“But they don’t see the sea from the house. The top of the hills shuts it out. You only see the lake.”
“I think I would have climbed a little higher and built where I could have seen the sea.”
How many people are content to take up their abode on the lakeview side of the hill, instead of climbing to the summit and getting the vision of the great sea! (Text.)
(2879)
SELF-MASTERY
It is related that an eminent scientist, with his wife and brother, were sailing one moonlight evening on Lake Geneva. It became necessary to climb the mast to adjust a rope, when the boat capsized, and in a moment all three were struggling in the water. The lady, who was an extremely cultivated woman, coolly called to her companions, “I will not take hold of you, but come to me and let me put my hands upon your shoulders.” Which they did, and she was buoyed up for half an hour until all were saved. It was her mastery of herself that made it possible for them to rescue her.—James T. White, “Character Lessons.”
(2880)
Self-mastery Gradual—See [Endeavor, Constant].
SELF-MEASUREMENT
The story of the young man in fiction has traveled all this strange distance. It begins with the primitive bard, straining his voice and almost breaking his lyre in order to utter the greatness of youth and the greatness of masculinity; it ends with the novelist looking at both of them with a magnifying-glass; it begins with a delight in things above, and ends with a delight in things below us. I for one have little doubt about their relative value. For if a man can say, “I like to find something greater than myself,” he may be a fool or a madman, but he has the essential. But if a man says, “I like to find something smaller than myself,” there is only one adequate answer, “You couldn’t.” (Text.)—G. K. Chesterton, The Critic.