Section 3

self more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts.
Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the search for knowl- edge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature. Such achievements may be sometimes connected with vanity and ambition, but they are not the outcome of those characteristics; they are the natural outgrowth of long and arduous effort, and of pure and unselfish thoughts.
Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations. He who lives constandy in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and blessedness.
Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought. By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, cor- ruption, and confusion of thought a man de- scends.
A man may rise to high success in the world,
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and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretched- ness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him.
Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.
All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law and are of the same method; the only difference lies in the object of attainment.
He who would accomplish little must sacri- fice litde; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
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VISIOKS
The dreamers are the saviours of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisi- ble, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know.
Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, labour- ing humanity would perish.
He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Co- lumbus cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision of a multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it; Buddha beheld the vision of a spiritual world of stainless beauty and perfect peace, and he entered into it.
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Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of -these, if you but re- main true to them, your world will at last be built.
To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. Shall man's basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest aspira- tions starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law: such a condition of things can never obtain: "Ask and receive."
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but per- ceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You can- not travel within and stand still without. Here
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is a youth hard pressed by poverty and labour; confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop; unschooled, and lacking all the arts of refine- ment. But he dreams of better things; he thinks of intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of, mentally builds up, an ideal condition of life; the vision of a wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him; unrest urges him to action, and" he uti- lizes all his spare time and means, small though they are, to the development of his latent pow- ers and resources. Very soon so altered has his mind become that the workshop can no longer hold him. It has become set out of harmony with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a garment is cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities which fit the scope of his expand- ing powers, he passes out of it forever. Years later we see this youth as a full-grown man. We find him a master of certain forces of the mind which he wields with world-wide influence and almost unequalled power. In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic responsibilities; he speaks, and lo! lives are changed; men and women hang upon his words and remould their char- acters, and, sunlike, he becomes the fixed and luminous centre round which innumerable des-

tinies revolve. He has realized the Vision of his youth. He has become one with his Ideal.
And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will be- come as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration: in the beau- tiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, "You may be keeping accounts, and presendy you shall walk out of the door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself before an audience — the pen still behind your ear, the inkstains on your fin- gers — and then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driv- ing sheep, and you shall wander to the city — bucolic and open-mouthed; shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the stu- dio of the master, and after a time he shall say, 'I have nothing more to teach you.' And now

you have become the master, who did so re- cendy dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay down the saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world."
The thoughdess, the ignorant, and the indo- lent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, "How lucky he is!" Observing an- other become intellectual, they exclaim, "How highly favoured he is!" And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, "How chance aids him at every turn!" They do not see the. trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily en- countered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparendy insurmountable, and realize the Vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it "luck"; do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it "good
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fortune"; do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it "chance."
In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. "Gifts," powers, material, intellectual, and spir- itual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, vi- sions realized.
The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart — this you will build your life by, this you will be- come.
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Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and opera- tions of thought.
A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved be- ing, for such knowledge necessitates the under- standing of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a right understanding, and sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss and fume and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast, serene.
The calm man, having learned how to gov- ern himself, knows how to adapt himself to others; and they, in turn, reverence his spiritual strength, and feel that they can learn of him and rely upon him. The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influ- ence, his power for good. Even the ordinary
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trader will find his business prosperity increase as he develops a greater self-control and equa- nimity, for people will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanour is strongly equa- ble.
The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm. "Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet- tempered, balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise of character which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture; it is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul. It is precious as wis- dom, more to be desired than gold — yea, than even fine gold. How insignificant mere money- seeking looks in comparison with a serene life — a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth, be- neath the waves, beyond the reach of tempests, in the Eternal Calm!
"How many people we know who sour their lives, who ruin all that is sweet and beautiful by explosive tempers, who destroy their poise of character, and make bad blood! It is a question whether the great majority of people do not
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ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack of self-control. How few people we meet in life who are well-balanced, who have that exquisite poise which is characteristic of the finished char- acter!"
Yes, humanity surges with uncontrolled pas- sion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by anxiety and doubt.' Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are con- trolled and purified, makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him.
Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this — in the ocean of life the isles of Blessed- ness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thdught. In the barque of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep; wake Him. Self- control is strength; Right Thought is mas- tery; Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, "Peace, be still!"
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