ation]
This chart is particularly interesting, showing as it does the marriage
of a normal man with, first a normal woman, and subsequently with
feeble-minded women. The taint of the feeble mind is inevitable. Whereas
the grandchildren by his second marriage appear normal there is always
the danger of their progeny being blighted by the taint that is in their
blood. The horror of the third marriage is too evident.
[Footnote A: "Feeble-mindedness; Its Causes and Consequences," Goddard,
The Macmillan Company.]
MAKING RESOLVES.--In a preceding chapter I remarked, that every human
thought, deed, act, prayer, etc., must conform to certain laws, if by
their use we desired to achieve results. We know this is true, but we do
not always obey the rule, and in the end we wonder why we are failures.
Psychology has formulated laws, based upon actual experiment, regulating
every department of mental endeavor, or every branch of systematized
mental achievement. These laws show that there are fixed rules, by which
mental effort is regulated, systematized and classified, and that the
human mind conforms to these laws even when working in ignorance of
them. No matter how we may deduce facts, or reason from analogy, we obey
fundamental principles.
In a recent magazine article I read the following:
"This is my own story of why and how I rose, fell and rose
again. It would not be told but for the fact that I have
learned by an Experience mixed with some bitterness, that all
such things are governed by fixed business laws and rules and
move always in obedience to them. There is as I know, a law of
failure and a law of success. There is even a law of
mediocrity. Every man is controlled by that one of these three
laws which he elects to invoke and to follow."
"The laws themselves are fixed and unchanging; man is the only
variable unit in the equation. He succeeds, he fails or he
slumps into mediocrity according to the law with which he
voluntarily or by predisposition puts himself in harmony. This
is my belief, based on my own adventures with these laws and my
observation of other men who have dined and lived with them on
intimate, though not always friendly, terms."
This was written by a successful business man in an article reviewing
the "ups and downs" of his business experiences. It does one good to
read such confessions. To the thinking individual
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