I give this as an example of the necessity of adjusting the point of view, and of the manner in which a brain habituated by suitable concentration to correct thinking will come to the rescue in unexpected contingencies.  Naturally it will work with greater certainty in the manipulation of difficulties that are expected, that can be ’seen coming ’; and preparation for the expected is, fortunately, preparation for the unexpected.  The man who commences his day by a steady contemplation of the dangers which the next sixteen hours are likely to furnish, and by arming himself specially against those dangers, has thereby armed himself, though to a less extent, against dangers which he did not dream of.  But the routine must be fairly elastic.  It may be necessary to commence several days in succession—­for a week or for months, even—­with disciplining the brain in one particular detail, to the temporary neglect of other matters.  It is astonishing how you can weed every inch of a garden path and keep it in the most meticulous order, and then one morning find in the very middle of it a lusty, full-grown plant whose roots are positively mortised in granite!  All gardeners are familiar with such discoveries.

But a similar discovery, though it entails hard labour on him, will not disgust the man whose hobby is his brain.  For the discovery in itself is part of the material out of which he has to live.  If a man is to turn everything whatsoever into his own calm, dignity, and happiness, he must make this use even of his own failures.  He must look at them as phenomena of the brain in that box, and cheerfully set about taking measures to prevent their repetition.  All that happens to him, success or check, will but serve to increase his interest in the contents of that box.  I seem to hear you saying:  ‘And a fine egotist he’ll be!’ Well, he’ll be the right sort of egotist.  The average man is not half enough of an egotist.  If egotism means a terrific interest in one’s self, egotism is absolutely essential to efficient living.  There is no getting away from that.  But if egotism means selfishness, the serious student of the craft of daily living will not be an egotist for more than about a year.  In a year he will have proved the ineptitude of egotism.

XIII

SUCCESS AND FAILURE

I am sadly aware that these brief chapters will be apt to convey, especially to the trustful and enthusiastic reader, a false impression; the impression of simplicity; and that when experience has roughly corrected this impression, the said reader, unless he is most solemnly warned, may abandon the entire enterprise in a fit of disgust, and for ever afterwards maintain a cynical and impolite attitude towards all theories of controlling the human machine.  Now, the enterprise is not a simple one.  It is based on one simple principle—­the conscious discipline of the brain by selected habits