Let it be that the work has been selected. Let it be that one has listened to these inner promptings and heeded them. Let him ever remember, from that time on, there must be no turning back. The decision has been made with due deliberation, and is final, and is right. Then the purpose is born of love, and every path to the end will loom up with attractiveness. When the first wakeful moments come each day, let him turn his thought to the delight in accomplishment through work. Let him note, from time to time, the advance he has made and the joy that that has brought him. Such habits of thought lift one above all petty details of the perplexities in work, and even make him glory that they exist for him to conquer. At times, in his most sacred moods, when reaching mentally for his good, let him turn to Emerson: "There are degrees in idealism. We learn first to play with it academically, as the magnet was once a toy. Then we see in the heyday of youth and poetry that it may be true, that it is true in gleams and fragments. Then its countenance waxes stern and grand, and we see that it must be true. It now shows itself ethical and practical. We learn that God is: that he is in us and that all things are shadows of him!"

Whether our chosen work carry us in the inventor's workshop, in the chemical laboratory, in linguistic philosophy, in psychology's limitless field, or where it may, there is one new surprise after another waiting us, and each new one brings greater delight, for then are we raising ourselves above ourselves. This is growth. This is work's recompense. Contemplating this makes all the word work implies intense with magnetic attractiveness.

The Hindu,Swami Vivekananda, in one of his lectures on the Yoga philosophy, crystallizes discipline in a series of monosyllabic words most fitting: "Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it, think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea alone. This is the way to success."

In another of Swami Vivekananda's lectures touching upon the secret of work, he most happily says: "There are a few who are really the salt of the earth in every country and who work for work's sake, who do not care for name, or fame, or to get to heaven. They work just because it is going to do good. You should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but not as slaves work. Do you not see how everybody works? Nobody can rest; ninety-nine per cent, of mankind work as slaves, and the result is misery; it is selfish work. Work through freedom. Work through love. The word love is very difficult to understand; it never comes until there is freedom. The ideal man is he who in the midst of the greatest silence finds the intensest activity, finds the silence of the desert. He who has learned the secret of restraint; he has controlled himself." It is also true that "the instinct of man passes eagerly onward to the impersonal and illimitable," and Joseph Le Conte, in his work on "Evolution," when referring to this fact, says: "Ideals are but mile-stones which we put successively behind us, while we press on to another, they are successive rounds of an infinite ladder, which we put beneath us while we rise higher." With our purpose to attain an ideal or a series of ideals, for many appear along the path of life, we by careful selection and by frequent contemplations of them so blend our work with our ideals that that work itself is idealized. This is a step towards genius, I grant; but it is a step all toilers can take, even though their highest aspiration is only to be ranked among those who do and dare for principle. If one reaches this point, he has overcome drudgery in work; and one is certain to attain to this if he follows practically the lines herein indicated. I do not mean, however, to be understood that there is no other way - if I succeed in pointing out one way to find joy in work, I accomplish my purpose. Now, the conclusion to be drawn from all this is, the potency of suggestion; and its philosophy demands some brief consideration to convince the reader that I have not given here a theory, but a method demonstrated by practical tests to be a safe one to follow.

Hypnotic suggestion has a limited range of usefulness. Within its range, however, which has broadened since Charcot of Paris adopted it as a substitute for anaesthetics in his surgical operations, it has been found most valuable. For the moment, it may check pain, lift one out of various physical environments; and, by giving this relief, permit operations to be performed, or curative remedies to be applied, to produce the results desired.

Suggestion without hypnotism has a wider range. Its effect on the young was noted ages ago, and was spoken of as the power of example. Often it was noted that a single idea or perhaps a thought found lodgment in another's brain, and later became a directing force in the life of him receiving. The incident was attributed to accident or coincidence, and neither the real purpose nor potency of the suggestion understood. Now, though not yet generally accepted, the curative effects of suggestion are beginning to be recognized in chronic and the most stubborn diseases found in the human system. The power of suggestion also in making bright the long, dark and dreary paths to be traversed by one seeking to attain definite purposes is absolute, if only properly understood and applied. I grant, however, that its relation to man, both physically and mentally, is as yet a subject of much speculation and controversy.