ercantile establishment, or cashier of
a bank. In his morning paper he reads of a man who has become suddenly
rich, has made a fortune of half a million or a million dollars in a few
hours through speculation on the stock market. Perhaps he has seen an
account of another man who has done practically the same thing lately.
He is not quite wise enough, however, to comprehend the fact that when
he reads of one or two cases of this kind he could find, were he to look
into the matter carefully, one or two hundred cases of men who have lost
all they had in the same way. He thinks, however, that he will be one of
the fortunate ones. He does not fully realize that there are no short
cuts to wealth honestly made. He takes a part of his savings, and as is
true in practically all cases of this kind, he loses all that he has put
in. Thinking now that he sees why he lost, and that had he more money he
would be able to get back what he has lost, and perhaps make a handsome
sum in addition, and make it quickly, the thought comes to him to use
some of the funds he has charge of. In nine cases out of ten, if not in
ten cases in every ten, the results that inevitably follow this are
known sufficiently well to make it unnecessary to follow him farther.
Where is the man's safety in the light of what we have been considering?
Simply this: the moment the thought of using for his own purpose funds
belonging to others enters his mind, if he is wise he will _instantly_
put the thought from his mind. If he is a fool he will entertain it. In
the degree in which he entertains it, it will grow upon him; it will
become the absorbing thought in his mind; it will finally become master
of his will power, and through rapidly succeeding steps, dishonor,
shame, degradation, penitentiary, remorse will be his. It is easy for
him to put the thought from his mind when it first enters; but as he
entertains it, it grows into such proportions that it becomes more and
more difficult for him to put it from his mind; and by and by it becomes
practically _impossible_ for him to do it. The light of the match, which
but a little effort of the breath would have extinguished at first, has
imparted a flame that is raging through the entire building, and now it
is almost, if not quite impossible to conquer it.

Shall we notice another concrete case? a trite case, perhaps, but one in
which we can see how habit is formed, and also how the same habit can be
unformed. Here is