And, in a case of this kind, many times the mark of the most
absolute unselfishness is a strong and marked selfishness, which will
prove however to be a selfishness only in the seeming.
_The self should never be lost sight of. It is the one thing of supreme
importance, the greatest factor even in the life of the greatest
service_. Being always and necessarily precedes doing: having always and
necessarily precedes giving. But this law also holds: that when there is
the being, it is all the more increased by the doing; when there is the
having, it is all the more increased by the giving. _Keeping to one's
self dwarfs and stultifies. Hoarding brings loss: using brings even
greater gain_. In brief, the more we are, the more we can do; the more
we have, the more we can give.
The most truly successful, the most powerful and valuable life, then,
is the life that is first founded upon this great, immutable law of love
and service, and that then becomes supremely self-centred,--supremely
self-centred that it may become all the more supremely unself-centred;
in other words, the life that looks v/ell to self, that there may be the
ever greater self, in order that there may be the ever greater service.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: Headquarters at Boston, Mass.
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