You have purchased
power. You have taken stock in length of years. You have equipped
yourself with new nerves, a rested heart, a refreshed brain, a hearty
stomach, and a sane mind in a sound body.
And you have done more than all this: You have restored your
perspective. You have corrected your vision, so that you see things in
their just proportion. One reason why men waste energy so prodigally
is that their intense pursuit of their business makes them lose all
sense of the proportion of things. That which is of little consequence
appears, to the distorted vision, of immense importance; and as much
energy is wasted in trifles as should be expended on great affairs.
This process keeps up until really first-class men are reduced to very
small men.
Let a man go each year to the everlasting mountains; to the solitude
of the ancient forests; to the eternal ocean with its manifestation of
power and repose. Let him sit by its solemn shore listening to it sing
that song which for a million years before our civilization was
thought of it had been singing, and which for a million years after
our civilization has become merely a line in history it will continue
to sing, and he will realize how unimportant are the things which only
a few weeks before seemed to him of such vast moment.
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