orships himself. Self-gratification rather than self-denial;
independence rather than submission--these are the rules of life. And
this is at once the poorest and the commonest form of idolatry. Natural
Law, p. 170.

April 17th. You will find . . . that the people who influence you are
people who believe in you. The Greatest Thing in the World.

April 18th. The development of any organism in any direction is dependent
on its environment. A living cell cut off from air will die. A seed-germ
apart from moisture and an appropriate temperature will make the ground
its grave for centuries. Human nature, likewise, is subject to similar
conditions. It can only develop in presence of its environment. No matter
what its possibilities may be, no matter what seeds of thought or virtue,
what germs of genius or of art, lie latent in its breast, until the
appropriate environment present itself the correspondence is denied, the
development discouraged, the most splendid possibilities of life remain
unrealized, and thought and virtue, genius and art, are dead. Natural
Law, p. 171.

April 19th. The true environment of the moral life is God. Here
conscience wakes. Here kindles love. Duty here becomes heroic; and that
righteousness begins to live which alone is to live forever. But if this
Atmosphere is not, the dwarfed soul must perish for mere want of its
native air. And its Death is a strictly natural Death. It is not an
exceptional judgment upon Atheism. In the same circumstances, in the same
averted relation to their environment, the poet, the musician, the
artist, would alike perish to poetry, to music, and to art. Natural Law,
p. 171.

April 20th. Every environment is a cause. Its effect upon me is exactly
proportionate to my correspondence with it. If I correspond with part of
it, part of myself is influenced. If I correspond with more, more of
myself is influenced; if with all, all is influenced. If I correspond
with the world, I become worldly; if with God, I become Divine. Natural
Law, Death, p. 171.

April 21st. You can dwarf a soul just as you can dwarf a plant, by
depriving it of a full environment. Such a soul for a time may have a
"name to live." Its character may betray no sign of atrophy. But its very
virtue somehow has the pallor of a flower that is grown in darkness, or
as the herb which has never seen the sun, no fragrance breathes from its
spirit. Natural Law, p. 173.

April 22d. I shall pass through this worl