"turn to
gold." The secret of their success lies in the fact that they
confidently expect to succeed. There is no need to go so far as the
writers of the school of "New Thought," and claim that suggestion can
set in motion transcendental laws outside man's own nature. It is
quite clear that the man who expects success, of whatever kind it may
be, will unconsciously take up the right attitude to his environment;
will involuntarily close with fleeting opportunity, and by his inner
fitness command the circumstances without.

Man has often been likened to a ship navigating the seas of life. Of
that ship the engine is the will and Thought is the helm. If we are
being directed out of our true course it is worse than useless to call
for full steam ahead; our only hope lies in changing the direction of
the helm.

III

THE PRACTICE OF AUTOSUGGESTION

CHAPTER VI

GENERAL RULES

With our knowledge of the powerful effect which an idea produces, we
shall see the importance of exercising a more careful censorship over
the thoughts which enter our minds. Thought is the legislative power
in our lives, just as the will is the executive. We should not think
it wise to permit the inmates of prisons and asylums to occupy the
legislative posts in the state, yet when we harbour ideas of passion
and disease, we allow the criminals and lunatics of thought to usurp
the governing power in the commonwealth of our being.

In future, then, we shall seek ideas of health, success, and goodness;
we shall treat warily all depressing subjects of conversation, the
daily list of crimes and disasters which fill the newspapers, and those
novels, plays and films which harrow our feelings, without transmuting
by the magic of art the sadness into beauty.

This does not mean that we should be always self-consciously studying
ourselves, ready to nip the pernicious idea in the bud; nor yet that we
should adopt the ostrich's policy of sticking our heads in the sand and
declaring that disease and evil have no real existence. The one leads
to egotism and the other to callousness. Duty sometimes requires us to
give our attention to things in themselves evil and depressing. The
demands of friendship and human sympathy are imperious, and we cannot
ignore them without moral loss. But there is a positive and a negative
way of approaching such subjects.

Sympathy is too often regarded as a passive process by which we allow
ourselves to be