We may choose our own guests, if we are wise. None can open the door
and come in, unless we give consent; always provided that we keep
watch and ward. If we leave wide open the doors of our houses, or
neglect to fasten them in the night season, thieves and robbers will
enter and despoil us at will. So if we leave the heart, unguarded,
enemies will come in. But if we open the door only to good
affections--which are guests--then we shall dwell in peace and
safety. We have all opened the door for enemies; or let them enter
through unguarded portals. They are in all the heart's
guest-chambers. They possess the very citadel of life; and the
measure of their possession is the measure of our unhappiness.

Markland was an unhappy man; and yet of this world's goods, after
which he had striven, he had an abundance. Wealth, honor among men,
luxury; these were presented to his mind as things most to be
desired, and he reached after them with an ardor that broke down all
impediments. Success answered to effort, with almost unerring
certainty. So he was full of wealth and honors. But, for all this,
Markland was unhappy. There were enemies in the house of his life;
troublesome guests in the guest-chambers of his heart, who were
forever disturbing, if not wounding him, with their strifes and
discords. Some of these he had admitted, himself holding open the
door; others had come in by stealth while the entrance was all
unguarded.

Envy was one of these guests, and she gave him no peace. He could
not bear that another should stand above him in anything. A certain
pew in the church he attended was regarded as most desirable. He
must have that pew at any cost. So when the annual choice of pews