C O NT E NTS
.
INTR ODU C TI ON
5
‘
IT S
TRAI NI NG O F T H E PE R S P E C TIV E FAC UL TI ES
M E M O RY A ND H O W T O D EV E L O P
A SSO C IATI ON O F I DEAS
I MAG INATI ON A ND H O W T O C UL TIVAT E I T
H O W T O C ON C EN T RAT E T H E A TT EN TI ON i
PSY CH O PHY S I CAL D EV EL O P M EN T
TH E L OS T A R T S O F C H I L DH OO D
MIND AND
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M y mind t o m e
Epi c t e tus
’
Th e mind s
the measure of the
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a man thinketh in
so
is
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—
m am
Wa t t s
As
k ingdom is
a
—
he
J e s us
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h is
heart
,
.
The man d o es not c ontain the
min d $ the m i nd c ontains
—
m a m So cra t e s
.
In the universe t here is nothing
great but man $ in the man
th ere is nothing great but
—
m i n d A ris t o t le
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I
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I N T R O D U C TI O N
.
N the b rie f arti cles whi ch
will make up thi s se r ies
my obje ct will be to pre
sent in the Sho rtest
plainest a nd mos t pra c
tica l manner method s
which in my experien c e and tha t of
many others who have be e n mo re o r
less un d e r my influen ce have s eemed
to b e c ondu c ive to in c reased men t al
efficien cy
It is sai d that there is n o r oyal road
to l e a rm n g ; and While in a sense this
is true it is also true that in all things
even in mind trainin g there is a right
—
way a nd a wr o ng way o r rather there
is one r igh t way and the re a re a thou
sand wrong ways
Now after trying it seems to me
mo s t o f the wrong ways I h ave found
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5
I N TR ODUC TI O N
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wha t I b elieve to b e the right way ; and
in the s e articles I Shall try to expound
it to you Y ou need not expe c t an
essay on psychology or a series of dis
“
fa culties of the
s e rt a t i o n s upon the
mind ; for there will be nothing of the
kind O n the other hand I shall s o
far as possible avoid text book terms
—
and the text book tone both of whi ch
are quite absurd and quite futile I
Shall try to give you bare fa cts I Shall
try to give you plain directions
stripped of all verbal and pseudo s cie n
t i fi c fl um m e ry for the acquisition of
men t al a c tivity and m ental supremacy
W R C LA TSO N MD
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M I N D A N D IT S M A T E R I A L
I RST
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of all before you
are able to think at all
you must have some
thing to think about Y o u
must have some mental
“
stock in trade
An d
this men t al sto ck in trade you c an g ain
only through the senses The appear
ance of a tree the roar of the o cean the
odor of a rose the taste of an orange
the sensation you e xpe r1e n ce in han
—
dl in g a piece of satin all these are so
much material helping to form your
“
—
stock of mental images
the c ontent
of the consciousness as the scholastic
psychologists c all it
Now all these millions and millions
o f facts which make up our mental stock
—
—
in trade the material of thought are
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SECRE TS
OF
g aine d th r o ugh the senses sight hea r
ing s mell taste tou ch and S O on
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VA LUE
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TH E
PERCEP TI O N S
In
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a re cent article in a leading
F ren ch s cientifi c j ournal a well known
s c ientist Dr A P eres has presented
s ome ideas which are s o thoroughly in
ac c ord with my own observations ex
tending over many years that I yield
to the temptation to quote Dr P eres
first makes note of modern degeneracy
in this respect I append a free trans
l a t l o n of a few extrac ts which seem to
me especiall y worthy of attention $
Have we naught but arms and
legs ? Have we not also eyes and ears ?
And are not these latter organs n e ce s
sary to the use of the former ? Exe r
cise then not the m uscles only bu t the
senses that c ontrol them
Thus was
a c eleb rated philosopher wont to ex
press himself Nevertheless when we
measure a cuteness o f vision we find
th a t it is b e c omin g weak e r ; h ar dn ess
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ME N TA L S UP REM A CY
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of hearing is on the in c re a s e ; we su ff e r
daily from la ck of skill in workmen
in domestics in ourselves ; a s to taste
—
and smell they are used up thus do
the inevitable laws of atavism a ct
“
The trouble is that despite R ous
we have always
s e a u s objurgations
paid too little attention to the hygiene
and education of the senses giving all
our care to the development of physical
strength and Vigor ; so that the general
term physical edu c ation finally has
assumed the restri cted meaning o f
mus cular education
“
The senses which put us in c on t a c t
with exterior objects have nevertheless
a primordial importance
SO
great is their value that it is the inter
est and even the duty of man to pre
serve them as a treasure an d not to
do anyth ing which might d e r an ge their
wonderful mechanism
The len gt h and exa ctness o f the
Sight the skill and sureness of the
hand the deli c a cy o f the heari ng a r e
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of value to arti s t and art isan alike b y
the perfection and rapidity of work
that they insure Nothi ng em b ar
rasses a man s o traine d ; he is s o to
speak ready for anything His culti
v a t e d senses have become for him tools
of universal use The more perfect
his sensations the more justness and
clearness do his ideas acquire The
education of the senses is the primary
form of intelle c tual education
“
The influence of trainin g on the
senses is easily seen
The adroit
mark sman never m l s s e s h is aim ; the
savage per c ei ve s a n d r e c ognizes the
slightes t rustling ; c ertain blind per
son s k n o w c olors b y touch ; the preci
sion o f jugglers is surprising ; the
gourme t re c ognizes the quality of a
wine among a thousand others ; odor
is with chemists one o f the mos t s ensi
tive rea ctions
“
The sense s Opera te in two ways
eith er passively when the organ solely
fr om the fact that it is s ituate d on the
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ME N TA L S UP RE M A C Y
.
urface of the body and independently
of the will is acted upon by exterior
bodies ; or actively when the organ
directed and excited by the will goes
so to speak in advance of the body to
receive the impression P as s ively we
s e e hear touch smell ; actively we o b
serve listen feel sni ff By the e ff ect
of the attention and by arranging our
organs in certain ways our impres
sions become more intense
“
The impressions made by exterior
objects on the sense organs the nerves
and the brain are followed b y certain
mental operations These two things
are often confounded We are in the
habit of sayin g that our senses often
d eceive us ; it would be more just to
re c ogni z e that we do not always inter
pret correctly the data that they fur
nish us The art of interpretation
may b e learned
“
The intuitive concrete form given
nowadays to educ ation c ontributes to
t h e tr ainin g of the senses b y d evelop
s
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SECRE TS
OF
in g a tte n t i o n the h ab i t of ob se rva
ti o n but this does not suffi ce To per
f e ct the senses and make each of them
in it s own perce ptions a cquire all p o s
Sible force and precision they must be
subjected to special exercises appro
r
i
a
t
and
graded
A
new
gymnasti
c
e
p
must thus b e created in all its de tails
There are of course a certain num
“
ber of s pecific or racial impressions
and tendencies that come down through
what is c alled heredity ; b ut these are
merel y i nstin cts and impulses and
while they have an in fluen ce upon the
person s character a n d habits of
thought they do not in themselves
provide a c tual m a terial for thought
If you c an imagine a person who
w a s blind and deaf who could not
smell or taste or feel or move ; he would
be quite unable to think for he woul d
have in his mind nothing about which
to think The material of thought
the mental stock in trade is gained
through the senses ; and in an y ra t ional
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M E N TA L S UPRE M A C Y
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eff ort to train the mind w e must b egin
—
by training the senses the percep
tions as they are more a ccurately
—
called s o that we may s e e hear
smell taste a n d feel with more pre c i
sion and keenness Trained percep
tions are the very foundatio n of all
mental power
O ur system of training for mental
suprema cy will begin then with a
brief study of the perceptions or
senses and the methods b y whi ch we
may gain the power of seeing more
clearly listening more intently of
feeling more delicately and in general
of developing the perceptive powers
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M EM ORY
A ND
I TS USES
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But the perceptions are of little value
unless we remember what we have per
Y ou may have read all the
c e ive d
wise books ever written you may have
traveled the wide world over ; you may
have had all kinds of interesting and
—
unusual experiences ; but unless you
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SECRE TS OF
re mem b e r W h a t you have read what
you have seen and what you have done
—you will have no real use of it all
“
Y o u will hav e gained no mental sto ck
in trade no material by the employ
ment of whi ch you may hope to a chieve
menta l suprema cy It will be n e ce s
sary then for us to study not only
methods of develop i ng power of per cep
tion b ut the means by which percep
tion may be retained and re c alled at
will
ca n
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T HE
P O W ER
OF
A SS O C I A T IN G
But the memory itself is not enough
I have known people of unusual powers
of memory who could not talk write
“
—
or think well who were like the
bookful blockhead l gn o ra n t l y read
with loads o f learned humor in his
head
but who in spite of all their
experien c e and their recollection of it
had nothing to write nothing to s a y
—
O ne
So memory is not enoug h
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ME N TA L
S UP RE M A CY
.
must h a ve the power o f putting memo
—
ries together o f analyzing c ompar
ing c ontrasting and associating memo
—
ries until the entire mass of memo
“
ries whi ch form the c ontent of the
is wrought in t o one
c ons ciousnes s
—
splendid homogeneous whole a mas s
of images ea ch one of which is inti
mately connected with many others
and all of whi ch are under instant com
—
mand of the c entral sovereign the
will
It will be ne cessary then to give
special attention to this most impor
tant matter of analyzing c omparing
and grouping mental images O f all
the activities of the mind this faculty
“
c alled the power o f association is the
one most dire ctly c onducive to what is
gene ral ly c alle d a b rilliant mind
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I M A G IN A T I O N
A ND
JUD G M ENT
.
The possession of trained percep
tions of a retentive memory and great
powers of asso ciation are of enormous
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15
value b ut only when c om b ined wi th
—
another faculty im a gm a t io n and im
a g m a t i o n is merely the power of re c o m
b I n I n g c ertain memories in su ch a
fashi on that the combination is new
Imagination is a faculty of the highest
possible importan c e Every splendid
achievement every invention every
b us I n e s s enterprise every gr e at poem
or b ook or picture has been not only
con ceived but c ompleted in imagination
before it be c ame actualized in fact
A n d then it is necessary to be able
to c ompa re the mental pictures gath
ered b y the percept ions remembered
and classified by memory and associa
tion s o as to determine the relation of
these memories t o each other and their
application t o othe r ideas or mental
images And this valuable faculty of
the mi nd is c alled judgment
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N ECESSI TY
FOR
C O N CEN TRA T I O N
.
Now in orde r t o d o well in any o n e
of the things of which I have been writ
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16
M E N TA L
S UP REM A C Y
.
ing it is necessary that the entire mind
should be engaged upon that one thing
To do anything well one must do only
that th i ng at that time And t his is
parti cularly true of the action of the
mind The focusing of the entire
powe r of the mind upon one thing is
c ommonly known as con centration or
“
the power of attention
S o essential is this power of c o n ce n
t ra t in g the entire m i nd upon the task
in hand that it is not too mu ch to say
that no great degree of mental power
c an eve r be gained without c on centra
ti on SO in our study of the practical
methods by which mental supremacy
may be a chieve d we shall pay special
attention to the development of this
invaluable fa culty
But in order to do a nything with the
mind $o r with the body either for that
matter ) one must choose must wish
to do that thing And this choice this
decision to do something is called the
will The powe r to ch o o s e qui ckly and
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«
d e ci s i ve ly a n d to a ct v i g o r o us l y u p o n
that ch o I ce 1s a r ather ra r e thing He
who h a s that po we r is s ai d t o h a ve a
s t ron g will
This question o f w ill a n d it s d e ve l op
ment is most import a n t Th e gre a t
di ff eren ce b etween men
b e tw e e n
s tr ong men an d weakl ing s b e tw een
th e honored and the disregarde d b e
—
tween the masters a n d the serfs is
will A man of s tr on g, unfa l te r ing
will i s sure to su ccee d eve n if his a bili
ties are medio c re ; but a man of weak
will no matter what h is abilities i s
not likely to achieve either su cces s or
honor among men
A S a great psychologist h a s said $
The education of the will is really of
far greater importan c e than that of
“
the intelle ct
And again $
Without
thi s $will $ there c an b e neither inde
n
nor
firmness
nor
individual
e
d
n
c
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p
Ik Marvel says $
ity of chara cter
“
R esolve is what makes a man mani
fest
Will make s me n giants
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o ur e ff
orts to tr a i n t he powe rs of
th e mind therefore it will be n e ce s
s a ry to make a study of s o me of the
p rin c iple s aff e ctin g our rel a tions with
othe r people ; and s o we shal l in t he
sam e pra cti c al and straightforwa rd
way dis cuss sympath y a d aptability
an d s elf c ommand
The important
question of verb a l expression a s applie d
to b o th speech and writing will al s o
re ce i ve Spe cial attention
In
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M EN TA L A C TI O N A U NI T
.
In co n cl us 10 n you must no t fo rget
th a t a lthough I sp e ak of the variou s
men t al a c ts a s if they were separate
th is is done only for c onvenien c e of
dis cu ss ion and des c ription A S a mat
—
t e r o f f a c t the mind is one thing a
“
u ni t Al l the v ari ous fa culties a c t
toge th e r c ons t an tly O ne c anno t re
memb e r wha t a n oak tree looks l ike
u n l ess he h a s c areful l y obse rve d a n
He c annot imagine an oak
o a k t r ee
tree un l es s h e r ememb e rs it He c an
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MEN TAL
S UPREMA CY
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not judge of the di ff eren ce b e tween an
oak tree and a maple tree unless he
can I magine a picture of the two Si d e
by side And he cannot do any one of
these things without attention ; nor
again can he con centrate his attention
without an act of will
S o we see that the v ariou s a cts o f
the mind per c eption memory imagi
nation judgment attention and will
—
are inextricably interdependen t and
that one act involves all the rest
Happily this makes our task all the
easier and more interesting In this
series I Shall begin by giving you some
plain practical advice as to the devel
—
o pm e n t o f the per ceptive power s
the
ability to s e e hear feel taste and
smell more e fli cie n t l y But with every
moment of practi ce such as I advise
you will also be develo ping a more
exact and acute m emory a finer and
more expansive imagination a greater
power concentration and a s tro nger
will When we come to dis cuss the
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SECRE TS OF
cul tiva ti o n o f the will power the e xe r
cises will require the use of the per
c e p t i o n s the memory the imagination
and other faculties S o you s e e in
developing the mind in any one phase
of its activity you are at the same time
and by the same act adding to the
power and usefulness of the en tire
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,
M E N TA L S UPREM A CY
.
T R A I NI NG O F T H E P E RC E P TI V E
FA C ULTI E S
t he
P ROVERB
e ye s o
f
.
t hin gs
.
—H INDOO
.
HA T
fa r s ee i ng genius
Goe the o n ce said that
he regarded himself as
the center of all phenom
ena a sort o f focus to
which c o nverge d every
thin g in the universe out of whi ch
—
came Goe the He also claimed that
the real st a nd a rd for all things in life
w a s s imp l y the mass of sensations
that were appre ciable to the human
senses
In other words Goethe understood
perfectly the now widely recognized
—
and widely ignored educational pri n
c ipl e that all mental a c tivity is based
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—
perc ep tions upon
up o n th e
the th i ngs
we s e e an d hear and feel an d tas t e an d
smell
A S well migh t y o u try to bui ld a
house without w oo d o r b ricks or sto n e
o r m o rtar as to try to think without
“
a good stock in trade of imp r essions
images and memories g athere d b y the
senses and the per c epti o ns
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B LURRED
M EN TA L P I C TURES
.
O ne of the never failing mark s
of
the common mind the untraine d in e f
fi cient mind is that the mental pi c
tures it c ontains are c onfused b lurred
inexa c t A person with su ch a mind
will tell you that an auto c ar just
“
passed him on the road
W a s it a
big red car ? you ask Well he does
not quite know It might have been
red and yet he guesses it w a s bla ck ;
ossibly
it
was
gray
How
many
peo
p
ple were in it ? Three or four or five
four he thinks Ask him t o give
you an outline of a book he h a s re a d
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MENTAL S UP REMA C Y
.
or a p l ay he has seen an d he is equ ally
And so on
h elpless
S uch a person is the typical in e ffi
c ient Y ou will find thousands of
these in e fficie n t s filling unimportant
places in shops and office s And even
the trivial duties of su ch positions they
are unable to perform properly They
cannot read a line of shorthan d notes
and be sure of it s meaning ; they c an
not add a column of figures and be
certain o f the result without repeated
S u ch unfortunates are the
ch e ck in gs
“
flotsam and jetsam of the c ommer
—
the unfit who in the strug
c i a l world
gle for existence must necessarily be
crowded out by those whose mental
processes are more positive and more
exact
The extent to which the perceptions
can be developed is almost incredible
I know personally a bank teller who
can detect a counterfeit coin without
a glance at it judging only by weight
feeling a nd ring Another man of
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SECRETS
OF
my a c qu a in t an ce make s a large sala ry
merely by his ab ility to ju dge te a
—
through it s fl a vo r a tea taster
I
know an or chestra c ondu ct or wh o in
the full fortissimo o f his sixty pie c e
b and will dete ct a sl i ght error of any
one performer I c ould give many
other in s tan ce s within my own e xpe ri
ence of r emark abl e p o we rs of tr a i n e d
per ception
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T HE
PERC EP TI O N S A RE E A SI LY
T RA IN ED
.
F o r the en cour agement of those wh o
are aware that they d o not get the b est
possi b le s ervi c e f rom their sense s an d
—
perceptions that they d o not s e e all
there is to be seen hear exa ctly and
—
distinctly an d s o o n for the b e n e fi t
of these I may say at once that the
and perceptions are easily
s enses
trained A month or two of discipline
such as I am about to describe will
s h o w most marked and gratifying de
In mos t cases a few
ve l o pm e n t
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26
'
SECRE TS
OE
an d fa r r angin g the m as s of p e rc ep
tions are memories whi ch t he child
carries ove r from infan cy and chil d
hood into youth and adult ag e the
greater other things b eing equal will
be his intelle c tual po s s Ib il it ie S
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M OST O F Us A RE S EN SORI LY S TARVED
.
Most of us are grossly defi c ient in
mental images At a test made n o t
long ago in Boston ei ghty pe r c ent o f
the chil d ren h ad no ide a what a b ee
hive w a s like Over h al f o f th em h a d
no c on c ep tion o f a Sh eep, a n d ove r
nine tenths h a d n o not io n o f the a p
r
e
a
a
n
ce
or
na
t
ure
growin
g
w
h
e
a
t
O
f
p
O f c ourse th ey k new o f o th e r th in gs
whi ch the c ountry b red ch il d w ould n o t
know ; but fa n cy the los s in the im a g
in a t io n of o n e to wh om t he f o l l o wl n g
l ines a r ouse n o VI SI On of a pure rus ti c
ma tut inal s ce n e
.
.
,
.
,
The b re e zy
b uilt
ca ll o f I n c e n s e -b rea t hin g
s h e d,
28
morn
,
MEN TAL S UPREM A CY
.
hrill c la rion or t h e e c hoin g horn
N0 m ore S ha ll rous e t hem f rom t heir low l y
Th e Co o k
’
s s
be d
.
T HE GREAT
S ECRET
T RA ININ G
OF
S EN SE
.
T h e g reat secret of a t rue d evelop
ment of the perceptions is discrimina
—
tion the realization of di ff erences
To the savage a sound is a sound ; to
the musician it is excru c iating dis c ord
or exquisite harmony To the musi
c ia n a little depression in the groun d
—
a bent twig a turned leaf they are
nothin g ; to the savage they mean foo d
an enemy safety o r danger In the
printed page s the unlettered boor sees
only foolish black mark s on white
pape r ; b ut in those bl a ck marks the
m a n of e d u c ation s ee s that whi ch
makes his h eart b eat faster his eyes
—
swim with tears which tells h im
se c rets o f li fe the clodhopper will neve r
neve r kno w Th e d i ff eren ces are in the
traine d o r untraine d per ceptions
Mo st of t he exer cise s whi ch I sh a ll
.
.
,
,
,
,
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,
,
,
.
.
29
SECRE TS OF
—
d es c ri b e are qui t e simple many per
,
haps will seem trivial But remem
ber a s a great educator has sai d
The
point in education is
the power to attend to things which
may be in themselves indi ff erent by
arousing an artificial feeling of inter
.
,
,
est
$
.
the first e x e rc I s e I S quite simple
—simple but not easy Try it and s e e
—
Take any object you like a book
a pen a pair of scissors L ay it on
the table before you Then take pen
c il and paper and describe it S imply
tell what you s e e C a n you ? I doubt
it Tell it s dimensions weight colo r
form markings lettering origin uses
possibilities shortcomings
S ee how
fully you c an write ab out the o b ject
The result will probably n ot pl e a s e you
Y ou will find that you have not nearly
the powers o f expressi on whi ch you
—
Supposed you possessed But it is
good training ; and with pra c ti ce y our
ow
r
w
i
l
l
gr
ow
rapidly
e
s
p
So
.
.
,
,
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,
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,
,
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,
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,
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,
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e
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.
.
30
M E N TA L S UP REM A CY
.
Y o u c an d o the s am e thi ng ou t of
doors L ook at a mountain peak the
ocean a ho rse a bird If you think
for a moment there is nothin g t o write
about these things read up Po em in
the Valley of Chamouni
Byron s
splendid passage beginning R oll on
thou deep and dark blue ocean roll
the supe rb poem in the book of Job
describing the h orse S helley s S ky
lark
and SO on James Whitcomb
“
R iley has said $ There is ever a song
somewhere my child
And to find
the material for the song it is n e ce s
sary only to look with refined and edu
—
c a t e d perception
to look trying to s e e
all the variou s sides all the many
phases of the obj e ct looked at In the
same way you should study also many
—
o ther natural objects autumnal tints
frost marks snowflakes trees both
their general form and the shape o f
their leaves all the common flowers
L ast of all and I n many respects most
practically important of all make it
,
.
.
,
,
’
,
,
$
,
,
’
,
$
,
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,
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,
,
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,
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,
,
,
31
SECRE TS OF
a h ab i t to ob se rve clo s e ly the h uman
fa c e Try to recognize and dis c rim i
nate the S igns of education refinement
intelle c t in the face a s distin guished
from the stigm ata o f ignoran ce c oarse
ness and brutality
Another g ood e xe r cise for the train
ing o f the sight is this $ P ro c u re a
number of ordinary marbles s a y three
dozen ; one dozen ea ch of red of white
an d of blue Then mix them together
in a receptacle Now grasp a handful
of the marbles give one glan ce at them
an d throw them back again Then
note d o wn h ow man y of each c olo r
there were I n the hand At first you
will find this di fficult In a sh o rt time
however you will be able to distinguish
at a glance between say three red
—
five white and seven blue and three
—
red s ix white and Six blue with
corresponding development of the pow
ers of perception in all other di re c
tions
A very simple and ve ry g o o d e xe r
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,
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32
,
,
M E N TA L S UP REM A C Y
.
cise for the developmen t of the faculty
of sight is the following $
P rocure about a dozen white paste
board cards s a y three by five inche s
in Size Then with a small brush or
with a pen draw upon each a number
of small black circles The circles
Should be s o lid black about one quar
ter inch in diameter O n the first card
draw one on the secon d t w o and s o on
until the l a st on which you will make
twelve Group them s o far as po ssible
in a c ircle
Now to use them $ H o ld the c ards
fa c e downward and Shu ffle them
Then take up the top one give one
brief glance at it and try to perceive
how many b lack circles there are U pon
it Don t try to count during your
brief glance Don t squint scowl or
strain the eyes Merely glance and
then try to remember and count what
you s a w At first you will probably
find it difli cul t to discriminate between
five cir cles an d Six ; after a time how
,
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’
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’
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,
33
SECRE TS OF
ever you will be abl e to de c ide in
s t a n t l y upon any number of circles up
to fifteen twenty or even more
,
,
.
T RA ININ G
T HE
EA R
H EA R
TO
.
F ew people know h o w to hear O f
“
most it might well be sa id ears and
they h ear not
I do not mean tha t
in most people the organ of hearing is
in any way defective but tha t as a
result of inattention and lack of pra c
tice they do n o t get clear vivid impres
S I On S from the s o unds wh i ch impinge
upon their auditory apparatus
O ne of the b est m e tho ds of trainin g
the hearing faculty is to listen a t ten
t ive l y to the varie d sounds o f the c oun
try The humming o f insects the c ry
of the robin thrush catbird b lackbird
—
swallow all these and the many
other sounds peculiar to the c ountry
Should b e carefully studied
The sounds incidental to city life are
less picturesque and in a sense less
varied than those o f the c oun try ; and
.
$
.
,
,
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,
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,
,
,
,
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34
,
SECRE TS
OF
wh i ch y ou are sit ting Now tu rn
t o wa rd it the left ear C an you hea r
it ? Y e s plainly Move a foot two
fee t three four from the table C an
?
n
Y
i
N
es
o
h
a
r
t
he
wat
c
h
w
o
e
u
y
cre as e the dis tan ce foot by foot until
yo u c a n no lon g er hear the watch
No w l isten $ listen $ C on c entrating the
attenti o n upon the soun d until o ut o f
t he Silen ce o r of a c on fusion o f sounds
the r e c o mes t o you the clear rhythm
i c al ti cking o f th e t iny me chanism
All th i s time you a r e sittin g with you r
l eft ea r tu rne d t oward the wa tch The
same p r a cti ce should of c o u rse b e
go ne through with the ri ght ea r
T h i s exe rc ise is valuable not o nly in
c ul ti v a tin g the power o f hearing b ut
also in developing co n c entration of the
atten tion and will It is mere ly a n
other phase o f th e same method b y
whi ch an o rchest ra c ondu ctor can at
will s ele ct one instrument out of a
ban d and hea r only that one t o the
exclus i o n o f an y oth e r pie ce
.
.
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36
M E N TAL
S UPREM A C Y
T RA ININ G
.
S EN SE
T HE
OF
S M ELL
.
We hear much to the e ff e ct that as
an animal man is inferior to the beasts
of the field ; but like a great deal e lse
—
that we hear it is not true a t least
not to any extent The truth is that
merely as an animal man is the master
piece o f creation In actual strength
enduran ce grace and r apidity of mo
tion the best physical types of men
c ompare favorably with any other ani
mal o f the same size and weight This
is a biological fa c t
But in one respect at least he is
distinctly inferior and that is as re
gards the sense of smell There are
very few animals that are not b etter
equipped than man in this respe ct
Fo r this inferiority t here are many
reasons whi ch we c annot dis cuss in
this place
I may remark however that I n s ome
people the sense of smel l is developed
to a s urprising degree I on c e knew
,
,
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$
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37
SECRE TS OF
a wo m a n we ll born a n d h ighl y e d u
c a t e d who
while bl i ndfolded c ould
name any one of her friends w h o
came within a foot or two of her The
same woman w a s also usually able to
determine by their odor the owner
s hip
arti cles belonging to th o se
Of
whom s he knew well I know another
woman wh o c an distinguish copper
brass ste e l and iron by their taste and
odor I may also add that what we
call taste is also largely smell The
achievements of tea co ffe e tobacco
and whisky experts depen d very
largely upon deli c a cy of the olfa ctory
sense
A goo d method of training this sense
is the following $ P rocure a number
of small paste board or wooden boxes
su ch as are used by druggists in the
dispensing of pills or tablets Any
druggist will provide them for a trifle
Then put into each b ox a small quan
tity of one o f t he following sub stan ce s
cinna mon cloves red pepper mustar d
,
,
,
.
,
,
.
,
,
,
.
$
.
,
,
,
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,
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,
38
,
M E N TA L S UP REM A C Y
.
black pepper ginger A half dozen
boxes are enough s electing for them
such of the above substances as are
most readily procurable To practic e
this method Simply close your eyes
open a box at random and try to deter
mine what the substance is by the odor
This metho d may be varie d by hav
ing a number of small vials each con
taining one of t h e fragrant oils such
as oil o f clove s W intergreen lemon
verbena lavender, peppe rmint berga
mot nutmeg and so on It is a go od
plan als o t o take careful note of the
distin ctive odo r of the various fragrant
flowers s o that they may afte rward be
re c ogni z ed by the perfume which is
pe c ulia r to ea ch
,
.
,
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,
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,
.
$
T RA ININ G
FOR T HE
T A STE
.
The re are in reality only four
savors or ta s tes $ sweet sour bitter
and salt A s I have just remarked
what we c all taste is very largely smell
or flavor The best way to develop
,
,
,
,
.
,
.
39
d e l i c a cy o f th e gust a to ry sense is to
e a t very Simple food and to put there
on ve ry little o r no seasoning in the
form of salt sugar mustard pepper
Vinegar or other c ondiment Then
and then only will one be able to a p
N
r
i
o
the
real
flavor
of
the
foo
d
e
a
c
t
e
p
o ne
fo r instan c e who is in the habit
of using pepper and other co n d1m e n t s
can really taste a strawberry
In c onclusio n I want to e m phasize
two things $ first that a training of the
per ceptive powers is the b est p o s sible
—
investment one c an make ev en re
gar d ing the matter f rom it s lowest
—
View poin t the monetary ; se c ond that
the exercises which I have suggested
in this chapter while they may seem
very Simple almost trivial will in
eve ry c ase where t hey are s eriously
practi ced add immensely n o t only to
the powers o f per ception b ut to pra c tical
effic ien cy o f every fa culty of the mind
,
t
,
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.
ME N TA L
S UP REM A CY
.
M E M O R Y AND H O W T O DE
VELO P
IT
.
Me m o ry is a c cum u la t e d
JA M ES R USSELL L O W ELL
e
u
s
n
i
g
.
.
Me m o ry is
t he p e rma n e n ce
—
c e p tio n
LA T SO N
.
o
f
r
e
p
.
HE
value of a n y man to
himself and to the world
at large d epends in g reat
degree upon his mem
—
ory upon his ability to
re c all and to use at any
desired moment the re c olle c tion of
wha t he has seen heard experien ced
or though t
Memory is really the sto ck in t rade
of ou r mental life O ur perceptions
bring to us a vast mass of experiences
things that we have seen heard touched
—
t a sted and smelled our thoughts an d
,
,
,
.
.
,
,
41
,
,
SECRE TS OF
exp e r i e n ces But these things are va l
ua b l e o nly when they are held in the
memory F or unless they are remem
bered t h ey c annot b e used Most of
us have forgotte n mu ch more than we
remember
We have stu died
at
s chool at co ll e ge at h o me We have
r ead man y many b o oks We hav e
had any number of interesting and in
structive c onversations
We have
some of us traveled and seen many
rare and curious things And of it all
how much I s I n our possession at the
—
moment how much i s at our ready
—
c ommand ? Not o ne tenth p rob ab ly
not one hundredth
Imagine the enormous l oss t o us
Imagine the waste of time an d e ff ort
Imagine what it would mean t o you o r
to me if instead o f possessin g a mem
ory whi ch preserved for us o nly one
hundredth of our experiences we c o uld
remember and apply at will one half
three quarte rs fou r fifths of what we
hav e b een thro ugh
.
.
,
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42
SECRE TS OF
spe cula t or an d is i n te re s te d in s everal
other lines of business He keeps no
books and employs no b ookkeepers
All his values dates and figures are
carried in his head ; and at any mo
ment he can tell to a c ent how he stands
with any of his business asso c ia t es
Among the ancient Greeks it w a s
not at all unusual t o fin d an e d u c ated
patri c ian who c ould re c ite verb atim
—
the entire poems of Home r the Iliad
and the O dyssey C yru s the Great
c ould c all by name any man o f h is
a rmy numbering one million Napo
leon h a d power of m emory al mos t a s
r emarkab le Gladstone wh en present
ing t o P arliament his yearly b udget
woul d speak for several hours pre
senting mone t ary details running into
many million poun d s withou t one
glan c e at the written repor t l ying on
the table b efore him R obert G In ger
S oll that grea t juri s t and b rillian t o r a
tor would attend a t rial l astin g many
days without taking any no tes Y et
,
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44
M E N TA L S UP RE M A C Y
’
.
in his speeches to the jury lasting
sometimes many hours he never for
got o r missed a point of the oppo
sitio u
And s o I might go on S cott Milton
S hakespeare Washington C lay Web
—
ster all these were remarkable for
In fact it is
t h e m power of memory
safe to s a y that every man who has ever
attained a high place among men has
been possessed of a retentive and exact
memory
S o we c an s e e that as an asset in
p r a c tical life whether one s ambition
artistic scientific or
be literary
merely the tra n sferring of dollars from
—
some one s pocket into his own as a
practi c al asse t power of memory is of
the highest con ceivable value A good
memory will give you an in c alculable
—
advantage over others a n a dvantage
which no other men t al qualifi c ation
will b a l an ce
,
,
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’
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45
SECRE TS OF
M EM O RY T RA ININ G NOT D I FF I C UL T
.
—
The mind is like potter s clay it is
easily molded And there is no dire c
tion in which development i s s o easy
as in the department of memory Even
a few days of practice along the lines
which I shall suggest will generally
make a noticeable di ff erence and two or
three months of conscientious training
will often be su ffi cient to metamorphose
a poor w
eak and inexa c t memory into
o ne that is tenacious and reliable
’
.
.
,
,
,
.
T HE N A TURE O F M EM ORY
In the introductory article of this
s e r ies I promised you that I would not
b e theoretical or descriptive but that
I would make these chapters purely
p r a c ti c al Now I intend to keep my
word ; but in order to make what fol
lows more intelligible and helpful it
wi l l b e well just here to stop for a
momen t and make a few brief state
ments as to the nature of memory
In th e firs t pl a ce I may s a y at o nce
.
,
.
,
,
,
.
,
46
S UPREMA CY
ME NTAL
t hat,
.
in reality there is no such thing
“
as the memory
This sounds very
mu ch like an ol d fashioned Iri s h
“bull
but
it
is
me
r
el
y
a
statement
of
;
sober fa ct There is n o memory $ there
are only memo rie s When I s a y that
I am not merely juggling with terms ;
the di ff eren c e is important and funda
mental
I mea n just this $ Memory is not
a s we us e d to be taught many years
“
—
ago a faculty of the s oul
a little
section of the brain t o be developed all
by itself Not at all Memory is
merely a t erm used to describe the way
that certain a cts or t houghts tend to
remain in the mind And every act
or thought has its own s eparate little
memory
S ome acts or tho ughts we r emember
easily ; other acts o r thoughts we re
member with di ffic ulty if at all If
some one were to describe to me the
details of a c ase of insanity symptoms
history t r eatment I should remember
,
.
-
$
.
.
.
,
$
,
.
.
.
.
,
,
,
,
47
,
SECRE TS OF
it a l on g time ; because a s a physi cian
I a m interested in psychiatry But
although I listened patiently a day or
two a go to a lon g a cc ount of the Wall
S t r eet adventure s of an acquainta n c e
of mine I am quite su r e that I c ould
give no intelligent a c c ount thereof b e
c ause I k now little and care less about
su ch matters In the same way some
people have good memory for names
but c annot re c all faces others c an re
mem b er dates but have no po we r t o
recolle ct names And s o on
The poin t is jus t t hiS We r em e m
ber best the thin gs in wh ich we hav e
most interest the things with which
we are most familiar The little mem
ory of any act or thought may stick in
—
the m I n d or it may not whether it is
or i s not remem b ered depends mainly
upon the amount of a ttention we have
given t o that a c t or that t hought at
the time it was o ccurring
If therefore we would have fine
—
p o we rs of memory if w e d e s i re a
,
,
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'
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48
MEN TAL S UPREMA CY
.
larg e supply of cl e ar vivi d memories
all under instant command it is essen
tial that w e Should pay to the thing
we wish to remember strict attention
and c areful study And this is really
“
the great se c ret of what is c alled good
memo ry
In other words a memory is simply
a permanen cy a recurren ce of a per
c e p t io n ; and that memory i s clear and
c omplete just in proport ion as the pe r
c e p t io n was clear and c omplete
If
o n an introduction to a stran g er
I
scarcely glan ce at his face and pay
little or no attention to the name I am
not likely to remember either the man
or the name If on the other hand
I look closely at him and attend care
fully to the name I shall be likely to
remember it perhaps for years
I myself frequ ently have presented
to me twenty fi ve or thirty strangers
in the course of an evening ; and I am
u s ually able afterward to recall all or
ne a rly al l o f their names and faces
,
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49
This is merel y the result of a h ab it of
attention to the matter
.
T HE
B A SI C LA W
O F M EM ORY
.
Now then based upon the prin ciple
just dis cussed we may formulate our
first rule for the development of mem
ory $ S tudy the obje c t yo u wish to
remember in all its phases in all its
peculiarities in all it s relation s F or
the time being k eep every other thought
out of the mind Make the object part
of yourself ; and you will never forget
it I s a y obj e c t but I mean of c ourse
anything fa c t figure idea prin c iple
or plan to all of whi ch the same r ule
applies
S o much for the rule ; b ut you w ould
like to know exactly how to apply this
rule to pra ctical development Well
one of the best ways I know is the
following
Y ou are walkin g down the street
A carriage pa s ses at which yo u have
glan ced c asually Afte r i t h a s passed
,
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50
s top t o look a t the w m do w ; that wil l
merely c onfuse you Take one glan c e
at it and pass on
Then a s k yoursel f what you s a w in
the window If practicab le have a
pad an d pen cil and write down ea ch
ar t i cle a s you rem em b er it This is
the method employed b y the famous
—
c onj urer Rb b e rt Houdin a method
by whi ch h e so trained the memory both
of himself and of his young s o n that
th ey were able t o rememb er over thirty
thousand questio ns and answers which
“
for m e d the c ode o f their f amous s e c
o n d S igh t a ct
Anothe r valuabl e meth o d o f mem
ory t raining is t o make it a r ule every
night eithe r b efore or after retiring
to review in detail the events of t h e
d ay This was t he metho d employed
b y th e great Edward Thurlow lord
h igh chancellor of Great Britain At
first his memory was s o poor that he
w a s unable to re c all what he h ad e aten
fo r bre akfa s t Even tu al l y howe ve r
.
,
.
.
,
.
,
,
$
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,
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,
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,
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52
,
ME N TA L S UPREM A CY
.
he developed one of t he m o s t r ema rk
able memories o n re c ord I know of
a numb er of c ases in whi ch this method
h a s proven of the utmost value
Another very Simple and c onvenient
but at the same time very u seful
method of culturing the power o f re co l
le cti o n is the following $ Take some
interesting book, such as a historical
work or some attractive novel R ead
a paragraph to yourself Slowly and
carefully Then close the book and
repeat aloud the substan c e of the se c
tion whi ch you have just read Make
no attempt to repeat the passage word
for word S imply give the s ense of it
as yo u remember It matters little
whether you repeat the author s words
or use your own After your first
attempt $whi ch is not likely t o b e a
striking su c ce ss ) read the paragraph
again and make a second e ff ort to re
call and express its g eneral meaning
Whe n you h ave learned this para
graph fai rl y well pass o n to the next
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53
SECRE TS
OF
an d s o o n until you c ome to the l ast
paragraph on the page Then take
that page a s your task and give an
account of the entire page After
practi c ing this way on every para
graph and every page until the end of
the chapte r take the chapter as a whole
and repeat it a s fully an d ex a c tly a s
you can
This seems like hard work An d it
is at first But it soon b e c omes inter
esting especially as you b egin to find
that although at first you were unable
to give any clea r idea of a paragraph
you ha d just read , you are soon able to
recall and to clearly express the sense
of an entire chapter without any great
e ff ort or difli cul t y
This exercise trains not only the
memory but the perceptions the will
and the powers of expression S o far
as I know it was invented by Henry
C lay in hi s early farm boy days a n d
was o ften quoted by him as being the
method which ha d done mos t toward
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54
M E N TA L S UPRE M A CY
.
developing h is prodigious memory and
splendid oratorical ability
A valuable variation o f the above
exercise is to write out at length
instead of attempting to express in
spoken words your recollection of the
parag raph the page the chapter F or
those who desire the widest develop
—
ment a development of the power of
expression in writing as well as in
—
speech I s hould suggest that they
practice this exercise by b oth talking
and writing their memories of the pas
sage
B y the time you have gone over one
book in this way talking o u t certain
passages and writing others you will
not only know that book in a way that
few people ever know any book ; but
you will have developed added powers
of attention will power memory and
expression which will prove a surprise
and a delight to you
.
,
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55
,
SECRE TS
T HE
P I C TO RI A L FA C ULTY
OF
.
O ne o f the prime se c rets of memory
is to d evelop the ability to re c all before
the mind a picture of the obje ct desire d
—a vivid re colle ction of it s appear
ance When a schoolboy I dis c ov e r ed
that there was no use whatever in my
studying either my spelling or my
geography lesson All that was n e ce s
sary w a s f o r me to pass my eye slowly
down the list o f w o rds for Spel ling and
to look at the map of the parti cula r
section we were studying Afte r that
I could bring up before me a clear pic
ture of any word c alled fo r or of any
section of the map c overing ou r lesson
In questi oning m us I c I a n S who are able
to play from memory long passages on
the piano or vio l in I find that in the
maj ority of cases they remember t h e
appearan c e of the page of musi c a nd
follo w the notes just as if the real page
were before them This power of V is
ua l iz in g memories h a s b e e n in some
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ME NTAL
S UPREMA CY
.
people developed t o a s urprising
extent
The m n e m o s yn ic achieve
ments of the H o udin s and of Magli
a b e c ch i referred to above
a s well as
of other pr o digies like the m a t h e m a t
ical wonder $ erah C olburn and his
—
prototype Ja cques In a udie the mem
ory feats of these depend largely in
some c ases entirely upon the Visual
izing faculty
And what is the b est method of
developing this power of sight mem
ory ? There are several very Simple
and valuable F irst try t his $ Write
out in a clear hand a list of words in
column form The list Should c ontain
at first not more than five or six words ;
later it may be extended to twenty or
even thirty
Now place your list of s ix words
before you and look at it for a moment
Don t stare or strain the eye s Don t
—
try to remember the words yet This
—
is the moment for observation for
getting upon the photographic plate of
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57
the min d a cl e a r me m ory pi cture of
t h e list of words
After a moment of
s t eady gazing cover the pape r and try
to remember exactly what the words
were and how they looked At fi rs t
you are likely to find this difficult
S oon it will be easy to remember Six
to recall the words passing up as well
as down the column Then gradually
increase the number until you c an
handle at least twenty five
A useful variation of this e xe rcl s e I s
to us e figures instead of words a rra n g
ing them at first as a square of four
figures and c alling each one o ff while
you remember its position
Here
again as soon as four is easy for
you I n c rease the number of fig
ures by two until you can retain
after a single look a cl e a r picture of
thirty six or more figures I have
known a boy of twelve who was a ble to
—
remember sixty four fi gure s a s quare
of eight figures up and eight a c ross
He would on request call o ff first line
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58
~
Un i o n
a c c o m p lis h e s
S O P H O C LES
I ha ve
.
.
t o t a ke
o n ly
l
o
o
m
d
f
y
D ELU$ Y
t hin gs
a ll
s ou l
up
t his
t ha t t o
or
w i th
—
m e m o ri e s
MM E
f
m e n ta l t ra in in g is
.
.
.
Th e w h o l e
ba s e d
up o n
a rt o
t he
rs t e x e c u t e d
fi
with
a n y a c ti o n a t
c o n s c i o us
e
be
ff
o rt
in t im e , s u b c on s ci o us a n d ha
T H O M PS O N JA Y H UDSO N
com es ,
bi tua l
f
t ha t
a ct
-
.
.
Wi t hin
t he
c ha m be rs
s e c re t
o
f
t he
bra in ,
The
t h o u gh t s
m ys t i c
A w a k e bu t
Ea ch
a
.
on e,
s t a m ps
di e s
l i e l in k e d by m a n y
c ha i n
a nd
l o , w ha t l e gi on s
i t s im a g e
as
t he
o t he r
.
C O W PER
.
ME N TA L S UPRE M A C Y
.
ASS O C I A TI O N O F I D E AS
F a ll the
.
operations o f
th e mind the one most
di r e ctly c ondu cive to
mental readiness is the
pow er of associating or
g r ouping ideas The man
o r w o man in W hom the power of asso
c ia t io n i s well developed h a s a mind
whi ch may b e likened t o a vast Ske in
of th reads Each thread represents an
idea And of these thread i deas all
those whi ch are at all related a r e
g rouped together like s o many threads
tied in a knot ; so that if you touch one
of th e thr ead ideas you are instantly
in c ommuni c ation with all of that
g roup
When idea s are grouped or associ
ated In this orderly manner any
thought coming into the mind wil l in
.
.
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.
61
s t a n t ly
ugge s t a l arge number of
related thoughts This means an a c
tive an effic ient frequently a b rilliant
mind
Now let us understand a t on c e that
“
what is c ommonly c alled education
that is a mere kn o wledge of facts
no matter h ow ex tensive i t may b e
doe s not ne ce s sarily c onfe r th e powe r
of as s ociatin g or grouping ideas in s u ch
a manner that they are readily avail
able f o r purp o ses of sp e aking writing
or thinking In d ee d I h av e k nown
men of vast l earnin g who c oul d no t
t al k well who coul d no t write well
wh o c ould not even think well A well
—
store d mind that is mere eruditi o n
while it can be a cquired only by a per
s o n with a good memory does not by
any means ne cessarily imply the powe r
of a s s o cI a t io n
O ne who possesses unusual powe r of
asso c iating ideas is always interesting ;
often b rilliant His ideas are as I
h ave s ai d like thread s knotte d to
s
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62
ME N TA L S UP REM A C Y
.
gether Each idea suggested to him
c alls up in h is mind many re lated ideas
In the mind of the merely erudite
man for instance the mention of the
“
word horse will arouse few if any
other mental pictures In the mind
h owever of the person who h a s the
“
power of association the idea horse
awakens a la rge number o f interest
ing thoughts T here is the horse so
superbly describ ed in the biblical poe m
Job There is the famous horse Eu
cephalus the war charger of Alexan
der the Great whom only he could ride
The person with strong p o wer o f asso
too the wonderful
c ia t io n remembers
horse Kantara ridden by Gautama
the Buddha Then he thinks of the
horse of Darius which b y neighing at
the critical moment cause d h is m a ster
—
to be elected king o f P ersia Darius
the Great He recalls to mind the
story of the great wo o den horse inside
of which the Greek soldiers were smug
gled into Troy to the d o wnfall of that
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63
SECRE TS
OF
c ity An d l a s t ly th e man with traine d
owers
of
asso
c
iation
will
be
able
to
p
tel l y ou somethin g a b out the interest
ing history o f the horse both before
a n d sin c e it w a s first tamed and ridden
many thou s ands of years ag o b y Meli
ze u s Kin g o f Thessaly
And SO with any other subje c t you
mi ght s ugges t t o h im In the min d o f
su ch a pe r son every idea is intimatel y
asso c iate d wi th many o the r more or
less related i d eas ; an d even though
h is a c tua l s to ck o f informa tion ma y b e
smal l h is mental images are s o closely
c onne cte d and so quickly re c alle d that
the p r a cti c al powe r an d usefulness of
his min d is greate r than in the c i se
of another pe rson with a large r stock of
knowledge and inferior power o f asso
.
,
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,
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,
,
c ia t io n
.
Anothe r great advantage of well de
ve l o p e d powers of association i s that it
is a l mos t a preventiv e o f forg etful
ness A s I have explained in the chap
t e r on t he tr ainin g of t h e memo ry tha t
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.
,
64
M E N TAL
S UPREMA CY
.
whi ch we fully understand we do not
c annot forget Now a complete un
de rs t a n din g of any idea is simply
the result of a proc ess of making that
idea the cen ter of a mass of associa
tions
If you had to leave your boat in a
stream with a very rapid current you
would tie the b oat to the shores n o t
only W i th one m m but with several
ropes running to di ff erent points on
each Side of the stream And the more
lines you tie th e b oat with and the
more dire cti o n s they ext end in the less
likely will yo ur boat be to escape and
the more r eadily c an you re c over it at
will The same principle applies to
ideas Each associational relation is
like a tiny thread binding o n e p a rt i cu
lar idea to another idea ; and when we
b ind that one parti cular idea to a great
many other ideas we make sure first
that w e will not forget it and second
that when there comes into the mind
any o n e o f t he i deas with whi ch we
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65
,
,
have a s s oc ia ted the n e w i d ea the new
idea will imme diately be drawn into
the mind
All this b eing true we will be r eady
to apprecia te the follo w ing important
statement $ It is ne c essary to get into
the mind a large stock of ideas ; this
can be do ne only by per ception and
memory ; but it is equally neces s ary
that the ideas and mem o ries in the
mind shall be so ass o ciated or grouped
that one idea I nstantly calls up many
other related ideas And this c an be
done only by developing the p o wer o f
ass o ciation
,
.
,
.
.
H o w ASSO C I A T I O N S A RE
M A DE
.
And here arises the pra c tical ques
tion $ How shall I s o train my mind
that the ideas it c o ntains shall be
closely associated each one with man y
others ?
In trying to give you an intelligible
answer to this question it will first be
necessary to discuss briefly som e thing
,
66
SECRE TS OF
t he fi r s t
tep es s ential to the fo rma
tion of asso c iations F or it should be
understood that most o f the ideas asso
c i a t e d with any particular obje c t are
based not upon that obje ct a s a whole
but upon some quality or qualities of
the obje c t
Now havin g analyze d our b ri ck we
may take certain of its qualities and
on that basis make asso ciations b e
tween the brick an d other obje cts or
ideas If we take its form we shall find
that it is something like a wooden pav
ing b lo ck so mething like a book some
thin g like a ciga r b o x If we take the
usual c olo r o f the b ri ck red we note
that i t r esembles terra cotta the build
ing material that it is a Shade f re
quently seen in wall covering and rugs
and also found in the shingle stains
often used on the roofs of c ountry
houses A S to the uses of the brick
we find the brick c an be associated w ith
granite marble a n d other building
materials c obble Ston e s wo o den pav
18
s
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68
M E N TA L S UP RE M A C Y
.
ing blo cks concrete and various other
substances used for pavement and
s o on
Now in all this we have gone
through four distinct processes of rea
soning ; and without these four pro c
esses no association between ideas
c ould exist F irst of all we analyze d
our brick ; next we extended our ideas
of it trying here and there until we
found certain obje cts whi ch c ould b e
asso c iated with the brick L astly we
noted that every other obje ct we
thought of was either like the brick in
some certain particular or was entirely
unlike it in every particular These
pro cesses we may call extension like
ness and unlikeness
S o these four pro cesses of re a s o m n g
analysis extension likeness and un
—
likenes s must be gone th rough in
order to make complete and valuable
associations
In the example just given I chose for
my object a brick because the mere fact
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69
,
o f it s b ein g a S i m pl e pr o s a i c an d com
m o n pl a ce obj e c t rendere d my explan a
tion mo re clear The same pro ce s s
the same treatment however may an d
in fa c t must be applie d to other an d
more compli c ated ideas
F irst of all we analyz e the o bje c t
from every standp o int and in every
par ti cular and detail If a co n c rete
obje ct we study all its qualities a s we
did in the c ase of the brick If an
idea we c onsider carefull y all it s
phases Then tra c e all i t s rela tions t o
other ideas noting in what respe ct it
resembles o r di ff ers from su ch othe r
ideas Then we Shall h ave g one
—
through the four p ro cesses analysis
extension likeness and unlikeness
To give you an instance il l us t ra t
ing this interesting and import ant
method $ Not long ago I w a s one o f a
number of guests at a c ountry house
O ne evening when a number o f us we re
sitting on the porch the little da ughte r
of our hostess approache d with a d i sh
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70
ME N TAL
S UPREMA CY
.
c ontaining some fine apples and said
“
to me $ Will you have an apple Doc
“
tor ?
My dear that is a dangerous
“
question to a s k a man said I
Do
you not know th at all the s in and mis
ery in the world came be c ause a woman
on c e asked a man to have an a pple
and be c ause he took it ?
And the child laughed and said
O h I know Y ou mean the apple that
Adam took from Eve
C lever child $
Now my remark was made without
any cons cious e ff ort of mind whatever
—
without any striving or delibe r ate
action of the will It was entirely sub
conscious and e ff ortless Afte rw ard I
amused myself by tra cing out exa ctly
what my mind had done when the child
asked that question And this is what
“
—
happened $ Analysis girl o ff ers a p
ple O ut of this analysis I selected the
idea apple and upon this bas e d my ex
tension F irst o f all I thought of the old
“
adage tender as the apple of the eye
Then in rapid succession there cam e
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71
i nto my m i n d memories of $ the apple
that William Tell i s said to have Shot
“
o ff the head of his s o n ;
apples of go ld
in pitchers of Silver m entioned in the
“
Bible ; the apple of S odom the fruit
of the osher tree whi ch is b eautiful
externally but filled with a kind of
—
ashes therefore often used a s a s ym
bol for disappointment ; the apples of
the Hesperian field said to b e gua rded
—
by the four mystic sisters t h e Hespe
rides ; t he apple for which P aris ran
his race
Now all of these ideas found by e x
tension o f the ori g i nal idea a pple
were appropriate ; but none seemed
quite to fit Then c ame the thought
of t h e story of Eve and her proff er o f
“
the apple to Adam This exactly
fi tted the occasion
And hen c e the
rep l y
In this instan ce also you can easily
—
trace the pro c esses analysis exten
sion seeking resemblances or likenesses
and dis carding ideas less a pprOpria t e
$
$
,
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,
$
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$
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“
72
MENTA L S UP RE M A C Y
.
or unlike And do not forget that in
the mind that is even fairly well
trained these pictures flash up with
incredible rapidity I know that in my
own m ind as in the instance just cited
six or seven pictures will often occur
and I will sele c t the o n e which it seems
appropriate to mention within the few
seconds that ordinarily intervene b e
tween a remark an d t he reply to it
.
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A SSO C I A T I O N
A ND
M EM ORY
.
In an earlier paragraph I told you
that p roper asso c iation of ideas pra o
tically insured p o wer of mem o ry L et
me n o w try to give you some notion
of how this principle of mental a ct iv
ity c an be utilized
Let us take a simple instan c e Epic
“
tetus says $
My mind to me a king
dom is
Now first of all we con
sider this splendid utterance until we
t horoughly understand and appreciate
it That is go od but it is not enough
—
We de sire t o possess this sentence to
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73
SECRE TS OF
make i t a par t o f our mental stoc k in
trade so that we can use it at appro
i
r
a
t
e
times
in
publi
c
speakin
g
in
p
writing or in conversation How shall
we do this ? Well w e have really four
ideas in t he quotation $ the mind a
kingdom c ontentment $implied ) an d
the personality of the man Epi ctetus
who w rote the senten c e
Le t us first learn something o f Epi c
tetus L et us analyze h is Chara cter
and plac e a mental picture of him in
the midst of a network of asso c iations
which will make that pi c ture o f Epi c
tetus our own forever We find the
following p o ints for asso ciation $ A
—
—
Slave b ecame free great phi l osopher
—
—
—
blameless life b anished friend of
Adrian and Mar cus Aurelius
S o we may associate the pic ture of
Epi c tetus with the following ideas $
slaves who were great men ; great phi
IOSOph e rs who were banished ; men of
humble origin who became friends of
kings ; Ad r ian and Ma rcus Aure l ius
,
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74
SECRE TS OF
al l o f whom were content to live simply
finding their kingdom in the mind and
“
soul
My kingdom is not of this
world said Jesus
Th ereafte r any of these ideas will b e
likely to sugge s t the epigram we are
studying ; for all o f these ideas are now
united together b y the network of asso
c i a t io n s we have c onstru c ted
No w to work out in this way all the
many things whi ch you want to re
member and to have at instant com
mand s eems of c ourse like very
hard work Happily however such a
method of formin g a s s o c 1a t i o n s of
binding ideas into bundles or clusters
as it were is necessa ry only until the
habit is onc e formed Then the mat
ter goes on automati c ally of itself
,
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C O N SC I OUS A C T I O N B EC O M ES
U N C O N SC I OUS
It is a b e n e fi ce n t l aw of the min d
t
and
of
the
body
too
for
tha
t
ma
ter
)
$
,
that any act after it h a s been repeated
,
,
76
ME N TA L S UPRE M A CY
.
a certain number of time s tends to
—
become automatic to do itself without
any sensation of e ff ort sometimes even
without our knowledge A few months
of c areful e ff ort will in practically
every case develop such a habit of asso
c i a t in g apposite ideas that the student
will possess without further care or
drill this most supe rb accomplishment
—
the p o wer of association
o f the mind
It requires both care and attention
to form any d esirable hab it either of
mind or body ; but the habit once
formed no further care or attention is
necessary To learn to write for in
stance to form the letters to combine
them into words to elaborate the words
into sentences and paragraphs the
—
pa ragraphs into pages all this takes
time a number of years O nce thor
oughly learned however as by a
trained writer the practice of writing
requires no special care or e ff ort
And s o with this important matter
of association F ew people have it t o
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77
S ECRE TS O F
any g re a t d egree In most people the
ideas are separate isolate d C ardina l
Newman says of some seafaring men
“
that they find themselves now in Eu
rope now in Asia ; they s e e vision s of
great cities and wild regions ; they are
in the marts o f c ommer c e or in the
islands of the south ; they ga z e on
P ompey s P illar or on the Andes ; an d
nothing which meets them carries them
forward or backward to any idea b e
yond itself Nothing has
any
relations ; nothing has a history or a
promise
All this means in a word
tha t these men have not the power of
asso ciation
In o rde r to a rr an ge our ideas into
clusters or groups we must for a time
give spe c ial attention to the matter
A s a help to study along these lines
I c an re c ommend the following e xe r
cises whi ch have proven in my own
personal experien ce an d in that o f
others advised by me o f the g reate s t
possible value
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78
M E N TA L S UP REM A CY
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—
Take any object you like a rose a
,
pencil a chair a wheel a knife Hav
ing selected your object write out a list
of its peculiarities S ay you have taken
—
a knife a n ordinary table knife
Now describe its form color Size
shape weight material and state its
—
peculiarities hard cool Sharp heavy
opaque elastic
Having written out this list of de
scriptive points take them up one by
one and think of what o ther objects
have the same quality F or instance
in material the knife being of steel
with an ivory handle resembles all cut
lery and steel machinery di ff ering
from them n o t in material but p e r
haps in the manner and degree of the
tempering The ivory handle will
suggest a large number of articles
made of that material The sharpness
of the knife suggests lancets sw o rds
scissors and so on and may also be
applied in a figurative way as to the
“
nature Of a r emark $ Her word s were
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79
,
SECRE TS OF
like a d a gge r thr us t into his Soul
“
or the e ff ect of a glan c e $ An eye like
a bayonet thrust met mine and so on
“
This treatment of the obje c t knife
if done exhaustively will prove a mos t
valuable exercise Three o r four hours
over it will be time well spent Not
that you are specially interested in the
“
subject knife its analysis or its r ela
tions but that in going through the
exercises with any obj e ct whatever
you are getting your mind into the
habit of treating all subj ects in the
By the time
s ame analytical manner
you have treat e d twenty di ff eren t o b
in
ccordan
c
e
with
this
method
t
a
c
e
s
j
l
m
n
o
o
a
will
have
gone
far
t
ward
u
g
g
y
the invaluable a cc omplishment of as s o
c i a t in g ide a s
.
$
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$
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M E N TA L S UP RE M A C Y
I M A GI N A TI O N
.
AND
H OW
C ULTI VA T E IT
The m in d
o
e
l
e
p p
The
t io n
f
0
ca n
e
t
n
a
l
s
p
o
un i ve rs e
his
o wn
f
m a ke
i ts
TO
.
s u bs t a n c e
—
o wn
B Y RO N
and
.
t o m a n i s bu t
in n e r
a
j
ro
c
e
p
c o n s c i o us n e s s
.
KA NT
.
F al l the powers o f the
mind imagination is the
most picturesque and in
many respects the most
interesting Without it
the world would be bar
r en No t merely would there be no
pictures no music no books but there
would b e no houses no bridges no
o c ean greyhounds
no great b usiness
—
enterprises
nothing in fact ; for
everything t hat man has made has
b een first conceived in the imagina
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81
S ECRE TS
OF
t i o n be fo re i t w a s born i n to a ctua l
b ein g
We c ann ot think of a person being
without any power of imagination ; for
that is an impossibility But many
many people I am sorry to s a y are
g reatly defi c ien t in imagination ; and
t his lack of imagi nation alone is enough
to render them c ommonpla ce un in t e r
esting an d o f littl e use o r S i gnifi c a n c e
in the wo rld
A man or woman may b e defi cient
in imagination and yet b e honest
stra i ghtfo rward h ard working c onsci
But f o r s uc h a man or su ch
e n t i o us
a woman the higher reward s o f life
are h opelessly unattainable He o r sh e
may make an e x celle nt bookkeeper b ut
neve r an a cc ountant ; a skillful typist
but never a secretary ; a fai thful sto ck
b oy b ut never a sal esman The a o
the se c re t a ry the sale sman
c o un t a n t
must have imagination
O f c ourse when it c o mes to any a c
tu al cre ati v e wo rk painting s culp
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82
SECRE TS OF
more than mere grass and trees
an d headstone s ; and he gave to the
wo rld the m ost perfect poem in the
English lan guage
H is name was
Thoma s Gray and the poem was the
“
famous Elegy in a C ountry C hurch
ya rd
Thousands o f people had s een an
apple fall from a tree to the ground
But one day a man with a great imagi
nation s a w that c om m onplace thing
H is imaginati o n seized upon it and he
pro pounded Newton s t heory of the law
of gravitation one of the m ost impor
tant a chievements in the whole history
Another man sees
o f human thought
h is m o ther s teakettle bo ilin g
He
observes t hat the lid is rai s ed by the
expandin g steam His great imagina
tion starts fro m this homely detail ;
—
an d he gives to the world the steam
engine Napoleon poor obscure hun
gry trudging up and down the streets
of P aris in searc h of emplo yment
d reams o f makin g all Europe o ne vast
saw
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84
MENTAL
S UPREMA CY
—
empire his empi r e
.
.
And he all b u t
succeeds
And s o we might go on indefinitely
Enough perhaps to repeat that the
world s masters have always been pos
sessed of fine and daring imagination
and that without great powers of im
a g in a t i o n
there c an b e ac c omplished
no great or important work of any
nature whatever
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I M A G IN A T I O N
E A SI LY
C ULT IVA TED
.
P erhaps you feel that your own im a g
does not always serve you as well
as it should ; perhaps you are wishing
—
that it was better that you c ould pro
duce in it such improvement as to e n
able you to create some good and
worthy thing in the world In that
case I am glad to be able to tell you
that of all the p o wers of the mind
none is capable of being so easily con
ve n i e n t l y and rapidly cultivated as the
im a g i n a t l o n
And I may remark that
as in the case of other faculties the
i n a t io n
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85
me a n s t aken to cul ti va te the im ag ina
tion will at the same time ne cessa rily
train and s t rengthen the mentality in
eve ry other dire ction
F i rs t of all it mus t b e unders t oo d
that the a ct of imaginin g of b rin ging
images b ef ore the mind is no t a s ep a
rate fun c tion o f the mentality b ut that
it is closely interwoven with partly
c onsists of in fact several other o f the
men t al faculties S o in d evelo ping the
ower
of
imagination
we
must
first
p
spea k of these other f a culties whi ch are
really a p art of it If we study an a c t
of imagination we s hall find that first
of all we must have some ma terial for
our image
To mos t people the a c t of imagin a
tion means t h e creation of something
entirely new They think that the pi c
ture c reated by t he painter the poet
the novelist is new in every detail
No w th is is a radical error The artist
does not create anything that is e n
An d thi s f o r a ve ry good
t i re l y new
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86
M E N TA L
S UPREMA CY
.
—
eason there is not an d neve r will
be
anything entire ly new Now as in the
“
days of S olomon $
Ther e is nothing
new under the s un
Y o u may imagine f o r instan c e a
green ho r se with purple wings Y o u
s ay $
S urely tha t is an entirely
new idea I say $ No it is me r ely
a new c ombination of four ve ry old
—
and c ommonpla c e idea s a ho rs e a
pai r of wings and the t wo c olors
green and purple An d s o in all c re
a t io n s
no matte r wh a t they may b e
—
however new they may seem it is
only the combination that is new The
mat erials c o mb ine d a re o l d a s ol d v ery
oft en a s human th ough t itse lf
We se e then that the first raw ma
t e ri a l for imagi nation is our per
—
ce pt S
the things we have seen and
heard and felt and smelled and tasted
And it seems hardly nece s sary to state
that the better service we have gotten
from our senses and perceptions the
more clear and vivid will be our power
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87
SECRE TS
OF
to b ring b efor e the min d images ma d e
up of those things The first task
then of him who woul d develop h is
power of imagination is to edu c ate the
senses
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I M A G IN A T I O N
A ND
M EM ORY
.
But the imagination requires more
than mere perception The things per
c e ive d must b e remembered
A th ing
—
that we have forgotten lost out of the
—
cons cious mind c annot be used as
material for an act of imagination
And then the things perc eived and re
membered Should have b een grouped
and as s o ciated int o c lusters ; s o that
when one wishes to imagine a certain
picture he will have a vast amount o f
material in his mind from which to
select materials for that picture
In cultivating the power of imagina
tion then we mus t begin by edu c ating
per ception mem o ry and a s so c iation ;
for $and here is my definition of im a g
in a t io n ) imagination is merely a com
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88
MENTA L S UPREMA CY
.
bination of per ception memo ry and
association with initiative will This
is not at all text bookish ; but i t will
—
give you as the text books prob ably
would not on such s hort acquaintan ce
a clear i dea of the process
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S O M E P RA C T I C A L E $
I
ERC SES
.
L et me state right here tha t you are
exercising your imagination all the
time during all your waking hours
Y o u imagine thousands o f things every
day Everything you do every person
you g o to meet everything you s a y
these are all in the imagination before
they b e c ome realitie s Y our imagina
—
tion has much exercise but it is not
the right kind of exercise The men
tal pictures are not clear and vivid
How shall you make them So ? De
mand it of yourself And this br ings
me to your first practical exercise
Get a good livel y novel s omething
full of a c tion and as near as possible
to the here and the now Make your
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SECRE TS
OF
se lf co m fo rt ab le a n d b egin to rea d
When you c ome to the end of the first
pa r a graph s t op a n d image before your
mind a clear pi cture of what w a s ex
pressed o r des c ribed W a s it a s cene ?
S ee it mountains s e a farmhouse c ity
residen c e co ld warm rainy b right
Try t o make it a s vivid a s it would b e
were you a c tually g a z in g on the s cene
Tha t is what the write r of the story
did or you w o ul d not b e r ea ding it
Durin g the next para g raph the s cene
is changed ; somethin g is add ed to the
pi ctu re S ee th i s Take mu ch t ime ;
it is a n e xe rcise Th e n c omes a pe r
I S he tall
s o n s a y a man
S ee him
sho rt d ark light p re po s s e s s m g r epel
lent ? How is he dressed ? F or ce
yourself to imagine every de t ail And
s o on for a chapter
By this time you will have h ad
enough for on ce ; but if you have a cte d
conscientiously in a cc ordan c e with my
hints you will feel an understan d ing
a n inte rest a n d a s ym pat hy W ith that
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90
ag a in u n de r Simi l ar ci rcumstances ? In
this exer ci s e b e careful first to s e e
—
actually see clearly and vividly every
event person action detail of each
episode ; second in imagining how you
yourself and others might have a c ted
beware of c riticising the actions of
other p eople Try to fe el that what
ever went wrong you yourself ha d
you posse s sed suffic ient will sympathy
delicacy intelligence and c ontrol might
have made it right Don t try to fini s h
all the events of the day ; that would
be impossible When the fifteen o r
twenty minut e s is up s t op This i s
the method of P ythagora s who devote d
his entire evening to meditating on the
occurrences of the day
F or developing the power of au d i
t ory imagination the following meth
ods are useful R ecall to mind the
words and melody of some familiar
song as rendered by a good Singer and
imagine how it sounds Hear the
words note the quality of the voice
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M E N TA L S UPREMA CY
.
and accompaniment Three or four
s ongs or three o r four repetitions of
the same song are enough for once
C all up in your memory one at a
tim e the various sounds of the coun
try and hear them in imagination
the hum of bees the sound of the wind
the rustling leaves the c ries of the va
ri o us bi r ds
the lowing of cattle an d
other noi s es pe culiar to the life o f the
country
Anothe r exercise of value is the fol
lowing $ R ecall Some experience of
your past which at the time m ade a
strong impression upon you R eview
it in all its details slo wly and care
fully C o n sider its cau s es the means
whereby it would have been prevented
outside influences which a ff ec ted it the
consequen ces of the o c currence upon
yoursel f and others Wh at influence
has it had upon your life since that
time ? Good ? Bad ? Why ? If good
may the s ame experience not be
realized again ? If bad by what means
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93
may i t b e avo i d e d ? T h i s method sh oul d
be followe d with v a rious experien ces
A S you c an easi ly under s tand the e x
e rc ise develops fa r more than imagina
tion I t tea che s reason judgment
s elf c on t ro l an d th at thoughtful inte l
l ige n t c are o f the self whi ch is the
h appy m edium b etween b rutal s e l fi sh
nes s a nd b ase self abnegation
Another helpful e xe rc1s e I s the fol
lowin g $ R e c all some a ttra c tive l an d
s c ape th a t you hav e seen P ain t fro m
memo ry a pi cture of it $ S uppose it
w a s a running b roo k in the mountain s
R emem b e r the r ocks a t the Shore the
t rees with their low h angin g b ranche s
the c ows tha t used to stand knee d eep
in th e w a ter a t noon C all to memory
t h e tw i tte r o f b irds in the foliage the
hoarse cawing of th e c rows in the not
distant pines the oc c asional lowin g o f
a c ow in the a dj o m l n g field Hear the
laughte r of th e boys a s they co m e for
an early evening plunge in the c ool
still wa te r of the near by m ill pond
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94
.
M E NTA L S UPREM A C Y
.
O der
S mell again in imagina tion th e
of the earth the tree s the wild fl o w
the fresh cut hay in the near b y
e rs
meadow Go through it all minutely
resolutely Don t omit any detail
Then begin on the creative phase of
the imagination P aint a picture in
—
your mind first s a y a lands c ape a
View of a high mountain on the right
a great tree on the left between the
two a verdure clad h il l s I de beyond a
lake above a blue s k y low up o n wh i ch
hangs the setting s un Add all th e
d etails which I have not spa ce to enu
m erate
C omp o se many pic tures like thi s
taking time to put in every little bush
and ro ck and cloud Unless you make
the pi cture vivid and complete you will
mis s the real benefit of the exer ci s e
Every picture ever painted has been
thus elaborated in the imagination of
the artist before it was o bj e ct ifi e d upon
th e c anvas
Next a dd a c tion to you r pi cture
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95
Upon
the lake is a little sailboat c on
t a I n In g a merry party
How many ?
How do they look ? How are they
dressed etc ? S uddenly a squall come s
up The boat c apsizes Another boa t
puts out from Shore and rescues t he
unfortunates And s o on
O ne of the most interesting and va l
u a b l e of exercises for the imagination
is this $ Y ou are r e ading a b ook o f
fiction and have reached let us s a y
the end of the third chapter Now s it
down and write out of your own im a g
in a t io n a s equ e l to the story from the
point at which yo u s t Oppe d readin g
Who is going to marry whom ? How is
the villain to be puni s hed ? What is to
become of the adventuress and s o on
Write another sequel at th e en d of the
fourth chapter At the end of the
fifth the eighth the tenth chapters d o
the same thing
Now in this exercise while the I n cI
dental literary practice is most valu
able the main point is t o train the im
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96
ME N TA L S UP RE M A CY
.
Y ou Should th e r e fore th ink
imagine more than you write s etting
out the rest of the story a s you imagine
it in brief simple terms and yet ex
tended enough to be clear Take much
time Better to work out one good
ingenious sequel in five hours than to
spend twice that amount of time in
doing hurried blurred and incomp l ete
work
L astly make up an entire story Im
—
agine your hero if you like a he roine
Develop your situation and b rm g mat
ters t o a logical termination It is
best training for the mind $for all the
other fa cultie s as well as for the im a g
in a t io n ) not to put the story into writ
ing until it is completed in thought
S ome of the m o st su c ce ssful sto ry
writers follow this method neve r c om
mitting the story to writing until it
has been fully elaborated in the im a g
i mation The best plan is t o first block
out in the imagination the general plot
o f the story Then go over it again
a g in a t i o n
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97
SECRE TS OF
an d a gain el abor atin g the Situations
and addin g details until the whole story
seems like an occurren ce in you r own
personal experien c e
Then write it out making no sp ecial
attempt at literary form but striving
only fo r clearne s s a n d exa ctnes s of
des c rip t ion an d d etail Y o u may then
make a s e c on d c op y o r even a third
if you like with every writin g trying
to gain a m o re and more clea r mental
pi c ture of the personages s c enes and
oc curren ces whi ch make up yo ur s tory
A few hou r s a week de voted to s tudy
along lines whi ch I have h ere sketched
will do wonders not only in cultivating
the power of imagination b ut in de vel
Opin g e v e ry de s ira b le quality o f mind
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memory th e m o st daring an d pict ur
—
esque imagination without con c entra
tion they c an eff ect nothing The
ri
n
of
c
on
c
entration
may
be
well
l
l
e
c
p
p
illustrated by a physical c omparison
S uppo s e we take a football weighing
four o unces and propel it through the
air b y means of the charge of powder
generally used for a projectile of four
ounces weight What e ff e ct will the
impa c t of the football have ? None
whatever But s uppose we c o n ce n
trate the four oun ces weight into a
sphere of l ead less than half an inch
in diameter and pu t behind it the same
—
propuls ive for c e what t hen will hap
pen ? Now the di ff eren ce between the
football and the leaden bullet is the
di ff erence betwe en di ff usion and c on
centration the diff erence betwe en the
impingem ent that is harmle ss an d that
which is deadly
And s o it is in the worl d of thought
The thoughts of some people are like a
—
fo o t ball big expanded by wordy
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100
MEN TAL
S UP REMA CY
.
wind Slow moving i n e fi e ct ive ; the
thoughts of others are like bullet s
concentrated
swift
direct
going
straight to the c enter without pause or
hindran ce
“
This one thing I do said that pro
found philosopher P aul of Tarsus
And if we study the history of the
world s master s pI rit S we shall find
that this has been their policy The
uncouth butcher who pushed Charles I
from the throne and established a form
of government based on moral princi
ple instead of special right ; the pallid
undersized F rench advocate who in
the hope of establis hing his wild dream
of democracy sent the flower of F rench
aristo c racy walking up Dr Guillotine s
stairway ; the i gnorant tinker who gave
to the world what is perhaps the great
est allegory in profane literature ; the
undersized plebeian C orsican a dve n
turer who made himself mas ter of the
—
world all th e se had for their motto
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10 1
SECRE TS OF
the idea o f c on c en t ra t ion
Thi s o ne
thing I do
Now what is meant by c on c ent r a
tion of the attention or a s it is s ome
times called the power o f atten t ion ?
Y ou s e e in the kind of language whi ch
I am u sing to you we do not attempt
to express things with s cientifi c pre
c is i o n ; fo r that means the use no t only
of many many words but the i nt r o
du c tion of many new and to us un
necessary words S o f o r our purpo se
we may use the term s con centration
power of attention c o n cent r ation o f
attention as if they meant th e s ame
—
thing a s they actually do
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W H A T IS C O N CEN TRA T I O N ?
Now what is con c entration ? In a
word concentration may be defined a s
being that state of mind in whi ch the
total and entire energies of the indi
vidual physical as well a s mental a re
focused upon the thing he is doing or
thinking All a ctions and all tho ughts
,
,
,
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1 02
SECRE TS
OF
wel l as I n Juggling and balancing
the same is true Acrobatic jugglers
and gymna s ts are always masters of
—
the art of attention o f c on c entration
as applied to their spe c ial feats
as
,
.
.
AT TEN TI O N L A RGELY A N EGA T I VE A C T
.
Now concentration is largely a nega
tive process ; it depends a s much upon
what you do not do as upon what
you do
To take an example $ Y ou Sit down
to write a di fficult lette r The trolley
car whizzes b y with it s Villainous
“
bang bang
Y ou a re suddenly re
minded that you Should have go ne down
town to get that book your wife
wanted But there s the letter Y ou
turn back to it Y ou write another
—
line or two and t hen suddenly you
hear the excited b ark of little F ido
the S cotch terrier Y ou go to the win
dow a n d look out Nothing the mat
—
ter only another terrier not quite so
S co t ch a c ross the street Y ou read
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1 04
ME N TA L S UPRE M A CY
.
back a few lines of your lett er and
start again Y ou don t quite know
what to say Y our eye wanders round
the room Ah yes that suit to be
pres sed Y ou attend to this matter
Then back to your letter And So on
A half hour has passed and the letter
is only begun Now this is a fair ex
ample o f the lack of concentration
of a wandering mind And su ch a
habit of thought is an absolute bar to
any achievement that is helpful either
to one s s elf or to the world at large
And how Shall this tendency be over
come ? By what means may we gain
the power of bringing every faculty of
the mind to bear upon the task of the
moment without allowing any of our
thought or attention to wander I nto
other directions
—
It is very Simple simple but not at
first easy Merely refuse to let the
mind wander Be the master of your
—
mind o f yours elf R emember what
“
Milton says $
He who is master of
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SECRE TS OF
himself is king o f men
But of c ourse
you want more specifi c dire c tions than
“
this It is easy to s a y c oncentrate ;
bu t you need to kno w ex actly ho w t o
c oncentrate
R emembering that attention is
merely the a c t of applying the min d
the entire mind to the task in hand
you will understand that the faithful
pra c ti ce o f the various e xe rcl s e s advised
in previous chapters of this series c an
not but be of the greatest value a s aids
to the development of the power of
attention Every e ff o rt of the mind
whether to per ceive ; t o re c olle c t to
asso c iate to imagine or to judge must
ne cessarily involve a c o nc ent ra t l o n of
the fa culties of the mind upon that
parti cular act whatever it may be
S o first of all I may assure you tha t
the practices I have advised if you
have fai t hfully foll o wed them will
have by t his time notably in c reased
your power of attention As a matter
of fact such assurance o n my part is
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1 06
b eginni n g a n d learn to c on centrate the
attention is the following
S elect some task which while Simp le
requires accuracy and close attention
A s um in addition or multiplication is
well adapted for this purpose Now
settle yours elf down to this ; resolving
t hat until it is finished and verified
you will not allow the mind to take in
or at any rate hold an y other idea or
icture
whatever
p
While adding or multiplying the fi g
u res you wi ll suddenly find that there
pops into the mind some other idea
the clang of a bell $fire or the ambu
lance ) ; a shouting on the street $a
fight or a runaway ) a thought of the
landlady your tailor your gro cer
Now just here is where you are re
quired to make the essential act of c on
—
centration o f trained attention S hut
the door on thes e outside thoughts
Turn back to your work F or a time
at any rate you cannot prevent the
intrusion of extraneous thoughts ; you
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1 08
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M E N TA L S UP RE M A CY
?
A
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$
can however resolutely refuse to allo w
them to remain in the mind At first
they will come insistently again and
again beating at the door of your con
“
s c i o us n e s s
Let me in ; let me in
they c ry
Never mind those st upid
figures I am more interesting I
am more important to you Y ou must
you ought you ve got to think of me
“
L et me in
But no says the trained
“
mind
This one thing I do O ne
thing at a time I can think of but
one obje c t at once ; and if I let you into
my mind I c an do justice neither to
you nor to my task Avaunt
But
the haunters do not retreat so easily
They return and return with in c redible
persisten cy They pound at the door
of your mind They insist on in t rud
ing and o cc asionally they get in
—
Then don t worry or fret about
them Don t let them b other or excite
you Don t be discouraged S imply
bring the attention back to the original
As Dr William
s ubje c t of thought
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1 09
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Jame s P rofesso r of Psycho l o gy in
Eff or t of atten
Harvar d h a s s aid $
tion is the essen tia l phenomenon o f
will
Ano the r exer c ise f o r c on c en t ration
of the attention is Simp l y to c oun t
C o un t one hundred b e ginning with 2
and adding three ea ch time e g 2 5
8 1 1 1 4 et c
O r b e g in n l n g with 2
ad d 6 7 9 1 3 o r 1 7 ea ch time e g
2 8 1 4 2 0 etc ; 2 9 1 6 2 3 3 0 , e tc ;
2 1 1 2 0 2 9 38 e tc
O r beginning
with 1 0 0 c ount d o wnwar d subtra ct ing
3 6 7 9 1 1 1 3 1 7 o r 1 9 ea ch t ime
e g 1 0 0 9 7 9 4 9 1 etc All this may
seem very SI m pl e But you will find
that unless you already have a very
finely developed power of atten tion
you will no t at fir st b e able to c omplete
the hundre d in a n y o f t hese exer c ises
without the entran c e into the mind o f
vagrant extraneous thoughts By the
time you are able to add o r subtract
freely in this way without any wan
derin g of the attention yo u may con
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110
S ECRE TS
OF
ap pe a r Then b a ckward 9 6 5 2 4 7 ;
then go down the units column 7 2 6
then up the tens column 9 5 4 and
s o on
After a few hours of practi ce su ch
as this you will be gi n to kn o w the fi g
ures on each card by memory This
while a good thing in one way makes
the exercise of less value as a training
in c on c entration ; s o it will b e ne cessary
for you to make up another s e t In
the se c ond s e t make a larger number
of figures on each card s a y something
like 9 4 7 8 5 3 2 0 1 under ea ch other
making a square o f nine fi gures or
9 4 78 5 3 20 1 6 in a c olumn or a
line of twelve or fifteen single figure s
arranged a s for an example in addi
tion
After a peri o d of practice with these
cards you will find again that you are
learning to remember the numbe rs from
previou s g lances rather than from the
one last glance Then it is time to
make another s e t This t ime make
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1 12
M E N TA L
S UPRE M A C Y
.
your figure squares still l a rge r R un
them up to squares like this $ 4 7 0 2
3 8 95 6 3 7 4 9 7 6 5 etc ; or make c o l l e c
tions of numbers like 4 7 0 2 3 8 9 5 6
etc making a list of perhaps fi ve or
Six lines of three figures each In my
own experience along this line I have
known of stud ents who could remem
ber with unerring fidelity a figure
square consisting of sixty four figures
arranged in a square as 4 8 9 6 4 3 2 5
9 3 8 4 2 739
etc It seems incredible ;
but it is entirely true that after a
time it is quite as easy to re c all a
mental picture of sixty four figures as
of twelve or Sixteen
It is perhaps an improvement on the
above described practice to have the
assistance of another who will Shuffle
the cards and exhibit one for a fleeting
second Where you can get some one
to work with you it is a good plan fo r
the assistant to read a few lines of
prose s a y about twenty words at first
—
wh i ch you afterwards repeat from
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113
m em ory O r he may call out a li s t of
words or figures to which you listen
and whi ch you afterward repeat
And now for the last and most im
portant exerc is e whi ch I have to s ug
gest And I may s a y right here that
if you pra c tice persistently and c on
s c ie n t l o u s l y you will a cq u ire the power
of c on centration to a gre a ter deg ree
and in a Shorter time than by all other
m e thods c ombined This exercise like
most things that are great and impor
ta nt is also very SI m pl e It is thi s $
Make every detail a work of art
Think this ove r It means that you
—
do everything the most t rivial a cts
with stri c t an d ex clusive attention
Are yo u la cing your b oots ? There
is a way in whi ch that homely little
a c t c an be performed mo re rapidly
ea s il y and satisfactorily than it c an
I n any other way S tanding walking
d ressing one s s e lf writing Shaking
hands shaving handling knife a n d
—
fork op enin g a boo k al l thes e a n d a
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11 4
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ME N TA L S UP RE MA C Y
.
PS Y C HO P H Y S I C A L D E V E L O P
MENT
-
.
human b ody is one
In ordinary
a n entity
conversation we refer to
t h e individual as if he or
were composed of
sh e
three di ff erent elements
the physical the mental and the spirit
ual In reality howev e r these three a re
merely di ff erent phases of one form
of activity The Spirit is the great
omnipotent o mnipresent
o mniscient
eternal thing which animate s both
mind and body Mind and body in
turn are merely representations of the
action of the spirit In the perfectly
organized individual spi rit mind and
body would act together perfectly with
out friction without eff ort without
the necessity for any special training
HE
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1 17
Th e re a re i n fa ct a fe w excepti on al
cases in whi ch spirit mind an d b od y
—
act with some degree o f harmon y in
which the pure imperson a l s pI rIt $t he
S at the Atman a s the wise Hindoo s
c all it ) a cts i n su ch a manne r a s t o
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and
mo vements
of
‘
the
shin ing ones of the a ges
I ndivi d ual
.
.
ment s o frequently referred to in the
writings of t he old philo sopher s Egyp
tian Hindoo C hi nese and He b rai c
S u ch h a rm o n I o uS a c tion on c e a chieved
the in dividual is in immediate posses
,
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and
e xp re s s 1ve n e SS
AS
$
s us
Browning wri te s in
Wh e re
t ru t h
a bi de s
t o kn o w
1 18
in
f
Pa r a c e l
u l ln e s s ;
dud
SECRE TS
OF
th ough t i mpulse o r emotion is per
f e ct l y expressed I n muscular activity
we have the ideal human being In
this connection it may be appropriate
to introduce two brief quotations from
the writings of P rofessor William
James of Harvard C ollege
“
He says $
There is no more valu
able pre cept in moral education than
—
this if we wish to c onquer un de s ir
able emoti o nal tenden c ies in ours elves
we must assiduously and in the first
instance cold b l o o de dl y go through the
outward movements of those contrary
disp ositions we pr efe r t o cultivate
S mooth the brow brighten the
eye c ontract the dors al rather than the
ventral aspect of the frame and speak
in the maj or key pass the genial com
i
m
and
your
heart
must
be
frigid
l
e
n
t
p
indeed if it does no t gradually thaw
And in another place the same a u
“
thor h a s said $
N o re ce pt io n without
reaction no impressi o n without correl
—
ative expression this is the great
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1 20
MEN TA L S UPREMA CY
.
maxim which the teacher ough t never
to forget An impression which sim
ply fl o w s in at the pupil s eyes or ears
and in no way modifies the active life
is an impression gone to waste
It is
physiologically incomplete It leaves
no fruits behind it in the way of c apac
ity acquired Even as mere impres
sion it fails to produ ce its proper e ff e c t
upon the memo ry ; for to remain fully
among the acqui si tions of this latter
faculty it must be wrought into the
whole cycle of our operations Its
motor consequences are what cli n ch it
S ome e ff ect due to it in the way of
activity must return to the mind in
the form of the sensation of having
acted and c onnect itself with the im
r
I
n
O
The
most
durable
impres
e
s
s
p
sions in fact are those on a c count of
which we speak or act or else are in
w a rdl y convulsed
O f all the many evil e ff e c t s of what
we call civilization the most blasting is
that it s general influence I s to break up
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1 21
SECRE TS
OF
the close in ter rel a tio n b e tween th o ught
and motion In order to live the c on
v e n t i o n a l l ife of the well behaved man
or w o man one is c ompelled to con
s t a n t l y stifle
and deny desires im
pulses thoughts and su ch denial in e v
it a b l y le a d s to i n j u ry of mi n d a n d body
.
-
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R ELA TI O N
OF
M IN D
A ND
B OD Y
.
Mental a c tivity simply means cer
tain chemi c al and me chani c al ch a nges
occurring in nervous matter These
changes o cc ur not only in the nervous
matter o f the brain bu t also in the
n erves whi ch c ause m u s c ular a c tion
This is a large subje c t and it is
quite impossible within the limits of
a work such a s this to make it clear
It may be said at once h o wever that
e a ch emoti o n and each t h ought h a s its
c orresponding out put along the motor
—
nerves that ea ch emotion and each
thought h a s a mus cular picture whi ch
is peculiar t o itself Now if t h e mus
cle s be free and flexible the tho ught
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1 22
SECRE TS OF
Exe rcis e Nc
.
1
.
Anti
c
ipation
pleasura
b
le
expe
ct
a
$
tion
,
.
Im a gine that some one is coming
toward you whom you v ery mu ch
wished to s e e Y ou would naturally
lean forward to greet him extending
one or b oth hands and smiling Now
holding this idea this mental picture
before the mind allow the flexible body
to Show it forth in gesture facial ex
pression and a few words of greeting
spoken aloud Exactly what you do
does not in the least matter S imply
hold the thought SO intentl y that for
the moment you a c cept the imagined
situation as real and let the body go
Thi s exercise may be varied in fi
n i t e l y by changing the pi c ture always
however imagining a Situation such as
will produce a feelin g of pleasurable
anticipation
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M E N TA L S UP RE M A C Y
.
No
Ex e rc is e
.
2
.
Horror
$
Imagine that you are looking at
some dangerous animal $a snake if
you are a man $ if a woman a mou s e
will answer every purpose ) that you
c a nnot escape Y ou naturally draw
back in horror
L ike the former exercise in this you
—
are to forget the body entirely to let
—
it g o putting all your attention upon
the imagined situation In this e x e
cise a s in the preceding any situation
may be invented which will induce the
thought of horror
.
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Exe rcis e No
.
3
.
Joy
$
)
Imagine some situation which would
awaken in you a state of joy and yield
the body up to the feeling
.
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1 25
Ex e r c i s e
Nc 4
.
.
Guilt )
Try t o imagine that you have co m
m i t t e d some crime s a y for instance
theft Imagine that you are brought
before a judge and that you are ple a d
ing guilty and askin g fo r mer cy
Allow this though t t o permeate mind
and b ody Showing by gestures and
atti t u d e you r app re c ia tion o f the s itu a
tion
.
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a
A
cc
us
t
ion
$
)
Ima gine that s o me o n e h a s co m
m it t e d a c rime against you ; that you
are fa cing him before a tri b unal
Make y our a ccusation I f ne ces s ary in
words taking at the same time the
attitude app ropria te t o this emoti o nal
state
.
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1 26
,
Va n
Winkl e on aw ak ening fr o m his
long Sl e ep Mark Antony in his speech
to the R omans R egulus parting from
—
h is wife and children these and many
o ther s c enes a ff ord Vivid dramatic Sit
,
,
ua t io n s
.
all this work the great point is
to subordinate the body to make the
body obedient flexible acquiescent
Those
an d interpretative of the mind
who are interested in any form of ex
p ressive art dramatic lyri c al or
scenic will fin d thes e simple exer cises
of value
In
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12 8
,
M E N TA L S UPRE M A C Y
TH E L O S T A R T S
.
O F C H IL D HO O D
.
Ex c e p t y e b e c o n v e r t e d a n d b e c o m e
a s l i t t l e c hi l dr e n y e s ha l l n o t e n t e r i n t o
t he k in gdo m o f h e a ve n
M A TT H EW
1 8, 3
.
.
e
i
m
k
s
h
i
n
o
d
t
f
g
M A T T H EW 19 1 4
Fo r
-
0
s uc h
o
f
h e a ve n
.
.
,
HE
more deeply the man
of science studies the
sayings attributed to
Jesus the S eer of Judea
the more profo undly is
he imp re s sed not only by
the brilliant intellect and wonderful
oratory of Jesus but by his marvelous
insigh t into subjects which were in his
time unkn own even to the most lu cid
thinkers of ancient times
In the history of the race two thou
sand years is n o t a very long time a nd
,
,
,
.
,
129
SECRE TS O F
p re vi ou s to the b egi nn i ng of th e Ch ri s
tian e r a there had been a cc omplishe d
al on g lines o f philo s ophi c al physical
and co s m o l o gl c a l resear ch mu ch mo r e
than with all our b oasted erudition has
been done sin c e In fact s ome o f our
most striking d is c overies are me rely
corro b orations of knowledge o f the
Brahmins the C hinese the Phoeni cians
and other of the ancient peoples who
lived th o u s ands of years before the
allege d a ppearan c e of Jesus of N a z
a r eth
Ho w m uch o f thi s an c ien t knowl
e dge Je su s pos s essed i t is impossi b le to
—
p r obabl y most i f not all O ne
s ay
thing is ce r tain $ S o me thin gs he knew
and s aid whi ch s o fa r a s we know
were entirely original and iconoclasti c
And on e of the s e things entirely new
the n $and almost entirely n e w now
for that matter ) was to the e fi e ct that
in child study we should find the key
to the kingdom of heaven
No w a s I h av e e xplained elsewhere
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130
S ECRE TS
OF
cept a man be born again he c anno t
s e e the Kingdom of God
O f t he many millions that have with
close attention and deep rev er ence read
the words I have quoted few if any
have seen the clear profound pra c
tical wisdom of the statement of Je s us
that only the man the w o ma n who
became as a little child c oul d en ter into
the realm of peace and power
And now let us analyze a little
What is there about the child which we
should emulate ? What characteristics
h a s the child unpossessed by the adult
which when develop ed in the adult wi ll
give entran c e into the kingdom of God ?
Mind you it is not stated that chil
dren are in the Kingdom of Heaven
Nor c an they be They lack the actual
knowledge the experience the poise
But it is in the experience the hard
and bitter experience which develops
poise and power that man loses the
simplicity trustfulness and tenderne ss
of childhood It is when in additio n
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1 32
ME N TA L
S UPREM A C Y
.
to his adult powers he achieves the lost
arts and powers of childh o od that he
enters the Kingdom of Heaven
,
,
.
W HAT
A RE T HE L O ST ART S
C H I LD H OOD ?
OF
L et us c onsider first some of the
physical characteristics of normal
childhood The healthy child is re
markable for his ere c t body his up
turned face his clear and far rea ching
voice the ease and grace of his move
ments his wonderful enduran ce That
these are among the normal pow
ers of the average healthy child may be
determined by a few minutes of close
observation upon any playgr o und A
moment s thought will Show how rare
are such powers among adults
The healthy child is ere ct There
fore the chest is high and expanded the
body is carried like an erect c olumn
and the breathing is slow and deep
This gives the only conditions under
whi ch the n ormal tone of voice in song
.
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1 33
or spee ch c an b e r eprod uc e d T h e
erect c arriage means that the j oints
an d mus c les o f the body are in their
normal and me chani c al relation to ea ch
other
S o we have in the normal child move
ments which are at o n c e rapi d gra ce
—
ful an d e c on o mi c al s o e c onomi c a l o f
vita l for c e that the child s enduran c e
h a s passed in t o a proverb
Children
w ill keep on r omping for h o u rs a t a
time without fa t igue But an adult
wh o j oins in their play will usually b e
tired o u t in ten or fifteen minutes
Wh y is this ? Be c ause the child moves
properly and the adult does no t move
properly Be c ause b o dily movement
is o ne o f the l o s t ar ts o f childhood
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A M ASTER OF T HE DI FF I CULT A RT
OF
R EST
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And then the ab ility t o re s t T h e
tired child throws himself down o n the
c ouch Or floor or ground and rests
The tired adult on the othe r han d
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1 34
perf e ct an exp o si tion of the a ctor s c on
c e p t i o n of his part
F rom a purely
technical st andpoint the dramatic
work o f the average healthy intelligent
—
child is beyond c ritici sm it is Simply
perfe ct
And then the child s moral and
Spiritual qualities By nature he is
—
absolutely truthful truthful b oth in
the sense of seeing the truth and of tell
—
ing it until he is sedu c ed int o lying
by fear and bad example
Mi chelet that d e ep and tender phi
“
No c onsecrated
l o s o ph e r has said $
absurdity of mankin d would have s ur
vive d one generatio n had not the man
Silen ced t h e objection of the child
Do you r emember the first lie s they
told you ? How strange it seemed for
people people whom perhaps you loved
and feared and worshiped with the
pure white hot intensity of the child
h o w strange for them to do that $
S oon however you learned to do it
yourself learned the fat a l utility the
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136
MEN TAL S UP REMA C Y
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c onvenien c e of the lie
And s o the
angel with the flaming sword waved
you away from the Eden of Un co n
r
bl
Inno
c
en
c
e
and
only
after
u
a
e
e
q
many years of wandering in waste
place s only b y b eing born again may
you re enter Eden the Kingdom of
Heaven
And with the truthfulness o f child
hood the Simplicity the kindliness
—
the demo c ra cy , the I ndependen ce all
of these are among the lost powers of
childhood and all of these we must
achieve if we would posses s the highe st
p o wers of body mind and spirit
“
Ex c ept ye be c ome as a little child
no true power physical artisti c intel
lectual spiritual is possible To him
or her who in simplicity ac cepts the
teaching the kingdom is close at hand ;
“
and a little child Shall lead them
The truly great of earth are not the
ones most highly polished by co n ve n
t i o n a l educational methods
O n the
othe r hand th e y are o ften the lonely
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1 37
M E N TA L S UP REMA C Y
.
and the n egle cted They have starved
in garrets an d dreamed in hovels ; from
squ a lid prI So n c ells they have sent forth
“
thoughts that breathe ; under the
silent stars they have c on c eived
thoughts a s high a s the stars them
“
selves They are those who through
g rea t t ribulation
have been born
again a nd who a s little children have
entered into the r ealm o f peace wis
dom love and power the m ysti c King
dom of Heave n
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138
SE L F HE L P B O O K S
-
E L I $ A B ET H TO WN E
M E T H O D S FO R SE L F D EV E L O P
By
PRAC TI CA L
M EN T SPI RI T U A L M ENTA L PHYSI CA L
Pri c e
1 60 pa ge s c l o th
T HE L I FE P O W E R A N D H O W T O U SE IT 176
pages clo th P ri ce
LE SS O NS IN LIV I N G The l a tes t book b y M
T owne 185 pages cloth P ri c e
P ri ce
H ILO SO P H Y
75 larg e p ages cl o th
J$ t
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H O LY O K E M A SS
YOU
TU TIO N
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B OO K S
BY
WA LLAC E D WATT L ES
T HE S C IEN C E OF G E T T IN G R I C H E v e ry word
of th is book w as wri tte n fo r th e man or wo man
who nee d s to mak e m one y It is for tho se who
h av e nei the r t ime n o r m one y to go d eep ly in to
me t aphysi c s but who a re w i ll in g to take th e con
f me n t a l s c i e n c e as a b asis to a c t fro m
e lu si on s
It i s e pe c te d th e reader w i ll prove th e t ruth of
th e s ta teme n ts made i n th e b ook b y a c ti ng u pon
th em The author who w a s one o f th e ge n tl es t
o f men and hi ghly re pe c te d in h is comm un i ty
p rove d the t ruth of h is i deas by increasi ng h is
earn i ngs to
i n a ye a r Wi th in a y ea r a fte r
he be gan t wri te h is work w as b ei ng acc ept e d b y
magazi n es l ike Th H u e k p S m t S t M u
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NAUTILUS
i a mo n th l y e fficien cy t o n i c for m ind b o dy and
bu siness I t is r e cognize d as th e l e adi ng mag azine
f th e N e w T hought a n d m e n tal h ea l in g m ov emen t
I t d e a l s dynami c ally w i th p rac ti c al subj e c t s co n
t d w ith e veryd ay l i v in g
I T S E D ITO R i s ELI $ A B ET H TO W N E who se e di
wh i ch a re part O f the m agazin e m on thly
t ial
are s aid to hav e th e l arge s t numb e r Of reade rs f
an y wom an s writings i n Ame ri ca with
po s
sibl e e c eption
I T S R E GU L AR C O N T R I BU TO R S in clud e E dwi n
M a rkh am Oris o n S w e tt Ma rd en D r E dward
B Wa rm an Wi ll iam Walk e r Atki ns on H ora ti
W D r sse r Thom a s D rei e r an d many oth e rs
Each n umbe r f N u t i l u co n t ai n s two o r th re e
beauti ful O ri gi n al po em s
I T S D E PAR T M E N T S are con t ributi o n s to and fro m
its re ade rs Th e y a re O f m ark abl i n te res t I n
Th i n gs Th a t M ak e For S u cc e ss
a mon th ly p rize
is Off e re d to subs crib e rs for th e b es t l e t te r o n suc
ce s s an d eve ry i m on ths $5 00 i n cash is give n to
the auth or f the b e st suc ce s s l e tte r publi h e d
“
du ri n g th at pe ri od In F ami ly C ounse l th e
mo s t popul a r departmen t E l iz ab e th T ow e
we rs q uesti on s from sub scrib e rs
NA U T I L U S is h and s o me l y p rin ted co v e rs i n two
colors i l lu s trate d w i th o ri ginal drawi ng s and h a lf
Sub s cription
p e r yea r Addre ss
t o ne s
T HE EL I $ A B E T H TO W NE CO
H OLY O K E MA SS
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