"What am I best adapted to do to win success?" This is a question that remains unanswered in the lives of a great many men and-women. The majority of people would gladly engage in the right business, work, or profession, if they only knew what they were best adapted for, and how to turn their efforts to advantage. In the chain of life each person has some special duty to perform, some place to fill, for man was not sent into this world without a purpose in view. If he did not possess some value in the evolution of affairs, he would not be here, for Nature is too economical to waste time on the useless. Then, if man has a purpose in this existence, Nature must have provided a means whereby he might know it. That in many instances he has not known was because he did not understand the law. The knowledge can now be gained by all who are willing to read and learn.

The affairs of this world would run much more smoothly if each person was doing his duty by tilling the right position in life. There would also be much less unrest and dissatisfaction. Under the present conditions, almost every man is wearing out the greater part of his strength and wasting half of his days in trying to find his true place in life. Many become discouraged, give up the battle, and end in a suicide's grave. Everywhere we see splendid natural ability wrecked by misfit occupations. There is a crushing, blighting influence in work which the soul loathes and against which every faculty protests. There is nothing that kills aspiration and ambition more quickly than trying to do something for which one is not adapted. We see the young man who has mistaken ambition for ability, failing as a lawyer when he might have made a success as a mechanic; the girl whom Nature intended for a model housekeeper trying to earn a living on the stage, or by writing, and vice versa; the born orator making shoes; the natural singer selling dry goods, etc. Parents, as a result of ignorance, misplaced ambition, or excessive pride, are too often responsible for the failure of the life-work of their children. They select for them a business or profession without any consideration as to their natural ability. When parents attempt to oppose the laws of Nature, they make a mistake that not only dwarfs the faculties of those they seek to benefit, but in many instances also ruins the child's prospects for life. There is no longer any need of this, for the Law of Men-talism explains the secret by which each person can select his true career, and at once begin to travel the road, at the end of which is to be found success and fame. The men and women who desire to know what they are best adapted to do, should analyze themselves and answer the following questions:

Have you ever had a preference as to the vocation you would follow if given your choice? Have you ever felt a desire or an inclination toward a special line of work? Have you ever experienced a longing or desire to excel in a certain profession or business? Have you ever felt that it would be a pleasure to do a certain class of work? If you have had any of these experiences, you already know the vocation for which you have natural ability. These thoughts which constantly re-occur to you, causing you to wish to do a certain class of work, are the true promptings and guides for you to follow. If they were not intended to guide you, they would not constantly re-occur to you. These preferences and promptings do not come without a cause. There is a law that governs them. Could you hope to succeed in a business that was unpleasant to you? No, because your entire thought and energy would not be put into the work, and you would make but half-hearted efforts to win success. If this holds good with your dislikes, it must hold good with your likes. Then sum up the desires and mental promptings that have come to you in the past, and you will be able to decide at once in what career you would make the best success.

Some people may ask, "What are these promptings, and why should we depend upon them?" They are the mental messages sent or attracted from those who are in harmony with your mental organization. They are from the people who can and will assist you to success. Do not neglect to cultivate them. Look around and see the many lives that have been ruined because the parents forced the child to follow a career for which he was not adapted. Thousands of men have made absolute failures of the work or business they spent the best years of their lives in trying to perfect. Why? Because they were not adapted to it and they knew it. After making the failure, many of of them began in their true career and made a grand success of it. As soon as a man learns that he is not filling his rightful place he should discontinue the struggle, and turn his time and efforts in the right direction. If he uses his knowledge of Mentalism to attract the assistance from others that he needs, he will soon win success.

If for any reason a person cannot quite decide between two careers, he should begin the concentration exercises, and be guided by the information that comes to him during those hours. He will then make the right decision. After having selected the correct calling, he must enter into the new work with his whole mind centered upon it, and say to himself every day, "I will succeed, I will excel, I will be an honor to my calling." Our success is the child born of our thoughts. If our thoughts are mean or indifferent, our success must be of a like character. All men who have done great things have been noted for their sincerity of thought and their devotion to a single aim; for their invincible determination to cleave to their purpose, and concentrate their powers upon a certain plan, until they won success in a definite sphere. Happy is he who possesses the power of assembling all his forces at a single point, of focussing his energies, and of bringing them to bear with all the weight of his entire thought upon the purpose of bis life. This and this only insures success. To accomplish this one must needs cultivate a strong Will and learn to persistently concentrate his thoughts upon his work. If any reader of this work has a weak Will I advise him to make use of the exercises given in a previous chapter. If followed, they will insure a strong Will. If the powers of concentration are weak, he should practice the concentration exercises. Every hour spent in self-improvement will repay a hundred fold.

"When the act of reflection takes place in the mind, when we look at ourselves in the light of thought, we discover that our life is embosomed in beauty." - Emerson.