t it may be far more effectively attained
in a much easier way, even as the ant climbed to the top of the tree
and gnawed away and brought down the golden fruit unto which the
man could not rise. There are _easy_ methods, and by far the most
effective, of awakening the Will; methods within the reach of every
one, and which if practised, will lead on _ad infinitum_, to
marvellous results.

The following chapters will be devoted to setting forth, I trust
clearly and explicitly, how by an extremely easy process, or
processes, the will may be, by any person of ordinary intelligence and
perseverance, awakened and developed to any extent, and with it many
other faculties or states of mind. I can remember once being told by a
lady that she thought there ought to be erected in all great cities
temples to the Will, so as to encourage mankind to develop the
divine faculty. It has since occurred to me that an equal number of
school-houses, however humble, in which the art of mastering the Will
by easy processes _seriatim_ should be taught, would be far more
useful. Such a school-house is this work, and it is the hope of the
author that all who enter, so to speak, or read it, will learn
therefrom as much as he himself and others have done by studying its
principles.

To recapitulate or make clear in brief what I intend, I would say
_Firstly_, that the advanced thinkers at this end of the century,
weary of all the old indirect methods of teaching Morality, are
beginning to enquire, since Duty is an indispensable condition,
whether it is not just as well to do what is right, _because_ it is
right, as for any other reason? _Secondly_, that this spirit of
directness, the result of Evolution, is beginning to show itself in
many other directions, as we may note by the great popularity of
the answer to the question, "How not to worry," which is briefly,
_Don't! Thirdly_, that enlightened by this spirit of scientific
straightforwardness, man is ceasing to seek for mental truth by means
of roundabout metaphysical or conventional ethical methods (based on
old traditions and mysticism), and is looking directly in himself,
or materially, for what Immaterialism or Idealism has really never
explained at all--his discoveries having been within a few years much
more valuable that all that _a priori_ philosophy or psychology ever
yielded since the beginning. And, finally, that the leading faculties
or powers of the mind, such as Will, Memory, th