SELF-DEVELOPMENT: Page 57

a firm No, to their impulses. They are mere masks and not men. They are automatic machines. They may have picked up a little odd knowledge; they may have a law cunning, but they lack the Affirmative Force of Character, the vim and pith of a Positive Personality, the calm poise of controlled energy. They have never realized the intense joy of a soul that lives only to aspire after what is high and noble. But then Existence is not all a bed of roses. Shocks will come and, when they do, these weaklings are bowled over like so many nine-pins. Then they just sit up and talk of their aching hearts, their bleeding wounds, their sorrow laden, miserable lives. Their good wishes are as so many soap-bubbles. Their resolutions are mere effervescence of a dying vitality. Their promises the mere ebullitions of emotion minus the stamina to accomplish them. They are the blind worms of fate. They are the victims of wicked-minded men. They are so many will-less, nerve-less weaklings. They are slaves. Why? Because, they are in the clutches of Ignorance. Ignorance consists in seeking enjoyment of the senses. To burst the chains that hold you captive, give up, once for ever, the desire To ENJOY, and DETERMINE to positivize the Will-Force for the free and smooth-working of the wheels of Progress, upon which weakness is a clog and must be removed in order to ensure easy action. & man, nearly ten years my senior in age and