to urge it on!
The evidence of this is all about you. Take up some violent form of exercise — rowing, tennis, and swimming, riding. In the beginning your muscles are weak, easily tired. But keep on for a few days. The “Life Principle” promptly strengthens them, toughens them, to meet their new need. Do rough manual labor — and what happens? The skin of your hands becomes tender, blisters, and hurts. Keep it up, and does the skin all wear off? On the contrary, the “Life Principle” provides extra thicknesses, extra toughness — calluses, we call them — to meet your need.
All through your daily life you will find this “Life Principle” steadily at work. Embrace it, work with it, take it to yourself, and there is nothing you cannot do. The mere fact that you have obstacles to overcome is in your favor, for when there is nothing to be done, when things run along too smoothly; this “Life Principle” seems to sleep. It is when you need it, when you call upon it urgently, that it is most on the job.
It differs from “Luck” in this, that fortune is a fickle jade that smiles most often on those who need her least. Stake your last penny on the turn of a card — have nothing between you and ruin but the spin of a wheel or the speed of a horse — and its a thousand to one “Luck” will desert you! But it is just the opposite with the Life Principle.” As long as things run smoothly, as long as life flows along like a song, this “Life Principle” seems to slumber, secure in the knowledge that your affairs can take care of themselves.
But let things start going wrong, let ruin and disgrace stare you in the face — then is the time this “Life Principle” will assert itself if you but give it a chance.
The “Open, Sesame!” of Life
There is a Napoleonic feeling of power that insures success in the knowledge that this invincible “Life Principle” is behind your every act. Knowing that you have working with you a force, which never yet has failed in anything it has undertaken, you can go ahead in the confident knowledge that it will not fail in your case, either. The ingenuity, which overcame every obstacle in making you what you are, is not likely to fall short when you have immediate need for it. It is the reserve strength of the athlete, the “second wind” of the runner, the power that, in moments of great stress or excitement, you unconsciously call upon to do the deeds which you ever after look upon as superhuman.
But they are in no wise superhuman. They are merely beyond the capacity of your conscious self. Ally your conscious self with that sleeping giant within you, rouse him daily to the task, and those “superhuman” deeds will become your ordinary, everyday accomplishments.
W. L. Cain, of Oakland, Oregon, writes: “I know that there is such a power, for I once saw two boys, 16 and 18 years of age, lift a great log off their brother, who had been caught under it. The next day, the same two boys, with another man and me, tried to lift the end of the log, but could not even budge it.”
How was it that the two boys could do at need what the four were unable to do later on, when the need had passed? Because they never stopped to question whether or not it could be done. They saw only the urgent need. They concentrated all their thought, all their energy on that one thing — never doubting, never fearing — and the genie which is in all of us waiting only for such a call, answered their summons and gave them the strength — not of two men, but of ten!
It matters not whether you are banker or lawyer, businessman or clerk. Whether you are the custodian of millions, or have to struggle for your daily bread. This “Life Principle” makes no distinction between rich and poor, high and low. The greater your need, the more readily will it respond to your call. Wherever there is an unusual task, wherever there is poverty or hardship or sickness or despair, there is this servant of your mind, ready and willing to help, asking only that you call upon him.
And not only is it ready and willing, but it is always ABLE to help. Its ingenuity and resource are without limit. It is Mind. It is thought. It is the Telepathy that carries messages without the spoken or written word. It is the Sixth Sense that warns you of unseen dangers. No matter how stupendous and complicated, nor how simple your problem may be — the solution of it is somewhere in Mind, in Thought. And since the solution does exist, this Mental Giant can find it for you. It can KNOW, and it can DO, every right thing. Whatever it is necessary for you to know, whatever it is necessary for you to do, you can know and you can do if you will but seek the help of this genie-of-your-mind and work with it in the right way.
Chapter 2 — The Genie-of-Your-Mind
First came the Stone Age, when life was for the strong of arm or the fleet of foot. Then there was the Iron Age — and while life was more precious, still the strong lorded it over the weak. Later came the Golden Age, and riches took the place of strength — but the poor found little choice between the slave drivers’ whips of olden days and the grim weapons of poverty and starvation.
Now we are entering a new age — the Mental Age — when every man can be his own master, when poverty and circumstance no longer hold power and the lowliest creature in the land can win a place side by side with the highest.
To those who do not know the resources of mind these will sound like rash statements; but science proves beyond question that in the wellsprings of every man’s mind are unplumbed depths — undiscovered deposits of energy, wisdom and ability. Sound these depths — bring these treasures to the surface — and you gain an astounding wealth of new power.
From the rude catamaran of the savages to the giant liners of today, carrying their thousands from continent to continent is but a step in the development of Mind. From the lowly cave man, cowering in his burrow in fear of lightning or fire or water, to the engineer of today, making servants of all the forces of Nature, is but a measure of difference in mental development.
Man, without reasoning mind, would be as the monkeys are — prey of any creature fast enough and strong enough to pull him to pieces. At the mercy of wind and weather. A poor timid creature, living for the moment only, fearful of every shadow.
Through his superior mind, he learned to make fire to keep himself warm; weapons with which to defend himself from the savage creatures round about; habitations to protect himself from the elements. Through mind he conquered the forces of Nature.
Through mind he has made machinery do the work of millions of horses and billions of hands. What he will do next, no man knows, for man is just beginning to awaken to his own powers. He is just getting an inkling of the unfathomed riches buried deep in his own mind. Like the gold seekers of ‘49, he has panned the surface gravel for the gold swept down by the streams. Now he is starting to dig deeper to the pure vein beneath.
We bemoan the loss of our forests. We worry over our dwindling resources of coal and oil. We decry the waste in our factories. But the greatest waste of all, we pay no attention to — the waste of our own potential mind power. Professor Wm. James, the world-famous Harvard psychologist, estimated that the average man uses only 10% of his mental power. He has unlimited power — yet he uses but a tithe of it. Unlimited wealth all about him — and he doesn’t know how to take hold of it. With God-like powers slumbering within him, he is content to continue in his daily grind — eating, sleeping, working — plodding through an existence little more eventful than the animals, while all of Nature, all of life, calls upon him to awaken, to bestir himself.
The power to be what you want to be, to get what you desire, to accomplish whatever you are striving for, abides within you. It rests with you only to bring it forth and put it to work. Of course you must know how to do that, but before you can learn how to use it, you must realize that you possess this power. So our first objective is to get acquainted with this power.
For
