The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1879-08-21
Contentnent.


that it has become the master of you.
The instant the pursuit of money be-
comes vexatious care, disturbing your
days and your sleep at night, in that
moment you have lost your freedom,
and you are the slave of passion.
Contentment comes from the perfect
mastery of an idea You must hold
the ideas as the glass holds the wine. 1t
must be contained. One of the ancient
wise men having been informed that a
storm had destroyed all his merchant
ships and had thus in one day swept
away his fortune, said: at is just as
we'll, for now l can give up my mind
more fully to study" Thus. however
many ships he had on the sea, and how
ever rich their cargoes, he was yet not
the slave of his traffic, but his great
mind held all these things in perfect
subsection. At times he must have felt
that these sailing ships were placing
chains upon his liberty, for otherwise
we can not SO easily understand his
perfect willingness that the sea should
possess their contents. But he owned
his ships-they did not own him. He
was a contained soul Many fail to he
masters of their ideas and thus become
the conspicuous slave OF them. An
egotist may be indeed person OF great
ability. He may indeed be learned,
Or logical, or eloquent, and worthy of
nations praise, but being thus intrin-
sicallv great, his knowledge of the fact
became too powerful for him He had
not the philosophy to say, IF great,
what of it :" but, weak in some one
point, he permitted his greatness to get
the better of him, and the result was a
pufed-up egotism which all abhor.
Thus there will or may come from this
quarter or that ideas that will transform
into a mental him who receives them too
ardently. Discomfort is like egotlsm,
an instance in which small idea will
ride to death what was once man, Just
as the elephant or the lion can be an
moved to madness by little insect.
AS a promoter of mental peace as to
property, wonderful power must be
ascribed to the pursuit of things which
money will not buy. While the mind
is longing for purchasable articles it will
long for the money that will buy them.
If one will from day to day build up a
passion for material things then from
day to day will grow the love of that
which will buy these homes and car
riages and furniture, and thus a large
door is opened at which unrest will rush
in. When by parity of reasoning the
mind turns toward such ends as cannot
be bought with mouey, then the passion
dies. The world of reading and of all
study is so large, of science and art and
religion so great that we are almost
without excuse if these do not play in
Our three-s score years a part so large as
TO cast into shadow the longing for
great property. Learning, taste, char
acter, friendship, benevolence, are
things which ask nothing of money.
Gold cannot buy these things! Who
ever seeks these things need not come
near any market place. 1t is said that
there are only one hundred great books
II the worldl The library of the most
ardent lover is easily found when the
heart is given to that elevation and cul
ture of self which money will not pur
chase. Each one of you has had this
experience | know; you have walked
about your house and have seen where
you needed, at once, a thousand dollars
worth of furniture and curtains and
mirrors, and have sighed inwardly be-
cause it could not be, and then, having
gone into your library and having read
an hour or two in a great book you
have suddenly found that you did not
want anything. The book has led your
heart to region where gold is vain and
nothing is great but the soul. There is
a single little book by Lamartine, called
''The Stone Mason" which if learned by
memory would make property decline
so per cent in our hearts. 1t turns
into dust the splendor of Versailles and
the crowns of French kings; and makes
a quiet valley with few human hearts
in it to be a picture, of sublimity un
equaled by the palaces of the great Louis.
Lamartine must have composed the
book to show us what richness there
is in the spiritual realm as compared
with the realm of material effort and
success In hours of disquiet when your
heart longs for costlier house or equipa-
ges or for richer Jewels, read that book