If effectiveness is the end of
life, there is no question that a strong sense of what we like to
call responsibility, which is generally nothing more than a sense
of one's own importance, decorously framed and glazed, is an
immense factor in success. I myself cherish the heresy that
effectiveness is very far from being the end of life, and that the
only effectiveness that is worth anything is unintentional
effectiveness. I believe that a man or woman who is humble and
sincere, who loves and is loved, is higher on the steps of heaven
than the adroitest lobbyist; but it may be that the world's
criterion of what it admires and respects is the right one; and
indeed it is hard to see how so strong an instinct is implanted in
the human race, the instinct to value strength and success above
everything, unless it is put there by our Maker. At the same time
one cherishes the hope that there is a better criterion somewhere,
in the Divine Mind, in the fruitful future; the criterion that it
is not what a man actually effects that matters, but what he makes
of the resources that are given him to work with.
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