Harvest
"What will you have? quoth God; pay for it and take it," writes Emerson in his essay on compensation.
And again,
"Men suffer all their life long under the foolish superstition that they can be cheated. But it is as 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 party to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty 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."
Other sages have said the same thing in other terms. But always the tenor of the teaching of great students of life is that you shall be recompensed for what you do in terms of your heart's desire. Somewhere else Emerson says something to the effect that the good man "cannot escape his good." In the 3d chapter of Proverbs, Solomon bears witness, "he blesses the good mall's dwelling," and "wise men come to honour." In the 4th chapter "the course of
132