e Constructive
faculty, and all which are subject to them, instead of being entirely
mysterious "gifts," or inspirations bestowed on only a very few to any
liberal extent, are in all, and may be developed grandly and richly by
direct methods which are moreover extremely easy, and which are in
accordance with the spirit of the age, being the legitimate results of
Evolution and Science.

And, that I may not be misunderstood, I would say that the doctrine of
Duty agrees perfectly with every form of religion--a man may be Roman
Catholic, Church of England, Presbyterian, Agnostic, or what he will;
and, if a form aids him in the least to be _sincerely honest_, it
would be a pity for him to be without it. Truly there are degrees in
forms, and where I live in Italy I am sorry to see so many abuses or
errors in them. But to know and do what is right, when understood, is
recognising God as nearly as man can know him, and to do this
perfectly we require _Will_. It is the true _Logos_.

CHAPTER I.

ATTENTION AND INTEREST.

"To the fairies, Determination and Good-Will, all things are
possible."--_The Man of the Family, by_ C. REID.

It happened recently to me, as I write, to see one afternoon lying on
the side walk in the Via Calzaioli in Florence what I thought was a
common iron screw, about three inches in length, which looked as if it
had been dropped by some workman. And recalling the superstition that
it is lucky to find such an object, or a nail, I picked it up, when to
my astonishment I found that it was a silver pencil case, but made to
exactly resemble a screw. Hundreds of people had, perhaps, seen it,
thought they knew all about it, or what it was, and then passed it by,
little suspecting its real value.

There is an exact spiritual parallel for this incident or parable of
the screw-pencil in innumerable ideas, at which well-nigh everybody in
the hurrying stream of life has glanced, yet no one has ever examined,
until someone with a poetic spirit of curiosity, or inspired by quaint
superstition, pauses, picks one up, looks into it, and finds that It
has ingenious use, and is far more than it appeared to be. Thus, if I
declare that by special attention to a subject, earnestly turning it
over and thinking deeply into it, very remarkable results may be
produced, as regards result in knowledge, every human being will
assent to it as the veriest truism ever uttered; in the fullest belief
that he or she assur