The Question of Compensation

Since Emerson wrote his essay on compensation, it has been difficult to say anything new on the subject. But for a generation that may have forgotten, and for a generation that may not yet have become acquainted with it, perhaps some sentences could well be recalled, among them, these:

“The world looks like…a mathematical equation, which, turn it how you will, balances itself.”…

“A certain compensation balances every gift and every defect.”…”Things refuse to be mismanaged long.”…”There is always some leveling circumstance.”…”You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.”…”If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing.”…”In labor as in life there can be no cheating. The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself.”… “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 superstition that they can be cheated. But it is … impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.”

So much for Emerson and his essay. But this one thought further we should like to leave: There are some in the world who are willing, some less willing, some unwilling to work, to serve, to give of themselves. And one of the lessons we earnestly need to remember is that life does not give its choicest blessings and satisfactions to those who deliberately withhold helpfulness and usefulness.

It is true that a willing person sometimes seems to be imposed upon, but for every useful part he performs, he is somehow richly rewarded. Aside from all else, he feels good inside himself; while a niggardly, unwilling nature, which gives only grudgingly, is grudgingly rewarded.

No doubt there will be some cynicism concerning this subject. And it would be difficult to prove to the satisfaction of the cynical just how, precisely, a person would be paid for every service, for every effort, for every activity. We cannot always tell the cynical precisely how nature will reward or how the Lord God will return good for good; but as surely as we live, he who withholds his hand from service, he who isn’t going to do one stroke more than what he feels is his so-called fair share, is going to miss more than he can calculate. As surely as we live, he who shirks will shrivel inside himself, and he who hides his light loses light. “Every virtue is rewarded, every wrong redressed, in silence and certainty.”