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CHAPTER 12:

Standing Alone

“By all means use to be alone,
Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear.”
— George Herbert.

He that has light within his own clear breast
My sit in the center and enjoy bright day.”
— Milton.

In the life of blessedness self-reliance is of the utmost importance. If there is no peace there must
be strength; if there is to be security there must be stability; if there is to be lasting joy there must
be no leaning upon things which at any moment may be snatched away for ever.
A man does not commence to truly live until he finds an immovable center within himself on
which to stand, by which to regulate his life, and from which to draw his peace. If he trusts to that
which fluctuates he also will fluctuate; if he leans upon that which may be withdrawn he will fall
and be bruised; if he looks for satisfaction in perishable accumulations he will starve for happiness
in the midst of plenty.
Let a man learn to stand alone, looking to no one for support; expecting no favours, craving no
personal advantages; not begging, nor complaining, not craving, nor regretting, but relying upon
the truth within himself, deriving his satisfaction and comfort from the integrity of his own heart.
If a man can find no peace within himself where shall he find it? If he dreads to be alone with
himself what steadfastness shall he find in company? If he can find no joy in communion with his
own thoughts how shall he escape misery in his contact with others? The man who has yet found

nothing within himself upon which to stand will nowhere find a place of constant rest.
Men everywhere are deluded by the superstition that their happiness rests with other people
and with outward things, and, as a result, they live in continual disappointments, regrets, and
lamentations. The man who does not look for happiness to any others or to external things, but
finds within himself its inexhaustible source, will be self-contained and serene under all
circumstances, and will never become the helpless victim of misery and grief. The man who looks
to others for support, who measures his happiness by the conduct of others and not by his own,
who depends upon their co-operation for his peace of mind — such a man has no spiritual
foothold, his mind is tossed hither and thither with the continual changes going on around him,
and he lives in that ceaseless ebb and flow of the spirits which is wretchedness and unrest. He is a
spiritual cripple, and has yet to learn how to maintain his mental center of gravity, and so go
without the aid of crutches.
As a child learns to walk in order to go about from place to place of itself strong and unaided,
so should a man learn to stand alone, to judge and think and act for himself, and to choose, in the
strength of his own mind, the oath-way which he shall walk.