Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, "Compensation," wrote:
"Men suffer all their life long under the foolish superstition that they can be cheated. But it is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself, as for a thing to be and not to be, at the same time. There is a third silent partner to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guarnty of the fulfillment of every contract, so that honest service cannot come to loss. If you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer."
What does this passage mean to you? How has the "Law of Compensation" worked in your life?
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Comments: 13
Karmic return. More later -
"The fallacy lay in the immense concession, that the bad are successful; that justice is not done now."
I love how he goes on to say: "Every ingenuous and aspiring soul leaves the doctrine behind him in his own experience; and all men feel sometimes the falsehood which they cannot demonstrate."
Actually, this essay is one of the wisest things that Emerson ever wrote.
If you don't mind, I would like to take the liberty of quoting more passages from this great work. I shall try to limit myself to just a few...........
"Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour; every evil its good. Every faculty which is a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse. It is to answer for its moderation with its life. For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly. For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something. If riches increase, they are increased that use them. If the gatherer gathers too much, nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest; swells the estate, but kills the owner. Nature hates monopolies and exceptions. The waves of the sea do not more speedily seek a level from their loftiest tossing, than the varieties of condition tend to equalize themselves. There is always some levelling circumstance that puts down the overbearing, the strong, the rich, the fortunate, substantially on the same ground with all others."
"Life invests itself with inevitable conditions, which the unwise seek to dodge, which one and another brags that he does not know; that they do not touch him; -- but the brag is on his lips, the conditions are in his soul. If he escapes them in one part, they attack him in another more vital part. If he has escaped them in form, and in the appearance, it is because he has resisted his life, and fled from himself, and the retribution is so much death. So signal is the failure of all attempts to make this separation of the good from the tax, that the experiment would not be tried, -- since to try it is to be mad, -- but for the circumstance, that when the disease began in the will, of rebellion and separation, the intellect is at once infected, so that the man ceases to see God whole in each object, but is able to see the sensual allurement of an object, and not see the sensual hurt; he sees the mermaid's head, but not the dragon's tail; and thinks he can cut off that which he would have, from that which he would not have. "How secret art thou who dwellest in the highest heavens in silence, O thou only great God, sprinkling with an unwearied Providence certain penal blindnesses upon such as have unbridled desires!"
"A wise man will extend this lesson to all parts of life, and know that it is the part of prudence to face every claimant, and pay every just demand on your time, your talents, or your heart. Always pay; for, first or last, you must pay your entire debt. Persons and events may stand for a time between you and justice, but it is only a postponement. You must pay at last your own debt. If you are wise, you will dread a prosperity which only loads you with more. Benefit is the end of nature. But for every benefit which you receive, a tax is levied. He is great who confers the most benefits. He is base --and that is the one base thing in the universe -- to receive favors and render none. In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody. Beware of too much good staying in your hand. It will fast corrupt and worm worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort."
I will stop there. But, I strongly urge everyone to read all of this essay by Emerson. Anyone interested can find the complete work at:
http://www.rwe.org/works/Essays-1st_Series_03_Compensation.htm
Thomas, if you read the whole essay, I think you'll see that Emerson talks about those people of which you write.
One of the things about compensation is that we are not always compensated in the way that we might expect. We often expect a return of money when our return may be in a different area of our lives. We also may expect that we will be rewarded by the person or organization that we have given our efforts to, and that is not always the case.
There IS Balance in the totality of the universe, and though it may not "seem" to be playing out in one single lifetime, it really does in ways unseen, but for sure in the totality of eternity, it will surely play out.
IMnsHO.
Thank you for sharing this essay.