Page:The Spoilt Child.djvu/112

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THE SPOILT CHILD.
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father's wealth on the one hand or their own position on the other, they swagger through life, treating all men with contempt and derision. It is calamity and misfortune that alone avail to strengthen man's mind. The first requisite of man is humility: that quality absent, a man has no chance of either discerning aright or correcting his faults, and without humility he cannot advance in virtue and in worth.

Becharam.-- How was it that Barada Babu became so good?

Beni.-- Barada Babu fell into trouble in his earliest boyhood, and from that time he used to meditate unceasingly on the Almighty: the result of this constant meditation was that he became firmly convinced that it was his bounden duty to do everything that was pleasing to God, and to avoid what was displeasing to Him even though life were at stake: this conviction he proceeded to carry into practice.

Becharam.-- How did he settle with himself what was pleasing and what displeasing to the Almighty?

Beni.-- There are two ways of attaining to knowledge, on this subject. First, the mind must be brought under control: to effect this, constant meditation and the steady growth of good principles are necessary. A searching self-examination, a course of severe and steady meditation, may develop the faculty of discrimination between right tad wrong; and in proportion as that faculty is developed, a man will become averse to conduct that is displeasing to the Almighty, and attached to a course that is pleasing to Him. In the second place that faculty may be steadily exercised by reading and reflecting on what good men have written. Barada Babu has left nothing undone that can help to make him good. He has never wandered aimlessly about like ordinary people. When he rises in the morning,