But remember if your phrenologist tells you that you have a weak will, it does not mean that you must necessarily always have a weak will.  It means that you are to strengthen it, by concentration.  There is a great truth underlying phrenology, palmistry, and astrology; but it is ridiculous to accept their verdicts as final and unchangeable, and it is unwise to ignore the good they may do, rightly applied and understood.

I recall the fact that you were born in early June.  I know enough about the influence of the planets upon a child born at that period to assert that you are particularly inclined to a Gemini nature—­the twin nature, which wants to do two things at one time.  You want to stay in and go out, to read a book and play tennis, to swim and sit on the sand.  Later in life, you will want to remain single and marry, and travel and remain at home, unless you begin now to select one course of the two which are for ever presenting themselves to you, in small and large matters.

Whenever you feel yourself vacillating between two impulses, take yourself at once in hand, decide upon the preferable course, and go ahead.  Dominate your astrological tendencies, do not be dominated by them.  Dominate your weaknesses as exhibited by your phrenological chart, and build up the brain cells which need strengthening, and lessen the power of the undesirable qualities by giving them no food or indulgence.

It is a great thing to understand yourself as you are, and then to go ahead and make yourself what you desire to be.

When a carpenter starts to build a house, he knows just what tools and what materials to work with are his.  If there is a broken implement, he replaces it with another, and if he is short of material he supplies it.  But young men set forth to make futures and fortunes, with no knowledge of their own equipment.

They do not know their own strongest or weakest traits, and are unprepared for the temptations and obstacles that await them.

I would advise you to call in the aid of all the occult sciences, to help you in forming an estimate of your own higher and lower tendencies, and in deciding for what line of occupation you were best fitted.  Then, after you have compared the statistics so gathered with your own idea of yourself, you should proceed to make your character what you wish it to be.

This work will be ten thousand times more profitable to you than a mere routine of college studies, gained by running in debt.

To know yourself is far better knowledge than to know Virgil.  And to make yourself is a million times better than to have any one else make you.

To Miss Elsie Dean

Regarding the Habit of Exaggeration

During your visit here with my niece, I became much interested in you.

Zoe had often written me of her affection for you, and I can readily understand her feeling, now that I have your personal acquaintance.