ong, positive, and therefore creative type of thought, is continually
helping to actualise in the realm of the real.

We sometimes speak lightly of ideas, but this world would be indeed a
sorry place in which to live were it not for ideas--and were it not for
ideals. Every piece of mechanism that has ever been built, if we trace
back far enough, was first merely an idea in some man's or woman's
mind. Every structure or edifice that has ever been reared had form
first in this same immaterial realm. So every great undertaking of
whatever nature had its inception, its origin, in the realm of the
immaterial--at least as we at present call it--before it was embodied
and stood forth in material form.

It is well, then, that we have our ideas and our ideals. It is well,
even, to build castles in the air, if we follow these up and give them
material clothing or structure, so that they become castles on the
ground. Occasionally it is true that these may shrink or, rather, may
change their form and become cabins; but many times we find that an
expanded vision and an expanded experience lead us to a knowledge of the
fact that, so far as happiness and satisfaction are concerned, the
contents of a cabin may outweigh many times those of the castle.

Successful men and women are almost invariably those possessing to a
supreme degree the element of faith. Faith, absolute, unconquerable
faith, is one of the essential concomitants, therefore one of the great
secrets of success. We must realise, and especially valuable is it for
young men and women to realise, that one carries his success or his
failure with him, that it does not depend upon outside conditions.
There are some that no circumstances or combinations of circumstances
can thwart or keep down. Let circumstance seem to thwart or circumvent
them in one direction, and almost instantly they are going forward along
another direction. Circumstance is kept busy keeping up with them. When
she meets such, after a few trials, she apparently decides to give up
and turn her attention to those of the less positive, the less forceful,
therefore the less determined, types of mind and of life. Circumstance
has received some hard knocks from men and women of this type. She has
grown naturally timid and will always back down whenever she recognises
a mind, and therefore a life, of sufficient force.

To make the best of whatever present conditions are, to form and clearly
to see one's ideal, t