You may set this down as a rule without exceptions:  That all the kicks you get from relatives or friends come after you have ignored repeated hints from your own inner consciousness and them.  You have gone on excusing yourself without correcting the fault (perhaps without seeing it) until the Law of Attraction stopped hinting and administered a kick.  And if one kick will not cause you to develop that weak point the Law of Attraction will bring you other and yet harder kicks on the same line. You will attract worse experiences of the same sort.

It is this very law which makes married folks (or other relatives or friends) quarrel.  Adam refuses Eve’s hints about neatness, and Eve kicks—­harder and harder.  Eve refuses Adam’s hints and he gets to kicking. It ALWAYS takes two to start the kicking, AND EITHER ONE CAN STOP IT. A frank acknowledgement of error and a RESOLUTION to mend your end of the fault no matter what is done with the other end; then a pleasant expression and NO MORE WORDS;—­this will stop the kicking. And in proportion as you learn to take the HINTS you attract, you will cease to attract kicks.

By all of which I am reminded of that old testament statement that ’the Lord hardened the heart of Pharoah.’  The “Lord” or “Lord God” of the old testament is what I call the God in us, or the Law of Attraction in us; and the “God” of the Bible is The Whole—­the God over all as well as in the individual.  It is the God in us which attracts to us our experiences, in order to teach us wisdom and knowledge.  Pharoah was not wise enough to let those people go, so the God in Moses gave him a hint—­which he failed to take.  Wherefore he attracted a gentle kick in the way of a plague.  This dashed his ardor a bit and he gave permission for the Israelites to go; but he was only scared into doing it; and after the plague was called off he was not wise enough to keep his word—­here was a great lot of valuable slaves which he could keep, and why shouldn’t he?—­his word was easy broken and all’s fair in business; so his heart hardened and he held the Israelites.  So he attracted a harder kick; which failed to accomplish its purpose.  Kick after kick came, each a bit harder than the last; each scaring Pharoah for the moment, but none convincing him.  He still thought it right to hang onto his slaves if he could, and he had the courage of his convictions.  A man of such splendid courage seems worthy of a better fate.  Pharoah had the courage of a Christ, coupled with the ethics of a savage, whose only law is his own desire of possession.  Because he could not take the hint and see his mistake, he attracted a series of kicks increasing in power until one finally landed him in the Red Sea.  Perhaps a glimmer of the truth reached him as the waters rolled over.  But his soul goes marching on and his mistakes are still re-incarnating here on earth.