aise also to those who do not allow any one or any number of
occurrences in life to sour their nature, rob them of their faith, or
cripple their energies for the enjoyment of the fullest in life while
here. It's those people _who never allow themselves in spirit to be
downed_, no matter what their individual problems, surroundings, or
conditions may be, but who chronically bob up serenely who, after all,
_are the masters of life_, and who are likewise the strength-givers and
the helpers of others. There are multitudes in the world today, there
are readers of this volume, who could add a dozen or a score of
years--teeming, healthy years--to their lives by a process of
self-examination, a mental housecleaning, and a reconstructed, positive,
commanding type of thought.

Tennyson was prophet when he sang:

Cleave then to the sunnier side of doubt,
And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!
She reels not in the storm of warring words,
She brightens at the clash of "Yes" and "No,"
She sees the Best that glimmers through the Worst,
She feels the sun is hid but for a night,
She spies the summer through the winter bud,
She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,
She hears the lark within the songless egg,
She finds the fountain where they wailed "mirage."

V

THOUGHT AS A FORCE IN DAILY LIVING

Some years ago an experience was told to me that has been the cause of
many interesting observations since. It was related by a man living in
one of our noted university towns in the Middle West. He was a
well-known lecture manager, having had charge of many lecture tours for
John B. Gough, Henry Ward Beecher, and others of like standing. He
himself was a man of splendid character, was of a sensitive organism, as
we say, and had always taken considerable interest in the powers and
forces pertaining to the inner life.

As a young man he had left home, and during a portion of his first year
away he had found employment on a Mississippi steamboat. One day in
going down the river, while he was crossing the deck, a sudden stinging
sensation seized him in the head, and instantly vivid thoughts of his
mother, back at the old home, flashed into his mind. This was followed
by a feeling of depression during the remainder of the day. The
occurrence was so unusual and the impression of it was so strong that
he made an account of it in his diary.

Some time later, on returning home, he w