The Investment of Influence: A Study of Social Sympathy and ServiceHillis, Newell Dwight
Philosophy
The Investment of Influence: A Study of Social Sympathy and Service
Hillis, Newell Dwight
Conduct of life
Down in a corner of a window of an English palace may be found faint
lines scratched with a woman's diamond. What a tragedy in those words,
"My prison!" It seems the sweet girl, Jane Grey, entered her palace
with a leaping heart, but her lord had no time to break upon her white
forehead the tiny box of life's ointment. Hers was the palace; hers
also a thousand rich gifts called titles, lands, castles, maids of
honor, dresses, jewels. Yet because the castles held no sweet
courtesies the journal of that beautiful girl reminds us of some young
bird that beats with bloody wings against the bars of an iron cage.
For life is made up not of joys few and intense, but of joys many and
gentle. Great happiness is the sum of many small drops. God makes the
days that are channels of mighty and tumultuous joys to be few and far
between. For highly spiced joys exhaust. All who seek intense
pleasure will find not enjoyment but yearnings for enjoyment.
Happiness is in simple things; a cup of cold water, health and a
perfect day; dreamless sleep, honest toil, the esteem of the worthy,
the caresses of little children, a love that waxes with the increasing
years.
Our appreciation of the principle that greatness of any form is an
accumulation of little deeds will be freshened by an outlook upon
nature's method. The old science unveiled the universe as a divine
thought rushing into instant form, stars and suns being sparks struck
out on the anvil of omnipotence. The new science has found that
earth's every atom has been slowly polished by an infinite artisan and
architect. If we descend into the sea we shall find that the reefs and
islands against which the tides of the Pacific dash in vain are built
of coral insects, whose every organ exhibits the delicate skill of a
diamond or snowflake. If we stand upon the fruitful plain where men
build cities we shall discern that each flake of the rich soil
represents the perfect crystallization of drops of melted granite. If
we take the wings of the morning and dwell upon the summit of the
Matterhorn there also we find that the mountain hath its height and
majesty through particles themselves weak and little. For the
geologist who analyzes the topmost peak of the Alpine ridge must go
back to a little flake of mica, that ages and ages ago floated along
some one of earth's rivers, too light to sink, too feeble to find the
fiber of a lichen, therefore dropped into the ooze of mire and decay.
Yet hardened by earth's processes, the day came when that flake of mica
was lifted up upon the mountain's peak, wrought into the strength of
imperishable iron, "rustless by the air, infusible by the flame,
capping the very summit of the Alpine tower. Above it--that little
obscure mica flake--the north winds rage, yet all in vain, below
it--the feeble mica flake--the snowy hills lie bowing themselves like
flocks of sheep, and the distant kingdoms fade away in unregarded
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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