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 MASTERY BY INTELLIGENCE

The devil can always be beaten if we go about it seriously:

Morphy, the American chess-player, looking at the picture of a youth playing chess with Satan, and, apparently, doomed to inevitable defeat, studied the position, called for chessmen and board in reality, and by one move won the hypothetical game.

(1985)

Mastery Necessary to Progress—See .

MASTERY OF CIRCUMSTANCES

One of Mr. Ingersoll's most eloquent chapters is on "Man as an Automaton," played upon by the blind forces of nature. A clot in the brain explains Benedict Arnold's treason. A foul taint in the arteries that is like a fungus luring a merchant ship on the rocks. Penury and vicious environment fill our jails and must fill them. But the argument was born of a great man's beautiful sympathy for his fellow sufferers. It did not issue from logic or nature or events. Indeed, all life and daily experience stood up and shouted against his affirmation. What! Man a puppet with whom nature plays an endless game of battledore and shuttlecock! Man a victim of heredity and environment! Some years ago I met a successful merchant, living in a beautiful house on one of the best avenues in his great city. His mother was an evil woman, his father a river thief, he was kicked around the river front until he was eight, slept in the loft of a livery stable until he was nine, killed a man when he was ten, taken home by one of the participants in the trial, became the partner of his benefactor and achieved universal recognition and honor.—

(1986)

See.

MASTERY OF NATURE

Until a generation ago our great lakes of the north were closed with the ice, which stopt all navigation until the thaw of the spring came. Now there are ice-boats, made of steel with powerful engines, that not only cut paths for themselves and the heavy freight which they carry, but also make a path for less powerful craft. They pound their way through the ice-fields, and thus make all-the-year-round navigation possible. The ports of northern Europe used to be locked with ice until these great ice-breaking ships were brought into use. There is nothing short of an iceberg which they can not overcome. Our lakes do not have bergs, of course, and hence these great ice-cutting ships have a marvelous mastery over the obstacles.

The mastery of the ice-fields by the hardy men and powerful ships of the north is another illustration of human genius and sovereignty. (Text.)

(1987)

MATERIAL FOR A GREAT LIFE

Do not try to do a great thing; you may waste all your life waiting for the opportunity which may never come. To be content to be a fountain in the midst of a wild valley of stones, nourishing a few lichens and wild flowers or now and again a thirsty sheep; and to do this always and not for the praise of man, but for the sake of God—this makes a great life.—

(1988)

Material, The, and the Spiritual—See .

MATERIALISM INADEQUATE

A machine can tell us something about its maker, but it can not produce another machine. The gospel of materialism is inadequate to explain the world.

"Give me matter," said Kant, "and I will explain the formation of a world; but give me matter only, and I can not explain the formation of a caterpillar."

The glory of the Creator has not descended to man and it will not. Matter, in all its inertia and helplessness but adds to the angelic refrain, "Worship God."

(1989)

MATERNAL, GOD'S LOVE

The pagan Stoic poet, Cleanthes, who flourished 260, would seem to have caught a glimpse of the maternal quality of God. One of his prayers is:

Merciful mother! bestow favor upon me, thy poor worshiper, whatever evil I may be