UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Ml -INAK'Y OF i UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 62 b PRflGTICfilf METHODS -TO- Insare Success ESOTERIO PUBLISHING Co., APPLEGATB, PLACER COUSTY, CAXIFOKNIA. 1896. To Parents, Ministers, Teachers and Philanthropists, and all who are interested in the elevation of our race, these pages are respectfully dedicated. Mngnum bonuw, PKflCTIGBt Success DIVERSITY ESOTERIC PUBLISHING Co,, APPLEGATE, PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 1896. COPYRIGHTED, 1893. BY HIRAM E. BUTLER, PREFACE. To those for whom this work is especially in- tended we would say that the laws and methods herein taught have been tested in the lives and habits of thousands of people, and have proved to be all that we claim for them. To parents and teachers we wish to say, that although the thoughts contained in these pagas may seem abstruse cmd difficult for the young and inexperienced to comprehend, we know you will find, as we have, that if you place them in the hands of the young and allow them to study for themselves, they will gain a more accurate understanding of their practical value- than will men and women whose minds have been biased by education and experience. There- fore we ask the friends of this thought to aid us in its dissemination, and thus help those who are ready to receive it up to a higher plane of development. It is our desire to have these pamphlets thor- oughly advertised throughout the world. We feel assured if we had the funds to issue a large edition and send a copy to all periodicals published in the English language, with a circu- lar letter calling attention to our purpose, that, through the notices and reviews which would be given it, Practical Methods to Issure Success PREFACE. would be brought to the attention of many hundred thousand persons in a short time. As we are not able to meet this expense at present, we ask those who are benefited by the instruction given in this pamphlet, and those who truly desire the uplif tment of humanity, to aid us by contributions to carry out this plan. NOTICED. This booklet was intended for free distribu- tion, and to depend upon voluntary contri- butions for its support; but the pressure in business circles has been so great that we have been forced to set a price upon it in order to keep it in circulation. It will be sold hereafter for 10 cents a copy or $5 per 100, where 100 or more are ordered at the same time. Persons who are out of employment can make good wages and at the same time be doing a good work by selling this booklet. SPECIAL NOTICE. By reason of the extra expense contingent upon the introduction of this work through " Correspondence Chain" inaugurated, we fixed the price 15 cents for first copy furnished by that method, but any additional number will be supplied at regular rate mentioned above, post- paid to any point within the Postal Union. (5) PROLOGUE. MOTTO: Use determines all qualities, whether good or evil, 'the greatest use with the least evil result is the best thing to do under all circumstances. BEFORE introducing our subject, we will an- swer the question that nearly always arises in the mind when such a suggestion is made as the title of these instructions, viz.: What will be accomplished by following these instructions? Our answer is a promise, based on. the personal experience of many, many years of unbiased examination into the cause of successes, failures, inharrnony, sickness, and death. Having had opportunities placed before us that very few, if any, persons ever had, we can speak from that unfailing authority, KNOWLEDGE, and we promise you who peruse the thoughts hereinafter given, and follow carefully all their suygestiojis, that after two years of faithful adherence thereto you WILL NEVER BE SICK; YOU WILL NEVER NEED MONEY OR FRIENDS; WHATEVER YOU UNDERTAKE WILL BE SUCCESSFUL; YOUR MENTAL CAPACITY WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE AS LONG AS YOU LIVE; YOUR DOMESTIC RELATIONS WILL BE VERY HAPPY, AND YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHERS; AND WHEN YOU LEAVE THIS WORLD THE PEOPLE WILL LONG REMEMBER YOU, AND BE THANKFUL THAT YOU HAVE LIVED. These promises are of such an extraordinary nature that they may call forth doubt and criti- cism; to these we do not object, but would ask you not to condemn anything until you know it to be unworthy. The habit of denouncing 8 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSUKE SUCCESS. things that you know nothing about dwarfs the intellect, stupefies the sensibilities, and retards normal growth; therefore, deny nothing, no matter how absurd it seems, until you know bet- ter. la this course of instructions we shall make no effort to exhaust the subject-matter treated; on the contrary, we intend to deal with general principles and laws, and depend upon your own good common sense to carry them out properly to their legitimate conclusion. This work is based on laws governing natural forces, which are of such a nature as to always furnish con- clusive evidences to the practitioner every step of the way, so that no one will need to depend on our word but for a very short time (say three months) before receiving good and suffi- cient evidence of the truth of what we claim. Therefore we are re lieved from that lonr; and tedious method in this line that was necessary to those grand souls, Herbert Spencer, Charles Robert Darwin, and all others of that class of thinkers and the world's pioneers. They spent many years over a single thought, collecting rll the evidences available before giving it to tho world, because the truth of their statements depended on those evidences. The evidence of the truth of what we say is immediately obtain^ able by following the instructions we herein give; therefore, \ve proceed at once to teach the methods, leaving you to judge of their merits by t'\e light of your own experience,, and your own interior and reasoning mind. The many testimonials of those who have tried them, which can be found in this magazine of April and May, 1891, are proof enough to convince a:\y reason- able mind of their true value. PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 9 Our methods are not an unnatural stimulus, bringing about a hot-house growth, as some would have you believe, but are intended to re- move the hindering causes, and allow nature to do her work in accordance with her own laws. The question has often been asked me, If these are natural laws that would bring about such marvelous results, why have they not been known and applied before now ? I may be able to answer this when you can tell me why the great utility of steam and electricity, as well as many other important discoveries and inven- tions, was not known prior to the 19th century. Our race has a development transcending that of prior ages; through that, you, dear reader, have an active desire for a higher and beticr condition; that heartfelt desire is a prayer that is heard and answered by the source from which we derive our intelligence. Again, it is a law in the economy of nature, that there cannot ex- ist a general desire for anything which is un- attainable. These instructions are the answer to the silent prayer of hundreds of thousands now living. The pernicious habit of our age is that of look- ing backward, instead of following the true method of nature in its evolutionary processes of evolving new methods out of every advancing step up the ladder of progress; and there are many now interested in the old books and teach- ings of a rapidly dying race, under the cognomen of "The Occult," and the misnomer of "The- osophy." Do you think that those teachings of "The Wisdom (?) Religion" will elevate you, when it has by its use degraded its people to where the Chinese and Hindus are to-day? To ask this question is enough; your own reason 10 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SCTCCESS. will answer it. " A tree is known by its fruits." The only reliable sources to look back to are those fow reformers who laid the foundation principles which have contributed to the eleva- tion of the white races to t ir present pre-emi- nence above all other races. It is wise for us to cull c 'it of t .e past all the useful truths we can find, discriminating carefully between the erro- neous and 'he true and useful, but always re- membering that nature is constantly developing higher capabilities, and that your mind is there- fore more capable than many of the "great minds" of the past, or may be, by a proper course of training. Therefore we ask you to la aside all antiquated ideas, submit all thoughts presented to you to the crucible of your own reason, and decide for yourself. Wo hope no one will pick out certain points in these teachings and follow them, and then condemn the teachings because they obtain only partial results. If you desire all the results, follow out all the methods. Do not let any one say, " 9 I know that," and not do it, because it is so small a matter with which we start; re- member, it is the little things that make up our life, and, although you may have partially fol- lowed out some part, with perhaps unfavorable results, stop and think, and follow me through, before you decide. See if your prejudice against it is not based on reasoning similar to this: once when you were very warm, therefore uncomfortable, you put on a heavy overcoat, with the result that you were even more uncom- fortable; so when cold weather comes I suggest that you put on your overcoat, and you say, "0, I tried that once, and I was more uncom- fortable than before." We are apt to "jump PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 11 at conclusions " without taking under consider- ation changing circumstances or the power there is in the object behind the act. Now, we propose to build a great structure, whose top shall reach to heaven, and whose expanse shall take in all the inhabitants of coming generations; there- fore, we begin on bedrock, and no stone must be left out of the foundation. The germs from which grew all knowledge possessed in human life are Sensation and Ap- petite. These were the original guides to the continuity of life, and as long as they were nat- ural they were accurate guides; but on the first transgression of the laws governing organic life, pain was introduced as a safeguard against dis- solution (self-destruction); then came to be manifest the two great actuators of man, Pain and Pleasure. Pain was the result of SIN against nature, either of themselves or from another, an enemy; pleasure was harmonious action of the senses with nature; the former be- came a probe, a scourge to drive us into obedi- ence with laws, and the latter a bribe to lead us forward in self-preservation. Herein was laid the foundation of fear of pain, and desire for pleasure; herein was laid the arena of effort, and afterward cf struggle. Pleasure and pain alike are caused by the motion of Life; either are ex- hausters of life and weakening to the organism; in the intensity of either, no one can endure very long. We can endure longer in pleasure than in pain, because it is harmonious action; in the latter, it is inharmonious. All nature is motion, is a song of harmony; therefore, moderate pleasure is productive of continuous vigor, health. Health is a normal state; so the first thing to be sought for is l2 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. health, or harmony with nature, which is the same thing, one being the cause, the other the effect. We wish it to be understood by our friends and those that are "otherwise," that this course of instruction is not intended to be new thought. Nearly all that we shall say here has been said in our writings and lectures in THE ESOTERIC, and in books published by us, but associated with other ideas. We intend here to focalize the most essential thoughts for practical use. We have been traversing a circle (the laws of regeneration) for four years; now we wish to epitomize and finish this circle of basic prin- ciples, and then leave them entirely for others to work out and elaborate. We know their value, and that nothing of great importance can be accomplished until these are incorporated into the life of the people. We know that when this is accomplished there will be a foundation laid that will permanently lift our race onto a much higher plane of action, thought, and ca- pacity; therefore, the persistency with which we have repeated them. LESSON. MOTTO: God by mind (thought, word,) created the Universe. Every application of natural law to the gov- ernment and development of the physical body reacts upon the mind. Also, every effort in the right direction ramifies into all departments of life, producing desirable results. The first essential step is to free the body and mind trom the bondage of habit; this is no easy matter unless we begin just right, then it be- comes a pleasurable task. The proper point at which to begin is the kind and quality of food; begin to "eat to live", and not "live to eat"; in doing this we govern our eating by our rea- son. We have said that a normal appetite is a correct guide to the needed supply of nourish- ment to the body, and so it is; but who has a normal appetite? Are there any in our present civilization? No, not one. Then, to find it in- tellectually and establish it physically, you must abstain from all articles of food not absolutely essential to you. Perhaps I may now be speak- ing to one who is a slave to intoxicating drinks; if "so, you will say at once, " I know I ought to stop that, but I cannot." It may not be strong drink, but some other habit or habits. Well, then, do not begin with that; begin at the table, :arst laying aside tea and coffee. You can do that? Yes. After a week or two, lay aside the use of condiments in your food, such as pepper, spices, much salt, etc. : they do not nourish you; they only create an abnormal appetite. Doing this will strengthen your will so that yov 14 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. can proceed to lay aside pie and cake, and then stop the use of pork. Remember the nature of every animal is in its flesh. See what an insa- tiable appetite the swine has; you are trying to get control of your appetite: then stop eating the very embodiment of it. By the time you have succeeded thus far your desire for fer- mented liquors will be under ycnir control, and abstemiousness in eating and drinking will begin to be a delight to you. It will produce in you a feeling of power heretofore unknown, and a desire to proceed further will manifest itself; then you are ready to undertake *the more diffi- cult task of ^overcoming those habits that here- tofore have enslaved you. We referred to pork as the embodiment of alimentiveness. By very little observation you will find that appetite and passion are twins; therefore, we are fully persuaded that a very large per cent of the lowest and most vicious habits which degrade our race arises in the use of pork. It will be observed that after you have eaten a hearty meal where pork is one of the principal viands, you still have an unsatis- fied craving; you may resort to tobacco, which partially satisfies for P time, but soon you want something else; then intoxicating drink or opium is called into requisition, or worse, illicit asso- ciation for sensual gratification: so this appetite enters into all departments of life. The same is largely true with regard to the use of all kinds of flesh food. With reference to abstemiousness in eating, please indulge in a little metaphysical physiology. The mind governs digestion. It has been observed that sudden and groat fright, sadness, or joy, has often arrested digestion, and has even been the cause of doath. Criminals PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 15 have been sentenced to die by poison, and col- ored water administered in the name of poi- son has caused their death. Mental healers have actually performed remarkable cures through the psychic power of the mind. The majority of physicians know that the confidence of the patient in the remedy is as potent as the chemicals administered. It is observable that a radical change in kind of thought will produce a chiiige in the appetite, causing a desire for unusual kinds of food. Why is this? It is be- cause the mind has a direct relation to chem- istry; certain qualities are essential to certain kinds of thought, out of whose elements the thought is formed. Every seed will produce its own peculiar structure when planted, and certain chemical combinations are essential to its growth, without which that seed could, not produce its structure. The kind and quality of the plant is always known by its form; there- fore, we conclude that certain elements in proper relation must be present in the system, or the form will not be manifest. Thought is form, and therefore must be, and is, formed of something. It is found that one who labors either with hands or brain is necessitated to feed the body in proportion. Intense mind ac- tivity exhausts the body, and food is the means of supply; it' this be so, and it is a fact well known to all, then it follows that whatever thought is kept active while taking and digest- ing food will cause the body to assimilate the proper elements to produce like thought, Hence if the thought paramount while eating is to develop power of self-control, that will be the function of mind that will be abundantly sup- plied, and will rapidly grow and exert its influ- 16 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. ence in the direction desired. Volumes might be written on the evidences and arguments in support of this very important thought, but the mind that practices all these methods of self- culture will perceive and comprehend them. We quote the following from J. H. Kellogg, M. D., Domestic Hygiene and Rational Medicine, page 361, " Food and Diet ": " We need not dwell upon the importance of this department of hygiene, as there can be no doubt that this subject is one of the most impor- tant of all which relate to the physical welfare of human beings. Since the human body is made of what is received into it in the form of food, it is evident that the character of a person's food will determine his own character. Experiments have again and again proved this to be true of animals, and it can be no less true of human beings. A few facts bearing on this point may not be without interest to the general reader. "It has been found that the bones of hogs fed on food which had been colored with mad- der, a peculiar coloring matter, were stained the same color. "When herbivorous animals are fed on ani- mal food, their flesh acquires an unpleasant and unpalatable flavor. "M. Monclar, a French agriculturist, has been experimenting upon this subject, and finds that he can flavor the flesh of animals at pleas- ure, by feeding them upon various kinds of food and employing a variety of strong flavoring sub- stances. He was led to investigate the subject by the observation that hares killed in a worm- VTOod field, and eggs laid by hens which had eaten diseased silkworms, had such a nauseous taste that no one could eat them. These facto PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 17 accord well with an account which we published some years ago of the poisoning of a family by eating chickens which had fed upon potato-bugs. A few years ago, also, a case was reported in which a family in Ohio were poisoned, some persons fatally, by eating chickens which had feasted upon the carcass of a cow that died of milk-sickness. " FOOD- ELEMENTS NOT FOOD. By means of numerous experiments at the expense of num- berless dogs, rabbits, pigeons, cats, and other animals, it has been clearly demonstrated that while the various elements mentioned are food- elements, they are not in themselves food, either when taken alone or when artificially mixed. " Dogs fed on albumen, fibrine, or gelatine the constituents of muscle died in about a month. The same results followed when they were fed on the const tuents of muscles arti- ficially mixed. A goose fed on the white of egg died in twenty-six days. A duck fed on butter starved to death in three weeks, with the butter exuding from every part of its body, its feathers being saturated with fat. Dogs fed on oil, gum, and sugar died in four or five weeks. A goose fed on gum died in sixteen days; one fed on sugar in twenty-one days; two that had only starch lived twenty-four and twenty-seven days. Dogs fed on white, fine- flour bread, lived but fifty days; dogs fed on brown military bread, made of the whole grain, were maintained in perfect health; dogs fed on the so-called inorganic elements, the salts which are extracted from flesh, died sooner than those which had nothing at all." The importance of food and mental conditions and surroundings for refinement and growth is 18 PRACTICAL MSTECI^ TO INSURE SUCCESS. evidenced in the case of many of the emigrants to this country. Of instances well known to all are especially the Irish emigrant, who arrives here very coarse and low down in the scale of manhood, but whose children have scarcely a trace of resemblance to their parents. It can- not be questioned that the diet, habit of thought, and surrounding scenery is the cause of the re- fining miracle wrought in these children. This is a most powerful suggestion of the necessity of first, beautiful and harmonious surround- ings; second, cultured associations; and third, proper care about the kind, quantity, and quality of food taken by us. As a help in this matter of food, we take the liberty of copying the fol- lowing tables from Dr. J. H. Kellogg's valuable work, above quoted: PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 19 Table of Nutritive Value* of Various Articles of Food. ^ h 02 33 * % M 1 c? p | 1 1 ff ! ARTICLES. B P** CD 3 ii 3. Bread. . . 37. 8.1 47.4 3.6 l.G 2.3 63. Wheat flour. . . 15. 10.8 663 4.2 2. 1.7 85. Barley meal. . . 15. 6.3 69.4 4.9 2.4 2. 8). Oatmeal 15. 12.6 58.4 5.4 5.6 3. 85. Rye meal 15. 8. 69.5 3.7 2. 1.8 85. Indian meal. . 14. 11.1 64.7 0.4 8.1 1.7 86. Bice, 13. 6.3 79.1 0.4 8.1 0.5 87. Peas 8.3 23.8 56.7 2. 2.1 2.1 86.7 Beans. 12.5 30.8 46.3 2. 1.9 3.5 84.5 Lentils.. 11.5 25.2 54. 2. 2.6 2.3 86.1 Arrowroot 18. 82. 82. Potato 75. 2.1 18.8 3.2 0.2 0.7 25. Sweet potato.. Carrot.- . 67.5 83. 1.5 1.3 17. 8-4 10.2 6.1 0.3 0.2 2.6 1. 31.6 17. Beet 83.5 1 5 8 10 5 3.7 16.5 Parsnip 82. LI 9*.6 5.8 0.5 1. 18. Cabbage 91.4 0.9 4.1 0.6 5.6 Turnip 91. 1.2 5.1 2.1 0.6 9. Sugar 5. 95. 95. Treacle 23. 77. 77. New milk.. . . . 86. 4.1 5.2 3.9 0.8 14. Cream 66. 2.7 2.8 26.7 1.8 34. Skim-milk.... 88. 4. 5.4 1.8 0.8 12. Buttermilk.... 88. 4.1 6.4 0.7 0.8 12. Lean beef. . . . 72. 19.3 3.6 5.1 28. Lean mutton. 72. 1\3 4.9 4.8 28.' Veal .... 63. 16.5 15.8 4.7 37. Poultry 74. 21. 3.8 1.2 26. Whitefish. ... 78. 18.1 2.9 1. 22. Salmon.. 77. 16.1 5.5 1.4 23. Entire egg 74. 14. 10.5 1.5 26. White of egg. . 78. 20.4 1.6 22. Yolk of egg... 52. 16. 30.7 1.3 48. Bread-fruit.... 63. 3. 14. 17. Banana 74. 4.8 19.6 0.6 0.8 25.8 Date 33. 9. [8. 67. PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. Table of Nutritive Values of Various Articles of Food Continued. ARTICLES. Water Albumen . . . 5? 1 00 {3 1 4 fo CO sr Total Nutri- tive Elements. Acid. Grape Apple Pear 80. 85. 84 0.8 0.2 2 0.5 2.7 3 2 13.8 7.6 7 0.3 0.3 3 15.1 19.9 10 7 Peach Plum Mulberry Blackberry.. . Cherry Apricot. .. . Gooseberry.. . Strawberry . . . wild Raspberry .... Currant. 85. 82. 84.7 86. 75. 85. 85. 87. 87. 86. 83. 83 0'.4 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.9 08 0.4 0.3 0.6 0.5 0.5 04 6.3 5.7 2. 1.4 2.3 5.9 0.9 0.1 0.2 1.7 1.1 03 1.5 3.6 9. 4.4 13. 1. 8. 7.2 8.2 4.7 3.6 4 7 0.7 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.3 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.3 5 8.6 10.1 11.9 6.7 16.8 8.5 9.6 4.6 4.6 7.4 5.5 59 It has been observed that health and happi- ness are the result of harmony with the laws governing our life. At this point of your expe- rience you will observe that there are two kinds of sensation, each having its antipode, viz.: "pleasurable and painful; sensations of the phys- ical body, and pleasure and pain of the mind. While mind and the sensations of the body are inseparable in their normal conditions in the ordinary person, yet one or the other always leads and governs. It has been accepted by the leading minds that happiness is the aim of life; therefore, in the Declaration of Independence of the United PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 21 States we have these words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are cre- ated free and equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- piness." This is true; but in the pursuit have they obtained it ? It is claimed by those who have made a study of these matters that there is only a small percentage of happiness, while the capital stock is of the opposite. Was this the design of our Creator? Oh no! yet these laws were in consonance with the design. The cause of this failure to realize happiness is, that the people have had their minds on the physi- cal, and regarded that, instead of the intelli- gence, as the real self. This- is delusive. All pleasure arising in the physical body has its reaction upon the mind, producing pain in that direction, because it is a disturbance of the normal action of life. A wise soul once said to me: "I do not like to have any sensation in my body, for when the body is normal it has no sensation." This is true. Is there any sensa- tion in your hand when it is lying quietly by your side? No; but if a fly lights upon it you feel it. If you are pricked with a pin, it hurts. Why? Because the life is disturbed in its normal action. There is no taste in the moutn, unless something of a foreign nature is taken; then the sense of taste is excited, and with it nature makes conditions to adapt itself to the work of taking care of it. So with every sensation; it is a disturbance of the life, life in motion, and this is exhaustion. In advanced souls there is a constant desire for what? While looking wholly to the senses, they try in every conceivable way to gratify 22 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. them, and sometimes form destructive habits thereby, but every effort in that direction brings pain and disability, mental and physical; then that desire must arise from some need in the mind. When you begin these practices of ig- noring the senses except as informants of con- ditions needing the mind's attention, and constantly regard the body as a chemical labo- ratory through which you have access to all the qualities of nature, and the senses as the senti- nels that inform you of conditions and demands, and you the MASTER tho mind controlling then you will begin to know what happiness is. The act of controlling your own body will create within you a consciousness of power that is both pleasurable and profitable, but seeking pleas- ure through the senses is always disastrous. The distinguishing feature of man is to seek his pleasure through the gratification of the mental tendencies, while the animal lives wholly in the gratification of the appetites and pas- sions. You want to be more than merely an animal? Then live in the mind. Your animal body is yours, not you, but it is calculated to serve you in the most important ways; therefore it must be well cared for, much more than a valuable horse, for its sphere of service is not only to carry you around, but to adapt you to the uses in the material world and supply you with the elements and conditions for thought, methods for obtaining knowledge, and for grow- ing capacity to think and act. Few persons realize to what extent their bodies are deranged by abuses and neglect. It is a very rare thing to find a person whose body is in proper working order. Most people take more food than they can. utilize, and nature, in its PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 23 effort to harmonize and adjust itself, either causes wasteful habits in the system or dis- orders the digestive functions. The mental disorder of the dyspeptic is well understood, and is evidence that any disorder in eating or drinking will react upon the mind. In order to actually increase mind powers, these many apparently small obstacles must be removed. In the effort to do this you accomplish just as much in every other direction. Disordered sen- sations are deceitful guides, and as they are generally of this character, a stoic habit of life is necessary, until all have been brought ii-to harmony so that they will report truthfully. SECOND LESSON. METHODS' FOR OBTAINING PERFECT HEALTH. MOTTO: In the unyielding will is health; in the weak will is sickness and death. The following methods necessarily serve as a combination of the ways and means for strength- ening every faculty of the mind, as well as for the health of the body. Every practical physi- cian knows that disease can be arrested in a great degree by active energy of the mind, put into practice in the physical body. It is well known that one can throw off disease by pos- itive action, and that people who are discouraged and have little or no will of energy are sick all the time. Sometimes housewives get into a discouraged condition, and through that alone are under the doctor's ca,re nearly all the time; on the other hand, it is observed that persons who are very active "have no time to be sick.'' If they get up in the morning feeling poorly they will rally their will and begin to rush around; you ask them " Aren't- you foeling well to-day?" "Oh yes; I am all right," or, "I cannot be sick," etc. This thought, "I cannot be sick, "is the vital center of the systems of "Mental Healing," under their various names; because if one can CONFIDENTLY RESIST DISEASE, and knows how to resist, he will always con- quer. This can be carried so far as to actually overcome the effect of poisonous drugs. A gen- tleman in business in Philadelphia told me the following story: "The druggist next door, by mistake, took a powerful narcotic. According to PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 25 human reasoning he knew he must die, but his will would not yield to it, so he would walk the floor until exhausted, then drop into a chair; feeling the stupor creeping over him, he would jump to his feet, and with all the will he could rally, stamp across the floor until, his strength failing, he would again drop into a chair, and as he felt the poison beginning to get control, he would again stamp up and down the floor; so he persisted until he conquered the drug and saved his life. Proverbs xxiii. 7, says of a man, '* For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Yes, true; whatever we can believe without doubt, so it is. Paul said of this principle of unwavering be- lief, *' Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen." There is a method by which this substance may be ob- tained, and when we have obtained it we will have the EVIDENCE in our mental consciousness. The methods given in the rules of dietetics in the first lesson are the first essential steps in this direction, and the following rules of action, like the former, will furnish their own reasons for following them out beyond those just men- tioned. In order to conquer disease, we must deny its right or power over us; for example, if you have pain that retards certain movements of the body or limbs, those are the movements you should make in as positive a way as possible without injury. If you feel dull and inactive, take active exercise. Keep clearly defined in your mind the difference between the physical senses and the intellectual consciousness. Remember you are superior to and can control every bodily sensa- tion; with this thought in mind, you can cause 26 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. the body to obey your will, even to the exclu- sion of disease. We often hear reference made to imagination as a prolific source of disease; if this be true, why can the imagination not be made to serve as a means of cure? If it be true in one case, it certainly must be in the other; united with firm belief, it will kill or cure any one. THE CARE OF THE SKIN. The skin is full of little pores, or tubes, from which a large amount of the effete matter of the body exudes. With active persons, two or three days is sufficient to form a coating of this acid and fatty substance combined, similar to a coat of varnish; a little perspiration causes a decomposition of this sub- stance a rotting which produces an offen- sive odor. This not only closes the pores of the skin and produces a languid feeling in body and mind, but there springs into existence an insect parasite called demodex folicularum. We will not attempt to describe in detail these savage little brutos, with eight legs and sharp claws, sharp lancets for puncturing and burrowing the skin, producing an itching, and sometimes erup- tions similar to the disease common in dogs, called the mange. It does not require very long neglect of proper bathing to produce these results. We, so to speak, breathe through the pores in the skin, and if they were all closed we would die almost as quickly as it the lungs were deprived of air. These pores, or tnbes, are provided at tho outer surface with muscles ca- ] iblo of opening and closing them; they open when the body is warm, and close when it is cold. When we are cold, we draw them to- gether to prevent the heat from escaping and the cold from entering, and when they are PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 27" healthy and in good working order, we are not apt to "catch cold " or to chill quickly when the cold air strikes us. Use is most essential, in order to keep these muscles so they will serve us as nature intended they should. Like all other muscles, they cease to obey the will if they are not used for a long time. Persons who con- tinue in a regular temperature do not have oc- casion to use them at all. If th^arm be carried in a sling and not used for a long time, when we try to use it we find is only by repeated effort that we succeed; so it is with persons living in a regu- lar temperature, they cease to be able to close these pores, and when a cold wind blows on them they are chilled and take severe colds. Where the pores are inactive, persons will find that getting into a cold bed in winter, or touching the body with cold water, or allowing the cold air to blow on them produces a shock to the system they can hardly endure. To teach you how to gain control of these muscles, avoid colds, keep off contagious dis- eases, and conquer and take control of the body, the following advice is given: 1st: You should never sleep in a heated room, and there should always be an open window ad- mitting plenty of fresh air, NO MATTER HOW COLD THE WEATHER. 2nd: You should never sleep in any garment worn during the day. The beds should be well aired and kept fresh by frequent exposure to the sun. 3rd: You should never sleep in a room where the sun cannot enter. 4th: Always take off all clothing and rub your body over with your hands before putting on your night robes. If you are of the class so 28 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. very sensitive to cold, etc., you should make it a rule to take a bath every morning immediately on rising. Have at hand a coarse, dry towel and a woolen cloth. Each of these should be long enough to admit of your taking an end in either hand, one over your shoulder, the other behind you. Take water of the temperature of the atmosphere, or as nearly so as practicable; wring the woolen cloth out of this water just so it will not drip, then wet the neck and the back with it; rub that part of the body dry and warm with the coarse towel, then wet the front of the body and dry it in a similar manner. Next the limbs and feet, first one, then the other, rubbing one dry and warm before wetting the other; lastly the arms. Now rub the body with the hands until all indications of dampness are gone and the skin feels smooth and warm; do this vigor- ously, then move about the cold room enough to have the cold air strike every part of the body, v This morning cold water bath may be preceded by a tepid water bath, with soap freely used, after which use the cold water as given above. The warm water cleansing bath is not essential oftener than once a week, unless you eat considerable meat and perspire very freely, then twice a week is the outside limit. When you get so the cold water, the cold air, or the bed feels good to you, then these cold "sponge baths " should be taken every second morning only, and on alternating mornings, in place of the wet cloth, rub the body with a dry towel and take the cold air bath. Ladies whose vitality is low might better take these water baths not oftener than every third morning. This process calls into activity these muscles PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 29 of the skin and frees them from the effete and oily substance that forms a coating over them. The use of a flesh-brush when the warm bath is taken for special cleansing is recommended. The philosophy of this process is this: while the body is comfortably warm, no effort is made to close the pores, but when the cold air strikes the body, they are closed by the inclination to draw the body together. If they have not been used for this purpose for a long time, we cannot close them, and the cold air rushes in and chills the system and diseases the flesh; that is "tak- ing cold." We know that if we cut, bruise, or burn the flesh, and expose the diseased part to cold, we "take cold in it," and it becomes in- flamed and fevered and is very sore. This is in consequence of the corpuscles becoming chilled on account of these muscles being dis- abled or gone, and the cold cannot be shut out. The cold water in the cold room causes us to close the pores and puts them in order by use to serve the purpose nature designed. These cold sponge (or rather woolen cloth) baths can be practiced by the most delicate per- son without danger of unfavorable results, if followed wholly ; but if you undertake them in a room where there is a heater or a stove you will be very sure to take cold, and perhaps a fatal one, for when you put on the cold water you close the pores; that is a strain, and as soon as you feel the warm air strike you, you let down, i. e., you allow these pores to open, the cold air rushes in, and you take cold (are diseased). Again, ladies are apt to take their baths with a, portion of the body covered, which has the same effect; the part that is warm causes the rest of the body to relax, then a cold is the result; Jmt 30 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. if the entire body is exposed to the cold at once, the condition of guard is maintained, and you are safe from cold. Then let all persons of a sedative habit dress immediately and as quickly as possible, and go out and take a rapid walk, so as to cause quick, full breathing, and on their return take half a tumbler, or even a tumblerful, of cold water before eating breakfast; better still, take the water before the walk. Persons of active physi- cal habits might better take the cold water and then go out into the air and breathe deep and full for three or four minutes, so as to throw off all the carbonic acid gas from the lungs. We hope none of our readers will reason as some do, that if a little is good a great deal is better, and thus be led to carry these instruc- tions to extremes; for remember always, that the only evil is a good thing overdone or per- verted, and that a thing potent for good is just as powerful for evil. It is very difficult to give even these teachings, to all without some mis- using them; for some are energetic and inclined to overdo, while others are timid and cannot be persuaded to do enough, and to half follow these instructions is as productive of evil as to overdo them. Practice decisiveness of thought and action; that is, let every motion be made for a purpose well denned in your own mind, and study to make as few motions in everything you do as possible; this will greatly aid your thought to form the habit of careful deliberation. Guard well your words, that you say nothing except what you mean and fully comprehend yourself, and as you express a thought, think of the mean- ing of every word, and use no more words than METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 31 is necessary to convey that idea. This will create confidence in your intelligence in the mind of your hearer. Avoid all confirmatory efforts. They create a conviction of weakness and falsity. We often hear such expressions as these: "If you don't believe it, I can prove it by such and such," etc., or, "I mean what I say," to say nothing of those much worse forms, the effort to confirm by an oath or the wish of evil upon one's self if it be not true. Do not even argue the case, unless opposed. State the fact quietly, and if occas.on requires, give reasons in as few words as will convey your thought, but at the same time be sure to express your ideas so fully as not to be misunderstood. Avoid haste; be calm and deliberate in all your acts, thoughts, and words; never allow yourself to be excited under any circumstances. Avoid too hearty laughter; it weakens the power of the mind. Do not be too slow of speech, first think what you want to say, then say it, without halting or hesitation. Study the tone qualities of your voice. A person living wholly in the excited animal senses will pitch the voice very high. You who think as MEN AND WOMEN, tone your voice, or modulate it to suit the distance of your hearers, and consciously speak TO THE IN- TELLIGENCE AND NOT TO THE SENSES OF THE AUDIENCE. There are very many who judge of character by the tone qualities of the voice. A thoughtful person meeting one whose voice is pitched in a high key at once loses all confidence in and seeks to get away from him; it grates on the finer sensibilities and causes great repul- sion. A person's mind is always affected by his manner of expression; therefore, if you want to 32 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. be thoughtful, always speak thoughtfully. There is so much more in this than I can express. We will further urge the consideration of this matter by asking you TO OBSERVE THE TONE OP YOUR OWN VOICE when you are with some one you greatly respect and love, who is grave and very intelligent, and you may thereby learn your own normal tone of voice; then keep it under all circumstances, with the proper changes to indicate mental states, emphasis, etc. This is taught in ordinary elocutionary lessons, of which all persons ought to know something, 110 matter what their sphere of life may be. The physical drill of the Monroe School of Oratory is of great value to all classes of persons. ' Avoid all feeling of pride; it is the expression of folly. Carry your body with dignity, act as if you were a king, but never forget that you are only a man or a woman, the same as the beggar you pass on the street. Always carry your head erect, chin slightly down, body straight, with sternum (or breast) to the front, shoulders back, step elastic and positive, but not hurried; let your steps be measured and regular. Avoid swaying along, with your hands like one swimming, but try to glide along with as little motion of the body as possible. Re- member, every form is the expression of a thought; a thief crouches; a weak mind allows the body to swing to and fro; and a treacherous person wiggles through the world like a snake; so every motion expresses the inner thought, and also affects and controls the thought to suit the motion. This is so potent that no matter how much art culture one has, if they persist in any evil, it will manifest itself in the movements of the body. PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 33 The above suggestions are of greater im- portance as a means of culture than is usually- realized, and when you begin with conquering habits, and gaining control of the appetites and passions, these will come naturally with very little thought. From the habit of ordinary lit- erature, each of the above should have many pages to impress their importance, but our motto is BREVITY. We wish only to suggest thoughts and methods for you to work out. Think this: EVERY THOUGHT HAS A FORM, AND EVERY FORM IS A THOUGHT EXPRESSED, AND EVERY THOUGHT HAS TWO MODES: ACTION AND REACTION, ACTION UPON OTHERS, REACTION UPON OURSELVES. THIRD LESSON. TO PUT THE DIGESTION IN ORDER. MOTTO :To live for other eyes, is a life of hypocrisy. The house I live in is polished marble decked with the most exquisite ornaments. I>am proud to keep it looking beautiful. Is it clean and pure within ALLEGORY: There was once a very wealthy man v/ho had one son and one daughter, for each of whom he built a house. He employed the greatest architect on earth, placing in his hands unlimited means with which to build the most beautiful structures possible. This wise builder exhausted all of earth's facilities of art and me- chanics, and the structures were transcendently beautiful and convenient in their every arrange- ment. When possession was given the young people, they conceived the idea of these beauti- ful mansions being places for sensu^lis pleasure, and so used them until every room in them was filled with the debris of their revelries. They thought not of cleansing them, until the decay- ing substances so filled them that all their pleas- ures were but the ravings of delirium, and the emanations from within discolored the walls even to the outer surface. That young man or young woman may be you, dear reader, and that most beautiful struc- ture your body. Now, is it not well to com- mence house-cleaning? If it is a lesson you have never yet learned, we will give you a few practical suggestions in this direction. The habit is prevalent of eating wholly for the gratification of the appetite, gorging the alirnen* PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 35 tary canal with the flesh of animals, and all kinds of pastry, and too often with intoxicating beverages, including tea, coffee, and tobacco, all of which create a morbid appetite. But how seldom you think of the mass of corruption in your body, caused by all those delicate leaves that line the intestines being coated over by the slimy matter taken as food, and remaining there until decomposition sets in, the breath becomes heavy with the odor, and the emanations of the skin are so laden with the fumes of the matter that should have passed off with the excretions from the body many days before, that any sen- sitive person who is truly keeping their house in order can smell them as they sit with you in perchance the elegant drawing-room, church, or railroad car. We have frequently passed ele- gantly dressed ladies on the streets of proud Boston, even in winter- time, from whom came a stench that caused us to wish to hold our nose and hurry past them. Persons who live the same as they become so accustomed to the vile odor that they do not notice it. These persons frequently wash the body, and the mere sugges- tion to them of un cleanness would be an insult; but their skin, once fair, has become dark, the pores closed, and their temper morbid and ir- ritable. With women, paint and powder cover up these defects, and in their "fix-up " they look clean and beautiful; but within they are putrid with diseases, such as dyspepsia, constipation, and a host of other diseases arising therefrom; and, generally speaking, the more abundant the wealth, the more thoroughly are they disordered. The man or woman who has to keep up excessive exercise has less of the unessentials, and through activity works off all (or the greater portion) of *>6 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. this matter, so that the poor man or woman really enjoys the best health. The methods for cleansing the body should be heroic, in order at the same time to gain control of the appetite and sensations. 1st: We advise fasting; a young person can fast the first time 48 hours, an elderly per- son of "regular habits" had better only fast 24 hours the first time. After the 24-hour fast, wait a week or ten days, then take the 48-hour fast; after the 48-hour fast, wait anywhere from two to four weeks, then take a 5-day fast. Dur- ing the times of fasting take nothing into the mouth to start the pancreatic juice (or cause the mouth to water). In fact, take nothing into the mouth but pure, cold water, otherwise you may injure the stomach. It will be observed that after the first 24-hour fast it is much easier to take the second, and after the second, the third, notwithstanding in the majority of cases it will excite the appetite to intense activity, and great difficulty will be experienced by some in controlling it sufficiently to abstain from eat- ing too much. Herein you have a splendid drill for the will; and it always follows that they who have the greatest need of development in will-power have the greatest difficulty in con- trolling the appetite. To prevent the hardening of the feces in the colon it is well to flush it with warm water after fasting, be the fast 24 hours, 48 hours, or 5 days, but in the latter case it is well to do this three or four times during the fast, the proper time for it being on retiring at night. * * Dr. Wilford A. Hall, 23 Park Row, New York City, has published a pamphlet on this subject on which he claims priority, aiid requires persons to sign papers PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 37 In order to wash out all effete matter, it is well to inject into the body at least two quarts of water, expelling it as fully as possible; then take a pint into the colon and hold it all night, and it will all be evaporated through the walls and taken up in the water passages. The ex- pelling of all the warm water taken first is wherein the benefits will arise. Those who do not fully understand this would do well to send to Dr. Hall for his pamphlet. His system has many merits, especially for stout people, but we would advise caution in its continuous use, not to use too frequently or too thoroughly. In cases of prenatal diseases, they can be en- tirely eradicated from the system by a fast of 12 to 14 days. During these fasts a person should be active all the time, and hold a positive men- tal attitude toward the bodily conditions, keep- ing active the difference between your own real self, the thinking, conscious person, and the sensating animal body. On breaking the fasts, or at least the longer ones, we advise that you first take corn, roasted brown all through, and either chew at least one half-pint of it or grind it in a coffee-mill and eat it; roasted wheat, such as is sold for dyspeptics, will do. This should be taken two hours before breaking your fast with anything else, unless you take tomato with the corn. In case the stomach sours, take some salt fish, which will sweeten the stomach and put it in proper condition. This coarse corn, or wheat, or granula will serve as a scrubbing-brush to scour off the coat- promising secrecy. A friend presented it to me and I thoughtlessly sig'ned it; but on reading it I found I already had all the essential facts relative to his meth- ods; therefore do not feel properly bound to secrecy. 38 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. ing from the alimentary canal and put^vitality into those leaves that line the cavity, and will open up the lacteals, so that whatever is eaten will fully nourish the body. The continuous habit of eating creates inaction in the secretory glands, but after you have ceased eating for five days you start a thorough reverse action. The fatty material is near the surface of the body; when you stop eating, that is first used up, and much of the effete matter is returned to the ali- mentary canal, and really forces the lacteals open, working the same as with a sponge. You pour water containing sediment through a sponge, and the pores will fill and the sponge will coat over until no more will go through, but reverse the sponge, pour the water through the other way and it will cleanse the pores of the sponge. So it will do with your digestive apparatus, and at the same time it will cleanse and purity the blood, and enable the system to throw off whatever diseased states may exist in the body; will restore your appetite to the con- dition of youthful purity, and if the fast is prop- erly conducted will place all the senses within reach of your will. You should not be over- active during this time. Persons engaged in physical labor, or in business that requires much mental strain, might better take a vacation for this purpose. Most persons form a habit of eating not only certain articles of food, but also certain quan- tities at regular intervals; this causes a demand for the continuance of the food supply, without regard to the actual needs of the body, and this habit must be overcome before the body will serve you according to the demands made upon it by occasional extra activity; then is the time PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 39 persons break down. Sometimes this occurs when it entails immense losses. It will be ob- served after a fast that your appetite will enable you to take on flesh very rapidly. Then, by careful examination of your mental clearness and physical buoyancy, you should determine what amount of flesh you feel best to carry, and when you have as much flesh as gives you the best re- sults, lessen the quantity of food, not the qual- ity, for you should study to take such quanti- ties as bring the best results. You should feed your body as the fireman does his boiler; when the pressure of steam is low, he feeds the fire, but when the pressure is high, and not much work to be done, he withholds the fuel, and so should you. In the cases of Dr. Tanner and Succi, they lost about three-quarters of a pound per day, but when they began eating they put on one and one-half pounds per day, just double the amount of the loss during the fast. This evi- dences how perfectly one can take control of the exhaust and supply of the flesh of his body. When you have this control of your body, if you are forced into extreme mental or physical strain (or both), you can then supply the extra de- mand, so that marvelous results will be obtained. The habit of following the dictates of the senses is far more common than is usually believed. Persons may control themselves enough to stop eating as directed, and drag the body around like the arm hanging by your side, never throw- ing the will of energy into it, but in such cases very little of the most important results will be obtained. You should handle the body with the will decisively, but at the same time give it plenty of rest. 40 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. Remember the ORDER of these instructions, and follow them in their order, not letting go of one while following the other. If it is found that the cold bath chills the body too much, then hurry through it, and go out and take rapid exercise until warm. I would advise nervous persons, who usually suffer considerably with the cold, not to take these fasts in cold weather; spring and fall are really the best times for all persons, and the spring is the best of any period. During all these drills, from the first, a con- stant restraint should be kept over the sex pas- sions, for in some cases the most exhausting activity will arise in the course of these exer- cises; but in case of no action at all before or during the first part of these exercises, thought should be given to produce enough to generate life for the use of the body. Remember, that function has but two uses; first, to generate life, which is the seed; this retained in the body will be re-absorbed and will supply it with new and increased life; second, to produce offspring, when such is desired. v More will be given on this sub- ject in the next lesson. The Hindu Stoic finds that by binding fertile soil on the outer surface over the stomach while fasting, the body will draw nourishment from it to supply its needs. This shows that the outer surface of the body can absorb nourish- ment the same as the inner. It is the natural method to take into the stomach the seeds ot cereals, properly prepared; the digestive func- tions absorb from these the necessary elements to repair the constant waste going on in the body, therefore, you should use discretion and take nothing into the stomach which is impure or not adapted to supply the needs of PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 4x the body, otherwise you injure it. And you should keep the inner pores open and clean, the same as the outer surface of the body; for the lacteals are the same as the pores of the outer skin, and all nourishment is by absorption. Therefore, lay aside that vague deceptive dream that eating to please the appetite is the absolute and unchangeable condition of life. You are more than an animal, yet they eat more cor- rectly than you do. Shame for 19th century civilization, that all the sciences advance except those methods that make man more than brute beasts! There are sciences for horticulture and zoological culture, but none for viticulture of the human race. This need we wish herein to supply; for we consider it of greater importance than all the other sciences put together. FOURTH LESSON. "REGENERATION" THE SOURCE OF LIFE. *Now are we the sons of God." 1 John Hi. 2. You are a little God (His son or daughter), having power within your oivn body to create another, or others, or re-create self and " renew your youth as the eagles." Ps. ciii. 5. I have, through thin wonderful body, ac- cess to all the resources of nature. Why shoidd it grow old and infirm and die? Having complete con- trol of it, lean, 'and " I will be what I will to be." Subject for thoughtful musing and study: Why is it that the food of man is the seed of vege- tation, such as wheat, corn, rice, and oats? Because the life is in the seed, and we take it into our bodies and absorb it for the renewal of our own life, which is constantly being exhausted through activity. Eggs are the seed of the birds that lay them, and the flesh of birds or beasts is the product of the seed of their species. The nut is the quintessence of the tree, and the seed that would produce another like the parent tree. O What does the spider do with that im- mense amount of food? In proportion to his size it would be equivalent to your eating a whole sheep for breakfast, an ox for dinner, and a yearling calf for supper. What becomes of all that nourishment taken? In the summer, when they are active, look for one of them that has an immense sack attached to it, catch it, and you will often find that the sack is many times larger than the spider, which is really very small. Open the sack carefully, and you will find hun- dreds of diminutive spiders in it. These are the products of that food taken. Again, watch the PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 43 worm feeding on the green leaf, of which it eats great quantities. Its body is almost a hollow sheath filled with the sap of the leaves. It ab- sorbs the nourishing elements by which it in- creases in dimensions, and as this fluid element is absorbed it passes off dried. The food taken by you is transformed into a fluid, and so passes into the colon. On its way through, the body absorbs the elements proper for it, and in the colon it is finally hardened and passes off, the same as in the worm. The worm has noD the organs you have; it is in itself nothing but a di- gestive apparatus. After the worm has finished its work in that direction it lays itself away in the cocoon and sleeps till spring, when it takes on wings, comes out and flies around, feeds and lays its eggs, and then dies, as if all its life was deposited" in them. There are insects which, when the male and female come together she absorbs all the substance his body contains, and he dies, leaving only a dry shell. She forms her young from the elements absorbed and gives to them all the life she has, and also dies. Watch all insects, and you will see that their busy life is spent in gathering material (food) out of which to produce their kind, and then they either die or are eaten by some superior. Look at all life; vegetable, insect, animal, and man alike are living only to obtain food to nourish the body, produce offspring, and gain power to care for and bring their offspring to maturity; then they die, and that life produced through their organism lives on in other organ- isms (their children), more in number, but the same in kind; but other creatures feed on the life of these; i. e., they take their life and the substance that contains it and create out of it 44 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SITCCKSS. their own higher species. Finally, man, feeding 011 all below him, receives this life that has been carried up through these varied forms, and obeys the injunction of Genesis to "multiply." They, among all the animals, are the only ones that waste the life produced in them for mere sensational gratification, therefore, they die almost as fast as they multiply. It is evident irom the foregoing thab the gen- eration of life is the method of creation of the higher from the lower, in gentle gradations, from the life in every drop of water up to man. Man being possessed of a mind and varied capa- cities of using this life outside of the mere pro- duction of his kind, we may reasonably inquire if there be a way of utilizing this life for the in- crease of self in all its parts and functions. We know that those who are overworked have little or no desire for the act of procreation, also that minds under constant mental strain seldom think of it. This evidences that man can util- ize this life-element generated in the body, either in the action of the body or of the mind. If this be true, and we think all persons of ex- perience or thought will agree that it is, then it is certain that the reservation of that element in the body is essential for power of mind or body.* To any casual observer the evidences on this subject are too patent for dispute. Look at the pure young woman: her cheeks are red, her *Much might be said profitably here upon the ana- tomical structure and physiological laws governing the method and. functions used in this process of re- fitting and re-absorbing this life-element for the use of the body and mind, but we will leave much of this, hoping in the course of time to give to the world 9 Complete physiology of the human body. PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 45 eyes bright, her hands warm and dry, her flesh firm, her movements buoyant and vigorous, and her face covered with smiles. She is happy in her innocence. She marries, and after a tew weeks, or months at most, you meet her again and you would scarcely recognize her; the rose is gone from her cheeks, the luster from her eyes, the joyous smile from her face. Instead of bounding along as if her body had no weight, she moves along heavily, with dark clouds un- der her eyes. Take her by the hand; it is cold and moist. Pass her by and call on her at the end of one year. Now she begins to look pale and thin. Ask her what has been the matter? 0, I have been sick; I do not feel well now. What has wrought this great change in so short a time ? Certainly there must be something very wrong in the marital habits. Nature always re- wards the obedient with abundance of her good, but always punishes the sinner against her laws, and never excuses on account of ignorance; and the God of nature never removes the sentence that nature imposes, even in answer to the de- vout prayer. But follow that woman further, see her after twenty years. She is now worn and aged; around her are several children. The eldest a son of eighteen years, his face filled with pimples, his hands cold and clammy, his eyes dull ami watery, his intellect capable of naught but mischief. He learns slowly at school, frequently gets into trouble for his wrong-doing, chews tobacco, smokes cigarettes, eats enough at each meal for two men, does not care to re- tire at night until late, and in the morning it is with difficulty his parents can get him out of bed, and when he is up he gapes, and lays around with no ambition. What mean all these 4:6 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. symptoms ? What do they evidence against this young man ? That he is injudiciously squander- ing his life in secret vices; consequently, he is devoid of animation in body or mind. He lacks all the constituents of growing manhood, and is an easy prey to almost any vice that may be placed in his way. It is largely from this class that the recruits for our prisons, insane asylums, and alms-houses come. He may escape these and marry, but his body is not half developed, and his mind is lit for nothing but menial labor. Where did all this evil begin? With the ignorance of his parents and the consequent excessive indulgence of the sensual nature, and he was inflamed with that all-destroying passion, even in his mother's womb. The waste of those vital elements was the cause of the mother's almost constant sick- ness and rapid decline, and the same was the cause of that most loathsome condition of her son. All the above symptoms are just as apt to appear in a young woman under the same conditions, but with her we have to add that most dire result, prolapsus, and general debil- ity of those functions that were destined to reproduce her kind. As a consequence of in- dulging in these secret vices, she suffers all her life, dies young, and her husband has no pleas- ure with her; for her mind is dwarfed, her sex nature destroyed, and the doctor is a constant attendant. The husband has the care of an in- valid, the doctor's bills to meet, and perhaps several puny children to care for after his day's work is done. Oh, the horrible nightmare of a life controlled by sex passion! The dire results in its path are worse than well there is no comparison anywhere in nature. PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 47 * Why is it that those who know this most ter- rible of all monsters remain silent? Is it be- cause they do not know how to remedy the evil? Many say to me, "The world is not ready for this kind of teaching." Then it never will be; for unless these teachings are received, the race will go no higher. The only means of preserva- tion now is from emigration. Without the Ger- ^mans, Swedes, and Danes we would rapidly decline; although the Irish give vitality and numbers, yet they furnish the elements of in- tensified passion and iconoclasticism. Of course there are many exceptions. But let us return to this young man or young woman. You ask them, " What is the cause or those pimples on the face and swellings on the neck?"aud they will answer, *'I inherited scrof- ula!" Yes; you inherited a passion that you might have controlled, but as you did not, you have these results. Another young man appears bright and active, but he is often seen in questionable company, and is ever seeking an opportunity to gratify an inflamed passion. Look at the pores of the skin on his face. They are full of dark specks or deep, coarse, cavity-like pin-holes. His mind is obtuse on all but the commonest habits of life. Base, secret habits are sure to make their marks on the face. I am aware that it may seem inopportune to give all these evidences of the secret vices of men andVomen; but the sooner it is generall} 7 known, the sooner much of it will be rem- edied. What young man or young woman would not rally all their will to conquer these vices if they knew they were indelibly engraven on their faces so that all who saw could read 48 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. them? These little books are to be given out to all; then you who do these things can no longer be shielded from public gaze. But let me note certain exceptions. Pimples on the forehead, and not on the face (fine ones), are an indication of active passions, with occasional involuntary losses, and therefore do not indicate secret vices. The hand of a sensitive person may, through the simple act of shaking hands, or when under em- barrassment, become cold and moist. These ' are the only exceptions we can make. Now, if these marks of derangement in the blood, and of the whole nature, are so marked and exceed- ingly bad, all arising from \\ r aste of the life, does it not evidence that it is all wrong? The case of the mother and son is not a rare one. We might almost say the cases are rare where none of these results are apparent. The true course of life is this: the function of generation has two uses: the first and princi- pal one is to generate life to supply the body and brain with the proper powers; the second, to produce children. No man or woman should allow the life to be thrown off under any circum- stances whatever unless it is in case a child is de- sired by both husband and wife. Here is the dividing line between the animal mind, colored, directed, and controlled by sexual desires, and all that grows out of it, and the prox>er mentality of Man, seeing things as they arb "without coloring or shading. p[t is the normal ability of man's mind to grasp the most subtile or expand into the im- mense. As long as one submits to the control- ling power of sex desire, it will continue to wield its coloring and biasing influence on all the consciousness of the individual. Who PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 49 among men have not met old and young men whose minds were so thoroughly controlled by this monster that every mirthful thought was disgustingly obscene? While sometimes you will find they have a low cunning, enabling them to keep up a show of success, the mind is totally incapable of an exalted moral thought. True, these are extreme cases; but go among the "roughs " of our large cities, and down into the "slums," and listen to the conversation of these people, and you will hear the most loath- some vulgarity, which is but the expression of the vitiating influence of the passions on the mind and habits. We challenge the world to bring from the history of the past one in- stance of a criminal character who was chaste in these respects. We ask you to make a study of this, and you will find that every immoral and vicious, or even dishonest, character arises wholly from an abnormal sex nature. The first step on the downward path is in the controlling influence of sex passion. That is why the ancient phi* losophers and Bible historians called it "The old serpent, the devil, and satan, that deceives the whole world." (Rev. xii. 9.) Many of our "good " people are unwilling to believe this, in fact refuse to even think of it, and are offended when their attention is called to it. They are like one harboring a corrupt mass of decaying matter in their closets, which is causing constant sickness and death in the family, and one says to them, " There is where all your trouble comes from," but they will not hear; it is too disgusting to their sensitive na- ture. And not only so, but they see no way of rem- 50 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. edying it; for those who are accepted as author- ity on these subjects have impressed upon their minds that it is necessary to the health to ex- haust the life, and that it is only a natural over- flow when involuntary losses occur, etc. So they have settled down to think that the Creator is partial to the animal world, but has endowed them with an adversary over which they have no control. But, thanks to our Creator, such is not true, and we believe we now have with us in this sentiment every first-class medical au- thority of recent date; and we also have the experience of thousands of men and women of all ages, who have received and practiced our instructions, and every one of them will give, as many have already given, the very strongest testimonials of BENEFICIAL results obtained thereby. We will now first state what should be ac- complished, and how; afterward, the laws gov- erning: We have said there are but two uses for the sexual powers; the first and most constant is for renewal of our own vitality; the second, occasional use for propagation. Every healthy man produces many thousand germs every year, and every healthy woman many hundred, each of which are capable of producing another organism, equal to that of the person producing the germ. These should never be allowed to leave the body under any circumstances what- ever, except when a man and wife wish a child; then preparation should be made for a sufficient length of time prior to their coming together, to put each of their bodies and minds into proper condition. This occasion could not be repeated properly, PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 57 even by the most zealous for children, oftener than once in 18 months, which would amount to almost a continent life for the man, and would add much to the woman. The children pro- duced from fully matured and well-cultivated germs would be an honor to our race, and child- bearing would become a delight, in place of the danger, sickness, and pain now prevalent. Great care is taken to develop good horses, cows, sheep, etc., and even fruit and vegetables, but none for the development of our children. This is due wholly to the pernicious teachings of professed scientists on these subjects of sex life. If men and women had complete control of themselves in these matters, then the way would be easy to begin the culture of our own species; but as it is, they constantly yield to impulse, without regard to anything else. A man in gentlemanly dress, listening to me on these subjects, speaking in a cultured tone of voice, abruptly asked, "Do you mean to say that a person could, if he wished, stop all discharge of the sexual life?" We answered, Yes!! Here- plied gruffly, '*! don't believe it!" This only gave voice to the belief common in the world, and there are many reasons for these convic- tions. Many a man has said to me, " Why, we cannot control what takes place in our sleep, and we know nothing about it until after all is over." Yes, you can. You should first decide in your own mind that you will not indulge that passion under any circumstances whatever. A complete decision of the mind is the battle half won for anyone, and for many it is wholly won, as the decisions of the mind enter into and control the dream state, but some have greater difficulty than others. It is necessary for many 52 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. to charge their minds not to let go consciousness of the body at any time, and so refuse to sleep soundly, in order to gain this control. You who find you must give your sound sleep for this at- tainment need not fear evil results; for as you succeed, and the body becomes more potent, the need, and consequent inclination to sleep soundly passes away. Persons who experience this extreme difficulty in overcoming the waste of the life will observe that after they perse- vere and succeed in retaining the germs for even one whole month, the need of the old-fashioned dead sleep will pass away; and such will find, that notwithstanding they do not appear to sleep at all, they will not feel tired or sleepy: and as they go on, there will awaken within them another consciousness, which awakens as they close their eyes and forget the body. This consciousness is wholly of the mind, but is a condition of the mind that does not use or ex- haust the body; on the contrary, it allows it per- fect rest; and while it is active in this state, they can perfectly guard and protect themselves from involuntary losses. There are some who may have to struggle a long time before they can reach this point; to such we would say: it is necessary that you place your mind in the attitude of one who is compelled to sleep in a place of danger, where it is necessary that he should be on the alert all the time. For in- stance: if you had wealth of gold, and you knew there were thieves around to steal it from you, what would be your mental condition while sleeping? The life generated in you is worth more than gold, and there are sneak thieves who will steal it from you unless you are in a condition to awaken and protect yourself from PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 53 the slightest indication of their presence. At first it may seem a greater task than you can perform, and so it would be were it not for the fact that but a few days' success rewards you with a condition which takes the place of sleep. While you are sleeping is nature's time of re- cuperation, i. e., replenishing exhausted life; but if you retain the life the seed the exhaust is supplied without sleep, and therefore the ne- cessity for sleep ceases. I personally know of an instance where a man who was retaining all the life worked day and night continually for months, with only one or one and one -half hours' rest daily, which he would take by lying down on a lounge and im- mediately letting go of the body. The mind would continue active, while the body would lay like a clod for a half -hour or more, after which the sex nature would become active (in its office of transmuting the elements of the blood to life), and this would continue perhaps for a half -hour, then cease. He would then arise and go to his work, refreshed much more than if he had slept 12 hours; for then the body would have felt dull and oppressed, because sleep when it is not needed causes a stagnation of the blood. All persons living this life should make it a rule to arise as soon as they awaken in the morn- ing, and immediately begin activity of mind or body, or both; and when they are far enough on the way to cease to sleep soundly, they should carefully counsel their feelings, and experiment upon them, and thus ascertain how long it is necessary for them to lie in bed, and govern their hours of sleep by their conscious needs. But as long as there are occasional losses they should persist in not sleeping any more than is abso- 54 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. lutely necessary in order to keep up health and vigor. No person can help you, and we have never found one instance where any one obtained any help by prayer in this particular; on the contrary, it has often been remarked to me that "So sure as I pray for help and protection, so sure am I to fail." Remember, dear devotional friend, that the word is written, "HE that over- cometh " etc. Now, if God were to overcome for you, you would not be the overcomer, or the re- cipient of the reward which is absolutely certain to any and all who overcome the creative ener- gies within himself or herself. But we must make some very careful discrim* inations right on this point. First of all is the question, What do we mean by overcoming ? We do not mean to kill out all activity or feeling there, because the office of that function is to create or transmute life for the use of the body and brain, and for soul-food; then we mean sim- ply for you to get that function of your organism under control of your will. You can never judge another by yourself; for all diversity of charac- ter, nature, etc., is intensified in that function. It is the spring (fountain of life) from which na- ture flows unmodified by education or surround- ings; therefore, there is no one else like you. These laws and methods apply to all as regards ultimates, but not wholly in the way of applying methods. One whose nature is very active, and who experiences much difficulty in gaining con- trol, should make every effort to suppress it, just as if the object were to kill it out; another, who has activity, but has no difficulty in preventing any waste, should not suppress a normal action, especially after sleep or quiet rest, for that is na- PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 55 ture's time for reinvigorating the blood. We hope no one will allow a depraved imagination, arising from an inflamed and unnatural passion, to deceive them into any kind of abuse. There are two kinds of passion, each very different from the other; one, imaginative of base and low indulgence; the other, an ENERGY, activity, and in so far as it affects the mind it carries it up to God, and the pure and good, and is entirely free from any base imaginings or desires. If you are one among the many whose vitality is low from weakness in ability to hold the vital fluids, (and there are none who are weak from any other cause, many young girls inherit weakness so that as soon as they begin to gener- ate life they begin to lose it from sheer weakness alone, ) then it is important for you to concen- trate all your powers in that direction, beginning with the first of these instructions, and follow- ing them up with will and decisiveness. To those who have no consciousness of any such ac- tion: you, as well as others, should guard your- self and make sure there is no waste. There are many delicate ladies who are entirely uncon- scious of any action or waste, who can, by the will, take control of that function, and by care will find the reason for no conscious action there to be the continual loss of the life generated; as soon as that ceases they will find themselves in possession of a great power, which will tax their utmost ability to subjugate. There are those who, from various causes, have suppressed or virtually killed out all power of action in this most important function, and consequently are in the decline of life, some from old age and ex- haustion, others from being surfeited, etc., etc.-, 56 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. to whom the former instructions do cot apply: to such we will give special instructions.* In these lessons we have given the keys to all that is good and desirable in life. The sexual power is the creative faculty; in it is found the source of all the good and evil on the earth; in it is the "spring of all human action, the father and mother alike of all the good and evil on the earth; and through its halo alone can man sense the ineffable essence of the Godhead." When it is perfectly normal, and is being used for the health and vitalization of the body, and is held subject to a domination of the intelligence, then the body, mind, and soul is in a healthful grow- ing condition; but if it is allowed to dominate, it causes us to give our life for mere sensual gratification, and yet we are not gratified, but are deceived and disappointed, and our life is made a hell of vague imaginings, devoid of all reality or even ability to see and understand things as they really are. We know how deceptive is the mind that is under control of PERVERTED passion; therefore we repeat the salient point, to prevent, if possi- ble, falsification of our position: The office of the sex function to the body and mi ad is like the digestive functions to the body; its action does not mean mere gratification, but rather service. The sex nature will do its work if left alone, and do it properly when it is in a normal condition, without any outside assistance, so the first important work is to put it in a healthy condition and keep it so. Remember, dear *On receipt of 10 cents, we will send printed in- structions which, if followed, will restore declining age to youth and visor. PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 57 reader, this is the fountain-head from which your life flows; and if it be pure and good, you will be likewise; but if your life be corrupt at the fountain-head, what can be expected of the results? " Tis ignorance that multiplies the wrongs Of human nature. Almost all the crimes Directly may be traced to ignorance, And indirectly through the passions alL The man is ignorant of law who gives Being to offspring, cursed, before their birth' With passions that destroy their future peace, And make the stately fabric of the soul A dungeon of impure depravities. The man is ignorant of law who takes A forced reluctant wife into his breast, Whose inward soul another's spirit claims, Whose deepest heart expires in constant pain, Dying and waking daily to new deaths. O cursed Ignorance that educates , Maidens for public barter; that first crowns With orange blooms their brows, then turns the key Of wedlock, falsely called so by divines, To crush them in its infamous Bastile, Making the marriage-bed a rack, where they Must wed themselves, poor children, to despair, As to an iron giant, while the fire Of madness inundates the reeking brain. O God, 'tis terrible! Thou who didst once Rest cradled in the sainted Mary's arms, Whom woman loved, bathing thy sacred feet With costly tears, wiping them with her hair, Break thou that spell of ignorance that makes Woman the slave; redeem her captive heart, Let marriage be the sacrament of soul, The deathless union of accordant minds, The blending of two perfect lives in one, Whose home shall be a paradise, whose bliss Chaste, fervent, lasting as an Angel's love." FIFTH LESSON. WHAT IS TO BE OBTAINED BY <; REGENERATION " ? Before beginning this article, the above ques- tion was asked of a young man in my hearing, and his spontaneous answer was, "Why, every- thing ! ! ! " Yes; everything desirable is attain- able by it. We have often seen young men and young women attend a course of lessons on this subject, whose faces were pale, eyes dim, and health poor, and before the course closed (or in- side of three weeks) their eyes would become bright and the color would return to their cheeks. Young ladies resort to various methods in or- der to produce a healthful appearance, and in some cases young men do the same to make themselves attractive but those who follow these instructions will have all that bloom of health, and added to it they will possess that "personal magnetism" which is so attractive, and which is really one of the strongest factors to insure success, even in a business way, and is in fact the main requisite to success for speakers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, and even salesmen. It has very often been remarked to me by young men who are living this life, that they have added power to attract the opposite sex: in fact, therein lies one of man's greatest dangers, viz. : in attracting to them persons who will use every means to ensnare them. Young people who live this life will possess attractive powers PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 59 so great that they can have their choice of a companion from any class of people. But this is the smallest thing to be considered. We know it is an impossibility to express in words one-half of all that is actually attained through this mode of life, but we will mention a few facts and leave you to prove them by experience; then you will know for yourself. It gives a joyous, happy feeling to the body and mind: it clears up the intellect so that you can readily understand the most abstruse sub- jects: it gives strength and decision of charac- ter and directness of purpose: it gives a love for refinement, purity, goodness, honor, justice, and morality: it adds to the capacity of the mind and body in every conceivable direction, and the process of growth of all these may be kept up continually. We have never known any one who could say where the limits of the possibilities of increase should be placed. We have known some of the most marvelous mind powers to be gained through it: such as being able to read the thoughts of others; to foresee events; to perceive the most subtile forces in nature; in fact, we have had abundant reason to believe that every power possessed by those in the spirit world may be possessed by those who follow those instructions. We will relate one instance which occurred in our early experimentation on these methods, which will illustrate many other instances slightly varied in character. A gentleman in business was induced to adopt them. His busi- ness called into use his physical strength, and it was almost unlimited. His constant activity and wonderful strength, as well as his keen business ability, were a source of wonder to all 60 PEACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE. SUCCESS. who knew him. One day we were sitting in a basement room in the extreme end of a hundred- foot store. For one to get from the store to this room necessitated going out of the store at the right, then to the left through a long, dark corridor, then turning again to the right, open- ing a door, and descending one flight of stairs. We were busily engaged in a conversation when a clerk made his way through this circuitous route to the stair door, and called him by name. He was speaking and did not answer the first call, but when his name was called the second time, he turned toward the clerk, who had not descended the steps, was not even in sight, and had only called him by name, and said, "Tell her it is all right; I do not care." The clerk returned to the store, and as we were discussing similar matters, he turned to me and said, "When he called me I saw an old lady dressed in black, who had engaged my services for this morning, standing in the store, and I knew she had come to countermand the order. I will now go up and see if it is true. " On his return he informed me that he had found matters exactly as he saw them in his mind when he was called. This man had been a materialist and was nat- urally very skeptical on every subject bordering on the spiritual, but he had then reached a point in his growth where his skepticism began to give way to the vivid consciousness within, of the reality of an Immortal Soul, and of Spirit or God. We might fill a large volume with similar in- stances from the experience of various persons, where they have developed within themselves capacities of mind transcending the five senses. But it is not these marvelous powers alone that . / o* -nut A f UNIVERSITY 5 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 61 you should desire, neither is it these alone that you will gain. This extreme case, however, will enable you to see that if such marvelous ultimates are attainable, there are gradations of mental capacities transcending any you now possess, which will be of great use to you in whatever sphere of life you may occupy. For instance, if you have a clear business mind it will become much clearer, and you will be en- abled to discern the motives of those with whom you deal to an extent transcending the power of others: and this will be true in every depart- ment of life. THE LAW GOVERNING, OR THE WAY IN WHICH NATURE CARRIES ON THIS WORK UNDER GUID- ANCE OF AN INTELLIGENT WILL. The first question to be answered is, What at- titude of the mind is necessary in order to allow nature to do its work without interference? You should first fully decide, so there is no longer any doubt or question in your mind, that you will stop all unnatural waste; also that you WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHAT- EVER, allow yourself to enter into those relations with any one, or do anything that will cause the waste of the vital fluids; that you will not, under any circumstances, use those forces merely for sense-gratification. When this de- cision is really made so that every feeling. within you unites with it, the work is virtually accom- plished, but few there are who can do this at once. In many there will remain for a long time a hidden feeling desiring this relation, but you can overcome even this by a persistent deter- mination, never yielding; for once to yield is to give it a controlling influence which is hard to 62 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. conquer. When the mind is unquestionably fixed, if your nature is ordinarily normal you will find but little difficulty until the moon enters the sign the earth ("the sun") was in when you were born. Some will ask, " What has the moon to do with the matter? " If you will take Solar Biology, or an ordinary Nautical Almanac, or even the Astrological Ephemeris, and observe the above position and your feel- ings, the question will be answered in your own experience, and will make plain to you the law which we now give. Then you will find there will awaken within you new feelings, which, unless your decision is well made, will change your mind; and every day after that you will find that you have a new and increasing force active within. If you hold the life for fifteen days you will observe that your mind becomes clearer, unless the passions have a firm control of you; and if they have, you will find that imaginary beauties and attractions will arise in those relations transcending any before known; and every month this will increase for several months. But if you hold firm to your decision, there will be observable benefits to the mental as well as the physical powers inside of the first thirty days, which will continue to increase as long as you continue to live the life. These improved conditions come so gradually that many do not realize them for, in some instances, a whole year, unless, after they have kept the life for a month or more, they lose it, then will be very vividly realized what they have lost, and from the contrast they will know what they have gained. The law is this: every time the moon passes through the sign the earth ("sun") was in PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 63 when you were born, there matures within you a psychic germ, and when the moon passes through your polarity (i. e., through the sign it was in when you were born), intensified passion is created, which, by the normal action, without help or restraint further than to prevent loss or injurious strain on the system, will transmute this germ from its germ state to a crystal fluid. This fluid will be taken up by the lymphatic glands, which abound especially in that region of the body, and the lymphatic system will de- posit it in the blood, which at first produces a quiet, dreamy feeling, unless you are very active, then it simply adds to your abilities to be and to do that which you wish. After the first successful month, the psychic germ matures one sign earlier, that is, about two and one-half days sooner. This is more easily observed by ladies than gentlemen, for it will immediately affect the time of the moonly weakness so that it will manifest about that much earlier each month, unless by a strong will and active mind they are able to prevent its manifestation alto- gether, which very few can do. Usually this process will continue for twelve months, or rather moons, then it may locate in either the time of the moon's entrance into (Aries), 25 (Cancer), ~ (Libra), or X? (Capricorn), but more frequently in the latter sign, for rea- sons we will not now explain. These manifes- tations in woman do not argue that she only is affected by these things, for man's life is affected as much as woman's, but with him the manifestations are observable only by pay- ing careful attention to his feelings. It is readily observed by those who live the life that all the work is done by the spontaniety 64 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. of nature, and the part which we have to take in the matter is to stop doing; but it will be found by all that this is the most difficult part of it. The whole matter may be summed up thus: Put and keep the body in perfect order, and do not waste the life produced by it, and as surely as the power resides within you to produce another or other lives, so surely it will constantly renew and increase your own; and as the amount and quality of life decides the qual- ity and capacity of the person, so surely will these continue to increase. SIXTH LESSON. THE CAUSE OF IN HARMONY IN MARRIAGE. The sex nature underlies all that makes exist- ence desirable; it is the foundation of all do- mestic life, and its perversion is the cause of all unhappiness, while its proper use is a fountain of constant happiness. The perverted idea that all happiness is derived from the sex relation causes great misery in the world. There are few men or women who have married of course there are some who have not had ex- periences which, if they were to think over, would prove to them that the happiest hours of their lives were while keeping company with the one they loved. How many times when men and women have spent an evening together and separated, they have both felt such a happy exhilaration it seemed as if their bodies had no weight, but as if they floated along without effort, and they looked forward with great de- light to the time they were to meet again, and while together what happiness the mere touch of the hand would bring. How often we read of suicides because of disappointment in love, the reason given being that they could not live without the object of their love. But had these same persons married, in all probability it would not have been three months before, if they were separated for life, they would not feel the same, and in many cases would even be sorry they married at all. Why is this? It is because that while they were both potent 66 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. with life, there was a harmonious interchange and interblending which fed the body, mind, and sonl, and when that life was exhausted nothing remained but the memory of what had been and the desire to find it again. This desire is often the cause of excessive indulgence, that vulgar deceiver that robs both husband and wife of health, happiness, and mental capacity, and makes life seem a mockery and a deception; whereas the deception is in our own ideas of the laws, a correct knowledge and application of which would make life far more than the "dream of youth and courtship." That so- oalled dream is the real life, and the drugged lethargy of sensual indulgence is a horrible nightmare. 11 1 saw two spirits shine above the town, Whose marts ten thousand busy mortals thronged: one said, With eyes of utmost pity gazing down, Behold the dead ! ! ! " Truly, the world, living in this drugged sen- sual state is dead to all that pertains to real life, and men and women go about struggling and fighting for a phantom that is ever before them and ever evades their grasp. One of the causes of delight in the virginal as- sociation of the sexes is the interblending of the positive and negative life-elements obtained from the magnetisms emanating from each. This magnetism, when it meets its opposite, creates life. Life is not a material substance, but is a refined, subtile element permeating all the ma- terial of the body. In the generation of off- spring the germ is animated by the blending of the life-elements in both parents; but when the life-elements throughout the entire body blend, PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 67 the pleasure transcends all others that the hu- man organism is capable of. Love is a hunger of the life, producing mo- tion, and guides the emanations to the object loved. This life-emanation will go where it is attracted, and will not be taken up on the way. It will pass through a crowd of people if they are quiet, and reach the one to whom it is sent. It will travel thousands of miles on the strength of the mind, and cause it- self to be felt by the one to whom it is directed. "Love, then, is life in motion," and the variety of qualities in persons is by virtue of the different chemicals, shall I say ? Yes, we believe this to be true. All persons cannot love each other, for there are natural repulsions as well as attractions. Where repulsion exists, it should be obeyed; for it exists by the same law that a seed of a cer- tain kind attracts certain qualities and repels others, and is thereby enabled to maintain its own species; otherwise all plants would mix to- gether and become a shapeless, conglomerate mass. The same law obtains in the life creative principle, love; herein is a most prolific source of misery resulting from the marriage relation. Men and women marry without knowing whether there is proper harmony in the life qualities. How often it occurs that two good, bright persons marry, and all their friends say, " What a good match that is," but in a year or so, one, perhaps the man, turns out bad, becomes lazy or vicious; or it may be the wife is the one to turn out bad, or she loses her health and dies early. Why is this? Surely something is wrong, or it would not be so. 68 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. If we put two chemicals together and they " chemically combine," another substance is formed: so in the life emanations from men and women. Now, the new substances formed by the combination of varying life-elements are as varied in character as the elements producing them. Sometimes the life qualities of two good persons will produce a poisonous quality, which will destroy, sometimes the body, at other times the mind, and many times the morals. Volumes could be written on this vital sub- ject, but we only suggest thought, and propose a remedy. We cjnsider it wrong to point the ills of human life without showing the way to avoid them; but when we would propose a bet- ter way we must first consider and show the cause of the difficulty. Before proposing the remedy: We have said that men and women marry without know- ing whether there is proper harmony in the life qualities; and why do they ? Most people will answer this by asking, How could they know ? Nature has made abundant provision for all the needs of her children, and obedience to her laws will establish love, harmony, and happiness. The perverted state of the passions, and igno- rance on these subjects has put up a barrier be- tween men and women so high that but few can cross it without dire results. That barrier is this^. In all society relations woman has al- ways to remember her sex and the difference between herself and her brother man. She has ever to hold herself " at a proper distance," be very careful what she says, and especially about any expression of love toward a man, for fear he will think she desires sensual gratification, and that he will make advances in that direc- PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSUKE SUCCESS. 69 tion. This keeps men and women strangers to each other until after they marry, then, oh, how often they awake to the erroneous idea that all men are alike, or all women are alike, and that all there is left of that holy relation is mere ani- mal gratification. There is something more in love than the ma- jority of this generation realize. Love is free; it cannot be bound by any law except that of its own great nature; but sensual acts can and should be bound. The Bible says, "Uod is love," also, "God is good." When human nat- ure is free from the tyrant passion's chains, then love will always be good, because it will always produce beneficial results. It often pro- duces the exact opposite now, because of the above-mentioned barrier; and as soon as that is broken down, even in a small degree, young people who are full of life love are blinded to all the effects in their own natures, and cling together. Nature has provided senses that, if allowed freedom of action, would, like the normal appe- t-te, always make right selections; but if there be no choice, that is, if there be no opportunity for people to come into close and free sympa- thetic relations except with one or two only, there is no opportunity to select the right one, and they are forced to be guided in their selec- tion mainly by physical appearances. If men and women were known to be too honorable to do wrong one with another, then woman could approach the man toward whom she feels at- tracted as she would approach a most loving brother, and he could receive her as a loved sis- ter; and in the exchange of that MANLY and WOMANLY sympathy, no sensual passions blind- 70 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. ing their sensibilities, they would certainly learn if it were a brotherly and sisterly love or a more sacred love; and even if they should begin to think it to be true love when it was not, variety of experience would check their ardor and suggest carefulness, and by the purity of ABSOLUTE chastity on the part of both, the intuitions would instruct the intellect, and thus prevent all mistakes in marriage. There is a love which few have known. It is a love that opens the inner sanctuary of the soul, and when it does, the sunlight of God's great nature shines in and illuminates the mind, setting on fire ("God is a consuming fire") the whole nature of the individual, consuming all evil desires and passions, and exalting that indi- vidual to a magnificent man or woman. Sex passion is often mistaken for love, and more marriages are consummated because of this than for any other reason. There are many who marry for a home, for wealth or station; yet passion has the majority, and you, dear children, can never realize what a terrible monster he is until you have conquered him and made him subject to your intelligent will. This monster is guilty of ALL the crime, all the heartaches and sickness, in the world. Let us chain him now and make him our servant. He is strong and capable of as much good service as he has been of evil, and we can conquer him if we go to work in the right way. The right way is for you first to conquer him in your own body, and while you are doing this teach others to commence doing the same. Young man, teach some other young man or woman. Let your sistr woman know that you are more than an animal, and that you are above PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 71 all animal desires; that you have manly honor which NOTHING can tarnish, and she will al- most worship you as a god ; but do not allow her weakness to deceive you. She is worship- ing the god manifesting through you, and not you, therefore do not bind yourself too readily in marriage, for if you do, both you and the one you have chosen may regret it. But go and prepare others for a higher order of life. There are many opportunities to circulate this book, and to carry these truths into the church or wherever you can find a receptive mind ; for the more you talk about them the deeper hold they will take upon yourself and the easier it will be for you to live them. The whole tide of social life is now against these methods, and you need to know them in order to meet this opposition. A few every-day occurrences, cited to illus- trate our thought, will suffice to open the door to many discoveries, not before thought of, in the causes of evil. We have already noticed the influence of love, or life, emanations through sympathetic attraction ; but suppose that life on the one side to be depraved by sensual habits, while the other is pure and good ; then the one whose life is pure (as a consequence of which the mind will be pure also) is caused to associate with the one whose mind and life is vitiated by those habits ; the lower nature of the one whose mind and life is vitiated will not only benumb all the finer senses and abilities of the other, but will use psychological power and make every effort possible to excite the lower nature, and to infilter into the mind of that other base desires like unto its own. Any person who is living a pure life is in- stinctively repelled bv a "Libertine" of either sex ; but if the sensuafist happens to be occupy- ing a high position in society, that repulsion is 72 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. often ignored for the sake of position ; then the association rarely fails to impregnate the pure mind with evil desires. Who of you that are chaste in your habits have not met persons whose company, although you may have *been with them but a short time, has caused you to realize that you have not only been exhausted, but that your whole nature seems to have re- ceived a vitiated element which stupefies all the finer sensations and mental actions. Few indeed! !! Here may fitly be applied the old adage, "Evil communications corrupt good manners." The mental states, as well as the physical condition, of one person is sure to affect another, more or less, according to the degree of sensitiveness and the passivity of the nature. Where is there a mother or a father who would not feel very anxious about a son or a daughter being in company with those whom they knew to be immoral in their secret habits? Oh, how many anxious hours do good mothers and fathers spend when their children begin to go into society ! How many girls, and even boys, are shut up like hot-house plants, and never al- lowed to mingle with others, for fear they will be misled, the parents hoping to choose a com- panion for them, and many times doing so; and how many lives of beautiful children are wrecked by it ! One instance of this kind came before me in early life. A beautiful girl, be- longing to a wealthy family, was kept closely guarded for fear of her being misled or marrying some one beneath her station. She chanced to meet a poor young man and loved him at first sight. Her parents would not allow her to ac- cept him as a husband, desiring her to marry some one whom they had chosen. Not being able to communicate with the one she loved, through anger and desperation she eloped with PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 73 her father's colored coachman. She lived with the colored man and raised a large family of children. This circumstance made a deep im- pression on my mind, and caused me to inquire into and observe these matters more closely, and to look for their cause and cure. SEVENTH LESSON. The laws that govern the association of man and woman, and make that association a neces- sity, are neither studied nor taught ; and not- withstanding they are the most important of all, because they govern all the prenatal conditions, yes, the very nature of our children, and are the fountain from which springs all our happiness or misery, the people of the nine- teenth century know less of them than of any other ; and, what is worse, through not know- ing, their natures have become so distorted that they have no desire to hear anything about them. But we appeal to you, Mothers and Fa- thers, if you have any parental love, show it in a practical way by placing these instructions in the hands of your children. Instead of trying to prevent their reading them as some do, and will, aid us to educate them so that they may be saved from the pit into which YOU have fallen. If you read these suggestions, and your capacity to think has not been destroyed, you can but recognize their importance. The perverted condition of the general thought is so dense that but few can think except as the public mind leads them. Let us turn our at- tention to some of the common experiences of (74) PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 75 life, to some of those to which we have become so accustomed that w r e have ceased to question their cause, but content ourselves with the thought that " it is natural." The reason why young people love so well the pleasures of the ball-room is, that the harmony . of music and motion calls into harmonious ac- tion all the life forces, so that in the touch of the hand between the opposite sexes there is an interchange which neutralizes the true hunger of the sex nature, satisfying all its demands, and there is less liability of their fall. The ques- tion might be asked by some, Would not the in- tensity of the action of the life forces, produced by the dancing and promiscuous magnetic inter- change, lead to greater desire for indulgence of the sex nature? to which I would reply, that would be the case only where the mind and de- sires were in that direction before they began ; but if the desire were for purity of life, all real demands would be satisfied without thought of sex indulgence; in fact, all REAL demands are satisfied in all cases, the products of a sensual desire being left with the base-minded only. It is a well-known fact that a person filled with life can dance about a carpeted room, and coming suddenly up to a gas-burner, light it with a touch of the finger. This being true, you will readily see how much of an interchange of sex life there is in a company during an evening dance. Realizing this fact, is it not enough to make any pure-minded person shudder to see young, pure blossoms on the dancing floor with the debauchee, who is perhaps filled with loath- some disease? although such a one may be con- 76 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. sidered a very respectable gentleman (?) because of inherited wealth and station. THE LAW is this: In all nature, growth and nutrition, like attracts like ; but in generation, opposites are attracted. Even the life emana- tions of the male are attracted to the female, and vice versa ; and the same law obtains in this as in chemistry. As has already been stated, when two chemicals combine, another substance is produced. Now, in the chaste association of the sexes, each will readily discriminate between the different feelings and mental conditions pro- duced by the different persons. It will be ob- served that one will set the brain in a whirl of uncertainty and chaos; another will have the effect of giving mental clearness and intensity, causing the mind to run on until you are ex- hausted; another will cause physical activity and so excite the nervous system that you could not long endure it, and another will excite to activity the passions. Thus every person will produce effects peculiar to their own nature, and these effects are as varied as the natures of individuals. Associating in purity will furnish opportunities for each to study these effects, and decide which will be most desirable for lifelong companionship ; and will overcome all that vague ideal which so often misleads and de- ceives young people. A chemical analysis reveals the fact that the body is composed of separate elements, and that the different conditions of individuals are caused by different combinations of these elements; which gives full evidence, that in so far as the combinations of these elements differ, so must the individuals differ one from another. There- fore, we may reasonably argue that the mind qualities, as well as the life and magnetic ema- nations, are but the sublimated chemicals of the person ; and if this be true, then we should rea- PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 77 son upon the relative effect of one person upon another from the law of chemistry. All chem- ists know that there are many mild and useful elements, harmless in themselves, which, if put together, will make the most terrible explosives; others, deadly poisons; and others still will not combine, but will continue to repel each other in spite of all efforts to unite them. Men and women marry and combine the elements of their bodies to produce offspring. The query now arises, What will be the result of that chemical combination? We can find the answer in past experiences, by looking around us; but you can form a correct answer when you watch and sense the effect of that interchange which al- ways takes place between men and women in all ordinary association. For two persons to sit near each other is sufficient to create this in- terchange if they are filled with life. So that when the opportunity is given for harmonious association without that monster sensual desire being present, it is easy to discern correctly what will be the product of a more complete in- terchange. As before referred to, how often it occurs that fine-looking, active, brilliant men and women marry, and soon afterward inharmony enters ; one or the other becomes indolent, or inclined to run into vices ; and then all will blame that one and pity the other, never dreaming that there has been a chemical change wrought, and that this nature has been created through im- proper elements being combined. The time has come for these things to be un- derstood, and if they are not, the people will rebel against the laws that bind men and women together ; thereby demanding experience even to promiscuity, which will produce such a fire of passion that the reproduction of our race will cease altogether. Not only this, but too in- 78 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. tense passion destroys the mind and opens the door to all kinds of excesses. We already see tliis state of affairs rapidly gaining ground in the world. But the thought and habit of chaste associa- tion modifies the passions and precludes all in- clination for those soul-destroying vices, self- abuse and promiscuous indulgence; in fact, such association would make them impossible. Most young men are taught by those older than themselves that all there is of love, or even fondness between the sexes, is the desire for the sex relation; and yet, if they would truly anal- yze their own feelings, they would discover there a desire for that sweet harmony of the associate loie of the opposite sex. Woman's na- ture is more conjugal love than sexual desire; she wants some one to love and caress. That is the only desire of most young women, and, in fact, of ALL women. The real ideal in the heart of a young woman is a strong man on whom she can lean, and into whose keeping she can commit her life, to be controlled, guided, and protected; one in whom she can live and love continually, and who has manhood enough to control himself and her in harmony with nature's laws. Could she find such a one she would worship him and pour through his organism all the wealth of her mind and power, thus increasing his powers in every direction, and especially supplement- ing his brain power, supplying all deficiencies. This would continue through life, providing the man had sufficient control of himself to refrain from exhausting her life through mere indul- gence of the senses. For just as soon as he does this, all that pure affection is destroyed. It may, for a time, be turned into mere passion, PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSUHE SUCCESS. 79 and create a morbid satisfaction; but even this does not occur once in twenty instances; more often a complete repugnance takes its place in the woman, causing her to withdraw from the man. In a majority of modern marriages, not only is her power withdrawn, but it is all turned against him, thus becoming a constant menace to both; and many times, man, through igno- rance, seeks in more frequent indulgence for that something so valuable to him, and thereby brings on weakness, sickness, and early death. There is no one thing producing more unhappi- ness, combat, discouragement, drunkenness, crime, and premature death than the lack of knowledge on this subject, 'Truly, everything is obtainable through a chaste life, a life of self-control, and every- thing desirable is lost by indulgence. One hour of chaste love between man and woman is worth more to any couple than all the indulgence of a long life. If man pursues woman and forces himself upon her, she will hate him; but if he is kind and gentle, and is careful never to force himself upon her, but always keep her mind de- siring him, she will worship him, and give herself soul, body, and mind to him; but if her pas- sions are exhausted, she may respect, but she cannot love him. Every woman and shall I not say every man? (well, there may be exceptions) has an ideal companion which begins to take form and char- acter in their minds as soon as they arrive at puberty; the purer the habit of life, the more perfect is the image in the dream-consciousness of waking as well as sleeping hours. They be- gin to look into the faces of everyone they meet in search of that ideal, and they early recognize 80 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. something in one and another, although none come up to the standard in all respects; finally, having been brought into closer sympathy with one w'ho apparently has many of those ideal qualities, they, having 110 knowledge or teaching on these subjects, conclude that to be THE one, and frequently marry, only to awake to find it but a dream of youth. Man will then turn his mind wholly into other channels. Some plunge into business and are entirely absorbed by it; others become reckless of everything; yet others seek to gratify that unsatisfied desire in society, and in promiscuous relations: such lives, in so far as any real satisfaction or happiness is concerned, are FAILURES. Woman clings more tenaciously to that ideal than man; her nature being love, she must have some object to love. Woman, under the same circumstances, sooner awakes to her mistake than man; when she does she closes up the inner sanctuary of her soul to the man she has married and lives as in a sepulcher, or tries to divert her mind by society, dress, flirtation, etc., etc. But sooner or later she meets some man who seems to fill that ideal, and when she does, un- less the moral sentiment and love of reputation is transcendently strong, she is ab the mercy of that one. If he be strong and manly, she hides away in her soul the fact of her love, and lives in her ideal, and continues to love him through life. The great David of the Bible said, "He was conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity." The seventh commandment says, " Thou shalt not commit adultery." Is it possible to commit adultery, from the ordinary understanding of the term? Adultery means to adulterate with other qualities than the primate one. All know ' PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 81 the natural impossibility of two men associating in the production of a child. What, then, could this commandment mean? To answer this we will relate an instance which came to our notice about the time these thoughts were being con- cluded in our mind. I was introduced into a family by the brother of the wife. She had three fine children, all of whom were of very light complexion, while the mother was almost a brunette. I had not seen the husband. I said to her: "I suppose Mr. E- has a very light complexion." She answered, "No ! he is almost as dark as I am." This sur- prised and set me to thinking on the subject, and I determined to know what I could about it. One day conditions came, and I asked, "Be- fore marriage, did you not love a man who had a light complexion ?" She hesitated a moment, but, being reassured, answered, "My aunt raised me, and on coming to womanhood I promised her not to marry anyone who would take me away from her. Subsequently a gentleman came here on business from a distant city and re- mained some time. We became attached to each other, and he wished me to marry and go with him to his home; but I would not break my promise: so he returned to C- and I have never seen him since. After his departure Mr. E came to the house, and in the course of time we were married." She repeated the statement, " I have never seen the gentleman since. " Now, why did all those children resemble her first love? Because the image of that man lived in her mind and heart; she loved him. Perhaps Mr. E surfeited her with his passion, and when she wanted to love and caress him he would return animal desire, which killecl out 82 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. ' all the possibility of love that might have been born if he had been strong enough in his true manhood to control himself and her. So ALL her love went out to her first ideal, and, no doubt, was reciprocated in his inner consciousness; and when she allowed the wo- manly passion to act enough to produce offspring, her mind held before it the image of the one she really loved; and from other experiences we are prepared to say that her condition in that act, which should be most sacred, so fully af- fected him as to cause him at least to desire similar relations, and if his body was asleep it would produce a dream that he was really with this lady. Thus the vital elements of life were really exchanged between them enough to give quality to the germ. Mr. P] could furnish the material, but Mr. furnished the essential life. We know it is an undeviating law in all nature that every seed will bring forth after its kind, and we cannot believe this was an exception. In the above case there was real adultery; and this is not an exceptional case only in so far as conditions made it more conspicuous to the eye. The exceptional cases in our time are where similar conditions do not exist. Jesus said, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free "; and again, the same au- thority says, " He that comrnitteth sin is a ser- vant of sin"; and "Sin is the transgression of the law." Therein the law and the command- ment were both transgressed. But the knowl- edge herein given, if acted upon, will open the way for all to be " free " from servitude of that most tormenting character, i. e., for one to yield themselves as a constant prey to another they do not and cannot love. PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 83 Now, friends, do not mistake the object and effect of this teaching; and you that are other- wise, do not be too hasty to lay hold on this as a pretext to bias the minds of others; for these thoughts will be read and understood, and then YOU will be the one that shall stand convicted of evil. EIGHTH LESSON. We know we have been in a realm of thought so unusual that it may call out some criticism and doubt; but before you condemn, talk with persons of age and experience and see if their experience does not justify all we have said. We shall now leave this realm entirely, and in the remainder of these lessons turn our attention more di- rectly to practical methods. All the power of the mind is dependent upon the ability of the individual to concentrate and hold it upon one subject or thought as long as he wishes. Few persons realize what a woful waste of mental power is constantly going on within them. One seldom meets with a person who can con- trol his mind sufficiently to keep it from wander- ing, when he wishes to hold it to one subject or thought. The brain possesses many organs, and these organs act upon as many subjects as their peculiar functions embody. Unless brought under the control of an educated will, they are like an army of men without a captain, each acting in his own peculiar way, and differently from every other one; thus throwing the whole army into chaos each being in the other's way, if not actually antagonistic. Thus the army is rendered weaker and less effectual than one man would be alone. So it is with the various mind organs; if they are not educated to work in concert, the mind becomes practically useless. The habit of care- less reading is one of the most prolific sources of distraction of the mind. In our present civ- ilization, reading-matter is so abundant that PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 85 people are apt to acquire the habit of devouring everything 111 the shape of literature that comes in their way spending all their leisure time in reading, merely as a pastime, without any idea of protiting therefrom; this fosters the habit of forgotfulness. When talking with persons about reading light, trashy liierature, they usually answer "Oh, it does not affect me; I don't remember it any longer than the time it takes to read it." That is to say, they have drilled themselves in forgetfulness, and. what is worse, they have es- tablished within themselves the habit of think- ing to no purpose; in other words, the habit of abstraction in thought. Now, such persons can learn nothing; they are mere automatons, ma- chines that run whenever there is the slightest thing to set them in motion, obtaining no benefits, nothing but the wear and tear of the machinery. Just image to yourself the condition of the mind of a person who reads or hears expressions of thought continually, and retains nothing of it! It can be seen readily that such a mind is well drilled to uselessness; so much so, that if he reads a most important thought, it amounts to nothing to him. Again, the habit of talking a great deal, and seeking association with others just for the sake of talking and hearing about matters of no real interest, are the drills which are so common in society and in the habits of the people to-day, and which destroy the powers of the mind for usefulness. To ask people of such habits to hold their minds upon one subject for five min- utes would be useless, for they are incapable of doing so. It must have been this state of mind 86 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. that Paul spoke of in his day, that was "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowl- edge of the truth." Such persons banish so thoroughly from the mind everything they read or hear, that the most practical and important ideas suggested to them fall upon barren soil, it never entering into their consciousness that they can make any use of them. Although they may say, "Oh, that is a grand idea," that is the last of it, it being as quickly forgotten. Thus many a man and woman possessing an active, well-organized brain succeeds in passing a long life of uselessness to themselves and the world, where they might be a benefit if the mind were properly concentrated. If this were all, it would not be so deplorable, but this condition of mind is apt to throw off the bridle from all the animal propensities, and give them perfect freedom of action. They live as mere animals, living in, and being governed by circumstances, society rules, the mere imitation of the habits of others, and the psychic influence of other minds. Let such be placed outside of the re- straining influence of associates and the fear of public opinion, and they will go down to the level of their own sensuous natures, and in many cases to vice and crime: for they, or such as they, cannot be governed by the high moral in- tegrity shown in the example of others, nor by the strong will influence of other minds, for the reason that they live wholly in the senses of the animal body; therefore they resist the restrain- ing influence, although while in immediate asso- ciation they may be subject to it. Left entirely to themselves, they will throw off the yoke of bondage and descend to the level of their own lower natures. Having no ability to control PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 87 self, they are too readily psychologized and brought under the control of the most vicious and sensuous minds with which they may come in contact. Many persons in the higher circles of life who read these words, from having formed that vicious habit of thought (rather non-thought) may say, "This is very good indeed; this describes the low and vulgar very accurately, but, of course, I am above that. " But you are not. It is to you that I bring this warning. You, being sur- rounded by the most favorable circumstances, are held under the control of those circum- stances, in so far as your acts in public are con- cerned; but stop and tell me dare you ? what are your private feelings, thoughts, and desires ? Would you have me know a small portion of them for the wealth of the world? and how much less your associates in general ? Question: To what do these thoughts and desires lead ? We know that this habit of reading and talk- ing for mere pastime is not only a popular habit, but it is esteemed as cultivation by many. But how many sons and daughters squander the wealth inherited from their parents in the most reckless manner as soon as they come into pos- session of it, and through doing so become mere vagabonds or tramps? I have taken it upon myself to visit and talk with those who frequent such places as *'The Sunday Morning Breakfast Association," where hundreds of these unfortu- nates go merely to get a cup of coffee and a piece of bread, and, by careful investigation, I have found that nearly ninety per cent of them were born of well-to-do parents, and that fully twent ty-five per cent were college graduates with di- plomas; this deplorable condition having been P9 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. brought about by the above-described habits. Not that the habit of reading without thought, or talking to no purpose, will of itself produce this condition, but it produces a condition in the mind (which is all there is of the real man or woman's conscious self-hood) that will inev- itably lead to such results sooner or later. We have shown this one source of mental dis- traction in order to reach that class of minds that we have been describing. For they who think they have no need of this instruction are the ones who need it most. \ Mental concentration must become a habit, in order to make it available. To do this we first advise that persons should be very careful as to what they read, and in the second place, as to how they read. To begin with, you should read nothing but thoughts worth thinking about, and that will aid you in storing the mind with use- ful knowledge. Of course there is great diver- sity of mind, and this being so, in telling you how to read, it is difficult to give instructions that will suit all classes. Persons born between April 19th and May 20th, also those born between September 23rd and November 22nd, should carefully determine, first, as to what line of thought they wish to memorize, keeping ever before the mind the practical use they wish to make of the ideas they are collecting. As nearly all books contain as much rubbish as valuable thought, which makes it doubly important that they should know what they are looking for, they should scan the pages rapidly, repelling all ideas that are not use- ful; and when one is reached that is useful, it should be read slowly, in a musing attitude of mind; and as soon as the idea is fully impressed PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 89 upon the mind, stop reading. Then take the thought, and in imagination use it in a practical way in connection with what you have previous- ly learned on that or similar subjects. In order to illustrate this; suppose you are studying chemistry; when you have grasped an idea, sit back, close the eyes, and in imagination make the experiment in every way that you can im- agine it could be made useful. Better still, if the opportunity presents for you to make a prac- tical experiment, do so; but if it does not, doing it perfectly in imagination will impress it upon your mind almost as completely as if you had worked it out in practice. Be careful not to carry along too many lines of study. Take, as far as you can, one line, and ultimate that be- fore you begin another. Persons born at any other period of the year, before they begin on any specific line of study, should first decide in the mind, after careful thought and self-examination, what character of knowledge would be most useful and desir- able to them. To do this it is necessary to take a great deal of time alone, away from the men- tal atmosphere of all persons, as far as possible. Sit quietly and focalize the mind upon the va- rious spheres of usefulness occupied by men with whom you have been brought in contact. Bring up the various spheres of action they have been thrown into, and determine whether they would suit you. All young persons should have an opportunity of carefully studying the nature and require- ments of every department of business, by going where such business is carried on, thus eu- abling them to form accurate conclusions both as to what business pursuits they desire to follow, 90 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. and, what is more important, as to the practical value they will gain. Of course, this would take considerable time, but not so much as a college education in a profession for which they have neither inclination nor adaptability. There is usually too much haste to fit children for some profession, and parents are too apt to choose for the child without properly counseling its desires and adaptability for what they have m view. Where such is the case, the child hiving no idea of the value of the knowledge received, simply studies to recite the lesson and when done, it is thrown off as effectually in many cases as if it had never been learned. It is an old adage " You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." You may send a child to school or college and compel it to memorize its lessons, but you cannot com- pel it to retain them, much less to receive the p acticai value of something for which it is not adapted and which it will not use. Such educa- tion amounts to nothing but the creation of a habit, of either mere imitativeness or distraction of the mind. When the proper vocation is selected, then the mind will have a definite object, and a good and sufficient reason for searching after knowledge and retaining it. The human mind is so consti- tuted that it cannot search after and retain ideas for which it has no conscious use. Whatever means can be employed to produce a consciousness of the need of knowledge will strengthen the powers of concentration and re- tention. A person of a scientific or philosophic turn of mind should read only to search out suggestive thoughts to think over and work out. This PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 91 leads the mind into originative habits; which is i-eally the only method of study that will aid in the individualization of one's self. We believe that no person should accept as final any scien- tific conclusion drawn by another; but we should always receive it and hold it subject to our own tests. We know, of course, that we should all profit by the experiences of others; but we should always hold them tacitly, until we have fully proven in our own minds that the conclusions drawn from those experiences are correct. METHODS TO DEVELOP CONCENTRATIVENESS. Practice reading where people are talking around you. The greater the difficulty in read- ing and understanding under such circum- stances, the greater the need in your case for persistence. Remember, it is not enough to read the words; you should take some subject-matter in which you are interested, and, as I said before, sit where others are talking, make your mind per- fectly oblivious to everything except that which you are reading, and read to understand. I would advise that you persist in it, even though you find it necessary to re-read a sentence many times. Hold your mind to it, and continue. Get your mind so firmly fixed on the thought you are reading that if anyone should speak to you, you could answer and go right on with the thought without being disturbed by the inter- ruption. This will aid you to take the second and further step of carrying on a consecutive line of thought wherever you are, independent of circumstances, but the mind must be edu- cated to do this* 2 ^RACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. One of the best methods for educating the mind in concentrativeuess is to take all your spare time alone in your room and write down thoughts that will be of practical value to others. You will find by the effort to serve others that you will serve yourself most. Ask yourself How can I serve others to the best advantage ? Cast about among your associates and acquamt- ances, see where they are laboring at a disad- vantage, and how they are bringing upon them- selves trouble, anxiety, and sickness. Search out from within yourself the remedy for such difficulties, or in other words, a proper course of life which will remedy the evil, then write those thoughts out clearly and practically, and you may depend upon it, if you have suc- ceeded in getting a line of thought that is needed by the people, a way will be opened for you to place it before them. But here we meet two classes of minds; one, that is too reticent about offering his thought to the public, no matter how valuable it may be; and another, too ready, and even persistent, in presenting premature and therefore worthless thought for public notice. By careful consideration of the subject you will readily discern to which class you belong. It is a law in nature that wherever there is a need there is also a supply. The evidence of this is found in the fact that there is a demand for that which is needed; and if you have it, it will be acceptable, even sought for, and there will be no difficulty in your being enabled to serve thereby an important use. . Remember this; if no one else derives any profit from your best efforts to help them, you will be forming the habit of consecutive, orderly, and reasonable thought. PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 93 This is the prerequisite to genuine manhood and a successful career in any department of Lfe. Without this, no man can rise above the com- mon level of the masses, but will remain as a mere server in a menial sphere. Remember that mind is the most valuable of all things in the world, and that the mind with the greatest capacity and the greatest willing- ness to be of use to the many is the one that is always sought for to occupy high and important spheres of usefulness, and the one that will be honored and remunerated accordingly. The habit of carrying on a line of thought in your own mind, weighing and balancing every- thing accurately, is very essential to the devel- opment of mind-power. A few illustrations may be of profit to you. If you are proposing to build anything say a house build it first, completely and perfectly, in your own imagina- tion, lay the foundation, measure each piece, and go right through the process of building it, as if literally doing so. Measure all the lumber in your mind, making a memorandum with pen- cil and paper as to how much of each kind you will require lengths, widths, etc. Thus go through every part mentally until you see the house complete and perfect. Then if you wish to draw a plan of it afterwards, you are prepared to do so. If it is a machine you purpose to build, calculate mentally how many revolutions each wheel will be necessitated to make, what their sizes, etc. ; going through the entire process of building it, and the calculation of speed, until you see the machine standing perfect before your imagination. Then hold it before the mind, go over it a second time, and make sure that it is perfect, searching out all deficiencies. 94 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. Again, if you are going into a business where book-keeping is essential, place your mind upon the object to be attained by the keeping of the books. You know that the object of book-keep- ing is to know accurately where all goods go to; how much is derived from the sale of same; how much protit is gained thereby, and how every man's account stands that deal with you. Then the question is clear before you mind, How can I accomplish this? With this thought clearly defined in your own mind, you can take up any one of the varied systems of book-keeping, and learn it, simply by carefully examining the methods by which results are obtained. When you are looking for results, the methods by which to obtain those results present themselves to your mind with- out difficulty. Then the only thing requisite after you have gone over the minutiae is to take up each branch in your imagination, with the thought in view of how to obtain correct results, and carry it out to its ultimate. This method of concentrating and holding fixedly to whatever interests, with the thought in mind of methods for accomplishing desired results, will make everything easy to you. By being able to concentrate and hold tho mind upon a given subject or thought without wavering, powers are attainable transcending the ordinary idea of what is possible. It was well known to most ancients, that as soon as a thought concerning anything, and a knowledge of where that thing belonged, came to one, by concentrating the mind upon it and holding it there steadfastly, all the knowledge concerning it could and would be obtained. By careful consideration and application of PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 9- these truths, you will be able to think, also to form the habit of thinking from your own voli- tion; that is, to think when you wish to think; and you will also know how to stop when you wish to. This, by the way, is just as essential iii some instances as to know how to think. Many a person has destroyed himself through inability to stop thinking. It must be borne in mind that it takes as much vitality to think as it does to do physical labor. It is therefore just as essential to be able to rest from thought when one wishes to do so, as it is to be able to stop work when one is tired. Study the methods by which you begin and carry on the work of thought; also the methods by which you can stop thinking. Observe the difference between the thoughts of a concentrated mind, and those that arise in the feelings. For instance; after you have been intense in thought for a time, quickly turn from it and take recreation. Play and amuse your- self in mirthfulness, but as you do so, observe the change in your feelings and mentality. See if you can, in the midst of your mirthfulness, change instantaneously to a condition of thought- fulness and then again back to mirthfulness, observing carefully the process by which these things are done. This will open the door mor quickly and directly to self-knowledge than any- thing that you can do. We would advise that you not only observe the method by which you think or stop think- ing, but also observe carefully every sensation, feeling, and emotion of the body, searching care- fully to find the cause. Examine closely and see if you cannot discover the thought that pro* 96 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. duced the sensation or emotion; also the thought that will change or stop it. Herein will be found the keys to perpetual health; for the mind ori- ginally created the body, and the educated mind is capable of perpetuating it. After ascertaining the thought that produces a sensation and the method by which you change or stop it, you will be able linally to determine the cause of disease by the changes of thought and feeling. True it is, as one of the ancients said, "Man only begins to live when he begins to think," for until then he is but an animal. As we stated in a former chapter, all pleasures arising in the senses, unguided by the edu- cated mind according to the law of use, will inevitably bring pain; but all pleasures arising in the thought of a well-ordered mind are like those of the angels, bringing lasting profit and pleasure. By applying the methods we have given for conquering the controlling power of habit in everything, even to the generative principle, and by the retention of the life forces generated in the body, all the capacities of mind and body will be increased, intensified, and illuminated, so that the most ordinary person applying these instructions will become transcendently superior to the most highly organized person not doing so; and will be enabled to see that life has an object worth living for. THE NEW MEMORY The reason we say new memory, is because the old, or the memory which has characterized the world in the past, is the same that is mani- fest in. the animal world; which is wholly a PRACTICAL METHODS TO OSU11E SUCCESS. 97 thing of the senses, is limited by the amount of impression made upon the consciousness, and is governed either by fear or desire, which are the prompters of attention. Man has now risen aUuve the point of being controlled wholly by the animal passions and desires, and in so far as he has, he liiids that his memory fails him. Again, all persons are driven by the force of circumstances with a rapidity far in excess of anything in the history of the past; so much more, indeed, that persons in the ordinary spheres of usefulness now have as many tilings to retain in memory and give attention to in one day as our ancestors of a hundred years ago nad in one week. The keenest and most practical business minds have intuitively discovered the new mem- ory process, which is based on the order and re- lation of one thing to another; that is, it is found that a man who is in business, and has a great variety of things to attend to, is necessi- tated to have everything in perfect order; other- wise many things will be overlooked. The pro- cesses that we have given you in former lessons for strengthening the mind and increasing its capacities lay a substantial foundation for this new memory process, which is based entirely upon the law of order. Order is the great factor in all nature; every plant and animal, and even the universal mind, is distinguished and diversified by this law: for instance, if we plant a kernel of corn in the ground, from the time it is up out of the ground until it is fully matured, its form expresses its distinctive features, distinguishing it from all other plants. The human mind has become accustomed to 98 PRACTICAL METHODS TO IJSSURE SUCCESS. distinguishing the quality and nature of all things by the form. This has been carried to great extremes in the human mind; to such ex- tremes, in fact, that if we look into the face of a man or a woman, the form, color, and even the differing changes of expression are recog- nized, and the disposition producing them de- fined. Were it not for this undeviating law of order in nature, such things would be impossible. As this is the principle in nature with which we have become most familiar, it is the strongest faculty of the human mind; and with a little observation of its character and methods of ac- tion, and with culture, it can be developed to a marvelous extent. As we lay the foundation for memory, we ne- cessarily lay the foundation for the development of powers that heretofore have been associated with the marvelous or magical. The old maxim, "A place for everything, and everything in its place," comes in just here, as a foundation for making a clear mind and a retentive memory. But it must be carried beyond the merely ma- terial things that we are handling and have about us; it must have special relation to the mental process. Whatever sphere of life you now occupy or expect to occupy, study to know all about it in every particular, classifying every branch, so that everything relating to it will be to your mind as a beautiful picture, whose con- figuration can be drawn up before the mind's eye at any time, and any and all parts, down to the smallest minutiae, be seen with the imagina- tion. When this picture is thus perfected in your mind, or even while in process of perfection, PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 99 whenever a new idea is obtained, call up the picture and put the addition to it, and impress upon your consciousness what it is that you have put there, and what use it is to serve. You can then at any time instantly bring the picture be- fore your mind, and see in your imagination any and all things which you have known. This is memory. Now, a person may make as many pictures in this way as they have diverse lines of thought. If the pictures become numerous, to facili- tate the process of calling up the image of the one you want, you can make one central figure, with all the others mere branches of that one, and arrange them around it in unchangeable order; then all you will need to remember is the order in which they are arranged. Your mental vision can instantly perceive the one that you wish to call up, and as soon as this is done, the mind will quickly grasp all the minor points pertaining to it, and the thing that you wish to recall will be before the mind's eye as soon as you think of the image. These memory pictures will involuntarily unite with the cen- tral one we have just referred to. This central one will be like a person's home. It will ex- press the real character of the person and his business qualifications, and will be, in fact, a picture of the sphere of life for which he is best adapted, Ivi^v are asking, for what sphere of use they are be^ adapted. This method will answer the questio*. beyond doubt. Having established the habit o^ associating everything that you know, and every -\ew idea you have obtained with one of these pictures or diagrams, then you will have arranged your mental fac- ulties in an orderly condition for, 100 PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. RECOLLECTION. (Tfe-collection.) The word " recollection " carries with it the idea of again calling in memories of occurrences, or thoughts concerning occurrences \vhich have happened. The collection of thoughts is the ordinary mental action, and the re-collection of thoughts is the process of calling them back after they have gone out, and is the method of mem- ory. The word "memory" has a different meaning. To remember a thing or occurrence, we first recall (call back) to the mental consciousness: then you remember the picture; that is, you put member to member in its order as it oc- curred. Thus you perceive that the process of mentality is the calling in of thoughts, or cre- ation of the same and putting them together in an orderly structure, which is an image an imagination; that is, an image made of some- thing new that you are thinking about, or of something that has already occurred. Now, it is plain that these two processes of mind are those which we wish to handle. One is the memory or order in which everything nat- urally belongs. The other is the calling in, collecting thoughts concerning things, laws or principles, as material out of which to build something. Now, that something which is built may be the rebuilding of something that has been built by another mind, which is merely imitation; or it may be the creation of some- thing that has not before existed (in so far as is known to the individual), which denotes the originative or creative mind. When you have comprehended the previous lesson clearly, and have your mentality in order, PRACTICAL METHODS TO INSURE SUCCESS. 10] (that is, diagram or picture,) then the utility and beauty of these thoughts will be clearly manifest to your mind, and you will be in a condition to begin to handle these faculties at will, as easily as a mechanic handles his tools. " Room, room for the freed spirit! Let it fling Its pinions, worn with bondage, once more wide; And if in earth or air there is a thing To stay its soarings, let the heavens chide Away the silken bondage of young dreams. No more in gentle dalliance I '11 lay My hand upon my lute, like one who seems In half unconscious idleness to play; " But all there is in me of loving soul, Of high, proud daring or intrinsic trust, Shall not be subject longer to control; For my desire is upward, and I must Spurn back the fetters of the slothful past As a loosened captive tramples on his chain; From now henceforth my destiny is cast, And what I will, I surely shall attain. " Onward and upward, strengthening in their flight, My thoughts must all be eagle thoughts,' nor bend Their pinions downward, until on the height That nurses Helicon's pure fount I stand. Onward my soul! and neither shrink nor turn; Be cold to pleasure and be calm to pain ; However much the yielding heart may yearn, Listen not; listen not: it is vain. "Upward; * a feeling like the sense of wings,' A proud, triumphant feeling, buoys me up, And my soul drinks refreshment from the streams That fill forever Joy's enchanted cup. A glorious sense of power within me lies; A knowledge of my yet untried strength; And my impatient spirit sighs For the far goal, to be attained at length." (THE END.) THE ESOTERIC. A 50-pag'e monthly magazine devoted wholly to methods of self-culture and attainment of added powers of body, mind and spirit. It deals scientifically with the laws of nature and their relation to human life. It has no alliance with any class or sect of people, but aims to give that which will be of the greatest possible use to all, carefully avoiding- points of doctrine that would be liable to give offense to any. All the laws and methods taught are demonstrated facts, not experiments. We accept as a foundation of all, the following- : God is the Creator of all thing's ; therefore, all laws, physical, mental or spiritual, are but the potency of the divine mind. To know that mind (or the laws or methods pro- duced by its action, which is divine), is the high- est physical, mental and spiritual attainment of man. Because of this we study every depart- ment of nature, and endeavor to give to the world such facts as we deem most advantageous in the development of our race. Published by THE ESOTERIC PUBLISHING Co. , Applegate, Placer County, California, formerly of 478 Shawm ut Avenue, and 1658 Washington Street, Boston, Mass. Subscription, $1.50 per year, in advance; for- eign subscriptions, $1.75. T. A. WILLJSTON, H. E. BUTLER, Manager. Editor. The Seven Creative Principles. BY H. E. BUTLER. This book should be read by every stu- dent aud thinker. It explain* the laws of nature in a scientific and lucid manner. It makes clear tnc process of volution and development and holds the reader spell- bound with its simple truths. Illustrated vritiTi colored plates and portrait of author. Bound in cloth. Price $1.5O. The Narrow Way of Attainment, A course of lectures delivered before .;he Society Esoteric by H. E. Butler. Tliis work teaches not only the methods em- ployed by the old Egyptian Masters to develop soul-consciousness, but makes plain the higher cult taught by Jesus the Christ. Every person who will follow the simple rules laid down in this work, -will develop mind and soul powers that will permit them to explore realms unknown to material man. Bound in cloth. Price, $1.00. ESOTEKIC EDUCATION. This is a work of Practical Suggestion ; from the German. Cloth. Price 50 cents. ESOTERIC PUB. CO., APPLEGATc. PLACER CO., CALIFORNIA. BIOLOGY, [SEVENTH EDITION,] A New, Scientific, Exact and Easy Method of Delineating Char- acter, Diagnosing Disease, Determining Mental, Physical and Business Qualifications, Conjugal Adaptability, etc., from Date of Birth. ByH.E,BUTLEB, ILLUSTRATED With Seven Plate Diagrams and Tables of the Moon and Plan- ets from 1820 to 1900. Price, - $5,00, Send for Descriptive Catalogue, ESOTERIC PUB. CO. Appiegaie, Placer County. California.