another place among a
half-civilized people where land was cheaper still. He took a servant
and went into this distant country and hunted up the head man of the
tribe, who offered him all the land he could walk around in a day for a
thousand rubles--told him he could put the money down on any spot and
walk in any direction as far and as fast as he would, and that, if he
was back by sunset, he could have all the land he had encompassed during
the day. He put the money down upon the ground and started at sunrise to
get, at last, enough land. He started leisurely, but as he looked upon
the land it looked so good that he hurried a little--and then he hurried
more, and then he went faster still. Before he turned he had gone
further in that direction than he had intended, but he spurred himself
on and started on the second side. Before he turned again the sun had
crossed the meridian and he had two sides yet to cover. As the sun was
slowly sinking in the west he constantly accelerated his pace, alarmed
at last for fear he had undertaken too much and might lose it all. He
reached the starting point, however, just as the sun went down, but he
had overtaxed his strength and fell dead upon the spot. His servant dug
a grave for him; he only needed six-feet of ground then, the same that
others needed--the rest of the land was of no use to him. Thus Tolstoy
told the story of many a life--not the life of the very rich only, but
the story of every life in which the love of money is the controlling
force and in which the desire for gain shrivels the soul and leaves the
life a failure at last.

I desire to show you how practical this subject is. If time permitted I
could take up every occupation, every avocation, every profession and
every calling, and show you that no matter which way we turn--no matter
what we do--we are always and everywhere weighing the Soul.

In the brief time that it is proper for me to occupy, I shall apply the
thought to those departments of human activity in which the sale of a
soul affects others largely as well as the individual who makes the
bargain.

Take the occupation in which I am engaged, journalism. It presents a
great field--a growing field; in fact, there are few fields so large.
The journalist is both a news gatherer and a moulder of thought. He
informs his readers as to what is going on, and he points out the
relation between cause and effect--interprets current history. Public
opinion is the c