ACTION AND REACTION 37

Wherever we go, be it in train or carriage, we
may leave a thought which another picks up,
we leave in this way an influence which affects
others. Thus pain caused to another by thought
or act means suffering to ourselves sooner or
later, and happiness spread means happiness
flowing back to ourselves.

This does away with all injustice, and is not,
as some would say, severe or stern, but a just
and natural law, "And to Thee, 0 Lord,
belongeth mercy; for Thou renderest to every
man according to his work."

Man has free-will to sow what seed he will,
but having sown he must not complain or be
surprised that the harvest will show what he
has sown. Gradually, very gradually, and very
slowly we learn therefore what to sow.

What he desires in the future he must sow
now. fi Do men gather grapes of thorn or figs of
thistles ? " If you want grapes, you must not sow
a fig tree. It is no use to sow oats and expect
to gather wheat at the harvest. We must sow
in one life that which we desire to reap in the
next. The difficulty here comes in that we do
not discriminate what we want to reap, and sow
broadcast not thinking of the tares and weeds
that will face us in the next life. For just when
we have begun to discriminate the real from the