Such records as these are valuable in many ways.  When you have collected a large number of them, they become the basis of statistics, averages, and other interesting and important collections of facts.

STICK TO THE PRINCIPLES

It has been our universal experience amongst practitioners of this science that those who adhere most closely and most faithfully to its principles are most successful.  There is always a strong inclination, especially on the part of those who are just beginning and those who are unusually emotional and sympathetic, to make exceptions.  It is very difficult for some people of exceedingly sympathetic and responsive natures to analyze correctly.  The personality of the individual being analyzed appeals to them either favorably or unfavorably.  Perhaps his words make a strong impression upon them.  All these things cloud the analyst’s judgment and, instead of applying the principles rigidly, he falls back upon the old, unreliable method of analyzing by means of his “intuitions.”

The laws and principles of the science of character analysis are based upon scientific truths regarding the development, evolution, history, anatomy and psychology of the human race.  They have been verified by hundreds of thousands of careful observations.  They have stood the test of years of practical use in the business world.  They are now being successfully applied in commerce, in industry, in education, and in the professions, by thousands of people.  They can be relied upon, therefore, to give you an intimate knowledge of the ability, disposition, aptitudes, and character in general of every human being who comes under your careful observation.

CHAPTER III

USES OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS

The old-time farmer planted his potatoes “in the dark of the moon.”  He probably took good care not to plant them on Friday, never planted a field of thirteen rows, and would have been horrified at putting them into the ground on the same day when he has spilled salt or broken a mirror.  By taking all of this superstitious care to insure a good crop, he probably counted himself lucky if he got 100 bushels to the acre.  Eugene Grubb, out in Wyoming, by throwing superstition to the four winds and depending, instead, upon exact scientific knowledge, leaves luck out of the question and knows that he will net 1,000 bushels to the acre.

One thousand years ago or more, our educational methods stiffened and set in the rigid moulds of tradition.  For nine hundred years civilization and progress stood still.  Then here and there men began to break the moulds with hammers of scientific knowledge.  Education, instead of blindly following traditional forms, began to shape itself more and more to exact knowledge of the child nature and its needs—­very slowly, cautiously and tentatively at first, but, as knowledge grew, with more and more boldness and freedom.  This is one of the reasons why the last one hundred years has seen greater progress toward our dominion over the earth than all of the thousand years before it.