My Virtual Reading Room

Compensation

I'd like to think when life is done
That I had filled a needed post,
That here and there I'd paid my fare
With more than idle talk and boast;
That I had taken gifts divine,
The breath of life and manhood fine,
And tried to use them now and then
In service for my fellow men.

I'd hate to think when life is through
That I had lived my round of years
A useless kind, that leaves behind
No record in this vale of tears;
That I had wasted all my days
By treading only selfish ways,
And that this world would be the same
If it had never known my name.

I'd like to think that here and there,
When I am gone, there shall remain
A happier spot that might have not
Existed had I toiled for gain;
That some one's cheery voice and smile
Shall prove that I had been worth while;
That I had paid with something fine
My debt to God for life divine.

(Edgar A. Guest)

....but there are some men of to-day whom it is impossible to move. So that I feel now what I formerly did not understand--the meaning of the proverb, "A fool you can neither persuade nor break."  God forbid that I should ever have for a friend a wise fool!  There is nothing harder to handle. "I have decided," he says! Why yes, and so have madmen; but the more firm their decision is about what is false, the more hellebore they need.   Will you not act like a sick man, and summon a physician? "I am sick, sir; help me. Consider what I ought to do; it is my part to obey you."

So also in the present instance. "I know not what I ought to be doing, but I have come to find out." Thus one should speak.  No, but this is what one hears, "Talk to me about anything else, but on this point I have made my decision."  "Anything else" indeed! Why, what is more important or more to your advantage than to be convinced that it is not sufficient for a man merely to have reached decisions, and to refuse to change? These are the sinews of madness, not health.  "If you force me to do this, I would gladly die."  What for, man? What has happened? "I have decided"! It was fortunate for me that you did not decide to kill me!