AS THIS COURSE OF INSTRUCTION approaches its end, the two most important themes are to be considered. In a book of this size, it is not possible to include the analysis of the mental powers with which humanity has been endowed. For centuries preceding our era, in the old Greek ascendency, the existence of a mental power beyond that of the ordinary faculty of reasoning, was taught and exemplified. Then the idea slept until a few decades ago when many evidences arose to set savants thinking and investigating. The result was the claim that a subconscious mind was a part of the mental equipment of humanity. Today this claim is universally approved. In other works the distinction between the physical mind which operates through the cerebrum, and the psychic mind which operates through the meninges or brain-membranes, is fully discussed and proved. But it has always been our belief that, whatever this distinction may be, the only facts that matter are those that appear as results, not processes; and that names and theories are of less value than actualities. In any event it is this distinction that now interests us, as we approach the study of mental determination. We have seen in the early part of this book that a setness of the muscles is non-magnetic; and that a setness of the physical mind, or process of reasoning that operates through the cerebrum, is obstinacy, and is therefore non-magnetic.

It is a common trait of teachers and advisers to tell ambitious men and women that whatever they make up their minds to do, they will do; and what they will to accomplish, they will accomplish. This sounds all right, but has rarely ever succeeded. It is true that persistent hammering at one object sooner or later brings the desired results, if no obstacles of an insurmountable nature interfere. Yet, on the other hand, if the will power is operating through the subconscious faculty it rarely fails. To generals who lived in the centuries preceding the time of Napoleon, there were Alps, and they were obstacles that could not be overcome. To him there were no Alps; his keener mind saw the way to pass them.

When the mind is set through the operation of the physical processes of thinking, and this setness persists for a time, it becomes an obsession, or disease. Setness means fixed position, Thus obstinacy is a disease, for it is a fixed attitude of the mind. Thinking always on one leading subject is a disease. Unchanging belief founded on nothing but belief, or blind faith, is an obsession, and is most repellant, driving away friends and admirers. Political fixedness in place of statesmanship, is likewise an obsession and non-magnetic.

The difference between a set purpose of the physical mind working through the cerebrum, and mental determination working through the subconscious faculty, is that the former is fixed and immovable, while the latter always progresses or goes forward. The mule stands still when he is balky. His brain is set, determined, but makes no headway.

The only absolutely certain method by which the subconscious faculty may be recognized is that which takes the conscious mind into the last stage of wakefulness at night; for every psychologist and physician who has experimented along these lines, knows that the subconscious mind is always alert and on the verge of recognition at that moment when the conscious or working mind is lapsing into unconsciousness, which occurs at the time stated, or when sleep is coming on. It is then that the most remarkable cures have been made through therapeutic suggestion in hospitals and sanitariums.

It has been proved many times that any form of mental determination that invites progressive action and not fixedness, that is given expression in the mind during the last moments of wakefulness at night, if founded on a careful development of the power of magnetism as taught in this book, will bring the results desired. The best preparation for this practice which should be made a habit, is to read this book through twice slowly and with great attention to all that it teaches. Following such reading, the most powerful method that can be adopted is to memorize the thirteenth lesson, which deals with Mental Magnitude Regime.

After these steps have been taken, and after all the advice and suggestions of that lesson have been carried into effect, the next thing to do is to take into the subconscious mind at night the full determination to achieve some great work, or to win some great end; or, if minor matters are important, work them out by the same process. We can assure every student who follows this plan that success will be attained. Not many years ago a great French psychologist came to this country and performed some remarkable cures by this process. He made the statement that where a certain mental belief was given oral expression the sound > of the voice reflected in the brain would be taken up and be given actual life in the entire nervous system. But this method failed a hundred times where it succeeded once; the fault being that the physical mind alone operated. Tests were made with the subconscious mind in the manner we have stated herein, and there were one hundred victories for every single failure; just reversing the ratio. Thus if a person who has mastered this course of instruction will form some purpose in his mind, and give it utterance in spoken words, no matter how faintly they are uttered, at the moment of falling asleep nights, the several natural laws that we have described will operate to bring results. The only way of knowing for a fact whether this method will succeed is to give it a thorough trial. When physicians, hospital doctors and psychological scientists put such methods to the test and follow them up to get results, and do actually get results of the highest importance to the world, no sensible person will treat them lightly.

It however is not merely in the use of the last waking moments at night, that this power is employed. That is only a developing practice. As soon as the faculty is recognized, it may be used at any time of the day or anywhere, and in any way. But it must be kept moving. Avoid fixedness. We have seen a little lawyer, weighing less than 120 pounds, drive out of a building a sheriff's keeper who had a legal right there; and no force was used. He started and kept moving, like a stampede limited to one objective. It was mental determination. We have recently concluded the history of a couple who had been unhappily married, both of whom took up this study in order to find a remedy for their marital failure; and both developed in the highest degree this power of mental determination and applied it to the .suggestions and matters contained in the preceding lesson, which is entitled The Vanishing Illusion. The success has been one of the most pleasing and complete we have ever known. They were too proud to live apart, and too honorable to seek a divorce that would have brought a lifetime of unhappiness to their children; so they suffered in secret as far as the outside world was concerned, and now they have no more anxieties.

We know of more than one hundred recent cases of employees who have bettered themselves by the same power of menial determination; and scores of business men who were drifting down grade but who have since begun to win success.

Many requests have reached us as to what are the best themes on which to practice mental determination; and invariably wo advise those that are contained in the seventy-three lessons of this book. But Mental Magnitude Regime stands in the most important of all positions in this regard. It is contained in Lesson Thirteen; and that lesson is a magnet in itself.

Charles Spurgeon, who claimed that his prayers were always answered, said that he never prayed with his brain, nor with his physical thoughts; at that time very little had been discovered of the subconscious mind, so that he made no reference to that. faculty; but he stated his firm belief that he possessed an inner self that outranked his thinking brain; and it was with this inner self that he prayed, and won answers to his prayers.

Faith when genuine, which is rarely the case, dwells in this inner self which today is fully recognized as the subconscious faculty. There is a kind of faith that emanates from the thinking mind, which is the reasoning power of the brain; but such faith never rises higher than firm belief; and all belief, if true, is founded on facts that are apparent to the conscious mind No normal person says that he believes something unless he has some basis of fact for such credence. Faith, when genuine, is never founded on facts, but on subconscious knowledge; and as such is far more likely to be well founded than the usual conclusions called belief. Mental determination when using the mind of faith, carries its results into far realms. Those who heard Spurgeon pray, felt that he was demanding an answer by the strong assertiveness of his voice.

Cures have been wrought by mental determination in the form of faith emanating from the subconscious mind; but this faith has generally been exercised by the person causing the cure. Occasionally it is true that the patient is able to cure himself by faith, but it must be accompanied by mental determination, not by belief coming from the reasoning mind,

We have knowledge of many cases where unruly children who could not be controlled by nurses and governesses, have been effectively managed by those who have developed mental determination. Some years ago we recorded the case of a country school the bullying boys of which had driven out several male teachers until a young man who had developed this power took charge; and during his several years of teaching there, not one attempt was ever made to annoy him. In explaining the circumstance, a boy who has since become a successful merchant says: "The first moment our new teacher entered the school house, he walked among us, looked at us, talked kindly but very firmly to us, and we liked him because we felt and seemed to know that he would not permit any fooling. So we quit it, and began to learn our lessons."—The teacher told us his account in a few words, "I went there with the firm resolve, no matter what happened, to be master first, last and always; and I was."

Mental determination always wins.

But this power is most effective in making a man or woman supreme over the influences that lead them into mistakes and disasters through an appeal to their appetites, or their inclinations. It is said that the greatest evil in the life of a person is the willingness to drift along from day to day aimlessly. They let matters take care of themselves; and this is something that never happens in the right way; otherwise life would not be crowded with failures and disappointments. The mind is the engineer of the body; and it is the duty of every engineer to direct and control the power that is placed in his charge. The directing and controlling agency must hold sway at all times.