The greatest of human possessions are a well-trained _mind_, a _body_ to match, and a love of achievement, without which a man is old before his time. After that comes _energy_--the great propeller! What the brain directs the body will carry out--if the _propeller_ is working. No hesitation--when the _will_ commands the _body_ acts. They synchronize--they are attuned, harmonious, fraternal, so to speak. And to hitch them together is just as easy as getting wet by standing bareheaded in the rain. There is no intention of littering up this chapter with ways and means of putting one’s upper story in fine working order--or the physical structure below. That is first-reader information. If we treat ourselves right, the brain will behave and the body will follow suit. _Activity_, mental and physical, is _the meat in the cocoanut_. Seeking knowledge leads along the sunlit paths of life where happiness abounds. The alternative is _mental shiftlessness_, leading from nowhere to nothing at all. Cain killed Abel because, undoubtedly, of the shiftless life he led. Indolence and ignorance being the order of his day, he lacked the stamina with which to control his mind. His physical forces merely acted in consonance with his rage at Abel’s popularity. Cupidity led him on, but if Cain hadn’t lost his head through lack of _will to control himself_ the example of murder might never have been set before mankind. Centuries have come and gone and still the passion to kill continues upon the face of the earth. To stop it is but a matter of correcting human thought through physical and mental training so that those notions which interfere with a normal, healthy brain tendency, will cease to exist. This done, the degenerate born of indolence somewhere along the line, will disappear from the face of the earth in jig time. New intellectual forces will do the trick; forces built up from healthy, right thinking, energetic investigation, and consequent acquisition of knowledge. How the world will wag a few years hence depends upon Mothers and Fathers of today. As great trials are _strengthening to character_, the prospect seems bright. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER II AS THE TWIG IS BENT Temperament looms large in the game of life, and, like all other human brain tendencies, is subject to regulation through the exercise of ordinary horse sense. We often hear one person speak of another’s temperamental qualities in the light of an _incurable disease_, and more than likely in an apologetic way. A faulty tendency is usually laid at the door of a doughty grandsire on one or both sides of the house and left there as a piece of ordinary table gossip to be resumed any old time without notice.