the greatest and wisest of mankind he knows what he will be in the future.
He sees an unbroken chain of development, a ladder of perfection rising
steadily before him, yet with human beings upon every step of it, so that
he knows, that those steps are possible for him to climb. It is just
because of the unchangeableness of the great law of cause and effect that
he finds himself able to climb that ladder, because since the law works
always in the same way, he can depend upon it and he can use it, just as he
uses the laws of Nature in the physical worlds. His knowledge of this law
brings to him a sense of perspective and shows him that if something comes
to him, it comes because he has deserved it as a consequence of actions
which he has committed, of words which he has spoken, of thought to which
he has given harbour in previous days or in earlier lives. He comprehends
that all affliction is of the nature of the payment of a debt, and
therefore when he has to meet with the troubles of life he takes them and
uses them as a lesson, because he understands why they have come and is
glad of the opportunity which they give him to pay off something of his
obligation.

Again, and in yet another way, does he take them as an opportunity, for he
sees that there is another side to them if he meets them in the right way.
He spends no time in bearing prospective burdens. When trouble comes to him
he does not aggravate it by foolish repining but sets himself to endure so
much of it as is inevitable, with patience and with fortitude. Not that he
submits himself to it as a fatalist might, for he takes adverse
circumstances as an incentive to such development as may enable him to
transcend them, and thus out of long-past evil he brings forth a seed of
future growth. For in the very act of paying the outstanding debt he
develops qualities of courage and resolution that will stand him in good
stead through all the ages that are to come.