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The Science of Being Great by Wallace D. Wattles
Chapter 1 — Any Person May Become Great
There is a Principle of Power in every person.
By the intelligent use and direction of this
principle, man can develop his own mental
faculties. Man has an inherent power by which
he may grow in whatsoever direction he pleases,
and there does not appear to be any limit
to the possibilities of his growth. No man
has yet become so great in any faculty but
that it is possible for someone else to become
greater. The possibility is in the Original
Substance from which man is made. Genius is
Omniscience flowing into man.
Genius is more than talent. Talent may merely
be one faculty developed out of proportion
to other faculties, but genius is the union
of man and God in the acts of the soul. Great
men are always greater than their deeds. They
are in connection with a reserve of power
that is without limit. We do not know where
the boundary of the mental powers of man is;
we do not even know that there is a boundary.
The power of conscious growth is not given
to the lower animals; it is mans alone and
may be developed and increased by him. The
lower animals can, to a great extent, be trained
and developed by man; but man can train and
develop himself. He alone has this power,
and he has it to an apparently unlimited extent.
The purpose of life for man is growth, just
as the purpose of life for trees and plants
is growth. Trees and plants grow automatically
and along fixed lines; man can grow, as he
will. Trees and plants can only develop certain
possibilities and characteristics; man can
develop any power, which is or has been shown
by any person, anywhere. Nothing that is possible
in spirit is impossible in flesh and blood.
Nothing that man can think is impossible-in
action. Nothing that man can imagine is impossible
of realization.
Man is formed for growth, and he is under
the necessity of growing.
It is essential to his happiness that he should
continuously advance.
Life without progress becomes unendurable,
and the person who ceases from growth must
either become imbecile or insane. The greater
and more harmonious and well rounded his growth,
the happier man will be.
There is no possibility in any man that is
not in every man; but if they proceed naturally,
no two men will grow into the same thing,
or be alike. Every man comes into the world
with a predisposition to grow along certain
lines, and growth is easier for him along
those lines than in any other way. This is
a wise provision, for it gives endless variety.
It is as if a gardener should throw all his
bulbs into one basket; to the superficial
observer they would look alike, but growth
reveals a tremendous difference.
So of men and women, they are like a basket
of bulbs. One may be a rose and add brightness
and color to some dark corner of the world;
one may be a lily and teach a lesson of love
and purity to every eye that sees; one may
be a climbing vine and hide the rugged outlines
of some dark rock; one may be a great oak
among whose boughs the birds shall nest and
sing, and beneath whose shade the flocks shall
rest at noon, but everyone will be something
worthwhile, something rare, something perfect.
There are undreamed of possibilities in the
common lives all around us in a large sense,
there are no “common” people. In times
of national stress and peril the cracker-box
loafer of the corner store and the village
drunkard become heroes and statesmen through
the quickening of the Principle of Power within
them. There is a genius in every man and woman,
waiting to be brought forth. Every village
has its great man or woman; someone to whom
all go for advice in time of trouble; someone
who is instinctively recognized as being great
in wisdom and insight. To such a one the minds
of the whole community turn in times of local
crisis; he is tacitly recognized as being
great. He does small things in a great way.
He could do great things as well if he did
but undertake them; so can any man; so can
you. The Principle of Power gives us just
what we ask of it; if we only undertake little
things, it only gives us power for little
things; but if we try to do great things in
a great way it gives us all the power there
is.
But beware of undertaking great things in
a small way: of that we shall speak farther
on.
There are two mental attitudes a man may take.
One makes him like a football. It has resilience
and reacts strongly when force is applied
to it, but it originates nothing; it never
acts of itself. There is no power within it.
Men of this type are controlled by circumstances
and environment; their destinies are decided
by things external to themselves. The Principle
of Power within them is never really active
at all. They never speak or act from within.
The other attitude makes man like a flowing
spring. Power comes out from the center of
him. He has within him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life, he radiates force;
heist felt by his environment. The Principle
of Power in him is in constant action. He
is self-active. “He hath life in himself.”
No greater good can come to any man or woman
than to become self-active. All the experiences
of life are designed by Providence to force
men and women into self-activity; to compel
them to cease being creatures of circumstances
and master their environment. In his lowest
stage, man is the child of chance and circumstance
and the slave of fear. His acts are all reactions
resulting from the impingement upon him of
forces in his environment. He acts only as
he is acted upon; he originates nothing. But
the lowest savage has within him a Principle
of Power sufficient to master all that he
fears; and if he learns this and becomes self-active,
he becomes as one of the gods.
The awakening of the Principle of Power in
man is the real conversion; the passing from
death to life. It is when the dead hear the
voice of the Son of Man and come forth and
live. It is the resurrection and the life.
When it is awakened, man becomes a son of
the Highest and all power is given to him
in heaven and on earth.
Nothing was ever in any man that is not in
you; no man ever had more spiritual or mental
power than you can attain, or did greater
things than you can accomplish. You can become
what you want to be.
End of chapter 1.
Chapter 2 — Heredity and Opportunity
You are not barred from attaining greatness
by heredity. No matter who or what your ancestors
may have been or how unlearned or lowly their
station, the upward way is open for you. There
is no such thing as inheriting a fixed mental
position; no matter how small the mental capital
we receive from our parents, it may be increased;
no man is born incapable of growth.
Heredity counts for something. We are born
with subconscious mental tendencies; as, for
instance, a tendency to melancholy, or cowardice,
or to ill temper; but all these subconscious
tendencies may be overcome. When the real
man awakens and comes forth he can throw them
off very easily. Nothing of this kind need
keep you down; if you have inherited undesirable
mental tendencies, you can eliminate them
and put desirable tendencies in their places.
An inherited mental trait is a habit of thought
of your father or mother impressed upon your
subconscious mind; you can substitute the
opposite impression by forming the opposite
habit of thought. You can substitute a habit
of cheerfulness for a tendency to despondency;
you can overcome cowardice or ill temper.
Heredity may count for something, too, in
an inherited conformation of the skull. There
is something in phrenology, if not as much
as its exponents claim; it is true that the
different faculties are localized in the brain,
and that the power of a faculty depends upon
the number of active brain cells in its area.
A faculty whose brain area is large is likely
to act with more power than one whose cranial
section is small; hence persons with certain
conformations of the skull show talent as
musicians, orators, mechanics, and so on.
It has been argued from this that a man’s
cranial formation must, to a great extent,
decide his station in life, but this is an
error. It has been found that a small brain
section, with many fine and active cells,
gives as powerful expression to faculty as
a larger brain with coarser cells; and it
has been found that by turning the Principle
of Power into any section of the brain, with
the will and purpose to develop a particular
talent, the brain cells may be multiplied
indefinitely.
Any faculty, power, or talent you possess,
no matter how small or rudimentary, may be
increased; you can multiply the brain cells
in this particular area until it acts as powerfully
as you wish. It is true that you can act most
easily through those faculties that are now
most largely developed; you can do, with the
least effort, the things which “come naturally”;
but it is also true that if you will make
the necessary effort you can develop any talent.
You can do what you desire to do and become
what you want to be. When you fix upon some
ideal and proceed as hereinafter directed,
all the power of your being is turned into
the faculties required in the realization
of that ideal; more blood and nerve force
go to the corresponding sections of the brain,
and the cells are quickened, increased, and
multiplied in number. The proper use of the
mind of man will build a brain capable of
doing what the mind wants to do.
The brain does not make the man; the man makes
the brain. Your place in life is not fixed
by heredity. Nor are you condemned to the
lower levels by circumstances or lack of opportunity.
The Principle of Power in man is sufficient
for all the requirements of his soul. No possible
combination of circumstances can keep him
down, if he makes his personal attitude right
and determines to rise. The power, which formed
man and purposed him for growth, also controls
the circumstances of society, industry, and
government; and this power is never divided
against itself. The power which is in you
is in the things around you, and when you
begin to move forward, the things will arrange
themselves for your advantage, as described
in later chapters of this book.
Man was formed for growth, and all things
external were designed to promote his growth.
No sooner does a man awaken his soul and enter
on the advancing way than he finds that not
only is God for him, but nature, society,
and his fellow men are for him also; and all
things work together for his good if he obeys
the law. Poverty is no bar to greatness, for
poverty can always be removed. Martin Luther,
as a child, sang in the streets for bread.
Linnaeus the naturalist had only forty dollars
with which to educate himself; he mended his
own shoes and often had to beg meals from
his friends. Hugh Miller, apprenticed to a
stonemason, began to study geology in a quarry.
George Stephenson, inventor of the locomotive
engine, and one of the greatest of civil engineers,
was a coal miner, working in a mine, when
he awakened and began to think. James Watt
was a sickly child, and was not strong enough
to be sent to school. Abraham Lincoln was
a poor boy. In each of these cases we see
a Principle of Power in the man that lifts
him above all opposition and adversity.
There is a Principle of Power in you; if you
use it and apply it in a certain way you can
overcome all heredity, and master all circumstances
and conditions and become a great and powerful
personality.
End of chapter 2.
Chapter 3 — The Source of Power
Man's brain, body, mind, faculties, and talents
are the mere instruments he uses in demonstrating
greatness; in themselves they do not make
him great. A man may have a large brain and
a good mind, strong faculties, and brilliant
talents, and yet he is not a great man unless
he uses all these in a great way. That quality
which enables man to use his abilities in
a great way makes him great; and to that quality
we give the name of wisdom. Wisdom is the
essential basis of greatness.
Wisdom is the power to perceive the best ends
to aim at and the best means for reaching
those ends. It is the power to perceive the
right thing to do. The man who is wise enough
to know the right thing to do, who is good
enough to wish to do only the right thing,
and who is able and strong enough to do the
right thing is a truly great man. He will
instantly become marked as a personality of
power in any community and men will delight
to do him honor.
Wisdom is dependent upon knowledge. Where
there is complete ignorance there can be no
wisdom, no knowledge of the right thing to
do. Man’s knowledge is comparatively limited
and so his wisdom must be small, unless he
can connect his mind with knowledge greater
than his own and draw from it, by inspiration,
the wisdom that his own limitations deny him.
This he can do; this is what the really great
men and women have done. Man’s knowledge
is limited and uncertain; therefore he cannot
have wisdom in himself.
Only God knows all truth; therefore only God
can have real wisdom or the right thing to
do at all times, and man can receive wisdom
from God. I proceed to give an illustration:
Abraham Lincoln had limited education; but
he had the power to perceive truth. In Lincoln
we see pre-eminently apparent the fact that
real wisdom consists in knowing the right
thing to do at all times and under all circumstances;
in having the will to do the right thing,
and in having talent and ability enough to
be competent and able to do the right thing.
Back in the days of the abolition agitation,
and during the compromise period, when all
other men were more or less confused as to
what was right or as to what ought to be done,
Lincoln was never uncertain. He saw through
the superficial arguments of the pro-slavery
men; he saw, also, the impracticability and
fanaticism of the abolitionists; he saw the
right ends to aim at and he saw the best means
to attain those ends. It was because men recognized
that he perceived truth and knew the right
thing to do that they made him president.
Any man who develops the power to perceive
truth, and who can show that he always knows
the right thing to do and that he can be trusted
to do the right thing, will be honored and
advanced; the whole world is looking eagerly
for such men.
When Lincoln became president he was surrounded
by a multitude of so-called able advisers,
hardly any two of whom were agreed. At times
they were all opposed to his policies; at
times almost the whole North was opposed to
what he proposed to do. But he saw the truth
when others were misled by appearances; his
judgment was seldom or never wrong. He was
at once the ablest statesman and the best
soldier of the period. Where did he, a comparatively
unlearned man, get this wisdom? It was not
due to some peculiar formation of his skull
or to some fineness of texture of his brain.
It was not due to some physical characteristic.
It was not even a quality of mind due to superior
reasoning power.
Processes of reason do not often reach knowledge
of truth.
It was due to a spiritual insight. He perceived
truth, but where did he perceive it and whence
did the perception come? We see something
similar in Washington, whose faith and courage,
due to his perception of truth, held the colonies
together during the long and often apparently
hopeless struggle of the Revolution. We see
something of the same thing in the phenomenal
genius of Napoleon, who always knew, in military
matters, the best means to adopt.
We see that the greatness of Napoleon was
in nature rather than in Napoleon, and we
discover back of Washington and Lincoln something
greater than either Washington or Lincoln.
We see the same thing in all great men and
women. They perceive truth; but truth cannot
be perceived until it exists; and there can
be no truth until there is a mind to perceive
it. Truth does not exist apart from mind.
Washington and Lincoln were in touch and communication
with a mind that knew all knowledge and contained
all truth. The same is true of all who manifest
wisdom. Wisdom is obtained by reading the
mind of God.
End of chapter 3.
Chapter 4 — The Mind of God
There is a Cosmic Intelligence that is in
all things and through all things. This is
the one real substance. From it all things
proceed. It is Intelligent Substance or Mind
Stuff. It is God. Where there is no substance
there can be no intelligence; for where there
is no substance there is nothing. Where there
is thought there must be a substance which
thinks. Thought cannot be a function; for
function is motion, and it is inconceivable
that mere motion should think. Thought cannot
be vibration, for vibration is motion, and
that motion should be intelligent is not thinkable.
Motion is nothing but the moving of substance;
if there be intelligence shown it must be
in the substance and not in the motion. Thought
cannot be the result of motions in the brain;
if thought is in the brain it must be in the
brain’s substance and not in the motions
which brain substance makes.
But thought is not in the brain substance,
for brain substance, without life, is quite
unintelligent and dead. Thought is in the
life-principle that animates the brain, in
the spirit substance, which is the real man.
The brain does not think, the man thinks and
expresses his thought through the brain.
There is a spirit substance that thinks. Just
as the spirit substance of man permeates his
body, and thinks and knows in the body, so
the Original Spirit Substance, God, permeates
all nature and thinks and knows in nature.
Nature is as intelligent as man, and knows
more than man; nature knows all things. The
All-Mind has been in touch with all things
from the beginning; and it contains all knowledge.
Man’s experience covers a few things, and
these things man knows; but God’s experience
covers all the things that have happened since
the creation, from the wreck of a planet or
the passing of a comet to the fall of a sparrow.
All that is and all that has been are present
in the Intelligence that is wrapped about
us and enfolds us and presses upon us from
every side.
All the encyclopedias men have written are
but trivial affairs compared to the vast knowledge
held by the mind in which men live, move,
and have their being.
The truths men perceive by inspiration are
thoughts held in this mind. If they were not
thoughts men could not perceive them, for
they would have no existence; and they could
not exist as thoughts unless there is a mind
for them to exist in; and a mind can be nothing
else than a substance which thinks.
Man is thinking substance, a portion of the
Cosmic Substance; but man is limited, while
the Cosmic Intelligence from which he sprang,
which Jesus calls the Father, is unlimited.
All intelligence, power, and force come from
the Father. Jesus recognized this and stated
it very plainly. Over and over again he ascribed
all his wisdom and power to his unity with
the Father, and to his perceiving the thoughts
of God. “My Father and I are one.”
This was the foundation of his knowledge and
power. He showed the people the necessity
of becoming spiritually awakened; of hearing
his voice and becoming like him. He compared
the unthinking man who is the prey and sport
of circumstances to the dead man in a tomb,
and besought him to hear and come forth.
“God is spirit,” he said; “be born again,
become spiritually awake, and you may see
his kingdom. Hear my voice; see what I am
and what I do, and come forth and live. The
words I speak are spirit and life; accept
them and they will cause a well of water to
spring up within you. Then you will have life
within yourself.”
“I do what I see the Father do,” he said,
meaning that he read the thoughts of God.
“The Father shows all things to the son.”
“If any man has the will to do the will
of God, he shall know truth.” “My teaching
is not my own, but his that sent me.” “You
shall know the truth and the truth shall make
you free.” “The spirit shall guide you
into all truth.”
We are immersed in mind and that mind contains
all knowledge and all truth. It is seeking
to give us this knowledge, for our Father
delights to give good gifts to his children.
The prophets and seers and great men and women,
past and present, were made great by what
they received from God, not by what they were
taught by men. This limitless reservoir of
wisdom and power is open to you; you can draw
upon it, as you will, according to your needs.
You can make yourself what you desire to be;
you can do what you wish to do; you can have
what you want.
To accomplish this you must learn to become
one with the Father so that you may perceive
truth; so that you may have wisdom and know
the right ends to seek and the right means
to use to attain those ends, and so that you
may secure power and ability to use the means.
In closing this chapter resolve that you will
now lay aside all else and concentrate upon
the attainment of conscious unity with God.
“Oh, when I am safe in my sylvan home, I
tread on the pride of Greece and Rome, and
when I am stretched beneath the pines, where
the evenings tar so holy shines, I laugh at
the lore and pride of man, at the Sophist
schools and the learned clan, for what are
they all in their high conceit, when man in
the bush with God may meet?”
End of chapter 4.
Chapter 5 — Preparation
“Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh
to you.”
If you become like God you can read his thoughts;
and if you do not you will find the inspirational
perception of truth impossible.
You can never become a great man or woman
until you have overcome anxiety, worry, and
fear. It is impossible for an anxious person,
a worried one, or a fearful one to perceive
truth; all things are distorted and thrown
out of their proper relations by such mental
states, and those who are in them cannot read
the thoughts of God.
If you are poor, or if you are anxious about
business or financial matters, you are recommended
to study carefully the first volume of this
series, “The Science of Getting Rich”
That will present to you a solution for your
problems of this nature, no matter how large
or how complicated they may seem to be. There
is not the least cause for worry about financial
affairs; every person who wills to do so may
rise above want, have all he needs, and become
rich. The same source upon which you propose
to draw for mental unfolding and spiritual
power is at your service for the supply of
all your material wants. Study this truth
until it is fixed in your thoughts and until
anxiety is banished from your mind; enter
the Certain Way, which leads to material riches.
Again, if you are anxious or worried about
your health, realize it is possible for you
to attain perfect health so that you may have
strength sufficient for all that you wish
to do and more. That Intelligence which stands
ready to give you wealth and mental and spiritual
power will rejoice to give you health also.
Perfect health is yours for the asking, if
you will only obey the simple laws of life
and live aright. Conquer ill health and cast
out fear. But it is not enough to rise above
financial and physical anxiety and worry;
you must rise above moral evil-doing as well.
Sound your inner consciousness now for the
motives that actuate you and make sure they
are right. You must cast out lust, and cease
to be ruled by appetite, and you must begin
to govern appetite. You must eat only to satisfy
hunger, never for gluttonous pleasure, and
in all things you must make the flesh obey
the spirit.
You must lay aside greed; have no unworthy
motive in your desire to become rich and powerful.
It is legitimate and right to desire riches,
if you want them for the sake of the soul,
but not if you desire them for the lusts of
the flesh.
Cast out pride and vanity; have no thought
of trying to rule over others or of outdoing
them. This is a vital point; there is no temptation
so insidious as the selfish desire to rule
over others.
Nothing so appeals to the average man or woman
as to sit in the uppermost places at feasts,
to be respectfully saluted in the market place,
and to be called Rabbi, Master. To exercise
some sort of control over others is the secret
motive of every selfish person. The struggle
for power over others is the battle of the
competitive world, and you must rise above
that world and its motives and aspirations
and seek only for life. Cast out envy; you
can have all that you want, and you need not
envy any man what he has. Above all things
see to it that you do not hold malice or enmity
toward any one; to do so cuts you off from
the mind whose treasures you seek to make
your own. “He that loves not his brother,
loves not God.”
Lay aside all narrow personal ambition and
determine to seek the highest good and to
be swayed by no unworthy selfishness.
Go over all the foregoing and set these moral
temptations out of your heart one by one;
determine to keep them out. Then resolve that
you will not only abandon all evil thought
but that you will forsake all deeds, habits,
and courses of action which do not commend
themselves to your noblest ideals. This is
supremely important, make this resolution
with all the power of your soul, and you are
ready for the next step toward greatness,
which is explained in the following chapter.
End of chapter 5.
Chapter 6 — The Social Point of View
"Without faith it is impossible to please
God,” and without faith it is impossible
for you to become great. The distinguishing
characteristic of all really great men and
women is an unwavering faith. We see this
in Lincoln during the dark days of the war;
we see it in Washington at Valley Forge; we
see it in Livingstone, the crippled missionary,
threading the mazes of the dark continent,
his soul aflame with the determination to
let in the light upon the accursed slave trade,
which his soul abhorred; we see it in Luther,
and in Frances Willard, in every man and woman
who has attained a place on the muster roll
of the great ones of the world. Faith-not
a faith in one’s self or in one s own powers
but faith in principle; in the Something Great
which upholds right, and which may be relied
upon to give us the victory in due time. Without
this faith it is not possible for anyone to
rise to real greatness. The man who has no
faith in principle will always be a small
man.
Whether you have this faith or not depends
upon your point of view. You must learn to
see the world as being produced by evolution,
as a something that is evolving and becoming,
not as a finished work. Millions of years
ago God worked with very low and crude forms
of life, low and crude, yet each perfect after
its kind. Higher and more complex organisms,
animal and vegetable, appeared through the
successive ages; the earth passed through
stage after stage in its unfolding, each stage
perfect in itself, and to be succeeded by
a higher one.
What I wish you to note is that the so-called
“lower organisms” are as perfect after
their kind as the higher ones; that the world
in the Eocene period was perfect for that
period; it was perfect, but God’s work was
not finished. This is true of the world today.
Physically, socially, and industrially it
is all good, and it is all perfect. It is
not complete anywhere or in any part, but
so far as the handiwork of God has gone it
is perfect.
THIS MUST BE YOUR POINT OF VIEW: THAT THE
WORLD AND ALL IT CONTAINS IS PERFECT, THOUGH
NOT COMPLETED.
“All’s right with the world.” That is
the great fact. There is nothing wrong with
anything; there is nothing wrong with anybody.
All the facts of life you must contemplate
from this standpoint.
There is nothing wrong with nature. Nature
is a great advancing presence working beneficently
for the happiness of all. All things in Nature
are good; she has no evil. She is not completed;
for creation is still unfinished, but she
is going on to give to man even more bountifully
than she has given to him in the past. Nature
is a partial expression of God, and God is
love. She is perfect but not complete.
So it is of human society and government.
What though there are trusts and combinations
of capital and strikes and lockouts and so
on. All these things are part of the forward
movement; they are incidental to the evolutionary
process of completing society. When it is
complete there will be harmony; but it cannot
be completed without them. J. P. Morgan is
as necessary to the coming social order as
the strange animals of the age of reptiles
were to the life of the succeeding period,
and just as these animals were perfect after
their kind, so Morgan is perfect after his
kind.
Behold it is all very good. See government,
and industry as being perfect now, and as
advancing rapidly toward being complete; then
you will understand that there is nothing
to fear, no cause for anxiety, nothing to
worry about. Never complain of any of these
things. They are perfect; this is the very
best possible world for the stage of development
man has reached.
This will sound like rank folly to many, perhaps
to most people. “What!” they will say,
“are not child labor and the exploitation
of men and women in filthy and unsanitary
factories evil things? Aren’t saloons evil?
Do you mean to say that we shall accept all
these and call them good?”
Child labor and similar things are no more
evil than the way of living and the habits
and practices of the cave dweller were evil.
His ways were those of the savage stage of
man’s growth, and for that stage they were
perfect. Our Industrial practices are those
of the savage stage of industrial development,
and they are also perfect.
Nothing better is possible until we cease
to be mental savages in industry and business,
and become men and women. This can only come
about by the rise of the whole race to a higher
viewpoint. And this can only come about by
the rise of such individuals here and there
as are ready for the higher viewpoint. The
cure for all this inharmoniousness lies not
with the masters or employers but with the
workers themselves.
Whenever they reach a higher viewpoint, whenever
they shall desire to do so, they can establish
complete brotherhood and harmony in Industry;
they have the numbers and the power. They
are getting now what they desire. Whenever
they desire more in the way of a higher, purer,
more harmonious life, they will receive more.
True, they want more now, but they only want
more of the things that make for animal enjoyment,
and so industry remains in the savage, brutal,
animal stage; when the workers begin to rise
to the mental plane of living and ask for
more of the things that make for the life
of the mind and soul, industry will at once
be raised above the plane of savagery and
brutality. But it is perfect now upon its
plane, behold, in fact it is all very good.
So it is true of saloons and dens of vice.
If the majority of the people desire these
things, it is right and necessary that they
should have them. When the majority desires
a world without such discords, they will create
such a world. So long as men and women are
on the plane of bestial thought, so long the
social order will be in part disorder, and
will show bestial manifestations. The people
make society what it is, and as the people
rise above the bestial thought, society will
rise above the beastly in its manifestations.
But a society which thinks in a bestial way
must have saloons and dives; it is perfect
after its kind, as the world was in the Eocene
period, and very good.
All this does not prevent you from working
for better things.
You can work to complete an unfinished society,
instead of to renovate a decaying one; and
you can work with a better heart and a more
hopeful spirit. It will make an immense difference
with your faith and spirit whether you look
upon civilization as a good thing that is
becoming better or as a bad and evil thing
that is decaying. One viewpoint gives you
an advancing and expanding mind and the other
gives you a descending and decreasing mind.
One viewpoint will make you grow greater and
the other will inevitably cause you to grow
smaller. One will enable you to work for the
eternal things; to do large works in a great
way toward the completing of all that is incomplete
and inharmonious; and the other will make
you a mere patchwork reformer, working almost
without hope to save a few lost souls from
what you will grow to consider a lost and
doomed world.
So you see it makes a vast difference to you,
this matter of the social viewpoint. “All’s
right with the world. Nothing can possibly
be wrong but my personal attitude, and I will
make that right. I will see the facts of nature
and all the events, circumstances, and conditions
of society, politics, government, and industry
from the highest viewpoint. It is all perfect,
though incomplete. It is all the handiwork
of God; behold, it is all very good.”
End of chapter 6.
Chapter 7 — The Individual Point of View
Important as the matter of your point of view
for the facts of social life is, it is of
less moment than your viewpoint for your fellow
men, for your acquaintances, friends, relatives,
your immediate family, and, most of all, yourself.
You must learn not to look upon the world
as a lost and decaying thing but as a something
perfect and glorious which is going on to
a most beautiful completeness; and you must
learn to see men and women not as lost and
accursed things, but as perfect beings advancing
to become complete. There are no “bad”
or “evil” people. An engine, which is
on the rails pulling a heavy train, is perfect
after its kind, and it is good. The power
of steam, which drives it, is good. Let a
broken rail throw the engine into the ditch,
and it does not become bad or evil by being
so displaced; it is a perfectly good engine,
but off the track.
The power of steam that drives it into the
ditch and wrecks it is not evil, but a perfectly
good power. So that which is misplaced or
applied in an incomplete or partial way is
not evil. There are no evil people; there
are perfectly good people who are off the
track, but they do not need condemnation or
punishment; they only need to get upon the
rails again.
That which is undeveloped or incomplete often
appears to us as evil because of the way we
have trained ourselves to think. The root
of a bulb that shall produce a white lily
is an unsightly thing; one might look upon
it with disgust. But how foolish we should
be to condemn the bulb for its appearance
when we know the lily is within it. The root
is perfect after its kind; it is a perfect
but incomplete lily, and so we must learn
to look upon every man and woman, no matter
how unlovely in outward manifestation; they
are perfect in their stage of being and they
are becoming complete.
Behold, it is all very good.
Once we come into a comprehension of this
fact and arrive at this point of view, we
lose all desire to find fault with people,
to judge them, criticize them, or condemn
them. We no longer work as those who are saving
lost souls, but as those who are among the
angels, working out the completion of a glorious
heaven. We are born of the spirit and we see
the kingdom of God. We no longer see men as
trees walking, but our vision is complete.
We have nothing but good words to say. It
is all good; a great and glorious humanity
coming to completeness. And in our association
with men this puts us into an expansive and
enlarging attitude of mind; we see them as
great beings and we begin to deal with them
and their affairs in a great way.
But if we fall to the other point of view
and see a lost and degenerate race we shrink
into the contracting mind; and our dealings
with men and their affairs will be in a small
and contracted way. Remember to hold steadily
to this point of view; if you do you cannot
fail to begin at once to deal with your acquaintances
and neighbors and with your own family as
a great personality deals with men. This same
viewpoint must be the one from which you regard
yourself. You must always see yourself as
a great advancing soul. Learn to say: “There
is THAT in me of which I am made, which knows
no imperfection, weakness, or sickness. The
world is incomplete, but God in my own consciousness
is both perfect and complete. Nothing can
be wrong but my own personal attitude, and
my own personal attitude can be wrong only
when I disobey THAT which is within. I am
a perfect manifestation of God so far as I
have gone, and I will press on to be complete.
I will trust and not be afraid.” When you
are able to say this understandingly you will
have lost all fear and you will be far advanced
upon the road to the development of a great
and powerful personality.
End of chapter 7.
Chapter 8 — Consecration
Having attained to the viewpoint that puts
you into the right relations with the world
and with your fellow men, the next step is
consecration; and consecration in its true
sense simply means obedience to the soul.
You have that within you that which is always
impelling you toward the upward and advancing
way; and that impelling something is the divine
Principle of Power; you must obey it without
question. No one will deny the statement that
if you are to be great, the greatness must
be a manifestation of something within; nor
can you question that this something must
be the very greatest and highest that is within.
It is not the mind, or the intellect, or the
reason. You cannot be great if you go no farther
back for principle than to your reasoning
power. Reason knows neither principle nor
morality.
Your reason is like a lawyer in that it will
argue for either side. The intellect of a
thief will plan robbery and murder as readily
as the intellect of a saint will plan a great
philanthropy. Intellect helps us to see the
best means and manner of doing the right thing,
but intellect never shows us the right thing.
Intellect and reason serve the selfish man
for his selfish ends as readily as they serve
the unselfish man for his unselfish ends.
Use intellect and reason without regard to
principle, and you may become known as a very
able person, but you will never become known
as a person whose life shows the power of
real greatness.
There is too much training of the intellect
and reasoning powers and too little training
in obedience to the soul. This is the only
thing that can be wrong with your person al
attitude-when it fails to be one of obedience
to the Principle of Power.
By going back to your own center you can always
find the pure idea of right for every relationship.
To be great and to have power it is only necessary
to conform your life to the pure idea as you
find it in the GREAT WITHIN. Every compromise
on this point is made at the expense of a
loss of power. This you must remember. There
are many ideas in your mind that you have
outgrown, and which, from force of habit you
still permit to dictate the actions of your
life. Cease all this; abandon everything you
have outgrown. There are many ignoble customs,
social and other, which you still follow,
although you know they tend to dwarf and belittle
you and keep you acting in a small way.
Rise above all this. I do not say that you
should absolutely disregard conventionalities,
or the commonly accepted standards of right
and wrong. You cannot do this; but you can
deliver your soul from most of the narrow
restrictions that bind the majority of your
fellow men. Do not give your time and strength
to the support of obsolete institutions, religious
or otherwise; do not be bound by creeds in
which you do not believe. Be free. You have
perhaps formed some sensual habits of mind
or body; abandon them. You still indulge in
distrustful fears that things will go wrong,
or that people will betray you, or mistreat
you; get above all of them. You still act
selfishly in many ways and on many occasions;
cease to do so. Abandon all these, and in
place of them put the best actions you can
form a conception of in your mind. If you
desire to advance, and you are not doing so,
remember that it can be only because your
thought is better than your practice. You
must do as well as you think.
Let your thoughts be ruled by principle, and
then live up to your thoughts.
Let your attitude in business, in politics,
in neighborhood affairs, and in your own home
be the expression of the best thoughts you
can think. Let your manner toward all men
and women, great and small, and especially
to your own family circle, always be the most
kindly, gracious, and courteous you can picture
in your imagination. Remember your viewpoint;
you are a god in the company of gods and must
conduct yourself accordingly.
The steps to complete consecration are few
and simple. You cannot be ruled from below
if you are to be great; you must rule from
above. Therefore you cannot be governed by
physical impulses; you must bring your body
into subjection to the mind; but your mind,
without principle, may lead you into selfishness
and immoral ways; you must put the mind into
subjection to the soul, and your soul is limited
by the boundaries of your knowledge; you must
put it into subjection to that Our soul which
needs no searching of the understanding but
before whose eye all things are spread.
That constitutes consecration. Say: “I surrender
my body to be ruled by my mind; I surrender
my mind to be governed by my soul, and I surrender
my soul to the guidance of God.” Make this
consecration complete and thorough, and you
have taken the second great step in the way
of greatness and power.
End of chapter 8.
Chapter 9 — Identification
Having recognized God as the advancing presence
in nature, society, and your fellow men, and
harmonized yourself with all these, and having
consecrated yourself to that within you which
impels toward the greatest and the highest,
the next step is to become aware of and recognize
fully the fact that the Principle of Power
within you is God Himself. You must consciously
identify yourself with the Highest. This is
not some false or untrue position to be assumed;
it is a fact to be recognized. You are already
one with God; you want to become consciously
aware of it.
There is one substance, the source of all
things, and this substance has within itself
the power that creates all things; all power
is inherent in it. This substance is conscious
and thinks; it works with perfect understanding
and intelligence. You know that this is so,
because you know that substance exists and
that consciousness exists; and that it must
be substance that is conscious. Man is conscious
and thinks; man is substance, he must be substance,
else he is nothing and does not exist at all.
If man is substance and thinks, and is conscious,
then he is, Conscious Substance. It is not
conceivable that there should be more than
one Conscious Substance; so man is the original
substance, the source of all life and power
embodied in a physical form. Man cannot be
something different from God. Intelligence
is one and the same everywhere, and must be
everywhere an attribute of the same substance.
There cannot be one kind of intelligence in
God and another kind of intelligence in man;
intelligence can only be in intelligent substance,
and Intelligent Substance is God. Man is of
one and the same stuff with God, and so all
the talents, powers, and possibilities that
are in God are in man, not just in a few exceptional
men but in everyone. “All power is given
to man, in heaven and on earth.” “Is it
not written, ye are gods?” The Principle
of Power in man is man himself, and man himself
is God. But while man is original substance,
and has within him all power and possibilities,
his consciousness is limited. He does not
know all there is to know, and so he is liable
to error and mistake. To save himself from
these he must unite his mind to that outside
him which does know all; he must become consciously
one with God.
There is a Mind surrounding him on every side,
closer than breathing, nearer than hands and
feet, and in this mind is the memory of all
that has ever happened, from the greatest
convulsions of nature in prehistoric days
to the fall of a sparrow in this present time;
and all that is in existence now as well.
Held in this Mind is the great purpose that
is behind all nature, and so it knows what
is going to be. Man is surrounded by a Mind
that knows all there is to know, past, present,
and to come. Everything that men have said
or done or written is present there. Man is
of the same one identical stuff with this
Mind; he proceeded from it; and he can so
identify himself with it that he may know
what it knows. “My Father is greater than
I,” said Jesus,
“I come from him.” “I and my Father
are one. He shows the son all things.” “The
spirit shall guide you into all truth.”
Your identification of yourself with the Infinite
must be accomplished by conscious recognition
on your part. Recognizing it as a fact, that
there is only God, and that all intelligence
is in the one substance, you must affirm somewhat
after this wise: “There is only one and
that one is everywhere. I surrender myself
to conscious unity with the highest. Not I,
but the Father. I will to be one with the
Supreme and to lead the divine life. I am
one with infinite consciousness; there is
but one mind, and I am that mind. I that speak
unto you am he.”
If you have been thorough in the work as outlined
in the preceding chapters; if you have attained
to the true viewpoint, and if your consecration
is complete, you will not find conscious identification
hard to attain; and once it is attained, the
power you seek is yours, for you have made
yourself one with all the power there is.
End of chapter 9.
Chapter 10 — Idealization
You are a thinking center in original substance,
and the thoughts of original substance have
creative power; whatever is formed in its
thought and held as a thought-form must come
into existence as a visible and so-called
material form, and a thought-form held in
thinking substance is a reality; it is a real
thing, whether it has yet become visible to
mortal eye or not. This is a fact that you
should impress upon your understanding-that
a thought held in thinking substance is a
real thing; a form, and has actual existence,
although it is not visible to you. You internally
take the form in which you think of yourself;
and you surround yourself with the invisible
forms of those things with which you associate
in your thoughts.
If you desire a thing, picture it clearly
and hold the picture steadily in mind until
it becomes a definite thought-form; and if
your practices are not such as to separate
you from God, the thing you want will come
to you in material form. It must do so in
obedience to the law by which the universe
was created.
Make no thought-form of yourself in connection
with disease or sickness, but form a conception
of health. Make a thought-form of yourself
as strong and hearty and perfectly well; impress
this thought-form on creative intelligence,
and if your practices are not in violation
of the laws by which the physical body is
built, your thought-form will become manifest
in your flesh. This also is certain; it comes
by obedience to law.
Make a thought-form of yourself, as you desire
to be, and set your ideal as near to perfection
as your imagination is capable of forming
the conception. Let me illustrate: If a young
law student wishes to become great, let him
picture himself (while attending to the viewpoint,
consecration, and identification, as previously
directed) as a great lawyer, pleading his
case with matchless eloquence and power before
the judge and jury; as having an unlimited
command of truth, of knowledge and of wisdom.
Let him picture himself as the great lawyer
in every possible situation and contingency;
while he is still only the student in all
circumstances let him never forget or fail
to be the great lawyer in his thought-form
of himself. As the thought-form grows more
definite and habitual in his mind, the creative
energies, both within and without, are set
at work, he begins to manifest the form from
within and all the essentials without, which
go into the picture, begin to be impelled
toward him. He makes himself into the image
and God works with him; nothing can prevent
him from becoming what he wishes to be.
In the same general way the musical student
pictures himself as performing perfect harmonies,
and as delighting vast audiences; the actor
forms the highest conception he is capable
of in regard to his art, and applies this
conception to himself. The farmer and the
mechanic do exactly the same thing. Fix upon
your ideal of what you wish to make of yourself;
consider well and be sure that you make the
right choice; that is, the one that will be
the most satisfactory to you in a general
way. Do not pay too much attention to the
advice or suggestions of those around you:
do not believe that any one can know, better
than yourself, what is right for you. Listen
to what others have to say, but always form
your own conclusions.
DO NOT LET OTHER PEOPLE DECIDE WHAT YOU ARE
TO BE. BE WHAT YOU FEEL THAT YOU WANT TO BE.
Do not be misled by a false notion of obligation
or duty. You can owe no possible obligation
or duty to others that should prevent you
from making the most of yourself. Be true
to yourself, and you cannot then be false
to any man. When you have fully decided what
thing you want to be, form the highest conception
of that thing that you are capable of imagining,
and make that conception a thought-form. Hold
that thought-form as a fact, as the real truth
about yourself, and believe in it.
Close your ears to all adverse suggestions.
Never mind if people call you a fool and a
dreamer. Dream on. Remember that Bonaparte,
the half-starved lieutenant, always saw himself
as the general of armies and the master of
France, and he became in out-ward realization
what he held himself to be in mind. So likewise
will you. Attend carefully to all that has
been said in the preceding chapters, and act
as directed in the following ones, and you
will become what you want to be.
End of chapter 10.
Chapter 11 — Realization
If you were to stop with the close of the
last chapter, however, you would never become
great; you would be indeed a mere dreamer
of dreams, a castle-builder. Too many do stop
there; they do not understand the necessity
for present action in realizing the vision
and bringing the thought-form into manifestation.
Two things are necessary; firstly, the making
of the thought-form and secondly, the actual
appropriation to yourself of all that goes
into, and around, the thought-form. We have
discussed the first, now we will proceed to
give directions for the second. When you have
made your thought-form, you are already, in
your interior, what you want to be; next you
must become externally what you want to be.
You are already great within, but you are
not yet doing the great things without.
You cannot begin, on the instant, to do the
great things; you cannot be before the world
the great actor, or lawyer, or musician, or
personality you know yourself to be; no one
will entrust great things to you as yet for
you have not made yourself known. But you
can always begin to do small things in a great
way.
Here lies the whole secret. You can begin
to be great today in your own home, in your
store or office, on the street, everywhere;
you can begin to make yourself known as great,
and you can do this by doing everything you
do in a great way. You must put the whole
power of your great soul in to every act,
however small and commonplace, and so reveal
to your family, your friends, and neighbors
what you really are. Do not brag or boast
of yourself; do not go about telling people
what a great personage you are, simply live
in a great way. No one will believe you if
you tell him you are a great man, but no one
can doubt your greatness if you show it in
your actions. In your domestic circle be so
just, so generous, so courteous, and kindly
that your family, your wife, husband, children,
brothers, and sisters shall know that you
are a great and noble soul. In all your relations
with men be great, just, generous, courteous,
and kindly. The great are never otherwise.
This is your attitude.
Next, and most important, you must have absolute
faith in your own perceptions of truth. Never
act in haste or hurry; be deliberate in everything;
wait until you feel that you know the true
way. And when you do feel that you know the
true way, be guided by your own faith though
the entire world shall disagree with you.
If you do not believe what God tells you in
little things, you will never draw upon his
wisdom and knowledge in larger things. When
you feel deeply that a certain act is the
right act, do it and have perfect faith that
the consequences will be good.
When you are deeply impressed that a certain
thing is true, no matter what the appearances
to the contrary may be, accept that thing
as true and act accordingly. The one way to
develop a perception of truth in large things
is to trust absolutely to your present perception
of Truth in small things. Remember that you
are seeking to develop this very power or
faculty - the perception of truth; you are
learning to read the thoughts of God. Nothing
is great and nothing is small in the sight
of Omnipotence; he holds the sun in its place,
but he also notes a sparrow’s fall, and
numbers the hairs of your head.
God is as much interested in the little matters
of everyday life as he is in the affairs of
nations. You can perceive truth about family
and neighborhood affairs as well as about
matters of statecraft. And the way to begin
is to have perfect faith in the truth in these
small matters, as it is revealed to you from
day to day. When you feel deeply impelled
to take a course that seems contrary to all
reason and worldly judgment, take that course.
Listen to the suggestions and advice of others,
but always do what you feel deeply in the
within to be the true thing to do. Rely with
absolute faith, at all times, on your own
perception of truth; but be sure that you
listen to God - that you do not act in haste,
fear, or anxiety.
Rely upon your perception of truth in all
the facts and circumstances of life. If you
deeply feel that a certain man will be in
a certain place on a certain day, go there
with perfect faith to meet him; he will be
there, no matter how unlikely it may seem.
If you feel sure that certain people are making
certain combinations, or doing certain things,
act in the faith that they are doing those
things. If you feel sure of the truth of any
circumstance or happening, near or distant,
past, present, or to come, trust in your perception.
You may make occasion al mistakes at first
because of your imperfect understanding of
the within; but you will soon be guided almost
invariably right.
Soon your family and friends will begin to
defer, more and more, to your judgment and
to be guided by you. Soon your neighbors and
townsmen will be coming to you for counsel
and advice; soon you will be recognized as
one who is great in small things, and you
will be called upon more and more to take
charge of larger things. All that is necessary
is to be guided absolutely, in all things,
by your inner light, your perception of truth.
Obey your soul, have perfect faith in yourself.
Never think of yourself with doubt or distrust,
or as one who makes mistakes. “If I judge,
my judgment is just, for I seek not honor
from men, but from the Father only.”
End of chapter 11.
Chapter 12 — Hurry and Habit
No doubt you have many problems, domestic,
social, physical, and financial, which seem
to you to be pressing for instant solution.
You have debts that must be paid, or other
obligations that must be met; you are unhappily
or inharmoniously placed, and feel that something
must be done at once. Do not get into a hurry
and act from superficial impulses. You can
trust God for the solution of all your personal
riddles. There is no hurry. There is only
God, and all is well with the world.
There is an invincible power in you, and the
same power is in the things you want. It is
bringing them to you and bringing you to them.
This is a thought that you must grasp, and
hold continuously that the same intelligence
that is in you is in the things you desire.
They are impelled toward you as strongly and
decidedly as your desire impels you toward
them. The tendency, therefore, of a steadily
held thought must be to bring the things you
desire to you and to group them around you.
So long as you hold your thought and your
faith right all must go well. Nothing can
be wrong but your own personal attitude, and
that will not be wrong if you trust and are
not afraid. Hurry is a manifestation of fear;
he who fears not has plenty of time. If you
act with perfect faith in your own perceptions
of truth, you will never be too late or too
early; and nothing will go wrong. If things
appear to be going wrong, do not get disturbed
in mind; it is only in appearance. Nothing
can go wrong in this world but yourself; and
you can go wrong only by getting into the
wrong mental attitude. Whenever you find yourself
getting excited, worried, or into the mental
attitude of hurry, sit down and think it over,
play a game of some kind, or take a vacation.
Go on a trip, and all will be right when you
return.
So surely as you find yourself in the mental
attitude of haste, just so surely may you
know that you are out of the mental attitude
of greatness. Hurry and fear will instantly
cut your connection with the universal mind;
you will get no power, no wisdom, and no information
until you are calm. And to fall into the attitude
of hurry will check the action of the Principle
of Power within you. Fear turns strength to
weakness.
Remember that poise and power are inseparably
associated.
The calm and balanced mind is the strong and
great mind; the hurried and agitated mind
is the weak one. Whenever you fall into the
mental state of hurry you may know that you
have lost the right viewpoint; you are beginning
to look upon the world, or some part of it,
as going wrong. At such times read Chapter
Six of this book; consider the fact that this
work is perfect, now, with all that it contains.
Nothing is going wrong; nothing can be wrong;
be poised, be calm, be cheerful; have faith
in God.
Next as to habit, it is probable that your
greatest difficulty will be to overcome your
old habitual ways of thought, and to form
new habits. The world is ruled by habit. Kings,
tyrants, masters, and plutocrats hold their
positions solely because the people have come
to habitually accept them. Things are as they
are only because people have formed the habit
of accepting them as they are. When the people
change their habitual thought about governmental,
social, and industrial institutions, they
will change the institutions.
Habit rules us all.
You have formed, perhaps, the habit of thinking
of yourself as a common person, as one of
a limited ability, or as being more or less
of a failure. Whatever you habitually think
yourself to be, that you are. You must form,
now, a greater and better habit; you must
form a conception of yourself as a being of
limitless power, and habitually think that
you are that being. It is the habitual, not
the periodical thought that decides your destiny.
It will avail you nothing to sit apart for
a few moments several times a day to affirm
that you are great, if during all the balance
of the day, while you are about your regular
vocation, you think of yourself as not great.
No amount of praying or affirmation will make
you great if you still habitually regard yourself
as being small.
The use of prayer and affirmation is to change
your habit of thought. Any act, mental or
physical, often repeated, becomes a habit.
The purpose of mental exercises is to repeat
certain thoughts over and over until the thinking
of those thoughts becomes constant and habitual.
The thoughts we continually repeat become
convictions. What you must do is to repeat
the new thought of yourself until it is the
only way in which you think of yourself. Habitual
thought, and not environment or circumstance,
has made you what you are. Every person has
some central idea or thought- form of himself,
and by this idea he classifies and arranges
all his facts and external relationships.
You are classifying your facts either according
to the idea that you are a great and strong
personality, or according to the idea that
you are limited, common, or weak. If the latter
is the case you must change your central idea.
Get a new mental picture of yourself.
Do not try to become great by repeating mere
strings of words or superficial formulas;
but repeat over and over the THOUGHT of your
own power and ability until you classify external
facts, and decide your place everywhere by
this idea. In another chapter will be found
an illustrative mental exercise and further
directions on this point.
End of chapter 12.
Chapter 13 — Thought
Greatness is only attained by the constant
thinking of great thoughts. No man can become
great in outward personality until he is great
internally; and no man can be great internally
until he THINKS. No amount of education, reading,
or study can make you great without thought;
but thought can make you great with very little
study. There are altogether too many people
who are trying to make something of themselves,
by reading books without thinking; all such
will fail. You are not mentally developed
by what you read, but by what you think about
what you read.
Thinking is the hardest and most exhausting
of all labor; and hence many people shrink
from it. God has so formed us that we are
continuously impelled to thought; we must
either think or engage in some activity to
escape thought. The headlong, continuous chase
for pleasure in which most people spend all
their leisure time is only an effort to escape
thought. If they are alone, or if they have
nothing amusing to take their attention, as
a novel to read or a show to see, they must
think; and to escape from thinking they resort
to novels, shows, and all the endless devices
of the purveyors of amusement. Most people
spend the greater part of their leisure time
running away from thought, hence they are
where they are. We never move forward until
we begin to think.
Read less and think more. Read about great
things and think about great questions and
issues. We have at the present time few really
great figures in the political life of our
country; our politicians are a petty lot.
There is no Lincoln, no Webster, no Clay,
Calhoun, or Jackson. Why? Because our present
statesmen deal only with sordid and petty
issues - questions of dollars and cents, of
expediency and party success, of material
prosperity without regard to ethical right.
Thinking along these lines does not call forth
great souls. The statesmen of Lincoln’s
time and previous times dealt with questions
of eternal truth, of human rights and justice.
Men thought upon great themes; they thought
great thoughts, and they became great men.
Thinking, not mere knowledge or information,
makes personality. Thinking is growth; you
cannot think without growing.
Every thought engenders another thought. Write
one idea and others will follow until you
have written a page. You cannot fathom your
own mind; it has neither bottom nor boundaries.
Your first thoughts may be crude; but as you
go on thinking you will use more and more
of yourself; you will quicken new brain cells
into activity and you will develop new faculties.
Heredity, environment, circumstances, all
things must give way before you if you practice
sustained and continuous thought. But, on
the other hand, if you neglect to think for
yourself and only use other people’s thought,
you will never know what you are capable of;
and you will end by being incapable of anything.
There can be no real greatness without original
thought. All that a man does outwardly is
the expression and completion of his inward
thinking. No action is possible without thought,
and no great action is possible until a great
thought has preceded it. Action is the second
form of thought, and personality is the materialization
of thought. Environment is the result of thought;
things group themselves or arrange themselves
around you according to your thought. There
is, as Emerson says, some central idea or
conception of yourself by which all the facts
of your life are arranged and classified.
Change this central idea and you change the
arrangement or classification of all the facts
and circumstances of your life.
You are what you are because you think as
you do; you are where you are because you
think as you do.
You see then the immense importance of thinking
about the great essentials set forth in the
preceding chapters. You must not accept them
in any superficial way; you must think about
them until they are a part of your central
idea. Go back to the matter of the point of
view and consider, in all its bearings, the
tremendous thought that you live in a perfect
world among perfect people, and that nothing
can possibly be wrong with you but your own
personal attitude. Think about all this until
you fully realize all that it means to you.
Consider that this is God’s world and that
it is the best of all possible worlds; that
he has brought it thus far toward completion
by the processes of organic, social, and industrial
evolution, and that it is going on to greater
completeness and harmony. Consider that there
is one great, perfect, intelligent Principle
of Life and Power, causing all the changing
phenomena of the cosmos. Think about all this
until you see that it is true, and until you
comprehend how you should live and act as
a citizen of such a perfect whole.
Next, think of the wonderful truth that this
great Intelligence is in you; it is your own
intelligence. It is an Inner Light impelling
you toward the right thing and the best thing,
the greatest act, and the highest happiness.
It is a Principle of Power in you, giving
you all the ability and genius there is. It
will infallibly guide you to the best if you
will submit to it and walk in the light. Consider
what is meant by your consecration of yourself
when you say: “I will obey my soul.” This
is a sentence of tremendous meaning; it must
revolutionize the attitude and behavior of
the average person.
Then think of your identification with this
Great Supreme; that all its knowledge is yours,
and all its wisdom is yours, for the asking.
You are a god if you think like a god. If
you think like a god you cannot fail to act
like a god. Divine thoughts will surely externalize
themselves in a divine life. Thoughts of power
will end in a life of power. Great thoughts
will manifest in a great personality.
Think well of all this, and then you are ready
to act.
End of chapter 13.
Chapter 14 — Action at Home
Do not merely think that you are going to
become great; think that you are great now.
Do not think that you will begin to act in
a great way at some future time; begin now.
Do not think that you will act in a great
way when you reach a different environment;
act in a great way where you are now. Do not
think that you will begin to act in a great
way when you begin to deal with great things;
begin to deal in a great way with small things.
Do not think that you will begin to be great
when you get among more intelligent people,
or among people who understand you better;
begin now to deal in a great way with the
people around you.
If you are not in an environment where there
is scope for your best powers and talents
you can move in due time; but meanwhile you
can be great where you are. Lincoln was as
great when he was a backwoods lawyer as when
he was President; as a backwoods lawyer he
did common things in a great way, and that
made him President.
Had he waited until he reached Washington
to begin to be great, he would have remained
unknown. You are not made great by the location
in which you happen to be nor by the things
with which you may surround yourself. You
are not made great by what you receive from
others, and you can never manifest greatness
so long as you depend on others. You will
manifest greatness only when you begin to
stand alone. Dismiss all thought of reliance
on externals, whether things, books, or people.
As Emerson said, “Shakespeare will never
be made by the study of Shakespeare.” Shakespeare
will be made by the thinking of Shakespearean
thoughts.
Never mind how the people around you, including
those of your own household, may treat you.
That has nothing at all to do with your being
great; that is, it cannot hinder you from
being great. People may neglect you and be
unthankful and unkind in their attitude toward
you; does that prevent you from being great
in your manner and attitude toward them?
“Your Father,” said Jesus, “is kind
to the unthankful and the evil.” Would God
be great if he should go away and sulk because
people were unthankful and did not appreciate
him? Treat the unthankful and the evil in
a great and perfectly kind way, just as God
does. Do not talk about your greatness; you
are really, in essential nature, no greater
than those around you. You may have entered
upon a way of living and thinking which they
have not yet found, but they are perfect on
their own plane of thought and action. You
are entitled to no special honor or consideration
for your greatness.
You are a god, but you are among gods. You
will fall into the boastful attitude if you
see other people’s shortcomings and failures
and compare them with your own virtues and
successes; and if you fall into the boastful
attitude of mind, you will cease to be great,
and become small. Think of yourself as a perfect
being among perfect beings, and meet every
person as an equal, not as either superior
or an inferior. Give yourself no airs; great
people never do.
Ask no honors and seek for no recognition,
honors and recognition will come fast enough
if you are entitled to them.
Begin at home. It is a great person who can
always be poised, assured, calm, and perfectly
kind and considerate at home. If your manner
and attitude in your own family are always
the best you can think, you will soon become
the one on whom all the others will rely.
You will be a tower of strength and a support
in time of trouble. You will be loved and
appreciated. At the same time do not make
the mistake of throwing yourself away in the
service of others. The great person respects
himself; he serves and helps, but he is never
slavishly servile. You cannot help your family
by being a slave to them, or by doing for
them those things that by right they should
do for themselves.
You do a person an injury when you wait on
him too much. The selfish and exacting are
a great deal better off if their exactions
are denied. The ideal world is not one where
there are a lot of people being waited on
by other people; it is a world where everybody
waits on himself. Meet all demands, selfish
and otherwise, with perfect kindness and consideration;
but do not allow yourself to be made a slave
to the whims, caprices, exactions, or slavish
desires of any member of your family. To do
so is not great, and it works an injury to
the other party.
Do not become uneasy over the failures or
mistakes of any member of your family, and
feel that you must interfere. Do not be disturbed
if others seem to be going wrong, and feel
that you must step in and set them right.
Remember that every person is perfect on his
own plane; you cannot improve on the work
of God. Do not meddle with the personal habits
and practices of others, though they are your
nearest and dearest; these things are none
of your business. Nothing can be wrong but
your own personal attitude; make that right
and you will know that all else is right.
You are a truly great soul when you can live
with those who do things that you do not do,
and yet refrain from either criticism or interference.
Do the things that are right for you to do,
and believe that every member of your family
is doing the things that are right for him.
Nothing is wrong with anybody or anything,
behold, it is all very good. Do not be enslaved
by anyone else, but be just as careful that
you do not enslave anyone else to your own
notions of what is right. Think, and think
deeply and continuously; be perfect in your
kindness and consideration; let your attitude
be that of a god among gods, and not that
of a god among inferior beings. This is the
way to be great in your own home.
End of chapter 14.
Chapter 15 — Action Abroad
The rules that apply to your action at home
must apply to your action everywhere. Never
forget for an instant that this is a perfect
world, and that you are a god among gods.
You are as great as the greatest, but all
are your equals.
Rely absolutely on your perception of truth.
Trust to the inner light rather than to reason,
but be sure that your perception comes from
the inner light; act in poise and calmness;
be still and attend on God. Your identification
of yourself with the All-Mind will give you
all the knowledge you need for guidance in
any contingency that may arise in your own
life or in the lives of others. It is only
necessary that you should be supremely calm,
and rely upon the eternal wisdom that is within
you. If you act in poise and faith, your judgment
will always be right, and you will always
know exactly what to do. Do not hurry or worry;
remember Lincoln in the dark days of the war.
James Freeman Clarke relates that after the
battle of Fredericksburg, Lincoln alone furnished
a supply of faith and hope for the nation.
Hundreds of leading men, from all parts of
the country, went sadly into his room and
came out cheerful and hopeful. They had stood
face to face with the Highest, and had seen
God in this lank, ungainly, patient man, although
they knew it not.
Have perfect faith in yourself and in your
own ability to cope with any combination of
circumstances that may arise. Do not be disturbed
if you are alone; if you need friends they
will be brought to you at the right time.
Do not be disturbed if you feel that you are
ignorant, the information that you need will
be furnished you when it is time for you to
have it. That which is in you impelling you
forward is in the things and people you need,
impelling them toward you. If there is a particular
man you need to know, he will be introduced
to you; if there is a particular book you
need to read it will be placed in your hands
at the right time. All the knowledge you need
is coming to you from both external and internal
sources.
Your information and your talents will always
be equal to the requirements of the occasion.
Remember that Jesus told his disciples not
to worry as to what they should say when brought
before the judges; he knew that the power
in them would be sufficient for the needs
of the hour. As soon as you awaken and begin
to use your faculties in a great way you will
apply power to the development of your brain;
new cells will be created and dormant cells
quickened into activity, and your brain will
be qualified as a perfect instrument for your
mind.
Do not try to do great things until you are
ready to go about them in a great way. If
you undertake to deal with great matters in
a small way- that is, from a low viewpoint
or with incomplete consecration and wavering
faith and courage-you will fail. Do not be
in a hurry to get to the great things. Doing
great things will not make you great, but
becoming great will certainly lead you to
the doing of great things. Begin to be great
where you are and in the things you do every
day. Do not be in haste to be found out or
recognized as a great personality. Do not
be disappointed if men do not nominate you
for office within a month after you begin
to practice what you read in this book. Great
people never seek for recognition or applause;
they are not great because they want to be
paid for being so. Greatness is re ward enough
for itself; the joy of being something and
of knowing that you are advancing is the greatest
of all joys possible to man.
If you begin in your own family, as described
in the preceding chapter, and then assume
the same mental attitude with your neighbors,
friends, and those you meet in business, you
will soon find that people are beginning to
depend on you. Your advice will be sought,
and a constantly increasing number of people
will look to you for strength and inspiration,
and rely upon your judgment.
Here, as in the home, you must avoid meddling
with other people’s affairs. Help all who
come to you, but do not go about officiously
endeavoring to set other people right. Mind
your own business. It is no part of your mission
in life to correct people’s morals, habits,
or practices. Lead a great life, doing all
things with a great spirit and in a great
way; give to him that asks of you as freely
as you have received, but do not force your
help or your opinions upon any man. If your
neighbor wishes to smoke or drink, it is his
business; it is none of yours until he consults
you about it. If you lead a great life and
do no preaching, you will save a thousand
times as many souls as one who leads a small
life and preaches continuously.
If you hold the right viewpoint of the world,
others will find it out and be impressed by
it through your daily conversation and practice.
Do not try to convert others to your point
of view, except by holding it and living accordingly.
If your consecration is perfect you do not
need to tell anyone; it will speedily become
apparent to all that you are guided by a higher
principle than the average man or woman. If
your identification with God is complete,
you do not need to explain the fact to others;
it will become self-evident.
To become known as a great personality, you
have nothing to do but to live. Do not imagine
that you must go charging about the world
like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, and
overturning things in general, in order to
demonstrate that you are somebody. Do not
go hunting for big things to do. Live a great
life where you are, and in the daily work
you have to do, and greater works will surely
find you out. Big things will come to you,
asking to be done.
Be so impressed with the value of a man that
you treat even a beggar or the tramp with
the most distinguished consideration. All
is God. Every man and woman is perfect. Let
your manner be that of a god addressing other
gods. Do not save all your consideration for
the poor; the millionaire is as good as the
tramp. This is a perfectly good world, and
there is not a person or thing in it but is
exactly right; be sure that you keep this
in mind in dealing with things and men.
Form your mental vision of yourself with care.
Make the thought-form of yourself as you wish
to be, and hold this with the faith that it
is being realized, and with the purpose to
realize it completely. Do every common act
as a god should do it; speak every word as
a god should speak it; meet men and women
of both low and high estate as a god meets
other divine beings. Begin thus and continue
thus, and your unfolding in ability and power
will be great and rapid.
End of chapter 15.
Chapter 16 — Some Further Explanations
We go back here to the matter of the point
of view, for, besides being vitally important,
it is the one that is likely to give the student
the most trouble. We have been trained, partly
by mistaken religious teachers, to look upon
the world as being like a wrecked ship, storm-driven
upon a rocky coast; utter destruction is inevitable
at the end, and the most that can be done
is to rescue, perhaps, a few of the crew.
This view teaches us to consider the world
as essentially bad and growing worse; and
to believe that existing discords and inharmoniousness
must continue and intensify until the end.
It robs us of hope for society, government,
and humanity, and gives us a decreasing outlook
and contracting mind.
This is all wrong. The world is not wrecked.
It is like a magnificent steamer with the
engines in place and the machinery in perfect
order. The bunkers are full of coal, and the
ship is amply provisioned for the cruise;
there is no lack of any good thing. Every
provision Omniscience could devise has been
made for the safety, comfort, and happiness
of the crew; the steamer is out on the high
seas tacking hither and thither because no
one has yet learned the right course to steer.
We are learning to steer, and in due time
will come grandly into the harbor of perfect
harmony.
The world is good, and growing better. Existing
discords and inharmoniousness are but the
pitching of the ship incidental to our own
imperfect steering; they will all be removed
in due time. This view gives us an increasing
outlook and an expanding mind; it enables
us to think largely of society and of ourselves,
and to do things in a great way.
Furthermore, we see that nothing can be wrong
with such a world or with any part of it,
including our own affairs. If it is all moving
on toward completion, then it is not going
wrong; and as our own personal affairs are
a part of the whole, they are not going wrong.
You and all that you are concerned with are
moving on toward completeness. Nothing can
check this forward movement but yourself;
and you can only check it by assuming a mental
attitude that is at cross-purposes with the
mind of God. You have nothing to keep right
but yourself; if you keep yourself right,
nothing can possibly go wrong with you, and
you can have nothing to fear. No business
or other disaster can come upon you if your
personal attitude is right, for you are a
part of that which is increasing and advancing,
and you must increase and advance with it.
Moreover your thought-form will be mostly
shaped according to your viewpoint of the
cosmos. If you see the world as a lost and
ruined thing you will see yourself as a part
of it, and as partaking of its sins and weaknesses.
If your outlook for the world as a whole is
hopeless, your outlook for yourself cannot
be hopeful. If you see the world as declining
toward its end, you cannot see yourself as
advancing. Unless you think well of all the
works of God you cannot really think well
of yourself, and unless you think well of
yourself you can never become great.
I repeat that your place in life, including
your material environment, is determined by
the thought-form you habitually hold of yourself.
When you make a thought-form of yourself you
can hardly fail to form in your mind a corresponding
environment. If you think of yourself as an
incapable, inefficient person, you will think
of yourself with poor or cheap surroundings.
Unless you think well of yourself you will
be sure to picture yourself in a more or less
poverty stricken environment. These thoughts,
habitually held, become invisible forms in
the surrounding mind-stuff, and are with you
continually. In due time, by the regular action
of the eternal creative energy, the invisible
thought-forms are produced in material stuff,
and you are surrounded by your own thoughts
made into material things.
See nature as a great living and advancing
presence, and see human society in exactly
the same way. It is all one, coming from one
source, and it is all good. You yourself are
made of the same stuff as God. All the constituents
of God are parts of you; every power that
God has is a constituent of man. You can move
forward as you see God doing. You have within
yourself the source of every power.
End of chapter 16.
Chapter 17 — More about Thought
Give place here to some further consideration
of thought. You will never become great until
your own thoughts make you great, and therefore
it is of the first importance that you should
THINK.
You will never do great things in the external
world until you think great things in the
internal world; and you will never think great
things until you think about truth; about
the verities. To think great things you must
be absolutely sincere; and to be sincere you
must know that your intentions are right.
Insincere or false thinking is never great,
however logical and brilliant it may be.
The first and most important step is to seek
the truth about human relations, to know what
you ought to be to other men, and what they
ought to be to you. This brings you back to
the search for a right viewpoint. You should
study organic and social evolution.
Read Darwin and Walter Thomas Mills, and when
you read, THINK; think the whole matter over
until you see the world of things and men
in the right way. THINK about what God is
doing until you can SEE what he is doing.
Your next step is to think yourself into the
right personal attitude. Your viewpoint tells
you what the right attitude is, and obedience
to the soul puts you into it. It is only by
making a complete consecration of yourself
to the highest that is within you that you
can attain to sincere thinking. So long as
you know you are selfish in your aims, or
dishonest or crooked in any way in your intentions
or practices, your thinking will be false
and your thoughts will have no power. THINK
about the way you are doing things; about
all your intentions, purposes, and practices,
until you know that they are right.
The fact of his own complete unity with God
is one that no person can grasp without deep
and sustained thinking. Anyone can accept
the proposition in a superficial way, but
to feel and realize a vital comprehension
of it is another matter. It is easy to think
of going outside of yourself to meet God,
but it is not so easy to think of going inside
yourself to meet God. But God is there, and
in the holy of holies of your own soul you
may meet him face to face. It is a tremendous
thing; this fact that all you need is already
within you; that you do not have to consider
how to get the power to do what you want to
do or to make yourself what you want to be.
You have only to consider how to use the power
you have in the right way. And there is nothing
to do but to begin. Use your perception of
truth; you can see some truth today; live
fully up to that and you will see more truth
tomorrow.
To rid yourself of the old false ideas you
will have to think a great deal about the
value of men-the greatness and worth of a
human soul. You must cease from looking at
human mistakes and look at successes; cease
from seeing faults and see virtues. You can
no longer look upon men and women as lost
and ruined beings that are descending into
hell; you must come to regard them as shining
souls who are ascending toward heaven. It
will require some exercise of will power to
do this, but this is the legitimate use of
the will-to decide what you will think about
and how you will think.
The function of the will is to direct thought.
Think about the good side of men; the lovely,
attractive part, and exert your will in refusing
to think of anything else in connection with
them.
I know of no one who has attained to so much
on this one point as Eugene V. Debs, twice
the Socialist candidate for president of the
United States. Mr. Debs reverences humanity.
No appeal for help is ever made to him in
vain. No one receives from him an unkind or
censorious word. You cannot come into his
presence without being made sensible of his
deep and kindly personal interest in you.
Every person, be he millionaire, grimy workingman,
or toil worn woman, receives the radiant warmth
of a brotherly affection that is sincere and
true. No ragged child speaks to him on the
street without receiving instant and tender
recognition. Debs loves men. This has made
him the leading figure in a great movement,
the beloved hero of a million hearts, and
will give him a deathless name. It is a great
thing to love men so and it is only achieved
by thought. Nothing can make you great but
thought.
“We may divide thinkers into those who think
for themselves and those who think through
others. The latter are the rule and the former
the exception. The first are original thinkers
in a double sense, and egotists in the noblest
meaning of the word.” -Sehopenhauer.
“The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy
and defiant though he look he has a helm which
he obeys, which is the idea after which all
his facts are classified. He can only be reformed
by showing him a new idea which commands his
own.” -Emerson.
“All truly wise thoughts have been thought
already thousands of times; but to make them
really ours we must think them over again
honestly till they take root in our personal
expression.” -Goethe.
“All that a man is outwardly is but the
expression and completion of his inward thought.
To work effectively he must think clearly.
To act nobly he must think nobly.” -Channing.
“Great men are they who see that spirituality
is stronger than any material force; that
thoughts rule the world.” -Emerson.
“Some people study all their lives, and
at their death they have learned everything
except to think.” -Domergue.
“It is the habitual thought that frames
itself into our life. It affects us even more
than our intimate social relations do. Our
confidential friends have not so much to do
in shaping our lives as the thoughts have
which we harbor?’ -J. W. Teal.
“When God lets loose a great thinker on
this planet, then all things are at risk.
There is not a piece of science but its flank
may be turned tomorrow; nor any literary reputation
or the so-called eternal names of fame that
may not be refused and condemned.” -Emerson.
Think! Think!! THINK!!!
End of chapter 17.
Chapter 18 — Jesus' Idea of Greatness
In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew Jesus
makes a very plain distinction between true
and false greatness; and also points out the
one great danger to all who wish to become
great; the most insidious of temptations which
all must avoid and fight unceasingly who desire
to really climb in the world. Speaking to
the multitude and to his disciples he bids
them beware of adopting the principle of the
Pharisees. He points out that while the Pharisees
are just and righteous men, honorable judges,
true lawgivers and upright in their dealings
with men, they “love the uppermost seats
at feasts and greetings in the market place,
and to be called Master, Master”; and in
comparison with this principle, he says: “He
that will be great among you let him serve.”
The average person’s idea of a great man,
rather than of one who serves, is of one who
succeeds in getting himself served. He gets
himself in a position to command men; to exercise
power over them, making them obey his will.
The exercise of dominion over other people,
to most persons, is a great thing. Nothing
seems to be sweeter to the selfish soul than
this. You will always find every selfish and
undeveloped person trying to domineer over
others, to exercise control over other men.
Savage men were no sooner placed upon the
earth than they began to enslave one another.
For ages the struggle in war, diplomacy, politics,
and government has been aimed at the securing
of control over other men. Kings and princes
have drenched the soil of the earth in blood
and tears in the effort to extend their dominions
and their power to rule more people.
The struggle of the business world today is
the same as that on the battlefields of Europe
a century ago so far as the ruling principle
is concerned. Robert 0. Ingersoll could not
understand why men like Rockefeller and Carnegie
seek for more money and make themselves slaves
to the business struggle when they already
have more than they can possibly use. He thought
it a kind of madness and illustrated it as
follows: “Suppose a man had fifty thousand
pairs of pants, seventy-five thousand vests,
one hundred thousand coats, and one hundred
and fifty thousand neckties, what would you
think of him if he arose in the morning before
light and worked until after it was dark every
day, rain or shine, in all kinds of weather,
merely to get another necktie?”
But it is not a good simile. The possession
of neckties gives a man no power over other
men, while the possession of dollars does.
Rockefeller, Carnegie, and their kind are
not after dollars but power. It is the principle
of the Pharisee; it is the struggle for the
high place. It develops able men, cunning
men, resourceful men, but not great men.
I want you to contrast these two ideas of
greatness sharply in your minds. “He that
will be great among you let him serve.”
Let me stand before the average American audience
and ask the name of the greatest American
and the majority will think of Abraham Lincoln;
and is this not because in Lincoln above all
the other men who have served us in public
life we recognize the spirit of service?
Not servility, but service. Lincoln was a
great man because he knew how to be a great
servant. Napoleon, able, cold, selfish, seeking
the high places, was a brilliant man. Lincoln
was great; Napoleon was not. The very moment
you begin to advance and are recognized as
one who is doing things in a great way you
will find yourself in danger. The temptation
to patronize, advise, or take upon yourself
the direction of other people’s affairs
is sometimes almost irresistible. Avoid, however,
the opposite danger of falling into servility,
or of completely throwing yourself away in
the service of others. To do this has been
the ideal of a great many people. The completely
self-sacrificing life has been thought to
be the Christ-like life, because, as I think,
of a complete misconception of the character
and teachings of Jesus. I have explained this
misconception in a little book that I hope
you may all sometime read, “A New Christ”.
Thousands of people imitating Jesus, as they
suppose, have belittled themselves and given
up all else to go about doing good; practicing
an altruism that is really as morbid and as
far from great as the rankest selfishness.
The finer instincts which respond to the cry
of trouble or distress are not by any means
all of you; they are not necessarily the best
part of you. There are other things you must
do besides helping the unfortunate, although
it is true that a large part of the life and
activities of every great person must be given
to helping other people. As you begin to advance
they will come to you. Do not turn them away.
But do not make the fatal error of supposing
that the life of complete self-abnegation
is the way of greatness.
To make another point here, let me refer to
the fact that Swedenborg’s classification
of fundamental motives is exactly the same
as that of Jesus. He divides all men into
two groups: those who live in pure love, and
those who live in what he calls the love of
ruling for the love of self. It will be seen
that this is exactly the same as the lust
for place and power of the Pharisees. Swedenborg
saw this selfish love of power as the cause
of all sin. It was the only evil desire of
the human heart, from which all other evil
desires sprang.
Over against this he places pure love. He
does not say love of God or love of man, but
merely love. Nearly all religionists make
more of love and service to God than they
do of love and service to man. But it is a
fact that love to God is not sufficient to
save a man from the lust for power, for some
of the most ardent lovers of the Deity have
been the worst of tyrants. Lovers of God are
often tyrants, and lovers of men are often
meddlesome and officious.
End of chapter 18.
Chapter 19 — A View of Evolution
But how shall we avoid throwing ourselves
into altruistic work if we are surrounded
by poverty, ignorance, suffering, and every
appearance of misery as very many people are?
Those who live where the withered hand of
want is thrust upon them from every side appealingly
for aid must find it hard to refrain from
continuous giving. Again, there are social
and other irregularities, injustices done
to the weak, which fire generous souls with
an almost irresistible desire to set things
right.
We want to start a crusade; we feel that the
wrongs will never be righted until we give
ourselves wholly to the task. In all this
we must fall back upon the point of view.
We must remember that this is not a bad world
but a good world in the process of becoming.
Beyond all doubt there was a time when there
was no life upon this earth. The testimony
of geology to the fact that the globe was
once a ball of burning gas and molten rock,
clothed about with boiling vapors, is indisputable.
And we do not know how life could have existed
under such conditions; that seems impossible.
Geology tells us that later on a crust formed,
the globe cooled and hardened, the vapors
condensed and became mist or fell in rain.
The cooled surface crumbled into soil; moisture
accumulated, ponds and seas were gathered
together, and at last somewhere in the water
or on the land appeared something that was
alive.
It is reasonable to suppose that this first
life was in single-celled organisms, but behind
these cells was the insistent urge of Spirit,
the Great One Life seeking expression. And
soon organisms having too much life to express
themselves with one cell had two cells and
then many, and still mo re life was poured
into them.
Multiple-celled organisms were formed; plants,
trees, vertebrates, and mammals, many of them
with strange shapes, but all were perfect
after their kind as everything is that God
makes. No doubt there were crude and almost
monstrous forms of both animal and plant life;
but everything filled its purpose in its day
and it was all very good.
Then another day came, the great day of the
evolutionary process, a day when the morning
stars sang together and the sons of God shouted
for joy to behold the beginning of the end,
for man, the object aimed at from the beginning,
had appeared upon the scene. An ape-like being,
little different from the beasts around him
in appearance, but infinitely different capacity
for growth and thought. Art and beauty, architecture
and song, poetry and music, all these were
unrealized possibilities in that ape man’s
soul. And for his time and kind he was very
good.
“It is God that works in you to will and
to do of his good pleasure,” says St. Paul.
From the day the first man appeared God began
to work IN men, putting more and more of himself
into each succeeding generation, urging them
on to larger achievements and to better conditions,
social, governmental, and domestic. Those
who looking back into ancient history see
the awful conditions which existed, the barbarities,
idolatries, and sufferings, and reading about
God in connection with these things are disposed
to feel that he was cruel and unjust to man,
should pause to think. From the ape-man to
the coming Christ man the race has had to
rise. And it could only be accomplished by
the successive unfolding of the various powers
and possibilities latent in the human brain.
God desired to express himself, to live in
form, and not only that, but to live in a
form through which he could express himself
on the highest moral and spiritual plane.
God wanted to evolve a form in which he could
live as a god and manifest himself as a god.
This was the aim of the evolutionary force.
The ages of warfare, bloodshed, suffering,
injustice, and cruelty were tempered in many
ways with love and justice as time advanced.
And this was developing the brain of man to
a point where it should be capable of giving
full expression to the love and justice of
God. The end is not yet; God aims not at the
perfection of a few choice specimens for exhibition,
like the large berries at the top of the box,
but at the glorification of the race. The
time will come when the Kingdom of God shall
be established on earth; the time foreseen
by the dreamer of the Isle of Patmos, when
there shall be no more crying, neither shall
there be any more pain, for the former things
are all passed away, and there shall be no
night there.
End of chapter 19.
Chapter 20 — Serving God
I have brought you thus far through the two
preceding chapters with a view to finally
settling the question of duty. This is one
that puzzles and perplexes very many people
who are earnest and sincere, and gives them
a great deal of difficulty in its solution.
When they start out to make something of themselves
and to practice the science of being great,
they find themselves necessarily compelled
to rearrange many of their relationships.
There are friends who perhaps must be alienated,
there are relatives who misunderstand and
who feel that they are in some way being slighted;
the really great man is often considered selfish
by a large circle of people who are connected
with him and who feel that he might bestow
upon them more benefits than he does. The
question at the outset is: Is it my duty to
make the most of myself regardless of everything
else? Or shall I wait until I can do so without
any friction or without causing loss to any
one? This is the question of duty to self
vs. duty to others.
One’s duty to the world has been thoroughly
discussed in the preceding pages and I give
some consideration now to the idea of duty
to God. An immense number of people have a
great deal of uncertainty, not to say anxiety,
as to what they ought to do for God.
The amount of work and service that is done
for him in these United States in the way
of church work and so on is enormous. An immense
amount of human energy is expended in what
is called serving God. I propose to consider
briefly what serving God is and how a man
may serve God best, and I think I shall be
able to make plain that the conventional idea
as to what constitutes service to God is all
wrong.
When Moses went down into Egypt to bring out
the Hebrews from bondage, his demand upon
Pharaoh, in the name of the Deity, was, “Let
the people go that they may serve me.” He
led them out into the wilderness and there
instituted a new form of worship which has
led many people to suppose that worship constitutes
the service of God, although later God himself
distinctly declared that he cared nothing
for ceremonies, burned offerings, or oblation,
and the teaching of Jesus if rightly understood,
would do away with organized temple worship
altogether. God does not lack anything that
men may do for him with their hands or bodies
or voices. Saint Paul points out that man
can do nothing for God, for God does not need
anything.
The view of evolution that we have taken shows
God seeking expression through man. Through
all the successive ages in which his spirit
has urged man up the height, God has gone
on seeking expression. Every generation of
men is more Godlike than the preceding generation.
Every generation of men demands more in the
way of fine homes, pleasant surroundings,
congenial work, rest, travel, and opportunity
for study than the preceding generation.
I have heard some shortsighted economists
argue that the working people of today ought
surely to be fully contented because their
condition is so much better than that of the
workingman two hundred years ago who slept
in a windowless hut on a floor covered with
rushes in company with his pigs. If that man
had all that he was able to use for the living
of all the life he knew how to live, he was
perfectly content, and if he ha d lack he
was not contented. The man of today has a
comfortable home and very many things, indeed,
that were unknown a short period back in the
past, and if he has all that he can use for
the living of all the life he can imagine,
he will be content. But he is not content.
God has lifted the race so far that any common
man can picture a better and more desirable
life than he is able to live under existing
conditions.
And so long as this is true, so long as a
man can think and clearly picture to himself
a more desirable life, he will be discontented
with the life he has to live, and rightly
so. That discontent is the Spirit of God urging
men on to more desirable conditions. It is
God who seeks expression in the race. “He
works in us to will and to do.”
The only service you can render God is to
give expression to what he is trying to give
the world, through you. The only service you
can render God is to make the very most of
yourself in order that God may live in you
to the utmost of your possibilities. In a
former work of this series (The Science of
Getting Rich), I refer to the little boy at
the piano, the music in whose soul could not
find expression through his untrained hands.
This is a good illustration of the way the
Spirit of God is over, about, around, and
in all of us, seeking to do great things with
us, so soon as we will train our hands and
feet, our minds, brains, and bodies to do
his service.
Your first duty to God, to yourself, and to
the world is to make yourself as great a personality,
in every way, as you possibly can. And that,
it seems to me, disposes of the question of
duty. There are one or two other things that
might be disposed of in closing this chapter.
I have written of opportunity in a preceding
chapter. I have said, in a general way, that
it is within the power of every man to become
great, just as in “The Science of Getting
Rich” I declared that it is within the power
of every man to become rich. But these sweeping
generalizations need qualifying. There are
men who have such materialistic minds that
they are absolutely incapable of comprehending
the philosophy set forth in these books.
There is a great mass of men and women who
have lived and worked until they are practically
incapable of thought along these lines; and
they cannot receive the message. Something
may be done for them by demonstration, that
is, by living the life before them. But that
is the only way they can be aroused. The world
needs demonstration more than it needs teaching.
For this mass of people our duty is to become
as great in personality as possible in order
that they may see and desire to do likewise.
It is our duty to make ourselves great for
their sakes; so that we may help prepare the
world that the next generation shall have
better conditions for thought.
One other point; I am frequently written to
by people who wish to make something of themselves
an d to move out into the world, but who are
hampered by home ties, having others more
or less dependent upon them, whom they fear
would suffer if left alone. In general I advise
such people to move out fearlessly, and to
make the most of themselves. If there is a
loss at home it will be only temporary and
apparent, for in a little while, if you follow
the leading of Spirit, you will be able to
take better care of your dependents than you
have ever done before.
End of chapter 20.
Chapter 21 — A Mental Exercise
The purpose of mental exercises must not be
misunderstood. There is no virtue in charms
or formulated strings of words; there is no
short cut to development by repeating prayers
or incantations. A mental exercise is an exercise,
not in repeating words, but in the thinking
of certain thoughts. The phrases that we repeatedly
hear become convictions, as Goethe says; and
the thoughts that we repeatedly think become
habitual, and make us what we are. The purpose
in taking a mental exercise is that you may
think certain thoughts repeatedly until you
form a habit of thinking them; then they will
be your thoughts all the time. Taken in the
right way and with an understanding of their
purpose, mental exercises are of great value;
but taken as most people take them they are
worse than useless.
The thoughts embodied in the following exercise
are the ones you want to think. You should
take the exercise once or twice daily, but
you should think the thoughts continuously.
That is, do not think them twice a day for
a stated time and then forget them until it
is time to take the exercise again. The exercise
is to impress you with the material for continuous
thought.
Take a time when you can have from twenty
minutes to half an hour secure from interruption,
and proceed first to make yourself physically
comfortable. Lie at ease in a Morris chair,
or on a couch, or in bed; it is best to lie
flat on your back. If you have no other time,
take the exercise on going to bed at night
and before rising in the morning.
First let your attention travel over your
body from the crown of your head to the soles
of your feet, relaxing every muscle as you
go.
Relax completely. And next, get physical and
other ills off your mind. Let the attention
pass down the spinal cord and out over the
nerves to the extremities, and as you do so
think: - “My nerves are in perfect order
all over my body. They obey my will, and I
have great nerve force.” Next bring your
attention to the lungs and think: - “I am
breathing deeply and quietly, and the air
goes into every cell of my lungs, which are
in perfect condition. My blood is purified
and made clean.” Next, to the heart: - “My
heart is beating strongly and steadily, and
my circulation is perfect, even to the extremities.’
Next, to the digestive system: - “My stomach
and bowels perform their work perfectly. My
food is digested and assimilated and my body
rebuilt and nourished. My liver, kidneys,
and bladder each perform their several functions
without pain or strain; I am perfectly well.
My body is resting, my mind is quiet, and
my soul is at peace.
“I have no anxiety about financial or other
matters. God, who is within me, is also in
all things I want, impelling them toward me;
all that I want is already given to me. I
have no anxiety about my health, for I am
perfectly well. I have no worry or fear whatever.
“I rise above all temptation to moral evil.
I cast out all greed, selfishness, and narrow
personal ambition; I do not hold envy, malice,
or enmity toward any living soul. I will follow
no course of action which is not in accord
‘with my highest ideals. I am right and
I will do right.”
Viewpoint
All is right with the world. It is perfect
and advancing to completion. I will contemplate
the facts of social, political, and industrial
life only from this high viewpoint. Behold,
it is all very good. I will see all human
beings, all my acquaintances, friends, neighbors,
and the members of my own household in the
same way. They are all good. Nothing is wrong
with the universe; nothing can be wrong but
my own personal attitude, and henceforth I
keep that right. My whole trust is in God.
Consecration
I will obey my soul and be true to that within
me that is highest. I will search within for
the pure idea of right in all things, and
when I find it I will express it in my outward
life. I will abandon everything I have outgrown
for the best I can think. I will have the
highest thoughts concerning all my relationships,
and my manner and action shall express these
thoughts. I surrender my body to be ruled
by my mind; I yield my mind to the dominion
of my soul, and I give my soul to the guidance
of God.
Identification
There is but one substance and source, and
of that I am made and with it I am one. It
is my Father; I proceeded forth and came from
it. My Father and I are one, and my Father
is greater than I, and I do His will. I surrender
myself to conscious unity with Pure Spirit;
there is but one and that one is everywhere.
I am one with the Eternal Consciousness.
Idealization
Form a mental picture of yourself as you want
to be, and at the greatest height your imagination
can picture. Dwell upon this for some little
time, holding the thought: “This is what
I really am; it is a picture of my own perfect
and advancing to completion. I will contemplate
the facts of social, political, and industrial
life only from this high viewpoint. Behold,
it is all very good. I will see all human
beings, all my acquaintances, friends, neighbors,
and the members of my own household in the
same way. They are all good.
Nothing is wrong with the universe, nothing
can be wrong but my own personal attitude,
and henceforth I keep that right. My whole
trust is in God.
Realization
I appropriate to myself the power to become
what I want to be, and to do what I want to
do. I exercise creative energy; all the power
there is, is mine. I will arise and go forth
with power and perfect confidence; I will
do mighty works in the strength of the Lord,
my God. I will trust and not fear, for God
is with me.
End of chapter 21.
Chapter 22 — A Summary of the Science of
Being Great
All men are made of the one intelligent substance,
and therefore all contain the same essential
powers and possibilities. Greatness is equally
inherent in all, and may be manifested by
all. Every person may become great. Every
constituent of God is a constituent of man.
Man may overcome both heredity and circumstances
by exercising the inherent creative power
of the soul. If he is to become great, the
soul must act, and must rule the mind and
the body.
Man’s knowledge is limited, and he falls
into error through ignorance; to avoid this
he must connect his soul with Universal Spirit.
Universal Spirit is the intelligent substance
from which all things come; it is in and through
all things. All things are known to this universal
mind, and man can so unite himself with it
as to enter into all knowledge.
To do this man must cast out of himself everything
that separates him from God. He must will
to live the divine life, and he must rise
above all moral temptations; he must forsake
every course of action that is not in accord
with his highest ideals.
He must reach the right viewpoint, recognizing
that God is all, in all, and that there is
nothing wrong. He must see that nature, society,
government, and industry are perfect in their
present stage, and advancing toward completion;
and that all men and women everywhere are
good and perfect. He must know that all is
right with the world, and unite with God for
the completion of the perfect work. It is
only as man sees God as the Great Advancing
Presence in all, and good in all that he can
rise to real greatness.
He must consecrate himself to the service
of the highest that is within himself, obeying
the voice of the soul. There is an Inner Light
in every man that continuously impels him
toward the highest, and he must be guided
by this light if he would become great.
He must recognize the fact that he is one
with the Father, and consciously affirm this
unity for himself and for all others. He must
know himself to be a god among gods, and act
accordingly. He must have absolute faith in
his own perceptions of truth, and begin at
home to act upon these perceptions. As he
sees the true and right course in small things,
he must take that course. He must cease to
act unthinkingly, and begin to think; and
he must be sincere in his thought.
He must form a mental conception of himself
at the highest, and hold this conception until
it is his habitual thought-form of himself.
This thought-form he must keep continuously
in view. He must outwardly realize and express
that thought-form in his actions. He must
do everything that he does in a great way.
In dealing with his family, his neighbors,
acquaintances, and friends, he must make every
act an expression of his ideal. The man who
reaches the right viewpoint and makes full
consecration, and who fully idealizes himself
as great, and who makes every act, however
trivial, an expression of the ideal, has already
attained to greatness. Everything he does
will be done in a great way. He will make
himself known, and will be recognized as a
personality of power. He will receive knowledge
by inspiration, and will know all that he
needs to know. He will receive all the material
wealth he forms in his thoughts, and will
not lack for any good thing. He will be given
ability to deal with any combination of circumstances
that may arise, and his growth and progress
will be continuous and rapid.
Great works will seek him out, and all men
will delight to do him honor. Because of its
peculiar value to the student of the Science
of Being Great, I close this book by giving
a portion of Emerson’s essay on the “Oversoul.”
This great essay is fundamental, showing the
foundation principles of monism and the science
of greatness. I recommend the student to study
it most carefully in connection with this
book.
What is the universal sense of want and ignorance,
but the fine innuendo by which the great soul
makes its enormous claim? Why do men feel
that the natural history of man has never
been written, but always he is leaving behind
what you have said of him, and it becomes
old, and books of metaphysics worthless? The
philosophy of six thousand years has not searched
the chambers and magazines of the soul. In
its experiments there has always remained,
in the last analysis, a residuum it could
not resolve. Man is a stream whose source
is hidden.
Always our being is descending into us from
we know not whence. The most exact calculator
has no prescience that somewhat incalculable
may not balk the very next moment. I am constrained
every moment to acknowledge a higher origin
for events than the will I call mine.
As with events, so it is with thoughts. When
I watch that flowing river, which, out of
regions I see not, pours for a season its
streams into me, -I see that I am a pensioner,
-not a cause, but a surprised spectator of
this ethereal water; that I desire and look
up, and put myself in the attitude for reception,
but from some alien energy the visions come.
The Supreme Critic on all the errors of the
past and present, and the only prophet of
that which must be, is that great nature in
which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft
arms of the atmosphere; that Unity, that Oversoul,
with which every man’s particular being
is contained and made one with all other;
that common heart, of which all sincere conversation
is the worship, to which all right action
is submission; that overpowering reality which
confutes our tricks and talents, and constrains
everyone to pass for what he is, and to speak
from his character and not from his tongue;
and which evermore tends and aims to pass
into our thought and hand, and become wisdom,
and virtue, and power, and beauty. We live
in succession, in division, in parts, in particles.
Meantime within man is the soul of the whole;
the wise silence; the universal beauty, to
which every part and particle is equally related,
the eternal One. And this deep power in which
we exist, and whose beatitude is all-accessible
to us, is not only self- sufficing and perfect
in every hour, but the act of seeing, and
the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle,
the subject and the object, are one. We see
the world piece by piece, as the sun, the
moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole,
of which these are the shining parts, is the
soul.
It is only by the vision of that Wisdom, that
the horoscope of the ages can be read, and
it is only by falling back on our better thoughts,
by yielding to the spirit of prophecy which
is innate in every man, that we know what
it saith. Every man s words, who speaks from
that life, must sound vain to those who do
not dwell in the same thought on their own
part. I dare not speak for it. My words do
not carry its august sense; they fall short
and cold. Only itself can inspire whom it
will, and behold! Their speech shall he lyrical
and sweet, and universal as the rising of
the wind.
Yet I desire, even by profane words, if sacred
I may not use, to indicate the heaven of this
deity, and to report what hints I have collected
of the transcendent simplicity and energy
of the Highest Law.
If we consider what happens in conversation,
in reveries, in remorse, in times of passion,
in surprises, in the instruction of dreams
wherein often we see ourselves in masquerade,
-the droll disguises only magnifying and enhancing
a real element, and forcing it on our distinct
notice, -we shall catch many hints that will
broaden and lighten into knowledge of the
secret of nature. All goes to show that the
soul in man is not an organ, but animates
and exercises all the organs; is not a function,
like the power of memory, of calculation,
of comparison, -but uses these as hands and
feet; is not a faculty, but a light; is not
the intellect or the will, but the master
of the intellect and the will; - is the vast
background of our being, in which they lie,-an
immensity not possessed and that cannot be
possessed.
From within or from behind, a light shines
through us upon things, and makes us aware
that we are nothing, but the light is all.
A man is the facade of a temple wherein all
wisdom and all good abide. What we commonly
call man, the eating, drinking, planting,
counting man, does not, as we know him, represent
himself, but misrepresents himself. Him we
do not respect, but the soul, whose organ
he is, would he let it appear through his
action, would make our knees bend. When it
breathes through his intellect, it is genius;
when it flows through his affection it is
love.
After its own law and not by arithmetic is
the rate of its progress to be computed. The
soul’s advances are not made by gradation,
such as can be represented by motion in a
straight line; but rather by ascension of
state, such as can be represented by metamorphosis,-from
the egg to the worm, from the worm to the
fly.
The growths of genius are of a certain total
character, that does not advance the elect
individual first over John, then Adam, then
Richard, and give to each the pain of discovered
inferiority, but by every throe of growth
the man expands there where he works, passing,
at each pulsation, classes, populations of
men. With each divine impulse the mind rends
the thin rinds of the visible and finite,
and comes out into eternity, and inspires
and expires its air.
This is the law of moral and of mental gain.
The simple rise, as by specific levity, not
into a particular virtue, but into the region
of all the virtues. They are in the spirit
that contains them all. The soul is superior
to all the particulars of merit. The soul
requires purity, but purity is not it; requires
justice, but justice is not that; requires
beneficence, but is somewhat better; so that
there is a kind of descent and accommodation
felt when we leave speaking of moral nature,
to urge a virtue which it en joins.
For, to the soul in her pure action, all the
virtues are natural, and not painfully acquired.
Speak to his heart and the man becomes suddenly
virtuous. Within the same sentiment is the
germ of intellectual growth, which obeys the
same law. Those who are capable of humility,
of justice, of love, of aspiration, are already
on a platform that commands the sciences and
arts, speech and poetry, action and grace.
For whoso dwells in this mortal beatitude,
does already anticipate those special powers
which men prize so highly; just as love does
justice to all the gifts of the object beloved.
The lover has no talent, no skill, which passes
for quite nothing with his enamored maiden,
however little she may possess of related
faculty. And the heart that abandons itself
to the Supreme Mind finds itself related to
all its works and will travel a royal road
to particular knowledge and powers. For, in
ascending to this primary and aboriginal sentiment,
we have come from our remote station on the
circumference instantaneously to the center
of the world, where, as in the closet of God,
we see causes, and anticipate the universe,
which is but a slow effect.
End of chapter 22. And end of The Science
of Being Great by Wallace D. Wattles. Recorded
by Diana Majlinger in March 2012.
