202 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



ix. 11). It is this element of chance that threatens to 

 make a mockery of effort, and sometimes seems to 

 make life but a travesty. The terrible feature of Ten- 

 nyson's description of Arthur's last, dim battle in the 

 west is not the " crash of battle-axe on shattered helm," 

 but the all-engulfing mist. 



Perhaps this is all intended to teach us that riches 

 and favor, and even bread, are not the essentials of life, 

 and that failure to attain these is not such ruin as we 

 often think. But no man ever struggled for wisdom, 

 righteousness, unselfishness, and heroism without at- 

 taining them ; even though the more he attained the 

 more dissatisfied he became with all previous attain- 

 ment. And if our slight attainments in wisdom and 

 knowledge always brought wealth and favor, we might 

 rest satisfied with the latter, instead of clearly recog- 

 nizing that wisdom must be its own reward. Uncer- 

 tainty and deprivation are the best and only train- 

 ing for a hero, not sure reward paid in popular 

 plaudits. 



Political economists speak of the productiveness and 

 prospectiveness of capital. We may well borrow these 

 terms, using them in a somewhat modified sense. In 

 our sense capital is productive in so far as it gives 

 an immediate return; it is prospective in proportion 

 as the return is expected largely in the future. A 

 " pocket " may yield an immediate very large return of 

 gold nuggets at a very slight expense of labor and ap- 

 pliances, but it is soon exhausted. In a mine the ore 

 may be poor near the surface, but grow richer as the 

 shaft deepens ; the vein is narrow above, but widens 

 below. The returns are at first small, its inexhaustible 

 richness becomes apparent only after considerable 



