And if it be a true boast that man’s mind is his real and legitimate kingdom, then he must make that kingdom his Heaven, and within that kingdom his treasure must be stored. It is there, by the power of his mind more than by the power of his hands, that he must gather and hold together his great possessions. We are accustomed to speak in one single connection (with book-knowledge, namely, and with the use of words)--of “learning things by heart.” It is only “by heart” that we can ever really learn anything; only when our heart is in it do we know and value a thing so as to understand it. The man whose heart is not in his work is not a complete craftsman; he has not yet learned the “mystery” of his trade. When men’s hearts were in their work they called their trades “mysteries,” and did, as a consequence, more excellently than we do now, when we make rather for the price of a thing than for the joy of it. Until we have joy in our labour, all labour is a form of waste--for it wastes the bodies and souls which are put to it, and is destructive of the most wonderful and valuable commodity which this planet has yet produced--human nature. Labour without joy causes it to deteriorate; and if a man is put to work wherein it is impossible to find joy, then it were better for the wealth of the nation, as well as for the wealth of his own individual soul, that he should be free from it. And if that is impossible then let us not boast ourselves about our “national wealth” or our great possessions. Nations whose wealth and industries are built up out of the hard and grinding mechanical labour of millions are not capable in any true sense of holding great possessions, for at their very root is an enormous mass of poverty--impoverished blood, impoverished brain, and impoverished spirit. If you would examine into the wealth of this or any other nation, look not first at its temples or its arts, but into the bodies and minds and characters--and the faculty for joy--of its men and women. And if these, in the majority of cases, are below par, then the nation’s wealth is below par also; its great possessions are overshadowed by the greater dispossession which stands imposed upon the lives of its people. The word possession itself has, in our use of it, a double significance. When we speak of a man “having a possession,” we may mean two things--either that he possesses, or else that he is possessed. A man with a possession of jealousy, or hatred, lust or covetousness, has no real possession or control of those things, but is himself possessed or controlled by them, and so is rendered not stronger but weaker--subject to a master other than himself.