f work; ambition has ceased to burn, doubt is
ended, the finished forces turn _outward_ in service. According to the
measure of the giving is the replenishment in vitality. The pure trance
of work, the different reservoirs of power opening so softly; the
instrument in pure listening--long forenoons passing, without a single
instant of self-consciousness, desire, enviousness, without even
awareness of the body....

"Every law that makes for man's finer workmanship makes for his higher
life. The mastery of self prepares man to make his answer to the world
for his being. The man who has mastered himself is one with all. Castor
and Pollux tell him immortal love stories; all is marvellous and lovely
from the plant to the planet, because man is a lover, when he has
mastered himself. All the folded treasures and open highways of the
mind, its multitude of experiences and unreckonable possessions--are
given over to the creative and universal force--the same force that is
lustrous in the lily, incandescent in the suns, memorable in human
heroism, immortal in man's love for his fellow man.

"This giving force alone holds the workman true through his task. He,
first of all, feels the uplift; he, first of all, is cleansed by the
power of the superb life-force passing through him.... This is rhythm;
this is the cohering line; this is being the One. But there are no two
instruments alike, since we have come up by different roads from the
rock; and though we achieve the very sanctity of self-command, our
inimitable hallmark is wrought in the fabric of our task."

* * * * *

Guiding one's own for an hour or two each day is not a thing to do for
money. The more valuable a man's time (if his payment in the world's
standards happens to be commensurate with his skill) the more valuable
he will be to his little group. He will find himself a better workman
for expressing himself to his own, giving the fruits of his life to
others. He will touch immortal truths before he has gone very far, and
Light comes to the life that contacts such fine things. He will see the
big moments of his life in a way that he did not formerly understand.
Faltering will more and more leave his expression, and the cohering line
of his life will become more clearly established.

_A man's own are those who are awaiting the same call that he has
already answered._ Browning stood amazed before a man who had met
Shelley and was not dif