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so is to familiarize yourself with the lives and deeds of the heroes of the world. Walk down the aisles of history in the company of the great and good and you will catch something of their spirit, on the principle that "he that walketh with wise men shall be wise."

Without a measure of magnanimity a man is in a fair way to become a wretched self-tormentor as he grows old. He will be narrowed by selfishness, soured by envy, and crushed by the disappointments of life.

The magnanimous man like the contented man has in himself a continual feast. He can say:

"My mind to me a kingdom is;

Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss

That earth affords or grows by kind.
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave."

Perils of Success.

WR

REV. GEORGE R. HEWITT, B.D.

E have not the slightest expectation of saying anything on this subject that will have one feather's weight of influence in deterring anyone from striving to attain success. Whatever its perils, they will eagerly be braved for the sake of reaching the shining goal. All risks will be run if only the coveted prize may be grasped.

What do we mean by success? What would probably be the reply of four out of every five men whom you should meet on the street if suddenly asked what they understood success to be? They would say success consists in gaining wealth, or at least a competence. This, of course, is not the highest idea of success, but it is the current idea. The age is materialistic, and success like everything else is estimated in terms of dollars and cents. Such being the case we shall take success in the present chapter to mean simply becoming rich or becoming eminent, either in business or in professional life, as the case may be.

In this acceptation of the term, then, what are some of the perils of success? They are by no means visionary. Though, perhaps, not so obvious as the dangers attending failure they are none the less real.

I. There is the danger of pride. As Dr. Robert South very pithily puts it: "Who is there whose heart does not swell with his money-bag, and whose thoughts do not follow the proportions of his condition? What a difference sometimes in the same man poor and preferred! His mind like a mushroom has shot up in a night. His first business is to forget

himself, then his friends. When the sun shines the peacock displays his train."

The peril of prosperity is that it is very apt to make a man "think more highly of himself than he ought to think." Addison has said, "Tis not in mortals to command success, but the successful man is prone to forget this, and to take all the credit of his success to himself. He fails to make sufficient allowance for favoring circumstances, for the element of chance, or luck in business, or for a smiling Providence. As Nebuchadnezzar at the height of his prosperity and pride said, "Is not this great Babylon which I have built by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?" so the prosperous man to-day is apt to give the pronoun "I" a large place in his conversation. His thoughts are likely to be filled with himself, with what he has, and what he has done more than others. Such a man is apt to stop his ears to the entrance of reproof or advice. A man of his capabilities is too wise to need the assistance of another's wisdom. The wealthier a man is the wiser he is in his own conceit. Thus prosperity begets pride, and success gives birth to a feeling of self-sufficiency.

II. Another peril of success is that of failing to make a right use of it. The danger attending all good things is that they will be abused and so become evil things. Money always brings with it the possibility of its misuse. The sudden accession of wealth, therefore, is a perilous thing for a man unless he is. under the power and guidance of high moral principles. He will be tempted merely to hoard it or use it for himself, to think his one business now is to enjoy his wealth and not to do good with it, to take his ease and pamper himself instead of making himself helpful to society. How many men of prosperity to-day stand surrounded by persons and objects on which they might bestow their wealth with the greatest advantage to giver as well as receiver, yet they give not. The idea that wealth should be held and administered for the necessities of the world never seems to have entered their minds. Poverty and suffering, the cause of education, religious enterprise and

many other claimants stand around them stretching out their hands in mute appeal, but they either do not see or, seeing, heed them not.

The late George W. Childs of Philadelphia, so well known for his splendid generosity, tells in a volume of recollections published some time before his death, that during the war he asked a very rich man to contribute some money to a certain relief fund. The wealthy man shook his head and said: "Childs, I can't give you anything. I have worked too hard for my money." Mr. Childs goes on to say that being generous grows on a person just as being mean does, that he himself had worked hard for his money, but always gave in proportion as his ability to give increased, until he found his greatest pleasure in doing good to others.

They that are strong, whether physically, mentally, or financially, are strong not for themselves alone, but ought to share the burdens of the weak. As Shakespeare has said:

"Thyself and thy belongings

Are not thine own.

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves."

The successful man is in danger of forgetting this. When lifted up to a point of prosperity above his fellows he is apt to think that it is that he may shine for his own sake, and not like the sun, for the necessities of the world.

III. Our limited space will allow the mention of only one more peril attending success, and that is, that in attaining it a man is liable to stunt and dwarf himself. Competition to-day is so keen, the struggle to "get on" is so intense, that a man who goes into business with the purpose of succeeding must go into it over head and ears. The absorbing and feverish devotion which business exacts to-day as the price of success is a serious menace to the highest life of the nation or of individuals. In gaining success it may be questioned whether a man does not lose more than he gains. A recent able writer has

said: "The world is full of men who are atrophied on every side except that through which they are gaining their daily bread-men who have sacrificed to success about everything that makes life worth living." They have no time for books, no time to bring their souls into contact with the best that has been thought and done in the world, no time for travel, no time for friends, no time for religion, no time even for the sweet amenities of home. Their interests are narrowed, their souls are warped and crippled by thinking of only one order of facts, which order is summed up in the word "business." If the time comes for such men to retire from business they find they have nothing to retire to. Literature, science, religious and philanthropic interests have now no charm or refreshment for them. In the fierce struggle for success the door has been closed that opens upon these fair realms, and now the key cannot be found, or, if found, is so rusty it cannot be used. It is easy for us to see the reason underlying the fact to which President Eliot refers in his address on "The Disadvantages of Present Rich Men," when he says: "I observe that the life of the rich man who has got his money and is a little out of the struggle to get it, becomes dull, monotonous, and uninteresting."

Success in scientific or professional life is likely to be accompanied by the same narrowing process. The case of Darwin, the eminent naturalist, may here be cited, who about the age of thirty lost all pleasure in art, music, and poetry. Shakespeare became so intolerably dull that it nauseated him. "My mind," he says, "seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone on which the higher tasks depend, I cannot conceive." It may well be questioned whether in very many cases the price exacted for such success is not more than anyone can afford to pay.

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