How to be a Genius or The Science of Being Great (1911) by Wallace D. Wattles

how to be a genius or the science of being great by Wallace D Waddles read by Randy Scott originally published in 1911 chapter 1 any person may become great there is a principle of power in every person by the intelligent use and direction of this principle man can develop his own mental faculties man has an inherent Power by which he may grow in whatsoever Direction he pleases and there does not appear to be any limit to the possibilities of his growth no man has yet become so great in any faculty but that it is possible

for someone else to become greater the possibility is in the original substance from which man is made genius is omniscience flowing into man genius is more than talent talent May merely be one faculty developed out of proportion to other faculties but genius is the union of man and God in the acts of the Soul great men are always greater than their deeds they are in connection with the reserved power that is without limit we do not know where the boundary of the mental powers of man is we do not even know that there is a

boundary the power of conscious growth is not given to the lower animals it is man's alone and may be developed and increased by him the lower animals can to a great extent be trained and developed by man but man can train and develop himself he alone has this power and he has it to an apparently unlimited extent the purpose of life for man is growth just as the purpose of life for trees and plants is growth trees and plants grow automatically and along fix lines man can grow as he will trees and plants can only

develop certain possibilities and characteristics man can develop any power which is or has been shown by any person anywhere nothing that is possible in spirit is impossible in Flesh and Blood nothing that man can think is impossible in action nothing that man can imagine is impossible of realization man is formed for growth and he is under the necessity of growing it is essential to his happiness that he should continuously Advance life without progress becomes unendurable and the person who ceases from growth must either become imbecile or insane the greater and more harmonious and well-rounded his

growth the happier man will be there is no possibility in any man that is not in every man but if they proceed naturally no two men will grow into the same thing or be alike every man comes into the world with a predisposition to grow along certain lines and growth is easier for him along those lines than in any other way this is a wise provision for it gives endless variety it is as if a gardener should throw all his bulbs into one basket to The Superficial Observer they would look alike but growth reveals a

tremendous difference so of men and women they are like the basket of bulbs one may be a rose and add brightness and color to some dark corner of the world one may be a Lily and teach a lesson of love and Purity to every eye that sees one may be a climbing vine and hide the rugged outlines of some dark Rock one may be a great Oak among whose bows the birds shall nest and sing and beneath whose shade the flocks shall rest at noon but everyone will be something worthwhile something rare something perfect there

are undreamed of possibilities in common lives all around us in a large sense there are no common people in times of national stress and Peril the Cracker Box loafer of the corner store and the village drunkard become Heroes and Statesmen through the quickening of the principle of power within them there is a genius in every man and woman waiting to be brought forth every village has its great man or woman someone to whom whom all go for advice in time of trouble someone who is instinctively recognized as being great in wisdom and insight to such

a one the minds of the whole Community turn in times of local crisis he is tactically recognized as being great he does small things in a great way he could do great things as well if he did but undertake them so can any man so can you the principle of power gives us just what we ask of it if we only undertake little things it only gives us power for little things but if we try to do great things in a great way it gives us all the power there is but beware of undertaking great

things in a small way of that we shall speak farther on there are two mental attitudes a man may take one makes him like a football it has resilience and reacts strongly when force is applied to it but it originates nothing it never acts of itself there is no power within it men of this type are controlled by circumstances and environment their Destinies are decided by things external to themselves the principle of power within them is never really active at all they never speak or act from within the other attitude makes man like a flowing

spring power comes out from the center of him he has within him a well of water springing up into everlasting life he radiates Force he is felt by his environment the principle of power in him is in constant action he is self-active he hath life in himself no greater good can come to any man or woman than to become self-active all the experiences of Life are designed by Providence to force men and women into self-activity to compel them to cease being creatures of circumstances and master their environment in his lowest stage man man is the

child of chance and Circumstance and the slave of fear his acts are all reactions resulting from the impingement upon Him of forces in his environment he acts only as he is acted upon he originates nothing but the lowest Savage has within him a principle of power sufficient to master all that he fears and if he learns this and becomes self-active he becomes as one of the Gods the aw wakening of the principle of power in man is the real conversion the passing from Death to life it is when the dead hear the voice of the

son of man and come forth and live it is the resurrection and the life when it is awakened man becomes a son of the highest and all power is given to him in heaven and on Earth nothing was ever in any man that is not in you no man ever had more spiritual or mental power than you can attain or did did greater things than you can accomplish you can become what you want to be chapter 2 heredity and opportunity you are not barred from attaining Greatness by heredity no matter who or what your ancestors

may have been or how unlearned or lowly their station the upward way is open for you there is no such thing as inheriting a fixed mental position no matter how small the mental Capital we receive from our parents it may be increased no man is born incapable of growth heredity counts for something we are born with subconscious mental Tendencies as for instance a tendency to Melancholy or cowardice or to Ill temper but all these subconscious Tendencies may be overcome when the real man awakens and comes forth he can throw them off very easily nothing of

this kind need keep you down if you have inherited undesirable mental t Tendencies you can eliminate them and put desirable tendencies in their places an inherited mental trait is a habit of thoughts of your father or mother impressed upon your subconscious mind you can substitute the opposite impression by forming the opposite habit of thought you can substitute a habit of cheerfulness for a tendency to despondency you can overcome cowardice or ill temper heredity May count for something to in an inherited confirmation of the skull there is something in prology if not so much as it

exponents claim for it it is true that the different faculties are localized in the brain and that the power of Faculty depends upon the number of active brain cells in its area a faculty whose brain area is large is likely to act with more power than one whose cranial section is small hence persons with certain confirmations of the skull show Talent as musicians orators mechanics and so on it has been argued from this that a man's cranial formation must to a great extent decide his station in life but this is an error it has been

found that a small brain section with many fine and active cells gives as powerful expression to faculty as a larger brain with coarser cells and it has been found that by turning the principle of power into any section of the brain with the will and purpose to develop a particular Talent the brain cells may be multiplied indefinitely any faculty power or Talent you possess no matter how small or rudimentary may be increased you can multiply the brain cells in this particular area until it acts as powerfully as you wish it is true that you can

act most easily through those faculties that are now most largely developed you can do with the least effort the things which come naturally but is also true that if you will make the necessary effort you can develop any Talent you can do do what you desire to do and become what you want to be when you fix upon some ideal and proceed as here and after directed all the power of your being is turned into the faculties required in the realization of that ideal more blood and nerve Force go to the corresponding sections of the

brain and the cells are quickened increased and multiplied in Number the proper use of the mind of man will build a brain capable of doing what the Mind wants to do the brain does not make the man the man makes the brain your place in life is not fixed by heredity nor are you condemned to the lower levels by circumstances or lack of opportunity the principle of power in man is sufficient for all the requirements of his soul no possible combination of circumstances can keep him down if he makes his personal attitude right and determines

to rise the power which formed man and proposed him for growth also controls the circumstances of society industry and government and this power is never divided against itself the power which is in you is in the things around you and when you begin to move forward the things will arrange themselves for your advantage as described in later chapters of this book man was formed for growth and all things external were designed to promote his growth no sooner does a man awaken his soul and enter on the the advancing way that he finds not only is

God for him but nature society and his fellow men are for him also and all things work together for his good if he obeys the law poverty is no bar to Greatness for poverty can always be removed Martin Luther as a child sang in the streets for bread Lenas the naturalist had only $40 in which to educate himself he mended his own shoes and often had to beg meals for from his friends Hugh Miller apprenticed to a stonemason began to study geology in a quarry George Stevenson inventor of the locomotive engine and one of the

greatest of civil engineers was a coal miner working in a mine when he awakened and began to think James Watt was a sickly child and was not strong enough to be sent to school Abraham Lincoln was a poor boy in each of these cases we see a principle of power in the man which lifts him above o all opposition and adversity there is a principle of power in you if you use it and apply it in a certain way you can overcome all heredity and master all circumstances and conditions and become a great and powerful

personality chapter 3 the source of power man's brain body mind faculties and talents are the mere instruments he uses in demonstrating greatness and themselves eles they do not make him great a man may have a large Brain and a good mind strong faculties and Brilliant talents and yet he is not a great man unless he uses all these in a great way that quality which enables man to use his abilities in a great way makes him great and to that quality we give the name of wisdom wisdom is the essential basis of greatness wisdom is

the power to perceive the best ends to aim at and the best means for reaching those ends it is the power to perceive the right thing to do the man who is wise enough to know the right thing to do who is good enough to wish to do only the right thing and who is able and strong enough to do the right thing is a truly great man he will instantly become marked as a personality of power in any community and men will Delight to do him honor wisdom is dependent upon knowledge where there is

complete ignorance there can be no wisdom no knowledge of the right thing to do man's knowledge is comparatively limited and so his wisdom must be small unless he can connect his mind with a knowledge greater than his own and draw from it by inspiration the wisdom that has his own limitations deny him this he can do this is what the really great men and women have done man's knowledge is limited and uncertain therefore he cannot have wisdom in himself only God knows all truth therefore only God can have real wisdom or know the right thing

to do at all times and man can receive wisdom from God I proceed to give an illustration Abraham Lincoln had limited education but he had the power to perceive truth in Lincoln we see preeminently apparent the fact that real wisdom consists in knowing the right thing to do at all times and under all circumstances in having the will to do the right thing and in having talent and ability enough enough to be competent and able to do the right thing back in the days of abolition agitation and during the compromise period when all other men

were more or less confused as to what was right or as to what ought to be done Lincoln was never uncertain he saw through the superficial arguments of the pro-slavery Men He Saw also the impracticability and fanaticism of the abolitionists he saw the right ends to aim at and he saw the best means to attain those ends it was because men recognized that he perceived truth and knew the right thing to do that they made him president Any Man Who develops the power to perceive truth and who can show that he always knows the right

thing to do and that he can be trusted to do the right thing will be honored and advanced the whole world is looking eagerly for such men when Lincoln became president he was surrounded by a multitude of so-called able advisers hardly any two of whom whom were agreed at times they were all opposed to his policies at times almost the whole North was opposed to what he proposed to do but he saw the truth when others were misled by appearances his judgment was seldom or never wrong he was at once the ablest Statesman and the

best soldier of the period where did he a comparatively unlearned man get this wisdom it was not due to some peculiar formation of his skull or to some finess of texture of his brain it was not duee to some physical characteristic it was not even a quality of Mind due to Superior reasoning power knowledge of Truth is not often reached by the processes of reason it was due to a spiritual Insight he perceived truth but where did he perceive it and whence did the perception come we see something similar in Washington whose faith and courage

due to his perception of Truth held the colonies together during the long and often apparently hopeless struggle of the Revolution we see something of the same thing in the phenomenal Genius of Napoleon who always knew in military matters the best means to adopt we see that the greatness of Napoleon was in nature rather than in Napoleon and we discover back of Washington and Lincoln something greater than either Washington or Lincoln we see the same thing in all great men and women they perceive truth but truth cannot be perceived until it ex exists and there can

be no truth until there is a mind to perceive it truth does not exist apart from mind Washington and Lincoln were in touch and communication with a mind which knew all knowledge and contained all truth so of all who manifest wisdom wisdom is obtained by reading the mind of God chapter 4 the mind of God there is a cosmic intelligence which is in all things and through all things this is the one real substance from it all things proceed it is intelligent substance or mind stuff it is God where there is no substance there can

be no intelligence for where there is no substance there is nothing where there is thought there must be a substance which thinks thought cannot be function for function is motion and it is inconceivable that mere motion should think thought cannot be vibration for vibration is motion and that motion should be intelligent is not thinkable motion is nothing but the moving of substance if there be intelligence shown it must be in the substance and not in the motion thought cannot be the result of motions in the brain If thought is in the brain it must be

in the brain's substance and not in the Motions which brain substance makes but thought is not in the brain substance for brain substance without life is quite unintelligent and dead thought is in the Life principle which animates the brain in the spirit substance which is the real man the brain does not think the man thinks and expresses his thought through the brain there is a spirit substance which thinks just as the spirit substance of man permeates his body and thinks and knows in the body so the original Spirit substance God permeates all nature and thinks

and knows in nature nature is as intelligent as man and knows more than man nature knows all things the all mind has been in touch with all things from the beginning and it contains all knowledge man's experience covers a few things and these things man knows but God's experience covers all the things that have happened since the creation from the wreck of a planet or the passing of a comet to the fall of a sparrow all that is and all that has been are present in the intelligence which is wrapped about us and unfolds us

and presses upon us from every side all the encyclopedias men have written are but trivial Affairs compared to the vast knowledge held by the mind in which men live move and have their being the truths men perceive by inspiration are thoughts held in this mind if they were not thoughts men could not perceive them for they would have no existence and they could not exist as thoughts unless there is a mind for them to exist in and a mind can be nothing else than a substance which thinks man is thinking substance a portion of the

cosmic substance but man is limited while the cosmic intelligence from which he sprang which Jesus Calls the father is unlimited all intelligence power and force come from the father Jesus recognized this and stated it very plainly over and over again he ascribed all his wisdom and power to his Unity with the father and to his perceiving the thoughts of God my father and I are one this was the foundation of his knowledge and power he showed the people the necessity of becoming spiritually awakened of hearing his voice and becoming like him he compared the unthinking

man who is the prey and sport of circumstances to the dead man in a tomb and besought him to hear and come forth God is Spirit he said be born again become spiritually awake and you may see his kingdom hear my voice see what I am and what I do and come forth and live the words I speak are spirit and life accept them and they will cause a well of water to spring up within you then you will have life within yourself I do what I see the father do he said meaning that he

read the thoughts of God the Father showeth all things to the son if any man has the will to do the will of God he shall know truth my teaching is not my own but his that sent me you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free the spirit shall guide you into all truth we are immersed in mind and that mind contains all knowledge and all truth it is seeking to give us this knowledge for our father Delights to give good gifts to to his children the prophets and seers and great

men and women past and present were made great by what they received from God not by what they were taught by men this Limitless reservoir of wisdom and power is open to you you can draw upon it as you will according to your needs you can make yourself what you desire to be you can do what you wish to do you can have what you want to accomplish this you must learn to become one with the father so that you may perceive truth so that you may have wisdom and know the right ends to seek

and the right means to use to attain those ends and so that you may secure power and ability to use the means in closing this chapter resolve that you will now lay aside all else and concentrate upon the attainment of conscious Unity with god oh when I am safe in my silven home I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome and when I am stretched beneath the Pines where the evening star so holy shines I laugh at the lore in Pride of man at the sophist schools and the Learned Clan For What are they

all in their High conceit when man in the bush with God may meet chapter 5 preparation draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you if you become like God you can read his thoughts and if you do not you will find the inspirational perception of Truth impossible you can never become a great man or woman until you have overcome anxiety worry and fear it is impossible for an anxious person a worried one or a fearful one to perceive Truth All Things Are distorted and thrown out of their proper relations by such mental

States and those who are in them cannot read the thoughts of God if you are poor or if you are anxious about business or financial matters you are recommended to study carefully the first volume of this series the science of getting rich that will present to you a solution for your problems of this nature no matter how large or how complicated they may seem to be there is not the least cause for worry about financial affairs every person who Wills to do so may rise above want have all he needs and become rich the same

Source upon which you propose to draw for mental unfoldment and spiritual power is at your service for the supply of all your material wants study this truth until it is fixed in your thoughts and until anxiety is banished from your mind enter the certain way which leads to material riches again if you are anxious or worried about your health realize it is possible for you to attain perfect health so that you may have strength sufficient for all that you wish to do and more that intelligence which stands ready to give you wealth and mental and

spiritual power Will Rejoice to give you health also perfect health is yours for the asking if you will only obey the simple laws of life and live a right conquer ill health and cast out fear but it is not enough to rise above financial and physical anxiety and worry you must rise above moral evildoing as well sound your inter Consciousness now for the motives which actuate you and make sure they are right you must cast out lust and cease to be ruled by appetite and you must begin to govern appetite you must eat only to

satisfy hunger never for gluttonous pleasure and in all things you must make the flesh obey the spirit you must lay aside greed have no unworthy motive in your desire to become rich and Powerful it is legitimate and right to desire riches if you want them for the sake of the soul but not if you desire them for the lusts of the flesh cast out pride and vanity have no thought of trying to rule over others or of outdoing them this is a vital point there is no temptation so Insidious as the selfish desire to rule

over others nothing so appeals to the average man or woman as to sit in the uppermost places at feasts to be respectfully saluted in the marketplace and to be called Rabbi Master to exercise some sort of control over others is the secret motive of every selfish person the struggle for power over others is the Battle of the competitive world and you must rise above that world and its motives and aspirations and seek only for Life cast out Envy you can have all that you want and you need not envy any man what he has Above

All Things see to it that you do not hold malice or imity toward anyone to do so Cuts you off from the Mind whose Treasures you seek to make your own he that loveth not his brother loveth not God lay aside all narrow personal ambition and determin to seek the highest good and to be swayed by no unworthy selfishness go over all the foregoing and set these moral Temptations out of your heart one by one determined to keep them out then resolve that you will not only abandon all evil thought but that you will forsake

all Deeds habits and courses of action which do not commend themselves to your noblest ideals this is supremely important make this resolution with all the power of your soul and you are ready for the next step toward greatness which you will find explained in the following chapter chapter six the social point of view without faith it is impossible to please God and without faith it is impossible for you to become great the distinguishing characteristic of all really great men and women is an unwavering faith we see this in Lincoln during the dark days of the

war we see it in Washington at Valley Forge we see it in Livingstone the crippled missionary threading The Mazes of the dark continents his soul of flame with the determination to let in the light upon the accursed slave trade which his soul abhor we see it in Luther and in Francis Willard in every man and woman who has attained a place on the muster rle of the great ones of the world faith not a faith in oneself or in one's own powers but faith in principle in the something great which upholds right and which may

be relied upon to give us the victory in due time without this faith it is not possible for anyone to rise to real greatness the man who has no faith in principle will always be a small man whether you have this Faith or not depends upon your point of view you must learn to see the world as being produced by Evolution as a something which is evolving and becoming not as a finished work millions of years ago God God worked with very low and crude forms of life low and crude yet each perfect after its

kind higher and more complex organisms animal and vegetable appeared through the successive ages the Earth passed through stage after stage in its unfoldment each stage perfect in itself and to be succeeded by a higher one what I wish you to note is that the socalled lower organisms are as perfect after their kind as the higher ones that the world in the eocene period was perfect for that period it was perfect but God's work was not finished this is true of the world today physically socially and industrially it is all good and it is all perfect

it is not complete anywhere or in any part but so far as the handiwork of God has gone it is perfect this must be your point of view that the world and all it contains is perfect though not completed all's right with the world that is the great fact there is nothing wrong with anything there is nothing wrong with anybody all the facts of life you must contemplate from this standpoint there is nothing wrong with nature nature is a great advancing presence working beneficially for the happiness of all all things in nature are good she

has no evil she is not complete for creation is still unfinished but she is going on to give to man even more bountifully than she has given to him in the past past nature is a partial expression of God and God is love she is perfect but not complete so of human society and government what though there are trusts and combinations of capital and Strikes and lockouts and so on all these things are part of the forward movement they are incidental to The evolutionary process of completing society when it is complete there will be no

more of these in harmonies but it cannot be complete Ed without them JP Morgan is as necessary to the coming social order as the strange animals of the age of reptiles were to the life of the succeeding period and just as these animals were perfect after their kind so Morgan is perfect after his kind behold it is all very good see Society government and Industry is being perfect now and as advancing rapidly toward being complete then you will understand that there is nothing to fear no cause for anxiety nothing to worry about never complain of

any of these things they are perfect this is the very best possible world for the stage of development man has reached this will sound like rank Folly to many perhaps to most people what they will say are not child labor and the exploitation of men and women in filthy and unsanitary factories evil things are not saloons evil do you mean to say that we shall accept all these and call them good child labor and similar things are no more evil than the way of living and the habits and practices of the cave dweller were evil

his ways were those of the Savage stage of man's growth and for that stage they were perfect our industrial practices are those of the Savage stage of Industrial Development and they are also perfect nothing better is impossible until we cease to be mental Savages in industry and business and become men and women this can only come about by the rise of the whole race to a higher Viewpoint and this can only come about by the rise of such individuals here and there as are ready for the higher Viewpoint the cure for all these inh harmonies

lies not with the Masters or employers but with the workers themselves whenever they reach a higher Viewpoint whenever they shall desire to do so they can establish complete Brotherhood and Harmony in Industry they have the numbers and the power they are getting now what they desire whenever they desire more in the way of a higher pure more harmonious life they will receive more true they want more now but they only want more of the things that make for animal enjoyment and so industry remains in the Savage brutal animal stage when the workers begin to rise

to the mental plane of living and ask for more of the things that make for the life of the mind and soul industry will at once be raised above the plane of savagery and brutality but it is perfect now upon its plane behold it is all very good so of saloons and dens of Vice if a majority of the people desire these things it is right and necessary that they should have them when a majority desire a world without such discords they will create such a world so long as men and women are on the

plane of bestial thought so long the social order will be in part disorder and will show bestial manifestations the people make Society what it is and as the people rise above the bestial thought Society will rise above the beastly in its manifestations but a society which thinks in a bestial way must have saloons and Dives it is perfect after its kind as the world was in the eosine period and very good all this does not prevent you from working for better things you can work to complete an unfinished Society instead of to renovate a decaying

one and you can work with a better heart and a more hopeful Spirit it will make an immense difference with your faith and spirit whether you look upon civilization as a good thing which is becoming better or as a bad and evil thing which is decaying one Viewpoint gives you an advancing and expanding mind and the other gives you a descending and decreasing mind one Viewpoint will make you grow greater and the other will inevitably cause you to grow smaller one will enable you to work for the ET etal things to do large Works in

a great way toward the completing of all that is incomplete and inharmonious and the other will make you a mere Patchwork reformer working almost without hope to save a few lost souls from what you will grow to consider a lost and doomed world so you see it makes a vast difference to you this matter of the social Viewpoint all's right with the world nothing can possibly be wrong but my personal attitude and I will make that right I will see the fact of Nature and all the events circumstances and conditions of society politics government and

Industry from the highest Viewpoint it is all perfect though incomplete it is all the handiwork of God behold it is all very good chapter 7 the individual point of view important as the matter of your point of view for the facts of social life is it is of less moment than your Viewpoint for your fellow man for your acquaintances friends relatives your immediate family and most of all yourself you must learn not to look upon the world as a lost and decaying thing but as a something perfect and glorious which is going on to a

most beautiful completeness and you must learn to see men and women not as lost and accursed things but as perfect beings advancing to become complete there are no bad or evil people an engine which is on the rails pulling a heavy train is perfect after its kind and it is good the power of steam which drives it is good let a broken rail throw the engine into the ditch and it does not become bad or Evil by being so displaced it is a perfectly good engine but off the track the power of steam which drives

it into the ditch and wrecks it is not evil but a perfectly good power so that which is misplaced or applied in an incomplete or partial way is not evil there are no evil people there are perfectly good people who are off the track but they do not need condemnation or punishment they only need to get upon the rails again that which is undeveloped or incomplete often appears to us as evil because of the way we have trained ourselves to think the root of a bulb which shall produce a white lily is an unsightly thing

one might look upon it with disgust but how foolish we should be to condemn the bulb for its appearance when we know the Lily is within it the root is perfect after its kind it is a perfect but incomplete Lily and so we must learn to look upon every man and woman no matter how unlovely an outward manifestation they are perfect in their stage of being and they are becoming complete behold it is all very good once we come into a comprehension of this fact and arrive at this point of view we lose all desire

to find fault with people to judge them criticize them or condemn them we no longer work as those who are saving lost souls but as those who are among the Angels working out the completion of a glorious heaven we are born of the spirit and we see the kingdom of God we no longer see men as trees walking but our vision is complete we have nothing but good words to say it is all good a great and glorious Humanity coming to completeness and in our association with men this puts us into an expansive and enlarging

attitude of mind we see them as great beings and we begin to deal with them and their Affairs in a great way but if we fall to the other point of view and see a lost and degenerate race we shrink into the Contracting mind and our dealings with men and their Affairs will be in a small and contracted way remember to hold steadily to this point of view if you do you cannot fail to begin at once to deal with your acquaintances and neighbors and with your own family as a great personality deals with men

the same Viewpoint must be the one from which you regard yourself you must always see yourself as a great advancing Soul learn to say there is that in me of which I am made which knows no imperfection weakness or sickness the world is incomplete but God in my own Consciousness is both perfect and complete nothing can be wrong but my own personal attitude and my own personal attitude can be wrong only when I disobey that which is within I am a perfect manifestation of God so far as I have gone and I will press on

to be complete I will trust and not be afraid when you are able to say this understandingly you will have lost all fear and you will be far Advanced upon the road to the development of a great and powerful personality chapter 8 consecration having attained to the Viewpoint which puts you into the right relations with the world and with your fellow men the next step is Consecration and consecration in its true sense simply means obedience to the soul you have that within you which is ever impelling you toward the upward and advancing way and that

impelling something is the Divine principle of power you must obey it without question no one will deny the statement that if you are to be great the greatness must be a manifestation of something within nor can you question that this something must be the very greatest and highest that is within it is not the mind or the intellect or the reason you cannot be great if you go no farther back for principle than to your reasoning power reason knows neither principle nor morality your reason is like a lawyer in that it will argue for either

side the intellect of a thief will plan robbery Y and murder as readily as the intellect of a saint will plan a great philanthropy intellect helps us to see the best means and manner of doing the right thing but intellect never shows us the right thing intellect and reason serve the selfish man for his selfish ends as readily as they serve the unselfish man for his unselfish ends use intellect and reason without regard to principle and you may become known as a very able person but you will never become known as a person whose life

shows the power of real greatness there is too much training of the intellect and reasoning powers and too little training in obedience to the soul this is the only thing that can be wrong with your personal attitude when it fails to be one of obedience to the principle of Power by going back to your own Center you can always find a pure idea of right for every relationship to be great and to have power it is only necessary to conform your life to the pure idea as you find it in the great within every compromise

on this point is made at the expense of a loss of power this you must remember there are many ideas in your mind which you have outgrown and which from force of habit you still permit to dictate the actions of your life cease all this abandon everything you have outgrown there are many ignoble Customs social and other which you still follow although you know they tend to dwarf and belittle you and keep you acting in a small way rise above all this I do not say that you should absolutely disregard conventionalities or the commonly accepted

standards of right and wrong you cannot do this but you can deliver your soul from most of the narrow restrictions which bind the majority of your fellow men do not give your time and strength to the support of obsolete institutions religious or otherwise do not be bound by Creeds in which you do not believe be free you have perhaps formed some sensual habits of mind or body abandon them you still indulge in distrustful fears that things will go wrong or that people will betray you or mistreat you get above all of them you still act

selfishly in many ways and on many occasions cease to do so abandon all these and in place of them put the best actions you can form a conception of in your mind if you desire to advance and you are not doing so remember that it can be only because your thought is better than your practice you must do as well as you think let your thoughts be ruled by principle and then live up to your thoughts let your attitude in business in politics in neighborhood Affairs and in your own home be the expression of the

best thoughts you can think let your manner toward all men and women great and small and especially to your own Family Circle always be the most kindly gracious and courteous you can picture in your imagination remember your Viewpoint you are a God in the company of gods and must conduct yourself accordingly the steps to complete consecration are few and simple you cannot be ruled from below if you are to be great you must rule from above therefore you cannot be governed by physical impulses you must bring your body into subjection to the mind but your

mind without principle may lead you into selfishness and immoral ways you must put the Mind into subjection to the soul and your soul is limited by the boundaries of your knowledge you must put it into subjection to that over Soul which needeth no searching of the understanding but before whose eyes all things are spread that constitutes consecration say I surrender my body to be ruled by my mind I Surrender my mind to be governed by my soul and I Surrender my soul to the guidance of God make this consecration complete and thorough and you have

taken the the Second Great step in the way of greatness and power chapter n identification having recognized God as the advancing presence in nature society and your fellow men and harmonized yourself with all these and having consecrated yourself to that within which impels toward the greatest and the highest the next step is to become aware of and recognize fully the fact that the principle of power within you is God himself you must consciously identify yourself with the highest this is not some false or untrue position to be assumed it is a fact to be recognized

you are already one with God you want to become consciously aware of it there is one substance the source of all things and this substance has within itself the power which creates all things all power is inherent in it this substance is conscious and thinks it works with perfect understanding and intelligence you know that this is so because you know that substance exists and that Consciousness exists and that it must be substance which is conscious man is conscious and thinks man is substance he must be substance else he is nothing and does not exist at

all if man is substance and thinks and is conscious then he is conscious substance it is not conceivable that there should be more than one conscious substance so man is the original substance the source of all life and power embodied in a physical form man cannot be something different from God intelligence is one and the same everywhere and must be everywhere an attribute of the same substance there cannot be one kind of intelligence in God and another kind of intelligence in man intelligence can only be an intelligent substance and intelligent substance is God man is

of one stuff with God and so all the talents powers and possibilities that are in God are in man not in a few exceptional men but in every man all power is given to man in heaven and on Earth is it not written ye are Gods the principle of power in man is man himself and man himself is God but while man is original substance and has within him all power and possibilities his Consciousness is limited he does not know all there is to know and so he is liable to error and mistake to save

himself from these he must unite his mind to that outside him which does know all he must become consciously one with God there is a mind surrounding him on every side closer than breathing nearer than hands and feet and in this mind is the memory of all that has ever happened from the greatest convulsions of nature in prehistoric days to the fall of a sparrow in this present time and all that is in existence now as well held in this mind is the great purpose which is behind all nature and so it knows what is

going to be man is surrounded by a mind which knows all there is to know past present and to come everything that men have said or done or written is present there man is of one identical stuff with his mind he proceeded from it and he can so identify himself with it that he may know what it knows my father is greater than I said Jesus I come from him I and my father are one he showeth the son all things the spirit shall guide you into all truth your identification of yourself with the infinite

must be accomplished by conscious recognition on your part recognizing it as a fact that there is only God and that all intelligence is in the one substance you must affirm somewhat after this wise there is only only one and that one is everywhere I Surrender myself to conscious Unity with the highest not I but the father I will too be one with the Supreme and to lead the Divine Life I am one with infinite Consciousness there is but one mind and I am that mind I that speak unto you am he if you have been

thorough in the work as outlined in the preceding chapters if you have obtained to the true Viewpoint and if your consecration is complete you will not find conscious identification hard to attain and once it is attained the power you seek is yours for you have made yourself one with all the power there is chapter 10 idealization you are thinking Center in original substance and the thoughts of original substance have creative power whatever is formed in its thought and held as a thought form must come into existence as a visible and so-called material form and a

thought form held in thinking substance is a reality it is a real thing whether it has yet become visible to Mortal eye or not this is a fact that you should impress upon your understanding that a thought held in thinking substance is a real thing a form and as actual existence although it is not visible to you you internally take the form in which you think of yourself and you surround yourself with the invisible forms of those things with which you associate in your thoughts if you desire a thing picture it clearly and hold the

picture steadily in mind until it becomes a definite thought form and if your practices are not such as to separate you from God the thing you want will come to you in material form it must do so in obedience to the law by which the universe was created make no thought form of yourself in connection with disease or sickness but form a conception of Health make a thought form of yourself as strong and Hearty and perfectly well impress this thought form on Creative intelligence and if your practices are not in violation of the laws by

which the physical body is built your thought form will become manifest in your flesh this also is certain it comes by obedience to law make a thought form of yourself as you desire to be and set your ideal as near to Perfection as your imagination is capable of forming the conception let me illustrate if a young law student wishes to become great let him picture himself while attending to the Viewpoint Consecration and identification as previously directed as a great lawyer pleading his case with matchless eloquence and power before the judge and jury as having an

unlimited command of truth of knowledge and of wisdom let him picture himself as the great lawyer in every possible situation and contingency while he is still only the student in all circumstances let him never forget or fail to be the great lawyer in his thought form of himself as the thought form grows more definite and habitual in his mind the creative energies both within and without are set at work he begins to manifest the form from within and all the essentials without which go into the picture begin to be impelled toward Him He makes himself

into the image and God works with him nothing can prevent him from becoming what he wishes to be in the same general way the musical student pictures himself as performing perfect harmonies and as delighting vast audiences the actor forms the highest conception he is capable of in regard to his art and applies this conception to himself the farmer and the mechanic do exactly the same thing fix upon your ideal of what you wish to make of yourself consider well and be sure that you make the right choice that is the one which will be the

most satisfactory to you in a general way do not pay too much attention to the advice or suggestions of those around you do not believe that anyone can know better than yourself what is right for you listen to what others have to say but always form your own conclusions do not let other people decide what you are to be be what you feel that you want to be do not be misled by a false notion of obligation or Duty you can owe no possible obligation or duty to others which should prevent you from making the

most of yourself be true to yourself and you cannot then be false to any man when you have fully decided what thing you want to be form the highest conception of that thing that you are capable of imagining and make that conception a thought form hold that thought form as a fact as the real truth about yourself and believe in it close your ears to all adverse suggestions never mind if people call you a fool and a dreamer dream on remember that bonapart the half-starved lieutenant always saw himself as the general of armies and the

master of France and he became an outward realization that he held himself to be in mind so likewise will you attend carefully to all that has been said in the preceding chapters and act as directed in the following ones and you will become what you want to be chapter 11 realization if you were to stop with the close of the last chapter however you would never become great you would be indeed a mere dreamer of Dreams a castle Builder too many do stop there they do not understand the necessity for present action in realizing the

vision and bringing the thought form into manifestation two things are necessary first the making of the thought form and second the actual appropriation to yourself of all that goes into and around the thought form we have discussed the first now we will proceed to give directions for the second when you have made your thought form you are ready in your interior what you want to be next you must become externally what you want to be you are already great within but you are not yet doing the great things without you cannot be again on the

instant to do the great things you cannot be before the world the great actor or lawyer or musician or personality you know yourself to be no one will entrust great things to you as yet for you have not made yourself known but you can always begin to do small things in a great way here lies the whole secret you can begin to be great today in your own home in your store or office on the street everywhere you can begin to make yourself known as great and you can do this by doing everything you do

in a great way you must put the whole power of Your Great Soul into every act however small and commonplace and so revealed to your family your friends and neighbors what you really are do not brag or boast of yourself do not go about telling people what a great personage you are simply live in a great way no one will believe you if you tell him you are a great man but no one can doubt your greatness if you show it in your actions in your domestic Circle be so just so generous so courteous and

kindly that your family your wife husband children brothers and sisters shall know that you are a great and Noble soul in all your relations with men be great just generous courteous and kindly the great are never otherwise this for your attitude next and most important you must have absolute faith in your own perceptions of Truth truth never act in haste or hurry be deliberate in everything wait until you feel that you know the true way and when you do feel that you know the true way be guided by your own faith though all the world

shall disagree with you if you do not believe what God tells you in little things you will never draw upon his wisdom and knowledge in larger things when you feel deeply that a certain Act is the right act do it and have perfect faith that the consequences will be good when you're deeply impressed that a certain thing is true no matter what the appearances to the contrary may be accept that thing as true and act accordingly the one way to develop a perception of Truth in large things is to trust absolutely to your present perception

of Truth in small things remember that you are seeking to develop this very power or faculty the perception of Truth you are learning to read the thoughts of God nothing is great and nothing is small in the sight of omnipotent he holds the sun in its place but he also notes a Sparrow's fall and numbers the hairs of your head God is as much interested in the little matters of everyday life as he is in the Affairs of Nations you can perceive truth about family and neighborhood Affairs as well as about matters of statecraft and

the way to begin is to have perfect faith in the truth in these small matters as it is revealed to you from day to day when you feel deeply impelled to take a course which seems contrary to all reason and worldly judgment take that course listen to the suggestions and advice of others but always do what you feel deeply in the within to be the true thing to do rely with absolute Faith at all times on your own perception of truth but be sure that you listen to God that you do not act in haste

fear or anxiety rely upon your perception of Truth in all the facts and circumstances of life if you deeply feel that a certain man will be in a certain place on a certain day go there with perfect Faith to meet him he will be there no matter how unlikely it may seem if you feel sure that certain people are making certain combinations or doing certain things act in the faith that they are doing those things if you feel sure of the truth of any circumstance or happening near or distant past present or to come trust

in your perception you may make occasional mistakes at first because of your imperfect understanding of the within but you will soon be guided almost invariably right soon your family and friends will begin to defer more and more to your judgment and to be guided by you soon your neighbors and townsmen will be coming to you for counsel and advice soon you will be recognized as one who is great in small things and you will be called upon more and more to take charge of larger things all that is necessary is to be guided absolutely in

all All Things by your inner light your perception of Truth obey your soul have perfect Faith In Yourself never think of yourself with doubt or distrust or as one who makes mistakes if I judge my judgment is just for I seek not honor from men but from the father only chapter 12 hurry and habit no doubt you have many problems domestic social physical and and financial which seem to you to be pressing for instant solution you have debts which must be paid or other obligations which must be met you are unhappily or inharmoniously placed and

feel that something must be done at once do not get into a hurry and act from superficial impulses you can trust God for the solution of all your personal riddles there is no hurry there is only God and all is well with the world there is an invincible power in you and the same power is in the things you want it is bringing them to you and bringing you to them this is a thought that you must grasp and hold continuously that the same intelligence which is in you is in the things you desire they

are impelled toward you as strongly and decidedly as your desire impels you toward them the tendency therefore of a steadily held thought must be to bring the things you desire to you and to group them around you so long as you hold your thought and your faith right all must go well nothing can be wrong but your own personal attitude and that will not be wrong if you trust and are not afraid hurry is a manifestation of fear he who fears not has plenty of time if you act with perfect faith in your own perceptions

of Truth you will never be too late or too early and nothing will go wrong if things appear to be going wrong do not get Disturbed in mind it it is only an appearance nothing can go wrong in this world but yourself and you can go wrong only by getting into the wrong mental attitude whenever you find yourself getting excited worried or into the mental attitude of hurry sit down and think it over play a game of some kind or take a vacation go on a trip and all will be right when you return so

surely as you find yourself in the mental attitude of haste just so surely may you know that you are out of the mental attitude of greatness hurry and fear will instantly cut your connection with the universal mind you will get no power no wisdom and no information until you are calm and to fall into the attitude of hurry will check the action of the principle of power within you fear turns strength to weakness remember that Poise and power are inseparably associated the calm and balanced mind is the strong and great mind the hurried and agitated

mind is the weak one whenever you fall into the mental state of hurry you may know that you have lost the right Viewpoint you are beginning to look upon the world or some part of it as going wrong at such times read chapter 6 of this book consider the fact that this world is perfect now with all that it contains nothing is going wrong nothing can be wrong be poised be calm be cheerful have faith in God next as to Habit it is probable that your greatest difficulty will be to overcome your old habitual ways

of thought and to form new habits the world is ruled by habit Kings tyrants Masters and plutocrats hold their position solely because the people have come to habitually accept them things are as they are only because people have formed the habit of accepting them as they are when the people change their habitual thought about governmental social and industrial institutions they will change the institutions habit rules us all you have formed perhaps the habit of thinking of yourself as a common person as one of a limited ability or as being more or less of a failure

whatever you habitually think yourself to be that you are you must form now a greater and better habit you must form a conception of yourself as a being of Limitless power and habitually think that you are that being it is the habitual not the periodical thought that decides your destiny it will Avail you nothing to sit apart for a few moments several times a day to affirm that you are great if during all the balance of the day while you are about your regular vocation you think of yourself as not great no amount of praying

or affirmation will make you great if you still habitually regard yourself as being small the use of prayer and affirmation is to change your habit of thought any Act mental or physical often repeated becomes a habit the purpose of mental exercises is to repeat certain thoughts over and over until the thinking of those thoughts becomes constant and habitual the thoughts we continually repeat become convictions what you must do is to repeat the new thought of yourself until it is the only way in which you think of yourself habitual thought and not environment or circumstance has

made you what you are every person has some central idea or thought form of himself and by this idea he classifies and arranges all his facts and external relationships you are classifying your facts either according to the idea that you are a great and strong personality or according to the idea that you are limited common or weak if the latter is the case you must change your central idea get a new mental picture of yourself do not try to become great by repeating mere strings of words or superficial formula but repeat over and over the

thought of your own power and ability until you classify external facts and decide your place Everywhere by this idea in another chapter we'll be found an illustrative mental exercise and further directions on this point chapter 13 thought greatness is attained only by the thinking of great thoughts no man can become great in outward personality until he is great internally and no man can be great internally until he thinks no amount of Education reading or study can make you great without thought but thought can make you great with very little study there are altogether too many

people who are trying to make something of themselves by reading books without thinking all such will fail you are not mentally developed by what you read but by what you think think about what you read thinking is the hardest and most exhausting of all labor and hence many people shrink from it God has so formed us that we are continuously impelled to thought we must either think or engage in some activity to escape thought the headlong continuous Chase for pleasure in which most people spend all their leisure time is only an effort to escape thought

if they are alone or if they have nothing amusing to take their attention as nov to read or show to see they must think and to escape from thinking they resort to novels shows and all the endless devices of the purveyors of amusement most people spend the greater part of their Leisure Time running away from thought hence they are where they are we never move forward until we begin to think read less and think more read about great things and think about great questions and issues we have at the present time few really great great

figures in the political life of our country our politicians are a petty lot there is no Lincoln no Webster no clay cowon or Jackson why because our present Statesmen deal only with the sorid and Petty issues questions of dollars and cents of expediency in party success of material Prosperity without regard to ethical right thinking along these lines does not call forth great Souls the Statesman of Lincoln's time and previous times dealt with question of Eternal truth of Human Rights and Justice men thought upon great themes they thought great thoughts and they became Great Men thinking

not merely knowledge or information makes personality thinking is growth you cannot think without growing every thought engenders another thought write one idea and others will follow until you have written a page you cannot fathom your own mind it has neither bottom nor boundaries your first thoughts may be crude but as you go on thinking you will use more and more of yourself you will Quicken new brain cells into activity and you will develop new faculties heredity environment circumstances all things must give way before you if you practice sustained and continuous thought but on the other

hand if you neglect to think for yourself and only use other people's thought you will never know what you are capable of and you will end by being incapable of anything there can be no real greatness without original thought all that a man does outwardly is the expression and completion of his inward thinking no action is possible without thought and no great action is possible until a great thought has preceded it action is the second form of thought and personality is the materialization of thought environment is the result of thought things group themselves or arrange

themselves around you according to your thought there is as Emerson says some central idea or conception of yourself by which all the facts of your life are arranged and classified change the central idea and you change the arrangement or classification of all the facts and circumstances of your life you are what you are because you think as you do you are where you are because you think as you do you see then the immense importance of thinking about the great Essentials set forth in the preceding chapters you must not accept them in any superficial way

you must think about them until they are a part of your central idea go back to the matter of the point of view and consider in all its bearings the tremendous thought that you live in a perfect world among perfect people and that nothing can possibly be wrong with you but your own personal attitude think about all this until you fully realize all that it means to you consider that this is God's world and that it is the best of all possible worlds that he has brought it thus far toward completion by the processes of

organic social and Industrial Evolution and that is going to go on to Greater completeness and Harmony consider that there is one great perfect intelligent principle of life and power causing all the changing phenomena of the cosmos think about all this until you see that it is true and until you comprehend how you should live and act as a citizen of such a perfect whole next think of the wonderful truth that this great intelligence is in you it is your own intelligence it is an inner light impelling you toward the right thing and the best thing

the greatest act and the highest happiness it is a principle of power in you giving you all the ability and genius there is it will infallibly guide you to the best if you will submit to it and walk in the light consider what is meant by your consecration of yourself when you say I will obey my soul this is a sentence of tremendous meaning it must revolutionize the attitude and behavior of the average person then think of your identification with this great Supreme that all its knowledge is yours and all its wisdom is yours for

the asking you are a God if you think like a God if you think like a god you cannot fail to act like a god Divine thoughts will surely externalize themselves in Divine Life thoughts of power will end in a life of power great thoughts will manifest in a great personality think well of all this and then you are ready to act chapter 14 Action at home do not merely think that you are going to become great think that you are great now do not think that you will begin to act in a great way

at some future time begin now do not think that you will act in a great way when you reach a different environment act in a great way where you are now do not think that you will begin to act in a great way when you begin to deal with great things begin to deal in a great way with small things do not think that you will begin to be great when you get among more intelligent people or among people who understand you better begin now to deal in a great way with the people around you

if you are not in an environment where there is scope for your best powers and talents you can move in due time but meanwhile you can be great where you are Lincoln was as great when he was a backwoods lawyer as when he was president as a backwoods lawyer he did common things in a great way and that made him president had he waited until he reached Washington to begin to be great he would have remained unknown you were not made great by the location in which you happened to be nor by the things with

which you may surround yourself you were not made great by what you receive from others and and you can never manifest greatness so long as you depend on others you will manifest greatness only when you begin to stand alone dismiss all thought of Reliance on externals whether things books or people as Emerson said Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare Shakespeare will be made by the thinking of Shakespearean thoughts never mind how the people around you including those of your own household May treat you that has nothing at all to do with

your being great that is it cannot hinder you from being great people may neglect you and be unthankful and unkind in their attitude toward you does that prevent you from being great in your Manner and attitude toward them your father said Jesus is kind to the unthankful and the evil would God be great if he should go away in sulk because people were unthankful and did not appreciate him treat the unthankful and the evil in a great and perfectly kind way just as God does do not talk about your greatness you are really in essential

nature no greater than those around you you may have entered upon a way of living and thinking which they have not yet found but they are perfect on their own plane of thought and action you are entitled to no special honor or consideration for your greatness you are a God but you are among Gods you will fall into the boastful attitude if you see other people's shortcomings and failures and compare them with your own virtues and successes and if you fall into the boastful attitude of mind you will cease to be great and become small

think of yourself as a perfect being among perfect beings and meet every person as an equal not as either a superior or an inferior give yourself no heirs great people never do ask no honors and seek for no recognition honors and recognition will come fast enough if you are entitled to them begin at home it is a great person who can always be poised assured calm and perfectly kind and considerate at home if your Manner and attitude in your own family are always the best you can think you will soon become the one on whom

all the others will rely you will be a tower of strength and a support in time of trouble you will be loved and appreciated at the same time do not make the mistake of throwing yourself away in the service of others the great person respects himself he serves and helps but he is never slavishly serval you cannot help your family by being a slave to them or by doing for them those things which by right they should do for themselves you do a person an injury when you wait on him too much the selfish and

exacting are a great deal better off if their exactions are denied the ideal world is not one where there are a lot of people being waited on by other people it is a world where everybody waits on himself meet all demands selfish and otherwise with perfect kindness and consideration but do not allow yourself to be made a slave to the whims Caprices exactions or slavish desires of any member of your family to do so is not great and it works an injury to the other party do not become uneasy over the failures or mistakes of

any member of your family and feel that you must interfere do not be disturbed Ed if others seem to be going wrong and feel that you must step in and set them right remember that every person is perfect on his own plane you cannot improve on the work of God do not meddle with the personal habits and practices of others though they are your nearest and dearest these things are none of your business nothing can be wrong but your own personal attitude make that right and you will know that all else is right you are

a truly Great Soul when you can live with those those who do things which you do not do and yet refrain from either criticism or interference do the things which are right for you to do and believe that every member of your family is doing the things which are right for him nothing is wrong with anybody or anything behold it is all very good do not be enslaved by anyone else but be just as careful that you do not enslave anyone else to your own Notions of what is right think and think deeply and Contin

continuously be perfect in your kindness and consideration let your attitude be that of a God among gods and not that of a God among inferior beings this is the way to be great in your own home chapter 15 action abroad the rules which apply to your action at home must apply to your action everywhere never forget for an instant that this is a perfect world and that you are a God among Gods your is great as the greatest but all are your equals rely absolutely on your perception of Truth trust to the Inner Light rather

than to reason but be sure that your perception comes from the inner light act in Poise and calmness be still and attend on God your identification of yourself with the all mind will give you all the knowledge you need for guidance in any contingency which may arise in your own life or in the lives of others it is only necessary that you should be supremely calm and rely upon the Eternal wisdom which is within you if you act in Poison Faith your judgment will always be right and you will always know exactly what to do

do not hurry or worry remember Lincoln in the dark days of the war James Freeman Clark relates that after the Battle of Fredericksburg Lincoln alone furnished a supply of Faith and Hope for the nation hundreds of Leading Men from all parts of the country went sadly into his room and came out cheerful and hopeful they had stood face to face with the highest and had seen God in this lank ungainly patient man although they knew it not have perfect faith in yourself and in your own ability to cope with any combination of circumstances that may

arise do not be disturbed if you are alone if you need friends they will be brought to you at the right time do not be disturbed if you feel that you are ignorant the information that you need will be furnished you when it is time for you to have it that which is in you impelling you forward is in the things and people you need impelling them toward you if there is a particular man you need to know he will be introduced to you if there is a particular book you need to read it will

be placed in your hands at the right time all the knowledge you need will come to you from both external and internal sources your information and your talents will always be equal to the requirements of the occasion remember that Jesus told his disciples not to worry as to what they should say when brought before the judges he knew that the power in them would be sufficient for the needs of the hour as soon as you awaken and begin to use your faculties in a great way you will apply power to the development of your brain

new cells will be created and dormant cells quickened into activity and your brain will be qualified as a perfect instrument for your mind do not try to do great things until you are ready to go about them in a great way if you undertake to deal with great matters in a small way that is from a low Viewpoint or with incomplete Consecration and wavering faith and courage you will fail do not be in a hurry to get to the great things doing great things will not make you great but becoming great will certainly lead you

to the doing of great things begin to be great where you are and in the things you do every day do not be in haste to be found out or recognized as a great personality do not be disappointed if men do not nominate you for office within a month after you begin to practice what you read in this book great people never seek for recognition or Applause they are not great because they want to be paid for being so greatness is reward enough for itself the joy of being something and of knowing that you are

advancing is the greatest of all Joys possible to man if you begin in your own family as described in the preceding chapter and then assume the same mental attitude with your neighbors friends and those you meet in business you will soon find that people are beginning to depend on you your advice will be sought and a constantly increasing number of people will look to you for strength and inspiration and rely upon your judgment here as in the home you must avoid meddling with other people's Affairs help all who come to you but do not go

about officiously endeavoring to set other people right mind your own business it is no part of your mission in life to correct people's morals habits or practices lead a great life doing all things with a great spirit and in a great way give to him that asketh of thee as freely as ye have received but do not force your help or your opinions upon any man if your neighbor wishes to smoke or drink it is his business it is none of yours until he consults you about it if you lead a great life and do

no preaching you will save a thousand times as many Souls as one who leads a small life and preaches continuously if you hold the right Viewpoint of the world others will find it out and be impressed by it through your daily conversation and practice do not try to convert others to your point of view except by holding it and living accordingly if your consecration is perfect you do not need to tell anyone it will speedily become apparent to all that you are guided by a higher principle than the average man or woman if your identification

with God is complete you do not need to explain the fact to others it will become self-evident to become known as a great personality you have nothing to do but to live do not imagine that you must go charging about the world like Don kyote tilting at windmills and overturning things in general in order to demonstrate that you are somebody do not go hunting for big things to do live a great life where you you are and in the daily work you have to do and greater Works will surely find you out big things will

come to you asking to be done be so impressed with the value of a man that you treat even a beggar or the with the most distinguished consideration all is God every man and woman is perfect let your manner be that of a god addressing other gods do not save all your consideration for the poor the millionaire is as good as the this is a perfectly good world and there is not a person or thing in it but is exactly right be sure that you keep this in mind in dealing with things and Men form

your mental vision of yourself with care make the thought form of yourself as you wish to be and hold this with the faith that it is being realized and with the purpose to realize it completely do every common act as a god should do it speak every word as a god should speak it meet men and women of both low and high estate as a god meets other Divine beings begin thus and continue thus and your unfoldment in ability and power will be great and Rapid chapter 16 some further explanations we go back here to

the matter of the point of view for besides being vitally important it is the one which is likely to give the student the most trouble we have been trained partly by mistaken religious teachers to look upon the world as being like a wrecked ship storm-driven upon a rocky Coast utter destruction is inevitable at the end and the most that can be done is to rescue perhaps a few of the crew this view teaches us to consider the world as essentially bad and growing worse and to believe that existing discords and inharmony must continue and intensify

until the end it robs us of Hope for society government and Humanity and gives us a decreasing Outlook and Contracting mind this is all wrong the world is not wrecked it is like a magnificent steamer with the engines in place and the Machinery in perfect order the bunkers are full of coal and the ship is amply provisioned for the crews there is no lack of any good thing every provision omniscience could devise has been made for the safety comfort and happiness of the crew the steamer is out on the high seas tackling his th and

thither because no one has yet learned the right course to steer we are learning to steer and in due time we'll come grandly into the harbor of Perfect Harmony the world is good and growing better existing discords and inh harmonies are but the Rollings of the ship incidental to our own imperfect steering they will all be removed in due time this view gives us an increasing look and an expanding mind it enables us to think largely of society and of ourselves and to do things in a great way furthermore we see that nothing can be

wrong with such a world or with any part of it including our own Affairs if it is all moving on toward completion then it is not going wrong and as our own personal affairs are a part of the whole they are not going wrong you and all that you are concerned with are moving on toward completeness nothing can check this forward movement but yourself and you can only check it by assuming a mental attitude which is at Cross purposes with the mind of God you have nothing to keep right but yourself if you keep yourself

right nothing can possibly go wrong with you and you can have nothing to fear no business or other disaster can come upon you if your personal attitude is right for you are a part of that which is increasing and advancing and you must increase and Advance with it moreover your thought form will be mostly shaped according to your Viewpoint of the cosmos if you see the world as a lost and ruined thing you will see yourself as a part of it and as partaking of its sins and weaknesses if your outlook for the world as

a whole is hopeless your outlook for yourself cannot be hopeful if you see the world as declining toward its end you cannot see yourself as advancing unless you think well of all the works of God you cannot really think well of yourself and unless you think well of yourself you can never become great I repeat that your place in life including your material environment is determined by the thought form you habitually hold of yourself when you make a thought form of yourself you can hardly fail to form in your mind a corresponding environment if you

think of yourself as an incapable inefficient person you will think of yourself with poor or cheap surroundings unless you think well of yourself you will be sure to picture yourself in a more or less poverty-stricken environment these thoughts habitually held become visible forms in the surrounding mind stuff and are with you continually In Due Time by the regular action of the Eternal Creative Energy the invisible thought forms are produced in material stuff and you are surrounded by your own thoughts made into material things see nature as a great living and advancing presence and see Human

Society in exactly the same way it is all one coming from one source and it is all good you yourself are made of the same stuff as God all the constituents of God are parts of yourself every Power that God has is a constituent of man you can move forward as you see God doing you have within yourself the source of every Power chapter 17 more about thought I give place here to some further consideration of thought you will never become great until your own thought thoughts make you great and therefore it is of the

first importance that you should think you will never do great things in the external World until you think great things in the internal world and you will never think great things until you think about truth about the varities to think great things you must be absolutely sincere and to be sincere you must know that your intentions are right insincere or false thinking is never great however logical brilliant it may be the first and most important step is to seek the truth about human relations to know what you ought to be to other men and what

they ought to be to you this brings you back to the search for a right Viewpoint you should study organic and social Evolution read Darwin and Walter Thomas Mills and when you read think think the whole matter over until you see the world of things and men in the right way think about what God is doing until you can see what he is doing your next step is to think yourself into the right personal attitude your Viewpoint tells you what the right attitude is and obedience to the soul puts you into it it is only

by making a complete consecration of yourself to the highest that is within you that you can attain to sincere thinking so long as you know you are selfish in your aims or dishonest or crooked in any way in your intentions or practices your thinking thinking will be false and your thoughts will have no power think about the way you are doing things about all your intentions purposes and practices until you know that they are right the fact of his own complete Unity with God is one that no person can grasp without deep and sustained thinking

anyone can accept the proposition in a superficial way but to feel and realize a vital comprehension of it is another matter it is easy to think of going outside of yourself to meet God but it is not so easy to think of going inside yourself to meet God but God is there and in the holy of holies of your own soul you may meet him face to face it is a tremendous thing this fact that all you need is already within you that you do not have to consider how to get the power to do

what you want to do or to make yourself what you want to be you have only to consider how to use the power you have in the right right way and there is nothing to do but to begin use your perception of Truth you can see some truth today live fully up to that and you will see more truth tomorrow to rid yourself of the old false ideas you will have to think a great deal about the value of men the greatness and worth of a human soul you must cease from looking at human mistakes

and look at successes cease from seeing faults and see virtues you can no longer look upon men and women as lost and ruined beings who are descending into hell you must come to regard them as shining Souls who are ascending toward Heaven it will require some exercise of willpower to do this but this is the legitimate use of the will to decide what you will think about and how you will think the function of the will is to direct thought think about the good side of men the lovely attractive part and exert your will in

refusing to think of anything else in connection with them I know of no one who has attained to so much on this point as Eugene V Debs twice the Socialist candidate for president of the United States Mr Debs reverences Humanity no appeal for help is ever made to him in vain no one receives from him an unkind or censorious word you cannot come into His presence without being made sensible of his deep and kindly personal interest in you no one whether millionaire grimy working man or toy worn woman meets him without receiving the radiant warmth

of a brotherly affection that is sincere and true no ragged child speaks to him on the street without receiving instant and tender recognition Debs loves men this has made him the leading figure in a great movement the Beloved hero of a million hearts and will give him a deathless name it is a great thing to love men so and it is only achieved by thought nothing can make you great but thought we may divide thinkers into those who think for themselves and those who think through others the latter are the rule and the former the

exception the first are original thinkers in a double sense and egotists in the noblest meaning of the word schopenhauer the key to every man is his thought sturdy and defiant though he look he has a Helm which he obeys which is the idea after which all his facts are classified he can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own Emerson all truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times but to make them really ours we must think them over again honestly till they take root in our personal expression

go all that a man is outwardly is but the expression and completion of his inward thought to work efficiently he must think clearly to act nobly he must think nobly chanting great men are they who see that spirituality is stronger than any material force that thoughts rule the world Emerson some people study all their lives and at their death they have learned everything except to think dgu it is the habitual thought that frames itself into our life it affects us even more than our intimate social relations do our confidential friends have not so much to

do in shaping our Our Lives as the thoughts have which we Harbor JW teal when God lets loose a great thinker on this planet then all things are at risk there is not a piece of science but its flank may be turned tomorrow nor any literary reputation or the so-called Eternal names of Fame that may be refused and condemned Emerson think think think chapter 18 Jesus's idea of greatness in the 23rd chapter of Matthew Jesus makes a very plain distinction between true and false greatness and also points out the one great danger to all who

wish to become great the most Insidious of Temptations which all must avoid and fight unceasingly who desire to really climb in the world speaking to the multitude and to his disciples he bids them beware of adopting the principle of the Pharisees he points points out that while the Pharisees are just and righteous men honorable judges true lawgivers and upright in their dealings with men they love the uppermost seats at feasts and greetings in the marketplace and to be called master master and in comparison with his principle he says he that will be great among you

let him serve the average person's idea of a great man rather than of one who serves is of one who succeeds in getting himself served he gets himself in a position to command men to exercise power over them making them obey his will the exercise of dominion over other people to most persons is a great thing nothing seems to be sweeter to the selfish Soul than this you will always find every selfish and undeveloped person trying to domineer over others to exercise control over other men Savage men were no sooner placed upon the Earth than

they began to enslave one another for ages the struggle in war diplomacy politics and government has been aimed at the securing of control over other men Kings and princes have drenched the soil of the Earth in Blood and Tears in the effort to extend their dominions and their power to rule more people the struggle of the business world today is the same as that on the battlefields of Europe a century ago so far as the ruling principle is concerned Robert G ingersol could not understand why like Rockefeller and Carnegie seek for more money and make

themselves slaves to the business struggle when they already have more than they can possibly use he thought it a kind of Madness and Illustrated it as follows suppose a man had 50,000 pairs of pants 75,000 vests 100,000 coats and 150,000 neck ties what would you think of him if he arose in the morning before light and worked until after it was dark every day rain or shine in all all kinds of weather merely to get another necktie but it is not a good simile the possession of neck ties gives a man no power over other

men while the possession of dollars does Rockefeller Carnegie and their kind are not after dollars but Power it is the principle of the Pharisee it is the struggle for the high place it develops able men cunning men resourceful men but not great men I want you to contrast these two ideas of greatness sharply in your minds he that will be great among you let him serve let me stand before the average American audience and ask the name of the greatest American and the majority will think of Abraham Lincoln and is this not because in Lincoln

above all the other men who have served us in public life we recognize the spirit of service not servility but Service Lincoln was a great man because he knew how to be a great servant Napoleon Abel cold selfish seeking the high places was a brilliant man Lincoln was great Napoleon was not the very moment you begin to advance and are recognized as one who is doing things in a great way you will find yourself in danger the temptation to patronize advise or take upon yourself the direction of other people's Affairs is sometimes almost irresistible avoid

however the opposite danger of falling into cility or of completely throwing yourself away in the service of others to do this has been the ideal of a great many people the completely self-sacrificing life has been thought to be the Christlike life because as I think of a complete misconception of the character and teachings of Jesus I have explained this misconception in a little book which I hope you may all sometime read thousands of people imitating Jesus as they suppose have belittled themselves and given up all else to go about doing good practicing an altruism that

is really as morbid and as far from great as the rankest selfishness the finer instincts which respond to the Cry of trouble or distress are not by any means all of you they are not necessarily the best part of you there are other things you must do besides helping the unfortunate although it is true that a large part of the life and activities of every great person must be given to helping other people as you begin to advance they will come to you do not turn them away but do not make the fatal error of

supposing that the life of complete self-abnegation is the way of greatness to make another Point here let me refer to the fact that swedenborg's classification of fundamental motives is exactly the same as that of Jesus he divides all men into two groups those who live in pure love and those who live in what he calls the love of ruling for the love of self it will be seen that this is exactly the same as the Lust For place and Power power of the Pharisees swedenborg saw this selfish love of power as the cause of all

sin it was the only evil desire of the human heart from which all other evil desires sprang over against this he places pure love he does not say love of God or love of man but merely love nearly all religionists make more of love and service to God than they do of love and service to man but it is a fact that love to God is not sufficient to save a man from the Lust For power for some of the most Ardent lovers of the deity have been the worst of tyrants lovers of God are

often tyrants and lovers of men are often metalsome and officious chapter 19 a view of evolution but how should we avoid throwing ourselves into altruistic work if we are surrounded by poverty ignorance suffering and every appearance of misery as very many people are those who live where the withered hand of want is thrust upon them from every side appealingly for Aid must find it hard to refrain from continuous giving again there are social and other irregularities injustices done to the weak which fire generous Souls with an almost irresistible desire to set things right we want

to start a crusade we feel that the wrongs will never be wred until we give ourselves wholly to the task in all this we must fall back upon the point of view we must remember that this is not a bad world but a good world in the process of becoming beyond all doubt there was a time when there was no life upon this Earth the testimony of geology to the fact that the globe was once a ball of burning gas and molten rock clothed about with boiling Vapors is indisputable and we do not know how

life could have existed under such conditions that seems impossible geology tells us that later on a crust formed the globe cooled and hardened the vapors condensed and became mist or fell in Rain the cooled surface crumbled into soil moisture accumulated ponds and seas were gathered together and at last somewhere in the water or on the land appeared something that was alive it is reasonable to suppose that this first life was in single celled organisms but behind these cells was the insistent urge of spirit the Great One Life seeking expression and soon organisms having two much

life to express themselves with one cell had two cells and then many and still more life was poured into them multiple celled organisms were formed plants trees vertebrates and mammals many of them with strange shapes but all were perfect after their kind as everything is that God makes no doubt there were crude and almost monstrous forms of both animal and plant life but everything filled its purpose in its day and it was all very good then another day came the great day of the evolutionary process a day when the morning Stars sang together and the

Suns of God shouted for joy to behold the beginning of the end for man the object aimed at from the beginning had appeared upon the scene an ap-like being little different from the beasts around him in appearance but infinitely different in his capacity for growth and thought art and Beauty architecture and song poetry and music all these were unrealized possibilities in that AP man's soul and for his time and kind he was very good it is God that worketh in you to Will and to do of his good pleasure says St Paul from the day

the first man appeared God began to work in men putting more and more of himself into each succeeding generation urging them on to larger achievements and to better conditions social governmental and domestic those who looking back into ancient history see the awful conditions which existed the barbarities idolatries and sufferings and reading about God in connection with these things are disposed to feel that he was cruel and unjust to man should pause to think from the ape man to the coming Christ man the race has had to rise and it could only be accomplished by the

successive unfoldment of the various powers and possibilities latent in the human brain naturally the cruder and more animal like part of man came to its full development first for ages men were brutal their governments were brutal their religions were brutal their domestic institutions were brutal and what appears to be an immense amount of suffering resulted from this brutality but God never delighted in suffering and in every age he has given men a message telling them how to avoid it and all the while the urge of Life insistent powerful compelling made the race keep moving forward

a little less brutality in each age and a little more spirituality in each age and God kept on working in man in every age there have been some individuals who were in advance of the mass and who heard and understood God better than their fellows upon these the inspiring hand of spirit was laid and they were compelled to become interpreters these were the prophets and seers sometimes the priests and kings and oftener still they were Martyrs driven to the state the block or the cross it is to these who have heard God spoken his word

and demonstrated his truth in their lives that all progress is really due again considering for a moment the presence of what is called evil in the world we see that that which appears to us to be evil is only undeveloped and that the undeveloped is perfectly good in its own stage in place because all things are necessary to man's complete unfoldment all things in human life are the work of God the graft rings in our cities the red light districts and their unfortunate inmates these he consciously involuntarily produced their part in the plan of unfoldment

must be played and when their part has been played he will sweep them off the stage as he did the strange and poisonous monsters which filled the swamps of the past ages in concluding this vision of evolution we might ask why it was all done what is it for this question should be easy for the thoughtful mind to answer God desired to express himself to live in form and not only that but to live in a form through which he could express himself on the highest moral and spiritual plan God wanted to evolve a form

in which he could live as a God and manifest himself as a god this was the aim of The evolutionary Force the ages of warfare Bloodshed suffering Injustice and cruelty were tempered in many ways with love and Justice as time Advanced and this was developing the brain of man to a point where it should be capable of giving full expression to the love and Justice of God the end is not yet God aims not at the Perfection of a few Choice specimens for exhibition like the large berries at the top of the box but at

the glorification of the race the time will come when the kingdom of God shall be established on Earth the time foreseen by the dreamer of the Isle of Patmos when there shall be no more crying neither shall there be any any more pain for the former things are all passed away and there shall be no night there chapter 20 serving God I have brought you thus far through the two preceding chapters with a view to finally settling the question of Duty this is one that puzzles and perplexes very many people who are earnest and sincere

and gives them a great deal of difficulty in its solution when they start out to make something of themselves and to practice the science of being great they find themselves necessarily compelled to rearrange many of their relationships there are friends who perhaps must be alienated there are relatives who misunderstand and who feel that they are in some way being slighted the really great man is often considered selfish by a large circle of people who are connected with him and who feel that he might bestow upon them more benefits than he does the question at the

outset is is my duty to make the most of myself regardless of everything else or shall I wait until I can do so without any friction or without causing loss to anyone this is the question of Duty to self versus duty to others one's duty to the world has been thoroughly discussed in the preceding pages and I give some consideration now to the idea of Duty to God an immense number of people have a great deal of uncertainty not to say anxiety as to what they ought to do for God the amount of work and

service that is done for him in these United States in the way of church work and so on is enormous an immense amount of human energy is expended in what is called serving God I propose to consider briefly what serving God is and how a man may serve God best and I think I shall be able to make plain that the conventional idea as to what constitutes service to God is all wrong when Moses went down into Egypt to bring out the Hebrews from bondage his demand upon pharaoh and the name of the deity was

let the people go that they may serve me he led them out into the Wilderness and there instituted a new form of worship which has led many people to suppose that worship constitutes the service of God although later God himself distinctly declared that he cared nothing for ceremonies burned offerings or ablation and the teaching of Jesus if rightfully understood would do away with organized Temple worship altogether God does not lack anything that men may do for him with their hands or bodies or voices St Paul points out that man can do nothing for God for

God does not need anything the view of evolution which we have taken shows god- seeking expression through man through all the successive ages in which his Spirit has urged man up the height God has gone on seeking expression every generation of men is more god-like than the preceding generation every generation of men demands more in the way of fine homes Pleasant surroundings congenial work rest travel and opportunity for study than the preceding generation I have heard some short-sighted economists argue that the working people of today ought surely to be fully contented because their condition is

so much better than that of the Working Man 200 years ago who slept in a windowless Hut on a floor covered with rushes in a company with his pigs if that man had all that he was able to use for the living of all the life he knew how to live he was perfectly content and if he had lack he was not contented the man of today has a comfortable home and a very many things indeed that were unknown a short period back in the past and if he has all that he can use for

the living of all the life he can imagine he will be content but he is not content God Has Lifted the race so far that any common man can picture a better and more desirable life than he is able to live under existing conditions and so long as this is true so long as a man can think and clearly picture to himself a more desirable life he will be discontented with the life he has to live and rightly so that discontent is the spirit of God urging men on to more desirable conditions it is God

who seeks expression in the race he worketh in us to Will and to do the only service you can render God is to give expression to what he is trying to give the world through you the only service you can render God is to make the very most of yourself in order that God may live in you to the utmost of your possibilities in a former work of this series I refer to the little boy at the piano the music in whose Soul could not find expression through his untrained hands this is a good illustration

of the way the spirit of God is over about around and in all of us seeking to do great things with us so soon as we will train our hands and feet our minds brains and bodies to do his service your first duty to God to yourself and to the world is to make yourself as great a personality in every way as you possibly can and that it seems to me disposes of the question of Duty there are one or two other things which might be disposed of in closing this chapter I have written of

opportunity in a preceding chapter I have said in a general way that it is within the power of every man to become great just as in the science of getting rich just as in the science of getting rich I declare that it is within the power of every man to become rich but these sweeping generalizations need qualifying there are men who have such materialistic Minds that they are absolutely incapable of comprehending the philosophy set forth in these books there is a great mass of men and women who have lived and worked until they are practically

incapable of thought along these lines and they cannot receive the message something may be done for them by demonstration that is by living the life before them but that is the only way they can be aroused the world needs demonstration more than it needs teaching for this mass of people our duty is to become as great in personality as possible in order that they may see and desire to do likewise it is our duty to make ourselves great for their sakes so that we may help prepare the world that the Next Generation shall have better

conditions for thought one other point I am frequently written to by people who wish to make something of themselves and to move out into the world but who are hampered by home ties having others more or less dependent upon them who they fear would suffer if left alone in general I advise such people to move out fearlessly and to make the most of themselves if there is a loss at home it will be only temporary and apparent for in a little while if you follow the leading of spirit you will be able to take better

care of your dependence than you ever have done before chapter 21 a mental exercise the purpose of mental exercises must not be misunderstood there is no virtue in charms for formulated strings of words there is no shortcut to development by repeating prayers or incantations a mental exercise is an exercise not in repeating words but in the thinking of certain thoughts the phrases that we repeatedly hear become convictions as Gerta says and the thoughts that we repeatedly think become habitual and make us what we are the purpose in taking a mental exercise is that you may

think certain thoughts repeatedly until you form a habit of thinking them then they will be your thoughts all the time taken in the right way and with an understanding of their purpose mental exercises are of Great Value but taken as most people take them they are worse than useless the thoughts embodied in the following exercise are the ones you want to think you should take the exercise once or twice daily but you should think the thoughts continuously that is do not think them twice a day for a stated time and then forget them until it

is time to take the exercise again the exercise is to impress you with the material for continuous thought take a time when you can have from 20 minutes to half an hour secure from interruption and proceed first to make yourself physically comfortable lie at ease in a moris chair or on a couch or in bed it is best to lie flat on your back if you have no other time take the exercise on going to bed at night and before rising in the morning first let your attention travel over your body from the crown of

your head to the soles of your feet relaxing every muscle as you go relax completely and next get physical and other ills on off your mind let the attention pass down the spinal cord and out over the nerves to the extremities and as you do so think my nerves are in perfect order all over my body they obey my will and I have great nerve Force next bring your attention to the lungs and think I am breathing deeply and quietly and the air goes into every cell of my lungs which are in perfect condition my

blood is purified and made clean next to the heart my heart is beating strongly and steadily and my circulation is perfect even to the extremities next to the digestive system my stomach and bowels perform their work perfectly my food is digested and assimilated and my body rebuilt and nourished my liver kidneys and bladder each perform their several functions without pain or strain I am perfectly well my body is resting my mind is quiet and my soul is at peace I have no anxiety about financial or other matters God who is within me is also in

all things I want impelling them toward me all that I want is already given to me I have no anxiety about my health for I am perfectly well I have no worry or fear whatever I rise above all temptation to moral evil I cast out all greed selfishness and narrow personal ambition I do not hold envy malice or enmity toward any living soul I will follow no course of action which is not in accord with my highest ideals I am right and I will do right Viewpoint all is right with the world it is perfect

and advancing to completion I will contemplate the facts of social political and Industrial life only from this high Viewpoint behold it is all very good I will see all human beings all my acquaintances friends neighbors and the members of my own household in the same way they are all good nothing is wrong with the universe nothing can be wrong but my own personal attitude and henceforth I keep that right my whole trust is in God consecration I will obey my soul and be true to that within me which is highest I will search within for

the pure idea of right in all things and when I find it I will express it in my outward life I will abandon everything I have outgrown for the best I can think I will have the highest thoughts concerning all my relationships and my Manner and action shall Express these thoughts I Surrender my body to be ruled by my mind I yield my mind to the Dominion of my soul and I give my soul to the guidance of God identification there is but one substance and source and of that I am made and with it

I am one it is my father I proceeded forth and came from it my father and I are one and my father is greater than I and I do his will I Surrender myself to conscious Unity with pure Spirit there is but one and that one is everywhere I am one with the Eternal Consciousness idealization form a mental picture of yourself as you want to be and at that greatest height in your imagination can picture dwell upon this for some little time holding the thought this is what I really am it is a picture of

my own soul I am this now in soul and I am becoming this in outward manifestation realization I appropriate to myself the power to become what I want to be and to do what I want to do I exercise Creative Energy all the power there is his is mine I will arise and go forth with power and perfect confidence I will do Mighty works in the strength of the Lord my God I will trust and not fear for God is with me chapter 22 a summary of the science of being great all men are made

of the one intelligent substance and therefore all contain the same essential powers and possibilities greatness is equally inherent in all and may be manifested by all every person may become great every constituent of God is a constituent of man man May overcome both heredity and circumstances by exercising the inherent creative power of the Soul if he is to become great the soul must act and must rule the mind and the body man's knowledge is limited and he falls into error through ignorance to avoid this he must connect his soul with universal Spirit Universal spirit is

the intelligent substance from which all things come it is in and through all things all things are known to this universal mind and man can so unite himself with it as to enter into all knowledge to do this man must cast out of himself everything which separates him from God he must will to live the Divine Life and he must Rise Above All moral Temptations He must forsake take every course of action that is not in accord with his highest ideals he must reach the right Viewpoint recognizing that God is all in all and that

there is nothing wrong he must see that nature Society government and Industry are perfect in their present stage and advancing toward completion and that all men and women everywhere are good and perfect he must know that all is right with the world and Unite with God for the completion of the perfect work it is only as man sees God as the great advancing presence in all and good in all that he can rise to real greatness he must consecrate himself to the service of the highest that is within himself obeying the voice of the Soul

there is an inner light in every man which continuously impels him toward the highest and he must be guided by this light if he would become great he must recognize the fact that he is one with the father and conscious affirm this Unity for himself and for all others he must know himself to be a God among gods and act accordingly he must have absolute faith in his own perceptions of Truth and begin at home to act upon these perceptions as he sees the true and right course in small things he must take that course

he must cease to act unthinkingly and begin to think and he must be sincere in his thought he must form a mental conception ction of himself at the highest and hold this conception until it is his habitual thought form of himself this thought form he must keep continuously in view he must outwardly realize and express that thought form in his actions he must do everything that he does in a great way in dealing with his family his neighbors acquaintances and Friends he must make every act an expression of his ideal the man who reaches the

right Viewpoint and makes full Consecration and who fully idealizes himself as great and who makes every act however trivial an expression of the ideal has already attained to Greatness everything he does will be done in a great way he will make himself known and he will be recognized as a personality of power he will receive knowledge by inspiration and he will know all that he needs to know he will receive all the material wealth he forms in his thoughts and will not lack for any good thing he will be given ability to deal with any

combination of circumstances which may arise and his growth and progress will be continuous and Rapid great works will seek him out and all men will Delight to do him honor because of its peculiar value to the student of the science of being great I close this book by giving a portion of Emerson's essay on the over Soul this great essay is fundamental showing the foundation principles of monism and the science of greatness I recommend the student to study it most carefully in connection with this book what is the universal sense of want and ignorance but

the fine inuendo by which the Great Soul makes its enormous claim why do men feel that the natural history of man has never been written but always he is leaving behind what you have said of him and it becomes old and books of metaphysics worthless the philosophy of 6,000 years has not searched the chambers and magazines of the soul in its experiments there has always remained in the last analysis A residuum it could not resolve man is a stream whose source is hidden always our being is descending into us from we know not whence the

most exact calculator has no pressence that somewhat incalculable may not bulk the very next moment I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine as with events so it is with thoughts when I watch that flowing river which out of regions I see not pours for a season its streams into me I see that I am a pensioner not a cause but a surprised spectator of this ethereal water that I desire and look up and put myself in the attitude for reception but from some alien energy

the Visions come the Supreme critic on all the errors of the past and present and the only profit of that which must be is that great nature in which we rest as the Earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere that Unity that overs soul with which Every Man's particular being is contained and made one with all other that common heart of which all sincere conversation is the worship to which all right action is submission that overpowering reality which confutes our tricks and talents and constrains everyone to pass for what he is and to

speak from his character and not from his tongue and which ever more tends and aims to pass into our thought and hand and become wisdom and virtue and power and Beauty we live in succession in division in Parts in particles meantime within man is the soul of the whole the wise silence the universal Beauty to which every part and particle is equally related the Eternal one and this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour but the act of seeing and

the things seen the Seer and the spectacle the subject and the object are one we see the World Peace by piece as the sun the moon the animal the tree but the whole of which these are The Shining Parts is the soul it is only by the vision of that wisdom that the horoscope of the ages can be read and it is only by falling back on our better Thoughts by yielding to the spirit of Prophecy Y which is innate in every man that we know what it saith Every Man's words who speaks from that

life must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the same thought on their own part I dare not speak for it my words do not carry its August sense they fall short and cold only itself can Inspire whom it will and behold their speech shall be lyrical and sweet and Universal as the rising of the wind yet I desire even by profane words if sacred I may not use to indicate the heaven of this deity and to report what hints I have collected of the Transcendent Simplicity and energy of the highest law if

we consider what happens in conversation in reveries in remorse in times of passion in surprises in the instruction of Dreams wherein often we see ourselves in masquerade the droll disguises only magnifying and enhancing a real element and forcing it on our distinct notice we shall catch many hints that will broaden and lighten into knowledge of The Secret of nature all goes to show that the soul in man is not an organ but animates and exercises all the organs is not a function like the power of memory of calculation of comparison but uses these as hands

and feet is not a faculty but a light is not the intellect or the will but the master of the intelligent and the will is the vast background of our being in which they lie an immensity not possessed and that cannot be possessed from within or from behind a light shines through US upon things and makes us aware that we are nothing but the light is all a man is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide what we commonly call man the eating drinking planting counting man does not as we

know him represent himself but misrepresents himself him we do not respect but the soul whose organ he is would he let it appear through his action would make our knees Bend when it breathes through his intellect it is genius when it flows through his affection it is love after its own law and not by arithmetic is the rate of its progress to be computed the Soul's advances are not made by gradation such as can be represented by Motion in a straight line but rather by Ascension of State such as can be represented by metamorphosis from

the egg to the worm from the worm to the fly the growths of Genius are of a certain total character that does not Advance the elect individual first over John then Adam then Richard and give to each the pain of discovered inferiority but by every throw of growth the man expands there where he works passing at each pulsation classes populations of men with each Divine impulse the mind renss the thin rinds of the visible infinite and comes out into eternity and inspires and expires its air it Converses with truths that have always been spoken in

the world and becomes conscious of a closer sympathy with Zeno and aryion than with persons in the house this is the law of moral and of mental gain the simple rise as as by specific levity not into a particular virtue but into the region of all the virtues they are in the spirit which contains them all the soul is superior to all the particulars of Merit the soul requires Purity but Purity is not it requires justice but Justice is not that requires beneficience but is somewhat better so that there is a kind of dissent and

accommodation felt when we leave speaking of moral nature to urge a virtue which it enjoys for to the soul in her pure action all the virtues are natural and not painfully acquired speak to his heart and the man becomes suddenly virtuous within the same sentiment is the germ of intellectual growth which obeys the same law those who are capable of humility of justice of Love of aspiration are already on a platform that commands The Sciences and arts speech and post poetry action and Grace for who so dwells in this Mortal beatitude does already anticipate those

special powers which men prize so highly just as love does justice to all the gifts of the object Beloved the lover has no Talent no skill which passes for quite nothing with his enamored Maiden however little she may possess of related faculty and the heart which abandons itself to the Supreme mind finds itself related to all all its works and Will Travel a royal road to particular knowledge and powers for in ascending to this primary and Aboriginal sentiment we have come from our remote station on the circumference instantaneously to the center of the world where

as in the closet of God we see causes and anticipate the universe which is but a slow effect I hope that you've enjoyed this presentation and please remember to subscribe to receive notific ations of upcoming recordings this recording is a production of master key Society for the purpose of research study and discussion the views and opinions expressed in this book belong to the author and may not always reflect those of master key Society or its Affiliates the video and audio is copyright 2024 master key Society