The Constancy of Compensation

May we look again at this question of compensation: Sometimes it may seem that rewards are long delayed. Sometimes it may seem that those who are selfish, that those who shirk, that those who engage in sharp practice, that those who follow forbidden ways, acquire an enviable living and live an enviable life. If it seems so, it is because we see only one side for what is acquired by means that cannot be condoned, is not quite what it sometimes seems to be.

To put it another way: Suppose we assume that the undeserving are sometimes successful. (To assume this would be to assume a narrow definition of success.) But if we knew enough, if we could see all sides (including inside), if we knew all the elements that go into the making of a man, that go into the making of his highest happiness; if we could calculate the full effect of the things that coarsen him, the things that make a callous conscience; the things that refine, that give understanding and appreciation and peace and settled purpose if we knew all this, we should know that, aside from so-called ultimate reward, there is a constancy of compensation.

There is compensation in the very make-up of a man. In the words of William James: “Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar.” Every thought and act and utterance is being counted “among the molecules and nerve cells and fibres.” … “Nothing we ever do is in strict scientific literalness wiped out.” An abused conscience, for example, impairs the capacity for appreciation. “Punishment,” added Emerson, “is a fruit that unsuspected, ripens within the flower of the pleasure which concealed it…Seed and fruit cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause…the fruit in the seed.” … “What will you have? quoth God; pay for it and take it…Thou shalt be paid exactly for what thou hast done, no more, no less.” … “The cheat, the defaulter, the gambler cannot extort the benefit.” … “Everything has its price; and if that price is not paid, not that thing but something else is obtained…It is impossible to get anything without its price.”

Perpetually and perennially, in ways that we are not always immediately aware of, there is a reward received or a penalty paid for everything we do or fail to do. Aside from ultimate and eternal considerations, there is compensation in the very make-up of man.