15 
that we should endeavour to know as much as we possibly can 
about it. No better testimony can be given to the paramount 
importance of health than a due regard to the fabulous sums of 
money spent annually upon “ doctoring ” in some shape or other. 
By way of illustration let us take the patent medicine vendors, 
many of whom make large fortunes by skilful and persistent 
advertisements of their ‘specialities. One looks after the 
stomach, another takes the liver in charge, another the kidneys, 
seemingly with such amazing results that the wonder is a single 
invalid exists throughout the land. Drug meditation uses up our 
reserve energy at a fearful rate. Very occasionally, however, it 
may serve our purpose, but once make a habit of it and our 
system will very soon become exhausted. 
Health is not a matter of chance but a question of under- 
standing the Law, and in this lies the safety of the individual. 
This do and you shall live, but this do not do and you shall 
suffer pain and disease, has equal application to the millionaire 
and pauper. The immense majority not only start life with 
wrong ideas, but go to their graves intellectually blind, blaming 
everybody and everything, never suspecting for one moment that 
they have only themselves to find fault with. To clear up the 
ground then, so far as we have travelled we find that we are only 
concerned with our own individual world, and of this we are the 
creators and rulers. With us it rests whether we are to be weak 
or strong, diseased or healthy. ‘The two greatest factors in our 
lives are the Understanding and the Will—Knowing and Doing 
—the union of which constitutes wisdom. First of all there must 
be an intelligent grasp of the principles of health and the forces 
at work, and then there must be the Will to master these forces 
instead of being mastered by them. 
It is important to understand that by constantly presenting to 
the mind images of a certain nature, the character of the indi- 
vidual will be forced ultimately to correspond to them. Thus a 
timid man can become courageous by being surrounded by 
images that convey to him the ideas of bravery. And if the 
mind is full of ennobling images they have the natural tendency 
to be enacted on the material plane. This is the secret of 
progress. Avoid the low in thought and you will eventually be 
be compelled to avoid the low in action ; contemplate only the 
ideal in thought and you will eventually be compelled to work 
out on the material plane the ideal ; but remember that you can- 
not do both. Even the most secret actions tell their tale to all 
who can read. By creating an ideal within our mental sphere, 
We can approximate ourselves to the ideal image till we become 
one and the same with it. 
