I think that the facts and principles above stated are self-evident and need little or no backing up by authorities. But I think I will give you a quotation or two to help fasten the idea in your minds. Prof. Halleck says: "By restraining the expression of an emotion we can frequently throttle it; by inducing an expression we can often cause its allied emotion." I wish that every one of you would commit the above words to memory - they are golden. By expression Prof. Halleck, of course, means the physical manifestation or expression - the physical action which springs from the emotion.

Prof. Wm. James has this to say along the same line: "Refuse to express a passion and it dies. Count ten before venting your anger and its occasion seems ridiculous. Whistling to keep up courage is no mere figure of speech. On the other hand, sit all day in a moping posture, sigh, and reply to everything with a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers. There is no more valuable precept in moral education than this, as all of us who have experienced know: If we wish to conquer undesirable emotional tendencies in ourselves we must assiduously, and in the first instance cold-bloodedly, go through the outward movements of those contrary dispositions which we wish to cultivate. Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect of the frame, and speak in a major key, pass the genial compliment and your heart must indeed be frigid if it does not gradually thaw." Aren't those words fine? Read them over several times so as to be sure to grasp their full meaning!

If you wish to cultivate a quality in which you are deficient, you must think about it, dream about it concentrate upon it - live it out in your thoughts as a "day-dream" or "mental picture" - hold the visualized mental image of it always with you - and last, and equally as important, if not more so, act out the physical manifestations of it - play the part out. Act your part, earnestly, ardently, constantly, eagerly, steadily. On the other hand, if you wish to repress a quality, the best way to do it is to cultivate the opposite quality, and the undesirable quality will be "crowded out." If you wish to get rid of darkness in a room, yon don't have to shovel it out - just open the windows and "let a little sunshine in." Prof. James has told you the same thing in the quotation given a few moments ago. It is psychological law. Kill out the negative by cultivating the positive. That's the rule! But don't forget to act out the part!

"What is called auto-suggestion, or self-suggestion, is one of the most active agencies employed in Mind Building. Auto-suggestion covers all the various forms of affirmations, denials, statements, etc., employed by the several "New Thought" schools, and is the underlying principle of all forms of "self-impression." "Self-impression" would be a better name than any of these terms, for it described the process exactly. One "impresses" his mind with certain ideas, suggestions, feelings and mental states. There is a dual aspect of mind which enables one to play two parts at the same time, viz., (1) the part of teacher or master, and (2) the part of scholar or pupil. One may charge his mind with the task of waking him up at a certain time in the morning - and he wakes up. Or he may charge his mind to remem ber a certain tiling - and he remembers it. This form of self-mastery may be carried to great lengths, and one may bid his mind collect data regarding certain subjects, from amidst its heterogeneous collection of mental odds and ends of knowledge; and then bid it combine the information into a systematic form - and the mind will so act and the combined information will be at hand when needed. I find myself doing this, almost unconsciously, when I start to write a book - fact after fact and illustrations appearing at their proper time and place. The field of self-im-pression has just bad its outer edges explored - there is a great region of mentation here awaiting some of you.

And so, this auto-suggestion is a case of "says I to myself, says I." And the queer thing is that if you will impress your mind sufficiently, strongly, and with sufficient repetition, you will find it taking the impression and acting upon it. Repetition is a great thing in auto-suggeston. You remember the case of the man who told a certain lie so often that he got to actually believe it himself - repeated auto-suggestion works along the same psychological lines. Hearing a thing impressed upon it sufficiently often, it takes it as a fact, and proceeds to act it out accordingly. Constant affirmation and statement, made to one's self, will manifest in actual conditions.

Many a person has changed his whole physical and mental condition by a careful, persistent course of auto-suggestion. Of course, if one combines the mental image, or visualization process with the autosuggestion, he will obtain a doubly efficacious result. And,if, in addition to these two, he will practice acting out the part along physical lines, he will reap a ten-fold harvest of results. These three forms combined, employed and persisted in, will work miracles in any one. For instance, if one suffers from fear in meeting other persons - an abnormal timidity or bashfnlness, commonly called "self-consciousness" - the first thing for him to do, is to brace himself with constant affirmations or auto-suggestions of "fearlessness"; then he should visualize himself as absolutely fearless; then he should endeavor to reproduce the physical appearance and outward demeanor (an acting out of the part) of the fearless man. And thus will he gradually develop into that which he desires. His ideal becomes real - his dream a fact - his feelings actions - his actions feelings. And this rule and example will hold good along the whole line of personal qualities or characteristics. All come under the rule - the same principle works in all cases. (Jet the principle and you have the secret of the whole thing.