Wisdom & Empowerment: The Orison Swett Marden Edition (18 Books in One Volume). Orison Swett Marden

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      To bring your children up to respect themselves, to love the right and hate the wrong, to be self-reliant, strong, vigorous and independent, to do their own thinking so they may become leaders instead of trailers—that is to leave them something worth while. They will have power in themselves to help themselves, not imitate or copy, but live their own lives and form their own creeds. They will not need to apologize or sneak or fawn, but stand erect, look the world in the face without wincing, and feel themselves equal to any environment and masters of the situation by virtue of their own power. Such a legacy will enrich them more than all the millions you could amass.

      How many people in this country to-day are really ashamed of the father whose money they are spending! They are glad enough to get the money, but they do not like to say much about their fathers’ characters or how they acquired wealth.

      Is it not unaccountable how men will struggle and strive in order to pile up money, to accumulate a vast fortune for their children, and so coin their own lives, their very lifeblood, into dollars which they leave to their children, often with nothing else—no name, no memory which can be revered? Is it not strange that fathers will contend and crowd so hard for that which is cheap and shallow and unsatisfying, and neglect the development of the more permanent, more desirable, more beautiful and lasting qualities?

      These shrewd, long-headed men know very well that the chances are small that a son will develop the power of self-help and self-reliance when everybody is telling him that he is a fool to work, that his father is rich, that he should just pitch in and have a good time. These men know how small are the chances of developing that fiber which makes men, that stamina which makes character in the boy who has a fortune left him; yet many of them go blindly on, not seemingly caring anything about the development of their boys’ characters—or their own, intent on amassing fortunes which so often prove the ruin of the children who inherit them.

      If one is too large to be measured by the dollar-mark, or to be enclosed in his estate; if the wealth of his personality has overflowed until all his neighbors feel richer for his life and example; if every foot of land in his community is worth more because he lives there, then the loss of his property can not materially shrink his inventory.

      If you have learned to be rich without money; if you have, by the cultivation of your mental powers, gathered to yourself a treasure of indestructible wealth; if, like the bee, you have learned the secret of extracting honey from the thistle as well as from the rose, you will look upon your losses as mere incidents, not so very important to the larger and fuller life.

      It gives a sense of immense satisfaction to think that there is something within us greater than the wealth we acquire or our material pursuits; that there is something about us better than our career, better than living-getting, money-getting, fame-getting; that there is something which will survive the fire, the flood, or the tornado which sweeps away our property, which will survive detraction, persecution, calumny; something that will outlast even the dissolution of the body itself. That is, nobility of character, the sweetness and light which have helped people, which have made the world a little better place to live in.

      There is something within us which protests against having our most precious possessions at the mercy of accident or uncertainty. We have an innate assurance that, no matter what happens, nothing can possibly injure our real selves or destroy our greatest riches, our grandest possessions. There is a still voice within us which tells us that the true life is beyond the reach of anything that can harm it or rob it of one iota of its substance.

      The feeling of serenity, the assurance of stability and of possessing 'that which no power can shake, gives a satisfaction beyond all words to express, imparting to life its true dignity and grandeur.

      Do you not know that the whole creation thunders the Ten Commandments? The very atoms seem to have been dipped in a moral solution. There is ‘a moral tendency in the very nature of things. It looks out of the flowers, it shines from the stars. It grows in the forest, it waves in the grass, it laughs in the harvest. Each form of existence brings from the unseen its own lesson of wisdom, goodness, power, design, and points to something higher than itself, the great Author of its magnificence.

      In spite of all the discord, and the sin and the suffering about us, we have an instinctive faith that somehow, somewhere, Nature will rid herself of the last crime, and restore the lost Paradise of Eden.

      Chapter XI.

       Keeping A Level Head

       Table of Contents

      Give us a man who is not easily thrown off his guard, or off his balance,” is the cry when danger threatens. The man who can think clearly and act wisely when others get excited is the man who is everywhere sought to save the day in a crisis; he is always wanted for important positions, because, in emergencies, which are always likely to arise, everybody feels safer in his hands. It is the man who knows what to do when others are disconcerted, who is cool when others are excited, that is wanted; the man who is not easily flustered when pressure is brought to bear upon him or when he is obliged to assume great responsibility.

      Men who easily lose their heads, and who go all to pieces in an accident, or when any great strain is brought to bear upon them or anything very unusual occurs, are weaklings, and are not to be depended upon in an emergency.

      There is something superb, something we can not help revering and admiring in a person who can stand perfectly calm, unmoved, and serene when others become excited, lose their heads, and have no control over their acts.

      To keep a level head in all circumstances and under all conditions, to keep it when others lose it, to maintain an even judgment, good “horse sense,” when others around one are foolish, is a difficult thing. It shows a great reserve power, that which characterizes the poised, self-controlled man.

      What a magnificent example of serenity and poise under all conditions we have in the iceberg at sea! No matter how hard the tempest rages, or how hard the mountainous billows dash against its sides, it does not tremble or quiver, or give any signs of having been touched, because seven-eighths of its enormous bulk is below the surface of the water. Its immensity is securely balanced down in the calm of the ocean depths, beneath the agitation of wave or tempest. It is this tremendous reserve below the surface, this powerful momentum, which makes the exposed part of the iceberg bid defiance to the elements.

      One of the most difficult things for a young man to do is to keep a level head. It is so easy to lose one's balance, to get a “swelled head” over a little prosperity, to lose one's ambition for forging ahead by a raise in salary. A little ease and comfort are great tempters, great destroyers of ambition.

      It is a difficult thing to keep a level head when the storms of temptation and financial difficulties are raging about one; but it is easier than in prosperity. There is something in human nature which braces up against adversity, which stiffens up when the world goes hard and makes one tug the harder; but somehow ease, comfort, and the thought of prosperity take the spring out of the ambition. The motive to push ahead, to struggle, to strive, is usually weakened by the feeling of satisfaction that one has achieved something worth while, that he has gained what he started out to get.

      The test of a large, well-balanced man is that he does not change materially with changed conditions. Financial losses, failure in his undertakings, sorrow, do not throw him off his balance, because he is centered in principle. Nor is he puffed up by a little prosperity.

      There is one thing a man ought to be always able to do, no matter in what circumstances he may СКАЧАТЬ