Lesson Eight SELF-CONTROL

NO MAN ACHIEVES GREAT SUCCESS WHO IS UNWILLING
TO MAKE PERSONAL SACRIFICES.

THE LAW OF SUCCESS

Lesson Eight

SELF-CONTROL

"You Can Do It if You Believe You Can!”

IN the preceding lesson you learned of the value of enthusiasm. You also learned how to generate enthusiasm and how to transmit its influence to others, through the principle of suggestion.

You come, now, to the study of self-control, through which you may direct your enthusiasm to constructive ends. Without self-control enthusiasm resembles the unharnessed lightning of an electrical storm - it may strike anywhere; it may destroy life and property.

Enthusiasm is the vital quality that arouses you to action, while self-control is the balance wheel that directs your action so that it will build up and not tear down.

To be a person who is well "balanced," you must be a person in whom enthusiasm and self-control are equalized. A survey which I have just completed of the 160,000 adult inmates of the penitentiaries of the United States discloses the startling fact that ninety-two per cent of these unfortunate men and women are in prison because they lacked the necessary self-control to direct their energies constructively.

Read the foregoing paragraph again; it is authentic, it is startling!

It is a fact that the majority of a man's griefs come about through lack of self-control. The holy scriptures are full of admonition in support of self-control. They even urge us to love our enemies and to forgive those who injure us. The law of non-resistance runs, like a golden cord, throughout the Bible.

Study the records of those whom the world calls great, and observe that every one of them possesses this quality of self-control!

For example, study the characteristics of our own immortal Lincoln. In the midst of his most trying hours he exercised patience, poise and self-control. These were some of the qualities which made him the great man that he was. He found disloyalty in some of the members of his cabinet; but, for the reason that this disloyalty was toward him, personally, and because those in whom he found it had qualities which made them valuable to his country, Lincoln exercised self-control and disregarded the objectionable qualities.

How many men do you know who have self-control to equal this?

In language more forceful than it was polished, Billy Sunday exclaimed from the pulpit: "There is something as rotten as hell about the man who is always trying to show some other fellow up!" I wonder if the "devil" didn't yell, "Amen, brother!" when Billy made that statement?

However, self-control becomes an important factor in this Reading Course on the Law of Success, not so much because lack of it works hardships on those who become its victims, as for the reason that those who do not exercise it suffer the loss of a great power which they need in their struggle for achievement of their definite chief aim.

If you neglect to exercise self-control, you are not only likely to injure others, but you are sure to injure yourself!

During the early part of my public career I discovered what havoc lack of self-control was playing in my life, and this discovery came about through a very commonplace incident. (I believe it not out of place here to digress by making the statement that most of the great truths of life are wrapped up in the ordinary, commonplace events of every-day life.)

This discovery taught me one of the most important lessons I have ever learned. It came about in this way:

One day, in the building in which I had my office, the janitor and I had a misunderstanding. This led to a most violent form of mutual dislike between us. As a means of showing his contempt for me, this janitor would switch off the electric lights of the building when he knew that I was there alone at work in my study. This happened on several occasions until I finally decided to "strike back." My opportunity came one Sunday when I came to my study to prepare an address that I had to deliver the following night. I had hardly seated myself at my desk when off went the lights.

I jumped to my feet and ran toward the basement of the building where I knew I would find the janitor.

When I arrived, I found him busily engaged, shoveling coal into the furnace, and whistling as though nothing unusual had happened.

Without ceremony I pitched into him, and for five minutes I hurled adjectives at him which were hotter than the fire that he was feeding. Finally, I ran out of words and had to slow down. Then he straightened himself up, looked back over his shoulder, and in a calm, smooth tone of voice that was full of poise and self-control, and with a smile on his face that reached from ear to ear, he said:

"Why, you-all's just a little bit excited this morning, ain't you?"

That remark cut as though it had been a stiletto 1

Imagine my feelings as I stood there before an illiterate man who could neither read nor write, but who, despite this handicap, had defeated me in a duel that had been fought on grounds - and with a weapon -of my own choice.

My conscience pointed an accusing finger at me. I knew that not only had I been defeated but, what was worse, I knew that I was the aggressor and that I was in the wrong, which only served to intensify my humiliation.

Not only did my conscience point an accusing finger at me, but it placed some very embarrassing thoughts in my mind; it mocked me and it tantalized me. There I stood, a boasted student of advanced psychology, an exponent of the Golden Rule philosophy, having at least a fair acquaintance with the works of Shakespeare, Socrates, Plato, Emerson and the Bible; while facing me stood a man who knew nothing of literature or of philosophy, but who had, despite this lack of knowledge, whipped me in a battle of words.

I turned and went back to my office as rapidly as I could go. There was nothing else for me to do. As I began to think the matter over I saw my mistake, but, true to nature, I was reluctant to do that which I knew must be done to right the wrong. I knew that I would have to apologize to that man before I could place myself at peace in my own heart, much less with him. Finally, I made up my mind to go back down to the basement and suffer this humility which I knew I had to undergo. The decision was not easily reached, nor did I reach it quickly.

I started down, but I walked more slowly than I had when I went down the first trip. I was trying to think how I would make the second approach so as to suffer the least humiliation possible.

When I got to the basement I called to the janitor to come over to the door. In a calm, kindly tone of voice he asked:

"What do you wish this time?"

I informed him that I had come back to apologize for the wrong I had done, if he would permit me to do so. Again that smile spread all over his face as he said:

"For the love of the Lord, you don't have to apologize. Nobody heard you except these four walls and you and me. I ain't going to tell it and I know you ain't going to tell it, so just forget it."

And that remark hurt more than his first one, for he had not only expressed a willingness to forgive me, but he had actually indicated his willingness to help me cover the incident up, so it would not become known and do me an injury.

THE man who actually knows just what he wants in life has already gone a long way toward attaining it.

But I walked over to him and took him by the hand. I shook with more than my hand - I shook with my heart - and as I walked back to my office I felt good for having summoned the courage with which to right the wrong I had done.

This is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning! Following this incident, I made a resolution that I would never again place myself in a position in which another man, whether he be an illiterate janitor or a man of letters, could humiliate me because I had lost my self-control.

Following that resolution, a remarkable change began to take place in me. My pen began to take on greater power. My spoken words began to carry greater weight. I began to make more friends and fewer enemies among men of my acquaintance. The incident marked one of the most important turning-points of my life. It taught me that no man can control others unless he first controls himself. It gave me a clear conception of the philosophy back of these words, "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." It also gave me a clear conception of the law of non-resistance and helped me interpret many passages of the holy scriptures, bearing on the subject of this law, as I had never before interpreted them.

This incident placed in my hands the pass-key to a storehouse of knowledge that is illuminating and helpful in all that I do, and, later in life, when enemies sought to destroy me, it gave me a powerful weapon of defense that has never failed me.

Lack of self-control is the average salesman's most damaging weakness. The prospective buyer says something that the salesman does not wish to hear, and, if he has not this quality of self-control, he will "strike back" with a counter remark that is fatal to his sale.

In one of the large department stores of Chicago I witnessed an incident that illustrated the importance of self-control. A long line of women were in front of the "complaint" desk, telling their troubles and the store's faults to the young woman in charge. Some of the women were angry and unreasonable and some of them made very ugly remarks. The young woman at the desk received the disgruntled women without the slightest sign of resentment at their remarks. With a smile on her face she directed these women to the proper departments with such charming grace and poise that I marveled at her self-control.

Standing just back of her was another young woman who was making notations on slips of paper and passing them in front of her, as the women in the line unburdened their troubles. These slips of paper contained the gist of what the women in the line were saying, minus the "vitriolic coloring" and the anger.

The smiling young woman at the desk who was "hearing" the complaints was stone deaf! Her assistant supplied her with all the necessary facts, though those slips of paper.

I was so impressed with the plan that I sought the manager of the store and interviewed him. He informed me that he had selected a deaf woman for one of the most trying and important positions in the store for the reason that he had not been able to find any other person with sufficient self-control to fill the place.

As I stood and watched that line of angry women, I observed what pleasant effect the smile of the young woman at the desk had upon them. They came before her growling like wolves and went away as meek and quiet as sheep. In fact some of them had "sheepish" looks on their faces as they left, because the young woman's self-control had made them ashamed of themselves.

Ever since I witnessed that scene, I have thought of the poise and self-control of that young woman at the desk every time I felt myself becoming irritated at remarks which I did not like, and often I have thought that everybody should have a set of "mental ear muffs" which they could slip over their ears at times. Personally, I have developed the habit of "closing" my ears against much of the idle chatter such as I used to make it my business to resent. Life is too short and there is too much constructive work to be done to justify us in "striking back" at everyone who says that which we do not wish to hear.

In the practice of law I have observed a very clever trick that trial lawyers use when they wish to get a statement of facts from a belligerent witness who answers questions with the proverbial "I do not remember" or "I do not know." When everything else fails, they manage to make such a witness angry; and in this state of mind they cause him to lose his self-control and make statements that he would not have made had he kept a "cool" head.

Most of us go through life with our "weather eye" cast skyward in quest of trouble. We usually find that for which we are looking. In my travels I have been a student of men whom I have heard in "Pullman car conversation," and I have observed that practically nine out of every ten have so little self-control that they will "invite" themselves into the discussion of almost any subject that may be brought up. But few men are contented to sit in a smoking compartment and listen to a conversation without joining in and "airing" their views.

Once I was traveling from Albany to New York City. On the way down, the "Smoking Car Club" started a conversation about the late Richard Croker, who was then chief of Tammany Hall. The discussion became loud and bitter. Everyone became angry except one old gentleman who was agitating the argument and taking a lively interest in it. He remained calm and seemed to enjoy all the mean things the others said about the "Tiger" of Tammany Hall. Of course, I supposed that he was an enemy of the Tammany Chief, but he wasn't!

He was Richard Croker, himself!

This was one of his clever tricks through which he found out what people thought of him and what his enemies' plans were.

Whatever else Richard Croker might have been, he was a man of self-control. Perhaps that is one reason why he remained undisputed boss of Tammany Hall as long as he did. Men who control themselves usually boss the job, no matter what it may be.

Please read, again, the last sentence of the preceding paragraph, for it carries a subtle suggestion that might be of profit to you. This is a commonplace incident, but it is in just such incidents that the great truths of life are hidden-hidden because the settings are ordinary and commonplace.

Not long ago I accompanied my wife on a "bargain hunting" bee. Our attention was attracted by a crowd of women who were elbowing each other out of the way in front of a petticoat counter at which "bargains" were being offered. One lady who looked to be about forty-five years of age crawled on her hands and knees through the crowd and "bobbed" up in front of a customer who had engaged the attention of the saleswoman ahead of her. In a loud, high-pitched tone of voice she demanded attention. The saleswoman was a diplomat who understood human nature; she also possessed self-control, for she smiled sweetly at the intruder and said: "Yes, Miss; I will be with you in a moment!"

The intruder calmed herself!

I do not know whether it was the "Yes, Miss," or the sweet tone in which it was said that modified her attitude; but it was one or the other; perhaps it was both. I do know, however, that the saleswoman was rewarded for her self-control by the sale of three petticoats, and the happy "Miss" went away feeling much younger for the remark.

Roast turkey is a very popular dish, but overeating of it cost a friend of mine, who is in the printing business, a fifty thousand dollar order. It happened the day after Thanksgiving, when I called at his office for the purpose of introducing him to a prominent Russian who had come to the United States to publish a book. The Russian spoke broken English and it was therefore hard for him to make himself easily understood. During the interview he asked my printer friend a question which was mistaken as a reflection upon his ability as a printer. In an unguarded moment he countered with this remark:

NO man can rise to fame and fortune without carrying others along with him. It simply cannot be done.

"The trouble with you Bolsheviks is that you look with suspicion on the remainder of the world just because of your own short-sightedness."

My "Bolshevik" friend nudged me on the elbow and whispered:

"The gentleman seems to be sick. We shall call again, when he is feeling better."

But, he never called again. He placed his order with another printer, and I learned afterward that the profit on that order was more than $10,000.00!

Ten thousand dollars seems a high price to pay for a plate of turkey, but that is the price that it cost my printer friend; for he offered me an apology for his conduct on the ground that his turkey dinner had given him indigestion and therefore he had lost his self-control.

One of the largest chain store concerns in the world has adopted a unique, though effective, method of employing salespeople who have developed the essential quality of self-control which all successful salespeople must possess. This concern has in its employ a very clever woman who visits department stores and other places where salespeople are employed and selects certain ones whom she believes to possess tact and self-control; but, to be sure of her judgment, she approaches these salespeople and has them show her their wares. She asks all sorts of questions that are designed to try their patience. If they stand the test, they are offered better positions; if they fail in the test, they have merely allowed a good opportunity to pass by without knowing it.

No doubt all people who refuse or neglect to exercise self-control are literally turning opportunity after opportunity away without knowing it. One day I was standing at the glove counter of a large retail store talking to a young man who was employed there. He was telling me that he had been with the store four years, but on account of the "short-sightedness" of the store, his services had not been appreciated and he was looking for another position. In the midst of this conversation a customer walked up to him and asked to see some hats. He paid no attention to the customer's inquiry until he had finished telling me his troubles, despite the fact that the customer was obviously becoming impatient. Finally, he returned to the customer and said: "This isn't the hat department." When the customer inquired as to where he might find that department the young man replied: "Ask the floor-walker over there; he will direct you."

For four years this young man had been standing on top of a fine opportunity but he did not know it. He could have made a friend of every person whom he served in that store and these friends could have made him one of the most valuable men in the store, because they would have come back to trade with him. "Snappy" answers to inquiring customers do not bring them back.

One rainy afternoon an old lady walked into a Pittsburgh department store and wandered around in an aimless sort of way, very much in the manner that people who have no intention of buying often do. Most of the salespeople gave her the "once over" and busied themselves by straightening the stock on their shelves so as to avoid being troubled by her. One of the young men saw her and made it his business to inquire politely if he might serve her. She informed
him that she was only waiting for it to stop raining; that she did not wish to make any purchases. The young man assured her that she was welcome, and by engaging her in conversation made her feel that he had meant what he said. When she was ready to go he accompanied her to the street and raised her umbrella for her. She asked for his card and went on her way.

The incident had been forgotten by the young man when, one day, he was called into the office by the head of the firm and shown a letter from a lady who wanted a salesman to go to Scotland and take an order for the furnishings for a mansion.

That lady was Andrew Carnegie's mother; she was also the same woman whom the young man had so courteously escorted to the street many months previously.

In the letter, Mrs. Carnegie specified that this young man was the one whom she desired to be sent to take her order. That order amounted to an enormous sum, and the incident brought the young man an opportunity for advancement that he might never have had except for his courtesy to an old lady who did not look like a "ready sale."

Just as the great fundamental laws of life are wrapped up in the commonest sort of every-day experiences that most of us never notice, so are the real opportunities often hidden in the seemingly unimportant transactions of life.

Ask the next ten people whom you meet why they have not accomplished more in their respective lines of endeavor, and at least nine of them will tell you that opportunity does not seem to come around their way. Go a step further and analyze each of these nine accurately by observing their actions for one single day, and the chances are that you will find that every one of them is turning away the finest sort of opportunities every hour of the day.

One day I went to visit a friend who was associated with a Commercial School, in the capacity of solicitor. When I asked him how he was getting along he replied: "Rotten! I see a large number of people but I am not making enough sales to give me a good living. In fact my account with the school is overdrawn and I am thinking about changing positions as there is no opportunity here."

It happened that I was on my vacation and had ten days' time that I could use as I wished, so I challenged his remark that he had no opportunity by telling him that I could turn his position into $250.00 in a week's time and show him how to make it worth that every week thereafter. He looked at me in amazement and asked me not to joke with him over so serious a matter. When he was finally convinced that I was in earnest he ventured to inquire how I would perform the "miracle."

Then I asked him if he had ever heard of organized effort, to which he replied: "What do you mean by organized effort?" I informed him that I had reference to the direction of his efforts in such a manner that he would enroll from five to ten students with the same amount of effort that he had been putting into the enrollment of one or of none. He said he was willing to be shown, so I gave him instructions to arrange for me to speak before the employees of one of the local department stores. He made the appointment and I delivered the address. In my talk I outlined a plan through which the employees could not only increase their ability so that they could earn more money in their present positions, but it also offered them an opportunity to prepare themselves for greater responsibilities and better positions. Following my talk, which of course was designed for that purpose, my friend enrolled eight of those employees for night courses in the Commercial School which he represented.

The following night he booked me for a similar address before the employees of a laundry, and following the address he enrolled three more students, two of them young women who worked over the washing machines at the hardest sort of labor.

Two days later he booked me for an address before the employees of one of the local banks, and following the address he enrolled four more students, making a total of fifteen students, and the entire time consumed was not more than six hours, including the time required for the delivery of the addresses and the enrollment of the students.

My friend's commission on the transactions was a little over four hundred dollars!

These places of employment were within fifteen minutes' walk of this man's place of business, but he had never thought of looking there for business. Neither had he ever thought of allying himself with a speaker who could assist him in "group" selling. That man now owns a splendid Commercial School of his own, and I am informed that his net income last year was over $10,000.00.

"No opportunities" come your way? Perhaps they.....................

FEAR no man, hate no man, wish no one misfortune, and more than likely you will have plenty of friends.

................come but you do not see them. Perhaps you will see them in the future as you are preparing yourself, through the aid of this Reading Course on the Law of Success, so that you can recognize an opportunity when you see it. The sixth lesson of this course is on the subject of imagination, which was the chief factor that entered into the transaction that I have just related. Imagination, plus a Definite Plan, plus Self-confidence, plus Action, were the main factors that entered into this transaction. You now know how to use all of these, and before you shall have finished this lesson you will understand how to direct these factors through self-control.

Now let us examine the scope of meaning of the term self-control, as it is used in connection with this course, by describing the general conduct of a person who possesses it. A person with well-developed self-control does not indulge in hatred, envy, jealousy, fear, revenge, or any similar destructive emotions. A person with well-developed self-control does not go into ecstasies or become ungovernably enthusiastic over anything or anybody.

Greed and selfishness and self-approval beyond the point of accurate self-analysis and appreciation of one's actual merits, indicate lack of self-control in one of its most dangerous forms. Self-confidence is one of the important essentials of success, but when this faculty is developed beyond the point of reason it becomes very dangerous.

Self-sacrifice is a commendable quality, but when it is carried to extremes, it, also, becomes one of the dangerous forms of lack of self-control.

You owe it to yourself not to permit your emotions to place your happiness in the keeping of another person. Love is essential for happiness, but the person who loves so deeply that his or her happiness is placed entirely in the hands of another, resembles the little lamb who crept into the den of the "nice, gentle little wolf" and begged to be permitted to lie down and go to sleep, or the canary bird that persisted in playing with the cat's whiskers.

A person with well-developed self-control will not permit himself to be influenced by the cynic or the pessimist; nor will he permit another person to do his thinking for him.

A person with well-developed self-control will stimulate his imagination and his enthusiasm until they have produced action, but he will then control that action and not permit it to control him.

A person with well-developed self-control will never, under any circumstances, slander another person or seek revenge for any cause whatsoever.

A person with self-control will not hate those who do not agree with him; instead, he will endeavor to understand the reason for their disagreement, and profit by it.

We come, now, to a form of lack of self-control which causes more grief than all other forms combined; it is the habit of forming opinions before studying the facts. We will not analyze this particular form in detail, in this lesson, for the reason that it is fully covered in Lesson Eleven, on accurate thought, but the subject of self-control could not be covered without at least a passing reference to this common evil to which we are all more or less addicted.

No one has any right to form an opinion that is not based either upon that which he believes to be facts, or upon a reasonable hypothesis; yet, if you will observe yourself carefully, you will catch yourself forming opinions on nothing more substantial than your desire for a thing to be or not to be.

Another grievous form of lack of self-control is the "spending" habit. I have reference, of course, to the habit of spending beyond one's needs. This habit has become so prevalent since the close of the world war that it is alarming. A well known economist has prophesied that three more generations will transform the United States from the richest country in the world to the poorest if the children are not taught the savings habit, as a part of their training in both the schools and the homes. On every hand, we see people buying automobiles on the installment plan instead of buying homes. Within the last fifteen years the automobile "fad" has become so popular that literally tens of thousands of people are mortgaging their futures to own cars.

A prominent scientist, who has a keen sense of humor, has prophesied that not only will this habit grow lean bank accounts, but, if persisted in, it will eventually grow babies whose legs will have become transformed into wheels.

This is a speed-mad, money-spending age in which we are living, and the uppermost thought in the minds of most of us is to live faster than our neighbors. Not long ago the general manager of a concern that employs 600 men and women became alarmed over the large number of his employees who were becoming involved with "loan sharks," and decided' to put an end to this evil. When he completed..............

TO do much clear thinking a man must arrange for regular periods of solitude when he can concentrate and indulge his imagination without distraction.

-Thomas A. Edison.

..............his investigation, he found that only nine per cent of his employees had savings accounts, and of the other ninety-one per cent who had no money ahead, seventy-five per cent were in debt in one form or another, some of them being hopelessly involved financially. Of those who were in debt 210 owned automobiles.

We are creatures of imitation. We find it hard to resist the temptation to do that which we see others doing. If our neighbor buys a Buick, we must imitate him and if we cannot scrape together enough to make the first payment on a Buick we must, at least, have a Ford. Meanwhile, we take no heed of the morrow. The old-fashioned "rainy-day nest egg" has become obsolete. We live from day to day. We buy our coal by the pound and our flour in five pound sacks, thereby paying a third more for it than it ought to cost, because it is distributed in small quantities.

Of course this warning does not apply to you!

It is intended only for those who are binding themselves in the chains of poverty by spending beyond their earning capacity, and who have not yet heard that there are definite laws which must be observed by all who would attain success.

The automobile is one of the modern wonders of the world, but it is more often a luxury than it is a necessity, and tens of thousands of people who are now "stepping on the gas" at a lively pace are going to see some dangerous skidding when their "rainy days" arrive.

It requires considerable self-control to use the street cars as a means of transportation when people all around us are driving automobiles, but all who exercise this self-control are practically sure to see the day when many who are now driving cars will be either riding the street cars or walking.

It was this modem tendency to spend the entire income which prompted Henry Ford to safe-guard his employees with certain restrictions when he established his famous $5.00 a day minimum wage scale.

Twenty years ago, if a boy wanted a wagon, he fashioned the wheels out of boards and had the pleasure of building it himself. Now, if a boy wants a wagon, he cries for it - and gets it!

Lack of self-control is being developed in the oncoming generations by their parents who have become victims of the spending habit. Three generations ago, practically any boy could mend his own shoes with the family cobbling outfit. Today the boy takes his shoes to the corner shoe-shop and pays $1.75 for heels and half soles, and this habit is by no means confined to the rich and well-to-do classes.

I repeat - the spending habit is turning America into a nation of paupers!

I am safe in assuming that you are struggling to attain success, for if you were not you would not be reading this course. Let me remind you, then, that a little savings account will attract many an opportunity to you that would not come your way without it. The size of the account is not so important as is the fact that you have established the savings habit, for this habit marks you as a person who exercises an important form of self-control.

The modem tendency of those who work for a salary is to spend it all. If a man who receives $3,000.00 a year and manages to get along on it fairly well, receives an increase of $1,000.00 a year, does he
continue to live on $3,000.00 and place the increased portion of his income in the savings bank? No, not unless he is one of the few who have developed the savings habit. Then, what does he do with this additional $1,000.00? He trades in the old automobile and buys a more expensive one, and at the end of the year he is poorer on a $4,000.00 income than he was the previous year on a $3,000.00 income.

This is a "modern, twentieth century model" American that I am describing, and you will be lucky if, upon close analysis, you do not find yourself to be one of this class.

Somewhere between the miser who hoards every penny he gets his hands on, in an old sock, and the man who spends every cent he can earn or borrow, there is a "happy medium," and if you enjoy life with reasonable assurance of average freedom and contentment, you must find this half-way point and adopt it as a part of your self-control program.

Self-discipline is the most essential factor in the development of personal power, because it enables you to control your appetite and your tendency to spend more than you earn and your habit of "striking back" at those who offend you and the other destructive habits which cause you to dissipate your energies through non-productive effort that takes on forms too numerous to be catalogued in this lesson.

Very early in my public career I was shocked when I learned how many people there are who devote most of their energies to tearing down that which the builders construct. By some queer turn of the wheel of fate one of these destroyers crossed my path by making it his business to try to destroy my reputation.

ASK any wise man what he most desires and he will, more than likely, say "more wisdom."

At first, I was inclined to "strike back" at him, but as I sat at my typewriter late one night, a thought came to me which changed my entire attitude toward this man. Removing the sheet of paper that was in my typewriter, I inserted another one on which I stated this thought, in these words:

You have a tremendous advantage over the man who does you an injury: you have it within your power to forgive him, while he has no such advantage over you.

As I finished writing those lines, I made up my mind that I had come to the point at which I had to decide upon a policy that would serve as a guide concerning my attitude toward those who criticize my work or try to destroy my reputation. I reached this decision by reasoning something after this fashion: Two courses of action were open to me. I could waste much of my time and energy in striking back at those who would try to destroy me, or I could devote this energy to furthering my life-work and let the result of that work serve as my sole answer to all who would criticize my efforts or question my motives. I decided upon the latter as being the better policy and adopted it.

"By their deeds you shall know them!"

If your deeds are constructive and you are at peace with yourself, in your own heart, you will not find it necessary to stop and explain your motives, for they will explain themselves.

The world soon forgets its destroyers. It builds its monuments to and bestows its honors upon none but its builders. Keep this fact in mind and you will more easily reconcile yourself to the policy of refusing to waste your energies by "striking back" at those who offend you.

Every person who amounts to anything in this world comes to the point, sooner or later, at which he is forced to settle this question of policy toward his enemies, and if you want proof that it pays to exercise sufficient self-control to refrain from dissipating your vital energies by "striking back" then study the records of all who have risen to high stations in life and observe how carefully they curbed this destructive habit.

It is a well known fact that no man ever reached a high station in life without opposition of a violent nature from jealous and envious enemies. The late President Warren G. Harding and ex-President Wilson and John H. Patterson of the National Cash Register Company and scores of others whom I could mention, were victims of this cruel tendency, of a certain type of depraved man, to destroy reputation. But these men wasted no time explaining or "striking back" at their enemies. They exercised self-control.

I do not know but that these attacks on men who are in public life, cruel and unjust and untruthful as they often are, serve a good purpose. In my own case, I know that I made a discovery that was of great value to me, as a result of a series of bitter attacks which a contemporary journalist launched against me. I paid no attention to these attacks for four or five years, until finally they became so bold that I decided to override my policy and "strike back" at my antagonist. I sat down at my typewriter and began to write. In all of my experience as a writer I do not believe I ever assembled such a collection of biting adjectives as those which I used on this occasion. The more I wrote, the more angry I became, until I had written all that I could think of on the subject. As the last line was finished, a strange feeling came over me-it was not a feeling of bitterness toward the man who had tried to injure me-it was a feeling of compassion, of sympathy, of forgiveness.

I had unconsciously psycho-analyzed myself by releasing, over the keys of my typewriter, the repressed emotions of hate and resentment which I had been unintentionally gathering in my subconscious mind over a long period of years.

Now, if I find myself becoming very angry, I sit down at my typewriter and "write it out of my system," then throw away the manuscript, or file it away as an exhibit for my scrapbook to which I can refer back in the years to come - after the evolutionary processes have carried me still higher in the realm of understanding.

Repressed emotions, especially, the emotion of hatred, resemble a bomb that has been constructed of high explosives, and unless they are handled with as much understanding of their nature as an expert would handle a bomb, they are as dangerous. A bomb may be rendered harmless by explosion in an open field, or by disintegration in a bath of the proper sort. Also, a feeling of anger or hatred may be rendered harmless by giving expression to it in a manner that harmonizes with the principle of psycho-analysis.

Before you can achieve success in the higher and broader sense you must gain such thorough control over yourself that you will be a person of poise.

You are the product of at least a million years of evolutionary change. For countless generations preceding you Nature has been tempering and refining the materials that have gone into your make-up. Step by step, she has removed from the generations that have preceded you the animal instincts and baser passions until she has produced, in you, the finest specimen of animal that lives. She has endowed you, through this slow evolutionary process, with reason and poise and "balance" sufficient to enable you to control and do with yourself whatever you will.

No other animal has ever been endowed with such self-control as you possess. You have been endowed with the power to use the most highly organized form of energy known to man, that of thought. It is not improbable that thought is the closest connecting link there is between the material, physical things of this world and the world of Divinity.

You have not only the power to think but, what is a thousand times more important still, you have the power to control your thoughts and direct them to do your bidding!

We are coming, now, to the really important part of this lesson. Read slowly and meditatively! I approach this part of this lesson almost with fear and trembling, for it brings us face to face with a subject which but few men are qualified to discuss with reasonable intelligence.

I repeat, you have the power to control your thoughts and make them do your bidding!

Your brain may be likened to a dynamo, in this respect, that it generates or sets into motion the mysterious energy called thought. The stimuli that start your brain into action are of two sorts; one is Autosuggestion and the other is Suggestion. You can select the material out of which your thinking is produced, and that is Auto-suggestion (or self-suggestion). You can permit others to select the material out of which your thinking is produced and that is Suggestion. It is a humiliating fact that most thought is produced by the outside suggestions of others, and it is more humiliating, still, to have to admit that the majority of us accept this suggestion without either examining it or questioning its soundness. We read the daily papers as though every word were based upon fact. We are swayed by the gossip and idle chatter of others as though every word were true.

Thought is the only thing over which you have absolute control, yet, unless you are the proverbial exception, which is about one out of every ten thousand, you permit other people to enter the sacred mansion of your mind and there deposit, through suggestion, their troubles and woes, adversities and falsehoods, just as though you did not have the power to close the door and keep them out.

You have within your control the power to select the material that constitutes the dominating thoughts of your mind, and just as surely as you are reading these lines, those thoughts which dominate your mind will bring you success or failure, according to their nature.

The fact that thought is the only thing over which you have absolute control is, within itself, of most profound significance, as it strongly suggests that thought is your nearest approach to Divinity, on this earthly plane. This fact also carries another highly impressive suggestion; namely, that thought is your most important tool; the one with which you may shape your worldly destiny according to your own liking. Surely, Divine Providence did not make thought the sole power over which you have absolute control without associating with that power potentialities which, if understood and developed, would stagger the imagination.

Self-control is solely a matter of thought-control!

Please read the foregoing sentence aloud; read it thoughtfully and meditate over it before reading further, because it is, without doubt, the most important single sentence of this entire course.

You are studying this course, presumably because you are earnestly seeking truth and understanding sufficient to enable you to attain some high station in life.

You are searching for the magic key that will unlock the door to the source of power; and yet you have the key in your own hands, and you may make use of it the moment you learn to control your thoughts.

Place in your own mind, through the principle of Auto-suggestion, the positive, constructive thoughts which harmonize with your definite chief aim in life, and that mind will transform those thoughts into physical reality and hand them back to you, as a finished product.

This is thought-control!

When you deliberately choose the thoughts which dominate your mind and firmly refuse admittance to outside suggestion, you are exercising self-control in its highest and most efficient form. Man is the only living animal that can do this.

How many millions of years Nature has required in which to produce this animal no one knows, but every intelligent student of psychology knows that the dominating thoughts determine the actions and the nature of the animal.

The process through which one may think accurately is a subject that has been reserved for Lesson Eleven, of this course. The point we wish clearly to establish, in this lesson, is that thought, whether accurate or inaccurate, is the most highly organized functioning power of your mind; and that you are but the sum total of your dominating or most prominent thoughts.

If you would be a master salesman, whether of goods and wares or of personal services, you must exercise sufficient self-control to shut out all adverse arguments and suggestions. Most salesmen have so little self-control that they hear the prospective purchaser say "no" even before he says it. Not a few salesmen hear this fatal word "no" even before they come into the presence of their prospective purchaser. They have so little self-control that they actually suggest to themselves that their prospective purchaser will say "no" when asked to purchase their wares.

How different is the man of self-control! He not only suggests to himself that his prospective purchaser will say "yes," but if the desired "yes" is not forthcoming, he stays on the job until he breaks down the opposition and forces a "yes." If his prospective purchaser says "no," he does not hear it. If his prospective purchaser says "no" - a second, and a third, and a fourth time - he does not hear it, for he is a man of self-control and he permits no suggestions to reach his mind except those which he desires to influence him.

The master salesman, whether he be engaged in selling merchandise, or personal services, or sermons, or public addresses, understands how to control his own thoughts. Instead of being a person who accepts, with meek submission, the suggestions of others, he is a person who persuades others to accept his suggestions. By controlling himself and by placing only positive thoughts in his own mind, he thereby becomes a dominating personality, a master salesman.

This, too, is self-control!

A master salesman .s one who takes the offensive, and never the defensive side of an argument, if argument arises.

Please read the foregoing sentence again!

If you are a master salesman you know that it is necessary for you to keep your prospective purchaser on the defensive, and you also know that it will be fatal to your sale if you permit him to place you on the defensive and keep you there. You may, and of course you will at times, be placed in a position in which you will have to assume the defensive side of the conversation for a time, but it is your business to exercise such perfect poise and self-control that you will change places with your prospective purchaser without his noticing that you have done so, by placing him back on the defensive.

This requires the most consummate skill and self-control!

Most salesmen sweep this vital point aside by becoming angry and trying to scare the prospective purchaser into submission, but the master salesman remains calm and serene, and usually comes out the winner.

PEOPLE like to use their excess energy by "chewing the rag." Wm. Wrigley, Jr., capitalized this human trait by giving them a stick of Spearmint.

The word "salesman" has reference to all people who try to persuade or convince others by logical argument or appeal to self-interest. We are all salesmen; or, at least, we should be, no matter what form of service we are rendering or what sort of goods we are offering.

The ability to negotiate with other people without friction and argument is the outstanding quality of all successful people. Observe those nearest you and notice how few there are who understand this art of tactful negotiation. Observe, also, how successful are the few who understand this art, despite the fact that they may have less education than those with whom they negotiate.

It is a knack that can be cultivated.

The art of successful negotiation grows out of patient and painstaking self-control. Notice how easily the successful salesman exercises self-control when he is handling a customer who is impatient. In his heart such a salesman may be boiling over, but you will see no evidence of it in his face or manner or words.

He has acquired the art of tactful negotiation!

A single frown of disapproval or a single word denoting impatience will often spoil a sale, and no one knows this better than the successful salesman. He makes it his business to control his feelings, and as a reward he sets his own salary mark and chooses his own position.

To watch a person who has acquired the art of successful negotiation is a liberal education, within itself. Watch the public speaker who has acquired this art; notice the firmness of his step as he mounts the platform; observe the firmness of his voice as he begins to speak; study the expression on his face as he sweeps his audience with the mastery of his argument. He has learned how to negotiate without friction.

Watch the physician who has acquired this art, as he walks into the sick room and greets his patient with a smile. His bearing, the tone of his voice, the look of assurance on his face, all mark him as one who has acquired the art of successful negotiation, and the patient begins to feel better the moment he enters the sick room.

Watch the foreman of the works who has acquired this art, and observe how his very presence spurs his men to greater effort and inspires them with confidence and enthusiasm.

Watch the lawyer who has acquired this art, and observe how he commands the respect and attention of the court, the jury and his fellow-practitioners. There is something about the tone of his voice, the posture of his body, and the expression on his face which causes his opponent to suffer by comparison. He not only knows his case, but he convinces the court and the jury that he knows, and as his reward he wins his cases and claims big retaining fees.

And all of this is predicated upon self-control!

And self-control is the result of thought-control!

Deliberately place in your own mind the sort of thoughts that you desire there, and keep out of your mind those thoughts which others place there through suggestion, and you will become a person of self-control.

This privilege of stimulating your mind with suggestions and thoughts of your own choosing is your prerogative power that Divine Providence gave you, and if you will exercise this holy right there is nothing within the bounds of reason that you cannot attain.

"Losing your temper," and with it your case, or your argument, or your sale, marks you as one who has not yet familiarized himself with the fundamentals upon which self-control is based, and the chief one of these fundamentals is the privilege of choosing the thoughts that dominate the mind.

A student in one of my classes once asked how one went about controlling one's thoughts when in a state of intense anger, and I replied: "In exactly the same way that you would change your manner and the tone of your voice if you were in a heated argument with a member of your family and heard the door bell ring, warning you that company was about to visit you. You would control yourself because you would desire to do so."

If you have ever been in a similar predicament, where you found it necessary to cover up your real feelings and change the expression on your face quickly, you know how easily it can be done, and you also know that it can be done because one wants to do it!

Back of all achievement, back of all self-control, back of all thought control, is that magic something called DESIRE!

It is no misstatement of fact to say that you are limited only by the depth of your desires!

When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve. No one has ever explained this strange phenomenon of the mind, and perhaps no one ever will explain it, but if you doubt that it exists you have but to experiment and be convinced.

If you were in a building that was on fire, and all the doors and windows were locked, the chances are that you would develop sufficient strength with which to break down the average door, because of your intense desire to free yourself.

If you desire to acquire the art of successful negotiation, as you undoubtedly will when you understand its significance in relation to your achievement of your definite chief aim, you will do so, providing your desire is intense enough.

Napoleon desired to become emperor of France and did rule. Lincoln desired to free the slaves, and he accomplished it. The French desired that "they shall not pass," at the beginning of the world war, and they didn't pass! Edison desired to produce light with electricity, and he produced it - although he was many years in doing so. Roosevelt desired to unite the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through the Panama Canal, and he did it. Demosthenes desired to become a great public speaker, and despite the handicap of serious impediment of speech, he transformed his desire into reality. Helen Keller desired to speak, and despite the fact that she was deaf, dumb and blind, she now speaks. John H. Patterson desired to dominate in the production of cash registers, and he did it. Marshall Field desired to be the leading merchant of his time, and he did. Shakespeare desired to become a great playwright, and, despite the fact that he was only a poor itinerant actor, he made his desire come true. Billy Sunday desired to quit playing base-ball and become a master preacher, and he did. James J.

Hill desired to become an empire builder; and, despite the fact that he was only a poor telegraph operator, he transformed that desire into reality.

Don't say, "It can't be done," or that you are different from these and thousands of others who have achieved noteworthy success in every worthy calling. If you are "different," it is only in this respect: they desired the object of their achievement with more depth and intensity than you desire yours.

Plant in your mind the seed of a desire that is constructive by making the following your creed and the foundation of your code of ethics:

"I wish to be of service to my fellow men as I journey through life. To do this I have adopted this creed as a guide to be followed in dealing with my fellow-beings:

"To train myself so that never, under any circumstances, will I find fault with any person, no matter how much I may disagree with him or how inferior his work may be, as long as I know he is sincerely trying to do his best.

"To respect my country, my profession and myself. To be honest and fair with my fellow men, as I expect them to be honest and fair with me. To be a loyal citizen of my country. To speak of it with praise, and act always as a worthy custodian of its good name. To be a person whose name carries weight wherever it goes.

"To base my expectations of reward on a solid foundation of service rendered. To be willing to pay the price of success in honest effort. To look upon my work as an opportunity to be seized with joy and made............

- 45 -

IT is a peculiar trait of human nature, but it is true, that the most successful men will work harder for the sake of rendering useful service than they will for money alone.

.......the most of, and not as a painful drudgery to be reluctantly endured.

"To remember that success lies within myself - in my own brain. To expect difficulties and to force my way through them.

"To avoid procrastination in all its forms, and never, under any circumstances, put off until tomorrow any duty that should be performed today.

"Finally, to take a good grip on the joys of life, so I may be courteous to men, faithful to friends, true to God - a fragrance in the path I tread."

The energy which most people dissipate through lack of self-control would, if organized and used constructively, bring all the necessities and all the luxuries desired.

The time which many people devote to "gossiping" about others would, if controlled and directed constructively, be sufficient to attain the object of their definite chief aim (if they had such an aim).

All successful people grade high on self-control! All "failures" grade low, generally zero, on this important law of human conduct.

Study the comparative analysis chart in the Introductory Lesson, and observe the self-control gradings of Jesse James and Napoleon.

Study those around you and observe, with profit, that all the successful ones exercise self-control, while the "failures" permit their THOUGHTS, WORDS and DEEDS to run wild!

One very common and very destructive form of lack of self-control is the habit of talking too much. People of wisdom, who know what they want and are bent on getting it, guard their conversation carefully. There can be no gain from a volume of uninvited, uncontrolled, loosely spoken words.

It is nearly always more profitable to listen than it is to speak. A good listener may, once in a great while, hear something that will add to his stock of knowledge. It requires self-control to become a good listener, but the benefits to be gained are worth the effort.

"Taking the conversation away from another person" is a common form of lack of self-control which is not only discourteous, but it deprives those who do it of many valuable opportunities to learn from others.

After completing this lesson you should go back to the self-analysis chart, in the Introductory Lesson, and re-grade yourself on the Law of Self-control. Perhaps you may wish to reduce your former grading somewhat.

Self-control was one of the marked characteristics of all successful leaders whom I have analyzed, in gathering material for this course. Luther Burbank said that, in his opinion, self-control was the most important of the Fifteen Laws of Success. During all his years of patient study and observation of the evolutionary processes of vegetable life he found it necessary to exercise the faculty of self-control, despite the fact that he was dealing with inanimate life.

John Burroughs, the naturalist, said practically the same thing; that self-control stood near the head of the list, in importance, of the Fifteen Laws of Success.

The man who exercises complete self-control cannot be permanently defeated, as Emerson has so well stated in his essay on Compensation, for the reason that obstacles and opposition have a way of melting away when confronted by the determined mind that is guided to a definite end with complete self-control.

Every wealthy man whom I have analyzed (referring to those who have become wealthy through their own efforts) showed such positive evidence that self-control had been one of his strong points that I reached the conclusion that no man can hope to accumulate great wealth and keep it without exercising this necessary quality.

The saving of money requires the exercise of self-control of the highest order, as, I hope, has been made quite clear in the fourth lesson of this course.

I am indebted to Edward W. Bok for the following rather colorful description of the extent to which he found it necessary to exercise self-control before he achieved success and was crowned with fame as one of the great journalists of America:

WHY I BELIEVE IN POVERTY AS THE RICHEST EXPERIENCE THAT CAN COME TO A BOY

I make my living trying to edit the Ladies' Home Journal. And because the public has been most generous in its acceptance of that periodical, a share of that success has logically come to me. Hence a number of my very good readers cherish an opinion that often I have been tempted to correct, a temptation to which I now yield. My correspondents express the conviction variously, but this extract from a letter is a fair sample:

"It is all very easy for you to preach economy to us when you do not know the necessity for it: To tell us how, as for example in my own case, we must live within my husband's income of eight hundred dollars a year, when you have never known what it is to live on less than thousands. Has it occurred to you, born with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth, that theoretical writing is pretty cold and futile compared to the actual hand-to-mouth struggle that so many of us live, day by day and year in and year out - an experience that you know not of?"

"An experience that you know not of!"

Now, how far do the facts square with this statement?

Whether or not I was born with the proverbial silver spoon in my mouth, I cannot say. It is true that I was born of well-to-do parents. But when I was six years old my father lost all his means, and faced life at forty-five, in a strange country, without even necessaries. There are men and their wives who know what that means; for a man to try to "come back" at forty-five, and in a strange country!

I had the handicap of not knowing one word of the English language. I went to a public school and learned what I could. And sparse morsels they were! The boys were cruel, as boys are. The teachers were impatient, as tired teachers are.

My father could not find his place in the world. My mother who had always had servants at her beck and call, faced the problems of housekeeping that she had never learned nor been taught. And there was no money.

So, after school hours, my brother and I went home, but not to play. After-school hours meant for us to help a mother who daily grew more frail under the burdens that she could not carry. Not for days, but for years, we two boys got up in the gray cold winter dawn when the beds feel so warm to growing boys, and we sifted the coal ashes of the day-before's fire for a stray lump or two of unburned coal, and with what we had or could find we made the fire and warmed up the room. Then we set the table for the scant breakfast, went to school, and directly after school we washed the dishes, swept and scrubbed the floors. Living in a three-family tenement, each third week meant that we scrubbed the entire three flights of stairs from the third story to the first, as well as the doorsteps and the sidewalk outside. The latter work was the hardest; for we did it on Saturdays, with the boys of the neighborhood looking on none too kindly, so we did it to the echo of the crack of the ball and bat on the adjoining lot!

In the evening when the other boys could sit by the lamp or study their lessons, we two boys went out with a basket and picked up wood and coal in the adjoining lots, or went after the dozen or so pieces of coal left from the ton of coal put in that afternoon by one of the neighbors, with the spot hungrily fixed in mind by one of us during the day, hoping that the man who carried in the coal might not be too careful in picking up the stray lumps!

"An experience that you know not of!" Don't I?

At ten years of age I got my first job, washing the windows of a baker's shop at fifty cents a week. In a week or two I was allowed to sell bread and cakes behind the counter after school hours for a dollar a week - handing out freshly baked cakes and warm, delicious-smelling bread, when scarcely a crumb had passed my mouth that day!

OUR DOUBTS
ARE
TRAITORS
AND
MAKE US LOSE
THE
GOOD WE
OFT
MIGHT WIN
BY
FEARING
TO
ATTEMPT.
--Shakespeare.

Then on Saturday mornings I served a route for a weekly paper, and sold my remaining stock on the street. It meant from sixty to seventy cents for that day's work.

I lived in Brooklyn, New York, and the chief means of transportation to Coney Island at that time was the horse car. Near where we lived the cars would stop to water the horses, the men would jump out and get a drink of water, but the women had no means of quenching their thirst. Seeing this lack I got a pail, filled it with water and a bit of ice, and, with a glass, jumped on each car on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, and sold my wares at a cent a glass. And when competition came, as it did very quickly when other boys saw that a Sunday's work meant two or three dollars, I squeezed a lemon or two in my pail, my liquid became "lemonade" and my price two cents a glass, and Sunday meant five dollars to me.

Then, in turn, I became a reporter during the evenings, an office boy day-times, and learned stenography at midnight.

My correspondent says she supports her family of husband and child on eight hundred dollars a year, and says I have never known what that means. I supported a family of three on six dollars and twenty-five cents a week-less than one-half of her yearly income. When my brother and I, combined, brought in eight hundred dollars a year we felt rich!

I have for the first time gone into these details in print so that you may' know, at first hand, that the editor of the Ladies' Home journal is not a theorist when he writes or prints articles that seek to preach economy or that reflect a hand-to-hand struggle on a small or an invisible income. There is not a single step, not an inch, on the road of direct poverty that I do not know of or have not experienced. And, having experienced every thought, every feeling and every hardship that come to those who travel that road, I say today that I rejoice with every boy who is going through the same experience.

Nor am I discounting or forgetting one single pang of the keen hardships that such a struggle means. I would not today exchange my years of the keenest hardship that a boy can know or pass through for any single experience that could have come to me. I know what it means to earn - not a dollar, but to earn two cents. I know the value of money as I could have learned it or known it in no other way. I could have been trained for my life-work in no surer way. I could not have arrived at a truer understanding of what it means to face a day without a penny in hand, not a loaf of bread in the cupboard, not a piece of kindling wood for the fire - with nothing to eat, and then be a boy with the hunger of nine and ten, with a mother frail and discouraged!

"An experience that you know not of!" Don't I?

And yet I rejoice in the experience, and I repeat: I envy every boy who is in that condition and going through it. But - and here is the pivot of my strong belief in poverty as an undisguised blessing to a boy -I believe in poverty as a condition to experience, to go through, and then to get out of : not as a condition to stay in. "That's all very well," some will say; "easy enough to say, but how can you get out of it?" No one can definitely tell another that. No one told me. No two persons can find the same way out. Each must find his way for himself. That depends on the boy. I was determined to get out of poverty, because my mother was not born in it, could not stand it and did not belong in it. This gave me the first essential: a purpose. Then I backed up the purpose with effort and willingness to work and to work at anything that came my way, no matter what it was, so long as it meant "the way out." I did not pick and choose; I took what came and did it in the best way I knew how; and when I didn't like what I was doing I still did it well while I was doing it, but I saw to it that I didn't do it any longer than I had to do it. I used every rung in the ladder as a rung to the one above. It meant effort, but out of the effort and the work came the experience; the upbuilding, the development; the capacity to understand and sympathize; the greatest heritage that can come to a boy. And nothing in the world can give that to a boy, so that it will burn into him, as will poverty.

That is why I believe so strongly in poverty, the greatest blessing in the way of the deepest and fullest experience that can come to a boy. But, as I repeat: always as a condition to work out of, not to stay in.

Before you can develop the habit of perfect self-control you must understand the real need for this quality. Also, you must understand the advantages which self-control provides those who have learned how to exercise it.

By developing self-control you develop, also, other qualities that will add to your personal power.

Among other laws which are available to the person who exercises self-control is the Law of Retaliation.

You know what "retaliate" means!

In the sense that we are using here it means to "return like for like," and not merely to avenge or to seek revenge, as is commonly meant by the use of this word.

If I do you an injury you retaliate at first opportunity. If I say unjust things about you, you will retaliate in kind, even in greater measure!

On the other hand, if I do you a favor you will reciprocate even in greater measure if possible.

Through the proper use of this law I can get you to do whatever I wish you to do. If I wish you to dislike me and to lend your influence toward damaging me, I can accomplish this result by inflicting upon you the sort of treatment that I want you to inflict upon me through retaliation.

If I wish your respect, your friendship and your co-operation I can get these by extending to you my friendship and co-operation.

On these statements I know that we are together. You can compare these statements with your own experience and you will see how beautifully they harmonize.

How often have you heard the remark, "What a wonderful personality that person has." How often have you met people whose personalities you coveted?

The man who attracts you to him through his pleasing personality is merely making use of the Law of Harmonious Attraction, or the Law of Retaliation, both of which, when analyzed, mean that "like attracts like."

If you will study, understand and make intelligent use of the Law of Retaliation you will be an efficient and successful salesman. When you have mastered this simple law and learned how to use it you will have learned all that can be learned about salesmanship.

The first and probably the most important step to be taken in mastering this law is to cultivate complete self-control. You must learn to take all sorts of punishment and abuse without retaliating in kind. This self-control is a part of the price you must pay for mastery of the Law of Retaliation.

When an angry person starts in to vilify and abuse you, justly or unjustly, just remember that if you retaliate in a like manner you are being drawn down to that person's mental level, therefore that person is dominating you!

On the other hand, if you refuse to become angry, if you retain your self-composure and remain calm and serene you retain all your ordinary faculties through which to reason. You take the other fellow by surprise. You retaliate with a weapon with the use of which he is unfamiliar, consequently you easily dominate him.

Like attracts like! There's no denying this!

Literally speaking, every person with whom you come in contact is a mental looking-glass in which you may see a perfect reflection of your own mental attitude.

As an example of direct application of the Law of Retaliation, let us cite an experience that I recently had with my two small boys, Napoleon Junior and James.

IT is well worth remembering that the customer is the most important factor in any business. If you don't think so, try to get along without him for a while.

We were on our way to the park to feed the birds and squirrels. Napoleon junior had bought a bag of peanuts and James had bought a box of "Crackerjack." James took a notion to sample the peanuts. Without asking permission he reached over and made a grab for the bag. He missed and Napoleon junior "retaliated" with his left fist which landed rather briskly on James' jaw.

I said to James: "Now, see here, son, you didn't go about getting those peanuts in the right manner. Let me show you how to get them." It all happened so quickly that I hadn't the slightest idea when I spoke what I was going to suggest to James, but I sparred for time to analyze the occurrence and work out a better way, if possible, than that adopted by him.

Then I thought of the experiments we had been making in connection with the Law of Retaliation, so I said to James: "Open your box of `Crackerjack' and offer your little brother some and see what happens." After considerable coaxing I persuaded him to do this. Then a remarkable thing happened - a happening out of which I learned my greatest lesson in salesmanship! Before Napoleon would touch the "Crackerjack" he insisted on pouring some of his peanuts into lames' overcoat pocket. He "retaliated in kind!" Out of this simple experiment with two small boys I learned more about the art of managing them than I could have learned in any other manner. Incidentally, my boys are beginning to learn how to manipulate this Law of Retaliation which saves them many a physical combat.

None of us have advanced far beyond Napoleon Junior and James as far as the operation and influence of the Law of Retaliation is concerned. We are all just grown-up children and easily influenced through this principle. The habit of "retaliating in kind" is so universally practiced among us that we can properly call this habit the Law of Retaliation. If a person presents us with a gift we never feel satisfied until we have "retaliated" with something as good or better than that which we received. If a person speaks well of us we increase our admiration for that person, and we "retaliate" in return!

Through the principle of retaliation we can actually convert our enemies into loyal friends. If you have an enemy whom you wish to convert into a friend you can prove the truth of this statement if you will forget that dangerous millstone hanging around your neck, which we call "pride" (stubbornness). Make a habit of speaking to this enemy with unusual cordiality. Go out of your way to favor him in every manner possible. He may seem immovable at first, but gradually he will give way to your influence and "retaliate in kind!" The hottest coals of fire ever heaped upon the head of one who has wronged you are the coals of human kindness.

One morning in August, 1863, a young clergyman was called out of bed in a hotel at Lawrence, Kansas. The man who called him was one of Quantrell's guerrillas, and he wanted him to hurry downstairs and be shot. All over the border that morning people were being murdered. A band of raiders had ridden in early to perpetrate the Lawrence massacre.

The guerrilla who called the clergyman was impatient. The latter, when fully awake, was horrified by what he saw going on through his window. As he came downstairs the guerrilla demanded his watch and money, and then wanted to know if he was an abolitionist. The clergyman was trembling. But he decided that if he was to die then and there it would not be with a lie on his lips. So he said that he was, and followed up the admission with a remark that immediately turned the whole affair into another channel.

He and the guerrilla sat down on the porch, while people were being killed through the town, and had a long talk. It lasted until the raiders were ready to leave. When the clergyman's guerrilla mounted to join his confederates he was strictly on the defensive. He handed back the New Englander's valuables, apologized for disturbing him and asked to be thought well of.

That clergyman lived many years after the Lawrence massacre. What did he say to the guerrilla? What was there in his personality that led the latter to sit down and talk? What did they talk about?

"Are you a Yankee abolitionist?" the guerrilla had asked. "Yes, I am," was the reply, "and you know very well that you ought to be ashamed of what you're doing"

This drew the matter directly to a moral issue. It brought the guerrilla up roundly. The clergyman was only a stripling beside this seasoned border ruffian. But he threw a burden of moral proof on to the raider, and in a moment the latter was trying to demonstrate that he might be a better fellow than circumstances would seem to indicate.

After waking this New Englander to kill him on account of his politics, he spent twenty minutes on the witness stand trying to prove an alibi. He went into his personal history at length. He explained matters from the time when he had been a tough little kid who wouldn't say his prayers, and became quite sentimental in recalling how one thing had led to another, and that to something worse, until - well, here he was, and "a mighty bad business to be in, pardner." His last request in riding away was: "Now, pardner, don't think too hard of me, will you?"

The New England clergyman made use of the Law of Retaliation, whether he knew it at that time or not. Imagine what would have happened had he come downstairs with a revolver in his hand and started to meet physical force with physical force!

But he didn't do this! He mastered the guerrilla because he fought him with a force that was unknown to the brigand.

Why is it that when once a man begins to make money the whole world seems to beat a pathway to his door?

Take any person that you know who enjoys financial success and he will tell you that he is being constantly sought, and that opportunities to make money are constantly being urged upon him!

"To him that hath shall be given, but to him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he bath"

This quotation from the Bible used to seem ridiculous to me, yet how true it is when reduced to its concrete meaning.

Yes, "to him that hath shall be given!" If he "hath" failure, lack of self-confidence, hatred or lack of self-control, to him shall these qualities be given in still greater abundance! But, if he "hath" success, self-confidence, self-control, patience, persistence and determination, to him shall these qualities be increased!

Sometimes it may be necessary to meet force with force until we overpower our opponent or adversary, but while he is down is a splendid time to complete the "retaliation" by taking him by the hand and showing him a better way to settle disputes.

Like attracts like! Germany sought to bathe her sword in human blood, in a ruthless escapade of conquest. As a result she has drawn the "retaliation in kind" of most of the civilized world.

It is for you to decide what you want your fellow men to do and it is for you to get them to do it through the Law of Retaliation!

"The Divine Economy is automatic and very simple: we receive only that which we give."

How true it is that "we receive only that which we give"! It is not that which we wish for that comes back to us, but that which we give.

I implore you to make use of this law, not alone for material gain, but, better still, for the attainment of happiness and good-will toward men.

This, after all, is the only real success for which to strive.

SUMMARY

In this lesson we have learned a great principle -probably the most important major principle of psychology! We have learned that our thoughts and actions toward others resemble an electric magnet which attracts to us the same sort of thought and the same sort of action that we, ourselves, create.

We have learned that "like attracts like," whether in thought or in expression of thought through bodily..................

A GOOD HEARTY LAUGH IS WORTH TEN THOUSAND
"GROANS" AND A MILLION "SIGHS" IN ANY MARKET ON EARTH.

..............action. We have learned that the human mind responds, in kind, to whatever thought impressions it receives. We have learned that the human mind resembles mother earth in that it will reproduce a crop of muscular action which corresponds, in kind, to the sensory impressions planted in it. We have learned that kindness begets kindness and unkindness and injustice beget unkindness and injustice.

We have learned that our actions toward others, whether of kindness or unkindness, justice or injustice, come back to us, even in a larger measure! We have learned that the human mind responds in kind, to all sensory impressions it receives, therefore we know what we must do to influence any desired action upon the part of another. We have learned that "pride" and "stubbornness" must be brushed away before we can make use of the Law of Retaliation in a constructive way. We have not learned what the Law of Retaliation is, but we have learned how it works and what it will do; therefore, it only remains for us to make intelligent use of this great principle. · · · · · · · ·

You are now ready to proceed with Lesson Nine, where you will find other laws which harmonize perfectly with those described in this lesson on Self-control.

It will require the strongest sort of self-control to enable the beginner to apply the major law of the next lesson, on the Habit of Doing More Than Paid For, but experience will show that the development of such control is more than justified by the results growing out of such discipline.

IF you are successful remember that somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a lift or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember, also, that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.