nd how by scientific self-development
he can acquire greater riches within than all his vaults of steel will
hold.

This _Basic Course of Reading_ offers just such an analysis and
exposition of fundamental principles. It furnishes definite and
scientific answers to the problems of life. It will reveal to you unused
or unintelligently used mental forces vastly greater than those now at
your command.

[Sidenote: Your Undiscovered Resources]

We go even further, and say that this _Basic Course of Reading_ provides
a practicable formula for the everyday use of these vast resources. It
will enable you to acquire the magical qualities and still more magical
effects that spell success and happiness, without straining your will to
the breaking point and making life a burden. It will give you a definite
prescription like the physician's, "Take one before meals," and as
easily compounded, which will enable you to be prosperous and happy.

In the development of one's innate resources, such as powers of
observation, imagination, correct judgment, alertness, resourcefulness,
application, concentration, and the faculty of taking prompt advantage
of opportunities, the study of the mental machine is bound to be the
first step. It must be the ultimate resource for self-training in
efficiency for the promoter with his appeal to the cupidity and
imaginations of men as surely as for the artist in his search for poetic
inspiration.

[Sidenote: Man's Mind Machine]

No man can get the best results from any machine unless he understands
its mechanism. We shall draw aside the curtain and show you the mind in
operation.

The mastery of your own powers is worth more to you than all the
knowledge of outside facts you can crowd into your head. Read and study
and practice the teachings of this _Basic Course_, and they will make
you in a new sense the master of yourself and of your future.

In this _Basic Course of Reading_ we shall begin by giving you a
thorough understanding of certain mental operations and processes.

[Sidenote: Abjuring Mysticisms]

We shall lead your interest away from "vague mysticisms" and emphasize
such phases of scientific psychological theory as bear directly on
practical achievement.

We shall give you a practical working knowledge of concentrative mental
methods and devices. We shall clear away the mysteries and
misapprehensions that now envelop this particular field.

In the present volume we shall begin