THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 BEQUEST OF 
 
 Alice R. Hilgard 
 
' * V 
 

Kapmoirtr JF. Wt&t jjHemorial 
 
 lectures on 3"mmortalitp, Ipuman 
 Contmct, anfc |)ttman 
 
 WHY WE MAY BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER 
 DEATH. By Charles Edward Jefferson. 
 IQII. 
 
 THREE LORDS OF DESTINY. By Samuel 
 McChord Crothers. 1913. 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
Bapmontt JF. Wt&t ^Hemortai Lectured 
 
 THREE LORDS OF. 
 DESTINY 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL McCHORD.CROTHERS 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 <C(e ttitetffte ^re^ Cambntrge 
 
 1913 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY SAMUEL MCCHORD CROTHERS 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published November IQIJ 
 
 GIFT 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 THIS volume represents the second of the se- 
 ries of Raymond F. West Memorial Lectures at 
 the Leland Stanford Junior University. These 
 lectures were delivered on April 22 and 23, 1913, 
 by Rev. Samuel McChord Crothers, D.D., of 
 the First Unitarian Church of Cambridge, Mass- 
 achusetts. The conditions of the lectureship are 
 set forth in the following letter from its founders : 
 
 In memory of our beloved son, Raymond 
 Frederic West, a student in Leland Stanford 
 Junior University, who was drowned in Eel 
 River, in California, on January 18, 1906, be- 
 fore the completion of his college course, we wish 
 to present to the trustees and authorities of the 
 Leland Stanford Junior University, at Palo Alto, 
 California, the honored Alma Mater of our son, 
 the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000), to be 
 held as a fund in perpetual trust, for the estab- 
 lishment of a lecturship on a plan similar to the 
 V 
 
 Cg 
 
 52 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 Dudleian Lectures and the Ingersoll Lectures at 
 Harvard University. 
 
 By this plan, in each collegiate year, or on each 
 alternate year, at the discretion of the Board of 
 Trustees, from one to three lectures shall be given 
 on some phase of this subject: " Immortality, 
 Human Conduct, and Human Destiny." 
 
 Such lectures shall not form a part of the usual 
 college or university course, nor shall they be de- 
 livered by any professor or instructor in active 
 service in the institution. Such lecturer may be 
 a clergyman or a layman, a member of any eccle- 
 siastical organization, or of none, but he should 
 be a man of the highest personal character and 
 of superior intellectual endowment. He shall be 
 chosen by the Faculty and the Board of Trustees 
 of said University in such manner as the Board of 
 Trustees may determine, but the appointment 
 in any case shall be made at least six months be- 
 fore the delivery of said lectures. 
 
 The above sum is to be safely invested, and the 
 interest thereof is to be divided, at the discretion 
 of the Board of Trustees, into two parts, the one 
 an honorarium to the lecturer, the other for the 
 publication of the said lectures or the gratuitous 
 
 vi 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 distribution of a number of copies of the same if 
 published by the author. 
 
 The manuscript of the course of lectures shall 
 become the property of the University, and shall 
 be published by the University unless some other 
 form of publication is more acceptable. 
 
 The course of lectures shall be known as the 
 44 Raymond F. West Memorial Lectures on Im- 
 mortality, Human Conduct, and Human Des- 
 tiny." 
 
 F. W. WEST, 
 MARY B. WEST. 
 SEATTLE, WASH., 
 January 18, 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. COURAGE * 
 
 II. SKILL" 47 
 
 III. LOVE 93 
 
THREE LORDS OF 
 DESTINY 
 
 I 
 
 COURAGE 
 
 THE significance of the moral life is 
 obscured from us by the necessity of 
 early teaching. Right conduct is so uni- 
 versally necessary that we cannot afford 
 to take chances with our children, and 
 wait for the occasions when the moral 
 law shall flash upon them through " the 
 east window of divine surprise." What 
 have been the thrilling discoveries of 
 the race must be inculcated in the form 
 of maxims that appear commonplace. 
 Lessons which repentant sinners have 
 i 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 learned through the agony of personal 
 experience are transformed into habits 
 of well-regulated childhood. 
 
 The consequence is that when the 
 time arrives amid the tumult of youth, 
 when the desire for self-expression and 
 self-direction comes, the idea of moral- 
 ity is often disassociated from the idea 
 of personal freedom. Morality is looked 
 upon as something that fetters the will, 
 instead of being the way^by which the 
 will achieves freedom. It is regarded 
 as something established by traditional 
 authority and not as a living impulse. 
 The youth eager to try his soul knows 
 no other way than through rebellion 
 against the didacticism which has guided 
 him hitherto. 
 
 Let us frankly confess that though 
 wiser and more sympathetic education 
 
 2 
 
COURAGE 
 
 may mitigate this struggle, yet there is 
 a difficulty here which is fundamental. 
 Moral teaching must of necessity be 
 more or less commonplace in form. 
 Conduct must be established as habit, 
 before its reasons or its importance can 
 be appreciated. And there must come 
 a time when these habits are criticized 
 and when what had been taken for 
 granted is questioned. There is no pain- 
 less way of passing from the discipline 
 of childhood to the freedom of man- 
 hood. 
 
 But it is all the more necessary when 
 this questioning period comes that prin- 
 ciples of Morality and Religion should 
 be given a fair chance for consideration. 
 This is done only when they are placed 
 clearly in relation to the age-long strug- 
 gle for freedom. 
 
 3 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 I shall ask you, therefore, to consider 
 the nature of the moral life, not so much 
 as an escape from sin, as an escape from 
 bondage. Indeed sin, from this stand- 
 point, is itself a kind of bondage. It is 
 the negation of what the New Testa- 
 ment calls the glorious liberty of the 
 sons of God. There is a point of view 
 from which we see all idealistic im- 
 pulses as tending in one direction. Eth- 
 ics, Religion, Art, Science, Politics, 
 Industry, are all phases of one great 
 struggle for the liberation of humanity. 
 They are attempts to achieve that which 
 no creature but man has dreamed of, 
 and which every fatalistic philosophy 
 declares to be impossible. 
 
 To the fatalist earth is a prison-house 
 and we are captives condemned to life- 
 imprisonment. Knowledge is only the 
 A 
 
COURAGE 
 
 knowledge of the bars across our win- 
 dows, and of the walls against which we 
 beat ourselves in vain. We are creatures 
 taken in a trap. It matters not how we 
 conceive the trapper, whether as a per- 
 sonal or an impersonal power. The only 
 thing certain is that we cannot escape. 
 We have ideals, but between them and 
 reality a great gulf is fixed. We love, 
 we aspire, we feel, we suffer, but we 
 cannot achieve. These emotions of ours 
 have poignancy for us, but no potency 
 to change our destiny. We are acted 
 upon, but do not truly act. We origi- 
 nate nothing, we change nothing. Does 
 the grain of dust^blown about by the 
 wind direct itself? No more do we. 
 The raindrop falling from the cloud 
 obeys a law which is inexorable. So do 
 we yield to impulses which we cannot 
 
 5 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 comprehend and which we cannot re- 
 sist. When we think we resist, it is 
 only because we have yielded to an- 
 other power which for the moment is 
 stronger. We do what we must. Find 
 at any moment the strongest forces and 
 you can determine what we must at 
 that moment do and be. Could a wave 
 of the sea awake to consciousness ere 
 it breaks, it would have as much right 
 to assert its freedom of motion as we. 
 
 Self -consciousness to the fatalist 
 yields no important truth. To say " I 
 am " means little if I am an effect, but 
 in no sense a cause of anything. 
 
 I am but a voice, 
 
 My life is but a life of winds and tides. 
 No more tharrwinds or tides can I avail. 
 
 Human history from this standpoint 
 has only the same kind of interest that 
 
 I 
 
COURAGE 
 
 pertains to a weather report. There is 
 no room in it for praise or blame, nor 
 for any ordered progress. 
 
 It will be noticed that the argument 
 for fatalism is the fascinating but dan- 
 gerous argument from analogy. The 
 fatalist deals constantly with metaphors. 
 He talks about winds and tides, about 
 grains of dust and fading flowers and 
 wind-swept clouds. All nature furnishes 
 resemblances to the life of man. It is 
 easy to assume identity. As the tree 
 falls, so it lies. The fallen tree cannot, 
 by any effort of its own> raise itself. In 
 the life of plants and animals we discern 
 continuous change, but what creature 
 is able to direct the course of its own 
 evolution? There is nothing that corre- 
 sponds to effective choice. The machine 
 moves, but not by its own will. One 
 7 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 part depends upon another part. The 
 machinery does not repent, nor invent 
 new methods, nor does it discover a new 
 object for itself. What is our brain but 
 a more complicated and delicate ma- 
 chine? Can it transcend in any way the 
 limitations of mechanism ? 
 
 At some time or another every one 
 must face the fatalistic conception of 
 life and hear the old refrain Vanity 
 of vanities, all is vanity. But it makes a 
 great difference whether we recognize 
 this as a kind of thought from which 
 mankind has been slowly emerging, or 
 as the sad, inevitable conclusion^toward 
 which all severe thinking tends. 
 
 As I have said, the necessary process of 
 
 education tends here to confuse us. We 
 
 begin to live and act where our fathers 
 
 left off. We take for granted what they 
 
 8 
 
COURAGE 
 
 discovered. Then, when we begin to 
 think for ourselves, we retrace their 
 course, and rediscover the wilderness 
 from which they extricated themselves. 
 We Occidentals and Christians have 
 been taught in childhood to take for 
 granted the value of moral effort. We 
 have been subjected to discipline and 
 have unconsciously enjoyed its fruits. 
 Our wills have been stimulated and en- 
 couraged. We have been treated as 
 responsible beings, and told that we are 
 the makers of our own fortunes. 
 
 Until we began to think for ourselves 
 it never occurred to us that there was 
 anything remarkable in such teachings. 
 They seemed like self-evident truths. 
 But when these ancestral beliefs are 
 challenged, we are at a loss to give any 
 answer for the faith that is not so much 
 
 9 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 in us as imposed upon us. When we 
 come upon some book which tells of 
 the futility of effort in a world of natu- 
 ral law, it seems as if we had come upon 
 a new discovery. Now we have reached 
 that maturity of thought which brings 
 disillusion. The intellect is emancipated 
 from its own foolish preconceptions. 
 In the clear cold light of reason the 
 prisoner sees the hard, unyielding walls 
 that shut him in. 
 
 It is here that the history of human 
 development is helpful. It at least makes 
 clear the direction in which the race 
 has been moving. The fatalistic doc- 
 trine of the futility of human effort is not 
 a new discovery reserved for clever 
 young people of our day when they be- 
 gin to philosophize. It is the most prim- 
 itive form of thought, based upon what 
 10 
 
COURAGE 
 
 is most obvious in human conditions. 
 It is a part of the Natural Theology 
 which Caliban on his island would 
 evolve, when he tried to explain him- 
 self and it 
 
 Of course man seems to be the help- 
 less creature of circumstances which are 
 beyond his own control. All circum- 
 stances are beyond his control. That 
 seems evident enough at the first com- 
 prehensive glance at his environment. 
 Every glimpse which we have of the 
 working of the primitive mind reveals 
 the mingling of fear and apathy. They 
 both arose from the same cause. Fatal- 
 ism was not a mere theory but a prac- 
 tical principle. The evils that were 
 vaguely seen were not to be averted by 
 any intelligent and sustained effort. 
 They were not within the realm of hu- 
 ii 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 man responsibility. They came, and their 
 coming could not be prevented. At first 
 there was the terrified shrinkingand then 
 the terrified submission. Caliban fears 
 Setebos who tortures him, but above 
 him is the still more formidable "quiet" 
 that shall "catch and conquer Setebos." 
 Above the passions of angry men and 
 angry Gods is the impassive Fate, against 
 which there is no contending. 
 
 The great significance of human his- 
 tory is that men have been slowly 
 emerging from this fatalistic habit of 
 mind. The doctrine of the futility of 
 effort, once universal, has not prevented 
 effort being made. And that portion of 
 mankind which has made the most de- 
 termined and continuous effort has come 
 to believe in itself, and to claim the 
 lordship of the earth. Out of the accu- 
 12 
 
COURAGE 
 
 mulation of human endeavors there has 
 grown a great human faith, which char- 
 acterizes the progressive portion of the 
 race. It is the faith which we have in- 
 herited and whose significance we 
 should seek to understand. 
 
 Milton described the intellectual quest 
 of his [day as the attempt " to assert 
 eternal Providence and justify the ways 
 of God to man." But there is another 
 task or perhaps another way of con- 
 sidering the same task [to vindicate the 
 course of human history and to justify 
 the ways of man unto himself. It is to 
 this aspect of the high argument that our 
 age particularly addresses itself. 
 
 Are human ideals mere illusions, and 
 are the efforts to attain them of any sig- 
 nificance? Is personal responsibility a 
 tremendous fact or a morbid fancy ? Are 
 13 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 we partners in a work of creation, or are 
 we accidental results, chance products 
 of the play of blind forces ? What should 
 be our attitude toward the world? 
 Should it be that of those who feel 
 themselves to be slaves, or that of those 
 who, however weak at the present, are 
 struggling for the mastery? 
 ' We are not dealing with a metaphys- 
 ical theory, but are choosing a way of 
 life. What is the wise behavior for us in 
 a world such as this ? Shall we take the 
 world at its face value and yield our- 
 selves to its strongest forces, without 
 further question ? Is the highest wisdom 
 the wisdom of submission to obvious 
 facts? Shall we be content to move in 
 the line of least resistance, without 
 troubling ourselves to ask whither we 
 are being borne? To live thus would 
 H 
 
COURAGE 
 
 seem to be to live in accordance with 
 nature. It would be to follow the analogy 
 of other created things. We are copying 
 the behavior of our Brother Fire and 
 our Sister Water. The fire burns, the 
 water flows, because they must and not 
 because they will. 
 
 Endless have been the experiments 
 in this direction. Sages and saints med- 
 itating upon the vanity of effort have 
 sought to return to calm acquiescence in 
 the order of nature. They have tried to 
 still desire, to banish ambition, and to 
 attain to a state in which they would 
 have no will of their own. They would 
 be passive in the hands of the master of 
 their fate. "Doth the clay say to the 
 potter, ' Why hastthou made me thus ? '" 
 Why should the human clay cherish the 
 ambition to remold itself? 
 
 15 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 But here appears one of the ironies of 
 life. To attain to this effortless calm de- 
 mands a supreme effort of the will. To re- 
 turn to nature demands an arduous pro- 
 cess of reeducation. Nature must first be 
 idealized before we can realize it. We 
 must painfully unlearn what had been 
 natural to us. How painful and contin- 
 uous is the discipline through which 
 Oriental mystics seek to divest them- 
 selves of the sense of free agency. They 
 have to keep their minds upon the high 
 task of not thinking. Any lapse of atten- 
 tion would plunge them into the abyss 
 of ordinary human feeling. St. Simeon 
 Stylites stood upon his pillar to show 
 that he had no will of his own. What an 
 example of pure willfulness it was! 
 ? As a matter of fact, it is as difficult to 
 divest one's self of human attributes, as 
 16 
 
COURAGE 
 
 it is to develop these attributes into 
 higher forms. The higher can only im- 
 perfectly mimic the lower. And the 
 mimicking is not worth the pains. A 
 person cannot act precisely as if he 
 were a thing. There is something that 
 struggles and resists, be it ever so feebly, 
 i Even when we conceive of the uni- 
 verse and of ourselves as bound by inex- 
 orable necessity, we yet dream of free- 
 dom. We dream of a life of our own 
 choosing where we walk confidently on 
 the open road. The free wind blows 
 upon us, we meet companions and talk 
 together. And when the evening comes, 
 we lie down to rest, conscious of achieve- 
 ment. We have accomplished some- 
 thing, we are further on toward the goal 
 we have freely chosen. 
 
 And in our dreams we are creators. 
 17 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 We build cities and temples, we carve 
 marble, we paint pictures, all in obe- 
 dience to an inner impulse. And all is 
 more beautiful than the material out of 
 which it is made. 
 
 As long as we are content to enjoy 
 the dream as a dream, we are still in 
 bondage. So the slave dreams, and 
 awakes to his misery. We are free only 
 in proportion as we are able to transform 
 our dreams into realities in other 
 words to realize our ideals. 
 
 What is the first decisive step in the 
 direction of spiritual freedom? What 
 new power is developed in us that lifts 
 us out of the apathy and fear of fatalism ? 
 
 When the Christian is asked the ques- 
 tion, he answers, " It is Faith. It is this 
 that overcomes the world, and makes 
 us free. Is it not written 'The just shall 
 18 
 
COURAGE 
 
 live by faith '? " And if the Christian is 
 speaking out of personal experience of 
 a new kind of life, and so entering into 
 the spirit of the New Testament, he is 
 uttering a deep truth. But if he is merely 
 repeating by rote a lesson which he has 
 been taught by others, he is but darken- 
 ing counsel by words. For the chances 
 are that he is confused by the ambiguity 
 in the word Faith. Faith may be con- 
 ceived of as a kind of courage or as a 
 kind of knowledge. 
 
 In the great texts of the New Testa- 
 ment in its praise, it is clearly conceived 
 of as a kind of courage. It is that which 
 conquers the fear of the darkness. It 
 deals boldly and aggressively with the 
 uncertain. It lays hold of what is con- 
 fessedly unseen. By faith Abraham went 
 out from his father's house, not know- 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 ing whither he went. By faith Moses 
 preferred the sorrowful uncertainties of 
 the people of God to the obvious com- 
 forts and safety of the Egyptian Court. 
 By faith men chose to live the life of 
 pilgrims and strangers because they 
 sought a better country than they had 
 known. Obeying this inner impulse they 
 went through fire and flood and put to 
 flight the armies of aliens. 
 
 This is evidently not knowledge, but 
 an ability to act in advance of knowledge. 
 It is the willingness to take huge risks. 
 The men who put to flight the army of 
 aliens were men who did not flee before 
 the aliens. It was not the foreseen victory 
 but the invincible courage that was 
 praised. Faith is an act of sublime audac- 
 ity on the part of a being who matches 
 himself against powers that threaten to 
 20 
 
COURAGE 
 
 overwhelm him. It is that which induces 
 a man to try hazardous experiments in 
 righteousness. 
 
 But the great word may, and often 
 does, fall into a weaker use. It comes 
 to signify not the power which dares, 
 but the smug assurance of one who in 
 advance of the conflict has information 
 of the result. The battle is only theatri- 
 cal, the victory is predetermined, and 
 all the means leading to it are clearly to 
 be seen. Be not afraid, because there is 
 nothing to be afraid of. 
 
 Now that definite knowledge that 
 there is nothing to be afraid of may be 
 very comforting, but it is not courage. 
 It js rather the elimination of all that 
 makes courage necessary. If the soldier 
 knew Beforehand that no bullet could 
 harm him, he would face the enemy 
 21 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 with as much unconcern as at the car- 
 nival he would face a shower of confetti. 
 All that is characteristic in the soldier's 
 sense of duty disappears. 
 
 To vast numbers of people the word 
 faith means advance knowledge, super- 
 naturally communicated. To those who 
 feel that they have attained it, fear dis- 
 appears from its accustomed haunts. 
 But it still prowls around in the out- 
 skirts of consciousness, in the places 
 that yet remain dark. It is apt to take a 
 new form. What if the faith itself should 
 waver? Or what if the faith one holds 
 should prove not to be the true faith ? 
 
 The identification of religious faith 
 with advance knowledge has another 
 consequence. It prevents multitudes 
 of persons from entering joyously and 
 confidently into the religious life. They 
 
 22 
 
COURAGE 
 
 are waiting for a miracle that does not 
 happen. They long to believe, but 
 they cannot. No mysterious light flashes 
 upon the future. They are surrounded 
 by uncertainties. Were God revealed to 
 them by unmistakable signs, they would 
 gladly worship him. Were indubitable 
 truth to be made manifest, they would 
 accept it. Were a voice to proclaim 
 Duty unmistakably, they would in- 
 stantly give themselves to its service. 
 But nothing happens as they had been led 
 to expect. And so they plod on, as best 
 they may, upon the common way. 
 
 To such it may be a help to lay aside 
 for the time the great word which 
 has a double meaning, and put the 
 emphasis upon the word whose mean- 
 ing is unmistakable Courage. 
 
 When we appeal to courage we are 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 not dependent on any contingency of 
 knowledge. We do not state an opinion. 
 We do not prophesy the event. We do 
 not flatter, we do not make promises, we 
 do not argue. We only awaken a power 
 it is the power to endure and to dare. 
 What that power shall accomplish, how 
 far it shall go, we know not. It is 
 enough for the moment that it responds 
 to the call. Before the formal answer 
 to the creed, "I believe," comes the 
 instinctive answer to the need "I 
 dare." 
 
 Religion and Morality are in their be- 
 ginnings acts of pure courage. They are 
 the bold assertion of a creature who is 
 determined to become what he is well 
 aware that he is not. We talk of "timid 
 piety." But that is only an afterthought. 
 It is the attitude of one who is afraid 
 24 
 
COURAGE 
 
 that he may lose a treasure which he 
 once possessed. It is like the young man 
 who went away very sorrowful because 
 he had great possessions, which he was 
 unwilling to put in jeopardy. But piety 
 in the making is not timid but bold with 
 the audacity of conscious poverty un- 
 der the spur of necessity. It is not a 
 treasure. It is a treasure-seeker, with 
 nothing to lose and all to gain. 
 
 Here we see the explanation of that 
 which often seems paradoxical in reli- 
 gious experience. " Blessed are the poor 
 in spirit," they are the most high- 
 spirited in the quest for perfection, and 
 go'iurthest. The consciousness of their 
 utter poverty sets them free from pru- 
 dential considerations which hold others 
 back. Those who are passing through a 
 great spiritual crisis are apt to speak 
 25 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 scornfully of what they call "mere mor- 
 ality." 
 
 The morality which they scorn is 
 that which is conventional. It now 
 seems of little worth, compared with 
 what they would obtain. Theirs is the 
 spirit of the leader of a forlorn hope, 
 who flings away all that he has on a 
 glorious venture. 
 
 The prophet says of the righteous 
 servant of Jehovah, " He was numbered 
 among the transgressors." All that is 
 inspiring in the history of mankind has 
 to do with these glorious transgressors, 
 who were willing to defy power that 
 seemed irresistible. 
 
 The arguments of tyrants have always 
 
 been simple. "Remain where we have 
 
 placed you, and we shall protect you. 
 
 Under our watchful guardianship you 
 
 26 
 
COURAGE 
 
 shall be safe. Resist and you shall suf- 
 fer, and as the last resort we may kill 
 you." 
 
 The slave submits, content with ig- 
 noble safety. When the impulse of free- 
 dom comes, there is defiance. " I will 
 follow what seems to me the better 
 course, come what may." 
 
 The whole significance of the choice 
 lies in the fact that the man who 
 makes it does not know what may 
 come. The issue of the strife is uncer- 
 tain, but nevertheless he enters upon 
 it gladly. When word came to Nehe- 
 miah that his enemies were about to at- 
 tack him and he was urged to flee into the 
 temple, he answered: "Should such a 
 man as I flee ? And who is there that 
 being as I am would go into the temple 
 to save his life ? I will not go in." 
 27 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 Here the outward fact was confronted 
 with the inner fact. The outer reality 
 was Danger, the inner was Courage. 
 They confronted one another, and the 
 inner reality stood firm. 
 
 When such a conflict takes place, 
 how shall the victory be determined? 
 In this case Nehemiah stood his ground 
 and his enemies did not destroy him. 
 We say that he triumphed through his 
 act of courage. But suppose they*had 
 come upon him and killed him at his 
 post of duty. Still the judgment of man- 
 kind would crown him victor. Such a 
 man as he was in his life, such he was 
 in death. In his steadfastness he had 
 gained the undefiled rewards. True to 
 himself he had not yielded to a threat. 
 
 Entering as'we do into the heritage of 
 generations of valiant souls, we do not 
 28 
 
COURAGE 
 
 realize that everything which we call 
 a virtue was at one time a perilous ad- 
 venture in righteousness, and that our 
 commonest duties were once acts pro- 
 hibited, which only the boldest spirits 
 dared attempt. Our simplest faith be- 
 longs to the way men called heresy. 
 
 One may enter a modern church 
 and see in it but an institution devoted 
 to the defence of the established order. 
 The faces of the worshipers indicate 
 prosperity rather than eager aspiration. 
 Then come the thrilling words of the 
 Te Deum : 
 
 "The glorious company of the Apos- 
 tles praise thee. 
 
 " The goodly fellowship of the proph- 
 ets praise thee. 
 
 " The noble army of martyrs praise 
 thee." 
 
 29 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 Amid the respectabilities and the 
 orthodoxies and the moral mediocrities, 
 to which the church-goers had been 
 accustomed, there come the brave be- 
 ginners, non-conformists all. They were 
 men who would not be conformed to 
 the world, even to the religious world 
 of their time. They attempted to trans- 
 form it, by the renewing of their 
 minds. 
 
 The Apostles were men who chose 
 the hard task instead of the easy one. 
 They left friends and comrades to carry 
 a message to men who were not willing 
 to receive it. The Prophets were men 
 with an unusual zeal for righteousness. 
 They were not satisfied with the stand- 
 ards of their community. Lonely and 
 friendless, they yet kept their chosen 
 path unfalteringly. We hear from the 
 30 
 
COURAGE 
 
 prophet the outcry of pain, but it is a 
 pain that never swerves him from his 
 course. " Woe is me for my hurt, for 
 it is grievous. But I said, truly this is 
 grief, and I must bear it." And the 
 Martyrs, who were they? Literally 
 witnesses, men, with an unusual sense 
 of veracity. No threat or torture could 
 induce them to swerve in their testi- 
 mony. They could die, but they could 
 not deny the truth they saw. 
 
 Truly a glorious company! a goodly 
 fellowship! a noble army! 
 
 We do not understand the language 
 of religion if we interpret it by the spirit 
 of those who merely acquiesce in dogmas 
 which have been presented to them. We 
 must go directly to the men who have 
 dared the prophets, apostles and mar- 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 tyrs of every age. Let us try to under- 
 stand their attitude. 
 
 Let us define the great words of reli- 
 gion in terms of pure courage. 
 
 Repentance. This is a declaration of 
 independence, an act of defiance. A 
 man looks upon his past acts and on his 
 present condition and sees them to be 
 full of sin and shame. He loathes them, 
 but he at first sees no way of escape from 
 them. Habit holds him. Reason seems to 
 say that it is inevitable that he should re- 
 main as he is. He has made his bed, he 
 must lie upon it. He cannot escape from 
 the consequences of his own deeds. 
 They are his destiny. 
 
 Then comes a sudden access of cour- 
 age. He no longer seeks to escape. The 
 consequences f of his deeds remain and 
 must meet him again. So be it. But 
 32 
 
COURAGE 
 
 when they meet him again they shall 
 not find in him a cowering slave. He 
 will confront them like a man. It is not 
 the circumstances that have changed, 
 but he has changed. He will live, not as 
 if the things he had done had never 
 happened. They have happened. Now 
 they are a part of the evil that is to be 
 overcome. He no longer apologizes, 
 or excuses. He has given up his old self 
 and is deliberately building up a new 
 character. 
 
 Can he do it? The wise and prudent 
 say, No. He is battling against fate. He 
 is defying the laws of nature, of his own 
 nature. Even the prophet of righteous- 
 ness is, at times, skeptical as to the re- 
 sult. "Can the Ethiopian change his 
 skin, or the leopard his spots ? Then may 
 ye also do good that are accustomed to 
 33 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 do evil." Against the influence of hered- 
 ity and habit who can contend ? 
 
 But the contest goes on. It is the 
 thrilling story of brave souls that have 
 grappled with the evil in their own na- 
 tures, and begun life anew. 
 
 Forgiveness. This is rebellion against 
 the tyranny of our own prejudices. We 
 had sat in judgment upon others. We 
 had identified the sinner with his sin. 
 Our idea of rectitude had hardened into 
 fixed forms. Certain persons had become 
 to us symbols of unrighteousness. To 
 hate them was the outward and visible 
 sign of our inner grace. The moral law 
 had itself become fatalistic. Its very ex- 
 istence seemed to depend upon the in- 
 variable relation between sin and its 
 penalties. To pardon was to be disloyal 
 to its stern requirements. 
 34 
 
COURAGE 
 
 Then comes the revolutionary idea of 
 forgiveness. To a person of ethical 
 temper and training it demands the 
 highest kind of courage. " Who art thou 
 that forgivest sins ? " 
 
 Shelley makes the Furies looking 
 down on the ineffective efforts of well- 
 meaning people cry tauntingly, 
 
 They dare not devise good for man's estate 
 And yet they know that they do not dare. 
 
 What they do not dare do is fully to 
 trust their fellow-men. The memory of 
 old sins prevents confidence in new 
 endeavors. 
 
 But now and then there comes one 
 who has the courage of forgiveness. His 
 conception of the moral law is purged 
 of fatalism. It is the perfect law of 
 liberty. It means the call to every one 
 
 35 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 to do the very best he can, under the 
 circumstances in which he finds himself. 
 All men are equal under this law. He 
 is careless of conventional distinctions 
 between saints and sinners. The past is 
 seen to be past, and he sees his fellow- 
 men, acting under the stress of present 
 necessities. His judgments are not re- 
 trospective, but have to do with living 
 issues. To him repentant sinners come, 
 sure that he will see them not as they 
 were but as they are. He judges not 
 after appearance but judges righteous 
 judgments. The appearances are the 
 survivals of the past; but he is quick to 
 discern the latent good that doth not yet 
 appear. 
 
 He only has achieved freedom who 
 dares to challenge the conventional 
 judgments. He dares conceive of new 
 
 36 
 
COURAGE 
 
 forms of righteousness, a righteousness 
 that "exceeds the righteousness of 
 scribes and pharisees." He is a bold 
 explorer who discovers virtues in un- 
 expected places. His conscience moves 
 as freely among the acts and motives 
 of men, as the imagination of the artist 
 moves among the elements of beauty. 
 And like the imagination of the artist 
 it is selective and creative. Out of im- 
 perfect human nature it selects what is 
 most precious and creates new forms 
 of spiritual excellence. 
 
 Renunciation. All philosophies and 
 religions have emphasized renunciation. 
 But it makes a great difference whether 
 the word is interpreted as an act of 
 spiritual courage or as a yielding to im- 
 perious necessity. It is to be feared 
 that when we speak of self-denial or 
 37 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 self-sacrifice the fatalistic feeling is sug- 
 gested to most minds. In this world, it 
 is thought, the best is beyond our reach, 
 we must learn to give up the vain de- 
 sire for it and to content ourselves with 
 the second best. But this is to beg the 
 whole question. The assertion of those 
 who live the life of the spirit is that the 
 life they have chosen is in reality the 
 higher life. It is the kind of life that in 
 itself yields the most lasting satisfactions. 
 The choice is a real one only when this is 
 believed. When St. Francis talked with 
 Brother Leo about perfect bliss, he was 
 not counseling resignation, he was 
 arousing spiritual ambition. To him the 
 life of lowly service was enticing. He 
 would have his disciple feel its charm. 
 There have always been persons who 
 really believed in the Beatitudes. They 
 
 38 
 
COURAGE 
 
 have preferred to be blessed rather than 
 to be comfortable. Even the most big- 
 oted man of the world must admit that 
 there are persons who do not share his 
 aims. These headstrong people must be 
 allowed to go on their own way. If they 
 give up what to him is of most value, he 
 should do them the credit to believe 
 that it is in exchange for something they 
 care for more. When they voluntarily 
 lose the whole world, it is because they 
 put an extraordinary value upon their 
 own souls. 
 
 It is not the fact of giving up some- 
 thing that is important. The important 
 thing is the reason. There are strategi- 
 cal moves to be considered. 
 
 The commander of a fortress may 
 evacuate it in the face of the enemy. 
 He is no longer able to maintain himself 
 
 39 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 in it, and he'retires before overwhelm- 
 ing force. He gives up something'under 
 compulsion. But on the other hand he 
 may march out of the fortress, in order 
 to meet the enemy. He leaves the se- 
 curity of the walls in order to force an 
 engagement. This movement is not 
 compelled by fear, but impelled by 
 courage. He leaves the strong position, 
 because he trusts in the strength of 
 his own army. 
 
 In war two generals of equal intellect- 
 ual ability and equally versed in military 
 science may confront each other. In 
 only one respect do they differ, in the 
 amount and quality of their courage. 
 This temperamental difference is deci- 
 sive. It influences their strategy and 
 determines their action at every point. 
 All the intellectual processes are influ- 
 40 
 

 COURAGE 
 
 enced by the ultimate object. One 
 commander uses all his skill to save 
 himselFand his army. He is full of ex- 
 pedients by which to extricate himself 
 from places of difficulty and danger. To 
 the other, himself and his army are only 
 instruments tobeusedf or a purpose. He 
 is not thinking about them but about 
 what he can do with them. He is ever 
 seeking the decisive moment when 
 everything is to be risked in one mighty 
 effort 
 
 The same difference exists among 
 men of religion. One man conceives of 
 religion as the higher prudence. All its 
 problems are prudential. How may I 
 with the least waste of time in individ- 
 ual thinking, and the least spiritual anx- 
 iety, attain to a comfortable certainty? 
 How may I escape from the conse- 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 quences of my own mistakes and sins? 
 How may I extricate myself from com- 
 plex social relationships which disturb 
 my peace of mind? How shall I enjoy 
 the rewards of righteousness without be- 
 ing burdened by its anxieties ? How can 
 I be assured that my good deeds shall 
 be rewarded and my prayers answered 
 according to my notion of what is fit- 
 ting? 
 
 It will be noticed that all these are of 
 the nature of demands upon a power 
 outside of us, but that there is no demand 
 upon a power working in us and through 
 us. They are the problems of religion 
 that might be formulated by sluggards 
 and cowards. 
 
 Do not expect when you turn to 
 the glorious company of Apostles, the 
 goodly fellowship of Prophets, and the 
 42 
 
COURAGE 
 
 noble army of Martyrs, to find the solu- 
 tion of such problems. The problems are 
 not even propounded. "The beggar self 
 forgets to ask." 
 
 Sorrow, misunderstanding, uncer- 
 tainty, death, these are not explained 
 away. They are unescapable realities in 
 the world we live in. But they are not 
 the supreme realities. They are not our 
 masters and shall not be allowed to keep 
 us from our chosen way/ We will not 
 yield to our inferiors. The spiritual na- 
 ture of man asserts itself. And in that 
 self-assertion is freedom. 
 
 Worship. The nature of worship is 
 obscured by our familiarity with its 
 forms. In its essence it is an act of 
 spiritual daring. It is an attitude of the 
 soul ^toward that which is perfect, but 
 it differs from the attitude of artistic 
 43 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 appreciation, or even of moral approba- 
 tion. It is the recognition of a perfec- 
 tion that is so far above that it seems to 
 belong to another world. But into that 
 other world the worshiper ventures. 
 
 Isaiah gives us a picture of worship 
 in his vision which came "in the year 
 that King Uzziah died." He saw "the 
 Lord sitting upon a throne high and 
 lifted up, and his train filled the heaven." 
 He heard the voices that cried one to 
 another, " Holy, holy, [holy is the Lord 
 of hosts, the] whole eartfr is full of his 
 glory." At first the vision of a per- 
 fection he could not attain to over- 
 whelmed him and he cried, "Woe is 
 me I for I am undone, because I am a 
 man of unclean lips and I dwell in the 
 midst of a people of unclean lips." Then 
 a coal from the altar touched his lips, 
 
 44 
 
COURAGE 
 
 and there came the sudden access of 
 spiritual courage. He forgot the dis- 
 tance between himself and the splendor 
 that enthralled him. The call to high 
 service was accepted before he had time 
 to assure himself of his fitness. " Here 
 am I, send me." 
 
 Worship comes before knowledge 
 and before fitness. They do not know 
 the working of the human soul who 
 think of adoration as the posture only 
 of saints. The beatific vision comes to 
 multitudes yet in their sins. They rev- 
 erence that which they do not compre- 
 hend. And that life is meager indeed 
 which does not recognize, at least in 
 moments, the glory touching the far 
 horizons. By-and-by it may become the 
 light of common day. Now it is some- 
 thing to be wondered at. 
 45 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 To one who has felt himself to be a 
 prisoner of Fate the liberating moment 
 comes, when he turns from the uncertain- 
 ties of the outward world to something 
 which heTdiscovers within himself. He 
 feels a spiritual impulse and dares to 
 trust it. In that new-born confidence 
 there is disenthrallment. He has seen a 
 great light; he resolves to follow it. 
 Whither it will lead him he, as yet, 
 knows not. He will take the risks. In 
 that choice is his first experience of 
 freedom. 
 
II 
 
 SKILL 
 
 WE have considered the significance 
 of courage in the human struggle for free- 
 dom. The emergence of the hero marks 
 the first victory over a gloomy fatalism. 
 The hero declares no doctrine about 
 the Universe, but he asserts himself. 
 What I am, I am. What may happen 
 to him is a matter which for the mo- 
 ment may be treated as irrelevant. Let 
 worst come to worst, he will be loyal 
 to his own vision of the best. 
 
 The charm of all hero stories is that 
 we are not concerned as to how they 
 come out. Character is seen to be in- 
 trinsically more important than circum- 
 stance. Even^the tragedy "comes out 
 47 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 well," if the heroic spirit is manifest 
 unto the end. Samson lies buried under 
 the ruins of the temple he has thrown 
 down. But " Samson hath quit himself 
 like Samson." That is enough. 
 Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail 
 Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt, 
 Dispraise or blame, nothing but well and fair 
 And what may quiet us in a death so noble. 
 
 The characteristic thing about cour- 
 age is that it is complete in itself, and 
 is dependent on no circumstance what- 
 ever. The battlefield is in the man's 
 own nature. When he has overcome 
 fear, the victory is won. He has gained 
 the undefiled rewards. 
 To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite, 
 To forgive wrongs darker than death or night, 
 
 To defy Power which seems omnipotent 
 
 To love and bear ; to hope till Hope creates 
 
 From its own wreck the thing it contemplates, 
 
 
 4 8 
 
SKILL 
 
 This like thy glory Titan is to be 
 
 Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free ; 
 
 This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory. 
 
 Not only does the courageous spirit 
 determine its own course without re- 
 gard to the threats of opposing power, 
 but it chooses its own course of conduct 
 without waiting for sympathy. Matthew 
 Arnold, in a little poem called " Reli- 
 gious Isolation," compares those who 
 do not trust their spiritual intuitions 
 until they have been confirmed by ar- 
 guments drawn from Nature to children 
 who are " too fearful or too fond to play 
 alone." We must learn to walk without 
 external supports. 
 
 What though the holy secret, which moulds 
 
 thee, 
 
 Moulds not the solid earth? though never winds 
 Have whisper'd it to the complaining sea, 
 
 49 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 Nature's great law, and law of all men's minds? 
 To its own impulse every creature stirs ; 
 Live by thy light, and earth will live by hers I 
 
 This sense of isolation is necessary to 
 one who would know the nature of 
 goodness. The biologist in the labora- 
 tory isolates the ^germ which he would 
 study. He must see it as it is, without 
 confusing it with anything else. Only 
 thus can he determine whether its be- 
 havior is harmful or beneficent. So the 
 things of the spirit must be distin- 
 guished from their material environ- 
 ment. They must be " spiritually dis- 
 cerned." As parts of the interior life 
 they must be differentiated from every 
 influence external to themselves. 
 
 My mind to me a kingdom is. 
 
 This kingdom must preserve its inde- 
 50 
 

 SKILL 
 
 penclence. Its borders must be jeal- 
 ously defended against all invasion. * 
 
 When we use the term disinterested 
 virtue, we simply mean that we are 
 talking about virtue, and not about 
 something else which may easily be 
 mistaken for it. We are fixing our 
 minds upon a motive for conduct. The 
 virtuous motive is something very dif- 
 ferent from the hope of reward or the 
 fear of punishment. We are anxious to 
 make clear what that motive precisely 
 is. This is done when the choice brings 
 pain rather than pleasure. This choice 
 demands pure courage. 
 
 But though Courage is the first great 
 liberator from fatalistic slavery, it is not 
 the only one. When the choice of ideal 
 good has been bravely made, another 
 step must be taken. The emancipated 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 soul is not content simply to fight its 
 old battles over again. It would use its 
 independence in seeking larger fields 
 of service. It is not enough to be good, 
 it would do good. After the realization 
 of moral freedom conies the desire for 
 efficiency. 
 
 Let us consider the next phase of the 
 struggle against Fatalism. It involves a 
 new outlook upon the world, and a new 
 method, Courage, wins the sense of per- 
 sonal independence. The soul is freed 
 from the inhibitions of fear. It dares to 
 obey its own higher impulses. It no 
 longer consents to be molded by its . 
 environment. But a new liberator ap- 
 pears it is Skill. Skill accomplishes 
 what Courage only proposes. It creates 
 a new environment. It is the mind 
 
 5* 
 
SKILL 
 
 working upon the materials provided 
 for it in the actual world. As men learn 
 to work skillfully, they come to have 
 an altogether different mental attitude. 
 They literally "work out their own sal- 
 vation " from many evils which before 
 had seemed irremediable. 
 
 Dean Stanley in a vivid chapter in his 
 book on Christian Institutions tells of the 
 origin of the Litany. It came at the time 
 when the Roman Empire was tottering 
 to its fall. In France there had been terri- 
 fic social convulsions and with them a 
 succession of droughts, pestilences, and 
 earthquakes. Horror was piled on hor- 
 ror. "On one of these occasions, when 
 the people had been hoping that with 
 the Easter festival some respite would 
 come, a sudden earthquake shook the 
 
 53 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 Church at Vienna on the Rhone. It was 
 on Easter eve; the congregation rushed 
 out; the bishop of the city was left 
 alone before the altar. On that terrible 
 night he formed the resolution of invent- 
 ing a new form, as he hoped, of draw- 
 ing down the mercy of God." Out 
 of the conscious helplessness before 
 the awful powers of Nature, came 
 the Litany, with its prayers for help 
 against "the lightning and tempest," 
 the "plague, pestilence and famine," 
 the "battle and murder and sudden 
 death." 
 
 Famine, pestilence, lightning and 
 tempest, battle and murder and sudden 
 death still exist. Indeed, the catalogue 
 of human ills has been lengthened 
 owing to increasing sensitiveness and 
 quickened sympathy. But the attitude 
 
 54 
 

 SKILL 
 
 of the modern man is different from that 
 of the excited multitudes of mediaeval 
 peasants who followed each other over 
 hill and valley, crying, "Lord, have 
 mercy upon us." 
 
 Instead of the penitential processions 
 you find men armed with instruments 
 of precision studying the evils that are 
 presented as so many problems to be 
 solved. 
 
 We enter the laboratory and watch 
 the careful processes by which the pes- 
 tilence is robbed of its terrors. It is no 
 longer the " pestilence that walketh in 
 darkness." A searching light j^has been 
 thrown upon it. The death-dealer is re- 
 vealed as itself a form of life. It is a 
 specific germ whose life-history can be 
 determined, and habits known. The cool 
 students learn how it is produced, how 
 
 55 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 it thrives, on what food it is dependent, 
 and how it reproduces itself. Its life- 
 history once known, plans'are made for 
 its control or its destruction. All this 
 is unemotional. There is no guess- 
 work about it. Each process is carefully 
 tested. Vague fears are not allowed to 
 disturb the impartial poise of the inves- 
 tigator. 
 
 Famine is no longer personified. It is 
 not a meager ghost that clutches its vic- 
 tims. It is an economic blunder, that in- 
 dicates a low stage of civilization. It is 
 an indication of unjustifiable waste. Go 
 to any of our great universities, and you 
 will see why it is that life has been di- 
 vested of one of its terrors. The human 
 intellect is not merely considering its 
 own needs, but it is providing also for 
 the needs of the body. Chemists, biolo- 
 
 56 
 
SKILL 
 
 gists, physiologists, engineers, political 
 economists, are collaborating in one 
 great utilitarian work. They are con- 
 cerned with the food-supply. They are 
 carefully working out the problems of 
 its production and distribution. This 
 knowledge once obtained, great armies 
 of teachers are engaged to make it avail- 
 able to the people. 
 
 The earthquake and tempest have not 
 been eliminated. But even in the pres- 
 ence of their terrible destruction, we 
 are aware that the attitude of the modern 
 man is different from that of his prede- 
 cessors. In San Francisco the earth- 
 quake was looked upon as an incident 
 that must be taken into account by fu- 
 ture city-builders. It revealed weak 
 points in civic engineering. Architects 
 must study how to make their buildings 
 
 57 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 secure against such tremors of the earth 
 as may come at long intervals. 
 
 In regard to war, a calamity of our 
 own making, the attitude of our age is, 
 curiously enough, more fatalistic than 
 in regard to the destructive outbursts of 
 Nature's forces. But even here intellec- 
 tual curiosity is making itself felt. In 
 the Peace Congresses there is apt to be 
 less appeal to^vague humanitarian sen- 
 timent, and more use of cool reason. 
 Let us investigate the real causes of 
 war. Let us isolate the bacillus of mili- 
 tarism, and see if it is really immortal 
 as so many worldly-wise people imagine. 
 Cool, businesslike discussions are going 
 on as to ways and means for lessening 
 the enormous waste of life and treasure 
 that has hitherto been supposed to be 
 unavoidable. This indicates that the 
 
SKILL 
 
 peacemaker is learning to go about his 
 work in a matter-of-fact way. He is 
 considering not only the value of his 
 product, but the most economical way of 
 producing it. He is looking for results. 
 
 What then becomes of the Litany 
 with its " Good Lord, deliver us " ? 
 When science and skill are enlisted in 
 the work of deliverance from earthly 
 evils, does religion cease to be a neces- 
 sity? As men become self-reliant, do 
 the old pieties, which once were so 
 beautiful, vanish ? 
 
 There are those who thus interpret 
 the intellectual development of hu- 
 manity. To them,'every increase in skill 
 is a step away from religion, and from 
 the old courageous faith of prophets and 
 saints. It is even a step away from confi- 
 dence in the moral law. Is not that also 
 59 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 an object of intellectual curiosity, rather 
 than of devout feeling? 
 
 In such an interpretation it seems to 
 me that they mistake the whole signifi- 
 cance of skill. Skill does not have to do 
 with the ends but with the means. The 
 difference between the skilled and the 
 unskilled laborer lies not in the thing 
 they are trying to do, but in their relative 
 ability to do it. A certain difficult piece 
 of work is proposed to them both. They 
 are equally well-meaning and clear in 
 their understanding of the object of 
 their endeavor. But one man comes to 
 the difficulty and is stopped by it. It is 
 an absolute veto to his endeavor. He 
 can go no further. The other man 
 comes to the same difficulty, and his 
 intelligence and training enable him 
 quickly to overcome it. It is to him 
 60 
 
SKILL 
 
 only an incident in his day's work. Skill 
 is not a substitute for an ideal ; it is only 
 the way by which an ideal may be 
 realized. 
 
 What the increase of skill really does 
 is to widen the sphere of moral free- 
 dom, so that it takes in not merely 
 thought and feeling, but also effective 
 action. It makes it possible for the good 
 cause to succeed. 
 
 The disappointment which comes in 
 reading the history of many heroic souls 
 is not because they did not receive 
 material rewards, these they did not 
 seek, but because they did not accom- 
 plish the thing nearest their hearts. 
 There is a baffled feeling as of one 
 vainly fighting against remorseless Fate, 
 when the most earnest effort fails to 
 bring the result which is sought. 
 61 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 The law-giver wills justice. He lives 
 to see the instruments of justice per- 
 verted to the uses of civil tyranny. The 
 prophet calls people to the worship of 
 Divine righteousness, and then, look- 
 ing upon the externalization of religion 
 cries, " Israel hath forgotten God and 
 buildeth temples." The philanthropist 
 wills mercy, and finds the institutions 
 of charity becoming hateful because of 
 the cold-heartedness of those who ad- 
 minister their resources. The revolu- 
 tionist fares no better. He wills liberty, 
 but how to realize it in the period of 
 revolution he knows not. The great 
 words he utters return to him in 
 mocking echoes. 
 
 The nations thronged around, and cried aloud 
 As with one voice, Truth, liberty and love ! 
 Suddenly confusion fell from heaven 
 
 62 
 
SKILL 
 
 Among them ; there was strife, deceit and fear ; 
 Tyrants rushed in and did divide the spoil. 
 This was the shadow of the truth I saw. 
 
 The ancient explanation of such sor- 
 rowful disappointments was altogether 
 fatalistic. The Hebrew sage saw this 
 as the vanity under the sun. "All things 
 come alike to all, there is one event to 
 the righteous and the wicked, to the 
 good and to the clean and to the un- 
 clean, to him that sacrificeth and to him 
 that sacrificeth not, as to the good so to 
 the sinner." So far as he himself was 
 concerned, he would make the brave 
 decision. He would "fear God and keep 
 his commandments, this is the whole 
 duty of man." But it was a duty done 
 without hope of its accomplishing any- 
 thing. 
 
 The Stoics' realm'of moral freedom was 
 
 63 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 equally limited. They divided all things 
 into two great categories, the things 
 which are within our power, and those 
 which lie outside. In regard to the first 
 category we must be solicitous. Like 
 good soldiers we must guard all that is 
 left in our custody. But toward the 
 rest we must cultivate an austere in- 
 difference. They are to be treated 
 as the soldier treats the cold and 
 the heat. They are incidents to be dis- 
 regarded. The greater part of actual 
 existence fell within the second cate- 
 gory- 
 
 And Christian ethics made the same 
 distinction. "Let every man bear his 
 own burden," is one text. "Cast thy 
 burden on the Lord," is another. They 
 are not really contradictory because 
 they refer to two different kinds of bur- 
 
SKILL 
 
 dens those which we can bear and 
 those whose nature is such that we can- 
 not bear them. There are some things 
 for which we are responsible, for they 
 are within our power. These things we 
 must assume they belong to us. There 
 are other things which do not come by 
 our will, and cannot be changed by our 
 effort; these things need not trouble us. 
 It is enough for us to leave them in 
 God's hands. 
 
 The distinction is founded on good 
 sense, and ^must always remain. But 
 there has been a constant change in the 
 number of things included in the two di- 
 visions. With the growth of knowledge 
 and with the increase in skill, one 
 event after another has been taken out 
 of the category of the morally indiffer- 
 ent and placed within the realm of 
 
 65 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 human responsibility. In other words, 
 the world is being gradually moralized. 
 What was once attributed to time and 
 chance, is now seen to be within the 
 control of the enlightened will. 
 
 Take that lamentation of Ecclesiastes : 
 " I returned and saw under the sun that 
 the race is not to the swift, nor the bat- 
 tle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, 
 nor yet riches to men of understanding, 
 nor yet favor to men of skill, but time 
 and chance happen to them all." 
 
 That was the observation of a man 
 who saw things as they were in his own 
 land and time. It is such an observation 
 as a philosopher in Mexico or Turkey 
 or Persia might make at the present 
 time. Personal merit has nothing to do 
 with success in life. The wisest and 
 best^are the victims. Selfish and cruel 
 66 
 
SKILL 
 
 men have the advantage in the struggle 
 for existence. It is an observation which 
 is measurably true in every community. 
 But the ancient observer makes of it a 
 wide generalization asHf he were stating 
 an unescapable law of nature. And the 
 pessimist accepts the generalization at 
 its face value. It is not worth while for 
 a man to try to be wise or good or even 
 energetic in a world like this. He can- 
 not expect in that way to get on. His vir- 
 tues and his talents only handicap him. 
 But read the lamentation to a modern 
 social reformer and note his response. 
 In the first place he inquires narrowly 
 into the facts. To what extent, he asks, 
 is it true that the best individuals in any 
 particular community are crowded out, 
 and the unfit survive and increase ? In 
 so far as it exists, this is an evil, but it 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 is not to be vaguely and hopelessly at- 
 tributed to an unfriendly universe, but 
 to certain definite imperfections in the 
 social order. And it is our business to 
 find out what these are and to find the 
 remedy. 
 
 The gardener sees this evil under the 
 sun, that sturdy weeds grow apace, and 
 take the sustenance from the more del- 
 icate but more useful plants. But he 
 does not fold his hands in fatalistic 
 resignation. Here is a challenge to his 
 skill. He studies the soil and the growth 
 of the plants both evil and good. He so 
 orders his garden that those he loves 
 best shall thrive best. And in so doing 
 he learns that he is not working against 
 Nature but with her. He is doing quickly 
 what she is doing slowly and on a vaster 
 scale. 
 
 68 
 
SKILL 
 
 In our day people are beginning to 
 see that the old fatalistic notions which 
 surrounded the conception of law and 
 government are superstitious. A gov- 
 ernment does not exist for itself, still 
 less do the people exist for it. It is as 
 much an invention as a locomotive or 
 sewing machine. It was constructed by 
 human skill and it can be reconstructed 
 by increased skill. When it does not do 
 the work for which it was designed, the 
 machine must be repaired, or perhaps 
 new parts added. 
 
 If we have a state of affairs in which 
 individual talents are repressed and am- 
 bition smothered, in which industry 
 does not get its proper rewards, and 
 the wise and just are at a disadvantage, 
 then our social organization is at fault. It 
 is time for us to see what is the matter. 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 We must call in the expert and follow 
 his advice. 
 
 The very multiplicity of the devices 
 for doing good, and the technical skill 
 that is enlisted in the work, obscure to 
 many minds the spiritual significance of 
 it all. It is as if the Good Samaritan, 
 with his big heart and his scanty equip- 
 ment for service, were suddenly to be 
 transported into a modern hospital. Of 
 the uses of the instruments, of the ne- 
 cessity of the routine, or of the meaning 
 of the terms freely used by unemotional 
 internes and " visiting men," he would 
 know nothing. He would not at first 
 realize that the complex machinery had 
 no other object than the fulfillment of 
 his heart's desire. These were the mod* 
 ern improvements on his simple win? 
 and^oil. 
 
 70 
 
SKILL 
 
 Those who complain that in our'day 
 people are turning away from the ideal 
 to the practical, should, before they 
 allow themselves to become too much 
 discouraged, define their terms; use the 
 words as adjectives and ask, Ideal what? 
 Practical what? 
 
 The answer is ideal ends, and practi- 
 cal methods. The great fact is, not that 
 people are turning away from ideal ends, 
 but that they are, as never before, pro- 
 foundly interested in practical methods 
 for attaining these ends. Doing justly 
 and mercifully, walking humbly before 
 God, are recognized as skilled occupa- 
 tions. 
 
 To the educated men and women of 
 this generation, it is particularly neces- 
 sary to have a clear understanding of 
 this relation between ideal purposes 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 and practical methods. We can say of 
 Beauty that it is its own excuse for be- 
 ing. But we cannot say the same thing 
 of Skill. Its justification lies in its rela- 
 tion to its object. Skill ^applied to un- 
 worthy purposes only makes disaster 
 greater and more certain. Efficiency be- 
 comes a mere fetish to those who do 
 not ask carefully what is the purpose of 
 the work which is efficiently done. 
 
 Thomas a Kempis prayed, "Grant 
 me, O Lord, to know what is worth 
 knowing and to love what is worth lov- 
 ing." Only out of such desire can come 
 worthy action. The thing that is worth 
 knowing and worth loving is also worth 
 doing. The next question is, how to do 
 it. This is a matter of skill. 
 
 It might be possible to make two 
 
 72 
 
SKILL 
 
 charts of human progress through the 
 ages. One would indicate fervor of the 
 spirit, the devotion to pure ideals, as 
 manifest in feeling and word. The other 
 would record the growth in efficiency, 
 the extent to which moral endeavor ac- 
 tually modified the course of events. 
 
 The first, I imagine, would look very 
 much like a clinical chart. There would 
 be sudden risings and falls in tempera- 
 ture. In one generation there would be 
 a great access of spiritual courage, a re- 
 vival of pure religion. Then would be 
 recorded the periods of coldness and 
 torpor. These periods would not coin- 
 cide with advance in other directions. 
 It is in the darkest ages that the great- 
 est heroes and saints have lived. 
 
 But the other would be like a map 
 showing the course of some great river. 
 
 73 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 It begins in a tiny rivulet, and it in- 
 creases not through any mysterious 
 power of growth in itself, but by what 
 it receives from its affluents. A thou- 
 sand streams flow into it and add their 
 waters to its current. 
 
 The increase of skill is cumulative. 
 The results of the experience of one 
 generation are handed down to the next. 
 This increment is not dependent on 
 states of feeling. Our desire for right- 
 eousness may be no greater than that of 
 our barbarous progenitors, but our abil- 
 ity to perform is undoubtedly greater. 
 
 From this point of view the old dis- 
 cussion about Justification by Faith 
 takes on a new aspect. The question 
 was as to which was the important 
 thing, the outer act or the inner impulse. 
 Luther took the side of inner liberty. 
 74 
 
SKILL 
 
 "The good work does not make the 
 good man/' he said, "the good man 
 does the good work." 
 
 The modern reformer would say: 
 We must first determine accurately 
 what we mean by a good man and what 
 we mean by a good work. Each must 
 be judged according to its own nature. 
 A man's goodness must be judged by 
 his motive, and a work must be judged 
 by its results. When such tests are ap- 
 plied, it appears that many so-called 
 "good works" are not good at all. 
 They are either futile or pernicious. 
 No amount of such works can make a 
 man better. On the other hand, whether 
 a good man does good works depends 
 upon whether he has learned how to 
 do them. He will certainly desire to do 
 good, but whether he succeeds is an- 
 
 75 
 
\THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 other matter. His intentions may be 
 right and his actions may bring calami- 
 ties. The blunders of the good are some- 
 times as disastrous as the crimes of the 
 wicked. 
 
 A clear comprehension of the effect 
 which advancing knowledge and in- 
 creasing skill have on moral judgments 
 would save us from many fruitless 
 discussions. It would enable us to see 
 the real point of agreement between 
 the ethical idealist and the well-in- 
 tentioned " practical " man who often 
 misunderstands and resists him. 
 
 In every generation there is a con- 
 troversy going on between the radical 
 reformers and the conservatives. Each 
 accuses the other of moral obliquity. 
 The reformer fixes his mind upon a 
 
SKILL 
 
 specific evil which has become a part of 
 the social system. He declares it to be 
 cruel and unjust. He pictures the suf- 
 fering that is entailed to the innocent. 
 Let us do away with this, he says, at 
 any cost. And so by every method of 
 agitation he seeks to arouse the social 
 conscience, and unite all good people 
 in behalf of his cause. 
 
 Great is his disappointment and in- 
 dignation when he finds that his appeal 
 falls on indifferent or even hostile ears. 
 His measures for the alleviation of hu- 
 man misery meet not only with the op- 
 position of selfish interests but with 
 the disapproval of those whose personal 
 characters are above suspicion. Their 
 attitude is disconcerting because they 
 refuse to face fairly the specific ques- 
 tion which he raises. They are in real- 
 
 77 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 ity fatalists so far as this matter is con- 
 cerned. "Yes," they say, "we admit 
 that many things may be going on 
 which are unpleasant to contemplate. 
 Not only is such investigation as you 
 undertake unpleasant but it is also un- 
 profitable. There are doubtless evils 
 here, but they are evils incidental to 
 the great and good work in which 
 society is engaged. On the whole we 
 are doing very well, and the good work 
 should not be disturbed. We cannot 
 expect perfection in a world like this. 
 We must all learn to endure hardness 
 and become good soldiers. When we 
 are sure that a great constructive proc- 
 ess is going on, we must patiently go 
 on with it We must not allow our- 
 selves to be disturbed by destructive 
 criticism. We would not, of course, do 
 
SKILL 
 
 evil that good may come. But when 
 we see a solid good, we must endure 
 the evils which accompany it, and which 
 we see to be inevitable." 
 
 This is the answer which in the first 
 half of the last century was given to the 
 reformers who, in England, investigated 
 the work of women in the mines. " Yes, 
 it is doubtless very distressing that 
 women and girls are employed as beasts 
 of burden, that they work in under- 
 ground passages, often on their hands 
 and knees, drawing loads of coal. It is 
 a pity that they have such long hours, 
 and that their scanty wages will not al- 
 low of nourishing food. It is a pity too 
 that these women should by the very na- 
 ture of their calling, be prevented from 
 living a respectable life. But this is one 
 of the sacrifices demanded by civiliza- 
 79 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 tion. It is necessary that we should have 
 cheap fuel, and this is the only way that 
 we can have it." 
 
 It is the answer which the educational 
 reformer has always received. "Yes; 
 the sensitive child has a hard time of it. 
 He is bullied by his masters and by his 
 companions. His health sometimes suf- 
 fers from long hours and bad air. He is 
 driven, instead of gently led, in the paths 
 of learning. Tasks are given him un- 
 suited to his years. At the time he hates 
 the school and all its ways, but after a 
 while he will see that all has been for 
 the best. He will forget the injustices of 
 which he has been the victim. It is all 
 involved in the necessarily painful proc- 
 ess of education. Of course some can- 
 not stand it. Every system has its fail- 
 ures. But the survivors agree to praise 
 80 
 
SKILL 
 
 the discipline they have undergone. It 
 is that which has made them what they 
 are. Certainly that is a sufficient justifi- 
 cation for it in their eyes." 
 
 Suppose we were to interview a hun- 
 dred "successful "men as to the means 
 by which they got their living. We 
 should find a substantial agreement 
 among them. They would say, " We do 
 not claim that the means by which we 
 have succeeded have been ideally per- 
 fect, and the conditions have not been 
 those we should have chosen. But we 
 are practical men and must take the 
 world as we find it and do the best we 
 can. Now and then there have been 
 things that involved hardship to our 
 competitors. We had to shut our eyes 
 to these things and go on. If we have 
 been less generous and kindly in our 
 81 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 dealings than we should have desired, it 
 is because it was necessary. We must 
 get our living, you know." 
 
 This is that form of fatalism which 
 is called "economic determinism." It 
 is that which makes every man an apol- 
 ogist for that by which he lives. But it 
 is not limited by purely economic neces- 
 sity. Man does not live by bread alone. 
 In the pursuit of the ideals of the higher 
 life he also feels the pressure of harsh 
 necessities. 
 
 The history of human progress is full 
 of cruelty. Religious^persecution was 
 justified and practiced by many who 
 were kind-hearted. Persecution was 
 looked upon as a practical necessity, if 
 the business of religious propagandism 
 was to be carried on upon a large scale. 
 Moral suasion was doubtless the ideal 
 
 82 
 
SKILL 
 
 thing, but it was very slow and uncertain 
 in its working. To get results one must 
 sometimes harden one's heart and use 
 physical force. 
 
 We have believers in modern civili- 
 zation who are equally ruthless in their 
 methods of advancing it. Backward 
 peoples must, they say, be exterminated 
 in order that the better stock may have 
 a chance to increase. The incidental 
 pain must be endured for the sake of 
 the greater good. In all this we are im- 
 itating the methods of nature. We are 
 deliberately acting as instruments of 
 Manifest Destiny. In all such discus- 
 sions we have the contrast between the 
 idealist appealing to sentiment, and the 
 practical man insisting on the consider- 
 ation of the necessities of the case. And 
 so long as the discussion takes this form, 
 83 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 the practical man has the advantage. 
 He is standing firmly for facts as he sees 
 them, and is working as best he can for 
 the modest possibilities within his reach. 
 I am not sure but that morally he has 
 the advantage. He is loyal to certain 
 great achievements of the race. They 
 form a body of tested good. He is not 
 willing to give them up for what may 
 be only a dream of perfection. The 
 worst government is better than no 
 government at all. The most cruel in- 
 dustrial system does keep the majority 
 of people from starving. The pedant 
 with his rod teaches the boy something 
 which he could not have learned by him- 
 self. Only a liberal bigot will deny that 
 there have been times when religious 
 bigotry was useful. 
 
 But when the idealistic reformer has 
 
SKILL 
 
 added to his spiritual courage the nec- 
 essary skill, the tables are turned. He 
 ceases to be a mere agitator and begins 
 to speak as an expert. All that the hon- 
 est conservative claims he frankly ad- 
 mits. All that the conservative loves, 
 he loves also, and values highly. There 
 is to be no wanton destruction, no waste 
 of good material. In regard to ultimate 
 ends there is also a good understanding. 
 The wisdom of the past is not to be 
 ignored. 
 
 I agree, says the expert, that we must 
 be severely practical. We must not 
 waste our time over barren idealities. 
 Our admiration is for the " men who do 
 things." Let us make a list of the things 
 you want to do, and then consider the 
 best possible means of doing them. 
 When such a list is made, it appears, 
 
 85 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 my dear sir, that there is a great deal 
 of waste in the methods you have em- 
 ployed. With the best intentions in the 
 world, you have not been "getting re- 
 sults." You have been using obsolete 
 machinery, and employing unskilled 
 workmen. Let us see how all this may 
 be changed to your advantage. A great 
 many things can be done which you de- 
 clare to be impossible. But of course 
 you need to learn how! 
 
 The increase of skill means an in- 
 crease of responsibility. That which 
 makes life in these days so difficult 
 is that so many things which once 
 were deemed impossible are attempted. 
 There has come the sudden realiza- 
 tion that we can do more than in our 
 ignorance we thought we could. The 
 86 
 
SKILL 
 
 conscience finds its jurisdiction en- 
 larged, and is overwhelmed with new 
 business. The old commandments be- 
 come more formidable. We have heard 
 it said by them of old time, " Thou shalt 
 not kill." But we did not dream of our 
 own destructive powers. We should 
 not poison our neighbor's well. We are 
 just beginning to realize that unwit- 
 tingly we had been poisoning the air 
 he breathed. To avoid this crime we 
 have to rebuild our cities. More and 
 more the death-list is scrutinized and 
 accidents once described as "acts of 
 God" are seen to be the acts of men. 
 The list of avoidable disasters and pre- 
 ventable diseases grows rapidly. The 
 lives lost upon our railroads, in factories, 
 in mines, in unsanitary homes, are lives 
 for which somebody must be held re- 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 sponsible. Such losses are not inevit- 
 able. 
 
 " Thou shalt not steal " was "a com- 
 mandment which once brought little 
 compunction to respectable members 
 of society. But that was in pre-scientific 
 days. To-day only the very stupid can 
 feel free from any sense of guilt. We 
 not only see the disinherited but we ask, 
 how they came to be disinherited. Who 
 took away the opportunities that should 
 have been theirs? Who robbed them 
 of their inheritance ? That an individual 
 should not make good use of his oppor- 
 tunities is something which society can- 
 not prevent. But it certainly can prevent 
 his being deprived of reasonable op- 
 portunities to live a healthy and useful 
 life. 
 
 But though the advance of knowledge 
 
SKILL 
 
 increases our sense of responsibility it 
 brings with it an exhilarating sense of 
 freedom. Necessary evils there must al- 
 ways be, and we must summon strength 
 to bear them. But the conviction grows 
 that a vast amount of evil which has 
 been patiently borne is in reality un- 
 necessary. The field of effective moral 
 action has broadened, and the chances 
 of success have increased. Because cer- 
 tain evils have always existed is no rea- 
 son why they should continue. It only 
 means that greater skill and more per- 
 sistent work are called for. It is a diffi- 
 cult but not an impossible task that is 
 proposed. 
 
 To abolish grinding poverty, to out- 
 wit the forces of corruption, actually 
 to prevent preventable diseases, to plan 
 cities for the comfort and well-being of 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 the citizens, to take away from neces- 
 sary labor unnecessary hardships and 
 degradation, to prevent social deteriora-* 
 tion, ^to distribute more equitably the 
 rewards of industry these are not the 
 vague ideals of the sentimentalist: they 
 are the specifications of work to be 
 done; they involve problems which 
 specialists are working on. 
 
 A seventeenth-century poet ex- 
 claimed: 
 
 O holy Hope and high Humility. 
 
 To the holy hope of prophets and 
 saints has been added the high humility 
 of the man of science. There is nothing, 
 he says, unreasonable in the hope, but it 
 is to be fulfilled not after the apocalyptic 
 manner, by a miraculous intervention of 
 an unrelated force. It is to be wrought 
 90 
 
SKILL 
 
 out through patient experimentation. 
 The civilization of to-day is the result 
 of the work of the generations that have 
 gone before us. They had high ideals, 
 but imperfect knowledge and clumsy 
 tools. They fell far short of their ideals. 
 With greater knowledge and better tools 
 and finer skill to use them, we and our 
 children must certainty be able to ac- 
 complish much which to them was 
 impossible. 
 
 The hope of the world lies in the fact 
 that men are beginning to do intelli- 
 gently what they have always attempted. 
 It is less and less true that 
 
 The good want power but to weep barren tears. 
 The powerful goodness want : worse need for 
 
 them. 
 The wise want love, and those who love want 
 
 wisdom ; 
 And all best things are thus confused to ill. 
 
 91 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 We are beginning to see that this di- 
 vorce between the intellect and the con- 
 science is not a fatalistic necessity of 
 being. We cannot conceive of human 
 progress save as we think of goodness 
 grown wise and skillful. And when it 
 grows wise and skillful, it grasps the 
 lordship of the earth. 
 
Ill 
 
 LOVE 
 
 WE have been watching successive 
 phases of a great battle for human free- 
 dom. We have seen a creature emerg- 
 ing from the dust of the earth and at first 
 hardly to be differentiated from other 
 creatures, developing powers that are 
 creative. At first merely passive under 
 the moulding power of circumstances, 
 man develops moral initiative. He no 
 longer floats upon the current, he strug- 
 gles against it. We first wonder at the 
 audacity of the attempt, and then mar- 
 vel at the increase of skill which it de- 
 velops. We cannot, as we watch the 
 long-continued effort, fail to see that 
 93 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 human will and human intellect are 
 steadily gaining. The strong wise man, 
 in whose brain are the results of the ex- 
 perience of the race, has emerged. This 
 man does not cower before destiny, he 
 is not overcome by the horror of great 
 darkness. He has overcome a thousand 
 difficulties. His courage has grown in- 
 telligent and resourceful. Never has 
 there been such consciousness of power. 
 
 The triumphs of science mark the de- 
 feat of the older forms ofjatalism. Hu- 
 man effort is seen not to be futile but 
 fruitful beyond the anticipation of the 
 sages. Blind forces yield to will guided 
 by intelligence. Man can outwit nature. 
 Materialism of the old crude sort has 
 become unthinkable. 
 
 Just now philosophers are putting 
 their emphasis not on the properties of 
 94 
 
LOVE 
 
 matter or on the invariable sequences of 
 physics, but on the phenomena of life. 
 Their philosophy is vitalistic rather 
 than materialistic. We must study 
 life at first hand, and not be content 
 with analogies drawn from the inani- 
 mate world. The living creature acts 
 differently from the non-living thing. 
 To be alive means to exercise mysteri- 
 ous power, and the more alive any 
 creature is the more the mystery 
 deepens. 
 
 A machine does the same thing over 
 and over again. When we have thor- 
 oughly understood it, we may make 
 another machine which will be practi- 
 cally identical with it and which will 
 produce the same results. But this is 
 not true of a living being. When we 
 think we see identity, it is because our 
 
 95 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 slow perceptions do not follow the 
 marvelously quick changes which take 
 place. It is like the conventional picture 
 of a galloping horse. It does not repre- 
 sent truly what actually takes place. 
 
 Life persists and evolves as an endless 
 succession of changes. These changes 
 are unpredictable, because they depend 
 upon the coincidence of so many forces. 
 A knowledge of a lower form of life 
 gives no answer to the question as to 
 the emergence and survival of a higher 
 form. What we call growth is a kind of 
 change which baffles the understanding. 
 The living creature is continually escap- 
 ing from its old forms, and creating new 
 ones. When we have watched the proc- 
 ess we accept it as a fact. But no one, 
 before the event, could have anticipated 
 what was to take place. 
 
LOVE 
 
 Now when we turn to the contempla- 
 tion of life and its ways, we are conscious 
 that we are threatened with another form 
 of fatalism. The vision comes of perpet- 
 ual change through evolving life. Here 
 is an impulse which moves us. But can 
 we hope to master it? 
 
 Courage and Skill are alike baffled. 
 Milton speaks of " fixed fate." A brave 
 man may defy a fixed fate. He may op- 
 pose to it a fixed determination. There 
 is something to resist. But Emerson 
 expresses a more modern conception 
 when he speaks of the "flowing fates." 
 What if everything is in perpetual flux? 
 Life is a river flowing through an ocean. 
 We are not, as the materialist would say, 
 the drops of water moved by the cur- 
 rent. Our vital impulses move inani- 
 mate things. Our lives are moving 
 
 97 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 powers. But whither do they move? 
 We are awed by the incalculable possi- 
 bilities of our own natures. Below our 
 consciousness we become aware of the 
 "abysmal deeps of personality." 
 
 With sufficient skill we can master 
 machinery. It is something which in- 
 tellect can invent and control. It is a 
 case of the higher ruling the lower to 
 its own good. But a vital process is dif- 
 ferent. We cannot invent it. It does not 
 yield its secret to thought. Life is con- 
 tinually transcending itself. Its history 
 is a succession of surprises. By the time 
 you have described one phase of its 
 development it has become something 
 else. 
 
 It is the instability of life that puzzles 
 us. That which we try to grasp slips 
 away from us and assumes a different 
 
LOVE 
 
 form. And we ourselves because we are 
 alive are never the same. We awake in 
 the morning to complete yesterday's 
 task. But yesterday has vanished, and 
 yesterday's enthusiasms. We cannot by 
 taking thought restore the exact situa- 
 tion. Is there not then a fatal necessity 
 that nothing should really be finished, 
 or if finished according to a former plan 
 should not satisfy us ? 
 
 A child busies himself constructing 
 a play-house and filling it with all things 
 which he thinks desirable. After a few 
 years he returns to the work of his hands, 
 a stranger to its joys. The years have 
 brought disenchantment. He has out- 
 grown his playthings. 
 
 This is the tragedy of growth. It 
 means the outgrowing of that which 
 once gave satisfaction. We all feel it 
 
 99 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 when we return after many years to once 
 familiar places. But the process itself is 
 a continuous one. It goes on from hour 
 to hour, through innumerable, imper- 
 ceptible transitions. 
 
 It follows that the more definite our 
 plans for the future the more certain we 
 are to be disappointed. The mechanical 
 arrangements we can control, and the 
 results we can predict. Here everything 
 can be well-timed. But what of our- 
 selves and our friends whom we think 
 of as enjoying the triumph? Who can 
 predict the changes which may turn the 
 expected joy into bitterness? 
 
 When we come to follow closely the 
 lives of able men whom we have looked 
 upon as eminently successful, we often 
 find that they themselves are over- 
 whelmed with a sense of failure. It 
 100 
 
LOVE 
 
 is not that they have failed to achieve 
 that which they intended, but that they 
 have failed to receive the satisfaction 
 they anticipated out of their achieve- 
 ments. The very definiteness of their 
 plans and the completeness of their ar- 
 rangements leaves nothing further for 
 them to do. Now that the thing they 
 planned has been accomplished, it seems 
 to have been inevitable. It is accepted 
 and ignored as one of the mass of com- 
 monplace facts. 
 
 But while they have been working 
 diligently and efficiently, other things 
 have happened which they, in their ab- 
 sorption in their own affairs, have not 
 noticed. These other happenings have 
 also their results, and a new condition 
 has arisen, and a new standard of 
 values. 
 
 101 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 It is as if a merchant-adventurer had, 
 with a rich cargo in the hold, set out on 
 a voyage to a distant market Many are 
 the tempests through which the good 
 ship passes. The skillful mariner finds 
 his way in safety along perilous coasts. 
 At last he enters the desired haven, 
 only to find the market overstocked. 
 There is no demand for what he has 
 with such difficulty carried around the 
 world. The cargo is safe but it has lost 
 a large part of its value. 
 
 This is the common experience of the 
 able man of affairs. The things which, 
 when he was doing them, seemed so 
 important, once accomplished seem to 
 sink into utter insignificance. 
 
 Many a great man of business ac- 
 cumulates wealth, not from any sordid 
 motive, but in order to enjoy, as he sup- 
 
 102 
 
LOVE 
 
 poses, the increased consideration of his 
 fellow-men. It is to him the symbol 
 of power. But while he is gaining it the 
 ethical standards of the community have 
 changed. The methods which in his 
 youth were admired as indications of 
 shrewdness, are looked upon with re- 
 probation. He has outlived his genera- 
 tion, and stands a pathetic lonely figure 
 exposed to a kind of criticism which he 
 cannot understand. The very genuine- 
 ness of his self-revelations adds to the 
 pathos of the situation. It is one of the 
 tragedies of ethical progress. Something 
 has happened to rob him of the satisfac- 
 tions of success and he does not know 
 what it is. 
 
 A similar fatality is seen in the man- 
 agement of the most intimate and sacred 
 relation of life. The making of a home 
 103 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 requires the exercise of intelligence. 
 Many are those who undertake to teach 
 the high art. And yet it is a notorious 
 fact that many of those who are most 
 intelligent and conscientious make a 
 miserable failure in attaining happi- 
 ness. 
 
 In all the mechanical arrangements for 
 giving comfort they exhibit skill. In all 
 that is formal in conduct they are be- 
 yond reproach. Whatever is in its na- 
 ture definite in the relation between 
 husband and wife, parents and children, 
 is carefully attended to. But there is an 
 indefinite something that eludes all the 
 well-meant efforts. 
 
 A man of strong will and clear judg- 
 ment attempts to train his children 
 in the way in which they should go. 
 He surrounds them with all influences 
 104 
 
LOVE 
 
 which commend themselves as good. 
 He has a very definite plan for their 
 careers, and furnishes them with means 
 for fitting them to succeed. He has a 
 keen eye for what he calls " advantages." 
 Education is a game of skill, and he is 
 the player. Each move is carefully con- 
 sidered, with all its consequences. 
 
 But after a time he begins to realize 
 that the game is not so simple as he had 
 imagined. Each piece upon his chess- 
 board is alive and develops a will of its 
 own. While he is considering how he 
 shall move them next, they are making 
 a hundred moves for themselves. And 
 the moves have been so quick and un- 
 expected that his intelligence cannot 
 follow them. Each child has a tempera- 
 ment of its own, and reacts in its own 
 way. Every year the confusion grows 
 105 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 greater as their natures increase in com- 
 plexity. 
 
 At last the fateful day comes when 
 the father for the last time attempts to 
 exert his authority. He gives a com- 
 mand to his child, expecting prompt and 
 complete obedience. But the child is no 
 longer there. He is confronted by an- 
 other man, his equal, perhaps his su- 
 perior, in strength of will. 
 
 The great benefactors of mankind 
 have experienced the same kind of be- 
 wilderment. Very seldom have they 
 enjoyed the fruit of their labors in the 
 way they imagined. The dramatic mo- 
 ment of complete triumph never comes. 
 
 The story of great inventors has had 
 always an element of personal disap- 
 pointment. It is not merely that they 
 have at times been robbed of their right- 
 106 
 
LOVE 
 
 ful rewards by unscrupulous promoters. 
 The difficulty is deeper than that. No 
 invention is as original as its inventor 
 thinks it is. When after years of patient 
 groping he announces his great discov- 
 ery, he finds that many others have been 
 working on very much the same lines. 
 He is but one of a great company. He 
 was lonely while he was at work, ? his 
 success he must share with a crowd. 
 And when his invention has been made, 
 there are those who can improve upon 
 it. The more important his contribution 
 to thought is, the more quickly it is 
 absorbed in the common stock of the 
 world. 
 
 In pure science the greatest men are 
 
 often unknown to the great public. They 
 
 discover some principle which suggests 
 
 to other minds practical applications, 
 
 107 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 which they themselves may not have 
 seen or thought important. Their con- 
 tributions do not remain as a body of 
 truth to be called by their own name. 
 They are forgotten while their work 
 becomes the property of mankind. 
 
 Even when their names remain they 
 are not connected with their real per- 
 sonality. George Eliot, in " The Legend 
 of Jubal," recites such an experience. 
 Jubal, the inventor of instruments of 
 music, in his old age traveled far in 
 search of inspiration. At last there came 
 the desire to return to his home and en- 
 joy the triumph due to him. 
 
 " No farther will I travel : once again 
 My brethren I will see, and that fair plain 
 Where I and Song were born. There fresh- 
 voiced youth 
 Will pour my strains with all the early truth 
 
 1 08 
 
LOVE 
 
 Which now abides not in my voice and hands, 
 But only in the soul, the will that stands 
 Helpless to move. My tribe remembering 
 Will cry, 4 'T is he ! ' and run to greet me, wel- 
 coming." 
 
 Jubal came at last to the land where his 
 great work had been done. 
 
 For still he hoped to find the former things, 
 And the warm gladness recognition brings. 
 
 But alas, instead of such warm recogni- 
 tion of his worth, 
 
 He saw dread Change, with dubious face and 
 
 cold, 
 
 That never kept a welcome for the old, 
 Like some strange heir upon the hearth, arise, 
 Saying, u This home is mine." 
 
 At length he heard the instruments 
 of music, and youths and maidens, with 
 lyres and cymbals and flutes, danced in 
 their glad festival. The old man's ardor 
 was aroused, and led him to self-asser- 
 tion. 
 
 109 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 All was forgotten but the burning need 
 To claim his fuller self, to claim the deed 
 That lived away from him, and grew apart, 
 While he as from a tomb, with lonely heart, 
 Warmed by no meeting glance, no hand that 
 
 pressed, 
 Lay chill amid the life his life had blessed. 
 
 Then he cried with a loud voice, "I 
 am Jubal, I ! I made the lyre ! " 
 
 But the years had separated Jubal not 
 only from his work but from his fame. 
 His name had become the name not of a 
 person but of an Art. For him to claim 
 it was profanation. 
 
 The multitude was first merry and 
 then angry over his preposterous claim. 
 At last 
 
 Two rushed upon him : two, the most devout 
 In honor of great Jubal, thrust him out, 
 And beat him with their flutes. 
 
 When we turn from History to Biog- 
 no 
 
LOVE 
 
 raphy we learn the bitter meaning of 
 the legend. It lies in the fact that men 
 are by the mere fact of living disas- 
 sociated from their own works. The 
 historian follows a great movement. It 
 begins in the fervent desire of a few 
 obscure men. It gains disciples, it en- 
 lists in its behalf able leaders. It in- 
 spires to all sorts of heroic sacrifices. At 
 last the good cause triumphs. It seems 
 a record of orderly progress from be- 
 ginning to end. 
 
 But we turn to the life-history of any 
 leader in the movement, and we have a 
 different impression. If he happens to 
 live long we are conscious of an anti- 
 climax. There is a period when the 
 man and his cause coincide. The re- 
 former is the perfect embodiment of the 
 reform to which he gives his energies, 
 in 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 He is lifted above himself, and his name 
 at the same time stands for a person and 
 a principle. 
 
 So for a dramatic moment Luther 
 expressed the yearnings for liberty, in 
 the minds of the. German people. He 
 was the Reformation. So Mazzini, and 
 afterwards Garibaldi, had moments in 
 their lives when they personally re- 
 alized the aspirations of the New Italy. 
 So John Bright in his great days identi- 
 fied himself completely with all that was 
 generous and progressive in English 
 politics. 
 
 But the time came when the move- 
 ments developed on lines which the 
 early leaders had not anticipated, and 
 took on forms strange to them. Luther 
 was almost driven to distraction by the 
 various sects which arose from his brave 
 112 
 
LOVE 
 
 insistence upon the right of private 
 judgment. It was no longer Luther's 
 reformation, but the reformation of the 
 sixteenth century that went on. And it 
 went on in many strange ways which to 
 the great reformer seemed destructive 
 of all religion. 
 
 Italian unity came, but not in the way 
 that either Mazzini or Garibaldi ap- 
 proved. They lived long enough to real- 
 ize that they were only tools used for a 
 certain purpose, and then thrown aside. 
 Other workmen with other tools took 
 up the work which had once been theirs. 
 
 Even John Bright, the most success- 
 ful of reformers, lived long enough to 
 find himself out of sympathy with the 
 party of advance. The definite reforms 
 to which he had given his life had been 
 accepted as a part of the existing order. 
 
 "3 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 But a new generation had arisen with 
 its own ideals and purposes. With these 
 he had little sympathy or understand- 
 ing. The eloquent agitator had to ap- 
 pear to them as a reactionary. 
 
 What is the common element in all 
 these instances? In each case the disap- 
 pointment comes from something inher- 
 ent m the vital process. There is a 
 change which we are not prepared for. 
 A man who does a good deed cannot put 
 it in a safe deposit vault to be given back 
 to him when he calls for it. The deed 
 once done is his no longer. It enters 
 into the life of the world and is trans- 
 formed beyond his recognition. It be- 
 comes a " good diffused." 
 
 The fate of Jubal was that of one who 
 wrought better than he knew. Had he 
 114 
 
LOVE 
 
 invented a lyre upon which no one but 
 himself could play, his fame would have 
 been secure, and his art would have 
 perished with him. He would have been 
 remembered as a miracle worker. He 
 did a wonderful thing which could never 
 be repeated. 
 
 But he invented instruments upon 
 which others could make music and 
 which they could improve upon. And so 
 the art grew and the importance of his 
 personality diminished. 
 
 Here then we have the complaint 
 against the vital process itself. It is that 
 it has no stability of form. It is a per- 
 petual change which interferes with our 
 possession of the fruits of our own labor. 
 The ambitious man is like a collector of 
 beautiful works of art, who has no place 
 to put the treasures he has gathered. He 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 can do nothing with them but give them 
 away. 
 
 Now so long as our aims end in our- 
 selves all this seems very sad. We are 
 cheated out of what belongs to us. 
 
 But what if another impulse should 
 take possession of us so that we no 
 longer should seek to have everything 
 end in ourselves? What if we should 
 come to care supremely for something 
 quite beyond ourselves, and relate every- 
 thing to that? Immediately what had 
 been our grievance becomes our oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 Now that great transforming impulse 
 is that to which we give the name of 
 Love. It is that which disenthralls a 
 man by making him free from the tram- 
 mels of his own selfishness. "Love 
 seeketh not its own." Love chooses to 
 116 
 
LOVE 
 
 share the good it finds. It rejoices in its 
 ability to give away all that has been 
 given to it. 
 
 It is love and only love that can fol- 
 low life through all its changes. It is 
 not bound to a single form, but says 
 "Whither thou goest I will go." It is 
 a new kind of consciousness which 
 changes our relation to all that is about 
 us. It gives us something which no 
 amount of intelligence can give. 
 
 Let us imagine a great tree in which 
 roots and trunk and branches and leaves 
 have come to consciousness. The sepa- 
 rate parts realize their own existence 
 and their own special functions. The 
 intelligent root delves in the earth pur- 
 posefully, and rejoices when it has 
 found its food. The leaf knows itself to 
 117 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 be what it is, and watches eagerly the 
 processes of its own growth. By and by 
 the sense of responsibility comes, and 
 each acquires skill and does its ap- 
 pointed work better. And each out of its 
 own limited experience reasons. Each 
 draws inferences from what has hap- 
 pened in its own sphere, and ventures 
 upon large generalizations. The leaf 
 argues that other leaves have functions 
 like its own. They belong to a compre- 
 hensible order. But of the roots that 
 burrow in the dark places, and are never 
 gay in the sunshine, it knows, and can 
 know, nothing. They do not belong to 
 the intelligible world. And after a time 
 the wind grows chill, and it sees its 
 fellow leaves, its summer companions, 
 grow faint and let go their hold upon 
 the branches, an$ float away it knows 
 118 
 
LOVE 
 
 not whither. This then is the end of 
 all. There is nothing further of which 
 it is conscious. It only knows that it is 
 fated so to be. At any moment its turn 
 may come, as it goes the way of all the 
 living. 
 
 The reasoning, we say, was valid as far 
 as it went, but the experience on which it 
 was founded was not complete. The 
 leaf was conscious of itself ] but it was 
 not conscious of itself as a part of the 
 tree. The thrill of the larger life would 
 have changed resignation into the joy- 
 ous acceptance of a high privilege. 
 
 Suppose the tree consciousness were 
 to take possession of the leaf. It would 
 be an overpowering sense of vital energy 
 going out in all directions. The same 
 power which makes the buds swell 
 upon the twigs, works underground in 
 
J THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 the hungry roots. The seasons come 
 and go but the tree makes increase of 
 itself. Everything is thought of in its re- 
 lation to this wonderful life. 
 
 Now that is the kind of consciousness 
 that we call love. It is the consciousness 
 of ourselves not as isolated individuali- 
 ties but as sharers in a larger life. It is 
 the immediate apprehension of an indi- 
 visible whole. To one who has entered 
 into this consciousness everything has a 
 new value. It is valued not for what it 
 brings in, this is a comparatively worth- 
 less residuum; but for what it enables 
 one to give. 
 
 Nor does love, when it has been puri- 
 fied from grosser elements, attach itself 
 merely to the present form. The fond 
 mother may indeed sometimes say that 
 she wishes her child might never grow 
 120 
 
LOVE 
 
 up, but always remain dependent on her 
 care. But she knows that is not true love 
 but only selfishness. The mother fol- 
 lows her child through all the growing 
 years, rejoicingin his increasing strength. 
 And when the hour of parting comes 
 and the son goes forth to try his fortunes 
 in the world, the mother love grows 
 stronger. It is a power which overcomes 
 the influence of change. And as it is said 
 of love that it " seeketh not its own," so 
 it is said that it "taketh not account of 
 evil." This does not mean that it denies 
 the existence of evil. Evil is treated as 
 irrelevant. Love taketh no account of 
 evil, not because it does not see it but 
 because it sees through it. Sin, sorrow, 
 suffering these are facts which are 
 opaque to the cold understanding. But 
 there are other rays that shine through 
 121 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 them, finding no obstruction. Love sees 
 the perfect through the imperfect; it 
 discerns " the soul of goodness in things 
 evil." 
 
 This clairvoyance is manifest in all 
 finer judgments. There is a selective 
 power which unerringly finds excel- 
 lence. Two persons are looking at a 
 picture. One looks at it unimaginatively 
 and unappreciatively. He sees that the 
 canvas is old, the colors are faded, 
 there are obvious defects of drawing. 
 Seeing these things he passes the pic- 
 ture with contempt. He can justify his 
 scorn by a catalogue of the details 
 which offend him. But after the fault- 
 finder there comes an enthusiastic lover 
 of art. Does he not see the defects? 
 Yes; but he takes no account of them. 
 They do not interfere with his enjoy- 
 
 122 
 
LOVE 
 
 ment. The picture represents an im- 
 portant stage in the development of art, 
 It is from the hand of a master. The 
 master shared with his contemporaries 
 many faults, and he had mannerisms of 
 his own. But his genius shines through. 
 
 When true artists are talking together 
 how joyous and free they are! It is be- 
 cause each is conscious of something 
 beyond what he himself has accom- 
 plished. There are so many different 
 forms of beauty, and varying degrees 
 of excellence. They are not seeking 
 uniformity. They are exploring a pleas- 
 ant region where each turn of the road 
 has a charm of its own. 
 
 The lover of Nature has the same ex- 
 perience. What he delights in is not 
 the perfection of a single form, but the 
 wonder of an endless process. He is 
 
 123 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 pleased with the exuberance of life. 
 There are many things which interfere 
 with his comfort; and he is glad that 
 it is so. There are weeds and thorns, 
 there are thickets hard to penetrate, 
 there are wild things that hide them- 
 selves at his approach. But these things 
 do not irritate him. He is soothed and 
 inspired by'the manifold life around him, 
 and of which he is a part. 
 
 The same thing is true in regard to 
 human intercourse. The philanthropist 
 and the misanthropist have before them 
 precisely the same facts. One may be 
 as realistic as the other. But their minds 
 react differently. Human nature in its 
 actual imperfectness is the theme of all 
 realistic literature. 
 
 The unloving realist declares that he 
 will rid his mind of all sentimentality 
 124 
 
LOVE 
 
 and show us human character as it actu- 
 ally is. With painstaking art he repro- 
 duces an actual situation. He lays bare 
 the working of the mind, and points out 
 the unworthy motives which enter into 
 acts which we had been taught to ad- 
 mire. He analyzes the conventional 
 hero and reveals the sordid elements in 
 his nature. He reveals every weakness 
 which mars his best endeavor. Then 
 with cold impartiality he passes judg- 
 ment on the sum total of the qualities 
 which he has discovered. It is a piti- 
 able showing. 
 
 Then we turn to the really great 
 works of literature. The man of genius 
 just because he has genius is one 
 who not only sees clearly, but loves the 
 thing he sees. He makes no attempt to 
 disguise the imperfection which be- 
 I2 S 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 longs to all that is human. He is no 
 apologist for things as they are. This 
 is a world in which men sin and suf- 
 fer for their sins. He does not give 
 us an expurgated edition of the uni- 
 verse. There are ugly facts and un- 
 tamed passions and unanswered ques- 
 tions. The real world is so big that it 
 is easy to lose one's way in it. The 
 wisest lose their way often and only by 
 much effort find it again. Human nature 
 is complex and character is not adjusted 
 to circumstance with mechanical pre- 
 cision. The actual course of human con- 
 duct is never as straight as it appears in 
 the moral tale. There are many devious 
 windings and strange surprises. There 
 is a seamy side even to the lives of 
 saints, and great men do not always 
 retain the heroic attitude. 
 126 
 
LOVE 
 
 But all this is of little importance to 
 the lover of mankind. His heart was not 
 set ona,monotony of excellence. He is 
 free and cheerful in the presence of 
 human imperfection. He is with eager 
 eyes watching a vital process. He does 
 not see perfect creatures, but he sees 
 something which to him is much more 
 appealing. He sees imperfect creatures 
 striving for a more perfect form of ex- 
 istence. He sees them under all varieties 
 of circumstance tending upward. Their 
 very mistakes and failures make them 
 dear to him. He rejoices in their small 
 successes. He sees those whose lives 
 havebeenmost disappointing in moments 
 of heroism. These sudden flashes reveal 
 their real selves. He sees how men learn 
 from their mistakes. They are always 
 blundering, but the same blunders are 
 127 
 
THREE LORDS OF DESTINY 
 
 not precisely repeated. He comes to 
 feel that the obstacles in the path of hu- 
 manity are great but not insuperable. 
 
 O benefit of ill, now I find true 
 That better is by evil still made better 
 And ruined love when it is built anew 
 Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far 
 greater. 
 
 This doctrine of "the benefit of ill" is not 
 the fatalistic doctrine that evil of itself 
 works for good. It is rather the belief 
 in the supremacy of love, the power that 
 turns all things to its own uses. Out of 
 old ruins it is continually building new 
 and fairer habitations for itself. 
 
 We have tried to show that liberty is 
 not a gift of Nature. It is an achieve- 
 ment. A man is free in proportion to 
 his Courage, Skill, and Love, These are 
 the Lords of Destiny. 
 128 
 
LOVE 
 
 To choose one's own path and to abide 
 by the decision, to follow an inner light, 
 to resist the world's threat and fashion 
 this is to gain independence. It is the 
 achievement of simple courage. 
 
 To study and observe, to make use of 
 the accumulated experience of mankind, 
 to become inventive and skillful in all 
 good works, this is to gain mastery 
 over natural forces. 
 
 To give one's self to others, to rejoice 
 in the good that one does not seek to 
 monopolize, to follow life lovingly 
 through all its bewildering changes, to 
 rejoice in all its variety and richness 
 this is to be free indeed. It is through 
 love to "lay hold on eternal life." 
 
 THE END 
 
ttitoetftie 
 
 CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
 U . S . A 
 
\ 
 
YB 22794