In the practice of mental magic, as in everything else, success depends upon patience and perseverance.  It would be entirely useless to go through these mental drills occasionally and in a desultory fashion; but if persisted in faithfully and intelligently, they will prove truly magical in their effects upon the development of willpower and self-control, and on these depend the mastery of conditions within and without, the conquest of fate and destiny.  PAIN’S SOLILOQUY

By C. J. Buell, President Minnesota Health League

I

I am Pain—­most people hate me,

Think me cruel, call me heartless,

Study ways to bribe and fool me,

Try by every means to slay me,

Dope themselves with anaesthetics,

Fill themselves with patent nostrums,

Call the doctor with his poisons,

Seek the Christian Science healer,

Beat the tom-tom of the savage,

Build the altar, burn the incense,

Seek to sate the wrath of devils,

Pray to saints, and Gods, and angels;

Not to cure the ills within them,

Not to cleanse and purify them,

Just to calm the pain that hurts them,

Just to-kill the guide that warns them.

II

Pain am I, but when you know me,

When you once have learned my secret,

How I come to help and bless you,

Warn you, guide you, teach and lead you

When you know my loving nature,

How at first I gently twinge you,

Lightly twinge you as a warning,

Hoping thus, by kind reminder,

You will bear my voice and listen—­

Sure am I that when you know me,

You will gladly then embrace me,

Call me friend and give me welcome,

Call me friend and ask my message.

III

This the message I would bring you,

This the reason for my visits,

This the warning I would give you,

This the secret I would teach you: 

When you learn to live as Nature

In her great and boundless mercy,

In her tender, loving kindness,

In her wisdom and her goodness

Meant that men should live and labor,

When you learn to shun the by-ways

Leading off to vicious habits,

When you learn to keep your body

Strong and clean and pure and active,

Give it work in right proportion,

Give it air, and food, and water,

Fit to build its every member,

Fit to nourish every function,

When you teach your mind and spirit

Pure and noble thoughts to harbor,

Drive out fear, and hate, and malice,