in our minds. We are the governors of our minds. Nothing lives there but we put it there. It is ours to train and to control. Make your mind a bright and joyous place, and you will be vigorous and healthy. Control your passions and your appetites, and relentlessly crush all those desires which impair your mental strength. If we are gloomy or pessimistic it is our own fault, and we deserve no sympathy. The world is full of brightness and light. It is there for us to see, and to take for our own use when the dark days come. The mental sunshine of undaunted optimism is one of life's best gifts, and it is our duty to cultivate the habit of seeing and using it, remembering that

"He that has light within his own clear breast

May sit i' th' centre, and enjoy bright day:
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun ;
Himself is his own dungeon."

PART II

Power in Use

A

CHAPTER XI

THE KNOWLEDGE OF POWER

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much :
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."

COWPER.

MAN ought to order his life by the same broad rules which govern business. The general principles of business success are knowledge, industry, and system. Knowledge creates business, industry enlarges it and retains it, while system ensures the smooth and automatic working of the organisation. Without any of these a business cannot succeed, and no man can get the full value out of life who fails to use them in his daily actions.

By industry a man acquires knowledge and develops his mental capacity. By system he adds to his knowledge and his brain power day by day, while he makes each day fruitful of result. System ensures efficiency by providing against waste of effort. Each day brings its allotted task, and many an hour that might be wasted is turned to profitable

account.

Knowledge is the great asset in life: not merely

the knowledge of facts, or of men, or of affairs, but that knowledge which combines all three and adds to them the power of using the information stored in our minds. This is wisdom.

Success is possible for everybody. It is merely a question of a right mental attitude. Some people affect to sneer at writers who lay down laws for success, but it is worth while noting that really successful men never do this. They know that there are laws which govern success, because they have learned them by long experience. The sooner they discovered those laws the sooner they succeeded. The wise man profits by the experience of others, and succeeds because he can avoid their mistakes while he takes advantage of their knowledge.

If a man desires to succeed, the first thing for him to know is what he is aiming at. The difference between men who succeed and men who fail mainly lies in the fact that the former know what they want, and concentrate all the forces of their minds upon getting it. You cannot attend to business while you calculate how many more hours there are before you go home. You cannot even sharpen a leadpencil properly unless you concentrate all your attention upon it. When you settle down to anything, shut out everything else from your mind. Bring all your guns to bear upon the one fort you wish to subdue. Don't scatter. Concentrate !