CHAPTER XXV

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE

"Into this Universe, and why, not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

The Worldly Hope men set their hearts upon
Turns ashes-or it prospers, and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty face
Lighting a little hour or two—is gone.'

RUBÁLYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYẨM.

O soon as people commence to think for themselves they begin to doubt. They have misgivings about everything. Robert Louis Stevenson said, "We are none of us infallible, not even the

very young." (A charming and accomplished lady once quoted that to me in my salad days, and I have never forgotten it.) There are two sides to every question, and sometimes one cannot tell which is the right side. People who have engaged actively in politics know that a vast majority of voters hold their political convictions by a sort of instinct. They absorb their opinions from the mental atmosphere in which they live. In the City of London there is a large wholesale dry goods warehouse. Certain

departments would benefit greatly by Protection, and others which flourish under Free Trade would be seriously crippled. One would think that the two men at the head of the business would be competent to form an accurate opinion on the merits of this involved subject, yet one is an ardent Free Trader and the other is an enthusiastic Protectionist. If it is difficult to form convictions about the practical realities of life, is it any wonder that certain problems which baffle us cannot be judged on any known principles of scientific knowledge?

All through the ages, what is termed "The Riddle of Life" has baffled men. Those who take their thoughts ready-made from others either accept the conditions of living in a spirit of fatalism or of religious hope. Others, and particularly those who live hard lives, ask themselves, "Why am I here, and for what am I working?" Tennyson said, There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds." None can answer the riddle of life for you. Only your own experience can lift the veil of the mystery of existence, and show you the shining promise of the Beyond.

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Modern life, with its rush and its stress of competition, tends to breed selfishness. "The weak must go to the wall" is a doctrine of self. The mother who glories in her first-born and showers her self-sacrificing love upon it, has no such doctrine.

In protecting her little one she develops her finest instincts, and the best mothers find part, at any rate, of the solution of the riddle of life in the happiness of their everyday existence.

Logic teaches us that, if certain causes produce certain effects, similar causes will produce similar effects. We argue from the known to the unknown, and whatever there is in life that is baffling and inscrutable can be solved by the spirit of faith and hope arguing from the knowable facts of our everyday existence. Every piece of good work is an achievement. The man who dreams and does nothing may well ask what is the good of living. The man who paints a picture, finds in the achievement a joy which teaches him that every work of his hand and brain will bring him some reward either of success or of power. The man who despairs and says he never has a chance, will never get his chance because he will not go out and seize it. The millionaire creating vast organisations and carrying through big achievements by their aid, does so because he creates his chances. If he sat still and moped he would be so much the poorer. If the head of any big business decided to rest on his oars, his connection would soon be wrested from him by his energetic competitors and his income would go. Rewards in life go by merit alone. They must be striven for, and the reward comes with the first

effort of striving in the consciousness of work well done.

The prime object of existence is happiness. If we work merely for money, we may get some sort of pleasure out of it, but we know that when the Dark Angel rings down the curtain of Death our money will be parted from us; and in that thought lies the doubt that sours the whole of life. The pursuit of worldly advantage is a noble aim, but it is not the chief end of existence. The best things of life, the things which tell us surely and convincingly that the pleasures of prosperity are not everything, dwell in states of the mind. The only real happiness is in the mind; the grasp of a friend's hand, the sound of a voice that thrills the heart, the uplifting melody of some strain of music, the joy of feeling the spring stirring in the blood-these are the things that really matter, that link us to Nature, and that hold the promise of life here and through all the ages.

A successful man once said to me, "I would not give a fig for a man who has not had some great set-back in his life. The man who has never tasted the bitterness of defeat and found it a spur to increased effort has never tasted the real joy of victory." I never think of this without recalling the experience of two men with whom I was very closely connected. Both of them experienced a

sudden, sharp reversal of fortune. One was left with a bare means of living, the other lost everything. The former turned tail on his troubles, and went away into the country, where he determined to live on what he had saved out of the wreck. He brooded on his misfortunes, told people they had ruined his health, and, though a perfectly strong man, became a hypochondriac. The other could not have run away even if he had wanted to. He summoned all his fortitude to his aid, all his optimism, all his faith, and fortune came tumbling at him on the heels of his troubles. What had seemed a disaster turned out the best thing that could possibly have happened. If he, too, had run away he would never have had that fortune and would never have tasted the sweets of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Be sure that whatever troubles come to you, if you face them with courage they will pass by as the idle wind, and leave behind the prosperity of which they are only the harbingers.

Every one who has faced sorrow and disaster, who has come through the fires of adversity, knows well from his own experience that for every trouble life can bring there is some greater compensating advantage. All things work together for good." The snows of winter serve to warm the earth and protect the seeds that bring forth the glorious blooms of summer.

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