The Buddhists say, "No seed will die:" every seed will grow. Where is
the service which can escape its remuneration? What is vulgar, and the
essence of all vulgarity, but the avarice of reward? ’Tis the difference
of artisan and artist, of talent and genius, of sinner and saint. The
man whose eyes are nailed not on the nature of his act, but on the
wages, whether it be money, or office, or fame,—is almost equally low.
He is great, whose eyes are opened to see that the reward of actions
cannot be escaped, because he is transformed into his action, and taketh
its nature, which bears its own fruit, like every other tree. A great
man cannot be hindered of the effect of his act, because it is
immediate. The genius of life is friendly to the noble, and in the dark
brings them friends from far. Fear God, and where you go, men shall
think they walk in hallowed cathedrals.
And so I look on those sentiments which make the glory of the human
being, love, humility, faith, as being also the intimacy of Divinity in
the atoms; and, that, as soon as the man is right, assurances and
previsions emanate from the interior of his body and his mind; as, when
flowers reach their ripeness, incense exhales from them, and, as a
beautiful atmosphere is generated from the planet by the averaged
emanations from all its rocks and soils.
Thus man is made equal to every event. He can face danger for the
right. A poor, tender, painful body, he can run into flame or bullets
or pestilence, with duty for his guide. He feels the insurance of a
just employment. I am not afraid of accident, as long as I am in my
place. It is strange that superior persons should not feel that they
have some better resistance against cholera, than avoiding green peas
and salads. Life is hardly respectable,—is it? if it has no generous,
guaranteeing task, no duties or affections, that constitute a necessity
of existing. Every man’s task is his life-preserver. The conviction
that his work is dear to God and cannot be spared, defends him. The
lightning-rod that disarms the cloud of its threat is his body in its
duty. A high aim reacts on the means, on the days, on the organs of the
body. A high aim is curative, as well as arnica. "Napoleon," says
Goethe, "visited those sick of the plague, in order to prove that the
man who could vanquish fear, could vanquish the plague also; and he was
right. ’Tis incredible what force the will has in such cases: it
penetrates the body, and puts it in a state of activity, which repels
all hurtful influences; whilst fear invites them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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