every man a king - forgotten books

259

Upload: others

Post on 06-Apr-2022

4 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Entry man aKing

MIGHT IN MIND- MASTERY

ORISON SWET T MARDENAuthor of Pushing to the Front,

" “ Architectsof Fate ,

”The Secret of Achievem ent

THE ASSISTANCE or

ERNEST RAYMOND HOLMES

N E W Y O R K

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Com m , 3906,

BY THOMAS Y CROWELL 59 CO

Fifty - fourth Thousand

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I a s,

STEERING THOUGHT PREVENTS LIFE WRECRS 3

CHAPTER II

How MIND RULE S THE BODY

CHAPTER I I I

THOUGHT CAUSE S HEALTH AND DISEASE

CHAPTER IV

OUR WORST ENEMY IS FEAR

CHAPTER V

OVERCOMING FEAR

CHAPTER VI

K ILLING EMOTIONS

CHAPTER VI I

MASTERING OUR MOODS

CHAPTER VI II

UNPROFITABLE PESSIMISM

CHAPTER IX

THE POWER OF CHEERFUL THINK ING

CHAPTER X

NEGATIVE GREEDS PARALYZE

vi CONTENTS

CHAPTER X I

AFFIRMATION CREATE S POWER

CHAPTER X I I

THOUGHTS RADIATE A S INFLUENCE

CHAPTER XI I I

How THINK ING BRINGS SUCCE SS

CHAPTER X IV

POWER OF SELF - FAITH OVER OTHERS

CHAPTER XV

BUILDING CHARACTER

CHAPTER X VI

STRENGTHENING DE FICIENT FACULTIES

CHAPTER XVI I

GAIN BEAUTY BY HOLDING THE BEAUTY

THOUGHT

CHAPTER XVII I

THE POWER OF IMAGINATION

CHAPTER X IX

DON’T LET THE YEARS COUNT

CHAPTER XX

How TO CONTROL THOUGHT

CHAPTE R X X I

THE COMING MAN WILL REALIZE HIS DIVINITY a3x

I. STEERING THOUGHT PREVENTSLIFE WRECKS

I . STEERING THOUGHT PREVENTSLIFE WRECKS

We build our jam ”, thought by thought,Or good or bad , and know it not

Yd so the universe is wrought.

Thout is another nam e !or late,Choose, than, thy destiny, and wait

For love brings love, and hate brings hale.

CERTAIN man of no greatlearning , so runs an Old leg

end, fell heir to a ship. Heknew nothing Of the sea

,

nothing Of navigation or en

g ineering , but the notionseized him to take a voyage

and command his own ship. The ship was gotten under way, the self- appointed captain al

lowing the crew to go ahead with their usualduties, as the multiplicity of Operations confused the amateur navigator. Once headed outto sea, however, the work grew simpler , andthe captain had time to Observe What was

going on. As he strolled on the forward deck,he saw a m an turning a big wheel, now thisway, now that.What in the world is that m an doing !

he asked.

4 EVERY MAN A KING

That’s the helmsman . He is steering the

Well , I don’t see any use in his fiddling

away there all the time . There ’s nothing butwater ahead

,and I guess the sails can push

her forward . When there’s land in sight, or aship com ing head on, there

’ll be tim e enoughto do steering . Put up all the sails and lether go .

The order was obeyed , and the few survivors of the wreck that followed had causeto remember the fool captain who thought aship steered herself.You say no such m an ever existed

,and

you are right. That isn’t admitting that no

such foolishness exists,however. You wouldn ’t

be SO foolish , would you !

Think a moment. Are you not in com m andOf something more delicate, more precious,than any ship—your own life, your own m ind !

HOW much attention are you g iving to the

steering of that m ind ! Don’t you let it gopretty much as it will ! Don’t you let thewinds of anger and passion blow it hitherand thither !Don’t you let chance friendships ,chance reading ,

and aimless amusement swayyour life into forms you never would havedeliberately chosen!Are you really captain of

STEERING THOUGHT 5

your own ship, driving it to a sure harbor ofhappiness , peace, and success ! If you are not,would you not like to become such a masterof the situation ! It is simpler than you perhaps think, if you will but realize certainfundam ental truths and put to work yourown better nature. To tell you how, and todirect your efiorts is the Obj ect of this seriesof little talks on the use of thought in lifeforming .

Considering that mind governs everythingin our world, that force has been singularlyneg lected and m isunderstood . Even when tribute has been paid to its power

,it has been

treated as something unalterable, a tool thatcould be used if one was born with the genius to do so. Of recent years, the control ofthought, and its use to modify characteralready formed, to change even external surrounding s, or at least their effect on one

’s self,and to bring about health, happiness , and success, have been m ore and m ore studied andunderstood . The possibilities of thought training are infinite, its consequences eternal , andyet few take the pains to direct their thinkinginto channels that will do them good, but instead leave all to Chance , or rather to themyriad Circumstances that buflfet and compel

6 EVERY MAN A KING

our mental action i f counter- effort be not

made.There can be no more important study, no

higher duty owed to ourselves and those aboutus , than this of thought- control, of self- control, which results in self- developm ent. Perhaps because thought in itself is intang ible,and most of us really have so little controlOver it, there is an irnpression that directionofmind action is a difficult and abstruse afiair,something that requires hard study, leisure,and book knowledge to accom plish. Nothingis further from the truth . Every person, however ignorant, however uncultured, and however busy

,has within him self all that is need

ful, and has all the tim e needful, to remake hisintellectual nature , his character, and practically his body and his life . Every person willhave a difierent task, difierent problems tosolve, and difierent results to aim at ; but theprocess is practically the same, and the transformation is no more impossible for one thanfor another.A sculptor

’s chisel in the hands of a bung lermay mar the loveliest statue ; in the hands ofa criminal it may become a burg lar

’s tool ora murderer’s bludgeon . With the power in ourhands to m ake or mar our natures , what reck

STEERING THOUGHT

less fools we are not to try to know how toproduce beauty and harmony, happiness andsuccess . The sculptor dares not strike randomblows while gazing away from the marble.With eyes steadfast, he makes every strokecount toward the final result, and that resulthe has fixed in his mind and in the model hehas made after his ideas . We must do likewisein chiselling our characters, forming our en

vironm ent, making our lives . We must knowwhat we want, know we can get it, and setourselves directly at the task, never relentingor relaxing in its performance.The difference between our thought and an

ordinary tool is that we must do somethingwith it. We cannot lay it down and say weshall strike no blow. We must think, and everythought is a blow that forges a part Of ourlives. Let us, therefore, resolutely determineto turn thought to good use, to the best use,and then stiffen our will to carry out that determination.

However earnestly we may set about thisimportant task, life - long habits and set waysof thinking will make it difficult for adults .The great field for work in this direction ofthought- control is with the new generation .

As M . E . Carter says : If parents and guar

8 EVERY MAN A KING

dians would devote the ir energ ies to teachingthe young under their care the lesson of

thought- control instead of laying so muchstress upon—and enforcing Obedience to—ex

ternal authority, the problem of upbringingthe rising generation would be wonderfullysimplified, and a much higher order of humanbeing s would soon appear Upon this planet.The child taught to hold right thoughts andto ex pel wrong ones by governing its own

mental realm needs less and less external authority, and will grow Up pure - minded andtruthful because of having nothing to hide,nothing to repress . Mental control is the only

self- contro l,and those who learn it early es

cape unhappiness and many hard ex perienceswhich darken the lives of those who fail tolearn that g reatest of all life

’s lessons .Thus for our Own sakes, and for the sakes

of those tender being s whose lives are largelyin our keeping , let us consider the great blessing s that will flow from proper understanding and control of our own life forces.

II . HOW MIND RULES THE BODY

II. HOW MIND RULE S THE BODY

It is astonishing what power our m ind has over our

body. Let the m ind therefore always be the m aster.

FORE one can do much

you m ust be convinced, thata bad thought harms you, that a good thoughthelps you. There must be no playing withfire and a careless feeling that it matters littleif you are off your guard part Of the time.

You must know in your inm ost consciousnessthat thought alone is eternal , that it is the m as

ter of your fate, and that the thought of everymoment has its part in deciding that fate. Youmust feel that proper control Of your own

thoughts will cause all good thing s to comenaturally to you , just as all bad thing s will beyour portion if you misuse your God -

g ivenpowers . Such realization m ust come throughconsideration of proved facts .Thought is being recognized more and more

at its proper value in the work of the world,I t

1 2 EVERY MAN A KING

material and moral . By people of views varying g reatly in detail the power Of thought isstated to be alm ost omnipotent in humanaffairs . Practical demonstrations of seem ing lymarvellous results are convincing unthinkingand m aterial minds . Scientific experim ents,instead of destroying the claim s Of the thinkers, substantiate them , and g ive scientific explanations .Prof. W. G. Anderson, of Yale University,

succeeded in practically weighing a thought.or the result of a thought

’s action. A studentwas poised on a balance so that the centre of

gravity of his body was exactly over its centre.

Set to solving m athem atical problems,the in

creased Weight of blood at his head changedhis centre of g ravity and caused an immediateclip of the balance to that side . Repeating thenine multiplication table caused a g reater displacement than repeating the table Of fives,and , in general, the displacement g rew greaterwith g reater intensity of thought. Carryingthe experim ent further, the experimenter hadthe student imag ine him self going through leggym nastics . As he performed the feats m entally, one by one, the blood flowed to the limbsin quantities sufficient to tip the balance ac

cording to the m ovem ent thought of. By panel;

14 EVERY MAN A KING

cle- bed and think of a 1ig , and though ap

parently m y feet do not move, and actuallythe muscles are not active, the muscle- bedsinks toward my feet, showing that there hasbeen a flow of blood toward the muscles, andthat if I did dance a j ig ,

the muscles wouldbe well supplied with blood under this mentalstimulus .”

Sandow has long taught that bodily exercisewithout proper thought would do little to develOp muscles, and that a very little exercise,with the mind directing it, will practically te

build the body. Certain professors Of physicalculture are selling this knowledge for goodprices. Professor Anderson’s experimentsdem onstrate the truth of these statem ents, andfurther that exercise involving com petitionand lively interest in games does far more

good than merely mechanical m ovements, perform ed without interest in gym nasium s . Hesays that walking is poor exercise for brainworkers, as it is so purely automatic that itdoes not call the blood from cong ested braincentres, which go on solving intellectual problem s . A run, a brisk walk, with a definite ob

ject necessitating the thought Of speed, willsend the blood to the leg s and build them up .

Exercising before a mirror, watching the m us

HOW MIND RULES BODY I5

cles swell with the different motions,is found

to aid development.Before these experiments , Prof. Elmer

Gates, atWashington, had proved that he wasable

,by thinking intently Of a hand when it

was plunged in a basin even - full of water, andwilling that the blood should flow there, tomake the water overflow. Thus the am ount ofextra blood sent to the hand could be measured, since it corresponded to the overflowed

water. Every one cannot do this on first trial ;

perhaps not in a hundred trials, but the mindcan be trained to such control of the body.

Years ago, by experim ents on the fam ousBeaumont , whose wound in the stomachhealed leaving an orifice , physicians demonstrafed the great effect of depressing or

elevating emotions on dig estion and otherfunctions. A telegram announcing disastercollapsed and made feverish the follicles thatwere actively secreting gastric juice, and leftfood undig ested for hours .Recent experiments on dog s by the Russian

scientist Prof. Ivan Pavlov have proved conelusively that secretion of the gastric juice inthe stomach does not, as long supposed , take

place autom atically when saliva is secreted orwhen food enters the stomach . On the con

I 6 EVERY MAN A KING

trary, it is secreted when a dog is made to eu

ticipate that it is to be fed with a much- lovedfood

,as raw meat, even though that meat is

not g iven to it, or, if g iven, is not allowed topass into the stomach but drops out of thee sophagus by a slit m ade for that purpose.

All manner of mechanical irritation did notavail to cause a flow Of gastric juice unlessthere was excited an idea of pleasure in eating . If the pneum ogastric nerve was severed,even this anticipated gastronomic pleasure, orthe actual passage of the loved meat throughthe severed (E SOphagus, did not cause gastricsecretion. The part played by the mind in whathave been called mere mechanical, physicalfunctions has been thus shown . The psychologi cal side of digestion, as of every othermanifestation in the body, is the more important.The most wonderful result of the ex peri

m ents made by Professor Gates was the discovery that certain states of mind producechemical products in the body . He says :In 1879 I published a report of ex peri

m ents showing that when the breath of a pa~

tient was passed through a tube cooled withice so as to condense the volatile qualities of

the respiration, the iodide Of rhodopsin, m in

HOW MIND RULES BODY 17

gled with these condensed products , producedno observable precipitate . But, within five minutes after the patient became ang ry, there appeared a brownish precipitate, which indicatesthe presence of a chemical compound producedby the emotion. This compound, ex tracted andadministered to men and animals, causedstim ulation and excitement . Extrem e sorrow,

such as mourning for the loss Of a child te

cently deceased, produced a g ray precipitate ;remorse

,a pink precipitate, etc . My ex peri

ments show that irascible, malevolent, anddepressing emotions g enerate in the systeminjurious compounds , som e of which are extrem ely poisonous ; also, that agreeable, happyem otions generate chemical compounds Of

nutritious value which stim ulate the cells tomanufacture energy .

”AS Professor Gates has

had to point out emphatically, to counteractridiculous statements, the color of these precipitates depends on the chemical used, butwith the same chemical the emotions producedifferent colors .

Prof. Jacques Loeb’s experiments at theUniversity of Chicago and at Stanford University have seemed to show that thought produces phenomena similar to those of electricity, that the particles of living matter change

I 8 EVERY MAN A KING

from positive to negative and negative to positive by the influence of thought. This makesthe old com parison of thought to a teleg ramfrom the brain all the more apt, and enlargesthe conception of what the mind can do in

chang ing bodily conditions .

III. THOUGHT CAUSES HEALTH ANDDISEASE

a: EVERY MAN A KING

does that mean ! Simply that som e sudden and

powerful thought has so deranged the bodilymechanism that it has stopped . Fright- thatis, a thought of fear—stopped the heart’saction. Excitement set it beating so hard thata blood - vessel burst in the head . Sudden joycaused a rush of blood to the brain that ruptured the delicate membranes . A loved one

died, and the thought of g rief prevented nutrition, repair of waste, and the performance Ofother bodily functions dependent on normalmental condition, and the person pined awayand died, from som e disease the enfeebledbody could not resist, or from no disease atall but the sick and mourning thought. Recently a trolley wire in London broke and fellinto the street with sputtering fire. A younglady, seeming ly as well as any one, was aboutto board a car, but, on seeing the accident,fell dead . Nothing had touched her. She hadsuffered no harm . She siInply thought she wasin danger, and thought so intensely that something gave way and separated her spirit fromher body. A mind more composed, less easilystartled, would have saved her life. A beauti ful young lady was struck in the face by a

golf stick. It broke her jaw, but that washealed in a few weeks. However. a scar was

HEALTH AND DISEASE 33

left that marred her beauty. The idea of disfigurement so preyed upon her mind that sheshrank from m eeting people, and melancholiabecame habitual . A trip to Europe, expensivetreatment by specialists , did no good . The ideathat she was marred and scarred took all joyfrom her life, all strength from her body. Shesoon could not leave her bed. Yet no physician was able to find any organic disease. Verysilly

,no doubt, but it illustrates What dis

eased thought can do in overcom ing perfectlyhealthy bodily functions . Had she been able tod ism iss the idea she brooded over, her healthwould have been restored .

Fright and g rief have Often blanched humanhair in a few hours or a few days . Ludwig ,of Bavaria, Marie Antoinette , Charles I . ofEng land, and the Duke Of Brunswick are historic examples, and every little while m oderninstances occur . The supposed explanation isthat strong em otion has caused the formationof chemical com pounds, probably of sulphur,which changed the color of the Oil of the hair.Such chem ical action is caused suddenly bythought instead Of gradually by advancingyears . Dr. Rog ers says : Many causes whichaffect but little the constitution, accelerate thedeath of the hair, more especially the depress

24 EVERY MAN A KING

ing passions, corrod ing anx ieties, and intensethought .

Men have died because they thought theywere terribly wounded when no wound ex

isted . The story of the medical student whowas frightened to death by fellow- students ,who pretended to be bleeding him, has Oftenbeen told. A man who thought he swallowed atack had horrible sym ptoms, including a localswelling in his throat, until it was discoveredthat he was mistaken. Hundreds of other caseshave been verified where belief sufficed to produce great suffering and even death.

On the other hand, sickness and disease

gave way before strong thought Of any otherkind, excitement, alarm , or great joy.

Benvenuto Cellini , when about to cast hisfamous statue of Perseus, now in the Logg iadei Lanzi, at Florence, was taken with a sudden fever and forced to go home and to bed .

In the midst of his suffering , one of his workmen rushed in to say : O Benvenuto, yourstatue is spoiled , and there is no hope whatever of saving it.

” Dressing hastily, he rushedto his furnace, and found his metal caked .

Ordering dry oak wood brought, he fired thefurnace

,fiercely working in a rain that was

falling , stirred the channels, and saved his

HEALTH AND DISEASE 25

metal. He continues the story thus : After allwas over, I turned to a plate of salad on abench there and ate with a hearty appetite anddrank, tog ether with the whole crew. Afterward I retired to my bed, healthy and happy,for it was now two hours before morning , and

Slept as sweetly as though I had never felt atouch of illness .” His overpowering idea ofsaving his statue not only drove the idea ofillness from his mind but also drove away thephysical condition and left him well.It is related of Muley Moluc, the Moorish

leader, that, when lying ill, almost worn out

by incurable disease, a battle took place between his troops and the Portuguese, when,starting from his litter at the great crisis ofthe fight, he rallied his army, led them to victory, and then instantly sank exhausted and

ex pired .

The biographer of Dr. E lisha Kane saysI asked him for the best proved instance

that he knew of the soul ’s power over thebody. He paused a moment upon my question,as if to feel how it was put, and answered aswith a spring : The soul can lift the body outOf its boots, sir !When our captain was dying—I say dying ; I have seen scurvy enough toknow—every Old scar in his body an ulcer—I

36 EVERY MAN A KING

never saw a case so bad that either lived or

died, men die of it, usually long before theyare

'

as ill as he was— there was trouble aboard.

There might be mutiny so soon as the breathwas out of his body. We might be at eachothers’ throats. I felt that he owed the reposeof dying to the service . I went down to hisbunk, and shouted in his ear, Mutiny !Captain, mutiny ! He shook Off the cadaverousstupor. Set me up !” said he, and orderthese fellows before me ! He heard the complaint, ordered punishment, and from thathour convalesced .

Emperor Dom Pedro, of Brazil, lying ill inEurope, was made well by a cableg ram fromhis daughter, acting as his regent, s tating thatshe had signed a decree abolishing slavery inhis country

,fulfilling a life- long plan Of the

sick emperor.Whence com es the power which enables a

frail,delicate wom an, invalid for years, unable

to wait upon herself, with hardly strengthenough to walk across the floor, to rush up

stairs and to drag out sleeping Children froma burning hom e !Whence comes the streng thwhich enables such a delicate creature to drawout furniture and bedding from a house onfire!Certainly no new strength has been added

HEALTH AND DISEASE 37

to the muscle, no new streng th to the blood,but still she does what, under ordinary conditions, would have been impossible for her.In the emergency she forgets her weakness,she sees only the emergency. The danger ofher darling child, the loss of her home, staresher in the face. She believes firmly, for thetime, that she can do what she attempts to do,and she does it. It is changed condition of

the mind, not changed blood or muscle, that

g ives the needed energy . The muscle has furh ished the power, but the conviction of the

ability to do the thing was first necessary. The

fire, the danger, the excitem ent, the necessityof saving life and property, the temporaryforgetfulness of her supposed weakness—thesewere necessary to work the mind to the properstate.Evidence of this power of mind over the

body is thrust upon us in many ways. Thewonder is that humanity has been so long recognizing the signs and making proper deductions and application . L ike the power ofelectricity to leap oceans through the air, carrying hum an messages, it has always existed,but is only beg inning to be generally realized .

The part played by the m ind in the curingOf disease is recognized by physicians, and

28 EVERY MAN A KING

whole books have been written g iving in

stances where the m ind has done more thanm edicine or surgery. One Of the highest medical authorities

,Dr. William Osler, sum m oned

by King E dward VII . from Johns HopkinsUniversity to be Reg ius Professor Of Medicine at Ox ford University

,says in the E n

cyclopedia Am ericanaThe psychical method has always played

an im portant, though largely unrecogn ized ,part in therapeutics . It is from faith

,which

buoys up the spirits, sets the blood flowingmore freely and

the nerves playing their partwithout disturbance, that a large part of allcure arises . Despondency, or lack of faith

,will

often sink the stoutest constitution alm ost todeath ’s door ; faith will enable a spoonful ofwater or a bread pill to do almost m iracles ofhealing when the best medicines have been

given over in despair. The basis of the entireprofession of medicine is faith in the doctor,his drugs , and his methods .

Similarly, Dr. Smith E ly Jelliffe, of Columbia Univers ity, says , in the same encyclo

pediaUnquestionably the Oldest and yet young

est therapeutic ag ent is suggestion. The

power to heal by faith is not the special prop

30 EVERY MAN A KING

proper conditions of climate and hyg iene,aided in the recovery from the milder stagesof consumption, while even the stagnation of

paralysis has been stirred into life by violentshocks to the mind and nervous system .

Long ago, Sir James Y. Simpson saidThe physician knows not, and practises notthe whole extent of his art, when he neg lectsthe marvellous influence of the mind over thebodyf

Churchill has given us the philosophy of

health in the verse

The surest road to health, say what they will,

Is never to suppose we shall be ill.

Most 0] those evils we poor m ortals know,

IV. OUR WORST ENEMY 1-5 FEAR

IV. OUR WORST ENEMY IS FEAR

Our doubts are traitors, and m ake us lose the good

we oft m ightwin, by fearing to attem pt—SHAKESPEARE ,

HOUGHT’

S most deadly instrum ent for m arring hu

man lives is fear. Fear demoralizes character, destroysambition

,induces or causes

disease, paralyzes happinessin self and others

,and pre

vents achievem ent. It has not one redeemingquality. It is all evil. Physiolog ists now wellknow that it impoverishes the blood by dem or

alizing assimilation and cutting Off nutrition.

It lowers mental and physical vitality,deadens

every element of success . It is fatal to thehappiness of youth , and is the most terribleaccompaniment of old age. Buoyancy fleesbefore its terri fying g lance, and cheerfulnesscannot dwell in the sam e house with it.

The m ost extensive of all the morbid mental conditions which reflect themselves so disastrously on the human system is the state offear

,

” says Dr. William H . Holcomb. It hasmany deg rees or gradations , from the state ofextrem e alarm , fright, or terror, down to the

34 EVERY MAN A KING

slightest shade of apprehension of impendingevil . But all along the line it is the same thing

- a paralyzing impression upon the centres oflife which can produce, through the agencyof the nervous system, a vast variety of

morbid symptoms in every tissue of the

body.

Fear is like carbonic- acid gas pumpedinto one’s atmosphere,

” says Horace Fletcher.It causes mental, moral, and spiritual as

phyx iation, and sometimes death—death to

energy, death to tissue, and death to all

g rowth .

Yet from our birth we live in the presenceand under the dom inion of this demon, fear.The child is cautioned a thousand times a yearto look out for this, and to look out for that ;it may get poisoned, it may get bitten, it may

get killed ; something terrible may happen toit if it does not do so and so. Men and womencannot bear the sight of some harmless animal or insect because, as children, they weretold it would hurt them. One of the cruelestthing s imaginable is to impress into a child

’splastic mind the terrible imag e of fear, which,like the letters cut upon a sapling , growswider and deeper with age. The balefulshadows of such blasting and blighting pict

OUR WORST ENEMY, FEAR 35

ures will hang over the whole life and shutout the bright sun of joy and happiness .An Australian writer saysOne of the worst misfortunes which can

possibly happen to a growing child is to havea mother who is perpetually tormented bynervous fears. If a mother g ives way to fears

- morbid, minute, and all - prevailing—she willinevitably make the environment of her children one of increas ing dread and timidity.

The backg round of fear is the habit or instinct of anticipating the worst. The motherwho never makes a move, or allows her chi ldren to make a move, without conjuring up amyriad of malign possibilities, im bitters theCUp of life with a slow - acting poison.

I know that thousands of boys and g irlsare to- day trem ulous, weak, passive, unalerton the physical side, sim ply because they weretaught in the knickerbocker stage, or earlier,to see the potency of danger in all they did or

tried to do. A mother assumes a terrible re

Sponsibility when from silly fears Of possibleinjury she forbids a child such physical abandon as will prom ote courage, endurance, selfreliance

,and self- control .”

For more than twenty years I have made

a study of criminal psychology and of in

36 EVERY MAN A KING

fantile psychology, says Dr. Lino Ferriani.Thousands Of tim es I have been compelledto recognize the sad fact that at least eightyeight per cent. of morbidly timid childrencould have been cured and saved in time bymeans Of common - sense principles of psychical and phy siologi cal hyg iene , in which them ain factor is suggestion inspired by wholesom e courage .

Not content with instilling fear of possiblyreal thing s, many mothers and most nursesinvent all sorts of bugbears and bog ies tofrighten poor babies into obedience. They evenattempt to induce sleep by telling children,If you don’t go right to sleep, a g reat b igbear will come and eat you up ! How muchsleep would a grown man get in a situationwhere this was a real possibility ! Fear Of thedark would seldom exist if parents carefullyshowed children that nothing is difierent inthe dark from what it is in the light. InsteadOf so doing , they take pains to people the myscerions dark with every sort of og re and monster that human im ag ination has been able toconjure up. Some one has well ex pressed inverse this cruel but too common sin againsthealthy- minded childhood :

38 EVERY MAN A K ING

ing that the whole world seems burdened andbowed down under a fearful weight of fearand anxiety. GO into almost any gathering ,

no matter how gay and happy the crowdsseem to be, you will find, if you question anv

one of even the g ayest, that the canker- wormof fear gnaws at the heart in some form . The

fear of accident, of sickness, Of poverty, of

death, of some terri ble misfortune, still lingersduring the greatest apparent gayety. Thousands of people thus pass their lives underthe Shadow of fear, haunted by the dread ofsome vague, impending evil.Many men and women narrow their lives

by worrying over what may happen to - morrow. The family cannot afford to have any

little , leg itimate pleasure, to travel, or to takethe leading mag azines or papers. They cannotafford much - needed vacations. They musteconomize on clothes , on food even, and onevery form of culture or recreation costingmoney, simply because times may be hardnext year. There may be a financial panic,urges the pessimist. Some of the childrenmay be sick, the times may be bad, our cropsmay fail, some business venture may not succeed . We can’t tell what might happen, but wemust prepare for the worst.

”The lives of

OUR WORST ENEMY, FEAR 39

hundreds of families are mutilated, sometimesutterly ruined, by this bugbear of misfortunejust ahead.

One Of the worst features of this parsim onious, anxious, untrustful way of living is thatit stunts the development of young lives , andthrows its dark shadow over the future aswell as the present. A g irl or boy, for instance,should go to college this year . Time fliesquickly, and almost before they realize it theywill be too old to go. But the father andmother assure themselves that they cannotafiord any ex tra expense this year ; the children must wait a little longer ; and every yearit is the sam e They m ust wait a littlelonger.

How many m en and women are handicappedin their life- work, robbed Of their possibilities,because lacking an education which parents,in anticipation of reverses that never came,postponed unti l too late !No one should discourage proper economy

and frugality, but this g loomy fear thatsom ething may happen, this postponingenjoym ent

,education

,culture, travel, books.

innocent pleasures of every kind, until thesensibilities become hardened, until the aes

thetic faculties are dead, is a disease of nar

4° EVERY MAN A KING

row,untrustful souls, which every sane per

son should combat.Think of the m illions of human creatures

that God has made and placed on this g ladearth , endowed with every faculty possible toenable them to enjoy life, wasting preciousyears in worrying and fretting lest somethingmay happen.

How pitiful are the anxious, wrinkled faces,the gray hairs, the unhappy expressions of

those who worry about possible misfortunes !Not one wrinkle in a thousand, not one g rayhair in a million, has been produced by actualills. The thing s which turn hair g ray andplough fair faces with cruel furrows, whichrob the step of elasticity, and take the buoyancy from life are bridg es that never werecrossed, misfortunes that never came. The

sorrows and trials which actually com e to usare, except in rare instances, trifling , com

pared with the thing s about which we worry,but which never come to pass.What a waste of energy and human life is

involved in this pernicious habit Of anticipatingevil !Think of the amount of work you couldhave accomplished by the mental and physicalforce you have ex pended in fearing what

m ight happen—but which did not. Think of

OUR WORST ENEMY, FEAR 4 1

the wasted hours in which you planned whatyou would do if misfortune should come.

If we could only rid ourselves Of imaginarytroubles

,our lives would be infinitely happier

and healthier. Thus one of the g reatest tasksin character - building is to eliminate, to uproot,to wipe out completely the baleful effects offear in all its varieties of m anifestation. N0

one can lead a naturally healthy, sunny, helpful , harmonious life whi le living in a fear environm ent. NO one can hope to be entirelyhappy and successful without the destruction,the eradication, of the fear- germ s . Were thisdone, the world would be g loriously changedfor the better. It is the duty of every individual to conquer this comm on enemy in hisown m ind, and to do all he can to wrest otherpeople, especially the young ,

from the dominion Of this phantom monster. Happily, thinkersand investigators have proven that this maybe done, and it is a g lorious prophecy thatcoming generations will be taught to banishall fear, to m arch, clear- eyed and confident,toward the goal Of perfect happiness.

V. OVERCOMING FEAR

46 EVERY MAN A KING

proofs of their part in the development of thedisease. That is, the germs do not often affecta normal, healthy, fearless person.

During a yellow - fever epidemic at NewOrleans, in the days before all the doctors hadagreed that the disease is contag ious, a youngNorthern teacher arrived at Natchez

,Miss .,

in a high fever. Dr. Samuel Cartwright wascalled. The next morning he , according to

Dr. William H . Holcomb, called the Officersof the hotel and all the regular boarders intothe parlor and made them a speech som ething like thisThis young lady has yellow - fever. It is

not contag ious. None of you will take it fromher ; and if you will follow my advice, you willsave this town from a panic , and a panic isthe hot- bed Of an epidem ic. Say nothing aboutthis case . Ignore it absolutely . Let the ladiesOf the house help nurse her, and take flowersand delicacies to her, and act altogether as ifit were some every- day affair, unattended bydanger. It will save her life, and perhaps, in

the long run, many others .”

The advised course was agreed to by all butone woman, who proceeded to quarantine herself ih the m ost rem ote room of the hotel. The

young teacher got well, and no one in the

OVERCOMING FEAR 41

house ex cept this terror- stricken woman took

yellow- fever. Even she recovered.

By his g reat reputation and his strongmagnetic power, says Dr. Holcomb, Dr.

Cartwright dissipated the fears Of those aroundhim and prevented an epidemic. For this

grand appreciation and successful applicationof a principle - the power of mind and thoughtover physical conditions, a power just dawning on the perception of the race—he deservesa nobler monument than any we have accordedheroes and statesmen.

Most people are afraid to walk on a nar

row place high above g round. If that samenarrow space were marked on a broad walk,they could keep within it perfectly, and neverthink Of losing balance . The only dangerousthing about walking in such a place is the fearof falling . Steady- headed people are simplyfearless ; they do not allow the thought of possible dang er to overcome them, but keep their

physical powers under perfect control . An ac

robat has only to conquer fear to perform mostOf the feats that astound spectators . For somefeats, special training and development of themusc les, or Of the eye and judgment, are neces sary, but a cool, fearless head is all that isnecessary for most.

48 EVERY MAN A KING

The im ages that frighten a child into con

vulsions in a dark room do not exist for the

parent. When the child is convinced that theghosts and monsters are not real, the terrorceases. A city child who had never walked onthe g rass Showed terror when first placed onyielding turf, and walked as g ingerly as if ithad been hot iron. There was nothing to beafraid of, but the child thought there was.Once the belief Of danger was eradicated, thefear was gone. SO it would be with g rown- up

fears if habit,race- thought, and wrong early

training did not set us in g rooves that are hardto g et out of. If we could but once rise to theconviction that fear is but an imag e of themind, and that it has no existence except inour consciousness, and no power to harm , except that which we gi ve it, what a boon itwould be to the human race !Take a very comm on fear—that Of losing

one ’s position. The people who make theirlives miserable worrying about this possiblemisfortune have not yet been discharged. Aslong as they have not, they are suffering nothing , there is no danger of want. The presentsituation is therefore satisfactory . If dischargecomes, it is then too late to worry about itscoming , and all previous worrying would have

OVERCOMING FEAR 49

been pure waste, doing no good, but ratherweakening one for the necessary strugg le to

get placed again. The thing to worry aboutthen will be that another place will not befound . If a place is found, all the worryingwill ag ain be useless . Under no circumstancescan the worrying be justified by the situationat any particular time. Its object is always animag inary situation of the future .

In overcoming your various fears, followeach one out to its log ical conclusion thus,and convince yourself that at the present moment the thing s you fear do not exist save inyour imagi nation. Whether they ever com e topass in the future or not, your fear is a wasteof tim e, energy, and actual bodily and mentalstreng th. !uit worrying just as you wouldquit eating or drinking something you felt surehad caused you pain in the past . If you mustworry about som ething , worry about the terrible effects of worrying ; it may help you to acure .

Merely convincing yourself that what youfear is imagi nary will not sufl‘ice until youhave trained your mind to throw Ofi sugges

tions of fear, and to combat all thought thatleads to it. This means constant watchfulnessand alert mental effort. When the thoughts of

so EVERY MAN A KING

foreboding , or worry, beg in to suggest themselves, not only do not indulg e them, and letthem grow b ig and black, but change yourthought, think of all that tends in the opposite direction. If the fear is of personal failure

,instead of thinking how little and weak

you are, how ill- prepared for the great task,and how sure you are to fail, think how strongand competent you are, how you have donesimilar tasks, and how you are going to utilizeall your past experience and rise to this present occasion, do the task triumphantly, and beready for a bigger one. It is such an attitudeas this, whether consciously assumed or not,that carries m en to higher and yet higher

places .This same principle Of crowding out the

fear- thought by a buoyant, hopeful, confidentthought can be applied to all the m any kindsof fear that daily and hourly beset us . At firstit will be hard to change the current ofthought, to cease to dwell on sombre and depressing things . An aid in the process is oftenadvisable. A sudden change Of work to something requiring concentration of mind will

often act as a switch . Recalling some humorous or pleasant incident will Often drive dullcare away,

” as the school song has it. A very

OVERCOMING FEAR 5.

interesting or very humorous book is prettysure to work well if one really reads withattention.

In the last analysis, all fear resolves itselfinto fear Of death, and writers on the meansOf getting rid of fear dwell especially on thisbasic form . Death will perhaps always be amystery, but whatever view of it be taken, alogi cal analysis will remove the terror of it,especially that form which makes lifelesshuman flesh a repulsive and terrible Object.We think the feeling that Hindoos have aboutthe flesh of animals is very queer, since to usthi s is most appetizing food . Our own fear ofa human corpse is just as foolish as the Hindoofear, and if we would rid ourselves of f . ar,

we must teach ourselves so. Familiarity withthe thing feared is always advisable, and ftcquently is quite sufficient . We know this to betrue with horses, and have only to apply thematter to our own foolish fears. HoraceFletcher advises even a course in a hospitaldissecting - room if nothing else will dissipatethe unreasoning fear of a dead body.

Whatever may lie beyond the tom b, saysW. E . H . Lecky, the tom b itself is nothingto us. The narrow prison - house, the g loomy

pomp, the hideousness of decay, are known to

53 EVERY MAN A KING

the living , and the living alone . By a too common illusion of the imagination, m en picture themselves as consciously dead—goingthrough the process of Corruption, and awareOf it ; im prisoned, with a knowledge of thefact, in the m ost hideous Of dungeons . Eudeavor earnestly to erase this illusion fromyour mind ; for it lies at the root of the fearOf death, and it is one of the worst sides ofmediaeval and much m odern art that it tendsto strengthen it. Nothing , if we truly realizeit,is less real than the g rave . We Should be

no more concerned with the after- fate of ourdiscarded bodies than with that of the hairwhich the hair- cutter has cut off . The soonerthey are resolved into their prim itive elementsthe better. The im agi nation should never besuffered to dwell upon their decay.

Whatever the means, the task of conquering fear is the most im portant in characterbuilding ,

and it will repay any effort . Not untilthis is done

,and effectively, finally done, can

the human soul take its proper place, rise toits God -

given dominion, and progress tohigher and yet higher planes Of power.

VI . KILLING EMOTIONS

Anger and worry not only dwarf and depres s, butsom etim es kill.—I-IORACE FLETCHE RViolence is transient. Hate, wrath, vengeance are

all form s of fear, and do not endure. Silent, persistent

eflort will dissipate them all. Be strong .

- ELBERT

HUBBARD.

EAR is not the only emotionthat can do us deadly harm .

Weak- hearted persons arewarned at peril of their livesagainst all unusual and disturb ing emotions, but the

inj ury to sounder persons isonly of lesser deg ree. Many a violent parox ysm of rag e has caused apoplexy and death.

Grief, long - standing jealousy, and corrodinganxiety are responsible for many cases of insanity . Emotion thus kills reason.

Grief is one oi the best known and mostrecognized of these killing emotions, as hasalready been mentioned . Correggi o is said tohave died of chag rin that he received onlyforty ducats for a picture that is now one or

the treasures Of the Dresden gallery. Keatsdied Of criticism too keen for his sensibilities,as have hundreds of other sensitive souls . Ih

55

56 EVERY MAN A KING

stances are not rare of young g irls dying fromdisappointment in love .

Even joy kills when its impact is too sudden.

The daily papers sometim es tell of an agedparent dying on the sudden arrival of a longlost child, or of the news of a great good fortune having a fatally exciting effect. A m an inParis died when his number proved a winningone in a lottery . Surprise at her son’s bring inghome a bride killed Mrs . Corea, of Copake,N . Y in five minutes.Even i f the em otion is not strong enough

to kill, its effect may be m ost injurious . A fitof anger will destroy appetite, check digestion,and unsettle the nerves for hours, or evendays . It upsets the whole physical make—up,and

,by reaction

,the m ental and the m oral .

Just as it changes a beautiful face to a hideousone, it chang es the whole disposition for thetime being . Anger in a m other may evenpoison a nursing child . Extrem e anger orfright may produce jaundice, and these or

other emotions sometim es cause vom iting .

Jealousy will upset the entire system , andis one of the most deadly enem ies to health,happiness

,and success . Victim s of j ealousy

oftentimes lose their health entirely until thecause is removed, and becom e so dem oralized

KILL ING EMOTIONS 57

mentally that they commit murder or suicide,or go insane . A standing head - line in Parisnewspapers is Dram es Passiouels (Tragedies from Passion!. A strong ,

continual hatred will som etim es not only destroy digestion ,

assim ilation , and peace of m ind, but alsoabsolutely ruin character.

These bodily effects of the emotions , andmany others, are in part due to certain chemical products formed in the body by the em o

tions . Medical m en say that they are analo

gous to the venom of poisonous snakes , whichis likewise secreted under the influence of fearand anger. The snake has a sac in which tostore the venom ; we have none, and it spreadsthrough all the tissues in spite Of efforts toeliminate it.Prof. E lm er Gates, who has gone further

than any other scientist into the investigationof emotions, says

It need not surprise any one that the em o

tions of sadness and pain and g rief afl ect thebodily secretions and excretions, because everyone must have observed that during these depressing em otions the respiration goes ou at aslower rate

,the circulation is retarded, diges

tion is im paired, the cheeks becom e pale, theeyes g row lustreless, and so forth.

53 EVERY MAN A KING

By various means and ingenious instruments , testing the

“ fatigue point,”the re

actionary period ,” etc . , Professor Gates deter

mined that a person is capable of greatermuscular, intellectual , and volitional activityunder the influence Of happy moods than underthe influence of depressing em otions.

The system makes an effort to eliminatethe metabolic products of tissue - waste,

” saysProfessor Gates, and it is therefore not surprising that during acute g rief tears are copiously excreted that during sudden fear thebowels are moved and the kidneys are causedto act, and that during prolonged fear thebody is covered with a cold perspiration ; andthat during anger the mouth tastes bitter—duelargely to the increased elimination of sulphocyanates . The perspiration during fear ischemically different, and even smells differentthan during a happy mood .

After po inting out the part elimination ofpoisons takes in bodily economy, ProfessorGates continuesNow it can be shown in many ways that

the elimination of waste products is retardedby the sad and painful em otions ; nay, worsethan that

,these depressing em otions directly

augment the am ount of these poisons . Con

KILLING EMOTIONS 59

versely, the pleasurable and happy emotions,during the tim e they are active, inhibit thepoisonous effects of the depressing moods, andcause the bodily cells to create and store upvital energy and nutritive tissue products .

Valuable advice may be deduced fromthese experim ents ; during sadness and g riefan increased effort should be volitionally madeto accelerate the respiration, perspiration, andkidney action, so as to excrete the poison morerapidly. Take your g rief into the open air,work till you perspire ; by bathing Wash awaythe excreted eliminates of the skin severaltimes daily ; and above all, use all the ex pedients known to you—such as the drama, poetry ,and the other fine arts, and direct volitionaldirigation, to educe the happy and pleasurableemotions. Whatever tends to produce, prolong ,

or intensify the sad emotions is wrong ,whether it be dress, drama, or what not . Hap

piness is a m eans rather than an end— it

creates energy, promotes growth and nutrition

,and prolong s life . The emotions and

other feeling s g ive us all there is of enjoymentin life, and their scientific study and rationaltraining constitute an im portant step in the art

of using the mind more skilfully and effi

ciently. By proper training the depressing

60 EVERY MAN A KING

emotions can be practim lly eliminated fromlife

,and the good emot ions rendered per

m anently dormant. All this is ex tremely optimistic.Nursing grief month after month, or yea r

after year, as so many do, is a crim e againstoneself, and aga inst all others with wh m one

comes in contact . It does absolutely no goodto anybody, least of all to the grieving person,who certainly is no happier for it . Thepersondead or gone away can take no pleasure in the

perpetual mourning, and everybody who liveswith the mourner is depressed and injured bythe pall of lugubriousness. Such mourning isonly self-pity, a form of selfishness . Pleasureand comfort from a certain source m ay have

gone out of your life, but why not live in thejoyous memory of What was Once enjoyed,rather than m ake yourself and many othersmiserable because you cannot have a constantsupply of this same pleasure!What would youthink of a tourist who came back 'from Switzerland weeping and mourning because he couldnot always remain in some beautiful valleyand enjoy the loveliest view he had ever seen!You ex pect his eye to grow b right and his

manner anim ated as he t ells of the beauty hesaw and the pleasure he felt .

62 EVERY MAN A KING

mon expression, by the way, exactly describe!the effect of anger. One ’s mental and physicalharmony does fly all to pieces

,

” and is a longtim e getting patched up again.

Self- control is of course the preventive of

anger. Log ic and deliberation in judg ing ofincidents and their effect on one are conduciveto self- control . A com mon excitant to anger isan epithet, the calling of

‘ a nam e . Think justwhat thi s is, and you must decide that it issilly to lose one ’s tem per over it. You areang ry really because you are afraid somebodymay believe the characterization is true . Wereyou absolutely sure of yourself and your reputation, the epithet would have no more effectthan the barking of a dog , or a word in someforeign language that you did not understand .

It has no real effect at all, only what you allowit to have in your own m ind . It does not alterthe facts in the case in the least. The wise attitude is that taken by Mirabeau, who, whenspeaking at Marseilles , was called calumniator, liar, assassin, scoundrel .

” He said, I wait,gentlemen, till these amenities be exhausted.

Ang er because some one has done workwrong does not help matters any. It does notundo the m istake, or make the erring one not

less likely to repeat the error than would a

K ILLING EMOTIONS 63

careful showing Of what is wrong , and the

proper method . Your own energy could befar more profitably spent than in a fit of

temper.Whatever the cause of anger, it will usually

be found to be trivial. A proof is that quicktempered people are always apolog izing thenext day, when the matter looks very different. Cultivate the habit Of form ing this tomorrow judgment to- day, and your ang ryexplosions will be reduced to a minim um. Cultivate optimism in general , and particularly thelove - thought, toward all people with whom youcome in contact, and you will soon find it hardto be ang ry with any of them . Jealousy andhatred will disappear by the cultivation of thesame attitude of mind . Whatever the killingemotion that you are allowing to destroy yourhappiness and shorten your life, the remedycan be found within yourself, in your ownthinking and acting . Long ago Epictetus prae

tised the remedy and saidReckon the days in which you have not

been ang ry . I used to be angry every day ;now every third day ; then every third andfourth day ; and if you m iss it so long as thirtydays

,offer a sacrifice of thanksg iving to God.

VII . MASTERING OUR MOODS

VII . MASTERING OUR MOODS

A character is a m an who knows what he wantswho does not allow his tem per and m oods to govern him ,

but acts on firm principles—M U .

HEN thing s go hard withyou, when everything seem sto go against you, when youare thwarted on every side,when the sky is dark and

you can see no light, that isjust the time to exhibit your

mettle, to Show of what stuff you are made.If there is anything in you, adversity will bringit out. What a m an does in spite of circumstances

,rather than because of them , is the

m easure of his success ability.

When you get up in the morning feelingblue and discouraged because disagreeablething s confront you, make up your m ind firm

ly that, come what may, you will make thatparticular day a red - letter day in yourli fe. Then, instead of a probable failureand the loss of a day, you will at leastaccomplish infinitely more than you wouldhave done if you had given way to yourdepress ing mood.

Man is naturally a lazy animal, and when67

68 EVERY MAN A KING

thing s go hard with him the temptation toslip over or get around the diflicult place isvery strong . But this is not the way to killthe dragon that dog s your footsteps and robsyou of your happiness . Do not shake off or

avoid your work ; do not go around obstacles

go through them . Seize the dragon by thehead and strang le him .

Above all,” says Frank C. Haddock, in

The Power of Will,” anger, irritation,jealousy, depression, sour feeling s, morosethoughts , worry, should be forever banishedfrom the mind by the resolute, masterful will.All these are physiolog ical devils . They not

only disturb the mind , but also injure the bodyby developing poisonous and distorting cells .They prevent an even circulation. The poisonswhich they generate are deadly in the extrem e.

They flatten and tear asunder cells of nervoustissue . They induce perm anent physiolog icalstates which are inimical to vigorous will .They dispel hopefulness, and Obscure highmotives, and lower the mental tone. Theyshould be cast out Of life with the resolutionthat as aliens they shall always be treated .

They may be throttled and slaughtered andlocked absolutely out of your existence . Whoever will accomplish these g reat results will

1o EVERY MAN A KING

tion is practically perfect, if the new thoughtbe strong er than the old.

The only cure for indolence is work, says

Rutherford ; the only cure for selfishness is

sacrifice ; the only cure for unbelief is to shake

Off the ague of doubt by doing Christ’s bid

ding ; the only cure for timidity is to plungeinto some dreadful duty before the chill comeson. Similarly, the cure for bad moods is tosummon good ones to fill one’s whole mind andthought. It requires a strong effort of will ,but the only way to conquer any fault is tothink persistently of the opposite virtue, andto practise it until it is yours by the force ofhabit. Hold just the opposite thought fromthat which depresses you, and you will naturally reverse the ,

mood . The im ag ination has

g reat power to change an unpleasant thoughtor experience. When you are the victim ofvicious moods , just say to yourself : This isall unreal ; it has nothing to do with my higherand better self, for the Creator never intendedme to be dominated by such dark pictures .Persistently recall the most delightful ex peri~

ences, the happiest days of your life . Hold persistently in the mind such thing s as you haveenjoyed ; drive out the failure- thoughts bythinking of the successful thing s you have ao

MASTERING OUR MOODS 1x

complished. Persistently hold joyous thoughtswhen sadness threatens. Call hope to your aid,and picture a bright, successful future. Surround yourself with such happy thoughts fora few minutes, and you will be surprised tosee how all the ghosts of blackness and

g loom—all thoughts which have worried and

haunted you—have gone out of sight . Theycannot bear the light. Light, joy, g ladness,and harmony are your best protectors ; discord, darkness, and sickness cannot ex istwhere they are. As a writer in the Maga

zine of Mysteries says : Our troubles can

stand anything better than indifierence andridicule. When we separate ourselves fromthem and forget them for things of g reaterinterest, or when, in our own minds, we turntheir insignificance to derision, they speedilyslink away abashed and hide their diminished

heads .

Until we can master our moods, we can

never do our best work. N0 man who is at themercy of his moods is a free man. He onlyis free who can rise to his dominion in spiteof his m ental enem ies. If a m an must consulthis moods every morning to see whether hecan do his best work, or only some unim

portant task during the day ; if he m ust look

7a EVERY MAN A KING

at his mental thermometer when he rises, to seewhether his courage is rising or falling , he isa slave ; he cannot be successful or happy.

How different is the outlook of the m an who

feels confident every morning that he is goingto do a man’s work, the very best that he iscapable of, and that no mood or outward circum stance can hinder that accomplishment.How superbly he carries himself who has nofear, no doubt, no anxiety.

It is true that this supreme self- dom inion,which marks one calm,

powerful soul in a million who fret and stew and are mastered bytheir moods, is one of the last lessons of culture, but it is a prerequisite to great achievement

,and by proper effort it is possible to all.

When this is attained, we need no longer envthose serene souls who impress us with a

sense of power, of calm, unhesitating assurance

,who travel toward their goal with the

rhythm and majesty of the celestial bodies.They are only those who have learned to thinkcorrectly, to master their moods and, withthem, men and circumstances ; and we can belike them if we will.Training under pressure is the finest dis

cipline in the world . You know what is rightand what you ought to do, even when you do

MASTERING OUR MOODS 73

not feel like doing it. This is the time to get afirm grip on yourself, to hold yourself steadilyto your task, no matter how hard or disagreeable it may be. Keep up this rig id disciplineday after day and week after week, and youwill soon learn the art of arts - perfect selfm astery.

VIII. UNPROFITABLE PESSIMISM

78 EVERY MAN A KING

meant a shooting afiray to the armed man wasmerely a joke to the m ore sensible unarmedmen . It is just so with the seekers for ordinarytrouble. By constantly holding discouraged,dejected , m elancholy, g loomy thoughts, theymake them selves receptive to all that depressesand destroys .What to a cheerful person wouldbe a trifling incident, to be laughed at and dismissed from the mind, becomes, in the mindsof the croakers,

'

a thing of dire portent, anoccasion for unutterable g loom and foreboding .

Most unhappy people have gradually becom e so by forming the habit of unhappiness, complaining about the weather, findingfault with their food, with crowded cars, andwith disag reeable companions or work. Thehabit of complaining , Of criticising , of faultfinding or g rumbling over trifles, the habit oflooking for shadows

,is one most unfortunate

to contract , especially in early life, for aftera while the victim becomes a slave . All ofthe impulses becom e perverted

,until the ten

deney to pessim ism ,to cynicism, is chronic .

There are specialists in these trouble- seekers .Thousands Of people go looking for disease.They keep on hand antidotes for malaria, andsomething for colds, and m edicine for every

UNPROFITABLE PESSIMISM 79

possible ailment, and they are sure they willall come sometime . When they take a journeyacross the continent or to E urope they carrya regular drug - store ‘with them, a remedy forevery supposed ill that they are likely to strike ;and, strang e to say, these people are alwaysfeeling ill, they are always having colds, andcatching contag ious diseases . Others, whonever anticipate trouble, who are always believing the best instead of the worst, will goabroad and never take remedies with them,

and they rarely have any trouble.Some people are always looking for malaria,

they are always snuffing about for sewer gasand for impure air ; the locality where they livemust be unhealthy, too high or too low, too

sunny or too shady. If they have any littleache or pain, they are sure it is malaria. Ofcourse they eventually get it because theylooked for it, they anticipated it, they expectedit. They would be disappointed if they foundthey were mistaken. The fact is that the onlything that is wrong is their own minds . Ifthere is malaria in the mind, if there is miasma in the thought, these thing s will appearin the body. It is only a question of tim e .

Some of these trouble- seekers fix on thestomach as the storm - centre of misfortune.

80 EVERY MAN A KING

They have elaborate mental charts Of whatag rees with them and what disagreeswith them

,and are always secretly hoping

to be able to find some new indig estible viand.

They swallow a bit of dyspepsia with everymouthful of food, for they feel sure that everything they eat will hurt them . The suspiciousthought, the fear thought, reacts upon the di

g estion, demoralizes the gastric juice or prevents its secretion entirely, and, of course,there is trouble.

Some of these peculiar individuals find theair the most prolific source of their quarry .

The whole French nation is continually looking for trouble from this source. An American in Paris who leaves a bedroom windowopen is warned against sore eyes, pneumonia,colds, and sudden death . I f there is a windowOpen anywhere, these suspecters Of aerial m ischief expect a cold, and are sure to get it . Thevery fear

,the very anxiety, demoralizes the

natural resisting power of the body and makesit susceptible.If there is a contag ious disease anywhere

in the neighborhood, the trouble- expecters aresure to contract it. If one of the childrencoughs, or has a little too much color in thecheek

, or does not feel hung ry, they are cer

UNPROFITABLE PESSIMISM 8 1

mm that the dreaded disease must have begunits deadly work.

The saddest cases of all , perhaps , are thosewho have a fixed idea that some disease, usually supposed to be inherited, will ultimatelykill them . The self- convinced victims of weaklung s, weak hearts, weak stomachs broodand dwell upon their threatened physical disasters , making them enter into every planand calculation of life , throwing their pallover every activity of the family. All thatthousands Of such people need to be well andhappy is a better m ental state , a buoyant,hopeful attitude and the activity that wouldcome with such a philosophy. These peopleare the prey of quacks of every kind, theyare the dope fiends” that swallow our millions of gallons of concoctions whose adver

tisem ents disgust the eye of every news

paper reader, they support many a fashionablephysician in luxury, they make life tenfoldm ore miserable than by any standard of rightit ought to be . I wish that I had the power tostir the inmost soul Of all these people torealize how much their own fate lies in the

control Of their own thoughts , how effort ofwill, by helping them to hold the healing ,

life -

giving thought, might enable them to

82 EVERY MAN A KING

throw off every hampering ailment , physicaland m ental, and make their lives the grandexpression of the divinity that is the essenceof us all.Certain people are always complaining of

their hard lot and poverty. They go aboutwith disaster written in their very faces ; theyare walking advertisements of their own failures , their own listless , nerveless , lifeless inactivity ; they are always talking , but neverdoing .

I know a bright, energetic young man whohas started in business for himself, but whohas formed a most unfortunate habit Of talking down his business to everybody. Whenanybody asks him how his business is gettingalong he says :" Poorly, poorly ; no business ;doing absolutely nothing just barely makinga living ; no money in it ; I wish I could sellout ; I made a great mistake in going into thisline of business ; I would have been a g reatdeal better off on salary.

” This man has formedsuch a habit of talking his business down that

even when business is good, he still calls it

poor. He radiates a discouraging atm osphere,he flings out discourag ing suggestions , andm akes you feel tired and disgusted that a

young man of such promise and such possi

UNPROFITABLE PESSIMISM 83

bilities should so drown his prospects and

strang le his ambition .

This habit is especially unfortunate in anemployer, because it is contag ious ; it destroysthe confidence of the employees in him and inthe business . People do not like to work for apessimist. They thrive in a cheerful, optim isticatmosphere, and will do more and better workthere than in one of discouragement and depression . The man who talks his business downcannot possibly do so well as the man whotalks his business up. The habit of talkingeverything down sets the mind toward thenegative side, the destructive side, instead oftoward the positive and creative, and is fatalto achievement. It creates a discordant en

vironm ent. N0 man can live upward when heis talking downward .

The imagination, wrong ly used, is one of

our worst foes . I know people who live in per

petual unhappiness and discomfort becausethey imag ine they are being abused, slighted,neg lected, and talked about. They think themselves the target for all sorts of evils, theobject of envy

,jealousy , and all kinds of ill

will. The fact is, most such ideas are delusionsand have no reality whatever.Now this is a most unfortunate state of

84 EVERY MAN A KING

mind to get into. It kills happiness , it dem oralizes usefulness, it throws the mind out ofharmony

,and life itself becomes unsatisfac

tory.

People who think such thoughts make themselves perpetually wretched by surroundingthem selves with an atmosphere reeking withpessim ism . They always wear black g lasses,which m ake everything around them seemdraped in m ourning ; they see nothing butblack. All the music of their lives is set to theminor key ; there is nothing cheerful or brightin their world .

These people have talked poverty, failure,hard luck, fate, and hard tim es so long thattheir entire being is imbued with pessimism.

The cheerful qualities of the mind have atro

phied from neg lect and disuse, while theirpessimistic tendencies have been so overdeveloped that their minds cannot regain a

normal, healthy, cheerful balance.These people carry a g loomy, disag reeable,

uncomfortable influence with them whereverthey go. Nobody likes to converse with them,

because they are always telling their stories ofhard luck and misfortune . With them, timesare always hard, money scarce, and society

going to the bad.

” After a while they be

86 EVERY MAN A KING

in the turmoil of discontent is like pouringwater into heated oil. Irritation and disturbance is the consequence. Healing is the workof divine power, and in the use of divinelyappointed means for the recovery of health itis as necessary to be in harmony with the ap

plication of those means as though the DivineMaster were himself applying the means. A

good and wise Providence is seeking to workout for us a noble end ; and contentment meansbeing in harmony with the work that is beingdone for us, whether that work be agreeableto our feeling s or not.

It matters not what may be the cause of

the trouble in the anxious mind,” says Dr.

A. J. Sanderson, the results upon the bodyare the same . Every function is weakened, andunder the continual influence of a depressedstate of mind, they degenerate. E specially isthis true if any organ Of the body is handicapped by weakness from any other cause.The combination of the two influences willsoon lead to actual disease.

The greatest barrier in the way of the

healing process, especially if the malady beone that is accompanied by severe pain , is them ental depression that is associated with it and

often becom es a factor of the disease. It stands

UNPROFITABLE PESSIMISM 81

in the way of recovery som etim es m ore thando the physical causes , and ob literates fromthe consciousness of the individual the wonderful healing power of nature, so essential

to recovery.

A m ost injurious and unpleasant way of

looking for trouble is fault- finding , continualcriticism of other persons . Some people arenever generous, never magnanimous towardothers. They are stingy of their praise, showing always an unhealthy parsimony in theirrecognition of merit in others, and critical oftheir every act.Don’t go through life looking for trouble,

for faults, for failures, for the crooked, theug ly, and the deformed ; don

’t see the distorted m an—see the m an that God made . Justm ake up your mind firmly at the very outsetin life that you will not criticise or condemnothers, or find fault with their mistakes andshortcoming s . Fault- finding ,

indulg ing in sar

casm and irony, picking flaws in everythingand everybody

,looking for thing s to condemn

instead of to praise, is a very dangerous habitto oneself. It is like a deadly worm which

gnaws at the heart of the rosebud or fruit,and will make your own life gnarled, distorted, and bitter.

88 EVERY MAN A KING

NO life can be harmonious and happy afterthis blighting habit is once formed . Those whoalways look for something to condemn ruintheir own characters and destroy their nor

mal integ rity.

We all like sunshiny, bright, cheerful, hOpeful people ; nobody likes the g rumbler, thefault- finder, the backbiter, the slanderer . The

world likes Emerson, not Nordau ; likes theman who sees long evity in his cause and goodin the future, who believes the best and notthe worst of people. Idle gossipers, serpenttongues, people who give vent to their tempers

, get only momentary satisfaction, andever afterward they are tormented by theirown ug ly natures and then wonder whyanother person enjoys his life and they donot enjoy theirs.It is just as easy to go through life looking

for the good and the beautiful, instead Of theug ly for the noble instead of the ignoble ; forthe bright and cheerful instead Of the darkand g loomy ; the hopeful instead Of the despairing ; to see the bright side instead of thedark side . To set your face always toward thesunlight is just as easy as to see always theshadows , and it makes all the difference in

your character between content and discon

UNPROFITABLE PE SSIMISM 89

tent, between happiness and misery, and inyour life, between prosperity and adversity,between success and failure .

Learn to look for the light, then. Positivelyrefuse to harbor shadows and blots, and thedeformed, the disfigured, the discordant . Holdto those thing s that g ive pleasure, that are

helpful and inspiring , and you will changeyour whole way of looking at thing s, willtransform your character in a very shorttim e.

A g reat many people think they would behappy if they were only in different circumstances, when the fact is that circumstanceshave little, if anything , to do with one

’s tem

peram ent or disposition to enjoy the world.

I know people who have lost their bestfriends

,who have all their lives been appar

ently unfortunate, have strugg led against oddsand have them selves been invalids , and yetthey have borne up bravely through it all, andhave been cheerful, hopeful, inspiring to allwho knew them .

You who are always unhappy, who are

always g rumbling about your circumstances,hard luck

,and poverty, must rem ember that

thousands of people would be happy in pre~

cisely your condition.

9t EVERY MAN A KING

If you have been in the habit of talkingdown your business, the times, your friends,and everything , just reverse the process, talkeverything up, and see how soon your changedthought will change the atmosphere about youand improve your conditions.

A strong , positive man does not allow himself to talk and think negatives . He does notsay I can’t it is always I can he doesnot say I will try the thing , but I will doit.” Cant’s have ruined more boys and

young men and young women than almostanything else, for to get into the negativehabit, the doubting habit, tends to keep themdown. They are fastening bonds of servitudearound themselves, and will not be able tocounteract their influence unless they reversetheir thinking ,

talking , and acting .

Perfect faith is the child of optimism andharmony. The pessimist atmosphere is alwaysdeadly to health and fatal to business as wellas morals. The balanced soul is never sus

picious, does not expect trouble, but quite thereverse . He knows that health and harmonyare the everlasting facts, that disease and

discord are but the absence of the Opposites, as darkness is not an entity in itself,only the absence of light. Get yourself in

UNPROFITABLE PESSIMISM gr

balance, and life will look and be different

B rooding o’er ills, the irritable soul

Creates the evils feared, and hugs its pain.

See thou some good in every som bre whole,

And, viewing ex cellence

, forget life’s dole,

In will the last sweet dropof joy to drain.

IX. THE POWER OF CHEERFULTHINKING

Optim ism is the faith that leads to achievem ent;nothing can be done without hope—HELEN K ELLER .

The m en whom I have seen sucm ed best in life havealways been cheerful and hopeful m en, who went abouttheir business with a sm ile on their faces, and took

the changes and chances of this m ortal life like m en,

facing rough and sm ooth alike as it cam e—CHARLES

HE cheerful m an has a creative power which the pessimist never possesses . Thereis nothing which will so

com pletely sweeten life and

take out its drudgery, nothing that will so effectively

ease the jolts on the road, as a sunny, hopeful, Optimistic disposition . With the same mental ability, the cheerful thinker has infinitelym ore power than the despondent, g loomythinker. Cheerfulness is a perpetual lubricator of the mind ; it is the Oil of g ladness whichdispels friction , worries, anxieties, and disa

greeable experiences . The life machinery ofa cheerful man does not wear out or grindaway as rapidly as that of one whose moods

95

96 EVERY MAN A KING

and temper scour and wear the delicate bearings and throw the entire machinery out of

harmony.

In the maintenance of health and the cureof disease cheerfulness is a most importantfactor,

” says Dr. A. J . Sanderson. Its powerto do good like a medicine is not an artificialstimulation of the tissues, to be followed byreaction and g reater waste, as is the case withmany drug s ; but the effect of Cheerfulness isan actual life-

g iving influence through a normal channel, the results of which reach everypart of the system. It brightens the eye, makesruddy the countenance, brings elasticity to thestep, and promotes all the inner forces bywhich life is sustained . The blood circulatesmore freely, the oxygen comes to its home inthe tissues, health is promoted, and disease isbanished.

A farmer in Alabama eight or ten yearsago, subject to lung trouble, had a hemorrhagewhile ploughing one day, and lost so muchblood that he was told by his physician thathe would die . He merely said that he was notready to die yet

,and lingered for a long time,

unable to get up . He gained strength, andfinally could sit up

,and then he began to laugh

at anything and everything . He persisted in

98 EVERY MAN A KING

for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if

only because to be happy ourselves is the

most effectual contribution to the happinessof others .”

Nothing makes for one’

s own health and

happiness so much as a serene mind. When themind is self- poised and serene, every facultyand function falls into line and works norm ally. There is equilibrium and health everywhere in the body. The serene mind can ac

complish infinitely more than the disturbedand discordant.

A serene intentness will always prevail,Though bluster and bustle will often fai l.

The work turned out by a calm, balancedmind is healthy and strong . There is a vigorand naturalness about it which is not found inthat done by a one - sided man, a mind out ofbalance . Serenity never dwells with discontent, with anx iety, with over- ambition . It neverlives with the guilty, but dwells only with aclear conscience ; it is never found apart fromhonesty and square dealing , or with the idleor the vicious.The sunny man attracts business success ;

everybody likes to deal with ag reeable, cheer

CHEERFUL THINKING 99

ful people . We instinctively shrink from a

crabbed, cross, contemptible character, no matter how able he may be. We would rather doa little less business or pay a little more forour goods and deal with an optimist .The g reat business world of to- day is too

serious, too dead in earnest. Life in Americais the most strenuous ever experienced in thehistory of the world. There is a perpetual needof relief from this g reat tension, and a sunny,cheerful, gracious soul is like an ocean breezein sultry August, like the coming of a vacation. We welcome it because it g ives us atleast temporary relief from the strenuousstrain. Country store - keepers look forward formonths to the visits of jolly, breezy travellingmen, and their wholesale houses profit by their

good nature. Cheerful - faced and pleasantvoiced clerks can sell more goods and attractmore customers than saucy, snappy, disagreeable ones . Promoters , organizers oi greatenterprises, must make a business of beingagreeable, of harmonizing hostile interests, ofwinning men

’s good opinion . Newspaper men ,likewise, depend on making friends to gainentrée, to get interviews, to discover facts, andto find news . All doors fly open to the sunnyman

, and he is invited to enter when the di34

zoo EVERY MAN A KING

ag reeable, sarcastic, g loomy m an has to breakopen the door to force his way in . Manyanother business is founded on courtesy, cheerfulness

,and good humor.

Employees can often make their situationseasier

, get more salary, and win promotion byalways being cheerful and bright, besides having a pleasant, happy tim e them selves . EmoryBelle tells how this worked in her own case :

I started out to m y work one m orning ,

determined to try the power of cheerful thinking (I had been m oody long enough!. I saidto myself: I have often observed that a happystate of mind has a wonderful effect upon myphysical m ake - up, so I will try its effect uponothers, and see if my right thinking can bebrought to act upon them .

’ You see I wascurious . As I walked along , more and moreresolved on my purpose , and persisting thatI was happy, that the world was treating mewell, I was surprised to find myself lifted up,as it were ; my carriage becam e more erect, mystep lighter, and I had the sensation of treading on air. Unconsciously, I was smiling , forI caught myself in the act once or twice . I

looked into the faces of the women I passedand there saw so much trouble and anxiety,discontent

,even to peevishness, that my heart

x oz EVERY MAN A KING

not treating you kindly, don’t delay a day, but

say to yourselves : I am going to keep youngin spite of the g ray hairs ; even if thing s donot always come my way I am going to livefor others, and shed sunshine across the pathway of all I meet. ’ You will find happinessspring ing up like flowers around you

,will

never want for friends or companionship, andabove all the peace of God will rest upon yoursoul.”

The world is too full of sadness and sorrow,

misery and sickness ; it needs more sunshine ;it needs cheerful lives which radiate g ladness ;it needs encouragers who shall li ft and notbear down ; who shall encourage, not discourage.

Who can estimate the value of the sunnysoul who scatters g ladness and good cheerwherever he goes, instead of g loom and sadness ! Everybody is attracted to these cheerful faces and sunny lives , and repelled by the

g loomy, the morose, the sad . We envy peoplewho radiate cheer wherever they go, who flingout g ladness from every pore . Money, houses,lands

,look contemptible beside such a dispo

sition. The ability to radiate sunshine is a

g reater power than beauty, than mere mentalaccomplishments.

CHEERFUL THINKING 103

Oh,what riches live in a sunny soullWhat

a blessed heritage is a sunny nature, able tofling out sunshine wherever it goes , able to

scatter the shadows and to lighten sorrowladen hearts , having power to send cheer intod espairing souls . And if, haply, this heritageis comb ined with a superb manner and ex

quisite personality, no money wealth can compare with its value .

This blessing is not diflicult of acquisition,for a sunny face is but a reflection of a warm,

generous heart. The sunshine does not ap

pear first upon the face , but in the soul. The

g lad smile that makes the face radiant is buta glimpse of the soul’s sunshine.

By taking a large- hearted interact in everyone we meet, by trying to pierce through them ask of the outer m an or woman, to the inm ost core, and by cultivating kindly feelingstoward all , it is possible to acquire this inestimable gift . It is really only the developmentof our own finest qualities that enables us tounderstand and draw out what is fine andnoble in others . Nothing will pay one betterthan the acquisition of the power to makeothers feel at ease , happy, and sati sfied withthemselves .

Sunny people dispel melancholy, g loom,

104 EVERY MAN A KING

worry,and anxiety from all those with whom

they com e in contact, just as the sun drivesaway darkness . When they enter a roomfulof people, where the conversation has beenlagg ing , and where everybody seems bored ,they transform the surrounding s like the sunbursting through thick, black clouds after astorm . Everybody takes on a joyous spiritfrom the g lad soul just entered, tongues areuntied

,conversation which dragged becom es

bright and spirited, and the whole atmospherevibrates with g ladness and good cheer .

There is nothing which you could put intoyour life, except service to others , whichwould pay you so well as the cultivation of

sunshine in your business or profession, andin your social relations . Business will cometo you instead of having to be sought, friendswill seek you , society open wide its doorsto you . A cheerful disposition is a fund of

ready capital, a magnet for the good thing sof life .

Force yourself, i f necessary, to form thehabit of seeing the best in people, of findingout their good qualities, and dwelling uponthem and enlarg ing them. Do not see the distorted, crooked , cramped , burlesque of a m an ,

but the man that God made. Ruskin says : Do

106 EVERY MAN A KING

Pass right through them I Do not tarry.

There’s a sparkling gleam of sunshine

Waiting on the other side.

Talh happiness. The world is sad enough

Without your woe. N o path is wholly rough.

Look for the places that are smooth and clear,

And speak of them to rest the weary ear

0] earth, so hurt by one continuous strain

0] mortal discontent and grief and pain.

—ELLA WHEELER Wn cox .

X . NEGATIVE CREEDS PARALYZE

n o EVERY MAN A KING

power of affirmation, and drift, unable to getahead.

Negatives will paralyze your ambition, myyoung friend, i f you indulge in them . Theywill poison your life . They will rob you of

power. They will kill your self—confidence untilyou are a victim of your situation instead ofa master of it . The power to do is largely aquestion of self- faith, self- confidence . No matter what you undertake, you will never do ituntil you think you can. You will never master it until you first feel the mastery and dothe deed in your mind. It must be thought outor it can never be wrought out. It must be amind accomplishment before it can be a material one.There is no science in the world which will

bring a thing to you while your thought repelsit,while doubt and suspicion linger in the

mind . No man can pass his self- imposedbounds or lim itations. The man who would getup in the world must learn to deny his beliefin limitation. He must throw all negative suggestions to the wind . He must think successbefore he can achieve it. He must afi rm con

tinually with decision and vigor that which hewishes to accomplish or be.

Suppose a boy some morning should say,

NEGATIVE CRE EDS rr i

I can’

t get up, I can’t get up ; what

’s the use

of trying ! It is perfectly sure that he never

could get out of bed until he thought he could,until he had confidence in his ability to get up.

How can a boy expect to rise in the world

when he is all the time saying to him self : Ican ’t do this thing . It is useless to try, I know

I can’t do it. Other boys may do it, but I know

I can’t.” The boy who thinks he can’t get his

lessons, who decides that he can’t solve his

problems, who is sure he can’t go through

college, can never do any of these thing s. Verysoon he becomes the victim of chronic can’t.”

Negation has mastered him. I can’t hasbecome the habit of his life . All self- respectand self- confidence, all consciousness of ability, have been undermined and destroyed. Hisachievement cannot rise higher than histhoughts .Contrast this with the boy who always says,I will . ” No matter what obstacles confront

him , he says, I will do the thing I haveundertaken .

” It is the constant affirmation of

his determination to do the thing which increases his confidence in himself, and thepower to do the thing , until he actuallydoes it.It would be impossible for a lawyer to m ake

n z EVERY MAN A KING

a reputation in his profession while continuallythinking about medicine or engineering . Hemust think about law, he must study andbecome thoroughly im bued with its principles .It is absolutely unscientific to ex pect to attainexcellence or ability enough to gain distinction in any particular line while holding themind open and continually contemplatingsomething radically different. Is it not, therefore

,more than foolish, even ridiculous, to

expect to develop a strong , vigorous mentality

,while acknowledg ing or contemplating

weakness or deficiency !

As long as you contemplate any personaldefect—mental

,moral, or physical—you will

fall below your possible attainment ; you can

not approach your ideal, your standard.

As long as you allow negative, destructive,tearing - down processes to exist in your mind,you cannot create anything , and you will be aweakling .

Most people go through life crippled andhandicapped by thinking weak thoughts, diseased thoughts, failure thoughts. It would bejust as sensible for a g irl to try to develop thehighest type of beauty of physique and character by holding in her mind the ug liest idealsand thinking of herself as hideous. If she

1 14 EVERY MAN A KING

valley of failure, to live in the basements oftheir lives.How can a man be free, prosperous, and

happy while he is imprisoned and enslaved bythe poverty thought, the conviction that he is

poor and unlucky, and that he can never ac

cum ulate money as others do !

In what condition is a man to fight for pros

perity when he has lost confidence in his ability, and is convinced that opportunity is forothers and not for him ! He cannot make a

strenuous, energetic effort to release himselffrom this condition while he holds this failurethought. He does not believe he can push awaythe limitations which hedge him in . He sees

no way to regain his confidence and self- trust,to get a foothold. So he still thinks poverty,talks poverty, acts poverty, dreams poverty,and then wonders why he is unlucky.

He has made himself a negative magnet, herepels all the success qualities, and attractsonly those of failure. He has lost his magneticpower to attract the forces which can extricatehim from sickly, deadly environment.How m any people drag through weary years

of self- imposed invalidism . They can neverrise into the health atm osphere while they are

contem plating the sickly ideal in the m ind.

NEGATIVE CREEDS x r5

Deep- rooted convictions of disease actuallyproduce their physical counterparts.The conviction, for example, that you have

inherited the seeds of some terrible disease,such as cancer, and the fact that your physician has told you it is liable to show itself soonafter the age of forty, keep you expectantlylooking for the symptoms of this disease, andm ay develop an ordinary sore into an ulcer.A young g irl, delicate, sensitive to cold, has

been told from her early childhood that shemust exercise the g reatest possible care because she has surely inherited a consumptivetendency from her mother, who died of consum ption. This black picture of consumptionand its fearful ravages in the system stampsitself indelibly upon the young life, and prevents healthful, buoyant g rowth or prompt

physical reaction.

Dwelling upon these conditions ruins theappetite

,disturbs digestion, cuts off the as

sim ilation of food, until emaciation sets in as

a result,and

,as if this were not enough to

discourage and dishearten the victim, everybody has to tell her how bad she looks, howshe is growing thinner and thinner every day.

Very often’

they say : Now be careful , youknow your mother went just by tak ing cold,

1 16 EVERY MAN A KING

by exposure to a draught . They stuff her withcod- liver oil and tonics , but these are sorrycompensations for the resisting power of themind

, of which they have cruelly robbed her ;a poor substitute for the God-

g iven power of

self- protection, g ranted to every human being .

They have disturbed the child ’s beautifulnatural feeling that it is protected by the

Almighty arm, that it is made in God

’s im age,and hence God - defended

,and that nothing

can injure its reality. Many a beautiful lifehas been stifled by such inculcated fears anddepressing influences .What a pitiable sight to see a large propor

tion of the human race dogged through life bysuch hideous pictures

,dragg ing this terrible

load of expectation of being run down, overcome, crushed by some cruel fate, attacked bysome awful disease, the consequences of thesins of our ancestors. This would be likesending a boy to prison or to the gallowsbecause his father committed robbery or murder. The sooner we get this damnab le philosophy out of the minds of the young , thebetter for the world . It would be just as

reasonable to say that the sun casts shadows,that love radiates hatred, that harmony carries hidden discord in its very nature . To hold

XI . AFFIRMATION CREATES POWER

1 3 2 EVERY MAN A KING

the first obstacle they strike deflects them.

They are always at the mercy of the opposition, or of people who do not ag ree with them.

Such people are shifty and unreliable ; theylack strength of decision, positiveness of resolution.

What is a man good for if he hasn’t streng th

of resolution ! If his convictions are on the surface, he stands for nothing ; nobody has con

fidence in him . He may be a good man , personally, but he does not inspire confidence.

No one would think of calling upon him whenanything of importance was at stake. Unlessconviction takes hold of one ’s very being , therewill be very little achievement in life. It is theman whose conviction is rooted deep andtakes hold of his very life - blood, the man whois strong and persistent in his determination ,that can be depended upon. He is the man of

influence,who carries weight ; he is above the

influence of any man who happens to have adifferent opinion .

If young people only knew the power of

affirmation, of the habit of holding in the

mind persistently and afli rm ing that theyare what they wish to be , that they cando what they have attem pted , it would revolutionize their whole lives, it would exempt

AFFIRMATION r33

them from most of their ills and troubles,and carry them to heights of which theyscarcely dream.

We are always talking about the power ofthe will. Its exercise is only another form of

affirm ation . The will, the determination to doa thing , is the same as the affirmation of the

ability to do it. No one ever accomplishes anything in this world until he affirms in one wayor another that he can do what he undertakes .It is alm ost impossible to keep a man backwho has a firm faith in his mission

,who be

lieves that he can do the thing before him ,

that he is equal to the obstacles which confronthim, that he is more than a match for hisenvironment. The constant affirmation of ability to succeed, and of our determination to doso

,carries us past difficulties, defies obstacles,

laughs at misfortunes, and strengthens the

power to achieve . It reenforces and buttressesthe natural faculties and powers, and holdsthem to their tasks .Constant affirmation increases courage, and

courage is the backbone of confidence . Furtherm ore, when a person gets in a tight place

and says I must,

” I can,

” I will,”he not

only reénforces his courag e and strengthens

his confidence, but also weakens the opposite

1 24 EVERY MAN A KING

qualities . Whatever streng thens a positive willweaken the corresponding negative .

You can do a diflicult thing only with apositive state of mind, never with a negative .

Plus force, not minus, does thing s . The dominant qualities are all positive

,assertive

, aggres

sive, and they require a corresponding attitude of mind for their exercise and application .

A man who has not these dominant qualitiescan never be a leader or independent ; he mustbe a trailer, an imitator, until he changes histhought from negative to positive, from doubtful to certain, from shrinking and retiring toasserting and advancing . It is the decisive,positive soul that wins .If you wish to amount to anything in the

world, never for one moment permit the ideato come into your mind that you are unlucky,that you are less fortunate than other humanbeing s . Deny it with all the power you canmuster . Discipline yourself never to acknowl

edge weakness or think of mental,physical

,or

moral defects . Deny that you are a weakling ,

that you cannot do what others can do ; that

you are handicapped and must be satisfied totake an inferior position in the world. Strang leevery doubt as you would a viper threateningyour life. Never talk, think, or write of your

1 26 EVERY MAN A KING

lucky, that you are well, vigorous , and strong ;that you must succeed ; and you will succeed .

Xlways affirm that the Creator who gave youthe long ing to be somebody and to do something in the world, has also g iven you the ability and the opportunity to realize the ambition .

When you set your mind toward achievem ent, let everything about you indicate success . Let your manner

,your dress

,your bear

ing , your conversation, and everything you dospeak achievement and success . Carry alwaysa success atm osphere with you .

You will find a wonderful advantage instarting out every morning with the mind settoward success and achievem ent by perm eat

ing it with thoughts of prosperity and harm ony , whether by repetition of set formulas,as some advise, or not. It will then be so muchthe harder for discord to get into the day

’swork. If you are inclined to doubt your abilityto do any particular thing , school yourselfto hold the self- trust thought firm ly and pers istently. It is the assumption of power, ofself- trust, of confidence in yourself, in yourinteg rity or wholeness, that cannot be shaken,that will enable you to becom e strong , and todo, with vigor and ease, the thing you undertake.

AFFIRMATION 1 3 ,

You will find that the perpetual holding ofthese ideals will change your whole outlookupon life . You will approach your problemsfrom a new standpoint, and life will take ona fresh meaning . This perpetual aflirm ation

will put you in harmony with your surrounding s it will make you contented and happy ;and it will be a powerful tonic for yourhealth . It will help you to build up individuality and personal power. It will make your brainclearer, your thought more effective. Keepingthe mental machinery clean makes for vigorous thinking , decisive action.

If you are deficient in any quality, you canstreng then it by constant affirmation. If youare a coward anywhere in your nature (andmost people are!, you can strengthen courag eby constantly affirming that you are absolutelyfearless, that you are courageous, that nothing can harm you. Reason that fear is simplythe sense of danger, and when you have perfeet confidence in the g reat Creator

’s purpose,when you trust it implicitly, there will be nocause for fear. If you have convinced yourselfthat there is only one gr eat cause, that theOpposite must be a delusion, you will g radually lose the sense Oi fear and gain the courage you desire.

1 28 EVERY MAN A KING

Every time you feel a sense of fear comeover you say : I am absolutely fearless ; thereis nothing to fear ; fear is not a reality ; it isnot the truth of being . It is only the absenceof courage, based upon ignorance of the greatcause .

”Emerson knew the virtue of this phi

losophy when he said : Nerve us with incessant affirm ation . Don’t bark against the bad,but chant the beauties Of the good.

Stoutly determine not to harbor anything inthe mind which you do not wish to becomereal in your life. Shun poisoned thoughts, ideaswhich depress and make you unhappy, as instinctively as you avoid physical dang er of anvkind. Do not entertain a discordant or an un

happy thought, or a thought of weakness andm isery

,but replace all these with cheerful,

hopeful, optimistic thoughts. When you feelout of sorts, blue, discouraged, disheartened,if you form the habit of suggesting to yourself some agreeable or pleasant subject, todwell upon or think about, or take up someword or idea which will suggest pleasure,happiness

,and harmony, you will be surprised

to see how quickly you can change the wholecourse of your thought, and when this ischanged, the feeling will change also . You willincrease your courage and confidence, and this

X II . THOUGHTS RADIATE AS INFLUENCE

134 EVERY MAN A KING

himself, pervaded by all of his characteristics,his ambitions and aspirations , absolutely determ ined by the thoughts that govern allhis actions . The impression which he g iveseverybody who comes in contact with him

partakes of his ideal . The quality of his am

b ition enters into his every voluntary act.

It is not what you say so much as the bearing of your thought toward others that form stheir estimate of you . DO not flatter yourselfthat you are known only by what you say ;that you are measured by what you chooseto g ive people about yourself. You create inothers the im pression which you hold in yourown m ind . What you think about modifiesand reaffirms others ’ Opinions of you. Theyfeel the quality of your thought, they knowwhether it has power or weakness , whetherit is clean, lofty, and noble, or base and low.

They can tell by your silent radiations thecharacter Of your ideals , and they estimate

you according ly . In fact, this convictionwhich has come from their silent impressionof you m ay be held firmly, even against yourverbal protest to the contrary . As Emersonsays

, What you are speaks so loud, I cannothear what you say .

”The atm osphere we radi

ate must, of necessity, partake of ourselves.

THOUGHTS 135

We cannot radiate anything unlike ourselves .It does not matter what we pretend to be.

People who know us take our real measure,not the pretended one.

We can best estimate the effect we produceon others by analyzing the effect other personshave upon us. We know our real friends bythe bearing of their thought toward us. We

know that they feel g enerous and magnanimous toward us, whatever our faults . Theyare constantly radiating themselves into ourconsciousness .

It does not matter how pleasant,ag reeable,

or considerate a man may be toward us, if heholds antagonistic thoughts, mean thoughts, ifhe carries a g rudge, if he is not what he pretends to be

,our instinct will penetrate beneath

his pretence and unmask his real self, andwhile he thinks he deceives us, we feel instinctively what he really is .

How often one hears I can’t bear thatman ; he g ives me the creeps .

” Yet the individual in question m ay have been doing hisbest to m ake a good im pression, and thinkingall the time that he was succeeding .

In the home and in the oflice, in every relation of life, radiation of one ’s own thoughts

plays an important part. NO care and effort

136 EVERY MAN A KING

can be too great that make this radiat

ing influence always helpful, uplifting , beneficent.How much harm we can do in a sing le day

by casting a dark shadow across some brightlife, depressing buoyancy, crushing hopes,strang ling aspirations—more harm than wecan undo in years . We should be appalled ifwe could see pass before us in vivid panoramathe wrecks Of a lifetime

,caused by cruel

thought. A stab here, a thrust there, a cruel,malicious sarcasm

,bitter irony

,ungenerous

criticisms, jealous thought, envious thought,hatred, anger, revengeful thought are all goingout constantly from many a mind on theirdeadly missions.A morose, g loomy, crestfallen mortal flings

out his pessimism wherever he goes and poisons the atmosphere around him

,surcharging

it with heaviness, depression, and sadness .Success and happiness are not born in suchan atmosphere. HOpe cannot live in it ; joyflees from it . NO child can be happy in it .Laughter is suppressed ; sweet, joyous facesbecome cloudy. We feel that life would be unendurable if we had to rem ain in it indefinitely . What a relief it is when such a persondrag s his depressing presence from us.

138 EVERY MAN A KING

open the flood -

gates of language and senti

m ent, and awaken the poetic within us.These diverse effects come from the radia

tion or expression of personality,and we our

selves are producing such on others all thetime.We radiate what we feel and believe

, our

fleeting moods and our deep - seated convietions. What we think most about and striveto become, we radiate to others in our everyletter

,in every conversation, in our manner,

in our life. Spirit is contag ious, and will bequickly perceived or even taken on by thosewith whom we come in contact. If the m ind isin harmony and peace, if it is strong andhealthy

,we radiate health, peace, and har

mony wherever we go.

On the contrary, if you are in doubt, if youare discouraged and disheartened, you willcommunicate discouraged thoughts . How can

a mind always filled with self- depreciation,distrust

,and the dread of failure radiate

the confidence which is necessary to insurecredit and assistance from others ! I f you holdmean

,contemptible thoughts, if you harbor

revenge, jealousy, and envy, you reflect thesethoughts to those about you .

If you are selfish, you cannot help radiat

ing the selfish thought. Everybody about you

THOUGHTS 139

will feel your meanness, and will measure youaccording ly.

If you are a m iser,if you are greedy and

avaricious, you cannot get away from your

g reed, but you must pay the penalty Of youraim . You cannot radiate magnanimity, if youare m ean and stingy . If the attitude of yourm ind dwarfs and stunts all that is beautifulin life, if the tendency of your mind is tohinder, you cannot g ive out the Opposite tothe world. If you think blighting ,

chillingthoughts, you will radiate the same. Your aspirations and long ing s, whether for money orfor fame, or real helpfulness to others, willdetermine the character of your radiations.

As we can only communicate the quality ofour thought at the moment, how importantthat we control these thoughts, and make themclean

,pure, true thoughts, instead of foul,

demoralizing ,doubtful ones.

Servants have actually been m ade dishonestby other persons perpetually holding the sus

picion that they were dishonest. This thoughtcontinually held by people who are naturallysuspicious

,suggests the thought perhaps to the

suspected for the first time, and being constantly held there takes root and grows, andbears the fruit Of theft.

140 EVERY MAN A KING

It is simply cruel to hold a suspiciousthought of another until you have positivelyproved its authenticity . That other person’smind is sacred ; you have no right to invadeit with your miserable thoughts and picturesof suspicion. You should keep your wickedthoughts at home ; but, as this is impossible,you should not harbor them

,any more than

you would allow yourself to hold thoughts ofsin or crime . Many a being has been madewretched and miserable for years

,depressed,

despondent, and borne down by the uncharitable

,wicked thoughts of those about them.

Many people scatter fear thoughts, doubtthoughts, failure thoughts, wherever they go ;and these take root in m inds that m ight otherwise be free from them and therefore happy,confident

,and successful .

Be sure that when you hold an evil thoughttoward another

,an unhealthy thought, a dis

cordant thought, a disease thought, a deadlythought, som ething is wrong in your m ind.

You should call, Halt ! about face !” Looktoward the sunlight ; determine that, if youcannot do any good in the world. you will notscatter seeds of poison , the venom of maliceand hatred .

Always hold kindly thoughts. charitable,

XIII. HOW THINKING BRINGS SUC

CESS

XIII. HOW THINKING BRINGS SUC

CE SS

He who dares assert the I ,

While hurrying !ateMeets his

—HELEN WILMANS .

STRONG man hypnotizedinto a belief that he cannotrise from his chair is actuallypowerless to do so till thespell is

.removed . A frailwoman, nerved by necessityfor saving life, can carry a

person heavier than herself from danger byfire or flood . In both cases the mental attitude, not the physical ability, determines theresult, yet both acts are only work for m uscle. When a task to be done consists largelyor wholly of mental acts, as do most kinds ofsuccess winning , how much greater must bethe determining power of the thought andmental attitude !The conquerors of the world,whether on battlefields , in trade , or in moralstrugg les, have won by the attitude of mindin which they went at the work they had to do.

I wish it were possible to impress upon the

145

146 EVERY MAN A KING

m inds of the young the tremendous powerwhich right thinking has to bring about success. Realization of our inherent capacity for

great thing s, conviction that we are intendedto succeed, and that it is a positive sin to spoilthe plans of our Creator by failing , wouldrevolutionize our lives and abolish most ofour ills and troubles .The belief in limitations

,the conviction that

we cannot rise out of our environments, thatwe are the victims of circumstances , is responsible for a weakening of achievement facultiesand an undermining Of executive ability whichcause untold trag ic failures, a large part of the

poverty and wretchedness of mankind . Suchbelief is abnorm al, and it produces abnormalconditions. Dominion was m an’

s birthright,but he has adopted weakness and lim itation.

He has claimed poverty, wretchedness, and

slavery in place of riches, happiness, and freedom, and how can a man rise out of his wretchedness until he thinks and believes he can ! Isthere any science whereby a man can, whenhe thinks he can’t ! Is there any philosophywhereby a man can rise, until he looks up ! Isthere any way by which a man can succeedwhile he thinks, talks, and lives a fai lure!Man cannot go in opposite directions at the

148 EVERY MAN A KING

the failure family. When these once get intothe mind, they attract other qualities like themselves , and there is an end of ambition. Yourlong ing for prosperity and yearning forachievement will all be vain while you are entertaining the idlers, the losers, the failures.They will exhaust your energy destroy yourpower for attracting success. FaIIure will soonbe in the asu ndancy in your mind and in youractions .The moment you admit weakness, the mo

ment you confess defeat, you are gone . Thereis no hope for a man who has lost his stamina,who has g iven up the strugg le ; you can

’t doanything with him . If there is anything despieable in the world, it is a hum an being who haslain down , who has g iven up, who says Ican’t “

It’

s no use,” The world’s against

me, I am down on my luck.

”To hold per

petually the thought that you are down, that

you cannot rise, that success is for others, butnot for you,

is to adjust yourself to yourthought, and to make any other condition impossible. How can you expect to be lucky whenyou are always talking about your ill luck !As long as you think you are a poor miserableworm Of the dust you will be that. You can

not rise above your thought ; you cannot be

THINKING BRINGS SUCCE SS 149

different from your conception of yourself. Ifyou really believe you are unhappy, unlucky ,

and miserable, you will be so . There are nodrug s, or patent medicines, or influences in theworld that can get you out of this conditionuntil you change your thought ; and a reversalof thought will bring about a reversal of conditions in the body

,as surely as the sun and

the rain unfold the petals of a rosebud. Thereis no mystery about it ; it is purely scientific .

People who do g reat thing s are powerful intheir affirmations . They have tremendous positive ability ; they do not know the meaning Of

negatives . Their power of assertion and theirconviction of ability to do are so strong thatthe Opposites do not trouble them . When theymake up their minds to do a thing ,

they takeit for granted that they can do it. Thev arenot filled with doubts and fears

,no matter

how people may scofl’

,and cry Crank.

” Infact nearly all the great men and women whohave pushed progress along have been calledcranks . The world said they had wheels intheir heads .”We owe the blessing s of moderncivilization to the sublime confidence of suchm en and women in them selves

,that indom i

table faith in their mission which nothingcould shake . The history of all great for

150 EVERY MAN A KING

ward movements is contained in their biographies .

What if Copernicus and Galileo had g ivenup when they were denounced as cranks andinsane ! Science of to - day is built on their unshaken confidence that the world is round andthat the earth moves around the sun insteadOf the sun around it !Suppose Columbus had

g iven up and lost confidence in him self whenE urope was laughing at him as a crank !Suppose Cyrus W. Field had lain down after adozen years of fruitless endeavor to span thesea, when cable after cable had parted in midOcean ! Suppose he had listened to his relatives

, who said he was wasting his fortune,and would die in poverty ! Suppose Fultonhad g iven up under ridicule when a book waswritten to prove that a ship could not carrycoal enough to force its way across the ocean !He lived to see that very book brought acrossthe sea in a steamship . What if AlexanderGraham Bell had lost faith in himself whenhe had expended his last dollar in experimenting on the principle Of the telephone, andwhen the world called him a crank !

When Savonarola entered Florence as a

poor,Obscure priest

,and saw the abject m is

ery on every hand—brought about by unrea

153 EVERY MAN A KING

to the Plains of Abraham ,this same confi

dence enabled him to vanquish the Frenchforces under Montcalm .

Napoleon, Bismarck, Hugo, and many other

great m en have had such colossal faith inthemselves that they have excited antagonismand even ridicule, but this quality is essentialto all g reat achievement. It has doubled,trebled

,quadrupled

,the ordinary power of

these m en. How else can we account for theachievem ent of a Luther

,a Wesley , a Savon

arola !Without this sublim e faith , this confidence in her mission, how could the fragi levillag e maiden , Jeanne Darc, have led andcontrolled a French army ! Without thispower how could she have led those thousandsof stalwart men as if they were children !Thisdivine confidence multiplied her power a

thousandfold, unti l even the king obeyedher.When our nation was threatened with civil

war,the apparently modest and unassum ing

L incoln told some politicians that if theywould nominate him for President, he couldbe elected, and that he could run the Governm ent. Think of this self- confidence of a m an

born in a log cabin, with almost no advantagesof education or culture. Think of the sublime

THINKING BRINGS SUCCESS 153

self- confidence of Grant—who two years before had been an obscure merchant

,alm ost um

known outside of his own little communitywhen he told Lincoln that he could end theCivil War. He did end it

,in spite of as severe

public condemnation as a m an ever received.

Where would the United States be to- day hadLincoln and Grant lost confidence in themselves when denounced by the press !The generals who had preceded Grant

never had unreserved faith ln their ability, ashe had in his . Grant was the complete masterof the situation because there was no interro

gation point in his self- confidence. He knewhe could conquer the enem y, i f only he hadthe men and the opportunity . The others,always more or less in doubt

, won only partialvictories.It was this grand self- confidence and faith

in a just cause that led Jackson,with a hand

ful of men, to administer a most crushing de

feat to an army of trained Eng lish soldiers atNew Orleans . It was such faith that enabledGeneral Taylor at Buena Vista , withAmerican soldiers, to defeat Santa Anna, whohad men.

Confidence, absolute trust, is a creativeforce which generates, producer, and achieves,

154 EVERY MAN A KING

while distrust tears down,annihilates, and

destroys .A strong self- faith, by eliminating doubt

and uncertainty, wonderfully increases the

power of concentration, because it withdrawsdistracting motives. It makes possible a steadypushing forward, with no side - pulls and scattering energy.

Discoverers,inventors, reformers, generals,

all have this spirit of invincible affi rm ation,

while if we analyze failures we shall find thatmost of them are weak in their self- faith,that they lack the abounding confidence inthemselves that m arks successful persons . We

cannot read the sealed orders which the Creator has placed in the hands Of those destinedto do g reat thing s, but the fact that one hasan unconquerable faith in himself is pretty

good evidence of his ability to do what hebelieves he can . The Creator does not mockus with such convictions of possibilities without g ranting the ability to do the deed.

Never allow yourself or any one else toshake your confidence in yourself

,to destroy

your self- reliance,for this is the very founda

tion of all g reat achievement. When that isgone, your whole structure falls ; as long as

you have it, there is hope for you. Confidence,

156 EVERY MAN A KING

velopm ent of tim idity,is Often an unfortunate

result of a liberal education . I have knownboys to enter colleg e with unbounded confi

dence in what they could accom plish,with

strong powers of self- assertion , who have been

graduated with those qualities almost elim i

nated . They have been replaced by the gradualdevelopm ent of timidity, and a shrinking frompositive statement of fact which seriouslycrippled the m en’s executive faculties .

Great scholars are proverbially retiring ,

shrinking ,tim id natures

,often lacking almost

entirely the ex ecutive faculty . Their selfassertion has disappeared

, g iving place to selfefiacem ent. Unassuming humbleness, patience,and tolerance are very desirable qualities intheir right places, but very unfortunate whenthey are not subordinated to vigorous selffaith and an aggressive self- assertion . Theselovable qualities make the scholar more com

panionable, but less practical and less successful . The agg ressive, executive faculties shouldbe preserved intact at all hazards, or the careerwill be cramped and limited.

XIV. POWER OF SELF- FAITH OVEROTHERS

160 EVERY MAN A KING

ability to do the thing you undertake. This iswhat makes reputation and establishes credit .The men who possess conviction of ability

to accomplish what they undertake are positive

,strong characters . When a man feels a

sense ofmastery,Of having risen to his domin

ion,he talks confidence

,he radiates faith and

conviction, and overcomes doubts in others ,who catch the contag ion of his constant affirmation of assurance and confidence

,and be

lieve this to be proof of ability to succeed.

People believe in the man with a prog ram me,the man who knows what he wants

,who does

not waver , but does thing s . Everything seemsto stand aside for him . People who would

oppose a man with weak self - confidence readily fall into line with his plans . Thing s whichwould trip and dishearten a man with littleself- faith seem to favor the confident man’s

prog ress . It is hum an nature to help a manalong the way he is going ; i f he is going up,the world will boost him ; if he is going down,the world will kick him . If a man lacks faithin him self, the world will lack faith in himalso.

We cannot help adm iring a man who helieves in him self. He cannot he laughed down,

talked down, or written down. Poverty cannot

POWER OF SELF- FAITH 161

dishearten him ; misfortune deter him ; hardship turn him a hair’s breadth from his course .

Whatever comes , he keeps his eye to the goaland pushes on . A determined face and an ironwill win half the battles before a blow isstruck . The writer knows a m an who pusheseverything he undertakes to com pletion, andhas been remarkably successful because henever hesitates

,he never has any doubt of his

ability to do a thing . His self- faith,amounting

to egotism at times, repels some people, buteven they gi ve way before him . While otherpeople of finer texture or make- up are discussing the possibility or feasibility of doingsomething , doubting and wavering , this mandoes it. Such a man compels his opponents tobelieve in his ability in spite of real reasonsagainst such faith . Average ability, coupledwith such aggressive self- confidence, cuts alarger figu re in the world, and gets more done,than superlative ability with the timid andshrinking nature that often goes with it. Ateacher with a sm attering of learning Oftensucceeds better than one ten tim es as learned,but unable to pass it on to others or assert hism astery of the subject . This is not poetic justice

,and Often seem s very unjust, but it is the

actual state of affairs , and the remedy is for

16a EVERY MAN A KING

the really able to cultivate and assume the

conviction that will impress other people .

In every kind of work and business we are

dependent on the belief of others that we canm ake or carry out plans, can produce superior

goods, can manage employees , can do any ofthe thousand things demanded by em ployersor by the public. Life is too short and theworld too busy to allow minute investigationof another’

s ability to achieve the thing heprofesses to be able to (10 ; therefore the worldaccepts

,very largely, a man

s own estimateof himself until he forfeits its confidence. If ayoung man hang s out his law shing le, theworld will take it for granted that he is alawyer

,that he is fitted for his profession,

until he proves otherwise . A physician doesnot have to prove to each patient that he hasfollowed certain courses and passed certainexaminations.Therefore to acknowledge any inability, to

give way to a temporary doubt, is to give failure so much advantage . We never shouldallow our self- faith to waver for a mom ent,no matter how dark the way may seem . Nothing will destroy confidence of others soquickly as doubt in our own minds

,which

those about us will soon feel. Many people

164 EVERY MAN A KING

m unicated to the purchaser. If a travellingag ent lets doubt of a sale manifest itself in theslightest degree, the purchaser jumps at thechance to escape, and, after that, argumentand persuasion are often useless .N0 one has need of radiating proper mental

attitudes more than the teacher. A flustered,

worried,uncertain teacher will throw a whole

roomful of children into disorder, when acalm, self- possessed, even - tempered personcould have secured quiet and good work fromthe same set of pupils . A teacher must oftenovercome personal antagonism,

harmonizequarrels between pupils

,soothe worried little

brains, too self- conscious to learn or recite,and impress knotty points of knowledge on

minds that are too Often inattentive . All thishe does by personality

,which is sim ply the

radiation of one ’s own individuality. Youngpeople are very susceptible to the characterof the thought which is held toward themthey know whether the teacher is really interested in them and wants to help them or not.They are quick to feel selfish and unsym pa

thetic natures. N0 teacher is fitted for his orher sacred task who is not naturally sympathetic, who does not hold loving , helpfulthoughts toward pupils.

XV. BUILDING CHARACTER

168 EVERY MAN A KING

wholesome,symmetrical

,contented character,

to acquiring something which would protecthim and insure his serenity and self- poise nomatter what losses and misfortunes mightovertake him.

Most of us seem to think that that which isworth more than all else should come withouteffort

,without special training or drill . In the

case of a few individuals of fortunate heredityand advantageous environment this may oc

cur, but most of us need some active and lntelligent direction or effort. As Herbert Spencer said : By no political alchemy can we get

golden conduct out of leaden instincts . Butinstincts can be changed ; fresh grafts can beintroduced upon the stock ; the whole tree canbe trained in a new direction, and so goldenconduct be made to flow from a golden character.”

How easy it is to train the tender shoot inany direction, to make it assume any shapewe wish, when it first comes up through thesoil !And how much this training means tothe sym metry and beauty of the future tree.How easy for the mother

,i f she but know

how to train the young mind, to turn it fromall its little enemies , all the fear thoughts , andworry thoughts , the despondent thoughts, the

BUILDING CHARACTER 169

sick thoughts, the failure thoughts, as well as

from the more vicious and recognizedly immoral thoughts !In the past

,much of the effort to build up

character has been dwelling on faults . Parentshave reminded their children

,a hundred times

a day,of some defect, until the poor children

have had that failing constantly in mind withthe fixed idea that it was branded into theirnatures

, and that it was not of much use totry to be different. This way of trying to buildup character is a good deal like trying to at

tain success by thinking all the tim e of failure.Continual thinking about defects in character,one’s sins and faults , will impress them andmake them harder to eradicate . We g raduallybecome negative to good qualities by dwellingupon destructive characteristics . By readingcontinually of diseases

,medical students often

experience symptoms of those diseases,and

sometimes the maladies themselves . Similarly,by dwelling on desirable qualities we may ac

quire success or happiness . It is by “ fresh

g rafts and suggestions of the virtues thatthe soundest character g rowth is secured.

A little care in choosing a child’s vocabu

lary, in teaching it that words are real thing s,and that they imprint on the mind the images

17° EVERY MAN A KING

they call up, will m ake all the difference between happiness and misery

,success and fail

ure. How easy it is to help the child selectthose words which convey pictures of life andjoy, light and peace, comfort and happiness ;to banish those discordant, jarr ing wordswhich contaminate the mind by the imagesthey stamp there, and which ultimately ruinthe character and destroy the life.

Plays are now introduced into kindergartenschools which tend to develop and awaken thedesired qualities which are perhaps lacking inthe children. Justice plays,

” for ex ample, orcourage plays exercise certain functionsand character qualities and are known to influence the pupils wonderfully. The constantrepetition of good manners plays arouses,for instance

,a spirit of gallantry and a sense

of etiquette in a boy until he unconsciouslytakes off his hat in the presence of a ladywithout thinking of it.The ideal home is a perpetual training

school where children are always practisingcourage plays, courtesy plays

,helpfulness

plays , charity plays, plays of honesty andtruthfulness ; and what is at first simulatedbecomes natural, producing sweetness, beauty,and strength of character. !ualities apparently

1 7a EVERY MAN A KING

who is naturally lazy and indolent, whosefaculties for doing thing s seem to be whollydeficient

,can be so trained in a short time

that he will love to work. As soon as he

gets a sufficiently strong motive and beg ins toexercise the undeveloped brain cells controlling the faculties, they im mediately respond.

Merely arousing a boy’s ambition develops in

him a great m any deficient qualities by putting them into healthy exercise.Change of environment will often won

drously develop a backward boy whose parents were completely discouraged with himunder the home conditions . As soon as the boygot into a store, or into a school, or was

thrown upon his own resources,his whole

character was changed .

Various means which parents may employin forming the characters of their children areformulated by Dr. A. T. Schofield, and maybe summ arized as follows : Form ing habits ofmoral value ; controlling environment so thatsuggestions of good—physical, mental, and

m oral—and not of evil are ever unconsciouslysowing themselves in its brain ; by ex ampleand story filling the child with inspiring ideals,so as to g ive direction to its will and energyof growth to its character ; feeding the child

s

BUILDING CHARACTER 1 75

mind with proper ideas ; exercising the g rowing m oral powers with circumstances

, so thatovercom ing and courage may be learned, andhardships endured, yet not too g reat to provediscourag ing ; balancing the various tendencies one against the other so as to preventundue leaning in any one direction ; streng thcuing the will to carry out its own designs andact with energy and decision ; educating themoral sense and keeping it sensitive to evil ;increasing the sense of responsibility to one

self, to others, and to God.

In attempting to apply such processes tooneself

,what must be avoided is morbid intro

spection, or brooding over faults and meansto get rid of them . Use then the method Ofcultivating the opposites, keeping the mindfull Of bright, hopeful, loving , upliftingthoughts, and expressing them all in deeds.

X VI . STRENGTHENING DEFICIENTFACULTIES

What wouldst thou! All is thine

The ways are opening for thee,The light of truth doth shine;

Be still, and assert the I .

EW people are well - balanced,well- rounded . A great manyhave splendid ability in certain lines

, good education, w

fine training , and yet havesome deficiency in theirmake - up which cripples the

whole life and dwarfs the results of theirutmost industry.

Many of us have some little,contemptible

weakness which Offsets our strong qualitiesand ruins their effectiveness .How humiliating it is to be conscious that

one has dragged up to maturity some suchweakness or deficiency without realizing it, orat least without having it remedied. The deficiency is slight, perhaps , and yet, if it cripples life, if it mars achievement if it is aperpetual humiliation, if it sum ts us to a

thousand embarrassments and keeps us from

178 EVERY MAN A KING

rising in the world, what a terrible misfortuneit is !What a pity to see a g iant in possibility tied

down by some little, contemptible weaknesswhich cripples what might have been a m ag

nificent career ! I f parent or teacher wouldonly point out to a child a weakness which ,perhaps

,will be fatal if not remedied, and

teach it how to guard against it, how tostrengthen the defective quality by mental exercise, what a tremendous help it would gi veto the child

,perhaps preserving it from fail

ure.

It is pitiable to see a young man bowing towhat he calls fate

,which he thinks has been

fixed by the contour of his brain or in hishereditary tendencies . Why should we dragour weaknesses through life when a little common - sense, a little right thinking in fixing new

habits Of thought, would soon remedy them!I f you are conscious of a mental weakness ,

a deficient faculty,using a little concentra

tion , thinking in the Opposite direction, anddwelling upon the perfect faculties or qualities you desire would soon put you in a nor

mal condition . It is normal thinking thatmakes the normal li fe.

But if you leave your weak faculties alone

1 80 EVERY MAN A KING

serious a view of thing s, is your fatal weakness

,you can entirely remedy this condition

in a little while by perpetually concentratingthe thought upon the bright, cheer ful, sunnyside of thing s . If you persist in this , aftera while you will seldom have a depressing ,

g loom y thought . When you do , fling it out ofyour mind . Thrust it out as you would thethief from your house . Because a burg lar getsinto your room, is that any reason why youshould let him stay there ! Fling open theshutters and let in the light, and the g loomwill disappear.It is not difficult to do this ; but every time

you nurse the weakness or harbor the thoughtthat depresses you

,you make friends with it

and invite it to stay. When you dwell uponthe dark side of things , then you are encourag ing everything which is darkening your lifeand hampering your career.I f you hold persistently in the mind the

picture of the normal faculty which corresponds to the one you think is deficient, youwill soon bring about the desired results .

I wish it were possible to show young people what a tremendous power for good thereis in forming the habit of stoutly affirmingand claiming desired qualities as one

s birth

DEPICIENT FACULTIE S 181

right, with all the determ ination to possessthem that can be mustered. The mere assum ption of a thing with all our will power, andthe determination to possess it which knowsno retreat, are wonderful helps in achievingthe thing s that we long for . Do not be afraidof claiming and repeating over and over againthe qualities you long to attain or the objectof your ambition . Keep your desire in theforefront of your thought. Resolve that youwill possess these thing s and will accept nothing else, and you will be surprised to see howrapidly you will make yourself a magnet todraw the thing s you yearn for.I f you long for a beautiful character, claim

it, assum e it, stick to it with all possible tenacity, and you will not only prepare the m indto receive it, but will also increase the powerof the m ind to attract it.We all know that in some way, somehow,

most people get the thing s they long for andstrugg le for persistently. And even if they donot get all that they desire, they approximatemuch nearer to it

, get much more of it thanthey would if they did not claim it stoutly andstrugg le for it persistently. We have the ability to change our attractive power, to increaseit or diminish it, just in proportion to the m

182 EVERY MAN A KING

tensity of our yearning for it and assum ingit as our birthright.Many people become morbid in dwelling

upon the thought that they are peculiar insom e respect. Some Of these people think thatthey have inherited certain tendencies or pe

culiarities from their parents, and are alwayslooking for their appearance in them selves .Now this is just the way to make them ap

pear ; for what we encourag e in the m ind or

hold there persistently we get. SO these people continually increase the evil by worryingabout it and dwelling upon its sad effects onthemselves . They become sensitive about theiridiosyncrasies. They never like to speak of orhear Of them, and yet the very consciousnessthat they possess them takes away their selfconfidence and mars their achievement.Now the g reat majority of these abnorm ali

ties and peculiarities are simply imag inaryOr are exaggerated by imag ination . They havebeen nursed and brooded over as possibilitiesso long that they become real to the sufferers .

The remedy lies in doing precisely the Opposite—dwelling on the perfect qualities, andignoring any possible shortcom ing s.I f you think you are peculiar, form the

habit of holding the normal thought. Say to

XVII . GAIN BEAUTY BY HOLDINGTHE BEAUTY THOUGHT

1 88 EVERY MAN A KING

ently in the m ind, you will make such an

impression of harmony,of sweetness

,and soul

beauty wherever you go that no one willnotice any plainness or deformity you m ay

possess .

The highest beauty—beauty that is far su

perior to mere regularity of features— is within the reach of everybody. I know g irls whohave dwelt upon what they consider their unfortunate plainness so long that they haveseriously exagg erated it. They are not half soplain as they think they are ; and were it notfor the fact that they have made themselvesvery sensitive and self- conscious about it,others would not notice it at all. In fact, ifthey could get rid of their sensitiveness andbe natural

,they could

,with persistent effort,

make up in sprightliness of thought, in cheerfulness of manner, in intellig ence, and in

cheery helpfulness what they lack in g race andbeauty of face .

I have known a gi rl whose extreme plainness of features and awkwardness of manner so pained her as she approached womanhood that she alm ost despaired of everm aking anything of herself

,and even contem

plated suicide. She was so convinced that shewas a target for cruel rem arks, and becam e

GAIN BEAUTY 189

so impressed with the conviction that she wasnot wanted anywhere

,and that she was contin

ually being insulted, that she resolved to m akeone suprem e effort to redeem herself fromher handicap . She resolved that she wouldm ake people love her

,that she would attract

them instead of repelling them ;wt nselfish interest - ia them that

O v

tfi qould not he lp !loy !

ing ~her, She determinedto develop those beautiful heart qualitieswhich would more than compensate for merephysical beauty . She began to sym pathize withpeople and to take thought of their welfare .

Wherever she went, if she saw any one whowas ill at case or looked troubled or friendless

,she im m ediately took such a deep interest

in him that she won his friendship at once.

She began to cultivate her m ind in every possible way in order to make herself interesting ,

bright, cheerful, and hopeful . She cultivatedOptimism

,and she was soon surprised to see

how the young people who formerly shunnedher flocked around her

,and began to love her ;

and She not only succeeded in com pensatingfor her physical deformity

,which she thought

was fata l to her pleasure and her usefulness ,but she also developed a soul beauty that didnot pass with years

,and which was infinitely

EVERY MAN A KING

superior to that beauty which comes fromregularity of features and beauty of form . Sheseemed to radiate good cheer from everypore . So popular did she becom e that the socalled pretty gi rls envied her.

XVIII . THE POWER OF IMAGINAr

TION

Im agination precedes and is the cause ofallachiwe

m ent.”

E owe the improvement ofthe world

,the climb to civ

ilization,larg ely to the im

agination . We should stillbe living as savages in cavesand huts but for those whocould im agi ne and were de

term ined to have better thing s .Indeed, the m en and women who have ren

dered the greatest service to the world havedone so by seeing in their imag inations something infinitely better than actually existed,and then working to m ake this real.It was because Morse saw in his imag ina

tion a better way of communication than bypost that he was enabled to g ive the telegraphto the world . It was because Bell couldimag ine som ething better even than the tele

g raph that we have the telephone . It was b ecause Field could see in his imag ination a b etter way of communicating across the oceanthan by ship that continents are tied togetherwith cables. It was because Marconi saw even

194 EVERY MAN A KING

a better way of communicating than anythingthat had gone before that we have the wireless telegraph which enables a passenger whenin mid- ocean to engage his hotel room and

order a cab to meet the steamer .An unknown Greek sculptor gave us in the

Venus of Milo a suggestion of possible beautyof proportion and magnificence of pose up towhich the race has not yet measured. But it

gave us a model toward which we are stillstrugg ling , and toward which the race hasmade a great advance.

What does the world not owe to the m ag

nificent imag ination of M ichael Angelo , who,in that wonderful statue of Moses, gave a

g limpse of the possible godlike man.

It was the imag ination of g reat composersthat gave us our masterpieces in music.It was because merchants imag ined a hun

dred kinds of business under one roof that wehave great departm ent stores where peoplecan buy almost anything they need.

It is because teachers could see in imag ination a chance for infinite improvement in thehuman race that we have our schools and our

colleges . Indeed, what do we not owe to theimagination! The men who see thing s onlyas they are, who have no imagi nations, plod

196 EVERY MAN A KING

It was their strugg le to bring out the possibleman or the possible woman that advancedcivilization. It is because fathers and m otherscan see in their imag ination human being shigher than themselves

,more perfect, and

more complete,that they are able to lift their

children above themselves .The time will com e when we shall realize

what a tremendous subjective power the imagination has upon life ; what a trem endousfactor it can be made in education

,in forming

ideals , in influencing the career, and in prom oting health and happiness .The pictures of the mind are not g iven to

mock us or to entertain us,but to Show us

that they ,can be made realities , that there is areality that im ag ines them ; that these are butthe outlines or the suggestions, the shadowsof the realities themselves .

They make us real seers of the possiblefuture, and are g iven us to whet our ambition

,to spur us on, to make us dissatisfied

with the commonness in which we are livingby g iving us g lim pses of something infinitelybetter.We are beginning to see that imag ination

is not mere fantasy of the brain, but that init lives the ideal

,in it are generated the great

POWER OF IMAGINATION 197

models and the potencies which m ake theirrealization possible.If the imag ination of a child can be rightly

directed, its future happiness and success canbe assured ; but a perverted imag ination maybring misery and g loom untold.

The training of the imag ination of a Childso as to form the habit Of producing beautifulpictures instead of hideous ones, perpetuallyinspiring images instead of demoralizing ones ,and thus harmony instead Of discord

,would

be of more value to him than to g ive him a

fortune.

XIX. DON ’T LET THE YEARS COUNT

“The face cannot betray the years until the m ind has

given its consent. The m ind is the sculptor.

SAY to the years as I havesaid to the public, !uandm eme , I shall conqueryou .

’ There speaks a Spiritthat will never grow Old ;

and who that has recentlyseen Sarah Bernhardt can

doubt that, as time passes, she continues tomake good her challenge to the years, !uandm em e.

” At threescore, the great actress is inthe prime of her powers, and does not look a

day over forty .

It is not by any particular grace of naturethat Madame Bernhardt and many otherswho are more advanced in years than she

retain their youth,but because of their attitude

toward the years . They refuse to let themcount. They have made up their minds thatthey will not g row old in the ordinary sense.

Better than the art of growing old gracefully is the secret Of not growing old at all,

says a writer in the Chicago J ournal. It issomething worth knowing and worth remembering . The secret is concealed in the fact that

aoa EVERY MAN A KING

m en and women are as old as they make themselves to be. That implies will power, but whatof it!The world is governed by will power.

JuliaWard Howe is a splendid example ofyouthful activity and mental vigor and freshness in old age. So was Mary A . L ivermoreuntil her recent death . Henry Gassoway Davis,recently the octogenarian nominee of theDemocratic party for the vice - presidency, exhibits an elasticity and vigor of mind andbody that put many a man of forty to shame .

Georg e Meredith, on the celebration of hisseventy- fourth birthday, said : I do not feelthat I am growing old either in heart or mind.

I still look on li fe with a young man’s eye. I

have always hoped that I would not grow old

as some, with a palsied intellect, living backward

,regarding other people as anachron

isms, because they themselves have lived on

in the other time and left their sympathiesbehind them with their years.”

When a man becomes wise enough to rec

ognize his own divinity - that he is as indestructible a principle as a law of mathematies ; that no accident of life, no friction,trouble

,or difficulty can touch the divine part

of him ; and when he recognizes the truth ofbeing , that he is a part of the infinite creative

204 EVERY MAN A KING

we are what we think, and that we becomelike our thoughts .How Old are you ! asks the Milwaukee

J ournal. The adage is that wom en are as oldas they look and m en as Old as they feel .That ’s wrong . A man and a woman are as Oldas they make themselves to be . Growing Old

is largely a habit of the m ind .

A s a m an

think eth in his heart so is he.

If he beg insshortly after middle age to im ag ine himself

g rowing Old, he will be Old . To keep oneselffrom decrepitude is somewhat a matter of willpower. The fates are kind to the m an whohang s onto life with both hands . He who lets

go will go . Death is slow to tackle only thetenacious . Ponce de Leon searched in thewrong place for the fountain of youth . It isin oneself. One must keep oneself younginside, so that while the outer m an perisheththe inner man is renewed day by day.

’ Whenthe human mind ceases to exert itself, whenthere is no longer an active interest in theafiairs of this life

,when the human stops

reading and thinking and doing ,the man

,like

a blasted tree, beg ins to die at the top. You areas old as you think you are. Keep the harnesson. Your job is not done.

DON’T LET YEARS COUNT 1 95

Tis yet high day, thy staff resum e,And fight fresh battle for the truth

For what is age but youth’s full bloom ,

A riper, m ore transcendent youth,”

sings Oliver Wendell Holmes .If you would live long , love your work and

continue doing it. Don’t lay it down at fifty

because you think your powers are on thewane , or that you need a rest. Take a vacationwhenever you require it, but don

’t g ive upyour work . There is life, there is youth in it.I cannot g row old,

” says a noted actress,

because I love my art. I spend m y life ab

sorbed in it. I am never bored . How can one

have lines of age or weariness or discontentwhen one is happy

,busy, never fatigued, and

one’s spirit is ever,ever young ! When I am

tired it is not my soul , but just my body.

Think of Susan B . Anthony, the veteran re

former,in her eighty - third year

,and of Mrs.

Gilbert, the veteran actress, who died on

reaching the same age !Who thinks of thesesplendid workers as Old

,or failing , or left

behind by younger competitors ! M iss Anthony is as vigorous and full Of enthusiasm inher work to- day as she was half a centuryago. At the International Congress ofWom en,

206 EVERY MAN A KING

held in Berlin,she was easily the most prom i

nent am ong the representative women of theworld gathered there, and one Of the m ostactive . Mrs . Gilbert, long the oldest actress onthe stage, in her last season starred in anew play . These women never thought of laying down their work or of growing old atfifty or sixty. They found the g reat dram aof hum anity too interesting to g ive up theirparts.

One of the finest thing s about our generation, says Margaret Deland,

“ is an awakening to the fact that age ought to be only amatter of the body

,a matter of spectacles and

stifi joints,not of dulness and distaste for liv

ing , not of days in which we shall savwe haveno pleasure in them . There is a growing beliefthat this second age can be avoided : nay ,

more, with som e high natures there is even arealization that such age is a confession of sin,a confession that life has been selfish

,narrow,

unim ag inative, and without living ideals . Suchage is sham e . L ittle by little this belief is

growing in human creatures .”

The sentiment is expressed in these versesby Frank M . Vanei l :

308 EVERY MAN A KING

wear away life and make so many Am ericansold m en and women at forty . The sim ple li fecan be the fullest

,noblest, and most useful.

Rev. Charles Wagner says that a simple li feand a strenuous li fe are not incons istent, as a

peaceful life and a vigorous li fe are not. In hislittle book

,The Simple L ife,

” he shows mosteffectively how our needless complexities of

thought and feeling cause us to waste ener

g ies that should be concentrated on usefulends . He emphasizes the fact that by our

worrying and vexation of Spirit we rob our

selves of vigor that, rightly employed, wouldaccomplish valuable results .

“ In this age Of rush, hurry, and tumblingOver each other, thousands imagi ne it is necessary to be doing something all one

’s waking(or we will say business!hours to attain success . Leisure is alm ost a sin . This is a g reatmistake,

” says Prentice Mulford. Thousandson thousands are so doing all the tim e.

What does their doing’ am ount to ! A pit

tance, a bare subsistence, and why ! Becausethere is no discretion as to what the person’sforce is put upon . One woman wears her bodyout at forty in polishing stoves , scrubbing tinware,,and in hundreds of other little jobs . Her

mind is all absorbed in these details. Another

DON’T LET YEARS COUNT 209

one sits quietly and an idea comes to herwhereby all this work may be accomplishedwithout any physical effort on her part, andby those who can do nothing else. She is them ore likely to preserve her health and vigor.Health and vigor are the belong ings of a relatively perfect m aturity that is even more at

tractive than what is generally called youth.

“ It is a g reat aid to the preservation of

youth and vigor to be able to sit still and keepstill in m ind as well as in body when there isreally nothing to do, because in such conditionmind and body are recuperating and filling upwith new force. The body is not fed with maferial food alone. There are other elements,now little recognized, which act upon it and

g ive it strength, and the grand source and

ma ns of receiving these lie partly in thatmental and physical quietude of mind whichacts only when it has full power to act. I f,then , wisdom guides action either by brain or

hand,a g reat deal more is accomplished and a

balance Of life ’s forces is kept in reserve.

Few people realize,also

,that the day proc

esses,unless checked, still go on while we

sleep. If you have been running worrythoughts , fretting thoughts, anxious thoughts,pessim istic thoughts, hard, jealous, envious,

2 10 EVERY MAN A KING

greedy thoughts through your mind duringthe day, you may be sure that these will runtheir deadly course in the brain far into thenight, furrowing their tracks deeper and

deeper in the nervous tissue , exhausting nerveforce and vitality, and that they will outpieturethemselves in the face by deepening the lines,by making more prominent and permanentthe wrinkles . Many people are so constitutedthat the moment they are free from absorbing duties their troubles and trials flock intotheir minds and fill their imagi nations withhideous pictures

,robbing them of all joy,

and spontaneity, and happiness .

The moment they lie down at night theirminds begi n to work to their injury . Theirimag inations magnify the dark pictures, thedisag reeable experiences , and they toss upontheir beds until they go to sleep from sheerexhaustion in this unhappy fram e of mind.

Is it any wonder that they age rapidly ; thatthey get up in the morning tired and exhansted ; that they have to resort to all sortsOf artificial sedatives to make them sleep ;that they are always taking tonics or stim u

lants to keep them selves in condition to work !

We shall some time learn that the mind isits own tonic when we know how to use it ;

2 1 2 EVERY MAN A KING

ing can induce them to be bothered or boredwith anything relating to business . They havelearned the secret and power of the harm o

nious thought, the happy thought, the cheerful, Optimistic thought. They prepare theirminds for a serene

,harmonious night

’s sleepby summoning thoughts Of joy, youth, peace,and love to be their mind guests for the night,and will entertain no others. They will notallow the Old worry thought and anxiousthought to drag their hideous images throughthe brain to spoil their rest and to leave ug lyautographs in the face . The result is that they

get up in the morning refreshed, rejuvenated,with all the spontaneity of their youth .

We grow Old because we do not knowenough to keep young , just as we becomesick and diseased because we do not knowenough to keep well . Sickness is a result Ofignorance and wrong thinking . The time willcome when a man will no more harborthoughts that will make him sick or weakthan he would think of putting his handsinto the fire. NO m an can be ill if he alwayshas right thoughts and takes ordinary careof his body. If he will think only usefulthoughts he can m aintain his youth farbeyond the usual period.

DON’

T LET YEARS COUNT 1 15

Never smother the impulse to act in a

youthful manner because you think you are

too Old . Recently, at a family gathering , theboys were trying to get their father, pastsixty

,to play with them. Oh, go away, go

away ! he said ; I am too old for that .”

But the mother entered into their sports , apparently with just as much enthusiasm andreal delight as i f she were only their age. Theyouthful spirit shone in her eyes and manifested itself in every movement. Her frolicwith the boys ex plains why she looks so muchyounger than her husband, in spite Of the veryslight difference in their years.Be always as young as you feel, and keep

young by associating with young people, andtaking an interest in their interests, hopes ,plans

,and amusements. The vitality of youth

is contag ious .When questioned as to the secret of his

marvellous youthfulness, in his eightieth year,Oliver Wendell Hohnes replied that it wasdue chiefly to a cheerful disposition and

invariable contentm ent in every period of mylife with what I was. I never felt the pang sof ambition

,discontent, and disquietude that

m ake us g row Old prematurely by carvingwrinkles in our faces . Wrinkles do not appear

2 14 EVERY MAN A KING

on faces that have constantly smiled . Smilingis the best possible massage. Contentment isthe fountain of youth .

We need to practise the contentment ex

tolled by the genial doctor, which is not thecontentm ent of inertness, but the freeing Of

ourselves from entang ling vanities,petty

cares, worries, and anxieties, which hamperus in our real life - work . The sort of ambitionhe condemns is that in which egotism andvanity figure most conspicuously, and inwhich notoriety

,the praise and adm iration of

the world, wealth, and personal agg randizement are the Objects sought, rather than thepower to be of use in the world

,to be a

leader in the service of humanity,and to be

the noblest,best

,and most effi cient worker

that one can be .

I f you would be young when old, adoptthe sundial ’s motto I record none but thehours of sunshine .

” Never mind the dark orshadowed hours . Forget the unpleasant, un

happy days . Remem ber only the days of richexperiences ; let the others drop into Oblivion.

It is said that “ long livers are greathopers .” If you keep your hOpe bright in Spiteof discouragem ents, and meet all difficultieswith a cheerful face, it will be very difficult

3 16 EVERY MAN A K ING

who get no variety into their lives, and who

have no interests outside of their narrow ,

daily round of monotonous duties, which re

quire no exercise oi mind. Insanity is an

alarming ly increas ing result of monotony ofwomen’s lives on the farm . E llen Terry and

Sarah Bernhardt,

who seem to have the

ageless brightness of the stars,” attribute

their youthfulness to action,change of

thought and scene, and mental occupation.

It is worth noting , too, that farmers who liveso much outdoors

, and in an environmentmuch more healthful than that of the average brain - worker

,do not live so long as the

latter.Indeed

,a physician testifying in the Lon

don law courts stated that softening of thebrain was a com mon malady of the rurallaborers of Eng land. Their brains, he said,rather rusted out from lack of brain ex ercise,than wore out, and at an age from sixty - five

to seventy - five they usually died of apoplexyor some similar disease. In contrast to thefarmers, he cited judges and similar hardbrain- workers who lived much longer andkept their m ental powers .When Solon, the Athenian sage, was asked

the secret of his strength and youth, he re

DON’

T LET YEARS COUNT 1 2 1 7

plied that it was learning som ething newevery day.

”This belief was general am ong

the ancient Greeks—that the secret of eternalyouth is to be always learning somethingnew.

There is the basis of a great truth in theidea . It is healthful activity that strengthensand preserves the mind as well as the body,and gives it youthful quickness and activity.

So if you would be young , in spite of theyears

,you must remain receptive to new

thought and must g row broader in spirit,wider in sympathy

,and more and more open

to fresh revelations of truth as you travelfarther on the road of life.

But the greatest conqueror of age is a

cheerful,hopeful, loving spirit. A man who

would conquer the years must haVe charityfor all. He must avoid worry, envy, malice,and jealousy ; all the small meannesses thatfeed bitterness in the heart

,trace wrinkles on

the brow,and dim the eye. A pure heart, a

sound body,and a broad

,healthy

, generousm ind

,backed by a determination not to let

the years count,constitute a fountain of

youth which every one may find in himself.Here , then,

” says Margaret Deland, are

the three deadly symptom s of old age : selfish

EVERY MAN A KING

ness, stagnation , intolerance. If we find them

in ourselves, we may know we are growingold— even if we are on the merry side of

thirty. But, happily, we have three defences,which are invulnerable if we use them

,we

shall die young i f we live to be a hundred .

They are : sympathy,progress, tolerance . The

men or women who have these divine qualities of sym pathy, prog ress, and tolerance are

forever young ; their very existence cries out

to the rest of us, sursum corda!

The best is yet to beI

The last of life

For which the first was made.

XX. HOW TO CONTROL THOUGHT

Ordain for thyself forthwith a certain form and type

of conduct, which thou shalt m aintain,both alone,

and, when it m ay chance, am ong m en.

—EPICTETUS .

T is possible to change thecharacter of the mind byhabitually controlling thethought. There is no reason why we should allowthe mind to wander into allsorts of fields

,and to dwell

upon all sorts of subjects at random . The

ego, the will power, or what we call the realself, the governor of the mind, can dominatethe thought. With a little practice, we cancontrol and concentrate the mind in any reasonable way we please.Attention, therefore, controlled by the will

and directed by reason and higher judgm ent,can so discipline the mind and thought thatthey w ill dwell on higher ideals , until highthinking has become a habit. Then the lowerideals and lower thinking will drop out ofconsciousness, and the mind will be left upona higher plane . It is only a question of discipline.

Many and varied are the m ethods pre

on EVERY MAN A KING

scribed by various writers for gaining desiredthought control , but on comparing themthere is

,after all

,much in com mon

,and that

is the sim plest and m ost practical part. Them ore elaborate formulae and m ysticism maybe left to those who enjoy such exercises .

It is not possible to g ive explicit dircetions for an Am erican substitute for HinduYoga practice,

” says W. J . Colville, as the

general needs of the Ang lo - Saxon race are

not the sam e outwardly as those of their darkskinned Oriental brethren ; but the g reatwords concentration and m editation are justas forceful and full of meaning in the Westas in the East . To concentrate on one’s beloved goal, to see before the mental eye theprize as though it were already won, whilewe are all the while intensely conscious of

moving nearer to its externalization, is so toplace ourselves in relation with all that helpsus on our way, that one by one obstaclesvanish

,and what seemed once too hard for

hum an strength to accom plish appears now

plain and even simple . The greatest need ofall is to keep the goal in sight and not let

interest flag or inward vision waver.A good lesson for all to practise is to take

som e special aspiration into the silence, and

EVERY MAN A KING

says Floyd B . Wilson,in Paths to Power .

The atmosphere that marks strong indi~

viduality is universally conceded to be the

product of the invisible emanation of thoughtcentred on an idea. Your atmosphere, beinga product of thought, must receive all its

power and force through the creative energythat g ives it existence.

Our proposition as to control, therefore,now reduces itself to this : I f we know ourselves masters of our mental apparatus, weknow we can control our thoughts and thusdictate our atmosphere. If, in silence, daily,we hold ourselves passive—receptive for theparticular good we most desire—we open theway for the creation of the atmosphere thatis sought. One must come to these sittings asnearly passive as possible ; but above all freefrom doubt. To many it will be found seriouswork to learn to hold themselves passive. Themoments spent in this way will do more toadvance you to the end than any other thingyou can do .

Speaking more especially of the means ofcontrolling the thought for the benefit of thebody, Charles Brodie Patterson says : Letus keep the mind clear and bright, fill it withwholesom e thoughts of life, and be kindly in

TO CONTROL THOUGHT u s

our feelings toward others . Let us have no

fear of anything , but realize that we are one

with universal power—that power which cansupply our every need ; that health, strength,and happiness are our legi timate birthr ight,that they are ever potential in our inner lives,and that our bodies may ex press them now.

I f we take this mental attitude and adheresteadfastly to it

,the body will very soon

manifest health and strength .

In the light of these various directions fromthose who have drawn them from the ex perience of themselves and of others, it does notseem so difiicult for one to raise his standardof living very m aterially by forcing into histhoughts the higher and forcing out the lower.I f you surround yourself with a positive

atmosphere, that is, if you keep all negatives,all destroyers, all thoughts that suggest discord, disease, disaster, and failure out of yourmind

,and hold there only those words and

thoughts which create, which upbuild, youwill very soon change the character of yourentire mind, so that you will loathe the enemies of your success and happiness

,and will

thrust them out of your mind the momentthey attempt to enter ; you will harbor onlynoble words and thoughts , those which en

2 26 EVERY MAN A KING

courage, which bring light and beauty, whichinspire and ennoble, and you will welcomethese as eag erly as you shun the others .

It is encouraging ,too

,that thinkers and in

vestigators have traced the orig in of ourthought enemies back to their sources andhave thus reduced their number .

It is not necessary to engage in battle thesmall army of lesser passions ,

” says HoraceFletcher

,if you concentrate your efforts

against anger and worry, for they are all

children of these parents . Oppose them witha bold front ; make one heroic stand againstthem

,and they and all their children will fly.

Disown them once and the ability to readoptthem will have disappeared with them .

” In alater book, Mr. Fletcher calls anger andworry only forms Of fear, and W. W. Atkinson also says : Worry is the child of Fear,and bears a strong fam ily resemblance to itsparent. Treat the Fear family as you wouldany other kind of vermin—get rid Of the oldOnes before they have a chance to have progeny.

”SO once we gain the power of coneen

tration we must cultivate perfect fearlessnessand confidence, with which go cheerfulness,efliciency, and, as a sure result, happiness and

prosperity .

2 28 EVERY MAN A KING

Banish absolutely all thought waves of

fear for persons with whom you are dealing .

Banish all thought waves of di strust as tosuccess with such persons .Maintain a personal atmosphere that is

surcharged with the dynamic force of confident expectancy.

XXI . THE COMING MAN WILL REALIZE HIS DIVINITY

332 EVERY MAN A KING

creates and governs all thing s. There is a

sense of certainty, of absolute security, when

we know that nothing can wrench us out ofour orbit, that no accident on land or sea,

no disease or discord, can separate us fromour union with that g reat power . Once having this security, fear departs, uncertainty andanx iety leave us, and all the faculties workin harm ony. When we know that nothing can

cheat us out of our birthright, that nothingcan m ar our real achievement, that everyright step must lead to ultimate triumph , thatevery right act, that every germ of goodness ,will ultimately strugg le into flower and fruitage, we can serenely accomplish the highestthat lies in our power.There is something in our very conscious

ness which tells us that we are not m ere

products of chance . We feel that there is acertainty somewhere ; that fear, anxiety, anduncertainty are not a necessary part of li fe.There is an instinct within us which tells usthat we are inseparable from the one greatMind

,that we are one wi th it a reflection of

it,that we were created in its unage, and that

our ultimate purpose cannot conflict with itsultimate purpose. We instinctively feel thatthere must be a unity in all things, could we

THE COMING MAN 233

but find it,and the best way to find it is to

trust this g reat power. Implicit faith will domore for us than reasoning , and will bringus infinitely closer to this unity.

These verses by E llaWheelerWilcox urg esuch exercise of faith

Trust in thine own untried capacityAs thou wouldst trust in God himself. Thy

soul

Thou dost not dream what forces lie in thee,

Vast and unfathomed as the grandest sea .

Thy silent m ind o’er diam ond caves m ay roll;

Go seek them , but let Pilot Will controlThosepassions which thy favoring winds can be.

N 0 man shall place a lim it to thy strength;

Such triumphs as no m ortal ever gained

May yet be thine if thou wilt but believe

In thy Creator and in thyself. At length

Som efeet will tread all heights now unattained

Why notthine own! Press on!achieve! achieve!

When we once touch power,when we once

feel the thrill of the g reat central force whichcomes from the heart of truth

,of being , we

EVERY MAN A KING

shall no longer doubt, no longer hesitate, nolonger be satisfied with the superficial, thetem porary

,the material. When the soul once

tastes its native food, once feels the thrill ofthe infinite pulse, it no longer is content to

g rovel.When a man realizes that he is divine, when

he sees that he is a part of the everlastingprinciple which is the very essence of reality,nothing can throw him off his physical ormental balance . He is centred in the everlasting truth, intrenched there in infinite

power from the taint of fear, or anxiety or

worry, or accident, because he is consciousthat he is principle himself

,a part of the

eternal verity. The feeling that he is in touchwith the power which made and upholds theuniverse , that nothing can wrench him fromthis divine presence , g ives a sense of securityand peace . When he awakens in the m om

ing , refreshed and rejuvenated, he feels thathe has been in touch with the divinity thatcreated him ; that he has passed the borderland of sense and has come into the presenceof an infinite power, an infinite life ; that hehas b een created anew, and hence when he istired and weary and sad, how he long s to getback to this divine presence, to be made over,

236 EVERY MAN A KING

least by the vexatious happening s whichtrouble those who have not risen to theirdominion, or who have not yet learned the

secret Of power .It is the greatest manifestation of power

to be calm,

” says Swami Vivekananda“ It is

easy to be active . Let the reins go ,and the

horses will drag you down. Any one can dothat ; but he who can stop the plung ing horsesis the strong m an . Which requires the g reaterstrength— letting go, or restraining !The calmm an is not the man who is dull . You mustnot mistake calmness for dulness or laziness .

Activity is the man ifestation of the lowerstrength, calmness of the superi or strength .

What have panics, or fires,or financial

losses to do with the well - balanced m an whomGod made !Suppose I should lose my property, what

if my ships,my stores

,and my houses should

burn up,what has that really to do with me !

It is true it may inconvenience m e somewhat,and it may take some temporary power frommy hand

,but I cannot believe that an all

wise Creator has put my real self at the mercyof a panic, a fire

,or any such em ergency.

Some people can so thoroughly impregnatethemselves with thoughts of health, harmony,

THE COMING MAN 237

joy, g ladness , and peace that accidents , mis

fortunes , and discordant moods cannot touchthem .

I do not believe that the coming man, theideal man

,the m an of the highest civilization,

would be any m ore affected by a fire whichdestroyed his property than the laws of harmony would be affected by the burning up ofall the m usical instruments in the world.

The coming man will be so much masterof his thought that he will be able to makehimself one great magnet for attracting onlythose thing s which will add to his prosperityand enhance his happiness . He will be ableto keep his body in perfect harmony by harboring only the health thought, and knowinghow to exclude the disease thought, the sicklythought.The coming man will always be cheerful,

because he will entertain only the thoughtswhich produce happiness ; he will not allowthe clouds of worry or anxiety

,or the dark

ness of melancholy,the blackness of jealousy

and envy,to enter his mind. He will never

m ourn, but will always rejoice .

The coming man will no more allow thepoisonous thoughts Of pessimism,

of disease,of wretchedness, of discord , to enter his m ind,

038 EVERY MAN A KING

than he would take poisonous drug s into hisstomach. He will be as able to control thekind and quality of his thoughts, as he is ableto control the character of the guests he eu

tertains in his home . He will invite only thosehe wants

,only those whose influence he

craves, and will exclude the enemy thoughts .

The coming man will not have the wordcan ’t in his vocabulary

,for he will not

have any doubt in his mind . The coming m an

will not know fear, which is now the greatestenemy of the human race, for he will not harbor the fear thought, which really resultsfrom a feeling of inefficiency, or inability tocope with the exigencies which may arise .

The coming man will always be prosperousbecause he will not allow the poverty thought,the limitation thought, to enterh is mind. Hewill always hold thoughts of prosperity and

abundance.

The coming man will live in an atmosphore of love and joyousness

,for he himself

will always feel and express love and joy. Hewill be healthy because soul and mind andbody will be in that harmony which is perfeet health .

Is it worth nothing to be able to thinkoneself out of discord into harmony, out of

aao EVERY MAN A KING

sciously or unconsciously. There comes a

spiritual power which, as it is sent out, is

adequate for the healing of others the sameas in the days Of Old. The body becomes less

g ross and heavy, finer in its texture and form ,

so that it serves far better and responds morereadily to the

“ higher impulses of the soul .Matter itself in time responds to the action ofthese higher forces ; and many thing s thatwe are accustomed by reason of our limitedvision to call miraculous or supernatural become the norm al

,the natural

,the every- day .

The man who keeps his thoughts and hisli fe tending upward will, in every em ergency,find the forces of nature and Of his fellow - m en

rushing to aid him , according to the law, To

him that hath,shall be g iven,

” and, becauselike produces like

,the more one has of the

success thought, the happiness thought, the

good - will thought, the more powerful will bethe attraction for kindred thing s . Thus all

good thing s shall be added unto him andhe shall become perfect

,even as your Father

which is in heaven is perfect.”

THE MARDEN

INSPIRATIONAL BOOKS

Be Good to YourselfEvery Man a K ingE x ceptional Em ployeeGetting OnHe Can Who Thinks He CanHow to Get What You Want

Joys of LivingKeeping FitLove’

s WayMaking Life a MasterpieceM iracle of Right ThoughtOptim istic LifePeace, Power, and PlentyProg ressive Business Man

Pushing to the FrontRising in the WorldSecret of Achievem entSelf- Investm entSelling Thing sSuccess Fundam entalsTraining for Efficiency!Victorious AttitudeWom an and the Hom eYou Can, But Will You!Young Man Entering Business

SUCCESS BOOKLETSAn IronWill Am bition CheerfulnessGood Manners Do it to a Finish CharacterEconom y Opportunity Thrift

Power of Personality

SPECIAL BOOKS AND BOOKLETSHints for Young Writers I Had a FriendSuccess Nugg ets Why Grow Old !

Not the Salary but the Opportunity

Send tbr Publisher: Special Circular of there Great Boob

What President McK inley Said“ It cannot but be an inspiration to every boy or girl

who reads it, and who is possessed of an honorable andhigh am bition. Nothin that I have seen of late ism ore worthy to be place in the hands of the Am erican

youth. Wri t m r McKm u v.

I have read Pushing to the Front ’ with m uchinterest. It would be a great stim ulus to any young

Sm Jenn Lunnocx .

A Powerful FactorThis book has been a werful factor making a

sea change in m y life. feel that I have been bornto a new world .

"

Ronnnr S . L i noar on,M lle, Tax .

The Helpfuleet Book

Pushing to the Front’ in m ore of a marvel to m e

every day. I rcad it alm ost daily. It is the helpfuleatbook in the English language.

Mraon T . Pm r cnann, Boston,Mass.

It has been widely read by our organization of som e

fifteen hundred m en. I have personally made presents

of m ore than one hundred c0pies .

E . A . EVANS, President ChicagoPortrait

Its Weight in Gold

If every young m an could m d it carefully at the

beginning of his career it would be worth m ore to him

than its weight in gold.” R . T. A LLEN,B illings,Mon .

am inol itBy ORI SON SWETT MARDEN

A Health TreatiseWhat to eat. how food afieets character. culi

nary crim es , and eating for efiieisney—in short,what to do to m ain tain perfect health—are alldiscussed in a practical and sensible way .

Om aha B ee.

“Any live business m an . who has been a good

liver, should read‘Keeping Fit,

’and heed it:

warnings .

Of the Highest Value“I find the book full of interest and containing

m any practical sug gestions of great value. It isa welcom e addition to Dr. Marden’

s books. allof which I regard as of the highest value in theirefiect upon the developm ent of the individual.

(Em m -

nor of Massachusetts!.

Advice that is NeededMost Am er icans need som e of the advice con

tained in this book ; they woetd enjoy betterhealth and live longer if they read and heeded itsadmonitions.” Even ing Post (New York!.

A Friendly Tip“ If a lot of people were to read ‘Keeping Fit

there would be less running to physicians.”

B oston Globe.

Good SuggestionsNo one can read even a single chapter of this

book without getting som e good suggestions from

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

fiatM tfitmm t

By ORISON SWETT MARDEN

Culture of the Finer Self

0 other investm ent will give such returns as

the culture of the finer self. Whatever our voca

ti on, we should resolve to put beauty into our lifeat every op ertun iuv. Dr. Marden pon esees a

speci al°

ft or writin g books of in spi ration andm oral c s ilenge. His m essages ring with vi rileappeal and cannot fail to arouse dorm ant po

to activity and agg ressive and praisewprth selfasserti on . Christian arid .

A Source of Profit“Probab ly ther e is no one capable of

who could not profit by reading this book .

Cleveland News.

Em phas izes a DutyHarden em phasizes the duty that each ia

dividual owes him self, of cultivating.an apprecia

tion of all that is beautiful in art iterature,nature, thereby enriching life and character par

tiy.

”Even ing Mail (New York!.

A Guide to Realities

ought certainly be plaoed in the hands ofboy and g irl about to step off into the

Hartford Post.

Fresh and Vital!

“Dr . Mas-den has the ab ili to say thin in a

fresh and vital m anner . B lat

her!88

to the tim id , the disco

Is Worth Dollars“ Is worth dollars to those who will follow what

the author suggests in it.”

THOMAS Y. CROWELL 00l

OPINIONS OF

wom an anh acme

Like the previous works of Dr. Harden, this

book ls ene destlned to be ef m uoh value in

inspiring our ysung people to higher and beeter

efforts. His previous works have done a vast

m ount d am cm tain that evm ’

y

young wom an who rent the new wool: will find

in it m uch of helpfulness.

E li-Governor of Massachusetts J ohn L . Bates.

It is just the thh g we neei and l aas glad that

you have been the one to write it. You lcnow

how I appreciate your books and the great value

I set upon them .

Positively I do not know of the writings of anyother m an in Am er ica that I would rather have

in the hands of the young m en of this nation.

Judge B en]. D. Lindsey, Juvenile Court,Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Mu den k not a fm afiq but a u fig m

and practical write of everyday prohlu s. He

presents this subject in a broad, simple way that

carries conviction to his readers. It is not an

appeal to either the m arried or the unm arried, the

sufiragist or the antie nfirag ist, but to all hum anity .

Of course m en and wom en will discuss the book

from their point of view, for all will not ag ree

with him , but all will agree that it is an interest

ing book and worth reading .

The Constitution (Atlanta, Go.!

The b est thing the author has done.

B ookseller, Newrdeolsr and S tation" .

“l esaaet thank yeu enoq h

for ‘ Peaee, Power and Plenty! Your term : book,‘ Every man a K ingf h s been m

‘ bedslde hook ’ lorm y m ama now,

—the new m e ls even m e et soorniort." Bu ncna Barns.

“l h n m d with gw plu n e.

interest and profit your adm irable Peace, Power andPlenty

’ To have written m ch a book le a ses-vies toh e ti n y—CHARLES Em ano Rosanna.

“ I drank for ‘Wb Grow Old !’a h

‘ Peea , Pomandm

John Burreudis says“ l am reading a chapter or two in ‘M Powsr andPlenty

’each evening. You preach a setm d, vigorous,

wholesom e doctrine.

“The m ed valuable chaptu for me

"

says Thomas Wentworth‘Yigginson

“ ls that on ‘WhyGrow Old !’ l wisb to learn just that. I am now 35,and have never felt old yet, but l shall hoopchapter at hand in ease that should ever happen to

I find it very stim ulating and interesting .

“ The chapter on‘HealthThroughRightThinking

'

alone is worth five hundred dollars .

"—8Atw nx. Batu ,

Head of the firm of Brill Brothers, New York.