In order to be more specific and systematic and to obtain results more surely and quickly, concentrate upon one weakness at a time. When that has been overcome, take up another one, until in this way you have attained perfect control over your thoughts, feelings and actions. Suppose you have acquired the habit of remaining in bed and dozing after your mental alarm clock has given its signal to arise and you dread the effort of going through your morning exercises and ablutions. Then, the night before, impress upon the subconscious mind deeply and firmly the following suggestions: "Tomorrow morning, on awakening, I shall jump out of bed without hesitation and go through my morning exercises with zest and vigor." Or, suppose you are subject to the fear and worry habit. Say to yourself: "Tomorrow or any time thereafter when depressing, gloomy thoughts threaten to control me, I shall overcome them with thoughts of hope and faith, and with absolute confidence in the Divine power of the will within me to overcome and to achieve." In this manner you may give the subconscious mind suggestions and impressions for overcoming bad habits and for establishing and strengthening good habits. If a serious problem is confronting you, and you are unable to solve it to your satisfaction, think upon it just before you are dropping off to sleep and confidently demand that the right solution come to you during the hours of rest. The inner consciousness is always awake. It is the watchman who awakens you at the appointed time in the morning. It will work upon your problem while your physical brain is asleep. In this lies the psychological justification for the popular phrase: "Before I decide the matter I'll sleep over it." In the practice of mental magic, as in everything else, success depends upon patience and perseverance. It would be entirely useless to go through these mental drills occasionally and in a desultory fashion; but if persisted in faithfully and intelligently, they will prove truly magical in their effects upon the development of willpower and self-control, and on these depend the mastery of conditions within and without, the conquest of fate and destiny. PAIN'S SOLILOQUY By C. J. Buell, President Minnesota Health League I I am Pain--most people hate me, Think me cruel, call me heartless, Study ways to bribe and fool me, Try by every means to slay me, Dope themselves with anaesthetics, Fill themselves with patent nostrums, Call the doctor with his poisons, Seek the Christian Science healer, Beat the tom-tom of the savage, Build the altar, burn the incense, Seek to sate the wrath of devils, Pray to saints, and Gods, and angels; Not to cure the ills within them, Not to cleanse and purify them, Just to calm the pain that hurts them, Just to-kill the guide that warns them. II Pain am I, but when you know me, When you once have learned my secret, How I come to help and bless you, Warn you, guide you, teach and lead you