worms.
of too fast
Pay it away quickly in some sort. Labor is watched over by the same Cheapest, says the prudent,
What we buy
in a
is
pitiless laws.
the dearest labor.
broom, a mat, a wagon, a knife,
some appUcation
want.
In
benefits to
deed for deed, cent for cent, to some-
body.
is
is
confers the most benefits.
—to receive favors and render none.
the order of nature
But the
is
which you
for every benefit
of
It is best to
good sense to a common
pay
in
your land a
skillful
gardener, or to buy good sense applied to garden-
good sense applied
ing; in your sailor, tion; in the house,
good sense applied
to naviga-
to cooking,
sewing, serving; in your agent, good sense applied to accounts
and
affairs.
So do you multiply your
presence, or spread yourself throughout your estate.
But because
of the dual constitution
things, in labor as in life there can be ing.
The
thief steals
swindles himself.
from himself.
For the
[23]
of
no cheat-
The
swindler
real price of labor is
Compensation knowledge and
whereof wealth and credit
virtue,
These
are signs.
signs, like
paper money,
may be
counterfeited or stolen, but that which they repre-
namely, knowledge and virtue, cannot be
sent,
These ends
counterfeited or stolen.
of labor can-
not be answered but by real exertions of the mind,
and
The
in obedience to pure motives.
cheat, the
defaulter, the gambler, cannot extort the benefit,
cannot extort the knowledge of material and moral nature which his honest care and pains yield to
The law
the operative.
and you
shall
of nature
Do the
is.
thing,
have the power; but they who do not
the thing have not the power.
Human
labor, through all
its
forms, from the
sharpening of a stake to the construction of a city or an epic, fect
is
one immense
illustration of the per-
compensation of the universe.
and always
this
law
is
sublime.
Every^vhere
The
absolute
balance of Give and Take, the doctrine that every thing has
its price,
and
if
that price
that thing but something else it is
is
is
is
not paid, not
obtained, and that
impossible to get any thing without
not
less
sublime in
its
price,
the columns of a ledger than
in the budgets of states, in the laws of light
and
and reaction of nature. I cannot doubt that the high laws which each man sees ever implicated in those processes with which
darkness, in
all
the action
[24]
Compensation he
is
conversant, the stern ethics which sparkle on
which are measured out by
his chisel-edge,
plumb and
foot-rule,
his
which stand as manifest
in
the footing of the shop-bill as in the history of
a
state,
—do
recommend
him
to
and
his trade,
though seldom named, exalt his business to his imagination.
The all
league between virtue and nature engages
beautiful laws
cute and
and substances
whip the
of the world perse-
He
traitor.
are arranged for truth
and
finds that things
benefit,
but there
den in the wide world to hide a rogue. crime,
and
the earth
is
made
seems as
if
a coat of snow
of glass.
Commit a
such thing as concealment. it
The
things to assume a hostile front to vice.
fell
is
no
Commit a There
no and
is
crime,
on the ground, such
woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole. You cannot recall the spoken word, you cannot wipe out the foottrack, you cannot draw up the ladder, so as to Always some damning cirleave no inlet or clew. cumstance transpires. The laws and substances as reveals in the
water,
of nature,
come
On
snow, wind, gravitation, be-
penalties to the thief.
the other
sureness for
be loved.
all
hand the law holds with equal Love, and you shall
right action.
All love
is
mathematically just, as
[25]
much
Compensation as the two sides of an algebraic equation. The good man has absolute good, which like fire turns
every thing to its own nature, so that you cannot do him any harm; but as the royal armies sent against Napoleon, when he approached cast down their colors
do
and from enemies became
friends, so
disasters of all kinds, as sickness, offence, pov-
erty,
prove benefactors. Winds blow and waters
roll
Strength to the brave and power and deity.
Yet in themselves are nothing.
The good
are befriended even by weakness and As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. defect.
The stag in the fable admired liis horns and blamed when the hunter came, his feet saved
his feet, but
him, and afterwards, caught in the thicket, his
horns destroyed him. needs to thank his
man in his lifetime As no man thoroughly
Every
faults.
understands a truth until against
it,
so
first
he has contended
no man has a thorough acquaintance
with the hindrances or talents of
men
until
suffered from the one and seen the triumph
other over his
own want
of the same.
defect of temper that unfits
[26]
him
he has of the
Has he a
to live in society?
Compensation Thereby he
is
driven to entertain himself alone and
acquire habits of self-help; and thus, like the
wounded
oyster,
he mends his
shell
with pearl.
Our strength grows out of our weakness. Not until we are pricked and stung and sorely shot at, awakens the indignation which arms secret forces.
Whilst he
little.
he goes to
itself
with
A great man is always willing to be
sleep.
sits
on the cushion of advantages,
When
he
is
pushed, tormented,
defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he
has been put on his wits, on his manhood; he has
gained facts; learns his ignorance;
is
cured of the
insanity of conceit; has got moderation
side of his assailants. it
is
and
real
The wise man always throws himself on the
skill.
theirs to find his
more his interest than weak point. The wound from him like a dead skin It is
and falls off and when they would triumph, lo! he has passed on invulnerable. Blame is safer than praise. I hate to be defended in a newspaper. As long as cicatrizes
all
that
is
said
is
said against me, I feel a certain
assurance of success.
But as soon as honied
words of praise are spoken lies
for
me I feel as one that
unprotected before his enemies.
every evil to which
we do
In general,
not succumb
is
a bene-
As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes factor.
[27]
Compensation we gain the strength of the temptawe resist. The same guards which protect us from disaster, defect and enmity, defend us, if we will, from selfinto himself, so
tion
ishness
Bolts and bars are not the best
and fraud.
of our institutions, nor
mark
of
Men
wisdom.
is
shrewdness in trade a
suffer all their life long
under the foolish superstition that they can be
But
cheated.
man
as impossible for a
it is
to
be
cheated by any one but himself, as for a thing to
be and not to be at the same time. third silent party to
and
all
our bargains.
soul of things takes
on
itself
There
The
is
a
nature
the guaranty of
the fulfilment of every contract, so that honest service cannot
come
to loss.
him
grateful master, serve
your debt.
Every
you serve an un-
If
stroke shall
longer the payment
is
God in be repaid. The
the more.
Put
withholden, the better for
you; for compound interest on compound interest is
the rate
The
and usage
of this exchequer.
history of persecution
is
a history of en-
deavors to cheat nature, to
make water run up
to twist a rope of sand.
It
whether the actors be
mob.
A mob
is
many
makes no
hill,
difference
or one, a tyrant or a
a society of bodies voluntarily
bereaving themselves of reason and traversing
work.
The mob
is
man
its
voluntarily descending
[28]
Compensation to the nature of the beast. is
a right
fit
hour of
Its actions are insane, like its
night.
It
stitution.
ing
Its
persecutes a principle;
activity
whole con-
would whip
it
it would tar and feather justice, by inflictand outrage upon the houses and persons
;
fire
who have these. It resembles the prank of boys, who run with fire-engines to put out the ruddy aurora streaming to the stars. The invio-
of those
late spirit turns their spite against the
The martyr cannot be
wrongdoers.
Every lash
dishonored.
inflicted is
a tongue of fame; every prison a more
illustrious
abode every burned book or house en;
lightens the world; every suppressed or
expunged
word reverberates through the earth from side to side. The minds of men are at last aroused; reason looks out and justifies her own and malice finds all her work in vain. It is the whipper who is whipped and the tyrant who is undone.
Thus do
all
cumstances.
two
sides,
has
its
The man I learn to
compensation
differency.
The
representations, is
all.
Every thing has
evil.
Every advantage
is
a good and an
tax.
trine of
things preach the indifferency of cir-
be content. is
But the doc-
not the doctrine of in-
thoughtless say, on hearing these
—What boots
one event to good and
it
to
evil; if I
[29]
do
well.^ there
gain any good I
Compensation must pay
for
it; if
any good
I lose
some
I gain
other; all actions are indifferent.
There
a deeper fact in the soul than compen-
is
sation, to wit, its
own
compensation, but a this
The
nature.
life.
The
soul
soul
is.
is
not a
Under
all
running sea of circumstance, whose waters ebb
and flow with
perfect balance, lies the aboriginal
abyss of real Being.
Existence, or God,
relation or a part, but the whole.
Being
not a
is
is
the vast
and and times within are the influx from
affirmative, excluding negation, self-balanced,
swallowing up
all relations,
parts
Nature, truth, virtue,
itself.
thence.
Vice
is
the absence or departure of the
may
Nothing, Falsehood,
same.
indeed stand as
the great Night or shade on which as a back-
ground the
no
fact
not.
It
harm.
is
but
living universe paints itself forth;
begotten by
it; it
cannot work, for
cannot work any good; It is
harm inasmuch
it
as
it is
cannot work any
it is
worse not to
be than to be.
We acts,
feel
defrauded of the retribution due to
because the criminal adheres to
contumacy and does not come to a
ment anywhere
in visible nature.
liis
crisis
evil
and
vice
or judg-
There
is
stunning confutation of his nonsense before
no
men
and angels. Has he therefore outwitted the law? Inasmuch as he carries the malignity and the lie [30]
Compensation with him he so far decreases from nature.
manner
there will be a demonstration of the
to the understanding also; but, should it,
In some
we
wrong
not see
deadly deduction makes square the eternal
this
account.
Neither can
it
be said, on the other hand, that
the gain of rectitude must be bought by any
There
is
no penalty
dom; they
to virtue;
are proper additions of being.
virtuous action I properly
add
am;
loss.
no penalty to wisIn a
in a virtuous act I
to the world; I plant into deserts
conquered
from Chaos and Nothing and see the darkness receding on the limits of the horizon.
be no excess beauty,
to love,
when
these attributes are considered in
The
the purest sense. affirms in
man
There can none to knowledge, none to soul refuses
all limits.
It
always an Optimism, never a Pes-
simism.
His
life is
a progress, and not a
Our
instinct is trust.
instinct uses
" less " in application to
ence of the soul,
man
is
and not
station.
man, always of
its
His
"more" and of the pres-
absence; the brave
greater than the coward; the true, the be-
nevolent, the wise,
is
the fool and knave.
more a man and not less, than There is therefore no tax on
the good of virtue, for that
is
the incoming of
himself, or absolute existence, without
ÂŁ31]
God
any com-
Compensation All external good has its tax, and if it came without desert or sweat, has no root in me, and the next wind will blow it away. But all the good of nature is the soul's, and may be had if paid for in nature's lawful coin, that is, by labor which the heart and the head allow. I no longer wish to parative.
meet a good
I
do not earn,
for
example to find a
pot of buried gold, knowing that
new
responsibility.
goods, ers,
I
it
brings with
it
do not wish more external
—neither possessions, nor honors, nor powThe
nor persons.
But there
is certain.
is
gain
is
no tax on the knowledge
and that
that the compensation exists desirable to dig
up
apparent; the tax
with a serene eternal peace.
it
is
not
Herein I rejoice
treasure.
I contract the
boun-
I learn the wisdom "Nothing can work me damage
daries of possible mischief. of St. Bernard:
except myself; the
harm
about with me, and never
by
my own
that I sustain I carry
am
a real sufferer but
fault."
In the nature of the soul
is
the inequalities of condition.
the compensation for
The
radical tragedy
More and how not malevolence towards More?
of nature seems to be the distinction of Less.
How
can Less not feel the pain;
feel indignation
Look
at those
or
who have
less faculty,
sad and knows not well what to
[32]
and one
make
of
it.
feels
Al-
Compensation most he shuns
What
God.
But
injustice.
he fears they
their eye;
should they do?
It
the facts nearly and these
see
Love reduces
mountainous inequalities vanish.
them
The
as the sun melts the iceberg in the sea.
heart and soul of of
upbraid
will
seems a great
all
His and Mine
brother and
men
being one, this bitterness
His
ceases.
my
brother
is
mine.
is
me.
I
am my
If I feel over-
shadowed and outdone by great neighbors, I can still receive; and he that loveth
get love; I can
maketh I
his
make
own
the discovery that
guardian, acting for signs,
my
and the
own.
me
appropriate and
my
brother
admired and envied
make
conscious domain. wit,
Such
—
if it
also
all
His
cannot be
is
is
the eternal nature of the soul to things
its
own.
and Shakspeare are fragments of the by love I conquer and incorporate them His
my
is
with the friendliest de-
estate I so
It is
Thereby
the grandeur he loves.
virtue,
—
is
Jesus
soul,
in
and
my own
not that mine ?
made mine,
it is
not wit.
the natural history of calamity.
The changes which break up at short intervals the prosperity of men are advertisements of a nature whose law
is
growth.
Evermore
nature to grow, and every soul necessity quitting friends
its
is
it is
by
the order of this intrinsic
whole system of things,
and home and laws and
[33]
its
faith, as the shell-
Compensation fish crawls
cause
it
out of
its
beautiful but stony case, be-
no longer admits
forms a new house.
of
its
growth, and slowly
In proportion to the vigor
of the individual these revolutions are frequent,
some happier mind they are incessant and all worldly relations hang very loosely about him, becoming as it were a transparent fluid membrane through which the living form is always seen, and not, as in most men, an indurated heterogeneous fabric of many dates and of no settled character, Then there can in which the man is imprisoned. be enlargement, and the man of to-day scarcely until in
man of yesterday. And such should outward biography of man in time, a put-
recognizes the
be the
ting off of
dead circumstances day by day, as he But to us, in our
renews his raiment day by day.
lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not
cooperating with the divine expansion, this growth
comes by shocks.
We cannot part with our friends. We cannot let We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in. We are idolaWe do not believe in the riches of tors of the old. our angels go.
the soul, in
its
proper eternity and omnipresence.
We do not believe that there is
any force
in to-day
to rival or re-create that beautiful yesterday. linger in the ruins of the old tent
[34]
We
where once we
;
Compensation had bread and
shelter
and organs, nor
believe that
We
the spirit can feed, cover, and nerve us again.
cannot again find aught so dear, so sweet, so grace-
But we sit and weep in vain. The voice of the Almighty saith, *' Up and onward forevermore!" We cannot stay amid the ruins. Neither will we rely on the New; and so we walk ever with reful.
verted eyes, like those monsters
who
look back-
wards.
And yet the
compensations of calamity are
apparent to the understanding
A
tervals of time.
also, after
made
long in-
a mutilation, a cruel
fever,
disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends,
seems at the moment unpaid
loss,
and unpayable.
But the sure years
reveal the deep remedial force
that underlies
facts.
all
The death
friend, wife, brother, lover,
of a dear
which seemed nothing
but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for
revolutions in our
way
of
of infancy or of youth
it
life,
commonly
operates
terminates an epoch
which was waiting
to
be
up a wonted occupation, or a houseand allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.
closed, breaks
hold, or style of living,
It
permits or constrains the formation of
quaintances and the reception of that prove of the
first
new
new
ac-
influences
importance to the next years
[35]
Compensation and the man or woman who would have remained a sunny garden-flower, with no room for
its
roots
and too much sunshine for its head, by the faUing of the walls and the neglect of the gardener is
made
the banian of the forest, yielding shade and
fruit to
wide neighborhoods of men.
[36]
^HO^HIGI H
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