{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_8881/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_8881","id":"gutenberg_8881","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8881","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Conduct of life","Jason -- (Mythological character)","Success"],"text":"Produced by Distributed Proofreaders\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Fleece of Gold\n\nFive Lessons from the Fable of Jason and the Golden Fleece\n\nby\n\nCharles Stewart Given\n\n1905\n\n\n\nSecond Edition Revised\n\n\n\nTo my sons\nKingsley and Gordon\n\n\n  \"Jason and his men seized the favorable moment of the rebound, plied\n  their oars with vigor, and passed through in safety.\"\n\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n\nIntroduction\n\n  I. The Ruling Element, \"Jason and his men.\"\n\n II. The Golden Quality, \"They passed through.\"\n\nIII. The Messenger of Fate, \"They seized the favourable moment.\"\n\n IV. The Active Hand, \"They plied their oars with vigor.\"\n\n  V. Ethics of Activity\n\n\n\n\nForeword\n\n\n\nAmong the smaller forces which operate upon the mind and tend toward\nstrengthening and exalting the best ideals, are little books like this.\nThey are especially valuable when so much of the author's own experience\nforms a thread upon which are suspended jewels of thought and illustration\nserviceable to those who would see and know the best things.\n\nI have found these characteristics in this small volume, and gladly\nrecommend it to all those who would become more familiar with what our\nauthor calls \"the key to that cabinet of character in which nature\nconceals not only the motive power of every-day life, but those latent\ntalents and energies that, through a knowledge of self, we can bring to\nbear upon our lives.\" This book will help many who have small\nopportunities in the form of time and money to expend in the use of\nlarger volumes.\n\nCharles Stewart Given\n\n\n\n\nIntroduction\n\n\n\nThe fable of Jason and the Golden Fleece is known to old and young the\nworld around. To the latter, perhaps, no other simple narrative in\nGreek mythology is more fascinating, nor holds a more valuable lesson\nif they will but seek to learn it. But especially to the boy or young\nman of thoughtful mind does the glorious adventure appeal and make its\nlessons obvious. By way of refreshing the memory of those who were once\nfamiliar with the myth, but who, in the practical school of experience,\nhave lost the chord of their adventure-loving days; and also for those,\nperchance, who are not acquainted with the tale, a brief sketch will\nhere serve our purpose.\n\nIn Thessaly dwell a king and a queen with their two children, a boy and a\ngirl. The holy alliance between the two royal members of the household\nbecomes disrupted, and Nephele, the good mother, appeals to Mercury, the\nmessenger of the gods, to assist her in secretly placing the children out\nof reach of their father, the king. Mercury provides a ram with a golden\nfleece, on which the boy and girl are placed. The shining creature springs\ninto the air, bearing its precious burden across the sea. Unfortunately,\nthe girl falls from the ram's back and is drowned, but the boy is landed\nsafely on the other shore in the kingdom of Colchis. Here he sacrifices\nthe ram to Jupiter and presents the golden fleece to the king, who places\nit in a consecrated grove under the care of a sleepless dragon.\n\nNow Jason is heir to the throne of \u00c6son, ruler of another kingdom in\nThessaly, from whence the royal children started on their adventurous\njourney. Years have passed, however, since this remarkable incident, and\nJason, being now a young man and having been told the dramatic tale of\nthe Golden Fleece, begins to think what a glorious adventure it would be\nto go in quest of the royal prize. Forthwith he makes preparations for\nthe expedition, and with a band of other lusty young heroes starts on a\nsea voyage toward the land of the Colchian king. It is not without\ndifficulty, however, that they accomplish the voyage, for at the entrance\nof the Euxine Sea they encounter two floating islands, veritable\nmountains of rock, huge and shaggy, which, in their tossings and\nheavings, at intervals come together \"crushing and grinding to atoms any\nobject that might be caught between them.\" But \"_Jason and his men seized\nthe favorable moment of the rebound, plied their oars with vigor and\npassed through in safety_.\"\n\nApproaching the royal palace Jason makes known his mission, whereupon\nthe king promises to relinquish the valuable possession if Jason will\nyoke to the plow two fire-breathing bulls and sow the teeth of the\ndragon. Apprehending that by this means the king seeks to destroy him,\nJason pleads his cause to Medea, the king's daughter, who furnishes him\na charm by which he can safely encounter the fiery breath of the beasts\nand the armed men that will spring up in the furrow where the dragon's\nteeth are sown.\n\nIn his \"Age of Fable,\" Bullfinch gives us a graphic picture of the scene:\n\"At the time appointed the people assembled at the grove of Mars, and the\nking assumed his royal seat, while the multitude covered the hill-sides.\nThe brazen-footed bulls rushed in, breathing fire from their nostrils that\nburned up the herbage as they passed. The sound was like the roar of a\nfurnace, and the smoke like that of water upon quick-lime. Jason advanced\nboldly to meet them. His friends, the chosen heroes of Greece, trembled to\nbehold him. Regardless of the burning breath, he soothed their rage with\nhis voice, patted their necks with fearless hand, and adroitly slipped\nover them the yoke, and compelled them to drag the plow. The Colchians\nwere amazed; the Greeks shouted for joy. Jason next proceeded to sow the\ndragon's teeth and plow them in. And soon the crop of armed men sprang up,\nand, wonderful to relate! no sooner had they reached the surface than they\nbegan to brandish their weapons and rush upon Jason. The Greeks trembled\nfor their hero, and even she who had provided him a way of safety and\ntaught him how to use it, Medea herself, grew pale with fear. Jason for a\ntime kept his assailants at bay with his sword and shield, till finding\ntheir numbers overwhelming, he resorted to the charm which Medea had\ntaught him, seized a stone and threw it in the midst of his foes. They\nimmediately turned their arms against one another, and soon there was not\none of the dragon's brood left alive.\"\n\nHaving complied with all the conditions set forth by the king, the victor\nnow turns with eager step toward the grove of Mars, and seizing the golden\nprize makes his way back to Thessaly, rejoicing in his glorious success.\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nThe Ruling Element\n\n\n\n\"Jason and His Men.\"\n\n\n    What constitutes a state?\n  Not high-raised battlements or labored mound,\n    Thick wall or moated gate;\n  Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned;\n    Not bays and broad armed ports,\n  Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;\n    Not starred and spangled courts,\n  Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.\n    No! men--high-minded men--\n  With powers as far above dull brutes endued,\n    In forest, brake, or den,\n  As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude.\n\n  --Sir William Jones.\n\n\n\n\nThe Young Man\n\n\nJason has just stepped over the threshold into the glory of a rich young\nmanhood. And he is careful to select for his expedition some of the\nchoicest heroes of Greece--young, brave, and strong. It has ever been\nthus. Youth has always been synonymous with adventure. It is a condition\nwhich seems inherent; nature instilling into the blood of her sons the\nvery spirit of discontent--of longing to push out from the commonplace\nscenes of childhood into broader domains of experience.\n\nThe very books which most fascinate the boy are those which deal in\nthrilling tales of adventure. The wily and unscrupulous traffickers in\ncheap literature have ever been awake to this fact, and their\nhighly-colored productions have been flung from the vicious presses like\nlava from Pel\u00e9e to pollute the minds of the young. Why is it that\n\"Robinson Crusoe\" and stories of this character hold such a charm for\nyoung people, lingering in their minds long after books of a profounder\ntype have been forgotten? It is the love of adventure. To what boy at\nschool does not the doleful history lesson assume a more brilliant aspect\nwhen the adventures of Columbus are taken up? His interest is awakened,\nhis imagination inspired, and he is delighted, all because again that\nchord in his nature has been struck--the love of adventure.\n\nPerhaps no other single painting in the art galleries at the World's Fair\nof 1893 attracted the attention of a greater number of people, nor\nawakened in so many human breasts a feeling of such intense pathos as\nThomas Hovenden's painting on \"Breaking Home Ties.\" Here we have it once\nmore, adventure--Jason setting off on his journey in search for the golden\nfleece of fame and fortune. The narrow path that so long has led him out\ninto the silent acres--the fields that so many years have responded to\nhis toil--he has forsaken. The dull routine has ceased to inspire, the\nhome circle has become too narrow for his expanding soul. He has caught a\nglimpse of the glories of a new kingdom, and now he is going out to\nrealize them.\n\nThe young man has always been the _ruling element_ in every new departure.\nHe has been the rock upon which the ages have been founded. In the words\nof another: \"When the roll-call which men have written is read, it will be\nfound that the young men have ruled the world. The oldest literatures have\nthis record. The patriarchs unfolded the careers of boys into the conquest\nof old age. Kingdom and empire rode upon the shoulders of young men, and\ntheir voices of enthusiasm and hope have sounded through many a\nblack-breasted midnight and trumpeted the dawn through skies of thickest\ndarkness. To causes that drooped they have come and added the raptures of\nhope; to enterprises that were sickening and faint they have brought the\nbounding power of new enthusiasm. To the dead they have brought life.\nEverything from the foundation of the world has been crying for 'young\nblood,' and the armies of the advance have gained the day at the arrival\nof 'recruits,' whose hope and earnestness have never been defeated. Age\nand experience put themselves upon dying pillows made by young hands; into\nyoung palms and upon young ears falls the meaning of all the past; and\nthus God has written the natural dignity of the young man's life in the\neternal statute book of the universe.\" [Footnote: From \"Young Men of\nHistory,\" by Dr. F.W. Gunsaulus.]\n\nWe have but to turn our gaze back over the centuries to find that it has\nalways been the young man who has embarked in the world's great\nenterprises. If we turn the pages of religious history we shall find that\nhe has been potent there. For when the stream of Hebrew destiny was to be\nturned, a young man, Joseph, who had been sold as a slave into Egypt, was\nselected to accomplish it. And later young Saul of Kish while roaming\nthrough his father's fields was summoned to a throne. It was the young\nshepherd boy--David--that was chosen \"to keep the banner of Israel in the\nsky while the shadows hung black above the hills of Judah.\" When the\ngospel was to be borne to the Gentiles the divine finger fell upon a young\ntent-maker of Tarsus. Fourteen centuries later a miner's son, Martin\nLuther, won Germany for the Reformation, and John Wesley \"while yet a\nstudent in college\" started his mighty world-famous movement. At fifteen\nJohn de Medici was a cardinal, and Bossuet was known by his eloquence; at\nsixteen Pascal wrote a great work. Ignatius Loyola before he was thirty\nbegan his pilgrimage, and soon afterward wrote his most famous books. At\ntwenty-two Savonarola was rousing the consciences of the Florentines, and\nat twenty-five John Huss was an enthusiastic champion of truth.\n\nBut we see the young man standing before the footlights on the stage of\nsecular history, too. At twelve Remenyi was making his violin tremulous\nwith melody, and C\u00e6sar delivered an oration at Rome; at thirteen Henry M.\nStanley was a teacher; at fourteen Demosthenes was known as an orator; at\nfifteen Robert Burns was a great poet, Rossini composed an opera, and\nLiszt was a wizard in music. At the age of sixteen Victor Hugo was known\nthroughout France; at seventeen Mozart had made a name in Germany, and\nMichael Angelo was a rising star in Italy. At eighteen Marcus Aurelius was\nmade a consul; at nineteen Byron was the \"amazing genius\" of his time; at\ntwenty Raphael had finished some of his most famous paintings, Faraday was\nattracting the attention of his country, and two years later was admitted\nto the Royal Institution of Great Britain. At twenty-one Alexander the\nGreat conquered the Persians, Beethoven was entrancing the world with his\nmusic, and William Wilberforce was in Parliament. At twenty-two William\nPitt had entered Parliament, while William of Orange had received from\nCharles V command of an army. At twenty-three William E. Gladstone had\ndenounced the Reform Bill at Oxford, and two years afterward became First\nJunior Lord of the Treasury, and Livingstone was exploring the continent.\nAt twenty-four Sir Humphrey Davy was Professor of Chemistry in the Royal\nInstitution, Dante, Ruskin, and Browning had become famous writers. At\ntwenty-five Hume had written his treatise on Human Nature, Galileo was\nlecturer of science at the University of Pisa, and Mark Antony was the\n\"hero of Rome.\" At twenty-six Sir Isaac Newton had made his greatest\ndiscoveries; at twenty-seven Don John of Austria had won Lepanto, and\nNapoleon was commander-in-chief of the army of Italy. At twenty-eight\n\u00c6schylus was the peer of Greek tragedy, at twenty-nine Maurice of Saxony\nthe greatest statesman of the age, and at thirty Frederick the Great was\nthe most conspicuous character of his day. At the same age Richelieu was\nSecretary of State, and Cortez little older when he gazed on the \"golden\nCupolas\" of Mexico. These are a few of the splendid names that illumine\nthe pages of history across the sea.\n\nBut the young man has been no less potent in the affairs of our own\nNation, which has always been conspicuous for its production of truly\ngreat men. The story is told that when one of England's great men was\nvisiting Henry Clay, and the two were riding over the country, the\ndistinguished guest inquired of his host, \"What do you raise on these\nhills and in these beautiful valleys?\" \"Men,\" was Clay's reply; and the\nEnglish patriot declared that this was the greatest crop to enrich a\ncountry. We boast that we have given the world a full quota of really\ngreat young men, some of them like Jason embarking on the sea of adventure\nwhile the dew of extreme youth is still on their brow. If we wend our way\nback through the grand procession of events of but a single century we\nwill find extreme youth marking out the lines of progress and directing\nthe course of the nation in politics, in literature and religion.\n\nWe would see William Prescott, a boy of twelve, diligently at work in the\nBoston Athenaeum, or Jonathan Edwards at thirteen entering Yale College,\nand while yet of a tender age shining in the horizon of American\nliterature; while the same age finds H. W. Longfellow writing for the\nPortland _Gazette_. At fourteen John Quincy Adams was private secretary to\nFrancis H. Dana, American Minister to Russia; at fifteen Benjamin Franklin\nwas writing for the _New England Courant_, and at an early age became a\nnoted journalist. Benjamin West at sixteen had painted \"The Death of\nSocrates,\" at seventeen George Bancroft had won a degree in history,\nWashington Irving had gained distinction as a writer. At eighteen\nAlexander Hamilton was famous as an orator, and one year later became a\nlieutenant-colonel under Washington. At nineteen Washington himself was a\nmajor, Nathan Hale had distinguished himself in the Revolution, Bryant had\nwritten \"Thanatopsis,\" and Bayard Taylor was engaged in writing his first\nbook, \"Views Afoot.\" At twenty Richard Henry Stoddard had found a place in\nthe leading periodicals of his day, John Jacob Astor was in business in\nNew York, and Jay Gould was president and general manager of a railroad.\nAt twenty-one Edward Everett was professor of Greek Literature at Harvard,\nand James Russell Lowell had published a whole volume of his poems; at\ntwenty-two Charles Sumner had attracted the attention of some of the\nfamous men of his day, William H. Seward had entered upon a brilliant\npolitical career, while Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry D. Thoreau occupied\na conspicuous place in literature. At twenty-three James Monroe was a\nmember of the Executive Council, and one year later was elected to\nCongress; at twenty-four Thomas A. Edison and Richard Jordan Gatling were\ninventors. At twenty-five John C. Calhoun made the famous speech that gave\nhim a seat in the Legislature, George William Curtis had traversed Italy,\nGermany, and the Orient and soon after became known by his books of\ntravel. At twenty-six Thomas Jefferson occupied a seat in the House of\nBurgesses, John Quincy Adams was minister to The Hague; at twenty-seven\nPatrick Henry was known as the \"Orator of Nature,\" and Robert Y. Hayne was\nspeaker in the Legislature of South Carolina. At twenty-eight Edward\nEverett Hale had found a place in the hearts and minds of the people, and\nat twenty-nine John Jay, youngest member of the Continental Congress, was\nchosen to draw up the address to the British Nation.\n\nThese illustrious ones, who before their thirtieth year had written their\nnames on the immortal banner of their country, are only a few which adorn\nthe pages of our early history. Others of like purport might be added\nindefinitely both from the early and the later life of our country. And\nthere has been no time when the young man played so important a r\u00f4le in\nhuman affairs as he does to-day in the dawn of the twentieth century,\nwhen the heart and the mind, philanthropy and literature, virtue and\ntruth, science and art, capital and labor are the principal factors in the\nworld's progress. To refer to but a single instance in this period of our\nnational life, there is no greater statesman and patriot than our beloved\nPresident, Theodore Roosevelt,--a young man to whom we are proud to point\nas a true type of American greatness and American manhood. Assuming\ncontrol of the Nation at such a critical moment in her history, when so\nmany dangerous rocks lay in her course, tremendous, indeed, was the\nresponsibility thrust upon him. But by his inherent principle of rule, his\nunquenchable patriotism, his indomitable purpose, and the imperiousness of\nhis will, founded on a rich scholarship and a broad policy, he has spelled\ntriumph out of difficulty, and his name will go down in twentieth-century\nhistory an example of illustrious young manhood.\n\nThe young man is emphatically the _ruling element_ in politics to-day. It\nis estimated that a sufficient number of young men come of age every four\nyears to control the issue of the Presidential election. Constituting\nabout one-half of the present voting population, they hold far more than\nthe balance of political power. It was Goethe who said that the destiny of\nany nation at any given time depends on the opinions of the young men who\nare under twenty-five years of age. And William E. Gladstone affirmed that\nthe sum of the characters of this element constitute the character and\nstrength of any country.\n\nAnd when we consider the young man in his relation to all the aspects of\nlife--civic, commercial, industrial, and social--we must recognize him as\nthe _ruling element_. Like Jason, the young man of to-day is the hero to\ninvade the empire of thought and action in quest of the Fleece of Gold.\n\n  \"Lives of great men all remind us,\n  We can make our lives sublime;\n  And departing leave behind us\n  Footprints on the sands of time.\"\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nThe Golden Quality\n\n\"They Passed Through.\"\n\n\n\n  To live content with small means:\n  To seek elegance rather than luxury, and\n  Refinement rather than fashion;\n  To be worthy, not respectable,\n  Wealthy, not rich;\n  To study hard, think quietly,\n  Talk gently, act frankly;\n  To listen to stars and birds, to\n  Babes and sages, with open heart;\n  To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,\n  Await occasions, hurry never,--\n  In a word, to let the spiritual,\n  Unbidden and unconscious,\n  Grow up through the common--\n  This is to be my symphony.\n\n  --Channing.\n\n\nSuccess\n\n\nIn every land and in every age since the curtain first rose on the world's\ngreat drama men have been in quest of the Fleece of Gold. The onward\nprogress of the race since our rude forefathers from the leaves of the\ntree formed their clothes, and in the somber depths of the primeval forest\nconstructed their habitation, is due to an insatiable desire to possess\nthe coveted prize. Hanging before man's gaze in the consecrated borders of\nhis existence, it has inspired him to greater usefulness. He has built\nships and traversed the seas, invented machines, reared cities, and\nestablished laws. In science and art and literature he has vied with his\nfellow-man and given a mighty impulse to civilization, all for the Fleece\nof Gold--success.\n\nThe world worships at the shrine of success. It regards it as man's\ngreatest attribute. And whether we find it in secular affairs,\nsubstantiated by material grandeur, or in the mysterious realms of the\ninner life characterized by the serene consciousness of truth, it must\never be the goal of human aspiration.\n\nIt is the thought of some day having their efforts crowned that causes men\nhotly to pursue the phantom or the reality of their lives. This aspiration\nkeeps the torch of hope ablaze in the midnight darkness, and the spirits\nbuoyed under the noon-day glare, while men forge on to the goal. The\nsurging throngs of a great city, the active hands and brains in the\nbee-hives of industry and the many places of business, the vast army of\nseekers after knowledge in the schools and colleges throughout the land,\nthe men of fame in the halls of Congress molding the affairs of the\nNation, the countless army tilling the fields under the open sky, the\nlegions in the dark caves of earth searching for treasure--all are seeking\nto enter the golden gate of success.\n\nSaid Mr. A. B. Farquhar in a baccalaureate address to the students of\nMcDonough College: \"Success colors everything. It is the essence of all\nexcellencies, the latent power which compels the favor of fortune and\nsubjugates fate. The world worships success regardless of how acquired;\nmakes it a standard for judging men, an indispensable credential for all\napproval. If a man succeeds he is held to be wise, even though mediocre;\nif he fails, whatever his learning and intrinsic merit, little regard is\npaid to him. Success gilds and glorifies a multitude of blunders and\nlittlenesses, and people are thought merely to exist who do not keep\nthemselves on the road leading to it. In view of all this, it is no wonder\nthat we see all humanity looking earnestly toward success and moving with\neager step in search of it.\n\n\"Success is essentially the accomplishment of one's desires and purposes,\nthe realization of one's ideals. But this definition does not necessarily\nimply a high state of being. As I sit by my window writing, the hoarse\ncry of a rag-man and the mournful strains of a hand-organ come to my ears.\nThat able-bodied Greek, who is so lavish with his 'music,' and the\nrag-man, who is buying what the other is distributing freely, both are in\nquest of the same thing--'success.'\"\n\nAlas! the world too often measures success by false standards--worships\nthe Golden Fleece, forgetting the high purpose it might be made to serve;\nso dazzled by means that ends become oblivious. The spirit of the age is\nto pay homage to great riches. The finely attired custodian of a money bag\ntoo often is regarded as an exponent of success. On this point we should\nguard ourselves, first ascertaining if the gorgeous equipage is the\n\"genuine fleece,\" or only a sham intended to deceive. A mansion on a\nvaluable corner lot does not constitute the \"golden quality,\" nor does a\nmillion dollars in bank epitomize its character. Its language is not\nspoken in the dialect of Wall Street or of wheat pits. Gold, grain,\nstocks, and bonds and estates too often mean the perversion of those\nqualities most valuable to human life. Realty is not the prime issue of\nlife, but _reality_. If that which a man gets in his pay envelope, however\nlucrative that may be, constituted his only reward, his effort would be\nmiserably compensated.\n\nThe man who has spent his life like a scaraboid beetle rolling up money,\nwithout due regard for the common virtues of life, has not left\n\"footprints on the sands of time,\" but only a zigzag trail along the\nhighway over which he has journeyed. He has not achieved success in that\nhe has accumulated riches without a corresponding accumulation of\n\"wealth.\" To seek a purely selfish and material success is to defeat the\nvery purpose of one's existence--\"life, liberty, and the pursuit of\nhappiness.\" In the very conquest for this baser type a man blights his\nsensibilities, minifies his present enjoyment, and destroys his prospect\nfor a full measure of happiness by and by. With but one interest his\nhappiness is insecure; for when that fails or ceases to satisfy he has\nnothing on which to rely. Midas craves for gold, and when he gets it his\nsenses become as metallic as the object of his affection. Therefore, if we\nare of this type, simply seeking the Golden Fleece for what it will net us\nin dollars and cents, we are not on the road leading to success. For\nsuccess does not consist in the acquisition of the material, so much as in\na mental discipline that seeks objectively to subordinate intrinsic value.\n\nWe must confess, however, that the age in which we live is one of brick\nand mortar; that materialism and not \u00e6stheticism reigns over us. The\nbook-keeper's pen has usurped the office of the artist's brush and the\ncarpenter's chisel that of the sculptor. Intrinsic worth and\ndividend-paying value holds sway, and even the gift-horse is looked in the\nmouth while the priceless motive that prompted its giving is forgotten.\n\nThe commercial spirit which pervades the atmosphere of modern times is\ndisintegrating the sublimer side of human life. The gilded god of\nmaterialism is lavishing its blessings in the realm of science and\ninvention and commercial enterprise, at the expense of aestheticism, till\nto-day there are thousands of artisans to every artist. We have an\nabundance of stone masons, but few Phidiases or Angelos; hundreds of organ\ngrinders, but few Beethovens or Webers or Bachs; a full quota of men\nengrossed in the cold calculus of business, but a scarcity of Homers or\nDantes or Virgils.\n\nSpeaking of this material aspect of our epoch and how it is likely to be\nregarded in the future, when the paradise of ideal living is regained, a\nmodern writer says: \"Will not the intense preoccupation of material\nproduction, the hurry and strain of our cities, the draining of life into\none channel, at the expense of breadth, richness, and beauty, appear as\nmad as the Crusades, and perhaps of a lower type of madness? Could\nanything be more indicative of a slight but general insanity than the\naspect of the crowd on the streets of Chicago?\" Why is it that the poems\nthat have lived for centuries, and the masterpieces of the world's great\npainters and sculptors are not being equaled in the dawn of the twentieth\ncentury? The answer lies in the widespread devotion to realism instead of\nidealism. The immortals have joined the mortals in search for the Fleece\nof Gold. And Wordsworth's oft-quoted lines were never more applicable to\nus than now:\n\n  The world is too much with us; late and soon,\n  Getting and spending we lay waste our powers.\n\nAll the capital in the universe does not stand for success unless there is\nset over against it the wealth of soul which Marcus Aurelius, that great\napostle of plain living and high thinking, ever set forth as an antidote\nto the treadmill grind of commercial life. Shakespeare struck the keynote\nof this lofty conception of life, and pronounced a never-dying eulogy upon\nthe supreme dignity of character when he said:\n\n  \"Who steals my purse steals trash; ...\n  But he that filches from me my good name\n  Robs me of that which not enriches him,\n  And makes me poor indeed.\"\n\nWealth of soul is incomparably better than all that can be obtained from\npomp and luxury. Charlemagne is said to have worn in his crown a nail\ntaken from the cross on which the Savior was crucified. He wore it among\nthe jewels of his diadem as a reminder that there existed a tenderer\nrelation in life than kingdoms and material splendor. Thus in the crown of\nour success, if we would make it truly great, we must place the sublimer\nelements of our being. As the ivy softens the roughness of the mountain\nside and the unsightly ruin, so will the aesthetic mellow and subdue the\nintense commercialism with which we are surrounded. Without this quality\nour success becomes like the fabled apples on the brink of the Dead\nSea--fair without, but ashes within.\n\nIf the avenue to success lay in one direction only--that of accumulating a\nfortune, little incentive would be felt by those in the lower walks of\nlife. Moreover, if it were possible for all men to become millionaires,\nthe very organization of human society would become disrupted; for who\nthen would till the soil, run the factories, clean the streets? Nature has\nbeen wise in the distribution of her talents. Anticipating the havoc of\nendowing all mankind with equal powers, she established a wide diversity\nin the range of human ability. To one she has given the gift of sagacity\nto achieve success in the world of trade; to another mechanical skill to\ncreate the ideals of inventive genius into reality; to another the highly\nartistic sense, and withholding these higher attributes from still others,\nshe has chosen to endow them with a wealth of muscular force that the\nphysical requirements of organized human effort might be made effective.\nSo that any way we choose to look at this question we must concede that\ntemporal wealth does not constitute the broadest idea of success, nor is\ncapable in itself of producing it.\n\nEven failure may be an element of a glorious success. The volcano that\npours its vengeance upon the fair plantation below, leaving wreck and ruin\nin its path, bestows a wealth of sulphur which plays an important part in\nthe world of commerce. The same frost that kills the harvest of a season\nalso destroys the locust, preserving the harvests of a century. The death\nof the cocoon is the production of the silk, and the failure of the\ncaterpillar the birth of the butterfly. If the boy Newton had not failed\nutterly on the farm, he would never have been started in college to become\nthe mighty man of science. The fall of Rome meant the rise of the German\nEmpire. \"All men,\" says Frederick Arnold, \"need through errors attain to\ntruth, through struggles to victory, through regrets to that sorrow which\nis a very source of life. Men must rise in an ever-ascending scale, like\nthe ladder of St. Augustine, by which men, through stepping-stones of\ntheir dead selves rise to higher things; or those steps of Alciphron,\nwhich crumbled away into nothingness as fast as each foot-fall left\nthem.\" Thus our very failures we may overrule and convert into\nstepping-stones to success. Lifted to a loftier sphere, to a nobler\nexperience, we are apt to receive greater benefit than though we escaped\ndisappointment and rejoiced in easy fruition.\n\nSuccess does not consist in not encountering difficulties, but in\novercoming them. If Jason is to have the golden fleece he must pass\nbetween the dangerous rocks, he must encounter the dragon, yoke to the\nplow the fire-breathing bulls, and subdue a regiment of armed men. If\nJoseph had not been Egypt's prisoner, he would never have been Egypt's\ngovernor. If Millet had not passed through the valley of sorrow, he could\nnever have painted the \"Angelus.\" The Restoration in England that gave\nCharles II a throne, drove Milton into absolute seclusion, and the last\ntwelve years of his life were passed in enforced isolation. But this\nblind, deserted, broken-hearted, but illustrious scholar and poet,\nconquered despair, triumphed over every misfortune, and gave to the world\nthose three great poems which have made his name immortal. Even poverty,\nwhich has been a hardship to the individual, has proved a boon to himself\nand to the cause of humanity. Science teaches us that ordinary mud has in\nit elements which, arranged according to the higher laws of nature,\nproduce the opal, the sapphire, and the diamond. Likewise does history\nteach us that from the morass of poverty the commonest types of men have\npassed from stage to stage through the refining processes of experience\ntill they have dazzled the world with their magnificence. Whether it be a\nslave like \u00c6sop, a beggar like Homer, a peasant like Raphael, or a\nmarble-cutter like Socrates, we see them at last wearing the diadem of a\nbrilliant success.\n\nIn fact, the foremost in all nations and in all branches have, as a rule,\nrisen from the ranks of the poor and lowly. Shakespeare held horses for a\nfew pennies a night in front of a London theater, and later did menial\nservice back of the scenes. Disraeli was an office boy, Carlyle a\nstone-mason's attendant, and Ben Jonson was a bricklayer. Morrison and\nCarey were shoemakers, Franklin was a printer's apprentice, Burns a\ncountry plowman, Stephenson a collier, Faraday a bookbinder, Arkwright a\nbarber, and Sir Humphrey Davy a drug clerk. Demosthenes was the son of a\ncutler, Verdi the son of a baker, Blackstone the son of a draper, and\nLuther was the son of a miner. Butler was a farmer, Hugh Miller a\nstone-cutter, Abraham Lincoln a rail-splitter, and James Garfield was a\ncanal boy. One-half of the Presidents of the United States were left\norphans at an early age, left to make their way through the world alone.\nHistory reveals clearly that it has been not the sons of the rich, but\nthe sons of poverty that have \"compelled the favor of fortune and\nsubjugated fate.\"\n\nNeither rank nor genius nor any other natural endowment forms the only\ntrue basis of success. A right disposition, a desire and determination,\nfounded on the sub-structure of right purpose, to cope with the problems\nthat confront you, constitute the real basis of achievement. In short, the\nonly demands which success makes of you is that you act with the most of\nyourself, bringing all your faculties to bear upon what you have to do;\ninstilling your best effort into the infinite detail that goes to make up\nthe great finality of your life. To this end, the systematic development\nof the whole man, body, mind, and soul, in such a manner as to bring you\ninto right relation with things as they are and ought to be, is the\nparamount question.\n\nIn fact, education is the only passport to success. I do not mean that\neducation that is restricted to institutions of learning. These, while\npossessing a decided advantage, by no means have a monopoly of learning.\nGenius finds opportunity in the great laboratories of nature. Every man\nhas within himself an educational organization presided over by a full\nfaculty; and nature's wonderful book is ever open to him, if only he will\nlay hold upon the lessons it would teach him. This type of education which\nis the drawing out toward all things the latent forces from within, and\nthe broadening out for greater usefulness, means the acquisition of\nability to meet every emergency and the establishment of high ideals.\n\nMoreover, in the race for success, the proper nourishment of the brain is\nan essential part of self-development. The brain is substantially the\ngreat artist that creates our ideals in life. And yet we forget sometimes\nthat it is the master of our destiny; and allow it to sink into that dull\napathy so fatal to our hopes and aims. It would almost seem, indeed, as if\na kind of fatality clung to some men in the way in which they neglect this\nsupreme faculty of their being. You possess the power to use your brain as\nyou choose; but not the right, morally, for society demands of you a high\nstandard of thinking, since it is the only rational basis for a free\ngovernment. Thus it is as much your duty properly to nourish your brain as\nto give proper care to the body.\n\nIn the rigid economy of modern life we should use extreme care in the\nselection of our reading. Our best interests demand more of us than a\ngormandizing of newspapers or ephemeral reading of any kind. Far be it\nfrom me to disparage that great organ of the times--the newspaper, which\nis a source of keen delight and benefit to us all, and almost the only\nsource of instruction to thousands of the race. But we should be judicious\nin this, and not allow transitional matter to monopolize our time. \"Read\nnot the times, read the eternities,\" cried Thoreau. The shelves of our\nhome and public libraries are filled with priceless volumes yet unread by\nus. And he who is not cultivating a taste for good wholesome reading is\nmissing one of the highest enjoyments of life as well as minimizing his\nchances for success. We should ever be exploring new regions of thought.\nAnd in the extreme activity of this electric age we shall be obliged to\ntake snap shots at our reading--on the street car, in the lunch room,\nanywhere we find it possible to peruse a single page.\n\nIf we look into the lives of some of the illustrious ones we shall find\nthat they obtained knowledge under the greatest disadvantages. We see\nLincoln reading his favorite volumes by the dim light of a pineknot blaze;\nor Burritt poring over his books at the forge; or Garfield gazing intently\nat the pages while riding a mule on the banks of a canal. Wesley likewise\ndiligently searched the Scriptures while riding horseback over the\ncountry; William Cobbett learned grammar while a common soldier on the\nmarch; and we are told that Alexander the Great, each night on retiring,\nwould place his favorite book, the \"Iliad,\" under his pillow and during\nhis waking moments would peruse its pages.\n\nBut the high intellectual plane of present-day civilization demands more\nof us than the world demanded then, when the avenues to honor and to power\nlay over fields of conquest, and the passport to favor was the sword. The\ncomplex problems of today call for a more thorough cultivation of our\nmental powers, which, to bring into play upon the multifarious concerns of\nour life, is the object of broad education. A well cultivated mind makes a\nman monarch of all that he surveys; and no one can be said to be truly\nsuccessful who has not invaded the empire of thought in search for the\nimperishable Fleece of Gold.\n\nSuccess, then, in the highest sense, is a full realization of the highest\nwealth of body, mind, and soul. And while it does not disparage material\naggrandizement, it makes it subservient, ever looking to an equalization\nof the greater revenues of life. Like truth it consists in a right\nproportion of things; and like character, is inherent in the nature of the\nindividual. Success must embrace all the cardinal virtues. It must arise\nfrom the harmonious and fullest use of all the faculties. In its essence,\nit is the aggregate of those things which we have acquired, and which we\nare putting to a wise and useful purpose. The way of life is strewn with\nthose who have done fairly well. Excellence is the golden quality to seek.\nSuccess, like a commodity, has its price, and he who would have it must be\nwilling to pay. You can not buy it on a bargain counter; it is a staple\nproduct and demands full value--the sublimest qualities of your being.\n\n  \"In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves for a bright manhood,\n  there is no such words as--fail.\"\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nThe Messenger of Fate\n\n\"They Seized the Favorable Moment.\"\n\n\n\n    Take all reasonable advantage of that which the present may offer\n  you.... It is the only time which is ours. Yesterday is buried\n  forever, and to-morrow we may never see.\n\n  --Victor Hugo.\n\n\n  Master of human destinies am I;\n  Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait,\n  Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate\n  Deserts and seas remote, and passing by\n  Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late\n  I knock unbidden once at every gate;\n  If sleeping wake; if feasting, rise before\n  I turn away. It is the hour of fate,\n  And they who follow me reach every state\n  Mortals desire and conquer every foe\n  Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate,\n  Condemned to failure, penury, and woe,\n  Seek me in vain and uselessly implore;\n  I answer not and I return no more.\n\n  --John J. Ingalls.\n\n\n\n\nOpportunity\n\nThe famous statue, \"Take Time by the Forelock,\" was a masterpiece of\nGreek sculpture. A noted Athenian orator, Callistratus, has given us a\npicture of the work of art: \"Opportunity was a boy in the flower of his\nyouth, handsome in mien, his hair fluttering at the caprice of the wind,\nleaving his locks disheveled. Like Dionysius, his forehead shone with\ngrace, and his cheeks glowed with splendor. With winged feet to indicate\nswiftness, he stood upon a sphere, resting upon the tips of his toes as\nif ready for flight. His hair fell in thick curls from his brow, easy to\ntake hold upon. But upon the back of his head there were only the\nbeginnings of hairy growths, and, when he had once passed, it was not\npossible to seize him.\"\n\nAn ancient legend gives us a more vivid idea of the significance of\nthe statue:\n\n\"Who art thou?\"\n\n\"Time, the all-subduer.\"\n\n\"Why standest thou on tiptoe?\"\n\n\"I speed ever.\"\n\n\"Why hast thou double wings on each foot?\"\n\n\"I fly with the wind.\"\n\n\"But why is thy hair over thine eye?\"\n\n\"To be grasped by him who meets me.\"\n\n\"The back of thy head, why is it bald?\"\n\n\"When once I have rushed by, with winged feet, one can never grasp me\nfrom behind.\"\n\nIn its literal significance, however, opportunity means something either\n\"in front of the door\" or \"outside of the harbor.\" For when the word first\ncrept into common speech it created two pictures,--that of a ship with\nsails unfurled, riding at anchor, ready to start upon her unknown voyage,\nwith just a moment to spare to catch her before the sails are bent; or the\npicture of a veiled figure standing for an instant at the door of one's\nlife, knocking with sharp, swift strokes and then, if no answer comes,\npassing away into the darkness, refusing to be recalled.\n\nIn all the vocabulary of human speech no other word rings with truer\neloquence, or speaks with greater triumph, than that one\nword,--opportunity. Born in the primeval forest of man's first\ndwelling-place, it has marked the central path of civilization and hewn\nits way to the front with unerring stroke. The finger of destiny ever\npoints back to this factor in human life as the primal element in all\nachievement, the forerunner of all success. Without it human genius\nwould die, man's talent and skill waste away, and the hope of the race\nwould vanish.\n\nOpportunity is the good angel that reveals the true issues of life,\nunfolding the bud of possibility into the full-blown flower of progress.\nIt is the remorseless foe of sleepy monotony, awakening the passions in\nthe soul, rousing our powers to action. At the door of your life and mine\ncomes this silent, veiled figure, its hands laden with wealth, knocking\nfor admission. But, alas! it has been too often with us as George Eliot\nwith such tragic pathos has put it: \"The golden moments in the stream of\nlife rush past us and we see nothing but sand. The angels come to visit us\nand we know them only when they are gone.\"\n\nThere has been no period of time since God whirled out of chaos this\nuniverse of wonders whose every moment did not hold for some one,\nsomewhere, some kind of opportunity. Man is the only creature under heaven\nthat has been privileged to walk with his face skyward to gaze upon the\nstars, to behold the opportunities of life as they surge along his\npathway. In her wisdom, nature has given our eyes the power of both the\ntelescope and the microscope, that we may see our opportunities afar and\nrightly discern them when they come within our reach.\n\nDo not regard your opportunities as mere visages floating in the horizon\nof your life, or autumn leaves driven by the winds of chance across your\npath. Every opportunity far from being a thing of chance, is a product of\ndefinite causes. Opportunity is unrealized possibility supplemented by\nconditions favorable for the execution of a purpose. And the power lies\nwithin you to create circumstances. That skillful artist, the human brain,\ndraws a mental picture--an idea, the judgment approves, the will renders\na decision to create that idea into actual being; in other words, gives it\na soul, and then we have opportunity made real by the process of a\ncreative force.\n\nWe are apt to regard this quality in our existence as a somewhat\nsuperhuman term, an abstraction beyond the realm of common life, or at\nmost an asset within the reach of a favored few; whereas it is a common\nattribute playing a potential part in our every-day activities. In its\nvery nature opportunity is democratic and goes, like a wayfarer, knocking\nat the gates of every man's life.\n\nThis messenger of fate, however, will not knock at the door of that man\nwho is unable to meet the demands it would make upon him. It ever\nrecognizes the eternal fitness of things, since it looks to its own\npromotion as well as the promotion of him who seeks to embrace it.\nOpportunity, then, is not opportunity at all if a man is not equal to it.\nWhen the steam engine lay in its elementary state in the great laboratory\nof nature, it was an opportunity for James Watt; and by his accepting it,\nopportunity realized its own fulfillment, became its own blessing and a\nblessing to all mankind. The unskilled laborer who dug out the ore could\nnot claim this opportunity because he was not equal to its requirements.\n\nMoreover, every man is himself an opportunity of infinite greatness. And\nhe who depends upon the world alone to furnish him opportunities is\ndestined to meet with failure. Self-reliance is the passport to\nsuccess. The man who is continually bemoaning a lack of opportunity\nacknowledges his own lack of resources--is wanting in creative force.\nEvery golden moment is an opportunity for him to step out from the\nshadows into the sunshine. Optimism sees opportunity in the ordinary\njog-trot of daily duty.\n\nOne of the most valuable assets which we can possess is the ability to\nmold from the adverse circumstances about us our opportunities. And \"a\nwise man,\" says Bacon, \"will make more opportunities than he finds.\" When\nMichael Angelo takes the castaway rock which he finds in his path and\ncarves from it \"The Young David;\" when Herschel at the midnight hour,\nafter playing his violin for a living, goes out and studies the star-lit\nskies, the field of his immortal conquest; when Elihu Burritt, working at\nthe forge, grapples with mathematics, and masters several languages; when\nobstacles are overcome, and adversity yields to the invincible wills of\nmen, then has opportunity by this self-made principle been hewn out of\nthe very stumbling blocks which were in the way.\n\nEvery man is a treasury of untold wealth. He is not great merely for what\nhe is, but for the greatness of his possibility--that undreamed grandeur\nwhich opportunity is ever seeking to reveal. True greatness does not\nemanate from the power of genius so much as it does from the wise\ndiscrimination which we exercise in the choice of our opportunities, and\nthe intelligence with which we lay hold upon them. It is a fine art in\nlife to know just the thing to do, and the opportune moment for doing it.\nEternal vigilance is the price we must pay, and the constant whetting of\nour faculties.\n\nOur life is a succession of opportunities. Yet however numerous they may\nbe, or however bright, they are not availing until placed into the\ncrucible of experience. Gold, silver, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds--all\nthe precious jewels imbedded in the treasure-house of nature, become\nvaluable to us only when we dig them out, polish and shape them for our\nuse. Likewise our opportunities enrich us only as we reach out after them\nand make them an abiding element in our life.\n\nBut to know one's opportunity when he sees it, is the secret of life's\ngreat problem. \"Know thy opportunity,\" is the motto of Pittacus of\nMitylene, one of the seven wise men. It is inscribed in the temple of\nApollo at Delphi. And each day, in the temple of our memory, we should\nwrite it anew. For the practical question is not whether we are making the\nmost of our opportunities, but whether we are conscious of them at all.\n\nMoreover, to know them _instantly_ as well as to know them instinctively\nis essential to our well-being. When Victor Hugo charges us to take all\nreasonable advantage of that which the present offers, he reveals the true\ncharacter of opportunity. It lives only in the present tense, it knows no\nto-morrows, and makes a record of the yesterdays only when it has found\nlodgment in our lives.\n\nSuppose DeWitt Clinton, denounced and ridiculed, had been led into the\nbelief that his idea was a mere phantom, a mystic nightmare, the Erie\nCanal would not be a reality. Suppose Robert Fulton had accepted the\nissuing vapor of the tea-kettle as a mere phenomenon without seeking in it\nthe opportunity for a mighty purpose; suppose that Cyrus W. Field or\nMarconi, or Edison or Ericsson, or the hundreds of others who by their\ninventive genius have been a blessing to mankind, had been contented with\nsimply dreaming of the stupendous undertakings which they achieved!\n\nIt is the man who knows his opportunities when he sees them, who grips\nthem as they pass, who stands at the door of his activities ready to\nwelcome and turn to good account each new opportunity that comes, that is\nthe typically successful man. Many young men have had noble ideas, backed\nby strong convictions, but failing to \"strike while the iron was hot,\"\nhave let their convictions die, the mental picture of their ideals vanish,\nand to their sorrow have seen them wrought by another into reality.\n\nAnd below this class of men we will find a lower type--the man who is\nalways waiting for something to turn up, and always missing it when it\ndoes. This is the man whom Dickens has immortalized in fiction in the\nfamiliar figure of Micawber. This class, however, is unmistakably\ndiminishing in our day, but still there are many who seem to come just\nshort of the prizes of life. They are always just too late for the\nopportunity that should have brought them fame and fortune.\n\nShakespeare has aptly portrayed that supreme moment in life which we call\nopportunity:\n\n  \"There is a tide in the affairs of men,\n  Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;\n  Omitted, all the voyage of their life\n  Is bound in shallows and in miseries.\"\n\nAnd the annals of human experience are filled and overflowing with\nachievements--examples of opportunities that were laid hold upon at just\nthe critical moment of the tide.\n\nWhen the armies of Saul and Goliath were encamped in the valley of Elah,\nan opportunity was given to every soldier in Israel to meet the Philistine\ngiant, but the youthful shepherd, David, alone accepted it, and his name\nhas been praised for thirty centuries.\n\nAn unlettered girl, a peasant in France, saw an opportunity to save the\nglory of her country, and with a courage that baffles human understanding\nJoan of Arc went forth to conquer.\n\nWhen George III of England ascended the throne and began to oppress the\nColonists, an opportunity was created for the American people to act. With\nsublime patriotism they arose to the occasion in defense of their rights,\nand historians allude to the inspiring event as the opening scene in the\nRevolution.\n\nAnd when, by a stroke of diplomacy, Thomas Jefferson purchased from\nNapoleon Bonaparte the Louisiana Territory, one million square miles,\nor over six hundred millions of acres, for two cents and a half an\nacre, an opportunity was seized whose benefit to the American Nation no\none can estimate.\n\nBut if you would know a grand hero in whose life opportunity shone like\nMars, read the life of Ulysses S. Grant--the man out of whose very\nfailures evolved a most brilliant success. When, standing with leaden\nheart in the little store at Galena, the opportunity for a military life\ncame knocking at the door, he welcomed it. For when morning broke on the\n12th of April, 1861, and the first guns of the Civil War roared upon\nSumter, Grant marched to the front, and soon became a brigadier-general\n\"The spur of disappointed hopes, the fire of his ambition, and the iron\nwill that lay back of many of his failures--all the qualities latent in\nthe man of coming greatness, sprang into mighty being.\"\n\nA gigantic opportunity next confronted him, for yonder on the banks of\nthe Cumberland frowned the massive walls of Fort Donelson. Behind them\nBuckner's gray legions stood ready for action. It was the hour of fate.\nGrant pressed on, the Confederates surrendered the stronghold, and the\nfirst Union victory was won. Shiloh and Vicksburg, Cold Harbor and\nPetersburg, Richmond and Appomattox, and many other glorious victories\ntell the story of opportunities masterfully grasped.\n\nOur country is the land of \"the golden fleece,\" and wherever you may be in\nits vast domain, you are the one who must answer for yourself the\nstupendous question--\"To what height shall I attain?\" You are like the man\nin the \"Arabian Nights\" dropped into a valley filled with diamonds. It is\nwithin your power to select that which is most valuable for your\nenrichment. There are splendid opportunities on every hand, and whether\nyou shall grasp them or let them go, remains alone for you to determine.\n\nThe door of opportunity for the highest development of every individual,\nin every phase of life, is ever open. Every golden moment holds something\nof value for the earnest seeker, just as every flower holds in its bosom a\ntreasure for the thrifty bee. No one of us may ever have such splendid\nopportunities as did the illustrious ones to whom we owe our present\ninheritance. But at the threshold of our lives will ever come the veiled\nfigure with its gifts, and, however modest may be the treasures which it\nbrings, if we accept them and turn to good account all that they hold of\nvalue to us, our reward will be truly great.\n\n  \"Pull many a gem of purest ray serene,\n    The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;\n  Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,\n    And waste its sweetness on the desert air.\"\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nThe Active Hand\n\n\"They Plied Their Oars With Vigor\"\n\n\n  \"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.\"\n\n  \"Count that day lost whose low descending sun\n  Views from thy hand no worthy action done.\"\n\n\n\nThe Individual Problem\n\n\nWith steady, even, and vigorous stroke the young heroes from Hellas ply\ntheir oars, and the blue waters of the Euxine are flecked with foam. Here\nis an ideal picture. A band of enterprising young men, alert, active,\nambitions--a scene typical of the highest conception of life. It has ever\nbeen scenes like this that have challenged the admiration of the world.\nAnd the plaudits of men and of angels attend the young man today who has a\nworthy object in view, who believes in himself, and bends to the oars with\nmight and main.\n\nAn \"active hand\" symbolizes usefulness and thrift. Has it ever occurred\nto you what a wonderful piece of mechanism is that hand with which Nature\nhas equipped you for seizing the oars of life's activities? Galen, the\nfamous anatomist, after a prolonged study of the human hand, conceiving\nit to be the proximate instrument of the soul, was forced to renounce\natheism, to acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being. Scientists\nregard the human hand as being the most remarkable organ, not vital, in\nthe whole animal kingdom.\n\nIt is conceded to be, also, the most pronounced physical characteristic\ndifferentiating man from the lower animals. The chimpanzee and the\ngorilla, closely allied to the human species in many respects, are\nnoticeably deficient in the use of their modified hands; being able to\ngrasp things only in a cumbersome way. The squirrel handles a nut with\nagility, the beaver builds his dam, and likewise do many other animals\naccomplish much with certain deftness. But the grace, suppleness, and\nprecision, so characteristic of the human hand, are lacking. Only in man\ndoes the organ attain perfection. He alone enjoys the distinction of being\nable to manipulate thumb and forefinger in combination, enabling him to\nattain a high degree of skill.\n\nThe hand is the organ of the fifth and last sense, and the only one of the\nfive which is active. When the other organs of sense fail it comes to\ntheir rescue--the blind man reads with his hand and the dumb man speaks\nwith it. Being an active organ it gives expression to man's capabilities:\nPut a sword into it and it will fight, a plow and it will till, a harp and\nit will play, a brush and it will paint.\n\nThe invention of every machine conceives its first principles in the\nstructure of the human hand; and every working part of that machine bears\na relation in its function to a corresponding part in the mechanism of the\nhand. In fact, physics teaches us that the hand is a combination of the\nsix mechanical powers--the lever, the wedge, the wheel and axle, the\npulley, the screw, and the inclined plane. But the mechanical effect is\nalways depreciated. In manufacture hand-made goods excel those made by\nmachine. In art the exquisite hand-painting surpasses the lithograph. No\nmechanical device, however efficacious, can produce symphonies or pictures\nor works of any kind with the high degree of excellence of which the hand\nis capable.\n\nBut aside from its mechanical functions, this wonderful organ is a\nrevelation of the secrets of human nature. Graphology enables us to read\nthe character of a person in the hand-writing which he produces. Ages and\nages ago the Hindus read the hand itself as the physical expression of the\ninner man; they read character by the science of palmistry as we read it\nby that of physiognomy; and some profess to translate the delicate tracery\ntoday into language that speaks clearly of both past and future. The hand\nis the expression of dishonesty when it steals, of charity when it gives,\nof anger when it smites, of love when it caresses. And one has called it\nthe key to that cabinet of character in which Nature conceals, not only\nthe motive power of every-day life, but those latent talents and energies\nthat, by the knowledge of self, we can bring to bear upon our lives.\n\nSo that this member of our physical organization holds an office of\nsupreme dignity and importance in the issues of our lives. It is this\nmarvel of mechanism, overruled and directed by the higher power of\nintellect, which elevates man to his high position. And, whether it be the\nhand of the galley slave, or the hand that sways the scepter over an\nempire, the supreme purpose is revealed-they are alike designed to be the\ninstruments of usefulness and power.\n\nEven the brain cannot ignore the relative importance of the hand. It\ncannot say to the hand: \"I have no need of thee.\" The captain cannot man\nhis ship without the aid of subordinates. Neither can the brain pilot us\nthrough the activities of life without the aid of hands. A brilliant mind\nis a priceless possession; but all the mental acumen of the universe is\nnot availing unless supplemented by those inferior officers--the hands.\nThe clothes which you wear once were on the back of a sheep grazing on\nsome distant hillside. The chair in which you sit once swayed in the\nforest midst the soughing winds. The pen with which I am writing once was\nimbedded deep in some far-away mountain range. But that occult genius--the\nhuman brain, conceived the idea of creating that wool, and wood, and ore\ninto a higher state of usefulness, and at this juncture was compelled to\nacknowledge the infinite necessity of a co-worker; hence, the brain\nemploys the hand as an external agent to put into force the impressions\nwhich it--the brain--receives from the phenomena of nature.\n\nMoreover, the law of your growth is contingent upon the exercise of these\nfaculties. The brain is the judicial function and the hand the executive.\nTogether these two powers qualify you for the master-workman. If you allow\nthem to exist in the passive sense, you become an apathetic segment in\nthe midst of a great world pulsing with life around you. You merely add\none to the population, instead of counting for a potential and energizing\ninfluence. If you lift the weight of a clock the smallest fraction of an\ninch, the mechanism will cease to operate. And the relaxation of your will\nfrom the great obligation of life will cause your powers to atrophy and\nimproperly to perform their work. With Browning, \"Man was made to grow,\nnot stop.\"\n\nActivity and not atrophy is the law of life. Action is the expression of\nthat vital force called energy, and energy moves the world. The keynote of\nthe natural world is action: the earth revolves, the river moves in its\ncourse, the tempest rages, the mountain acts from volcanic phenomena,\nvegetation grows, etc. In every tiny seed lies concealed this mysterious\nforce--only a spark of life which, encouraged by nature, springs into a\nwaving harvest.\n\nThis very quality is synonymous with the reality of life. The human mind\nostensibly has an aversion to lifelessness. We turn instinctively from\nthe dead and withered branch to the blossoming flower; from the stagnant\npool to the dashing cataract, and every healthy mind finds delight in\nsuch terms as vim, vigor, energy, and activity, which are the chief\nnatural characteristics of the human hand. Demosthenes on being asked\nwhat is the first element in oratory, replied, \"Action:\" when asked to\nstate the second element, he replied \"Action,\" and when questioned as to\nthe third, he made the same reply. Action, first, last, and all the time,\nis the great principle of life and progress. Without it the most perfect\nengine, gigantic in proportions and costly in equipment, is a dead\nthing, valueless as the formless mass of ore it once was. But that\nmarvelous product of man's hand and brain, plus steam, becomes a\nveritable giant of power.\n\nNow this same law applies in relation to our bodies in general. Action is\nan essential as seen in the beating heart, the throbbing pulse, the\ncoursing blood, and various other functions. In fact, the body is the\nengine that runs the machinery of our lives. Generating energy and storing\nit up, it gives impetus to all that we achieve. With all its mysteries,\nbeauty, and strength, this human organism is worthless, a burden to\nsociety unless vitalized with that majestic force that makes man\nindustrious.\n\nIn the words of a great man, \"Nature fits all her children with something\nto do.\" The first man on earth was a gardener. Milton hears Adam\nconversing with Eve thus:\n\n  \"Man hath his daily work of body or mind\n  Appointed, which declares his dignity,\n  And the regard of Heaven on all his ways;\n  While other animals inactive range,\n  And of their doings God takes no account.\n  To-morrow ere fresh morning streaks the east\n  With first approach of light, we must be ris'n\n  And at our pleasant labor, to reform\n  Yon flowery arbors, yonder alleys green.\"\n\nWork is the great law of life. \"No man,\" says Lowell, \"is born into the\nworld whose work is not born with him. There is always work and tools to\nwork withal, for those who will; and blessed are the horny hands of toil.\"\nTrue work, the judicious employment of our powers for the accomplishment\nof the noblest object in life, is the only thing that will satisfy the\nwaiting capacity of men and women. Neither gold nor scholarship nor any\nother acquisition can meet the requirement like the application of one's\nself to some kind of work. Work is a tonic which exuberates mentally,\nmorally, and physically the man who wisely adjusts himself to it. And he\nwho is able to work and refuses is out of harmony with nature.\n\nThe cardinal question of life is that of achievement. In every human\nbeing there is the desire to rise to something great. The most\nthoughtless boy on the street looks serious as the Presidential carriage\nrolls past. In the deep recesses of his nature there is kindled by the\nspectacle a momentary yearning for fame--he would like to be President\nsome day. Likewise does every man, when he seriously views the pageantry\nof life's ideals and purposes, have aspiration, for such is the natural\nstate of man.\n\nThe allurements of a passive life are known to them only who have no\nknowledge of the charms of an active life. Leisure is found only in the\ndictionary of the slothful. Dionysius is asked if he is at leisure, and\nrebukes the question, saying, \"God forbid that it should ever befall me.\"\nThe indulgence in the activities of life comprises not only ultimate\naccomplishment, but is productive of present enjoyment as well. And not\ninfrequently does the pursuit of an object give more pleasure than the\npossession of it. Expectation often outshines experience. Therefore, all\nshould cultivate a taste for work, which, through the alchemy of\ninfluence, transmutes duty into privilege.\n\nMoreover, it is fundamental in the law of success that one's pursuit must\nbe congenial if he is to excel. On the contrary, however, lassitude can\nnot be condoned if we find ourselves engaged in uncongenial employment. No\nkind of work, to the man who possesses dominion over his feelings and his\nfaculties, is painful but proceeds with pleasure when once the habit of\nindustry is acquired.\n\nOur efforts should not be casual, but causal. He who does most and does it\nwell, becomes most. Horatius received as much land as he could plow around\nin a day. And you and I get each day just as much as, by putting our hand\nto the plow of activity, we are able to encompass by faithful plodding.\nHard work is the price of all that is valuable. All the great strides in\nthe world's achievements were made possible only by forced activity and\nprolonged effort. Spontaneity is a foreign element in the process of\nhealthy and rugged development. The spider spins its web and the morning\nbespangles it with dew, creating a thing of beauty, but valueless. It\nwould require the entire existence of several hundred silkworms to produce\nan equal amount of silk fabric. The mushroom grows up in a night, and dies\nin the glare of the morning sun; while the oak, struggling through the\nyears, battling with the elements, lives a perpetual blessing to man.\n\nIt is the intense struggle with the problems of life that produces in\nmen the sturdy qualities. The short cuts to fame are few and not\nabiding. Success is not reached by a thornless path, but is attained by\nthe path of plain, hard work. All things come to him who waits. Such is\nthe very essence of an idle doctrine! All things come to him who works.\nWalter Scott working tirelessly in the attic while his companions below\ncarouse the night away; Thoreau banishing himself into the lonely\nforest that he might prepare for larger usefulness; Dryden, \"thinking\non for a fortnight in a perfect frenzy;\" Heyne, the German scholar,\nallowing himself \"no more than two nights of weekly rest\" for six\nmonths, that he might finish a course in Greek; Reynolds, the greatest\nportrait painter of England, applying his brush for thirty-six hours\nwithout stopping; Balzac, determined to be a king in literature,\nfighting his way with eternal diligence; William Pitt spurning\ndifficulty and \"trampling upon impossibility;\" Elihu Burritt grappling\nwith mathematics at the forge; or Isaac Newton turning his back upon a\nlife of ease and setting off to college, where \"the midnight wind swept\nover his papers the ashes of his long extinguished fire.\" These\nexamples and thousands of others remind us that\n\n  \"Heights by great men reached and kept\n    Were not attained by sudden flight;\n  But they while their companions slept,\n    Were toiling upward in the night.\"\n\nThey had brains and hands too active, ambitions too aggressive,\naspirations too lofty for a quiet existence, and they pressed their way\nonward and upward till they stood near the summit of a lofty ideal.\n\nWhen Xerxes, that great Persian monarch, seated upon a throne of ivory and\ngold, viewed for the last time the magnificent array of his armies and his\nfleets, we read that he buried his face in his hands and wept, because he\nhad reached the zenith of his glory; his ambition had been spent, his work\nhad come to an end. And more desolate should be the man to-day who does\nnot feel the passion of an earnest life, who does not yearn for some noble\nactivity. He who sits with folded arms in the craft of civilization to be\nborne idly along while others ply the oars, must soon part company with\nthe brave, loyal sons of activity to launch his idle bark in the dead\nwaters of life, where the currents never come and the winds of energy are\nnever felt.\n\n  \"At the flaming forge of life\n    Our fortunes must be wrought;\n  On its sounding anvil shaped,\n    Each burning deed and thought.\"\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nEthics of Activity\n\n\n\n  \"The busy world shoves angrily aside\n  The man who stands with arms akimbo set,\n  Till the occasion tells him what to do;\n  And he who waits to have his task marked out.\n  Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled.\"\n\n  --James Russell Lowell.\n\n\nA Man's Relation to Society\n\nThis question of activity is a twofold problem. In the preceding chapter\nwe viewed it from the standpoint of the individual--as if he were the sole\noccupant of the boat, rowing toward a purely selfish end; going, as it\nwere, in quest of the prize of life for purely personal aggrandizement.\nWhereas, strictly speaking, no man exists in a purely individualistic\nsense. He can not regard himself as separable from a social whole. Every\nindividual is a vital element of an organized force working toward a\nmutual end. You are an integral factor, so to speak, of the social\nproblem, but your value is determined by your relation to other quantifies\nin the complex system with which you are identified. As a segregated unit,\nyou diminish in value.\n\nA combination of diverse and multi-form contributions assimilated from a\ncomplex human life, your being looks to many sources for its development;\nfrom the lowest phase of experience to the highest. These influences you\nmust acknowledge as emanating from a social system--influences which you\nare totally powerless, alone, to exert upon yourself. For instance, a man\ncan not be his own educator in all that the term implies--he can not make\nhis own books, print his own newspapers; if he could he would have to look\noutside of himself for the data necessary for his use. In other words, no\nman lives to himself alone. He can no more be separated from the social\norder of things and retain character value, than any one of a hundred\nsquare inches of canvas in an oil painting, separated from the rest, would\nconstitute a picture. A single note in a musical composition, however\nexquisite the piece may be, has comparatively little value taken by\nitself; only when it assumes relationship with other notes and becomes\ngoverned by the law of harmony, does it fulfill its mission and become a\nvaluable factor.\n\nThen, as units of a social whole, we have obligations other than those\naffecting \"individual\" problems. Society has a rightful claim upon every\none of its members. \"You are not your own, you are bought with a price,\"\nis true in a larger sense than a merely Scriptural one. For what one\nbecomes is really, as already stated, but the effect of combined\ninfluences brought to bear upon one's life by the forces of human society.\nTherefore, society expects us to reciprocate, and is just in its claim;\njust as parents are entitled to the high esteem and reciprocation of their\noffspring. It demands of each one of us all that we are capable of\nproducing, exacting the highest order of service as well. The paying of\ntaxes does not placate the demands which society makes upon you. It\ndemands yourself--body, mind, and soul--not in a passive sense, but in\nactive relationship to your environment. And every man is morally bound\nto respect the claims thus made upon him.\n\nThe highest socialistic conception is not that which contemplates an\nequitable distribution of property and labor. But assuming a more rational\nground, it believes in equal rights to all; is based upon a right\nproportion of motives rather than upon the equalization of property\nconsiderations. It is both humanitarian and utilitarian. It seeks its own\nprincipally, yet is generous in the ulterior aim. This is the ideal\nrelation between the individual and the social order. The greatest duty\nconfronting each one in the world, and the one which all should earnestly\nembrace, is the duty of making the most of one's self with the ulterior\nview of contributing the largest measure of usefulness to his fellow-men.\n\nOn the other hand, to employ an extreme example--and yet it is shown by\nstatistics that there are one hundred thousand tramps and vagrants in this\ncountry--the man who folds his arms and defiantly proclaimes that the\nworld owes him a living, mutinies against the sacred order of\nthings--\"fouls his own nest,\" as it were. To that man society replies: \"If\nany man is not willing to work, neither let him eat.\" And this is the\ndominant note of the twentieth century as truly as it was in the first\nwhen spoken by the Roman philosopher. To harbor the doctrine that the\nworld owes every man a living, not only discounts the character value of\nthe individual, but has a reflex action on the entire social organism.\nJust as one wheel out of play in the mechanism of a watch throws the\nentire works out of order, or one team in a procession halting the whole\ntrain behind it, the individual failing to do his part affects the\nequilibrium of the whole. Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo and died in\nexile, a prisoner at St. Helena, because one of his marshals, failing to\ncomply with orders, arrived too late with re-enforcements. Remember that\nyou have an important part to perform, that, as in mathematics, you are a\nquantity so connected with another quantity that if any alteration be made\nin the former there will be a consequent alteration in the latter.\n\nIn the busy hive of twentieth-century civilization scant space has been\nprovided for drones. The drone is a minus quantity in the problem of life;\ninstead of adding to the common weal, he is ever subtracting from it. Like\nan owl he sits in the gloom of indolence hooting at the caravan of events.\nThe eye of the world is quick to observe the man who is resting on his\noars. A more graphic picture of the man who is ever magnifying the world's\nduty to him, and minimizing his duty to the world, could not be painted\nthan that one which James Russell Lowell has penned:\n\n  \"The busy world shoves angrily aside\n  The man who stands with arms akimbo set.\"\n\nThe world has but one duty to this man, namely, to dispel the cloud from\nhis vision and arouse him to worthy action.\n\nTo contend that the world owes every man a living would be as\npreposterous as to assert that the government owes every citizen under the\nflag a pension. The world owes no man anything except that for which he\npays a just equivalent. Every man is indebted to the world; he owes it all\nhis best possessions--his talent, time, and effort. And the individual who\nattempts to throw off this yoke of duty is violating one of nature's great\nlaws. Even the lower forms of life afford example of this supreme law.\nSolomon startles the sluggard with his sharp admonition to betake himself\nto the ant. And Sir John Lubbock points men to the insect world to learn\nreal diligence and thrift.\n\nIndividual stagnation means public pollution. The man who arms himself\nwith a \"rake,\" ever reaching out after something without giving an\nequivalent, instead of championing the \"hoe,\" determined to exercise his\nfaculties in the interests of humanity, becomes hostile to the noblest\nsentiment and the highest aims of society; as in the case of the tramps\nmentioned above who are a national menace, Idleness breeds vice. Industry\nenhances the virtues. When a man ceases to work he retrogrades; he becomes\na stranger to lofty ideals and wholesome activities. The man with an\nambition ever finds himself in the ascendency; while he who deplores the\nexercise of his powers, avoiding work as he would a powder magazine or a\npest, is in the descendency toward a state of groveling and low ideals.\nAnd the difference between these two men marks the difference between\nsuccess and failure.\n\nWe are ever obligated to a great duty, namely, to reach the maximum of our\npossibilities. Our greatest prerogative in the economy of life is the wise\nhusbanding of resources, and the skillful marshaling of our forces on the\nfield of common duty. The great duty of leading a useful life confronts us\nalways. We can by no stratagem, whatsoever, escape its presence. We ever\nhear its voice calling after us, and can no more flee from it than we can\nflee from the voice of conscience. Like Poe's raven, it sets up a never\nceasing appeal at the door of our lives. Prudence forbids that we turn our\nback on this duty of self-devotion. For as Michael Angelo saw in the block\nof marble the hidden angel, a wise man sees in duty an infinite\nopportunity.\n\nGalileo was so absorbed in his pursuit that he forgot personal comfort and\neven personal safety, and lost his eyesight in quest of the mountains in\nthe moon, the rings around Saturn and the \"star-heaps\" in the sky. And\nwhen that distinguished man of science, Professor Agassiz, was invited to\nlecture at a great price, his reply was, \"I have no time to make money.\"\nLikewise did the great Spurgeon, when offered almost fabulous prices to\ncross the Atlantic and lecture, refuse because of a zealous devotion to\nthe purpose of his life. And every one should learn that the thorough and\nfaithful performance of duty is the first essential of a worthy life.\n\nEvery human soul was made with some design, invested with the possibility\nof a useful life, a noble destiny. Whether it be the mercenary Greek\nvending his wares on the street corner, or the roaming Italian with his\nharp strapped over his shoulder, or the dissolute man behind prison bars\npaying the penalty of misspent days--all are invested with latent power\nand talent to fill a loftier place in the world. But, unfortunately, while\nmost men have the desire, not all have the determination to rise above the\nordinary and the common state in which they find themselves. This is a\ndeplorable condition, seriously detracting from the sum of human\ngreatness.\n\nEvery man has been called for dominion. Each, in the divine plan, is to be\na ruler in the universe, not a \"mollusk with aimless revery;\" he is to be\na man with vitality, not \"dead matter known only as avoirdupois.\" By this\nmeasure a man is not worth so much as a sheep which furnishes two\nsubstantial commodities--food and clothing. Minus the attributes which\nqualify him for a high rank, man is a being with a buried talent, only a\nunit in the great world around him. Plus these attributes, no system of\nmathematics can compute his worth.\n\n  \"Let me but do my work from day to day,\n    In field or forest, at the desk or loom,\n    In roaring market place, or tranquil room;\n  Let me but find it in my heart to say,\n  When vagrant wishes beckon me astray,\n    'This is my work; my blessing not my doom;\n    Of all who live I am the one by whom\n  This work can best be done in the right way.'\"","title":"A Fleece of Gold; Five Lessons from the Fable of Jason and the Golden Fleece","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":13748}