The latter should wait until the child is asleep, and then one of them should enter his room with precaution, stop a yard from his bed, and repeat 15 or 20 times in a murmur all the things they wish to obtain from the child, from the point of view of health, work, sleep, application, conduct, etc. He should then retire as he came, taking great care not to awake the child. This extremely simple process gives the best possible results, and it is easy to understand why. When the child is asleep his body and his conscious self are at rest and, as it were, annihilated; his unconscious self however is awake; it is then to the latter alone that one speaks, and as it is very credulous it accepts what one says to it without dispute, so that, little by little, the child arrives at making of himself what his parents desire him to be. CONCLUSION What conclusion is to be drawn from all this? The conclusion is very simple and can be expressed in a few words: We possess within us a force of incalculable power, which, when we handle it unconsciously is often prejudicial to us. If on the contrary we direct it in a conscious and wise manner, it gives us the mastery of ourselves and allows us not only to escape and to aid others to escape, from physical and mental ills, but also to live in relative happiness, whatever the conditions in which we may find ourselves. Lastly, and above all, it should be applied to the moral regeneration of those who have wandered from the right path. THOUGHTS AND PRECEPTS OF EMILE COUÉ _taken down literally by Mme. Emile Leon, his disciple._ Do not spend your time in thinking of illness you might have, for if you have no real ones you will create artificial ones. *** When you make conscious autosuggestions, do it naturally, simply, with conviction, and above all _without any effort._ If unconscious and bad autosuggestions are so often realized, it is because they are made without effort. *** Be sure that you will obtain what you want, and you will obtain it, so long as it is within reason. *** To become master of oneself it is enough to think that one is becoming so. . . . Your hands tremble, your steps falter, tell yourself that all that is going to cease, and little by little it will disappear. It is not in me but in yourself that you must have confidence, for it is in yourself alone that dwells the force which can cure you. My part simply consists in teaching you to make use of that force. *** Never discuss things you know nothing about, or you will only make yourself ridiculous. Things which seem miraculous to you have a perfectly natural cause; if they seem extraordinary it is only because the cause escapes you. When you know that, you realize that nothing could be more natural. ***