Just  as  the  water  that  is  cut  by  a  ship  closes  again  after
the  ship  passes,  and  never  again  touches  that  ship,  so  each
man,  as  he  passes  over  the  great  sea  of  life,  has  to  leave
behind  him  everything  that  according  to  the  eternal  law  of
fitness  he  ought  not  to  have.  He  would  like  to  have  cer-
tain men  as  friends,  but  he  is  not  naturally  fitted  to  become
intimate  with  them,  therefore  he  cannot  have  their  friend-
ship. He  wishes  for  certain  pleasures,  but  if  his  natural
capacities  have  not  entitled  him  to  such  pleasures,  he  will
never  obtain  them.  He  would  like  to  have  a  beautiful
home;  that  also  is  a  wish  only  to  be  gratified  in  the  case  of
men  of  larger  powers.  He  must  remember,  to  console  him-
self, that  he  is  only  indeed  a  ship  chartered  to  cross  the  sea
of  life  and  death,  and  to  follow  a  fixed  course.  That  is  his
destiny — not  a  blind  destiny,  but  a  destiny  evolved  by  his
own  past  history,  by  his  own  inheritance  of  greater  or  of
less  ability  than  his  fellow  man.
