re and good, are qualities
that thousands and hundreds of thousands of women, yes, of both men and
women, who are apparently in better circumstances in life can justly
envy. And should the little farm home be taken away to-morrow, she has
gained something that a farm of a thousand acres could not buy. By going
about her work in the way she has gone about it the burden of it all has
been lightened, and her work has been made truly enjoyable.

Let us take a moment to see how these same conditions would have been
met by a person of less wisdom, one not so far-sighted as this dear,
good woman has been. For a time possibly her spirit would have been
crushed. Fears and forebodings of all kinds would probably have taken
hold of her, and she would have felt that nothing that she could do
would be of any avail. Or, she might have rebelled against the agencies,
against the law which brought about the conditions in which she found
herself, and she might have become embittered against the world, and
gradually also against the various people with whom she came in contact.
Or again, she might have thought that her efforts would be unable to
meet the circumstances, and that it was the duty of some one to lift her
out of her difficulties. In this way no progress at all would have been
made towards the accomplishment of the desired results, and continually
she would have felt more keenly the circumstances in which she found
herself, because there was nothing else to occupy her mind. In this way
the little farm would not have become hers, she would not have been able
to do anything for others, and her nature would have become embittered
against everything and everybody.

True it is, then, not, What are the conditions in one's life? but, How
does he meet the conditions that he finds there? This will determine
all. And if at any time we are apt to think that our own lot is about
the hardest there is, and if we are able at any time to persuade
ourselves that we can find no one whose lot is just a little harder than
ours, let us then study for a little while the character Pompilia, in
Browning's poem,[D] and after studying it, thank God that the conditions
in our life are so favorable; and then set about with a trusting and
intrepid spirit to actualize the conditions that we most desire.

* * * * *

Thought is at the bottom of all progress or retrogression, of all
success or failure, of all that is desirable