casting a very painful and utterly unnecessary gloom over itself and us, it can so little control its unhealthy morbid appetite that no expostulations will induce it to behave rationally.  Or perhaps, after a confabulation with the soul, it has been decided that when next a certain harmful instinct comes into play the brain shall firmly interfere.  ‘Yes,’ says the brain, ‘I really will watch that.’  But when the moment arrives, is the brain on the spot?  The brain has probably forgotten the affair entirely, or remembered it too late; or sighs, as the victorious instinct knocks it on the head:  ‘Well, next time!’

All this, and much more that every reader can supply from his own exciting souvenirs, is absurd and ridiculous on the part of the brain.  It is a conclusive proof that the brain is out of condition, idle as a nigger, capricious as an actor-manager, and eaten to the core with loose habits.  Therefore the brain must be put into training.  It is the most important part of the human machine by which the soul expresses and develops itself, and it must learn good habits.  And primarily it must be taught obedience.  Obedience can only be taught by imposing one’s will, by the sheer force of volition.  And the brain must be mastered by will-power.  The beginning of wise living lies in the control of the brain by the will; so that the brain may act according to the precepts which the brain itself gives.  With an obedient disciplined brain a man may live always right up to the standard of his best moments.

To teach a child obedience you tell it to do something, and you see that that something is done.  The same with the brain.  Here is the foundation of an efficient life and the antidote for the tendency to make a fool of oneself.  It is marvellously simple.  Say to your brain:  ’From 9 o’clock to 9.30 this morning you must dwell without ceasing on a particular topic which I will give you.’  Now, it doesn’t matter what this topic is—­the point is to control and invigorate the brain by exercise—­but you may just as well give it a useful topic to think over as a futile one.  You might give it this:  ’My brain is my servant.  I am not the play-thing of my brain.’  Let it concentrate on these statements for thirty minutes.  ‘What?’ you cry.  ’Is this the way to an efficient life?  Why, there’s nothing in it!’ Simple as it may appear, this is the way, and it is the only way.  As for there being nothing in it, try it.  I guarantee that you will fail to keep your brain concentrated on the given idea for thirty seconds—­let alone thirty minutes.  You will find your brain conducting itself in a manner which would be comic were it not tragic.  Your first experiments will result in disheartening failure, for to exact from the brain, at will and by will, concentration on a given idea for even so short a period as half an hour is an exceedingly difficult feat—­and a fatiguing!  It needs perseverance.  It needs a terrible obstinacy on the part of the will.