By _conviction_ is meant a firm and well-grounded _belief_ in the greatness and efficiency of Chiropractic. Sincerity in one’s practice is a prime requisite for success. A belief grounded in _knowledge_ girds the Chiropractor with an armor so strong that no adversity can pierce it. He who practices Chiropractic without believing in it is in his own mind a cheat and a fraud and cannot expect ultimate prosperity. Confidence in one’s own ability and knowledge, in one’s power and skill to contest with disease, begets confidence in others. Not conceit, not exaggerated egotism, but a healthy and sane assurance and faith in oneself, engender that steadiness of mind and of hand which make for accuracy and excellence. Without honesty with oneself, one’s profession, and one’s patients, one forfeits public confidence--and justly. If we promise that which we cannot perform, if we deceive our patients by misleading explanations of untoward events, we deserve failure. It is not intended here to refer to the cheerful and optimistic manner and habit of speech which often aids in the sick room to keep the patient’s mind at rest. This may sometimes deceive the patient as to the gravity of his condition and such deceit may be justifiable; but it should never be extended to the family or to those who have a right to know the real condition and cannot be harmed by such knowledge. Strict honesty, whenever harmless to others, should be the fixed policy of all practitioners. The weak, strained minds of the very ill require and demand _sympathy_; not the sort which expresses itself in fixed words or phrases of condolence with the unfortunate and at once forgets their needs and sorrows, but the deeper, unspoken feeling of desire to aid, which springs from the heart and finds its best expression in active assistance. If you do not care whether your patient is or is not benefited, if you have no other feeling for him than a business interest in holding a case, you lack the strongest impulse to hard work and study, the desire to aid. Chiropractic is new. Its principles are yet unknown to the general public. Also this is an age of keen competition and it is our duty to our profession and to the world that instead of hiding our light under a bushel we proclaim our mission to all who will hear. We must be intelligently and wisely _aggressive_. We must bring ourselves into contact with the public in every legitimate way, compelling it by force of logic and personality to see the reasonableness and greatness of our work. Question yourself in regard to these things. Examine your own characteristics to discover whether any of these essential elements of personality are lacking. If one be found wanting cultivate it assiduously. Having chosen Chiropractic as a life vocation, _work at it_ not alone for the acquisition of ever-increasing knowledge but for the unfoldment of a powerful and winning personality. CHIROPRACTIC PROGNOSIS