The study of humanity and its accomplishments shows that they who travel the pathway of success conjure up no unseen or theological deity possessing power to thwart. They battle with no imaginary enemy; and they find combined with potency a divinity in their own thoughts and purposes which directs them to the attainment of worthy ambitions.

Fear conjured into an entity is the enemy of progress, the opposing factor to high resolves, the shibboleth of the unsuccessful, the fiendish joy of the cynic, the ghost of buried dogmas, and the imaginary foe of those who dare. To the brave and progressive ones who work for universal good, there is no real opposing force. To the brave and selfish ones who work that they may advance by defeating or blasting the hopes of others, there are opposing forces, seen and unseen.

One may and must in his pathway to accomplishment leave friends behind who may not as yet have sought or grasped the truth of being. He may seek the companionship of those on a higher plane of unfoldment; but never advancement to himself by trampling on the rights of others. His pathway to his good never leads over ways that interfere with the desire of others. He may at times be envied by those who have not risen to a comprehension of their birthright; but they cannot harm him with their vibrations, if he has harmonized himself with those mightier ones that bind him to infinite force.

The primary self-training one must pass through to fit himself to attain his heart's desire is that which will lead him to know he could not have the desire without possessing in his own mentality the power to convert that desire into realization. Many assent to this proposition when it is presented to them, but later when obstacles appear, doubt and question its truth. Here, the new student must exercise the greatest care. His faith in this elementary truth must be firm as the rocks; and this faith he must establish, if he would win, before start ing on the quest. Although he may have read what many have written on this subject, he yet may not be fully convinced. Then let him wait, stop reading, and do some thinking himself.

Let him study the lives of those about him, as the examples furnished by history may not appeal so strongly to his reason. Let him study the peculiar characteristics of his friends whom he has known for years. Let him note their successes and their failures. Let him note how confident some of them were of their power to accomplish what seemed to be the impossible to others about them. Let him note how successes both great and small were won. Let him note how others whose early surroundings promised much of success, failed to gain the smallest measure of it. Let him study the thoughts each and every one of them held; and he will find that they who attained their desires had always confidence in themselves, so firm that it could not be swayed by the argument of others, or the trend of affairs apparently the reverse of the expected. They who won, lived and wrought in this philosophy, whether they had or had not learned its alphabet.

Let him study also the men of achievement of this day whose record is an open book, and there he will find that their achievements have over and over again more than crowned their boldest desires. With attainment of desire rose before their vision new desires - new images of what they might be - and they progressed higher and higher, till the godship-plane to which their thought had pointed them had been gloriously won.

After all this reflection and preparation, and after establishing the faith that can know no wavering, then the student should go in the silence over and over again, until he has crystallized his desire and knows it to be a heart longing of his being. Idle dreams of wealth, or power, or happiness, or success, are not heart longings. I do not mean to be understood here that there can be but one real heart longing. There may be many longings, each worthy and attainable - one to follow the other in succession. With each longing, however, must be coupled the willingness to undertake and to accomplish the special tasks incident to the technic of the art or subject of which mastery is sought.

This preparatory work on which success hinges has a two-fold purpose. First and foremost, absolute faith is to be fixed in one's mentality of the ability within himself to attain his purpose. This faith must not be fixed by a study of the beliefs of others; but by a mental process each must pass through, appealing to his own deductions from a study of life's open book. Second, with faith built on its only true foundation, the Known, he has next, in the silence, to commune with his own soul and to learn its longings. Doubts as to the certainty of accomplishment, or doubts as to the real longing of his heart can never again arise after such preparation. Such certainty will fill his whole being with delight. The sunshine becomes more bright, and the darkest clouds but make him to glow with the radiance Knowledge alone dispenses everywhere. He then is at peace with the world - he becomes a factor for good within it; and, in his objective consciousness, love begins its mission of unfoldment, as he joyously journeys up the bright pathway now known to him to lead to the happy land of success. Vibrations uplifting are felt as emanating from those with whom he may associate or meet, other vibrations more powerful still reach him from the unexplored region of unseen forces where a mighty band of the cohorts of the Infinite work with and for his advancement, his glory and his honor.

"The sun is set; but set not his hope:

Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:

Fixed on the enormous galaxy,

Deeper and older seemed his eye:

And matched his sufferance sublime

The taciturnity of time.

He spoke, and words more soft than vain

Brought the Age of Gold again:

His actions won such reverence sweet,

As hid all measure of the feat."

Emerson.

No secrets of infinity are now beyond the possible reach of human intelligence is the bold statement of the advanced thinker of to-day. Is the time not ripe for philosophers in this age, to plunge into the heart of mystery?