The hermit-crab was once equipped with a
hard shell and with as good means of locomotion as other crabs. But
instead of courageously following the hardy life of other crustaceans
it formed the bad habit of taking up its residence in the cast-off
shells of mollusks. This made life easy and indolent. But it paid the
price of all shirking. In time it lost four legs, while the shell over
the vital portion of its body degenerated to a thin membrane which
leaves it practically helpless when it is out of its captured home.
And this is the certain result of all shirking of responsibility.
There may be an apparent temporary gain, but it always means greater
loss, either immediate or remote. So nature punishes inaction with
atrophy. Whatever is not used finally ceases to be. In plain language,
apathy, inaction, idleness, uselessness, is the road to degeneration.
On the other hand, aspiration and activity mean growth, development,
power.
So we grow, physically, mentally and morally, by activity, by exercise
of the organs or the faculties we desire to possess. It is only by the
constant exercise of these things that we can grow at all. When this
great law of nature is understood we see at once how it is that life
is full of trouble; why it is that the whole visible world seems to be
designed to keep us constantly at work physically and mentally, to
challenge our resourcefulness in improving our physical, social and
political conditions, to continually try our patience and to forever
test our courage.
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