Speaker 1: Eight pillars. Prosperity rests upon a moral foundation, it is
popularly supposed to rest upon an immoral foundation, that is,
upon trickery, sharp practice, deception, and greed. One commonly hears
even an otherwise intelligent man declare that no man can
be successful in business unless he is dishonest, thus regarding
business prosperity a good thing as the effect of dishonesty
a bad thing. Such a statement is superficial and thoughtless,
and reveals a total lack of knowledge of moral causation,
as well as a very limited grasp of the facts
of life. It is as though one should so henbane
and reap spinach, or erect a brick house on a quagmire.
Things impossible in the natural order of causation, and therefore
not to be attempted. This spiritual or moral order of
causation is not different in principle, but only in nature.
The same law obtains in things unseen in thoughts and
deeds as in things seen in natural phenomena. Man sees
the processes in natural objects and acts in accordance with them,
but not seeing the spiritual processes, he imagines that they
do not obtain, and so he does not act in
harmony with them. Yet these spiritual processes are just as
simple and just as sure as the natural processes. They
are indeed the same natural modes manifesting in the world
of mind. All the parables and a large number of
the sayings of the great teachers are designed to illustrate
this fact. The natural world is the mental world made visible.
The scene is the mirror of the unseen. The upper
half of circle is in no way different from the
lower half, but its sphericity is reversed. The material in
the mental are not too detached arcs in the universe.
They are the two halves of a complete circle. The
natural and the spiritual are not at eternal enmity, but
in the true order of the universe, are eternally at one.
It is in the unnatural, in the abuse of function
and faculty, where division arises, and where man is wrestled
back with repeated sufferings from the perfect circle from which
he has tried to depart. Every process in matter is
also a process in mind. Every natural law has its
spiritual counterpart. Take any natural object and you will find
its fundamental processes in the mental sphere. If you rightly search,
consider for instance, the germination of a seed and its
growth into a plant, with the final development of a flower,
and then back to seed again. This also is a
mental process. Thoughts are seeds which, falling in the soil
of the mind, germinate and develop until they reach the
completed stage, blossoming into deeds good or bad, brilliant or stupid,
according to their nature, and ending as seeds of thought,
to be again sown in other minds. A teacher is
a sower of seed, a spiritual agriculturist, while he who
teaches himself is the wise farmer of his own mental plot.
The growth of a thought is as the growth of
a plant. The seed must be sown seasonably, and time
is required for its full development into the plant of
knowledge and the flower of wisdom. While writing this, I
pause and turn to look through my study window, and there,
a hundred yards away is a tall tree, in the
top of which some enterprising rook from a rookery close
by has for the first time built its nest. A
strong northeast wind is blowing, so that the top of
the tree is swayed violently to and fro by the
onset of the blast. Yet there is no danger to
that frail thing of sticks and hair, and the mother bird,
sitting upon her eggs, has no fear of the storm.
Why is this It is because the bird has instinctively
built her nest in harmony with principles which ensure the
maximum's strength and security. First, a fork is chosen as
the foundation for the nest, and not a space between
two separate branches, so that, however great may be the
swaying of the top tree, the position of the nest
is not altered nor its structure disturbed. Then, the nest
is built on a circular plan, so as to offer
the greatest resistance to any external pressure, as well as
to obtain more perfect compactness within in accordance with its purpose,
And so however the tempest may rage, the birds rest
in comfort and security. This is a very simple and
familiar object, and yet in the strict obedience of its
structure to mathematical law, it becomes to the wise a
parable of enlightenment, teaching them that only by ordering one's
deeds in accordance with fixed principles is perfect surety, perfect security,
and perfect piece obtained amid the uncertainty of events and
the turbulent tempests of life. A house or a temple
built by a man is a much more complicated structure
than a bird's nest. Yet it is erected in accordance
with those mathematical principles which are every where evidenced in nature.
And here is seen how man in material things obeys
universal principles. He never attempts to put up a building
in defiance of geometrical proportions, for he knows that such
a building would be unsafe, and that the first storm would,
in all probability level it to the ground, if indeed
it did not fall about his ears. During the process
of erection, man in his material building scrupulously obeys the
fixed principles of circle, square, and angle, and, aided by
rule plumb line encompasses, he raises a structure which will
resist the fiercest storms and affords him a secure shelter
and safe protection. All this is very simple, The reader
may say, yes, it is simple, because it is true
and perfect, so true that it cannot admit the smallest compromise,
and so perfect that no man can improve upon it. Man,
through long experience, has learned these principles of the material world,
and sees the wisdom of obeying them, and I have
thus referred to them in order to lead up to
a consideration of those fixed principles in the mental or
spiritual world, which are just as simple and just as
eternally true and perfect, yet are at present so little
understood by man, as he daily violates them, because he
is ignorant of their nature and unconscious of the harm
he is all the time inflicting upon himself in mind,
as matter, in thoughts, as things, indeeds, as natural processes.
There is a fixed foundation of law, which, if consciously
or ignorantly ignored, leads to disaster and defeat. It is indeed,
the ignorant violation of this law which is the cause
of the life world's pain and sorrow. In matter, this
law is presented as mathematical. In mind, it is perceived
as moral. But the mathematical and the moral are not
separate and opposed. They are but two aspects of a
united whole. The fixed principles of mathematics, to which all
matter is subject, are the body of which the spirit
is ethical, while the eternal principles of morality are mathematical
truisms operating in the universe of mind. It is as
impossible to live successfully apart from moral principles as to
build successfully while ignoring mathematical principles. Characters, like houses, only
stand firmly when built on a foundation of moral law,
and they are built up slowly and laboriously, deed by deed.
For in the building of character, the bricks are deep. Business,
and all human enterprises are not exempt from the external order,
but can only stand securely by the observance of fixed laws.
Prosperity to be stable and enduring, must rest on a
solid foundation of moral principle, and be supported by the
adamantine pillars of sterling character and moral worth. In the
attempt to run a business in defiance of moral principles,
disaster of one kind or another is inevitable. The permanently
prosperous men in any community are not its tricksters and deceivers,
but its reliable and upright men. The Quakers are acknowledged
to be the most upright men in the British community,
and although their numbers are small, they are the most prosperous.
The Jaines in India are similar both in numbers and
sterling worth, and they are the most prosperous people. In India,
men speak of building up a business, and indeed a
business is as much a building as is a brick
house or a stone church, albeit the process of building
is a mental one. Prosperity, like a house, is a
roof over a man's head, affording him protection and comfort.
A roof presupposes a support, and a support necessitates a foundation.
The roof of prosperity, then is supported by the following
eight pillars, which are cemented in a foundation of moral
consistency one energy, two economy three integrity, four system five sympathy, six, sincerity,
seven impartia eight self reliance. A business built up on
the faultless practice of all these principles would be so
firm and enduring as to be invincible. Nothing could injure it,
nothing could undermine its prosperity, nothing could interrupt its success
or bring it to the ground. But that success would
be assured with incessant increase, so long as the principles
were adhered to. On the other hand, where these principles
were all absent, there could be no success of any kind.
There could not even be a business at all, for
there would be nothing to produce the adherents of one
part with another. But there would be that lack of life,
that absence of fiber and consistency, which animates and gives
body and form to anything whatsoever. Picture a man with
all these principles absent from his mind his daily life,
And even if your knowledge of these principles is but
slight and imperfect, you could not think of such a
man as doing any successful work. You could picture him
as leading the confused life of a shiftless tramp. But
to imagine him as the head of a business, as
the center of an organization, or as a responsible and
controlling agent in any department of life, this you could
not do, because you realize its impossibility. The fact that
no one of moderate morality and intelligence can think of
such a man as commanding any success should to all
those who have not yet grasped the import of these principles,
and therefore declare that morality is not a factor, but
rather a hindrance in prosperity. Be it sound proof to
them that their conclusion is totally wrong. For if it
was right, then the greater the lack of these moral principles,
the greater would be the success. These eight principles, then,
in greater or lesser degree, are the causative factors in
all success of whatsoever kind. Underneath all prosperity, they are
the strong supports, And, howsoever appearances may be against such
a conclusion, a measure of them informs and sustains every
effort which is crowned with that excellence which men name success.
It is true that comparatively few successful men practice in
their entirety and perfection all these eight principles. But there
are those who do, and they are the leaders, teachers,
and guides of men, the supports of human society, and
the strong pioneers of human evolution. But while few achieve
that moral perfection which ensures the acme of success, all
lesser successes come from the partial observance of these principles,
which are so powerful in the production of good results,
that even perfection in any two or three of them
alone is sufficient to ensure an ordinary degree of prosperity
and maintain a measure of local influence, at least for
a time. While the same perfection in two or three,
with partial excellence in all or nearly all the others,
will render permanent that limited success and influence which will
necessarily grow and extend in exact ratio with a more
intimate knowledge and practice of those principles which at present
are only partially incorporated in the character. The boundary lines
of a man's morality mark the limits of his success.
So true is this that to know a man's moral
status would be to know to mathematically gauge his ultimate
success or failure. The temple of prosperity only stands in
so far as it is supported by its moral pillars,
and as they are weakened it becomes insecure. In so
far as they are withdrawn, it crumbles away and totters
to ruin. Ultimate failure and defeat are inevitable where moral
principles are ignored or defied. Inevitable in the nature of
things as cause an effect. As a stone thrown upward
returns to the earth, so every deed, good or bad,
returns upon him that set it forth. Every unmoral or
immoral act frustrates the end at which it aims, and
every such succeeding act puts it further and further away
as an achieved realization. On the other hand, every moral
act is another solid brick in the temple of prosperity,
another round of strength and sculptured beauty in the pillars
which support it. Individuals, families, nations grow and prosper in
harmony with their growth and moral strength and knowledge. They
fall and fail in accordance with their moral decadence. Mentally,
as physically, only that which has form and solidity can
stand and endure. The unmorl is nothingness, and from it
nothing can be formed. It is the negation of substance.
The immoral is destruction. It is the negation of form.
It is a process of spiritual denudation. While it undermines
and disintegrates, it leaves the scattered material ready for the
wise builder to put it into form again. And the
wise builder is morality, the moral substance, form and building
power in one. Morality always builds up and preserves, for
that is its nature. Being the opp set of immorality,
which always breaks down and destroys. Morality is the master
builder everywhere, whether in individuals or nations. Morality is invincible,
and he who stands upon it to the end stands
upon an impregnable rock, so that his defeat is impossible,
his triumph is certain. He will be tried, and that
to the uttermost, for without fighting there can be no victory,
and so only can his moral powers be perfected. And
it is in the nature of fixed principles, as of
everything finely and perfectly wrought, to have their strength tested
and proved. The steel bars, which are to perform the
strongest and best uses in the world, must be subjected
to a severe strain by the iron master as a
test of their texture and efficiency before they are sent
from his foundry. The brickmaker throws aside the bricks which
have given way under the severe heat. So he who
is to be greatly and permanently successful, will pass through
the strain of adverse circumstances and the fire of temptation,
with his moral nature not merely undermined, but strengthened and beautified.
He will be like a bar of well wrought steel,
fit for the highest use, and the universe will see,
as the iron master his finely wrought steel, that the
use does not escape him. Immorality is assailable at every point,
and he who tries to stand upon it sinks into
the morass of desolution. Even while his efforts seem to stand,
they are crumbling away. The climax of failure is inevitable.
While the immoral man is chuckling over his ill gotten gains,
there is already a hole in his pocket through which
his goal is falling. While he who begins with morality
yet deserts it for gain in the hour of trial
is like the brick which breaks on the first application
of heat. He is not fit for use, and the
universe casts him aside. Yet not finally, for he is
a being and not a brick, and he can live
and learn, can repent and be restored. Moral force is
the life of all successes, and the sustaining element in
all prosperity. But there are various kinds of successes, and
it is frequently necessary that a man should fail in
one direction that he may reach up to a greater
and more far reaching success. If, for instance, a literary, artistic,
or spiritual genius should begin by trying to make money,
it may be, and often is, to his advantage and
the betterment of his genius, that he he should fail therein,
so that he may achieve that more sublime success wherein
lies his real power. Many a millionaire would doubtless be
willing to barter his millions for the literary success of
a Shakespeare, or the spiritual success of a Buddha, and
would thereby consider that he had made a good bargain.
Exceptional spiritual success is rarely accompanied with riches, yet financial
success cannot in any way compare with it in greatness
and grandeur. But I am not in this book dealing
with the success of the saint or spiritual genius, but
with that success which concerns the welfare, well being, and
happiness of the broadly average man and woman, in a word,
with the prosperity, which, while being more or less connected
with money, being present and temporal, yet is not confined
there too, but extend to and embraces all human activities,
and which particularly relates to that harmony of the individual
with his circumstances, which produces that satisfaction called happiness, and
that comfort known as prosperity, to the achievement of this
end so desirable to the mass of mankind. Let us
now see how the eight principles operate, how the roof
of prosperity is raised and made secure upon the pillars
by which it is supported