If  the  fond  delusions  of  youth  fade,  as
fade  they  must,  shall  they  not  be  replaced
by  companionship  whose  basis  is  loyalty
and  truth?  The  illuminating  effect  of  per-
sonal love  is  that  one  shall  question  and
examine  himself  that  he  become  more  worthy
the  object  of  his  affection.  If  it  do  not  so,  it
is  no  love  at  all  but  a  counterfeit  merely ;  and
you  shall  know  it  is  spurious  by  the  result.
We  beget  children  to  serve  Nature,  but  in
the  sacrifice  we  make  for  them,  in  the  puri-
fication of  ourselves,  in  the  growth  of  charac-
ter, we  serve  love  and  the  end  justifies  the
means.
Let  any  man  write  or  speak  sincerely  of
love  in  its  divine  and  essential  character,
and  he  shall  feel  that  he  preaches  better
than  he  lives;  that  not  for  one  day  has  he


40  Resources

observed  its  maxims.  Yet  shall  he  write
none  the  less  for  being  but  an  indifferent
channel  of  that  truth  which  uses  him.  Per-
chance he  shall  evolve  no  more  than  a
treatise  on  the  sun;  and  again,  it  may  be,
his  page  shall  reflect  a  ray  of  sunshine.
CHAPTER  IV
WISDOM

AS  love  is  that  leaven  without  which  all
were  flat  and  stale,  wisdom  is  the
revelation  of  true  values.  To  the  man  of
perception,  resources  assume  their  just  pro-
portions and  stand  related;  for  resources
are  such  only  as  they  fit  into  life.  It  is  the
living  counts  and  our  life  may  be  compared
to  a  mosaic  of  which  these  are  the  pieces.
We  are  destined  to  be  men,  and  not  merely
painters,  musicians,  or  merchants — not  merely
readers,  talkers,  and  thinkers;  and  it  is  as
men,  and  as  wise  men  if  may  be,  that  we
shall  read  and  observe  and  speak.
