would have rattled over many things.

The fairy books love to tell about some clodhopper suddenly enchanted
up into a king. But life's good fairies see to it that the clodhopper
is enchanted into readiness for kingship before he lands upon the
throne.

The only way to rule others is to learn to rule ourself.

I used to say, "Just wait till I get to Congress." I think they are all
waiting! "I'll fix things. I'll pass laws requiring all apples to be
the same size. Yes, I'll pass laws to turn the barrel upside down, so
the little ones will be on the top and the big ones will be at the
bottom."

But I had not seen that it wouldn't matter which end was the top, the
big ones would shake right up to it and the little ones would shake
down to the bottom.

The little man has the chance now, just as fast as he grows. You cannot
fix the barrel. You can only fix the people inside the barrel.

Have you ever noticed that the man who is not willing to fix himself,
is the one who wants to get the most laws passed to fix other people?
He wants something for nothing.

That Cruel Fate

O, I am so glad I did not get the things I wanted at the time I wanted
them! They would have been coffee-pots. Thank goodness, we do not get
the coffee-pot until we are ready to handle it.

Today you and I have things we couldn't have yesterday. We just wanted
them yesterday. O, how we wanted them! But a cruel fate would not let
us have them. Today we have them. They come to us as naturally today,
and we see it is because we have grown ready for them, and the barrel
has shaken us up to them.

Today you and I want things beyond our reach. O, how we want them! But
a cruel fate will not let us have them.

Do you not see that "cruel fate" is our own smallness and unreadiness?
As we grow greater we have greater things. We have today all we can
stand today. More would wreck us. More would start us to rattling.

Getting up is growing up.

And this blessed old barrel of life is just waiting and anxious to
shake everybody up as fast as everybody grows.

Chapter V

Going Up

How We Become Great

WE go up as we grow great. That is, we go up as we grow up. But so many
are trying to grow great on the outside without growing great on the
inside. They rattle on the inside!

They fool themselves, but nobody else.

There is only one greatness--inside greatness. All outside greatness is
merely an incidental reflection of the inside.