590 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-CREATION
perform after hours. Or it may be rendered to entire strangers whom
you never expect to see again. It doesn't matter to whom you render
this service so long as you render it with willingness, and solely for
the purpose of benefiting others.
If you carry out this experiment with the proper attitude, you
will discover what all others who have become familiar with the law
on which it is based have discovered-that you can no more render
service without receiving compensation than you can withhold the
rendering of it without suffering the loss of reward.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his essay Compensation:·.. 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 ....
· .. The law of Nature is, Do the thing and you shall
have the power; but they who do not the thing have not the
power ....
· .. Men suffer all their life long, under the foolish super-
stition 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 fulfillment of every contract, so that
honest service cannot come to loss ....Before you begin the experiment, let me suggest that you read all
of Emerson's Compensation, for it will go a very long way toward
helping you to understand why you are doing the experiment.
Perhaps you have read Compensation before. Read it again! Every
time you read it you will discover new truths that you did not notice
during previous readings.