There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences, as there is no hair so small but casts its shadow.

It was a wise saying of Mrs.
Schimmelpenninck's mother, never to give way to what is little; or by that little, however you may despise it, you will be practically governed.
Every action, every thought, every feeling, contributes to the education of the temper, the habits, and understanding; and exercises an inevitable influence upon all the acts of our future life.

Thus character is undergoing constant change, for better or for worse--either being elevated on the one hand, or degraded on the other.

"There is no fault nor folly of my life," says Mr.Ruskin, "that does not rise up against me, and take away my joy, and shorten my power of possession, of sight, of understanding.

And every past effort of my life, every gleam of rightness or good in it, is with me now, to help me in my grasp of this art and its vision." [107] The mechanical law, that action and reaction are equal, holds true also in morals.