Mastery of Self.
by Frank Channing Haddock.
WHAT THIS BOOK TEACHES
This book brings to a close that portion of MASTERY OF SELF, which deals with the art of Success-Magnetism.
Acquiring magnetism is a constructive effort. It is a building process. You are rearing a structure. You rise, from the foundation, through successive stories to the culminating peak.
The most pleasing, notable structures men build from granite and steel and wood, tower like a Woolworth Building or a Rheims Cathedral--higher and higher, until they finally reach a gold- tipped crown or spire, high in the sunlit sky.
And so, in rearing your invisible shrine of personal Success- magnetism, we now come to the topmost peak of the structure. This book gives you the crowning inspirations, tipped and topped with the final "Golden Laws of Magnetism in all Applied Life."
Master these lessons in the magnetism of success, and you will go forth upon the highways and by-ways of life, endowed with a kingly confidence in your ability to win a measure of success achieved by few.
But remember--(should discouragement seek to dog your steps)-- every great structure requires the process of time. "The giant trees of California were once puny saplings. The slow lapse of time has drawn nature into their mighty hearts." Just as surely as the absorption of natural forces built the giant redwoods, just as surely can you draw upon nature for GIANT POWERS.
The Fire.
In ancient myth, Prometheus Filched fire from the altars of the G.o.ds To warm the world, Incurring Jove"s dread wrath And endless torment.
Lo, mind,--inflamed by the vision: Of victim and the torturing bird, Of black vindictiveness and suffering Will, Rived forever, yet for aye supreme,-- Heroizes the deed and soul And wreaks on canvas and in drama high Its pa.s.sionate admiration.
Now, too, in palace and hut confronted, In battleship and iron steed defying s.p.a.ce, In flaring furnace of the smelted ore, In haunts of coal and steam below the whirling wheels, Life laughs and sings and thunders An oratorio merging all the powers of harmony, And hails the high-born Thief, As giver of ethereal fire.
The atomic thrill waits also the clear call To lift dull bodies till the joy of flesh Becomes a common luxury;-- To vibrate rhythmically swift Through all the responsive cells of thought Till a man might solemnly hold All things are possible on the bursting earth;-- To energize the mystic self With consciousness of life deific Till the whole world, jubilant, should flame With its glory, actual, concrete, the one sure Truth Of a rock-girt globe, or a sun-filled s.p.a.ce.
--THE AUTHOR.
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH LESSON--The Four Pyramids.
This equation"s writ In every scene: The end shall fit-- As extremes to mean-- Whatever"s forerunner to it.
--THE AUTHOR.
PRINCIPLE--The best use of self demands that it be understood.
Our ideal specimen of human nature is the whole man at his best.
The etheric life demands (a) the vibrations native to the body in health--(Physical Magnetism)--(b) the vibrations induced by the active mind, (c) the vibrations intensified by controlled emotional states, (d) the regulative vibrations of psychic righteousness or honor--(Psychic Magnetism). In this scheme nothing is inferior, but all elements are appointed to be subordinate to the last. These vibrations should run through the whole etheric activity a binding thread of force.
We are now to study the four pyramids of the etheric life. The purpose is four-fold. If you will put yourself into this lesson as you have, presumably, put yourself into the preceding twenty-six lessons, you will discover--
Firstly--Magnetic CONCENTRATION;
Secondly--The RELATION of the DIVISIONS of self to the WHOLE self;
Thirdly--A better UNDERSTANDING of your personality;
Fourthly--The supreme importance of PSYCHIC RIGHTEOUSNESS.
It is altogether probable that the majority of people live almost wholly in the physical pyramids of existence.
Properly speaking, the ill.u.s.tration on page 422 is a single pyramid rather than four pyramids. It is composed of four triangular walls, each of which is called a pyramid for convenience and represents a certain phase of your nature. The great pyramidal I AM is complete only as all sides of your selfhood are fully built up. You are LOOKING DOWN from the "I AM."
A CURIOUS ILl.u.s.tRATION.
A point has neither length, breadth, nor thickness. Move it in thought any distance in one direction, and you have the line. Move the line FROM its direction any distance, you have the surface.
Move the surface OUT of its plane any distance, you have the solid. Thus you have obtained length, breadth, thickness, line, surface, solid, motion, s.p.a.ce, time, number, structure, body, and, in the attention, mind,--and scores of other factors (study out a long list),--by means of that which has no length, no breadth, no thickness.
The real YOU is that point. YOU move and describe a line of life.
This line, repeated, becomes habit, which moved through time, makes conduct, and right conduct, projected through life, yields magnetism.
If you live only on surface I, you are mere animal. If you project, that surface through to III, you are a fine moral person.
If you project surface II through to surface IV, you are magnetic.
If you combine these solids, YOU are the Ideal Pyramid, "_I_ AM POWER."
Let us add the following:
"Culture is not measured by the greatness of the field which is covered by our knowledge, but by the nicety with which we can perceive relations in that field, whether great or small."
This book desires that you become acquainted with the unused portions of your nature.
In order to this, you are now invited to make a long regime of mining out the magnetic significance of--
THE FOUR PYRAMIDS.
I
Harmony-- Exercise--Recreation --Air--Sleep--Water --Food--Regularity--Digestion --Cleanliness--Economy-- Scientific Body-Building and Using.
I. Pyramid of Physical Health
II
Will--Muscular Development --Nervous Condition --Inner Energy-- Responsiveness--Self Control--Staying Power--Health--Body-Tone-- Personal Qualities--Physical Characteristics.
II. Pyramid of Physical Magnetism.
III