nsequent
suffering, has its origin in perverted mental and emotional states and
conditions. _The mental attitude we take toward anything determines to
a greater or less extent its effects upon us_. If we fear it, or if we
antagonize it, the chances are that it will have detrimental or even
disastrous effects upon us. If we come into harmony with it by quietly
recognizing and inwardly asserting our superiority over it, in the
degree that we are able successfully to do this, in that degree will it
carry with it no injury for us.

No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it find
therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. And
in the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come
into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it
and so makes it possible for it to come. The sooner we begin to look
within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it
will be, for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions within
ourselves such that only _good_ may enter.

We, who from our very natures should be masters of all conditions, by
virtue of our ignorance are mastered by almost numberless conditions of
every description.

Do I fear a draft? There is nothing in the draft--a little purifying
current of God's pure air--to cause me trouble, to bring on a cold,
perhaps an illness. The draft can affect me only in the degree that _I
myself_ make it possible, only in the degree that I allow it to affect
me. We must distinguish between causes and mere occasions. The draft
is not cause, nor does it carry cause with it.

Two persons are sitting in the same draft. The one is injuriously
affected by it, the other experiences not even an inconvenience, but he
rather enjoys it. The one is a creature of circumstances; he fears the
draft, cringes before it, continually thinks of the harm it is doing
him. In other words, he opens every avenue for it to enter and take
hold of him, and so it--harmless and beneficent in itself--brings to
him exactly what he has empowered it to bring. The other recognizes
himself as the master over and not the creature of circumstances. He
is not concerned about the draft. He puts himself into harmony with
it, makes himself positive to it, and instead of experiencing any
discomfort, he enjoys it, and in addition to its doing him a service by
bringing the pure fresh air from without to him, it does him