only for self. You may
get it to a degree and accomplish much
by it. Your demand if living only for
self may bring to you houses, wealth and
fame. But the demand based on the selfish
motive will in the end bring only pain,
disease and disappointment.
THE ACCESSION
OF
NEW THOUGHT
NEW thought is new life.
When an invention, a discovery first breaks
on the inventor's mind, it fills him with
joy. The blood in his veins surges with
a fresher impetus. The author or poet
is lifted into ecstasy of emotion by a
new conception; I mean the relatively
few creative authors and poets--not the
many who, borrowing the fire of Genius,
put it in their own lanterns and pass
it off, often successfully as their own.
"A piece of good
news," as we term it in a period
of gloom, depression, discouragement;
the possible realization of a hope, the
removal of an ill or danger, is but a
thought after all--is but the picture
in the mind of the thing desired--is not
the thing itself, yet how it brings strength
to the whole body.
An entertaining spectacle,
a drama so perfectly acted as to absorb
all one's attention, an interview with
one to whom we are strongly attracted,
a pursuit, or exercise, or art, which
interests and fascinates--all these are
as food and nourishment, stimulation to
the body, and in the absorbtion or excite-
156
