holds the pupil up until the latter finds that he is
unconsciously moving by his own exertion.

What the fickle and "nervous" patients of any kind need is to have the
idea kept before their minds continuously. They generally rush into a
novelty without Forethought. Therefore they should be trained or urged
to forethink or reflect seriously and often on the cure or process
proposed. This is the setting of the nail, which is to be driven in by
suggestion. The other method is where we act entirely for ourselves
both as regards previous preparation and subsequent training.

I here repeat, since the whole object of the book is that certain
facts shall be deeply and _clearly_ impressed on the reader's mind,
that if we _will_ that a certain idea shall recur to us on the
following, or any other day, and if we bring the mind to bear upon it
just before falling asleep, it may be forgotten when we awake, but it
will recur to us when the time comes. This is what almost everybody
has proved, that if we resolve to awake at a certain hour we generally
do so; if not the first time, after a few experiments, _apropos_ of
which I would remark that "no one should ever expect full success from
any first experiment."

Now it is certainly true that we all remember or recall certain things
to be done at certain hours, even if we have a hundred other thoughts
in the interval. But it would seem as if by some law which we do not
understand Sleep or repose acted as a preserver and reviver, nay, as a
real strengthener of Thoughts, inspiring them with a new spirit. It
would seem, too, as if they came out of Dreamland, as the children in
TIECK'S story did out of Fairyland, with new lives. This is, indeed, a
beautiful conception, and I may remark that I will in another place
comment on the curious fact that we can add to and intensify ideas by
thus passing them through our minds in sleep.

Just by the same process as that which enables us to awake at a given
hour, and simply by substituting other ideas for that of time, can we
acquire the ability to bring upon ourselves pre-determined or desired
states of mind. This is Self-Suggestion or deferred determination, be
it with or without sleep. It becomes more certain in its result with
every new experiment or trial. The great factor in the whole is
perseverance or repetition. By faith we can remove mountains, by
perseverance we can carry them away, and the two amount to precisely
the same thing.

A