not only these invisible forces, but also to concentrate the visible like fusing or forging the minerals, he increases their power.
Concentration is the secret of directed power, wherever man has made it available. Emerson tells us that Napoleon's success lay in concentration, his only rule.
He says: - "On any point of resistance he concentrated squadron after squadron in overwhelming numbers until it was swept out of existence."
When man shall learn to still more concentrate power he will master aerial navigation. Storage batteries and small dynamos and small engines are opening the way.
Therefore, when you are learning concentration, you are learning to use Power, in the same manner as man has learned to use those powers he has harnessed to his machinery.
Mental concentration is the application of the one method through which all nature applies her forces to any particular end.
You are ever to remember that you are living in a universe; that all force is one and is subject to the one law; that methods of the law's operation in the visible universe are parallel with methods in the unseen universe. Says Emerson: "The laws below are sisters of the laws above!" Mrs. Browning tells us: "There is not a flower on earth, but has its counterpart on the Spiritual side." They are reflections in the slower vibrations of what is actual and permanent in the higher. As the picture in a mirror is a reflection of the object, so every so-called material circumstance is, but the reflection of a mental reality, or if yon prefer, a spiritual reality. All laws are spiritual laws. Or it may please you better if we say, all Laws are Laws of Mind. Mind is all, and All means ALL. It does not leave out Man or rock, angel or energy. ALL means God, and God means ALL. You are thus first of all in your demonstration to concentrate the thoughts you have had of Existence into the ONE Substance that fills the Universe. You are to affirm Unity until it becomes a mental habit to think from Unity. Think of God as not far away, but as being ever-present and IN you. To think of your life as God's life; your thought as God's thought; your strength as God's strength; your action as God's action.
You must create this habit of concentrating God, yourself, and your friends into the All. You are to accustom yourself never to think of anything, or any manifestation as separate from the All. It is the All that manifests; it is the All that thinks, loves, acts, works, hates, grows, blossoms, ripens, and decays. You will soon grow to FEEL God, as you think of IT (or HIM) as present in yourself; and to think of yourself as present in Him, and of your thought and deed as being His thought and deed. You will soon realize that the idea of separateness between yourself and the All is the beginning of all your ills.
Paul held and taught this conception of Unity. He said:
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God!
IV. Some Channels Of Waste
Work while you work and play while you play; That is the way to be happy and gay.
- My Old School Reader.
Too many irons in the fire.
Jack of all trades and master of none.
- Old Proverbs.
Laurel crowns cleave to deserts And power to him who power exerts. Hast not thy share? On winged feet Lo, it flyeth thee to meet!
- Emerson.
While happiness is to be desired and is the source of health and power, being the subjective side, the cause side of these, it is often confused with mere excitement, - especially the excitement of change, - or of stimulant, and also with mere pleasure. Pleasure arises in the sensations of the physical body and while it is to be encouraged as a means and as such becomes a source of power, whenever sought as an end it is diffusive of power, destructive of happiness, through the reactions that follow, and thus productive of failure in line of health and a successful life. Rational pleasures are to be sought temperately. With Self-Control they are healthful. Intemperate use is diffusion, weakness. All emotions not controlled - all intemperance in any form, - is the opposite of that concentration, which is the "Road to Success." It is the concentration of mere physical enjoyment, and since all power is Mind, (or Spirit) and not body, to concentrate upon the physical in any form, is to close, to a greater or less degree, the channels of inspiration of Spirit, which is life. The physical is the animal side of Man. And until he attains mastery over the flesh, it is as natural to concentrate upon physical enjoyment as do the lambs and colts. This is the exuberance of animal life.
Man can keep this exuberance down to what is termed old age will he be temperate, and the word means - Self Controlled. Under right thought, all this animal spirit is curbed, and reined, and guided by the Master - Soul. Through this mastery it is possible to avoid disease, unhappiness, poverty and even physical death by ripening out of physical conditions through some form of de-materialization.
It is not because there is anything inherently wrong in this, that I refer to the fads, follies, fashions and social excitements. Only so far as they are indulged in to kill time; are taken up because they are in the air; indulged in to emulate or to vie with others; enjoyed with no serious purpose; and allowed to absorb time, attention and labor that, would we win Success, - would lead to Success. I am writing only for those who are willing to purchase success.
"Laurel crowns cleave to deserts" and no one ever won the crowning success who did not buy it with a price.
And no one wins social distinction, or place in the fashionable, political, or athletic world, who did not pay for it by losing success in other fields.
"In the devil's booth all things are sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold."
"It is natural to concentrate upon pleasure," it is said, and also: - "It is natural to concentrate under excitement!" Yes: but is it well? Has not man a higher motive? Anger, jealousy, envy, hatred, avarice and kindred passions are concentrative and belong naturally to man; but unfolding man leaves these behind and finds happiness, power, prosperity in concentrating upon their opposites.
It is because, all forms of concentration that have not behind them noble ideals, are diffusive of power and weakening to character; because they are a form of intemperance; because they are manifestations of a lack of self-control, of self-sufficiency, that, for those who have a desire to nobly win, I mention them here. Society has much "busy idleness." The ladies crochet, make crazy quilts, take up china painting and kindred fads to "kill time." Not with any serious purpose, but because they don't know what else to do, or seek them to show their productions for the approval or envy of neighbors. There is much dissipation in what is termed "Art." "Art is man added to Nature," but there seems to be no purpose "to add" in much that today passes by that name. The test? Only a few years and all these productions are relegated to the lumber room. The productions of real Art, live. True, some unfoldment comes to those who really enjoy; who really love the work; who truly have a real desire; but when it is done only because others are painting; because "I must do something" it is a diffusion of power and an element of weakness.
To follow this course is to take the road to failure. Concentration upon any occupation means success in it. Have a purpose in what you do and work with a will.
Whatever is done to kill time; to help one forget one's self, because it is the fad, or because society demands it, is weakness. "Conformity is
