Triune Development Series Triune Development Principles and Exercises GET WELL LOOK WELL KEEP WELL ACT WELL Mrs. Jenness-MiUer Triune Development Principles and Exercises By Mrs. Jenness-Miller New York Triune Development Order The Triuneum Copyright, 1918, by Mrs. Anna Jenness-Miller AH rights reserved PRINTED BY WILLIAM GREEN. A CORPORATION. NEW YORK TO MY DAUGHTER VIVIAN AND OTHERS WHO BELIEVE AS I DO THAT NOTHING IS WORTHY THE NAME OF EDUCATION WHICH DOES NOT FIT FOR CONSTRUCTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE LIVING DAY BY DAY THIS ,BOOK IS DEDICATED IN EARNEST APPEAL FOR CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT TO IN- CREASE INTEREST IN NATURAL METHODS OF DE- VELOPMENT WHICH WILL RENDER IT IMPOS- SIBLE FOR ANY CHILD OF THE FUTURE TO BECOME A SPIRITUAL, MORAL OR PHYSICAL DERELICT UPON THE UNCHARTED SEA OF LIFE TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. Turning the Searchlight on Self... 1 II. Spiritual Dominion and Power... 13 III. Physical Efficiency 30 IV. The Crime of the Birthday 58 V. Tonics for Failing Faculties and Scattered Forces 82 VI. How to Develop Concentration and Memory 90 VII. How to Develop Individuality and Charm 116 VIII. How to Develop Vital Power Through the Tongue and Voice 130 IX. How to Make Nerves Live Cur- rents of Success 144 X. How to Make the Eyes Independ- ent of Glasses 170 XI. Four Fundamental Exercises that Must Become Second Nature.. 180 (Standing correctly, walk- ing correctly, sitting correctly, breathing correctly) XII. How to Be Neither Too Stout Nor Too Thin 197 XIII. Eating as a Fine Art 210 XIV. Making Life Worth Living in General 225 FOREWORD "Why Triune?" THE following letter is typical of many received since the beginning of my Triune development work: "Dear Mrs. Jenness-Miller: I heard you lecture years ago in Tremont Temple, in Bos- ton, when that historic old place was packed to the doors. I went away that afternoon, as hundreds of others did, fully converted to your sensible ideas on dress and physical exercise. I think you have done more to improve the health of American women than any other person on earth to-day. I believe in you and want to follow where you lead, if I can. But I do not understand your use of the word Triune well enough to say off-hand that I am with you in that. "I am sixty-five years old, and have been a plain Methodist all my life. I am willing to trust my chance of getting into heaven IX FOREWORD to the ticket furnished by that same old brand of religion to the end, and would not subscribe to anything that attempted to switch me off the track. "I hope you will take the trouble to answer this letter, and tell me why Triune? What has that word got to do with physical exercise and sensible dress? Yours in good faith, S C L ." Dorchester, Mass., October, 1917. The answer to such questioning is easy. The word Triune signifies just what we are, threefold, or triune beings, of spirit, mind and body. The Triune Order uses three inter- locked circles within a larger circle, to sym- bolize this threefold life of ours within the One Universal Life and Energy. As a science of development, the word Triune was chosen as that which most fit- tingly expresses our aim-the threefold de- velopment of threefold beings. Can any of X FOREWORD our questioners suggest another that would serve the purpose as well? In its present connection Triune has no re- ligious significance beyond what essentially attaches to all sincere effort at right living in conformity with Divine Law. In no sense does it seek to exploit a particular religious cult, or stand for hard-and-fast dogma, or demand acceptance of cut-and-dried theories upon any subject-which is not to say that a thoroughly good student of Triune Develop- ment should not be a better and more con- sistent church member, whatever his or her affiliations, because of a larger outlook upon the spiritual energies forever at work through- out nature to reinforce humanity's efforts to weave higher, and still higher, concepts of the meaning and purpose of life into the fabric of our common human experience. Triune Development is a constructive, up- building, educational-not book learning- work. It seeks to improve conditions as we find them, through right application of basic XI FOREWORD principles. It holds that our part is, and al- ways will be, to uncover and utilize latent potentialities for noble self-development, and join forces with nature to make these of serv- ice to the general welfare in the largest and most inclusive meaning of the term. Just as physical culture suggests one order of development to the mind, mental culture another, and spiritual culture still another, so does Triune Development focus all of these into a threefold symmetrical upbuilding of the whole person, for the supreme achieve- ment of physical health and mental and moral vigor. There can be no question that a large pro- portion of the ills afflicting mankind, personal, domestic and social, are within reach of rea- sonable efforts at eradication. Holding this to be true, Triune Development works with definite principles and earnest purpose to put the means for overcoming the cumulative effects of unscientific and disproportionate living within reach of those who will listen to the eloquence of plain common sense. XII FOREWORD While it is not easy to state the case for Triune Development in a few off-hand sen- tences, I am perfectly well aware that the true character of the work undertaken must be made clear for it to command confidence and co-operation, as our Dorchester friend and others have put it. As a generalization it should not require any very ingenious reasoning to convince in- quirers that Triune Development well applies to the threefold upbuilding of threefold beings, according to principles inhering in the threefold constitution of each. Whether it be a broken down physical or- ganization from nervous wastage or other abuse; a depressed outlook fatal to sound vital and mental processes alike; or a lack of spiritual perspective stultifying to the finer sensibilities, the work of Triune Development is to make the practical readjustments neces- sary to harmonious interaction of parts. Tri- une Development seeks to capitalize the whole of nature's income to the best possible ad- vantage for the individual and society in every XIII FOREWORD case, along every line of our everyday experi- ence and activities. This is the beginning and end of its claims. It makes no attempt to be original, but only consistent. It has invented nothing, and seeks to put no patent-right stamp upon any of its methods, which are entirely free from the element of mystery. To the question in the letter at the begin- ning of this writing may be returned the answer: Physical exercise and sensible dress are decidedly contributory to the Aiain object sought in Triune Development. That they take their proportioned place among other ad- justments inseparable from the science of the whole, takes nothing from their immediate importance to sound human upbuilding. When visions of a science of development more inclusive and fundamentally symmetrical than what I was teaching took such persistent hold upon my inner consciousness that I was forced to give heed, it became plain that a constructive upbuilding work based upon Triune theories must prove out in practice to be acceptable. XIV FOREWORD For more than five years I worked with men and women, young and old, individually and in small groups, more or less privately, to prove that Triune principles would do what I believed they would, not in isolated cases, but as a rule. Point by point, proof upon proof, was erected a structure of solid facts corroborative of the value of co-ordinated training of all of our faculties of spirit, mind and body. This was initial work. To make it of wide usefulness lines must be laid down and effort extended to reach the public-the final court of appeal. This is just what is being done now with every promise of growth into an organization of national extent and usefulness through our Lessons by Correspondence; our Teacher's Course, and Chapters of The Triune Order, having their own local Triuneums, under the management of competent directors, as phys- ical culture now has its gymnasiums. XV OUR SLOGAN GET WELL KEEP W ELL LOOK WELL ACT WELL OUR AIM DEVELOPMENT WHICH FITS ONE TO LIVE CON- SISTENTLY, CONSTRUCTIVELY AND PRODUCTIVELY ALONG EVERY LINE OF HUMAN ACTIVITY Triune Development Principles and Exercises CHAPTER I TURNING THE SEARCHLIGHT ON SELF ELF-KNOWLEDGE is the only ) foundation upon which to build sound health and character. We must know our deficiencies before we can set the right forces in motion to overcome them. Wholesome self-analysis is the first step toward self-understanding. But such analysis must not be confused with morbid intro- spection, with which it has nothing in com- mon. Each one of us is justly concerned with the question of how to become a live wire in the activities going on around us. It is legitimate ambition to wish to express power and efficiency in domestic, social and 1 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT business contact. Such ambition is the voice of a higher authority calling us to our right- ful place and part in the constructive social upbuilding which stands for true human progress. A well balanced life can be summed up in health of body, vigor of mind, productive activities, and just relations with one's fellow- beings. Any who will, can achieve such a proportioned life. We are spirit. We have bodies and minds. Our heritage of personal power comes from an inexhaustible source. It is our privilege as spiritual beings to draw upon this everlasting supply of strength and inspiration at will. It is our duty to self to do it. Productive educa- tion demands it. In the ultimate, life becomes just what we choose to make it. As volitional beings we are consciously within the sweep of majestic laws of cause and effect; acts and conse- quences. We are at all times our own archi- tects and master builders. 2 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES With the means at command every one of us should be vastly stronger within, and more effective without. By wise co-operation with organic law we become veritable batteries of physical power. By intelligent co-ordination between the spiritual and physical, we can so focus effort as to free ourselves from every form of dis- ease and disability. It lies with each one of us to eradicate weakness and suffering from the individual life. When we cease to drift aimlessly, vacillating between health and illness, good and evil, like "reeds shaken with the wind," our influence begins to tell as a positive force in the eman- cipation of others from the fetters of ignorance, suffering, sin and sorrow. As good soldiers wishing to win noble victories on fields of peace and constructive effort, we need to put more vital red blood into wrestling with the enemies of our own household-our own rebellious appetites, pas- sions, impulses and emotions. This is the 3 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT logical preparation for righteous service to others. Self-knowledge as Triune Development teaches the science is simply holding the mirror up to nature that one's true character may be reflected there. It is a physical and moral stripping for action, as it were. All well directed effort depends upon definite understanding of both one's capacities and lim- itations. Proportioned upbuilding is im- possible without a firm foundation. Profitable self-analysis does not foster hysterical remorse for what is past recall, however deplorable. Nothing is more stulti- fying to sound growth than posing as the chief among sinners. It is an uncandid and abnormal attitude of mind which has noth- ing in common with righteous self-under- standing. Self-analysis according to Triune Develop- ment principles has the common-sense pur- pose to find out what is wrong, in order to make it right-for lack of knowing and doing 4 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES the right sums up humanity's physical, mental, moral and spiritual wastage. Most of us gain experience by the hardest. We trust to unregulated and haphazard chance to pull us through somehow. We take what comes as a matter of course, grumbling occasionally at what we deem the inevitable, but entirely overlooking our own responsibility for the worth while. Lacking such under- standing, how can we expect to avoid making havoc of many of life's most sacred meanings and possibilities? Triune Development self-analysis begins with turning the searchlight full upon what has to do with health and character in the most inclusive sense. To get the bases right and make clear that these become just what each individual of us chooses in the ultimate is first work. Are we living on terms of peace with self? If not, why not? This is a matter that can- not be brushed lightly aside, for inner har- monies create the outer. 5 T R J U N E DEVELOPMENT Do we respect self? This and the former question hold all others in solution, for we have no foundation upon which to build permanent values without such at-one-ment with our inmost being. Of almost equal importance is the follow- ing: In how much of ourselves do we live consciously? Do we realize that most of us have large areas of both body and brain, and still larger spiritual areas, so undeveloped for want of use as to be practically atrophied? On the physical side, what do we know about keeping our arteries fluid, our hearts young, and the quality of our brain cells con- stantly improving, that these may become reliable instruments of the higher service? In the true sense of physical exhilaration do we live, or only half live? This question can only be answered by asking another. Do we inbreathe enough air at each inspiration to expand all of our lung cells, and aerate the life stream upon which our vital organs depend for nutriment? 6 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES What do we know of nerves as carriers of telegraphic messages for stimulating and in- creasing organic processes? What of muscles, and the ills that follow lack of exercise? What, in short, is our understanding of nature's methods? What our co-operation with the laws of balanced adjustment to organic environment, by which physical health, moral fibre, and mental supremacy may be attained? What proof are we giving of productive resources within ourselves that will ensure our living constructively toward all others, and with lengthening vistas of usefulness ever before us? Does indifference, or a defect of vision, prevent us from seeing life as both a privilege and opportunity? What do we know of its wholeness under right conditions -what of its broader meanings and satisfac- tions? Are we delving deep for the treasures of truth and justice, that we may incorporate these into our every day activities? Are we 7 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT simple in taste and careful in our habits? These are important to the balanced life. Are we reasonable, cheerful, self-controlled, thoughtful, faithful and loving in the inner circle? Do we make the most of the manifold opportunities always within reach for in- creasing the comfort and happiness of those whom we contact day after day in home and social intimacies? Are we, in other words, dedicated to the consecrated sociology of unselfishness and helpfulness? Do we set the collective welfare above self-interest? Do we keep faithful watch over our every thought and deed that these may not offend against our own better natures, or cause others to stumble and fall? What are our standards of success, our philosophy of achievement? Are we working with the definite purpose to develop qualities of enduring strength and righteousness, that these may sustain us at the level of our own practical needs; and render us useful to our fellow-beings upon the open road? Put even more to the point-Do we stand 8 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES with our feet firmly planted upon the rock of human equities, which include justice to self as well as to our fellows; or run with those who make others' misfortunes stepping stones to the gratification of personal selfishness? In general, of what fibre are we? Dare we claim without fear of challenge, that our acts meas- ure up to our professions, and that both are productive of good? In a final summing up, without sophistry or beating about the bush, what part do we play in the onward sweep of human events? Do we belong to the producers or the parasites- to those who help carry the world's respon- sibilities, or to those who drag at the wheels of progress? If we are not wronging self or others deliberately, are we not doing so through neglect of the problems of proportioned in- dividual living, and balanced relations with the world at large? Strictly speaking, are we not more or less hindering when we are not actively helping humanity's uplift? Let us go softly to our conclusions, for it is 9 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT easy for any of us to be self-centered egoists with limited vision and petty conceits obscur- ing all broader outlook-barnacles upon the hull of an orderly onsweep of the resistless current of events. Remember that in Triune Development self-analysis there is more at stake than making a good showing at the moment. This going hard after the facts indispensable to setting our house in order is a serious matter. This overhauling of our book-keeping to find out whether our values are to the credit of a temporal or eternal accounting: our most cherished virtues for exhibit or use; our most exalted theories for profession or practice, is all preliminary to an invincible purpose- a sincere desire to see ourselves in true colors, whatever these may be, in order that we may get a firm grasp upon what will conserve our finer forces, increase our noblest powers, and help us to walk erect in the valley of decision. Triune Development is no easy task-master. It demands that we put effort into drawing 10 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES upon almost untouched resources in our natures. It calls for the persistent changing of negative to positive conditions in our lives. Nothing short of our highest selves will serve for the forefront of the world's clearest field of vision, if we are to throw the weight of an honest desire to aid in emancipating humanity from the fetters of ignorance, sick- ness, suffering, sorrow and injustice into the balance. Triune Development demands that we be well in body, sincere in thought, straightfor- ward in speech, courageous in conduct, trust- worthy in public and wholesome in private association, with all of our activities regulated to principle, not policy. Are we ready for the practical work that must be done for ourselves, in the first in- stance, in throwing off the fetters of physical, mental and spiritual inertia; and in the second, for the help we must give to others who wish to achieve this same glorious freedom which 11 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT roots in physical soil and and branches in the Infinite? These are questions calling for an unequi- vocal answer of the heart. For those of us who are honestly seeking to liberate ourselves from unworthy habits, tra- ditions, prejudices, and all limitations that violate our almost inexhaustible capacity for self-dominion, the matter in this book will be as a thousand tongued help in achieving touch with permanent and enduring values. For those who wish to lend their influence to the upbuilding of a social structure in which ambitious human passions and un- bridled lust for power will no longer be able to unleash the dogs of inhuman war and slaughter, the principles and practice clearly set forth in the following chapters will seem as the blended notes of a celestial song of hope; the overtones of a sublime spiritual promise vibrating to the deepest needs of the soul for uplift in this darkest hour of the world's extremity. 12 CHAPTER II Ij^EW understand the full significance of A spiritual dominion and power in indivi- dual experience. We are spiritual beings, with bodies and minds-not as our early religious teachings held, human beings with immortal souls to save. Life uses structure-not structure life. Structure in the medium through which life expresses. In whatever form it manifests, life is an indestructible principle flowing from the One and only Source of all that is. There is but one Life. There can be no other. Every- thing in the universe is the expression of the one creative intelligence; the one upbuilding energy. Do we need proof that life uses structure? Then let us remember that a body, whether of man, or the lower orders, from which the specific animating principle has departed, has SPIRITUAL DOMINION AND POWER 13 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT still, until it begins to disintegrate and return to original atoms, exactly the same number of bones, muscles and organs, brain cells and nerves, that it had when life used it as an active, functioning medium of expression. But these are inert. The motor power is gone. The germinal principle, which gave the distinctive character of man or animal, has »ceased to occupy the body and use its organs. We say it is dead. To most people this means that something has been lost forever. Yet in the change which we call death nothing is or could be lost. The living principle, which held the building material together in structural form, still lives. Forever it will continue to live. Forever it will manifest, according to its own characteristics under varying conditions, inseparable from progres- sive spiritual unfolding. These changes are according to principles which are the same throughout eternity. Reduced to the original elements from 14 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES whence it came, the same building material will again serve in new structural combina- tions. Over and over will these be used by this organizing force-Life. In the universe of God, all that ever was, is still. What is, always will be. Our individual task is to get a correct point of view of our own potentialities for assimilat- ing the very fulness of vitality and power from this persisting, organizing life force-a force which conserves in one direction what it ex- pends in another; a force of such inexhaustible supply that we and all others, may draw upon it at will, certain that it will remain undimin- ished forever. Everywhere is evidence that divine selec- tion ordained the human creation to take precedence over all other forms of manifesta- tion in the exercise of conscious thought and moral volition. From this point of view the appeal of human life is magnificent! Looked at in the right way our moral freedom becomes an irresistible 15 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT challenge to greater and still greater effort to conform to the divine ideal for us. Life is a continuous stream flowing from the heart of God. We are the chosen vessels for the Almighty's highest self-expression. We are the voice of authority speaking for this life that manifests in numeric forms, all essen- tial to a great spiritual and moral unity. The science of right understanding of our- selves as mediums for expressing the God consciousness, is just beginning to have its prophets and scholars-interpreters, not in the terms of a religious struggle for immor- tality hereafter, but of an ordered sequence in the here and now-a daily progress in self- understanding and self-determination as hu- man organisms under the regnancy of spirit. Human life, rightly apprehended, means both privilege and opportunity for growth. It is an unfolding spiritual process. What we are at any given time must be the equiva- lent of what we would be, for the choice is ours. We can become what we will by co-operation with the principles governing. 16 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES To its uttermost reaches the universe is under the reign of law. It is the law of human life that we struggle with our tools of growth until we learn how to use them to the best advantage. It is the glory of the law that personal volition was the gift bestowed to render us individually responsible for all we do, and are. It is the penalty of the law that we fall short of our noblest potentialities when we neglect to use our freedom of choice wisely. Nature is an inexorable accountant. Pay our debts to her we must. In what coin is of our choosing. Through our co-operation we are privileged to make demands upon the wide universe for the upbuilding of an organic vehicle of expression capable of sane and wholesome activities. But failing to do this, sooner or later, must we answer to the utter- most for our neglect. It is true that with our best efforts there are times when adjustment to life's inner mean- ings seems slow-paced, almost to the point of discouragement. It is true that the quality of our faith is often put to the test. This is 17 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT in line with divine intent. Thus do we prove ourselves. Under the severest trials the free spirit re- mains serene. It knows that no chains can fetter it without its own consent; that no ad- verse force can compel bankruptcy of its spirit- ual powers, or abrogate its privilege of wielding the sceptre of righteous dominion within the kingdom of self. The free spirit is invincible because it knows what vast provision has been made for its higher unfolding in the very con- stitution of things. No man worries about starvation whose storehouses and granaries are full to over- flowing. As volitional beings we enjoy the greatest of all out-of-hand gifts from divine generosity-Life and its laws. Life with free will to use it as we choose to garner knowledge and understanding. Thus may we fill our days with spiritual dominion and power as the fruits of our own efforts. The law of our growth is activity. This is an immutable principle. We cannot escape it. 18 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Earth is a workshop, not a gallery for the exhibition of perfected powers. We are still amid the dust and confusion, the din and clatter of the rudimentary stages of character building. Whatever hammers and chisels, moulds and shapes us into a pattern of physi- cal, moral and mental symmetry raises the general average of race advancement. The struggle of life is for progress all along the line of human contact and endeavor. Each of us represents latent potentialities for balanced interaction and development. Each one is a very complex of paralleling adapta- tions to potencies at work in the hearts of those we meet upon the open road. The immanence of divine is in every sincere outreaching for a larger unity with self and others; and a nobler concept of our part in the production and maintenance of the three- fold harmonies of this plane of our develop- ment. The value of spiritual dominion and power in the practical affairs of our common human 19 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT experience is only just beginning to pervade the general consciousness. That it has made so much headway already is the more sur- prising when we remember that it was but yesterday, as it were, that the first rift broke through the clouds of a traditional super- naturalism that differentiated sharply between man and spirit; mortal and immortal; life and death; here and hereafter. The fact of consequence in the now is that the light of this new understanding can never again be dimmed. Never again can it suffer limitation because of the rival claims of the different schools of thought based upon the one central Truth-Truth so profound that none of us can hope to sound its depths, or even faintly foreshadow its revelations to come; much less crib and confine its meanings to the ultimate dictum, or loose phraseology of generalization put forth by any class of teachers. Truth is progressive. No individual or sect ever had a monopoly of it, or will. What we 20 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES perceive it to be now, will not be the same years hence. The spiritual beam of to-day will expand into a fuller illumination to- morrow and the day after. Always there will be more, and still more, light to break upon the path as it widens toward the illimitable. Unfolding spiritual science has us upon our mettle as never before. We cannot stand still, we cannot go backward without being drawn into the black night of outgrown super- stition, abhorrent to every sense of what we innerly feel to be true. The only alternative open to us is to submit our spiritual faculties to the deepening process of inspirational growth day by day. In orderly sequence must we invite co-opera- tion between spirit, mind and body, according to the revealed laws of each plane of human consciousness and activity. All of which calls for intelligent and purposeful study of every faculty and function of being, separately and in their just and balanced relation one to another, under differing conditions. 21 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT Law provides the way for each one of us to gain true spiritual dominion and power. But the work is ours to do. Law is ready to help us up or down, according to our own leading. We talk loosely about spiritual laws, phys- ical laws, mental laws, moral laws, laws of growth, laws of health and a long list of other laws. Often we talk as if these were aggressive forces that took each one of us in hand and forced us into given conditions, whether we w ould or no. The truth is just the opposite. We have absolute freedom under the law-for law is neither more nor less than a process, im- partial and infallible in its working for good or ill in the individual life, as each one decrees. Everywhere and always we are confronted with laws and principles. These are the divine guarantee of stability throughout Nature. Nothing happens by chance. We may take it to heart that law is our best friend; for it is the same to-day, to-morrow 22 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES and forever. It is only our co-operation with it that is sporadic and unreliable. When we fall into line with the irresistible momentum of the moral order, we find great principles standing at attention throughout the whole sweep of human experience. These are ready to serve all and sundry, from high- est to lowest, according to the measure of each one's desires and outreachings. These principles do not originate moralities, or force activities, however important to human welfare. But they do furnish working capital upon demand-methods by which all may become what they will. Upon the other hand, if we fail to co-operate with these principles we pay the penalty ac- cording to the measure of our transgression. When we neglect the means for healthful living day by day we pay the price in bodily suffering. When we neglect the means for mental development we pay the price in ignorance. When we neglect the means for spiritual growth we pay a more far-reaching 23 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT price in a general deterioration of all of our nobler faculties and functions. In each case the verdict of law upon neglect is inexorable, but just. Law is a working code by which we may achieve spiritual dominion and powers through our own efforts. It is our ally when we would establish equitable relations with our fellow- beings. Co-operation with it is the way of self-betterment and harmony with others. True progress comes through substituting recognition of its magnificent unity through- out the spiritual and moral universe for our own circumscribed perceptions and narrow prejudices. As a first proposition in acquiring spiritual dominion and [power, we must look upon our- selves as pivotal centres of responsibility. For until we regenerate ourselves, unravel our own complications, smooth out our own difficulties, eradicate our own dominant weak- nesses, control our own prejudices, and set the higher elements of our inmost consciousness 24 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES in motion for definite ends of noble self- development, we cannot hope to bring forth a harvest ripe for the acceptance of others, by precept or example. It is not enough for us to believe that correction for all of the world's miseries are inwrought in the individual constitution, while these lie dormant within us. Cheerful optimism about the spiritual energies at our disposal gets us nowhere until we put our faith to the touch. It takes more than words to prove our belief that one who rules his own spirit is mightier than those who rule cities. In other words, faith and work must go hand in hand, to prove the value of spiritual dominion and power in the individual life. The most glowing theories of the prophets of good stand for naught until they are trans- lated into action. Beautiful sentiment it is to say that we are all vast storehouses of spiritual riches. But what of it, if the door is locked and the 25 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT key lost? Nothing has been proven while our life forces drive unbridled along forbidden paths for lack of spiritual curb. The time has come for intelligent beings to learn the true meaning of self-command. The time has come for us to learn how to develop and direct every power of nature into useful and productive channels. The time has come for us to learn the difference between muzzling and suppressing our natures, and controlling them. The time has come to learn the meaning of genuine command over self. The time has come when our striving should be to make every function and emo- tion yield vigor to immortal growth. Our part is to learn how to use, handle and direct, not maim and exterminate, our physical appetites and passions. Rightly commanded these become great sources of power. We must never forget that our spiritual develop- ment roots in physical soil. It is our duty to give this growing place of our immortal self- hood all possible help in expanding its effici- ency and usefulness. 26 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Proportioned human growth and achieve- ment can only be secured and maintained by co-operation between inward principle and outward effort. It is not enough to know the right-we must live it. Theory and speculation carry us far toward a sublime idealism. But to make this of true value it must be translated into activities. Our spiritual natures and human organisms must work together for the highest harmony. We miss the best of life until we bring the whole wide range of our capacities for sound and productive living to focus in orderly co- operation. Every organ, faculty and sense has a legiti- mate use when brought under spiritual dominion and power. Self-understanding and self-control are true spiritual leadings. Self- mastery is a far greater virtue than self-repres- sion. The buried virtues of a religious recluse are of negative worth. The best servant of life is now, as in the days of the Master's teaching, the one who renders an account of powers increased by right use. 27 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT To become what we were intended to be, mighty forces, each and every one of us, for human uplift, there is work ahead. We are on the road, but have not yet ar- rived. Millions of others are on the same line of march, and at approximately the same stage of growth. When we have all learned how to hold our- selves true to the law of equilibrium, the world w ill be a better place to live in. For no longer will humans fly at each others throats, like wild beasts of the 'jungle, thinking to settle questions of social, national and international relationships, by conquering opponents with brute force. Then will the language of a spiritual authority prevail. Then will men and women listen for the word of command to go forward in understanding and doing what will yield righteous vigor to collective uplift. Then shall we pass into the larger and better conditions of a nobler humanity. Will you, dear readers of this book, help to hasten this glorious day of a larger freedom 28 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES through a more healthful and victorious character building within the kingdom of self? Will you strive to become consistent examples of the gospel of spiritual dominion and power? 29 CHAPTER III PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY TN the foregoing chapters we have seen that A unity of physical, mental and spiritual forces is essential to balanced development in the all-inclusive sense. But this is no reason why any of us should give up striving to achieve sound physical health for its own sake. Physical vigor is essential to physical efficiency. Both are of the utmost importance to all that we are and do. The number of people who are entirely free from disease and suffering, of one kind and another, is small. Vital processes, which are automatic in health, become deranged through ignorance or neglect to live according to the laws governing sound functioning. Loss of physical efficiency follows as a consequence. In the aggregate such loss to productive human activity is enormous. Accidents and catastrophes incapacitate 30 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES many. Whether these could be prevented in the larger number of cases is beside the ques- tion. Study of underlying causes, together with what has already been accomplished in given directions, would seem to indicate that they could. And-a mere generalization in passing-will be, when the moral obligation to substitute scientific preventives for hit- or-miss chance, takes a firmer hold upon the public conscience. In accidents a surgeon is called to adjust injured members as nearly as possible to the original pattern by scientific means. Nature, in obedience to a principle inherent in every living thing, from least to greatest, then sets to work to heal the lacerated parts. This is true co-operation between or- ganic and spiritual forces. Life's healing power is spiritual. But its operation in behalf of an organic vehicle of contact and expression is by adjustment to the workings of organic law. In other words, spiritual command over physiological 31 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT processes is not in any sense inflexible dictator- ship. As volitional beings we are perfectly free to disorganize our physical bodies at will. Upon the other hand, we are equally free to quicken and energize every organ and faculty into vital health and efficiency. In one case we neglect, in the other we join forces with nature's processes. If we are ill it is because we have broken the law. How does not matter to the results. The mistakes of ignorance entail consequences as disastrous as those of intent. Our physical organism will stand much neglect and abuse without retaliating to the point of incapacitating us for the ordinary business of life. Over and over Nature rallies her forces to protect us from the consequences of our physical and moral delinquencies. For long periods, when we give her little help, she plods away at her task of building new tissue, and eliminating the waste of that worn out. 32 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES But even her masterly methods are not proof against the cumulative effects of con- tinued indifference to the laws of right living. Gradually her note of warning to mend our ways while there is still time to do so grows fainter. As one after another stealthy en- croachment upon reserve power brings us nearer to a day of accounting, it ceases al- together. But provision was made in the natural order to compel respect for the operations of law, belated though it be. For no sooner are we in the grip of a physical breakdown, than the health we have sacrificed so reck- lessly through our own transgressions looms up in retrospect as better worth having than almost anything else in life. Straightway we, who refused to listen to the logic of prevention when there was time for it, get busy with correctives and cures. Rendered plastic by Nature's knock-out blow, we are ready to grasp at anything that gives even the faintest hope of relief from suffering, 33 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT and the depressing sense of bodily and mental incapacity. At such times fortunate indeed are we when the truth that we are volitional beings with potentialities for reasoned adjustment to the divinely ordained whole of life, can be driven home by a master hand. This is, of course, taking for granted that we have not before had the opportunity for such under- standing, or started the conflict with law in which we have been worsted, in a spirit of contrariety, quite as much as of indifference. Like "the burnt child who dreads the fire," most of us are amenable to the lessons of experience to a greater or less extent. Even so, it is always a perennial surprise that so many of these should come by the hardest. It would seem so much more common sense to find the way to adjust to life's three-fold principles, and manifold problems, in time to keep the serpent from entering our Eden of health and efficiency in the first place. Perhaps we have failed to do this because 34 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES we have been too much given to adventurous theorizing, and too little to looking facts in the face in a way to head off disaster by a system of reasoned preventives. Waste of vital and nervous forces through working at cross-purposes with law, sums up the larger part of the world's suffering and inefficiency. Accepting this as proven-and who can disprove it?-no great stretch of logic should be necessary to figure out a philosophy of sound living based upon equivalents. Cer- tainly adjustment and co-operation with organic principles, would seem more scientific than denial and blind antagonism. To count upon immunity from the con- sequences of physical neglect by turning our backs upon physical law, is much like the ostrich that seeks to hide itself by burying its head in the sand, while its brilliant plumage remains in full view. For exalt one set of faculties over another arbitrarily as we may, the fact remains that all are part and parcel 35 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT of the same organism and all so interdependent in their practical workings that what sets up a disturbance in one must of necessity react upon the rest and prevent true equilibrium of parts. The law of human life is unceasing inter- action between mind and body. This is as true with primitive men, who have not yet achieved a degree of spiritual understanding worth the name, as with others. Physical suffering is, strictly analyzed, a nerve call to mind to co-operate in removing some obstruction to vital functioning. Brain (cerebrum) is the seat of the conscious mind. It is the central telegraphic station from which nerve wires run to every part of the body. When anything goes wrong with an organ, the nerves controlling get into instant communica- tion with headquarters. Mind responds ac- cording to its synthetic grasp upon the spiritual potencies. This essentially differs in degree, as one mind differs from another in understanding. 36 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Herein lies the explanation of the widely divergent points of viewT of the different schools of healing. These run the whole length of human experience from drug medi- cines and other material agencies, to faith and mind cures. These again divide into cults, often much at variance with each other upon the surface, though the healing principle is the same in all-the vital truth which none, however tenacious of personality in a teach- ing, may claim for their own. The same mental currents which stimulate and hasten the physiological processes of upbuilding, as readily operate to produce or increase the infirmity of an organ or part when misdirected in fear and doubt. In other words, as someone has pertinently said, "There is a mind kill, as well as a mind cure." Were it not a digression from the main line of our present study, it would be of interest to follow the course of the healing art through its different experimental struggles to become 37 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT a true science. For in few directions does mind seem to have exercised a greater influ- ence than in giving deadly drugs and other impossible concoctions a curative potency, in fact, or by inference. Picture pulverized rat as a specific for any ailments! And yet rat powder sounds palatable by comparison with some of the prescriptions compounded from reptiles and the blood and excrement of animals during the onward march of materia medica. Certainly Mind must have brought some inexplicable magic to bear to neutralize such poisons in the blood, for anyone to have survived their taking. It is significant of the change wrought in the general sentiment concerning the value of men- tal co-operation in accelerating physiological processes, that so many physicians of the regu- lar schools now readily admit that a patient's attitude of mind counts for as much in effecting a cure, and in some cases more, than the medi- cines they take. Indeed, we may say, as a 38 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES generalization, that the most successful physi- cian to-day is the one who understands how to make the higher forces of nature his allies. As a rallying point for discussion of physical efficiency for its own sake, let us remember that a diseased condition of body greatly im- pairs, where it does not wholly prohibit, pro- ductiveness. We have not been accustomed to think the state of our personal health any- body's concern but our own-except as we have more or less self-pityingly bid for sym- pathy when ill. But those of us who wish to be candid must accept the deduction that one who limps along at a halting pace, or need be carried, becomes a drain upon others' vital resources, and proportionately a drag upon the wheels of the general constructive advance- ment. There can be no two ways about this. One of the most hopeless scatterers of mor- bid germs is the semi-invalid, of either sex, who, able to get about among people, never loses an opportunity to rehearse symptoms, aches and pains whenever a listener can be 39 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT found. And there are still people to lend a willing ear. People whose sympathy-as they are pleased to think it-of flabby fibre seems to be kept on tap ready to gush when- ever the harrowing details of physical suffer- ing, or crime, are held up to view. Such invalids can be said to "enjoy poor health." And paradoxical as it may sound, to be truly tenacious of the ills that give them a species of importance in their own eyes, at least. Certainly the lure of physical efficiency rarely seems strong enough to induce one of such tendencies to make the effort to attain it, for most of them remain chronic^ com- plainers to the end of life. Luckily for the well-being of the larger numbers, this class is gradually decreasing. There has been a marked change in public sentiment regarding physical health in the last twenty-five years. With women, in particular, the hall-mark of true femininity is not, as formerly, delicate health and helplessness. The clinging vine no longer symbolizes womanhood. 40 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES In considering leadings toward physical efficiency, the pith of the matter is to strike a balance between essentials and non-essen- tials. To know how far to go, and just where to stop in study of the physical organism to make sure of a sound working capital of phys- ical vigor and efficiency for every day use at ground level. Reasonable knowledge of nature's workings we must have to give right attention to bodily imperatives. Whatever our beliefs, we can- not get away from this. No one ever has in any thorough-going sense. The only question to settle is what may be called reasonable, and how to acquire it. For such knowledge must be condensed into the most concrete practical working form not to waste a busy person's time. Scientific data concerning physical organs and functions is indispensable to the special- ist. But in all sanity, what use can an ordinary man or woman make of it? Their only concern is to keep in such condition as to avoid the inroads of unsuspected enemies to 41 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT health. The slight functional disturbances which, neglected in the beginning, become chronic or, taking a sudden turn for the worse, acute, diseases against which all of the science known to man may prove unavailing. As a first proposition in acquiring and main- taining sound health and physical efficiency, we must remember that in the vital essentials of mere animal existence, there is little differ- ence between men and women of the widest mental and spiritual divergence. The bodily imperatives are the same with all. From these none may cut loose. By the free powers of mind we are at liberty to choose whether these shall function to regeneracy, or degen- eracy. Physical law works both ways. It works for each and all as it is focused. This fact furnishes the rationale of mind control. Strictly speaking, mind control is neither more nor less than intelligently di- rected co-operation with bodily imperatives. Not mind transcending organic law; as some 42 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES who fly off at a tangent in search of the higher would have us believe. To exist, all, high and low, rich and poor, bond and free alike, must have rest, sleep, food, water, protection from heat and cold, and elimination of waste from the system through the natural channels. All are dependent upon the light of the sun, the ozone of the air, seed-time and harvest for health and sustenance. These are the bodily imperatives which the most sophisti- cated argument is impotent to rule out of the court of fact and common sense evidence. By the same logic, it is inevitable that what best serves sound functioning in each case is of unassailable importance. In other words, we have seen that nature's imperatives are inseparable from mere exist- ence. It stands to reason then, that to live, in the best sense of the term, these must be brought to their highest organic potentiality. To enjoy full vigor we must exemplify right 43 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT use of the principles for achieving it. Not to conserve and increase our vital powers is to neglect what is in the highest degree a duty to self. Not to adjust to nature's positives and imperatives is to invite disaster. To put it even more clearly: we must rest and sleep. Is it not then obvious that we should strive for the best condition of body and mind to get the maximum of refreshment out of both? We must eat and drink. Then is the quality of the food and liquids we take into our system worthy of intelligent selection and prepara- tion. Without good food and pure water the chemical processes of vital blood and tissue building are rendered impossible. We must have the protection of clothing and houses. Then should the sanitary and hy- genic, to say nothing of the artistic, character of these receive the most careful consideration. In short, Life's Musts challenge us at every turn. We'cannot evade them. But we can meet each in turn with an open and candid 44 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES mind ready to do our part. We can know and conform to the right if we will. Neither does this require us to underrate or exaggerate the importance of personal hygiene, physical exercise, right bathing, dressing, eating and drinking. These have a balanced relation to right thinking. It is our task to find it. Juggling of words over the unalterable facts of physical nature does not change them. Neither assertion nor denial renders us im- mune from the workings of organic law. To illustrate: few sensible people would be willing to substitute denial of the reality of Asiatic cholera, bubonic plague, leprosy, yel- low fever, smallpox, diphtheria, pneumonia and tuberculosis for the scientific knowledge and sanitary vigilance, which have done, and are still doing, so much to banish these dread spectres. This is not in any sense to say that one whose habits of body and mind were sound would not stand a good chance of passing safely through a virulent contagion dangerous 45 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT to others. Belief in health is a vital antidote to the poisons of disease. Sound tissue does not furnish the right soil for the development of deadly microbes. An epidemic, which would sweep off thousands weakened by de- pleted vitality, mental depression and fear would pass others by whose bodies and minds were consciously and confidently co-operating for health. But when all has been said of the orderly processes of law with which we are privileged to work for certain definite results, we are still confronted with dangers from Nature's isolated activities. With these neither body nor mind have the least power to cope, so far as the evidence goes to show. Trapped in a burning building or sinking ship the conse- quences are as fatal to one as another. Acci- dents crush and mangle the bones of those of diametrically opposed beliefs with convincing impartiality. The bullet of an assassin reaches the heart of a believer in the efficacy of mental protection with as tragic results as it does that of the most abject physical coward. 46 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES It would almost seem as if these were Nature's emphasis upon the complicated char- acter of the struggle which we cannot escape. Her warning to us to lay firm hold upon what- ever we can with certainty and definiteness as we go along. Her way of saying that the uses we make of the revelations so far vouch- safed us, are the only just gauge of our right to still further unfoldments. Self understanding is indispensable to physical efficiency. To save bankrupting drain upon our physical and nervous forces we need to know enough about bodily proc- esses to know how to bring our necessary activities within the limits of lawful ex- penditure, without waste. Again, this is not to say that we are called upon to turn every organ inside out and ex- amine it under the microscope. To photo- graph and label a given part with the names of the diseases that might attack it, and others invented for good measure, is like keeping "a skeleton at the feast." To know what, if anything, is lessening our 47 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT physical powers, and how to correct it, is practical knowledge that can be turned to good account. To study the nature and constitution of different bodily groups in their relation to each other serves a reason- able purpose. By such means are we enabled to bring all under a system of balanced exercise, feeding and other hygienic aids to vigor of organs and functions. These are common sense helps in keeping the human machine running as it was intended to do. It is practical for us to know that the nose and lungs are gateways to healthful breathing. Vital breath means vital life. Unless we understand the disastrous consequences of mouth breathing, what incentive have we to overcome it? For a like reason, we should know that the diaphragm is an important part of our respiratory apparatus in order that we may not fail to use it properly, and fall into the bad habit of insufficient thoracic breathing. We have a constant mental stimulus to 48 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES slow and systematic inhalation of air, when we realize that bronchial and lung health depend upon it; to say nothing of what deep breathing does to improve the vital quality of the blood. But all of this can be learned without exhaustive study of an illustrated chart of the nasal passages, larynx, pharynx, bronchi and lungs. It is practical to know that thorough chew- ing of food aids digestion; and in general how and why. But to eat and chew as we need to for perfect nutriment does not require that we shall study the chemical processes of mastication, insalivation, and all that follows as the food moves onward through its various changes of form in the alimentary tract. Little matters it to us how that pear- shaped laboratory, the stomach, prepares the food to be converted into blood; or how it is further digested and absorbed by the small intestines, once it has passed from the stomach into the duodenum. Our whole 49 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT concern is with the kind, quality and quantity of food necessary for the digestive organs to do the work as it should be done. How much wiser, in knowledge worth while, would the average person be for knowing just how everything works from the time we take food into the mouth, until the residue of waste enters the colon through an opening above the troublesome appendix? How to breathe, eat, drink and exercise to keep the alimentary canal free from poisonous ob- structions, and in a high state of working effici- ency to ward off the dangers of auto-intoxica- tion, sums it all up for the ordinary individual. Most of us know that there are many germ diseases. Sensible people wish to under- stand what is necessary, in general, to render themselves immune to attack from these. Well and good! But this does not call for study of germs enlarged to a size beyond the vision of the naked eye-much less to giving the mind free rein to follow the predatory wanderings of millions of these destroyers at their deadly work in the human system. 50 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES In this busy world we want workable knowledge. Nothing else serves for the aver- age man and woman. So far as study of the physical body goes there is a line of de- marcation between the essentials and non- essentials for most of us. The essentials begin and end with what can be turned to good account in achieving and maintaining sound health and physical efficiency. As the slogan of the Triune Development Order puts it, we want to "Get Well, Keep Well, Look Well, Act Well." This means knowledge that is readily understood, and practical of application. It does not mean filling the mind with a mass of unrelated, and often disgusting, details about ill health resultant from neglect of bodily functions. Such knowledge is destructive. That which is constructive takes an opposite direction. It gives neither time nor thought to anything but upbuilding principles, which we must understand for self-protection. It would be impossible to measure the harm that has been done through the morbid habit 51 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT of reading highly colored "diseases books" as somebody has pertinently called them. Said a woman to me who formerly took one patent medicine after another, and read every word written about their marvelous cures that she could lay hands upon, "I have mentally suffered the agonies of diseases I should never have known existed, but for the pamphlets advertising nostrums for them. That I have lived to tell the tale speaks well for my constitution." Happily the pure food and drug laws are reducing the numbers of such misguided victims constantly. And a better under- standing of the protective power of right thinking will do still more along the same line than it has already done. Perfect health must become the rule, not the exception. Individual units must attain to a reasonable state of physical efficiency or the country will never realize its rightful destiny as a leader of physical strength and mental power in the family of nations. 52 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES No other subject is more fundamental to the welfare of a community than improving the physical condition of the rank and file. Noth- ing is educational in the true sense which does not start from the solid foundation of physical efficiency. Yet it is but recently that public educators have given any thought worth the name to the physical condition of public school children. And not yet are the methods for developing physical and mental powers coincidently, all that could be desired. Physi- cal efficiency is impossible without a sound generator of vital force. Even this must be differentiated in kind and degree. There is the brawn and muscle and punch- ing skill of the prize-fighter. A low order of physical efficiency. And the sustained powers of endurance of the world's great prize winners upon many fields of achievement-the dis- coverers and men of science who bring the forces of earth and air and water under human control. A reasonable concept of life to-day no 53 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT more supposes that we are foredoomed to illness than to crime. Nor that one serves a higher spiritual purpose than the others. Divine wisdom made a law of vital regenera- tion for us to draw upon at will. The best Christian when ill, the one who bears suffer- ing with the greatest patience, would be a better, were he a better exponent of God's laws of health. All is life and vitality in the eternal plan. All is movement and change. What we were yesterday we are not to-day. What we are to-day we shall not be to-morrow. Every cell in our bodies is in process of change every instant. It is this law of change which enables us to overcome any condition, however serious, when we set ourselves reso- lutely to the task. For to every effort we put forth with mind and body, nature adds her co-operation. We are our own designers and master builders. We alone are responsible for the material that goes into the making of what 54 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES we are. This may be good, bad or indifferent as we decree. For in meat and drink, as in thought and activity, we were intended to be masters of self. Nature follows where we lead, be it up or down. For very good reason we are not conscious of the working of cells and tissues, muscles and nerves, heart and lungs, as long as the internal machinery moves smoothly and with- out friction. With health established by our parents before birth, or in childhood; or in after years by ourselves, disease will not attack us as long as these conditions remain in force. Once the machinery of life is set in motion that way, new powers of body and mind are constantly in process of generation to enable us to keep up the average. The start is what counts. Something is decidedly out of plumb when we get to dwelling upon our different organs, and singling one or another out for special investigation. 55 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT We should wonder at a man's neglect who builds a costly home without giving careful attention to such necessities of good construc- tion as plumbing, sewage, drainage, heating and lighting. But once these were installed and in perfect working, we should think him upon the verge of lunacy were he to nag the plumber daily about the possibility of being overcome by sewer gas; or the steam fitter lest the boiler should blow up; or the electrician to make sure that the wires would not set fire to the house. Yet such borrowing of trouble about the work of fallible human skill, would be trifling compared with that which gives way to fear and invites questioning in the realm of divine law. For side-stepping common sense attention to the rationals of sound development and physical efficiency is the other extreme of that which worries the body into weakness and a de- ranged condition of vitality through over- anxiety. 56 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES True physical efficiency depends upon right understanding of what may be called the commonplaces of life. It is at the every day level that we must prove ourselves capable of carrying the responsibilities of sound and con- structive living. Every question involved in doing this is a question of importance. Be- cause this is true the rest of this book deals with the practical principles involved, in a simple and natural way, without resort to technical and scientific terms, which are often more puzzling than helpful, to those seeking light upon the path to health and efficiency. Each of the following chapters deals with some phase of our common experience from the practical standpoint of the "tried and proven." 57 CHAPTER IV THE CRIME OF THE BIRTHDAY TN the study of balanced human develop- ment the organic demoralization wrought by our arbitrary age limitation cannot be overlooked. Far back as the memory of man runneth, humanity has held to a system of checking off each passing hour of life to the account of impending old age. Responding to the thought, body and brain have driven irresis- tibly onward toward premature decay. Still stalks that pitiful ghost of a joke about woman's aversion to telling her age. But to- day, more as challenge to inquiry as to why both men and women object to stating the number of their years, than as a distinctly feminine bogey; for many men are as sen- sitive upon the score of age as women, and with less reason, as the age limitation con- cedes a much wider margin to them than to the opposite sex. 58 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES It is true that some are older at thirty than others at sixty; for the only reliable method of computing age is by elasticity of arteries and vigor of functions. What is age but a relative term? Our earth was thought passing old at a fixed 6,000 years. So old as to be ripe for return to original nebulae, according to certain religious sects of a few decades ago; who, true to their belief, set one after another date for the final cata- clysm; nothing daunted by nature's failure to make their predictions good. When the revised findings of the geologists soared into millions of years, men awoke to a new understanding of the ever-recurring, ever- constructive processes of time. By every beam of a clearer light shed upon life's meanings and mysteries, we get a better understanding of the havoc wrought by volun- tary submission to stultifying traditions. What matters it whether these root in ignorance or sheer indifference if results are the same? There are limitations as disastrous in other 59 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT ways as the age limitation; but none that pursue us so unrelentingly from the beginning to the end of life. From the first smile that baby is expected to produce on schedule time, all through the developing years, a child is in the grip of an educational system-Heaven forgive the mark!-that stamps it dull or precocious, according to the way that it falls below, or rises above, a dead line of just so much mental content set over against just so many years of life. To say this, is not to overlook the impetus that has been given of late to a more scientific and individual pedagogy-for there has been a very considerable increase of interest in vocational training in the last few years, and in particular in methods for giving mental defectives a better start in life. But not yet have we true vision of the blight put upon natural faculties under compulsory leading, which leaves little to individual predilection. Not yet have we arrived at a right estimate of 60 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES the body and brain areas going to waste for want of a more rational measurement of values than is furnished by figures on the calendar. At present the average child must submit to having its natural characteristics circum- scribed to a hard-and-fast pattern. At pre- sent its mental qualifications must be passed upon, graded and ticketed according to fixed and inflexible standards. So long as this sys- tem prevails during the most impressionable and plastic period of growth, just so long will a goodly number of children become as stereo- typed as the system that moulds them. In this connection it is interesting to note that some of the world's greatest geniuses have failed to measure up to cut-and-dried requirements in youth. Especially has this been the case in the schoolroom. With faculties fundamentally antagonistic to arti- ficial limitations they have either been pro- nounced "queer," and looked upon askance, or "prodigious," and regarded with something 61 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT akin to awe. The former, when distinguishing traits have unfolded slowly; the latter, w'hen extraordinary aptitude for some art or science has manifested early. Mankind generally hold such cases as too far out of the natural order to be accounted for, and give them little thought. But the student of inner meanings, who believes in pre-existence as well as after-existence, and in prophets, seers and masters in the making, looks at them with different eyes. Whatever limits the normal output of pro- ductive human energy is a matter of grave public concern. Loss to the world from ar- bitrary handicaps has been great. But greater with women than men, because with them age and sex limitations have so often been linked together and postulated "the will of God"- the most blasphemous of all interpretations of divine intent! And yet one which we have unresistingly permitted to be hammered into us from time immemorial. With thought holding a recognized place 62 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES among the vital forces, there is no escape from the conclusion that the whole race gains or loses by the character of the mental currents that go to upbuild or pull down its woman- hood. Not because women are the "mothers of the race"-for not all women become mothers-but for the more logical reason that one-half of the human family cannot rise to great heights, while tradition weights the other half with disabilities that prevent them from keeping pace. "Male and female made He them," means, if it means anything, that these two halves of a common humanity constitute such an in- clusive whole, that whatever handicaps one sex must in the long run react upon the other, and prevent balanced social evolution. Increasing numbers of men are coming to see this. At present many take an interest in what promises better adjustment of sex prob- lems. More especially that one which, brand- ing women the "weaker sex," still demands of them strength to hold not only their own 63 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT rebellious natures in check, but also the most aggressive advances of men, under penalties reserved for the one sex alone. We are slowly getting a clearer light upon the contributory causes which operate to in- crease different forms of disease and decay under differing conditions. It is inevitable that we sooner or later wake up to the in- justice inflicted by both the age and sex limi- tations. This may seem far afield to those who have given little thought to the subject. But the truth implied is fast becoming a matter of scientific record. Psycho-analysts like Dr. Coriat, Freud, and their fellows, claim that many diseases of body in after life may be traced backward to dis-ease of mind in child- hood. They even go to dreams of erotic nature for their proofs. Nothing is too in- significant to be of consequence to such in- vestigators. According to their findings, seeds sown by beliefs and customs running counter to normal and happy youthful development 64 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES may lie dormant for years, and still get in their deadly work in the end. It would seem as if there could be no ques- tion of the soundness of such claims from the evidence submitted. If this be true, the whole sweep of organic disturbances resulting from wrong thinking, as well as wrong living, must be reckoned with in any attempt at individual and social improve- ment. We have long accepted love and hope and joy as constructive. WTe have believed that these were aids to health. For some reason we were slower in coming to see that opposite emotions must, by the same logic, be contribu- tory to disease. But at present we are in no doubt about violent emotions setting up chemical changes in the blood that lead to ills of body. These two propositions being reasonably proven, is it not in line with the evidence to believe that the collective thought of many, focussed upon an individual in such half- 65 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT contemptuous comment as "getting-on," "growing passe" and the like, must set in motion vibrations adverse to vital processes? It is not easy to shake oneself loose from the grip of a general belief that "now has come the beginning of the end of things worth while." As a contributory cause for decay of bodily and mental powers such thought cannot be over-estimated. It is the lurking enemy in the age limitation. Against yielding to its de- moralizing tendency we cannot be too stren- uously warned. Such limitation bears more heavily upon women than men, and at an earlier date. Why? What other answer is there than that contained in the law of mental influence upon bodily processes? Certainly nature affords no organic explanation. The crime of the birthday lies in the ob- vious fact that it furnishes a weapon with which to blast all hope of retaining a vigorous hold upon the things most needful to success and productivity after a certain period of life. Prejudice that sets the mere physical vitality of early youth, over against the 66 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES experience of more advanced age, whether with women or men, has nothing in reason to support it. Such a hands-up, stand-and-de- liver, highwayman method of robbing a single human being, not to say millions in procession, of the accumulated fruit of the years, entails most disastrous loss to the world all along the open road of human productivity. Sustained by common sense living and thinking, both body and mind should be at their top-notch of efficiency for long years beyond what they are now. Or can be, while we unresistingly consent to the under- mining of our powers by a principle as in- exorable to destroy as to conserve, according to the direction given it by the currents of collective thinking. A wiser people than ourselves will enjoy a hundred years of life as an average, with graduated usefulness to the end. And take it as nothing extraordinary at that; for many will outdistance the centenarians. In such a happy day there will be no re- 67 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT membrance of the limiting birthdays-the pitiful scarecrow before which an almost incredible number of men and women now abjectly cower and tremble. There will be no more resorting to manifold devices to ward off the fatal consequences for which a vigilance committee of the whole is now forever upon the alert. No more sensitive shrinking from the certainty that friend and foe alike are taking our measurements, as it were, speculating upon the number of our birthdays, and watching for the first lines of life's experiences to be etched upon our faces, to relegate us to the limbo of "have beens." Or, worse yet, to label us "well- preserved"-a term that must have been invented by a peculiarly embittered cynic- when we prove obstinately vital and linger by the way. What could more surely abort and arrest harmonious development of our natural fac- ulties than to know ourselves set aside in life's unfinished race simply because we have lived a certain number of calendar years? 68 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Keeping a pattern of progressive decay before the mind is enough to plow furrows in the fairest flesh, and turn every hair white, without regard to the natural processes of the years. Unfortunately for the facts, many accept this verdict as beyond appeal. Succumbing to what they deem the inevitable, these unhappy victims of paralyzing thought shrink into the gathering shadows of the phantoms of unreality held up to view. Capitulating to what should have been re- sisted in all common sense and reason, they hasten a condition that might have been averted by opposing destructive, with con- structive, thought. It is high time that we should evoke the law of spiritual dominion to deliver us from such bogey bondage. Why should any of us submit to limitations obstructive to bodily health and mental efficiency? Certainly the call for constructive progress was never greater. What we need is more freedom and nobler expansion of all of our powers through better understanding of the inexhaustible source of their renewal. 69 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT What has the birthday to do with keeping our heart and lungs working at full capacity? What to do with the making of pure blood, on keeping our arteries elastic? What in helping the stomach to carry on its chemical processes without prodding? These are the functions of a healthful organ- ism at any age. In the largest sense health is a matter of intelligent co-ordination between spirit, mind and body. It is a question quite apart from the number of our calendar years. Those who have lived to "ripe old age," in full com- mand of all their physical and mental fac- ulties, give proof of this. For with all the odds against them an occasional one achieves supremacy over false limitations and mis- directed thought. Such people exemplify sound organic functioning and mental control which ensures both attractive and productive longevity far in excess of what is popularly considered normal. It is but added evidence of the despotic 70 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES nature of the fiat that allots a specific number of years to upbuilding of organs and faculties and the rest to destroying them piecemeal, that such cases of sustained vigor of functions are rare; while those of arrested perspective and warped development are many at middle life. It should go without saying, that this point of view does not attempt to override the truth about automatic correspondencies between different seasons of organic growth and mental consciousness, and the natural character of our activities and pleasures. With a right gauge of these, no sane person would wish for an im- movable feast of immaturity to the sacrifice of experience better worth having. When, however, vital connection with the living present which is ours by right of emi- nent domain, is threatened by arbitrary and unreasoning tradition, we are called upon to resist. In the name of a manifest human right to physical health and balanced upward 71 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT growth to the measure of our choosing as volitional beings, should we refuse to submit to the tyranny of limitations taking rise in no other source than the number of our birthdays. Many of the retroactive of our species, both male and female, are so immersed in the sensuous memories of unfolding youth as to lose not only the substance of the present, but to look upon the future with the dread one feels of an approaching enemy. Were the truth about what we were designed to achieve through the lengthening experiences of time better understood, we should no longer capitulate to a false concept that stagnation and decay of body and mind are to be expected after a certain number of years. That we do so now is clearly a case of public opinion holds this true, therefore, public opinion being the last court of appeal it must be so. To invite the inroads of premature decay by our own attitude of mind is immeasurable injustice to self. It is even worse than allow- 72 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES ing others' disorganizing mental vibrations to plunge us into the incapacity of "second child- hood." Both show gross ingratitude to divine generosity which made such prodigal pro- vision for our passing from one place of productive activity to another without loss of faculty in the passing. There is no reason in nature why men and women who are living normal lives, should not do their work as well at seventy, as at twenty. The activities of one period, al- though different from those of another, are no less important to the perfect whole of a proportioned life. Wrong living and neglected opportunity bring physical degeneracy and mental decay at any age. Upon the other hand, right living and right thinking stimulate vibration essen- tial to the progressive unfolding by which "we are changed to the same image from glory to glory," without regard to the number of our calendar years. Any life may be counted a failure that sums 73 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT up in hit-or-miss experience, followed by senile decay. Symmetrical individual de- velopment is the very basis of symmetrical collective progress. Final analysis of the baneful effects of an age limitation, which creates a class held to be beyond the point of true efficiency at a period of life when it is reasonably certain that they will still exist for years, shows that the in- justice and loss to society, is no less than to the individual; for thus are some arbitrarily constituted parasites upon the body economic. What is the cure for such wastage of human power? There can be but one. Overcoming illogical prejudice by the more potent logic of facts proving its falsity. To put human energy and efficiency upon a sound basis, thought concerning the age limitation must be changed for all time. To this end Triune Development urges recognition of the ''crime of the birthday" as preliminary to resolute resistance of its des- tructive features. 74 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES The next work is to make ourselves consist- ent examples of balanced longevity-for mere theory without work gets us nowhere. It will take all the practical proof that can be brought to bear, to eradicate age from the list of in- evitable limitations to balanced human prog- ress in the public mind. The mother who gets a right perspective upon this question will wish to start right with her children. To do so, she must permit no more importance to attach to the birthday than to any other anniversary celebrated joyously by the little ones. A child's birthday party can well be given without mention of its age. In fact, it is doubtful if this particular point would enter a child's mind unless put there by its elders. Stop all talk about it before children, and there would be no more reason why they should be interested in age, than in any other unfamiliar subject. The point of consequence with children at any age is that they be healthy, happy, full of vim, and normally inquisitive and desirous of 75 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT learning the truth about the activities going on around them. Never tell, or ask, a child how old it is. It will soon cease to measure its own, or others' powers of achievement in the term of calendar years. It takes but a moment's thought for any one possessed of ordinary sense, to realize the waste of words in the stereotyped talk common to a class of mothers concerning the age at which this child did that, and the other something else. As family history such infantile data may be interesting to those within the home circle. It certainly is a bore to outsiders-or should be when it is not in the interest of conversa- tion better worth cultivating. What possible difference does it make to anybody whether Betty cut her teeth earlier than the other children, or not? Why should the age at which Della walked be regarded as illuminating information? Under the most favorable conditions, what would be proven 76 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES of value to say that Tommy prepares his lesson better than Johnny did at the same age? Telling a child of either sex that it is big or small for its age, bright or dull, is worse than profitless. The psychological effect of ex- aggerated self-importance upon the one hand, and depressing self-consciousness upon the other, may crop out years afterwards in unfore- seen ways detrimental to true success in life. Cramming a child's mind in order to pass it into a certain school grade at a certain age, because the authorities that be stamp it below par when it does not measure up to cut-and- dried requirements, is destructive, not con- structive, teaching. Tricks of memory for show, or to excel a companion of the same number of years, are a long way from education worth the name. Every birth should be registered at once. This provides official data for all practical needs that may arise in the course of a lifetime. There the question of age should rest. We should speak of youth at different 77 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT periods in the terms of babes, young children, lads and lassies, developing boys and girls, young men and maidens; and later, of mature men and women as such, with no specific mention of years. Capacity is what counts, not age. All the way from birth to passing, the aim should be to develop intelligent self-expression. Forcing or repression in effort to achieve cor- respondence with a certain set of circum- stances firmly established in the public mind as belonging to an arbitrary number of years, is to draw a boundary line and fence in the spontaneous dictates of nature; to the lowering of physical, mental and spiritual powers alike. Indifference to the passing years, not suc- cessful deception concerning them, is what will stand us in good stead. Let us eliminate the number of our birthdays from active consciousness. Let us refuse to consider age as of enough consequence to be talked about. This is the logical way to suspend the 78 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES premature infirmities induced by belief that the passing years inevitably lay a limiting hand upon our powers. In illustration of a principle which will prove out all along the line, let us take the difference in the number of people who need artificial aid in seeing and hearing. The belief is almost universal that glasses must be worn at middle life. Ergo, most people cannot get along without them. Popular thought does not hold extraneous help to hearing, as indispensable at any age. With limited exceptions, as compared to the numbers, people hear very well to the end of life. Again let us consider the change that the higher education of women, and generally enlarged opportunities for self-expression, have wrought in public sentiment regarding the age at which girls must marry to escape permanent spinsterhood. "Sweet sixteen" has ceased to be the matrimonial focus beyond which the years must be counted off to 79 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT lessening hope for wedded happiness. In consequence, larger numbers of girls now marry between twenty and twenty-five than earlier. Human efficiency would be immeasurably increased were thought concerning the limita- tions of age revised. The initial step toward it lies in opposing the abortive belief that degeneration is a law of life from which there is no escape, with the stimulating truth that regeneration is an equally vital principle throughout nature. At whatever age, the call is for constructive living. Resistance of destroying forces, within and without, is a personal duty at all seasons. How to achieve this should be among the first lessons taught a child. To abolish the crime of the birthday we must explore ourselves conscientiously for latent potentialities for self-expression which will set destructive tendencies at naught. We are as likely to find these at one period of life as another. Nature knows no rest in 80 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES her activities. She always stands ready to help those who help ; themselves in bringing new powers to light. Not one more obstacle does she arbitrarily place in the way of our adding vital accretion to the account of righteous and productive longevity at seventy- five, than at twenty-five. Self-understanding, and sound body and mind building, must go on to the end of human experience, without a thought of whether we are to continue this phase of life for fifty or a hundred and fifty years. For when all has been said and done, what is the meaning of a well-spent human life, but a season of con- tinual sowing to the supernal realities of the imperishable spiritual? 81 CHAPTER V TONICS FOR FAILING FACULTIES AND SCATTERED FORCES HOW often we hear such talk as the following: "I cannot seem to do as much as I used to. I guess I must be getting on." "I do not enjoy things as I did years ago. I wonder why?" "I cannot take the interest in this and that that I formerly did. I often question if things really are as interesting as they were some time ago." "I do not get the same pleasure out of going to places that I experienced when I was younger. In fact it is a good deal of a bore to make the exertion to go anywhere these days." "I do not eat as well, or enjoy my food as I used to. I suppose the trouble is with me. But whatever it is. I simply eat to live now, 82 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES not because I greatly enjoy what I eat! I've taken tonics by the quart, till my stomach is nearly ruined with them, and seem to get worse all the time. I have no real craving for anything. All food tastes alike to me." "I never seem to have the same kind of sound, restful sleep I had when I was full of vim, and getting out in the open air more. Probably if I made an exertion to walk it would be better for me. The doctor says so. But I hate walking! I often wonder at that old Mrs. Kidd, who must be seventy, if she is a day; I declare she frisks round to justify her name. I couldn't do it to save me. She takes a four or five mile walk with no more effort than I should make to go a half mile. I don't understand people who can do it. She says it's all in your mind. If I would make up my mind to, I could. She may be right. But I haven't got that kind of a mind." "I wonder if people are more dull these days, and less amusing than they used to be? 83 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT I sometimes think so. Then again, I think it may be in myself. But I certainly do not take the interest in meeting folks that I once did. Society bores me to extinction. I guess I am getting to be like the cat that likes to curl up in the chimney corner, undisturbed." "It doesn't seem to me that the books written of late are half as interesting as they were formerly. I find it more difficult to keep my mind on a subject; and I hardly remember a thing I read. But for that matter my memory is getting poorer every day. I shall soon be forgetting my own name if I do not look out." "I know I'm getting too fat. I ought to take more pains with myself. But what's the good of it? Who cares? It's such a piece of work to be always thinking how to keep just right, do just right, and look just right. I guess I'll let things wag along as they are to the end. It won't last forever. I might as well take things easy and be comfortable-that is, as comfortable as I can, with rheumatism in my joints, and trouble with my heart and 84 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES kidneys. Nobody will remember whether I looked as well as I might, or not, a hundred years hence. But I certainly should like to feel better." "No, I don't find the world a very happy place to be in. Life does not interest me. I do not see much in it. Nothing is really worth while. I often wonder what is the meaning of it. When all is said and done, what does it amount to? If one has a few years when things go fairly well, they are soon over. Then comes that long stretch when there is nothing to it. Good looks going, vitality weakening, diseases of infirmity creeping on, sight failing-hearing, very likely -senses all becoming;dulled, mind less and less inclined to exertion, everything at ebb tide. What is it all about, anyhow? I say there is nothing to it!" I might go on longer in this same strain, for I have by no means exhausted the negation of things essential to sustained enthusiam for life, heard upon every hand. The above will suffice as a text for what is 85 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT to follow. For the rest of this book is devoted to the right kind of correctives for such a pitiful and unnecessary failure to grasp the true meaning, purposes and privileges of the here and now. It should go without saying that all such talk as the above is seed irresponsibly sown to the failure of one's faculties for sound and normal functioning. It is the sure way to scatter one's forces for joyful and productive living. It is all a wrong to self and others. In the lessons that follow we will try to get at the underlying causes for such lugubrious insistence upon failure to find sustained in- terest in being, doing, saying, hearing, achiev- ing to the last breath, as the wondrous endow- ments of divine generosity designed that we should. We will see what is wanting, and why we do not hold ourselves true to the higher leadings and efficiency. We will consider what are the right tonics and correctives for failing faculties and scattered forces. When we do not find these there must be 86 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES one of two reasons for it. Either we do not know how, or we do not care. If we do not know how, we can always learn. Not to care is more discouraging. Such a lack of desire for right perspective of true values is not so easily overcome. Wishing to learn, opens the inner door to suggestion which not caring closes. Indiffer- ence is always obstructive. It even takes more than masterful belief that nothing is impossible to those who seek to understand the truth, to overcome the defects of con- stitutional inertia. Knowing implies doing, which is the trouble with too many already. They know better than they do; or would be inclined to do, if they had ever so much knowl- edge of ways and means. But the fact that the application of truth must be left to the individual, and may sometimes fall short of the mark on that account, is no argument against any sincere effort to widen life's activ- ities. The most casual thinker would hold that 87 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT one had "a screw loose somewhere" who deliberately turned his back upon a fortune, bemoaning his poverty meanwhile. "The man lacks common sense," we should say in our amazement. Yet we look unmoved upon a much more surprising spectacle constantly going on before our eyes. By tens of thousands do we see men and women letting slip their hold upon the fruits of human growth, before ever these have ripened to organic maturity. We hear them sounding the retreat of powers that should be advancing, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to surrender to inefficiency. Everywhere around us are people unresistingly allowing weaknesses to fasten upon them like parasites. Why, may well be asked, when they have but to assert their imperial spiritual sov- ereignty,and get into ordered co-operation with the vast tonics of nature, to draw to themselves everything needful for perfect renewal and sustenance of their manifold faculties and forces of body and mind. 88 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Moving on natural lines, according to demonstrable law, without forcing, we shall, in the following lessons, consider how to arouse the right enthusiasm for correction of these paralyzing influences upon both the individual and aggregated life. We will carefully study forces within in their right relation to forces without. We will learn how these co-ordinate into productive energies. We will learn how to shake off the lethargy of indifference before the revelations of our own divine possibilities for noble self- expression. We will try to learn the true meaning of helpfulness to others. In other words we will learn how to save becoming half stranded wrecks upon the shores of an in- efficient experience of life at a time when every force and faculty of our natures should have all sails set toward the promised land of health, happiness and noble usefulness. 89 CHAPTER VI HOW TO DEVELOP CONCENTRATION AND MEMORY 'DOTH concentration and memory are es- sential to balanced development. The two naturally go together. Few people, com- pared to the number, exemplify either to a worth while degree. Go where we may we meet people who are vague, uncertain, selfish, forgetful, irre- sponsible, inattentive. Such people are thor- oughly undisciplined so far as ability goes to demonstrate alert thinking and a quick sense of moral responsibility in their relations to others. We will take everyday-met-with instances in proof. The "straws that show how the wind blows." We get into a street car. The seats are not filled. People have only spread themselves over them in a way to suggest it. The chances are that no one will budge an inch to 90 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES make room for a newcomer. One and all gaze into space, absolutely oblivious of the fact that there would be plenty of room for two or three more people were there inclination upon the part of those seated to move a little nearer together Watch the faces of these masterpieces of stolid indifference. They tell their own story. Naturally there are individual exceptions to this, as to all rules of conduct. If it be a woman, or aged person who enters, an occa- sional man will offer his seat. It is as apt to be a laborer who does this as the man popu- larly called a gentleman. But in either case the act is more often the instinctive prompting of a kind heart than the expression of disciplined thoughtfulness and a sense of the true equity and proportion of things. Once in a while somebody with a keener perception of the unmoral aspect of such sel- fish indifference to others' rights, or a personal tendency to assert themselves in the face of a glaring disregard for anybody's comfort but 91 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT one's own, will say, "Will you kindly make room for me here?" Again watch the faces of the people as they do it. Some grudgingly moving a mere fraction with an expression of annoyance at being disturbed. Some as if suddenly re- called from a dream. And an occasional one with a look of real interest which implies, "Why did I not think to do so without being asked?" Trivial as this instance may seem to some it stands representative of so many others that go to the very root of human character, that it is far from being of little importance to the subject matter of our lesson. For be it remembered that we are here concerned not with the great and heroic things of life, but with the smaller and constantly recurring ex- experience that makes up the average of our days at the common level, where common sense correctives of common defects of charac- ter must be applied, if there is to be a general improvement all along the line of our common human aspirations. 92 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Forgetfulness and indifference are defects of character, which development of concentra- tion and memory go far toward correcting. We will go on with our illustrations for the better understanding of what is a stake in the present connection. "Why didn't you get that material, Marion, as I asked you to do yesterday? I need it this instant," says a mother. "Oh! I forgot," is the reply. "You forget so much, you better make a memorandum next time," says the annoyed mother. And so begins Marion's habit of making still less use of her mind, by not even attempt- ing to remember what she can commit to paper for reference. So begins a deadly habit of weakening concentration and memory for the essential details of intelligent carrying on of daily existence. So becomes fixed a habit that will eventually embrace failure to respond to some of the most sacred privileges and re- sponsibilities of an ordered world movement. "What did I tie that string round my finger 93 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT for last night? I cannot remember to save me. I know it was something important I had to do this morning, but I cannot recall what, I reckon I shall have to let it go this time. It may come to me later." Letting it go this time is another nail driven into the casket of memory. Another knell of doom to faculties of the utmost importance to sound and equitable human association and personal success in the ordinary affairs of domestic and business contact. How often we hear such expressions as the following. They are as stereotyped as the minds that give them voice: "I never know what I want to do until the last minute. I never plan ahead. I'm all impulse. I never think things out. I just act as I feel." "Did you notice that? I didn't. How won- derful! I didn't see a thing of it. But then I'm not observing. Everybody knows that. My sister always declares I could pass her on the street and never know it. No, I do not 94 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES claim it is because I'm thinking hard. I just do not see things." "Oh! I'm so sorry I let that burn. I for- got all about it. I'm so forgetful! Too bad! That would have been so good if it hadn't burnt," with not a word or conscientious qualm about the wrong of wastefulness through carelessness. "My! How do you think of such things? It would never occur to me. You must have a spendid memory to think of doing a thing like that without being asked. It would not have suggested itself to me in a thousand years." "What an awful mistake that was! I did it before I thought. I certainly do wish I was not so hasty. I am always getting into trouble, and making enemies on account of it." "Yes, I should say that was a bad blunder. It gives me the creeps to think of it. I never thought how it would sound until it was out. I wouldn't have hurt her feelings for any- thing." 95 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT "There is no doubt about it. I have to admit that I do things in a haphazard way. My husband is always scolding me for it. He thinks it's an awful defect in my nature. The way he goes on about it is almost funny. But I've done that way all my life. I really can't help it. It's my way." "Dear me! How can you talk like that off hand? It's like reading a book, with never a break anywhere. I couldn't do it to save me. My tongue would get all tied up if I tried. An audience staring at me would frighten me out of my wits. If I got started I should simply run on without head or tail to my talk. But then brother says I do that anyhow. He calls my talk 'gabble.' He says I never stop to consider what I am going to say, but blurt out the first thing I think of. He thinks my talk disjointed and irresponsible. He is an awful critic, that brother of mine. He always insists I never stick to the same subject five minutes together." "Do you really think I fly off the handle at nothing? I know I've got an awfully quick 96 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES temper. If anybody hits me, I hit back. I do not suppose I do think as much as I ought to about whether I am in the right or wrong at the moment But I'm sorry enough after- wards, and as good as a kitten to make up for it." "I suppose I must jump at conclusions, as everybody says so. I am certain it is a bad habit. I never mean to be unjust to others. But if a thing seems that way to me, 'on the spur of the moment,' I'm just as apt as not to say it is, and find out my mistake afterwards." "I have a great way of staring at people when I am not seeing a thing. No, I'm not thinking of anything in particular. It isn't that. I just have the habit of looking into space sometimes. I've been carried blocks beyond where I wanted to go when my mind got into that kind of a blank. I really ought to get over it. I must try. The habit is cer- tainly growing on me at present. I do it much oftener than I used to. It's just a rut I've gotten into." "I've never had any 'stick-to-itiveness' in 97 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT all my life. I hate to do the same things over and over. I often take up a piece of work I'm crazy about at first, and never finish it. I get so tired of things." "No indeed! I never stay alone if I can help it. It bores me so I feel as if I should fly out of my skin. I've got to have company. There is no two ways about that. I cannot live without people. I can not keep my mind on a thing two minutes together if I'm alone, I'm so restless." "Yes, I like reading well enough. But I never remember a thing I read. If it's excit- ing enough I can remember that it gave me the shivers, but that is about all. I read to pass away the time when the days seem awfully long. I don't think I really love reading." "I never know what to do in an emergency. I am simply paralyzed and helpless as a baby. When a thing happens quickly it knocks every idea out of my head. I become limp as a rag, and just good for nothing." 98 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES "I know I'm the greatest coward on earth. I sometimes think I am really afraid of my own shadow. Some folks say one can over- come it; that it is all nervousness, and grows on one by giving way to it. I don't know about that. But I do know that a strange noise at night, or anything just a little bit out of the ordinary, nearly sends me into hysterics." "I'm not very thoughtful. I want to be. I think it is a real virtue. But it doesn't seem to be in me to think quickly. Now sister is just the opposite. She is always doing nice things without being told to. I am just as willing, but don't think about it until some- body reminds me." So might we go on indefinitely citing easily recognized instances of lack of concentration and memory. But enough has been said to illustrate the very general need for systematic correction of tendencies demoralizing to sound and balanced thinking and activities. The time has come when everything that weakens physical, mental and moral fibre must 99 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT be brought under orderly examination and reorganization, if we would save going from bad to worse. The world was never before so full of un- common thinking and theories as to-day. But of the plain, common sense variety of dealing with the actualities, there is still a very decided lack. Everywhere about us is the appalling proof of it. Carry our heads as high as we may in the rarefied atmosphere of spiritual currents, we cannot escape the awful facts of humanity's undevelopment on the levels. It confronts us at every turn. The evidence of it in every khaki-clothed figure, and Red Cross worker seen upon the streets. We hear it in the tramp, tramp of the marching hosts going forth to combat the forces of evil that root in men's passion for conquest and dominion over others. It is blazoned forth in our news- papers, repeated in magazines and books, and thundered from the pulpit and rostrum. 100 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Never was there greater need for under- standing and application of principles of the sanest and most practical to human reorgani- zation than to-day. Never was there greater need for individual grasp of demonstrable laws of sound human upbuilding. Never were concentration and memory development more important than to-day. For failure to concentrate upon the vital facts of every day's duties, and remember working details has been responsible for many a disaster that might have been averted. The same will hold true as long as people remain lax, shifty and forgetful of habits. As in everything else there are essentials and non-essentials in memory development. One needs to discriminate between the two. Power to concentrate quickly upon a given subject, and follow it to a logical conclusion, is of the utmost advantage to productive and successful touch with life. Upon the other hand, a tendency to lumber up the mind, and 101 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT harp upon things of no demonstrable value, is not only not true concentration, but may be- come a source of great weakness. How to determine between the two, is a les- son in itself. Cultivation of concentration and memory should begin early. A child should not be per- mitted to learn anything by rote without ob- servation of facts concerning it. This has been one of the serious defects in education (so-called) in the past. Repeating parrot-like has nothing in common with true develop- ment of either mind or memory. Cramming mere facts, as set forth by others, into a child's mind without observation or illustration, counts for little. Such facts make no im- pression to speak of, and are easily forgotten. How often we hear people say: "I studied that at school, but do not remember one thing about it." Before ever a child begins book-learning, it should be made physically and mentally fit by developing exercises for both body and mind. Its equipment should be sound health and 102 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES the power to concentrate, remember and fol- low out a line of thought easily and naturally. It should have the essentials of character well grounded. It should understand the value of promptness from having been shown the far- reaching results to others, besides self, from failure to be up to the mark in all that the word implies. The same of truthfulness, sin- cerity, kindliness, justice, thoughtfulness and consistency. Children should be interested (not forced) to look at the effects of their own acts. Until these are understood few realize their own responsibilities. This is the true way to teach anybody how to form swift and accurate con- clusions as to what is right and what wrong, in both thinking and conduct. "By their fruits ye shall know them." It can easily be shown that most of life's failures are due to neglect of advance reason- ing. Life is strewn with the wrecks of neglect to weigh and measure consequences until it was too late. Vast numbers of children bump along like 103 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT June bugs, with much noise and hitting of their heads at every turn, without knocking much of anything into them. Such hard experience will, in the long run, give some temperaments a certain facility in dodging predicaments. But how much better to avoid these by disciplined understanding. Learning to think quietly, deeply and to a purpose, and act according to reasoned con- clusions, not impulse, is a great lesson. All questions asked by the young should be answered in such a way as to keep fast hold upon a train of thought already in motion, and add value to it by following it out to its logical sequence. Thus, and thus only, can the habit of going to the root of a subject become fixed for life. Often a child who finds the printed page dull and uninteresting, will evince the greatest enthusiasm for natural development of its faculties through object lessons. It will sometimes achieve the greatest facility for 104 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES clear and logical thinking and expression, from things thus seen and heard. Those who are allowed to dive into one subject after another, like birds pecking at a tree, rarely acquire the habit of consecutive and sustained thought; and then only by the hardest. All tendency to shiftiness must be early dis- couraged, if one would save a child's thinking from being vague and nebulous. By uncon- scious (to them) but tactful leading, the little ones can be held to a single line of interests until the habit of thinking things out has be- come permanent. Always children should be gently but firmly discouraged from flying off at a tangent, first in one direction, then in another. Irra- tional enthusiasms are always detrimental to sound achievement. To build life to a consistent pattern, we must employ consistent means. All of us should observe, think, reason, 105 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT interpret and co-ordinate far more than we do. Developing one set of faculties stimulates others. Persistence in pursuit of a given pur- pose is the natural outgrowth of a right per- ception of values. Lack of concentration and defects of mem- ory can be corrected. This is as true at one time of life as another if the right methods be used. But there is work to be done. A few exercises of direct application for this purpose are given here. But not for one moment must any Triune student forget that all propor- tioned development is a unity of forces. This means that all faculties must be developed coincidently for the best results. For example: A nervously broken down in- valid would not, and could not, achieve the same concentration and memory that a well person could. The necessary vitality for sus- tained effort of mind would be lacking. Such a one would first need to build up her bodily and mental instrument to a point of healthful expression. 106 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES In Triune Development there is never an attempt to force one organ or faculty at the expense or neglect of another. The founda- tion must be made right. There is no teaching that seeks to build in the air. All is according to sound and demonstrable laws and principles. The exercises for memory strengthening given here will work out every time with a person in reasonable health for sustained mental effort. All others must prepare the mental soil by the uprooting, weeding out, overcoming processes of organic upbuilding as part of the general work. These exer- cises will accomplish all that is claimed for them, when "all things work together for good." But the corner stone of the structure in sound and concentrated memory building is vitality. With such a solid foundation every organ and sense will be improved by the work done for the specific purpose of acquiring the power to concentrate and remember easily. The first exercise in memory building is to 107 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT forget that one does not remember. There must be no more saying, "Things slip my mind so easily. I never remember a thing after it happens. I forget names and numbers as soon as I hear them, etc., etc." In place of these negations let the thought be held quietly in mind, "I can remember. It is the function of mind to remember. There is no reason in nature why I should not remember." A good start has been made in the right direction when this trend of thinking has been firmly established. One may still continue to forget other things. Ignore the fact. Make the affirmation more strongly than before: "It is the function of mind to remember. What is an empty mind good for? I am a thinking, reasoning being. I can remember." Do not get discouraged above all things, neither anxious. Both states of mind are disconcerting to the quiet and serene condition of belief which must precede accomplishment. Do not struggle to remember. Keep an open 108 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES mind. Expect improvement. Seek it through the law of association. If it be a name to remember take the letter A as a starting-point. Recall all the names you can beginning with A. Continue in the same way with B and C, and all other letters. The chances are ten to one that the name sought will suddenly flash into consciousness when the right letter is reached. As mental discipline, apart from the name wanted, this work is valuable. Once and for all, stop writing down and trusting to paper the few things to be bought in ordinary shopping. At first this will not apply to a large number of articles. But one should easily remember from four to six dif- ferent things, however, unrelated in character, or however forgetful the person. Make sure of remembering by the law of association. If there be four articles to remember hold up the four fingers of the left hand, and as- sociate each article with a particular finger. Take the smallest article first, and connect it 109 T R 1 U N E DEVELOPMENT with the little finger. So on with a graduated scale on each finger to the first. Repeat these several times in connection with each finger. If it be six things to remem- ber hold up the four fingers of the left hand and two from the right, side by side, keeping the left thumb out of it, and holding the first and second fingers on the right hand down with the right thumb. Make a mental picture of these fingers and repeat the above process, associating the smaller articles with the little fingers, etc. "Six articles, one for this finger beginning with C, one for that beginning with W, etc., etc." But do not stop at this. Continue the process by a still further association of things. You are to get writing paper. Think of all the friends you are owing letters. Fix the thought of writing paper in your mind by recalling that you cannot write without the paper to do so. You will not forget to buy paper afterwards you may be quite sure. You need toilet soap. Say over several 110 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES times, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness- Cleanliness is next to Godliness. I buy toilet soap to be clean." Once begun this process of association will work automatically. Almost without effort you will find new variations suggesting them- selves. With each article, fresh interest will be stimulated in seeing how many different combinations can be made. This work some- times becomes so fascinating that the original purpose is almost lost sight of. This law of association between the things of daily need and experience is soon found to afford scope for practice that extends far beyond the actual matter in hand. For example: You are going to walk. Before starting you make up your mind to see everything possible. Many people and things will be hurriedly passed. Your impressions of these will have to be quickly made. This will require great concentration upon the one thought of taking in a wide sweep upon the right hand and the left. Upon the tablets of 111 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT mind you will instantly register what you see. The size, shape, color and dimension of many objects. Upon your return, recall as far as possible every object seen and the way it was seen, one picture following another. Compel yourself to remember clearly. When this has been done think no more about the actual objects as such, but start up your faculty for discrimina- tion. Were these beautiful or ugly? What made them one or the other? If beautiful, why were they so? Of what does true beauty consist? If ugly, why were they so? What is ugliness? Why do we say one thing is attractive, an- other repulsive? What are the faculties that help us to decide such questions? Now begin a long argument with yourself about beauty. Not only the beauty of things seen upon that walk, which impressed themselves instantly upon the film of mind, but all beauty-beauty of nature, beauty of form, beauty of color, beauty of character. Follow the thought to its logical conclusion 112 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES with things visible. Connect acts and their consequences with character. Then enter the realm of the invisible beauties perceived by the inner eye of the soul. Search yourself to see how far you have the vision of the glories of the unseen. Does your spiritual nature express in the terms of supernal beauty? Take ugliness i«n the same way. Follow it to its source in sin and discord and all unholy and unhappy conditions. Apply the moral. Once started upon such a course of obser- vation and reasoning the interest and variety of it will be found almost limitless. Each ad- vancing step will bring you constantly in- creasing facility to observe and make intelli- gent deductions from what you see. You learn to think in a consecutive, deliberate, controlled and orderly way. Con- centration and memory are being strengthened almost without your knowing it. Your spiritual nature is keeping pace with the rest as it must in this three-fold science of the three-fold de- velopment of three-fold beings. One last hint and this lesson is finished. 113 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT Cultivate a habit of looking at one you are talking with. Do not allow your eyes to wander; neither to stare vacantly and un- interestedly. Be alert with purpose to get the full meaning of every sentence, and every word in every sentence. Weigh these in your own mind. Oppose them with your own thoughts if you do not agree. Convince your- self, not so much that the other is in the wrong, as that you are in the right, and why. Bring your facts to focus. Weigh and co-ordinate them. Marshal your arguments in convincing form. Bring these to bear quickly as acts and consequences; causes and effects. Say little. Think much. Concentrate by becoming a good listener and careful analyst of other's sayings. One train of thought will start another. Follow each to its logical con- clusion when alone. Once headed in the right direction, with a sincere determination to become master of your own latent potentialities for good think- ing, you will be surprised at your success in acquiring concentration and memory. 114 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES The examples given will suggest others. Your own personal experience will add to these. The possibilities open to you are un- limited. Steady practice for days, weeks and months will bring you the desired end. And not only what you started out to attain, but the added joys of a veritable treasure house of new interests in the world of thought. 115 CHAPTER VII HOW TO DEVELOP INDIVIDUALITY AND CHARM SEVERAL years ago my attention was called to the power of individuality and charm in a way to set me thinking. Under varying conditions, and in a number of different aspects, I had a chance to observe the workings of this indefinable something, which carries everything before it. The case was that of a little lady, who frankly said that she began life handicapped by diffidence, and an apparent lack of the forces at her command at the time of which I write. To the train of thought then set in motion, can I trace a fixed habit of mine, of studying the values that differentiate one type of per- sons from another. Like a good many others, I formerly thought such powers as this lady possessed God-given, and impossible to develop. But no longer do I hold such a point of view. I have 116 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES since had ample evidence that almost anybody who wishes, can make these winning forces second nature-always provided there be the necessary intelligence to bring desire to focus in concentration and work essential to it. Cultivation of individuality and charm is well worth while. But not for a moment must these be confused with mere ability to fas- cinate, which is not at all the same thing. The sources in which these take their rise are fundamentally different. Fascination is a far lower order of power than charm. The ends which these two serve are not the same. The means by which they may be acquired are different. Fascination makes its appeal to the senses as a rule. It often has the effect to confuse the judgment of one temporarily under its sway and suspend the faculty for discrimina- ting between the false and true. "Fascination soon wears off," is a saying frequently heard. The evidence would seem to prove it. Most of us have been astonished 117 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT at cases of people whose wills seemed to be narcotized for a time, if not actually paralyzed, by a fascination exerted over them by another of manifestly less mental calibre than them- selves. Under such a spell both men and women have been guilty of amazing neglect of duties, and sacrifice of honor, at which no one has wondered more than they, when the awaken- ing came. Taken by and large, in all of its bearings, there would seem to be a very good reason for the comments often made upon fascination. "It is like a flash in the pan, soon over," one says of it. "Such sensuous appeal never does last," says another. "Nothing to it, except at the moment," says a third. If I seem to dwell upon this point, it is be- cause of my wish to make the distinction be- tween fascination and charm perfectly clear at the outset. For while fascination is a power of questionable value to its possessor in the long run, even at its best, individuality and 118 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES charm are both enduring and progressive. The latter easily become great forces for per- manent success in life. All the way along they exert an influence that indicates a wholesome quality, a sort of effluence of graciousness, in domestic and social contact. True individuality and charm, root in self- understanding. They represent an ideal con- verted into achievement. They stand for a righteous determination to make the most possible of every faculty that reaches the heart and conscience. They register effort to attain exceptional mental and other qualifications worthy of spontaneous recognition and ad- miration. They illuminate life and open the doors to high and holy aspirations. They give new meaning to the God-consciousness within. They register soul outreachings to- ward the true and beautiful in self-expression and its effects in increasing harmonious touch with others. A few have these gifts naturally, but very few compared to the numbers. In fact indi- 119 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT viduality and charm have not yet come into their own in any large and inclusive sense. In the present connection, instead of laying down arbitrary rules and exercises for the development of such desirable accomplish- ments, I am going to tell the story of the woman who achieved, and how she did it, in the face of a generally accepted belief, among her family and friends, that she was one of the unfortunates who seemed to be slated from the beginning for inevitable failure in life. She admits frankly that to herself she seemed odd and different from other girls who were everywhere courted. In the case of her own sisters she was often made to feel this dif- ference. While they had many invitations and were constantly pushed forward, she was often left in the background. Not unkindly or with intent, but simply because she did not seem to have individuality enough to impress herself upon people in a way to make them want her. How many a person has had the same ex- 120 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES perience! With a natural bent toward self- distrust and discouragement, every fresh dis- appointment and sign of indifference has been as fuel to fire. For often alas! the final out- come has been bitterness toward life in general. Not so with this girl. Without envy or jealousy of spirit, in frank desire to get at the plain truth about why she was left out of so much she would have enjoyed, while others were included, she began to study what made the popular ones apparently more interesting than herself. She began to weigh the merits of various attractions which they put for- ward, and measure the true worth of their abilities to interest, where she herself was such a failure. Even here she again differentiated between one and another under varying cir- cumstances. Gradually she became a good reader of character. By degrees she gained an almost infallible faculty for detecting reality from sham, sincerity from pretence. All the while a habit of concentration and logical thinking 121 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT was steadily developing. She found unsus- pected powers of mind emerging, and took a new interest in a class of reading that had never before appealed to her. Upon occasions, with as much surprise to herself as to others, she put in a word here and there in general conversation, whose very originality and virility made people take quick notice. Almost before she knew it, she had gained a reputation for being a clear thinker and "good talker, when she could be induced to talk." She did not make the fatal mistake of rushing in with her opinion on every occasion. By this time her mind had become alert enough to take in a broad sweep of observa- tion. She saw social success from different angles. With the type of ultra-conservatives who are always up to the mark in everything, from the latest fashion to the most approved mannerism, she had nothing in common. As little did the eccentrics, who startle by the very audacity of their innovations, appeal to her. What she desired out of the heart was to ex- press herself with sincerity. To make the 122 P RIIN CI^P LES AND EXERCISES most of every good point she had, bring her latent possibilities to noble fruition and win by the force of worth. Her foundation principles were sound-the great desideratum in any attempt at noble self-expression. About this time she took up the study of physical development according to methods I was then teaching from the lecture platform all over the country. She soon de- veloped a graceful figure from one that had before been decidedly angular and gawky. She began to study her own needs in dress, for she was human enough to wish to please the eye. Figure, face and general characteristics were brought under careful scrutiny, as if they belonged to another. The result was a scheme of clothing that suited her perfectly in line and color, and for every occasion. She had now learned how to accentuate her good points, and soften others-a long step in the right direction; for the consciousness of looking well gives assurance to other effort that no sensible person can afford to overlook. I should like to dwell upon this point, but 123 T R I U N E DEVELOPMENT cannot give the time to it here. Every day of my life do I become more convinced that right adaptation of clothing to the expression of both body and face is a science that must sooner or later come into its own. Individ- uality must prevail against fashion's arbi- trary dictates and often gross distortions before we can hope to achieve the true charm that is as much a matter of vision as of hearing, as much the approval of a discerning eye as a discriminating ear-for back of each lies the thinking mind, which gives both their values. At an afternoon reception the noise of much talking all at once, by both men and women, grated upon her ear with a new sense of the unpleasing and uncultured quality of the ordinary voice. Then and there she got a new point of view of what a well modulated and pleasing form of speech would mean in the ordinary intercourse of life. She resolved to concentrate upon acquiring such, and carried this resolve to such an extent in the end, that it became her greatest charm. By contrast with the voices of those she met, hers stood 124 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES out with such individuality that strangers meeting her for the first time, frequently re- marked that, "she had the most beautiful speaking voice they had ever heard." As the years wore on, this charm of a low, musical voice, combined with versatility and quickness at repartee-won by hard work- gave her an unusual reputation for mental force and acumen, as well as wit. I remember calling upon this unique little lady one afternoon a few hours before she was to entertain a brilliant judge at dinner. She informed me with the utmost simplicity that she had just come from an hour's conversation with herself upon subjects which she knew were of interest to her expected guest. Curiosity aroused, I was able to elicit the fact that holding arguments with herself was a daily custom of hers. These were always on subjects of popular interest. She assumed two characters in the discussion, and entered into the pros and cons, as pre- sented by both sides, with zest. Nor did she allow either half of her mental self to be be- 125 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT trayed into sympathy or weakness toward the other half, if there were so much as a loophole of chance for a contrary line of argument between them. On the day in question she had been prac- ticing mentally, just as a singer or pianist plays scales before a public performance to secure certainty and brilliancy of execution. She had not been getting up a speech for the evening-no, indeed! She was far too clever to remember and repeat anything made up beforehand. She merely polished up her mental armor, getting ready for quick think- ing upon the spur of the moment. Already she had acquired reasoned intuitive percep- tion and fluency in speech. One may be sure the judge went away from a delightful evening convinced that there was a rare and unusual woman. Yet in no sense of the word except that of ability to work hard and to a definite point was this lady a genius. Always a refined and musical voice, with 126 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES readiness to say something worth hearing, is a passport to social success. Many an appar- ently unattractive woman might become the very center of a charmed circle were she ready for the concentrated work involved in bringing her latent mental possibilities to fruitfulness. No doubt our educational systems have been much against the development of in- dividuality. But the first notes have already been sounded which will ultimately free childhood from hopeless crowding^injilly ventilated rooms, there to sit in cramped positions at inquisitorial desks for hours together, learning to repeat things like parrots. Going are the whole barbarous, stultifying traditions which have long been responsible for physical depression and mental mediocrity -the educational systems that cram but do not develop. The day of physical and mental develop- ment worthy of spiritual beings is at hand. The day of personal powers, won by mental concentration, and initiative, such as that 127 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT which gave the little lady of this article her rare individuality. One more illustration, and I shall have fin- ished. Enough will then have been said to give the hint that should be the motive force to set others thinking and studying along the same line, if they would acquire, as this one lady did, true charm, based upon genuine values developed from very small beginnings through sheer persistence. By nature kindly, it did not need any forcing for her to act with thoughtfulness in general toward others. But so much more did she make of this natural instinct by practice, that her life become a genuine benediction to many. While her manifestations of thought- fulness were unostentatious, so sustained were they, that it was impossible not to become infected to the extent of according spontane- ous admiration for such a beautiful human trait, brought to such perfection. She earned love by her own acts, and en- joyed it as her right, from many a source, 128 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT humble and high alike. From friends she had devotion. From strangers respect and admiration. From a husband who adored her -a man of the most brilliant mental attain- ments-a kind of companionship that he could not have given a different woman. And all became hers in spite of the fact that she started life not only with no unusual gift or talent, but under actual handicaps of nature in several very important directions. Does any reader of this book wish to achieve individuality and charm? Then let them take heart; but at the same time use the means. With the aids given in Triune De- velopment there is no reason why anyone who will, may not become what they would be by aid of the laws and principles governing. For it was by just such means that the lady quoted in the above illustration made a marked success of her life, and became not only one of the most charming women I ever knew, but also one of the most beautiful characters. 129 CHAPTER VIII HOW TO DEVELOP VITAL POWER THROUGH THE TONGUE AND VOICE STUDY of what can be achieved by right use of the tongue and voice must be pre- ceded with a cursory review of some of the demoralizing uses to which the voice is put through words. Individually and collectively we try to atone for much lack of common sense in doing by increasing clamor of words. Meaningless words run through our whole social fabric. We load life with promises which are never fulfilled. So prolific are we of words that there is danger of our becoming swamped by their very multiplicity unless our acts can be made to better measure up to our professions. Words! words! words! Upon the right hand and the left they stand as the props for decaying traditions. We bow before wordy fetishes as the heathen before his idols. We must first batter down word-honored preju- 130 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES dice to get an entering wedge for any in- novation, however crucial to human better- ment. Prejudices are to the social body what vesti- gial structures are to the physical organism- anthropological survivals. Beliefs which per- sist in words long after they are outgrown and serve no purpose but to obstruct vital proc- esses. Out of words enthusiasts create the most alluring Utopias. From words social reform- ers build highways to a millennium in the air. With unctuous words we proclaim ours a Christian civilization-and yet ride rough shod over the most sacred principles for which Christ lived and died. We decide who shall be the possessors of given parts of the earth by killing each other; meanwhile pouring out wordy petitions to heaven to bless us in the act, and make the victory ours. With pomp and ceremony of words the church exhorts to faith and worship. But it does not always make clear that faith without 131 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT work is a false concept of what the Master taught, and a stumbling block in the pathway of true religion. With all the improvement in educational methods these do not yet carry into practical activities entirely evidential of the values in printed words. Social amenities are often no more than gracious words. Employers and employees still substitute wordy agree- ments for principles of equity and justice. Virtues in public places are as often be- gotten of the eloquence of words as of deeds. Politicians build platforms of words that crumble as soon as campaigns are ended. All through our social structure, magnetic words keep alive sentiments that are a direct contradiction of facts. Home as "the cradle of character" furnishes a good illustration. For upon the altar of home and family life is sacrificed more com- mon sense than upon any other. The best of homes need more or less re- organizing to bring them up to sound, whole- some and progressive body and character 132 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES building standards. Proof of this is ample. There is no lack of love that expends itself as endearing words for children, and no lack of intelligence in providing for their material wants. But often the training leaves no room for normal and healthy self-expression. If this be true of many of the better class of homes, what of the tens of thousands where father is a brute, mother a degenerate, and the hapless children criminals in the making? Under such conditions talk about "Home, sweet home," becomes rather maudlin. There is a crying need for real homes, which will give true meaning to this beautiful and inspiring sentiment. What we are suffering for as a people is large doses of plain, unadulterated common sense injected into our words. We need less gush and more looking facts squarely in the face. Less sentimental words and more prac- tical activity based upon the logic of things exactly as we find them in this fallible, suffer- ing, sinning, yet aspiring world. Words are essential vehicles of expression 133 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT which are too often converted into forty-horse power engines of clatter and clamor, with little or no meaning to them. Such idle words tend to degrade language. They waste nervous energy, and prevent the proper consideration of ideals translatable into constructive activities. We often hear it said that conversation is a lost art. Until we learn to use words more discriminatingly it must remain so. Thinking before speaking is a virtue. We are so accus- tomed to the undisciplined flow of words upon every hand, and under all circumstances, that few of us realize the far-reaching evil of them. Lying, swearing, obscenity, misrepresenting, slandering, gossiping, the vulgar joke, the pithless pun, the cruel sarcasm and insinu- ating jeer are all members of the same boister- ous family of speech run riot. They are evil impulses given free rein in words. These are not only disintegrating and de- grading to spiritual and moral fibre, but waste- 134 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES ful to nervous energy. They sap strength needed for productive effort. Among the most important lessons of life is learning control of the tongue. Until we become master of this unruly member, bal- anced growth is out of the question. The reason is not far to seek. A quick tongue voices a quick impulse. A hasty and un- governed tongue, an ungoverned impulse. "I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings. I spoke before I thought" is an all too common excuse for words that should never have been uttered. But serious as it is to hurt others' feelings by thoughtless and unjust words the effect upon self is even more deplorable. Reckless expenditure of words is a species of dissipation, destructive of that most important of all human achievements, self-control. Let us consider the effect upon family discipline where father and mother "get mad"; and so obsessed, attempt to make a child behave itself in orderly fashion by a torrent of ugly words. There are few children so 135 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT stupid that they do not see both the unrea- sonableness and injustice pf it. We may be ever so well intentioned. But if we have not mastery over our tongues we are in a fair way to make havoc of our in- fluence in some of life's most sacred relation- ships. Balanced development of character calls for much thought and careful grouping of concepts of right and wrong, justice and injustice. Triune teaching aims to bring order, common sense and logical sequence into both acts and words. Cultivation of ideas in- evitably leads to economy in speech. Able thinkers are rarely prodigal of words. When an occasional one has such redundancy of mental power that it gushes forth in redund- ancy of expression it has little in common with the senseless gabble of so-called "great talkers." Every one of us should cultivate a habit of silence when we have not something worth while to say. It is inexcusable selfishness to 136 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES compel others to listen to a strain of words merely that we.may have the pleasure of hearing ourselves talk. One has taken a long step in advance when the habit has been established of voicing only what common sense will approve upon second thought. We have not learned the legitimate use of words until we have learned how to state what we have to say in a clear and dispassionate way, calculated to give others a chance to weigh and measure the value of our thought. The power of voice was given us to carry on the business of life through exchange of ideas. Words are the measure of our mental processes. Whether it be in the lighter vein of wit and humor, or on the higher altitudes of thought, we should keep careful watch over a tendency to run to words. Proper use of our thinking machinery will save endless wear and tear upon the voice, and oftentimes prevent grave injury to others. 137 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT Thought is a vital force. Given a wrong impulse it engenders bodily friction dangerous to health and all righteous achievement. Intelligently directed it becomes an incalcu- lable power for good. According to the conditions controlling does voice express. It registers love, tender- ness, truth, sincerity, honesty and all high and holy emotions. A warring soul within pours forth its destructive passions of undevelop- ment through the voice in strident torrents of hatred, malice, envy, jealousy, and other violent emotions. Words proceeding from a controlled mind, expressing through a cultured medium, are the music of human intercourse. Words proceed- ing from an uncontrolled mind are like dan- gerous explosions, liable to fly off at a tangent with disastrous results to self and others. Right grouping of words based upon right concepts of life's privileges, duties ancl re- sponsibilities leads to pleasing and uplifting speech as surely as right grouping of musical 138 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES notes by a master of technique to harmonious sound. As our students soon come to know the first postulate in Triune Development is the utter impossibility of efficient expression through a defective instrument. Both the tongue and voice hold mighty potentialities for increasing physical health and mental uplift, but with few people do these ever reach anything more than a modicum of their capacity for noble usefulness. Voice development for healthful and con- trolled expression in common intercourse is vastly more important than voice cultivation for display either in singing or recitation. The work that must be done with the breath, the diaphragm, lungs and vocal cords; the reso- nance cavities of the head, the tongue, lips and teeth are all exercises that help to ward off dangerous diseases of the respiratory tract- tuberculosis, bronchitis, pneumonia, sore throat, tonsilitis, catarrh and huskiness of voice. Triune Development pays great atten- 139 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT tion to perfecting the speaking medium, be- cause this is true; and also because flexibility of voice, good enunciation, refined pronuncia- tion and musical intonation all exert an irresis- tible charm of their own. Voice development should begin with the first word a child speaks. It should be built upon a correct understanding of the many forces and faculties of nature involved. When we remember that the voice is our outlet for the emotions, and our instrument of service and expression in domestic, social and business contact, does it not stand to reason that too much attention can not be paid to bringing this indispensable organ to something like perfection in early childhood? Voice development is yet in its initial stages. It is susceptible of a vastly extended scale of vibration and carrying-power. It can be trained to increase in strength instead of wearing out by use. But for this a funda- mental spiritual and mental ideal must be brought into co-ordination with the rest of the 140 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES training directed to right use of the organs of breath, tone and articulation. First of all the voice must be rightly placed. Neither a child nor anyone else should mumble their words; nor yet push them out of the mouth, as many do, by a spasmodic contraction of the muscles of the chest and throat. Wrong use of the voice is a most debilitating habit. Every muscle controlling the lips and tongue must be exercised for flexibility, as the fingers are for piano playing. For without good ar- ticulation, a good voice cannot be achieved. Nothing could be worse for health of the throat, or pleasing tone production, than dropping the voice back into what should be an open channel of sound, and then huskily pushing it out with the throat muscles with very little assistance from the tongue, teeth and lips. Yet the larger number of people use the voice in just this way. A good voice, whether for speaking or sing- ing, must be sustained by the diaphragm. It must be vibrated by the vocal cords and 141 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT sent into the resonance cavities of the head, from whence to issue in articulate sound through the lips by the aid of the tongue and teeth. The process is simple enough once it has been learned. So simple, in fact, that one who knows the work thoroughly often wonders how it has been possible for such long con- tinued misuse of the voice to obtain, as it cer- tainly has, not only among the masses, but with professionals as well. The diaphragm is the first organ to control in right voice use as it is the most im- portant breathing muscle. Next comes the open throat. Then the clear and distinct shaping of all words with the lips. In chapter eleven of this book breathing correctly is discussed at some length, there- fore it need not be repeated here. With a correct breathing habit, a free throat and clear enunciation achieved the rest of the work relates to practice of sounds. Take the letter E and sound it in the front of the mouth. At first there will be a very 142 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES decided tendency to push with the throat. Transfer the push to the diaphragm. Stand- ing before the mirror, with the chest raised, keep the throat perfectly still and say the E, long continued, and without a hissing sound. Say O, in the same way. Pronounce words having many vowel sounds clearly on the lips. Be conscious of the working of the lips. Exaggerate it to get the better control. Pro- long the vowel sounds, as in the word because for musical effect. By this, and similar practice, one can do much to improve the voice at home. And es- pecially physical health through the voice. But no home work will ever take the place of a thorough course in Triune voice building, which is the very perfection of three-fold organic, mental and spirtual command over the organs involved in noble tone production. Anyone who will take the trouble to do it, can acquire a good, well-controlled voice with a wide range of inflection and expression. Prac- tice will make speech musical and effective and add new value to other powers. 143 CHAPTER IX HOW TO MAKE NERVES LIVE CURRENTS OF SUCCESS MY first serious thought about nerves came from hearing one sister say rather contemptuously of another, who was in what seemed to me to be a deplorable state of body and mind, "Oh, we never pay any atten- tion to Martha's complaining. It is a habit of hers. There is nothing really the matter with her-just a case of nerves." Since then, I have come to know that "just a case of nerves," is often treated as of no conse- quence by one's family and friends until it is too late to avert a serious nervous breakdown. Most people do not seem to realize the truth about nerves; or treat them as forces to be brought within understanding control. An incredible number of people allow nerves to "fly at loose ends," as it were. Somebody, or something, is always "setting them on edge." 144 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES It may be one thing or another-noise, atmos- pheric conditions, the way others do things, circumstances, environment-anything or nothing. It does not matter what gets on the nerves. It is the fact that is of consequence, the ultimate danger to bodily and mental equilibrium from constant giving way to nervous irritation, which too often leads to complete prostration in the end. The purpose of the present lesson is to show how such a condition is brought about from small beginnings, and howT to apply the cor- rectives that will render nerves the most de- pendable of allies in constructively carrying on the business of life. With this end in view, let us give a moment's thought to the general characteristics of the nervous system. Let us learn what are its functions, and how these be- come disorganized. It will then be easier for us to get a firm hold upon the means for making nerves live currents of success-as the heading of this chapter suggests. It is the business of the nervous system to 145 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT keep the brain and different organs of the body in harmonious relationship in activity. The central nervous system performs one kind of work; the sympathetic nervous system another. The big brain, or cerebrum, and spinal cord in the spinal canal, or vertebrae col- umn, with its nerve fibers running downward in every direction, transmitting messages at the rate of about a mile a minute, belong to the central, or cerebrospinal system. Our thinking machinery is in the cerebrum, which is also the seat of our emotions, of voli- tion, perception and memory. The cerebellum, or little brain back of the cerebrum, and further down in the skull, pre- sides over and harmonizes the sub-conscious and involuntary movements and functions of the body. The pons Varolii is a brain connecting link through which nerves pass to the spinal cord. The medulla oblongata, at the beginning of the cord, is by some called the primitive brain. In this brain motor nerve fibres pass from the 146 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES right side to the left. It happens in this way that a hemorrhage on one side of the brain causes apoplexy, or paralysis, on the other side of the body. Through the spinal cord, which extends from the conscious, thinking brain, or cerebrum, to the first lumbar vertebra, what may be called the inter-communication of parts, is kept up. This cord has sixty-four nerve branches, thirty-two on each side. These nerve branches control motion and sensation. Through them the brain transmits and re- ceives messages from all over the body. When we walk the brain acts like an auto- matic starter to a car. It sets us going. It starts up the motor nerve fibers extending to the muscles involved in the movements of walking. The same is true of all of the other movements which we make with our arms, legs, hands and feet. The brain controls and directs the machinery through the spinal cord, and its connecting nerve branches. This is Nature's process of sending out 147 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT messages from the brain by way of motor nerves. When the brain receives messages, the process is reversed and ^'another set of nerve fibers is used, called sensory nerves. The one governs our bodily activities, the other our bodily sensations. Thus, if we desire to do a certain thing the brain transmits the fact to the muscles and organs essential to the doing by way of the motor nerves-a very good reason why the desire should be right. If anything goes wrong with an organ or part, as in cases of accident and injury, ill- ness and pain, the information is at once sent to the brain by means of the nerves of sensation. These, like the motor nerves, run from the spinal cord through the same sixty-four nerve branches on the sides of the cord. One carries, the other brings brain messages. The nerves controlling the functions of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, etc., are peculiar to these organs. These nerves are called nerves 148 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES of special sense. There are twenty-four such nerves running out to these organs from their seat of origin at the base of the brain. It is through the central nervous system, presided over by the conscious mind or intelligence, that we are enabled to exercise the volition which gives us the power to be- come self-controlled in every faculty of body and mind. Because this is true, we shall return to this subject after a cursory glance at the sym- pathetic nerve system which controls the in- voluntary processes of organic functioning. The system of nerves that "neither slumbers nor sleeps" but keeps steadily at its task of supplying nerve force to vital organs, which depend upon a properly regulated blood supply, and the right nerve conditions for circulation, digestion, secretion and excretion, and all of the other unconscious functioning that could not safely be trusted to the con- scious mind to carry on with the regularity inseparable from life in the body. 149 TRfUNE DEVELOPMENT Even so, it is of interest to know that these involuntary and sub-conscious processes can be accelerated and brought to a higher degree of functional activity and harmonious rela- tionship with the rest of our organic forces, by understanding co-operation between mind and body. This is entirely in line with manifest principles for the self-governance of volitional beings, like ourselves, who are expressing un- folding spiritual consciousness through an organic medium. The sympathetic nervous system takes its rise in a series of ganglia beginning at the under part of the brain and continuing down the sides of the spinal column. These nerves extend to all of our different organs, just as the nerves of the cerebrospinal system do. But the two systems are quite independent of each other, except as they are brought into sympathetic relationship in activity. The solar plexus, which we often hear men- tioned in one way and another, is the very 150 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES sun and center of this ganglionic system, as its name indicates. It is a big nerve plexus back of the stomach, at the upper part of the abdomen, by some called "the brain of the body." It is this nerve ganglion that often becomes so disorganized by an incorrect standing posture as to cause serious headaches and disturbances of the digestive tract. Of this we take greater account in discussing correct standing in Chapter XI of this book. The nerve waste of ordinary life is appalling. Nervous strain from causes that could be avoided is almost beyond computation. People tense up at nothing. Go into any pub- lic place and listen to what passes for animated conversation. Nerves fairly scream at one in the excited tones of half of the voices heard. And this is as true of one sex as the other. There are as many men who do all sorts of nervous and unnecessary things with their heads, hands and feet as women. There are as many who are complaining, self-pitying 151 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT and given to a certain kind of nerve resistance to general conditions. As many who have the habit of physical and mental tension, which finds outlet in the senseless rush and drive of this strenuous life of ours; with the sequel in over-fatigue, irritability, and not infrequently unreasoning bursts of temper, if not in com- plete nervous collapse. It would take a book larger than this to enumerate all of the ways in which nerve waste goes on with uncounted numbers from morn- ing until night. And often from night till morning. For the case of the woman who said that she had gone to bed many a time with her handkerchief in her hand, and found it still in her grasp in the morning-still in the tensed fingers that had known no relaxation and rest during unconsciousness-was a fair illustration of the nerve tension that gets such a hold that it will not let go, even during the hours of sleep. In spite of a constantly increasing interest in spiritual and mental sciences, we have to 152 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES face the facts revealed by hard-and-fast sta- tistics. These tell things that cannot be thrust aside-facts that go to show that nervous diseases and insanity are upon the increase. There is no escape from the logic of what has been proven. It is for us to find and apply the necessary correctives. Nerves must be brought under orderly control. The laws of sound and healthful living de- mand it. The hope for a stronger and more self-mastered race of men and women in the future, is bound up with nerve supply and nerve conservation. It was to make this plain, that I invited our students to take a cursory glance at the ner- vous organization at the beginning of this chapter. By doing so, we have seen that there is not a faculty or sense that is not directly affected by one or the other of these three sets of nerves-the cerebrospinal, the sympathetic, or nerves of special sense. It has been made clear that nerves are live 153 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT currents running from a dynamo of creative mental and moral energy. So far as our dom- inant mental states are expressive of the higher understanding and volition, so far do nerves fulfil their duties in a rational and temperate manner calculated to increase the efficiency of all of our human powers in activity. But it must be remembered that nerve cur- rents become constructive or destructive, ac- cording to the direction given them by the free powers of the mind. When the mind gives way to aimless haste, to fussiness and excitement, and worse than useless rush and hurry and drive-which some- one has likened to "flying round in a bushel basket"-to fretting and worriment and selfish irritation; to anger, ugliness and the hundred and one other things that stand for waste of nerve force, we have no reason for astonish- ment when these give out under the strain. Mr. A. died of heart failure caused by run- ning at full speed to catch a street car after a heavy meal. Without haste, or nervous ex- 154 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES citement, he could have taken another just behind the first. In one case he would have lost, if it could be called loss, about two min- utes' time in getting to his office. As it was, he lost his life and did not get there at all. Watch the nervous talker who sits with muscles and nerves tense and strained to get in every word possible before a listener makes his escape. Rarely have such people any- thing to say really worth hearing. When they have, the way they go at it is enough to prejudice the ordinary run of men and women and arouse opposition to their thought. Al- most without exception such talkers are ready to drop with fatigue from the tension of their one-sided argument when it is over- for never do they let the other person get a word in edgeways if they can help it. Watch the people in a railroad train who seize their hand baggage and crowd the aisles, uncomfortably bumping against each other with every motion of the car, before even the station is in sight. Useless haste with nerv- 155 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT ous waste that gets them nowhere. Not a moment sooner do they reach their objective than would have been the case had they kept their seats quietly until the train came to a standstill. People who have a habit of crossing bridges before they reach them are met upon every hand. Such unfortunates conjure up possibil- ities and worry themselves into nervous terror, and often despair, over things that never happen in the end. To indulge such nerve-wasting propensities is unmoral to say the least. These are but a few out of the many in- stances that stand for steady encroachment upon our reserved powers as a nation-for habits of nerve waste are almost universal. In all public places these can be seen in different degrees and kind. There are the unconscious workings of facial muscles, some- times almost grotesque; the tensed eyes and mouths; the restless movements of hands and feet. Again we see nervous tension mani- 156 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES fested in unnaturally elevated shoulders, clenched hands or folded arms as rigid as iron. Even where people can relax, the larger numbers do it in a way that is equally wasteful of nervous force. Very generally they give way at the centre, allowing one vital organ to crowd upon another in the thoracic and ab- dominal cavities, until not a nerve running to these manufacturies of vital force can do its work unimpeded. Nerve-racking habits there are in plenty that cause friction in domestic, social and business contact. Many of these would be quickly recognized were I to cite them. But enough has been said to lead us by natural stages to the question of correctives. Of course, all readers of this book under- stand that the rules given here are suggestive, not exhaustive. At the Triuneum we teach this science of nerve conservation thoroughly as part of our Triune Development system- especially to those who take the full course 157 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT intending to become teacher-directors of Local Chapters. The best we can do with the limited space at command in a book that covers so wide a range of subjects bearing upon proportioned development as this does, is to lay down a few easily followed and thoroughly proven rules for practice of nerve conservation. But these rules, few and apparently simple as they are, go at the root of a need for greater control over our nervous organizations. Following each rule faithfully until it be- comes second nature is the only way to get the full benefit of mental and physical re- adjustments that will increase personal power where before was waste. It happens with all of us that there are times when it seems to be necessary to put an extra strain upon the nerves in carrying some im- portant responsibility that will not wait. With people who have learned how to react quickly, such exceptions but emphasize the truth that reasoned work brings better results 158 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES in the things worth while than going to the limit of nerve endurance day by day. For no sooner do we get into accord with the law of nerve control, than we begin to realize the emphasis that nature puts upon balance and proportion in her system of accounting. No sooner do we shake ourselves free from the grasp of nervous habits, than we come to realize that of all the tyrants that rule in the human economy when the spiritual comman- der-in-chief is not doing full duty, nerves are easily among the worst. "But why should the spiritual commander- in-chief not be on active duty at all times?" someone asks. Why indeed? It is a ques- tion that may well give us pause when we remember that we are spiritual beings, who were designed to exercise dominion over self and "every living thing that moveth upon the earth." But facing facts, as plain common sense compels us to see them, we are forced to admit that very few people compared to the numbers 159 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT have any idea of what constitutes true spiritual self-command. Uncontrolled nerves tell the truth plainer than words could do. Spiritual command is not merely saying I am this or that, or the other that stands for righteousness. The proof is in the instrument that reflects the central power. If this have not the symmetry of line in form and expres- sion that the "temple of the spirit" should have, then has there been a failure somewhere to connect up with the law of perfection on a working basis. If nerves, which proceed from the seat of spiritual and mental volition, do not behave themselves in an orderly manner, which enables the organs whose functioning and movements they control, to express harmony and beauty in activity, then is something lack- ing with the interior power which gives nerves their fixed habits. There can be no two ways about this. Intended by Divine Wisdom to be free be- ings under the law, we are still a long way from it, until we can understandingly direct our 160 PRIN CIPLES AND EXERCISES volitional energies into channels of noble self- control. So long as nerves rule us, we are slaves, where we were designed to be masters. Slaves are all who admit by words or implica- tion, "my nerves got the better of me that time." Now let us proceed to the ways and means by which nerves can be made to serve, instead of ruling us. First we must find a centre of poise from which to work. Essentially this takes us to the source in which nerves have their rise- back to our thinking, organizing spiritual con- sciousness in the brain. From this center of power must we work for nerve control. As none of us can rise above the level of our own ideals, the individual work to be done in each case, begins with a study of what these stand for. Are they equal to the work of transforming nerves from drags upon the wheels of our everyday activities into live currents of success in all that we are, and do? Let us go into the silence for self-communion 161 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT without any attempt at self-deception. In the silence let us ask: Have I a definite pattern of life toward which I wish to work? What is it I wish to overcome for which nerves are responsible-what achieve with them? How far have my nerves expressed impatience, worry, selfish disregard for others' feelings, fretfulness and waste of vital force, self- indulgence, lack of moral stamina, and other defects of character that have prevented the healthful physical functioning of different organs? What have I to overcome to make my nerves sound messengers of service for a sound brain? These are root questions. For be it under- stood that in Triune Development we do not attempt to evade personal responsibility for what we are and do. We believe that the law provides the means for us to change any condition of mind or body by our own co-operation. What we do not believe is that merely saying I am this or that, does the work. 162 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES We believe that every case of uncontrolled nerves responsible for organic illness can be traced back to lack of poise at the center of moral consciousness. This being true, we believe that the starting-point for improve- ment must be there at the center. But we also believe that the completed work of nervous reorganization is an orderly process of spiritual, mental and physical co-operation. For illustration: Tense nerves must be relaxed. Relaxation is both a mental and physical process. The mind says, "let go," and gives the reasons why. The muscles controlled by the nerves do the work. It is an intelligent process of co-ordinated activities of mind and body. It is a process that calls into play not only spiritual and mental reasoning powers, but as well the operation of organic laws. From this higher point of view, relaxation of the body is not a mere mechanical letting down and resting. It is a fundamentally reorganizing process. And if it be not this, 163 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT there is no knowing when nerves will again "go all to pieces" for lack of a center of equilib- rium. If there be not moral poise back of the physical relaxation of nerves and muscles, there still remains a lurking danger of sudden giving way to uncontrolled impulses. Rude- ness, impatience, antagonism to people and things, excitement, irritability, and even tornados of tempers, and other unmoral tendencies will still be liable to break loose at any time and again precipitate a nervous crisis, against which a mere mechanical habit of physical relaxation would be of little avail. But with the serene and purposeful re- laxation of mental, moral and organic under- standing and co-operation, nerves can be brought into such harmony with muscles that every movement of the body will be rendered rhythmically gracious and expressive of vital health and joyous at-one-ment with the higher harmonies of life. It is in this spirit of co-ordination with 164 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES the finer forces of being that ail of the ex- ercises in Triune Development are taught. They are not merely a mechanical stretching, twisting and working of muscles for gain- ing flexibility-they are intelligently directed, efficiency producing movements for express- ing the higher consciousness that underlies the whole science of righteous and constructive living. In other words, back of every exercise is the mental potency of an uplifting thought. Because this is true, we first go into the silence, as before said, to find out what is wrong that we wish to correct, and why? There we learn that we are holding on to destructive nerve habits. We resolve to free ourselves from these. How? By letting go. Letting go what? The defects of character back of the habits that produced the nerve tension in the first place. This is the mental aspect of it. Next comes the physical. Sitting in a chair in the correct posture, with the torso n the position given for both standing and sitting 165 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT in Chapter XI, relax the head, arms, legs and feet, saying, "I let go of all that prevents me from becoming a free channel for the inflow of the true and the good. I hold on to nothing that enslaves either my mind or my body." Upon retiring at night lie at full length upon the back on the bed with no pillow under the head, perfectly relaxed at the extremities, and say, "I rest in the stability of the laws of which I am a part. I have no anxious thought, neither worry nor resentment against any circumstance or person. I go to sleep in the full God consciousness that as I think in my heart so may I express in my life through the controlled activities of my physical in- strument of contact and service. I now desire rest and repose; and in the morning a joyful awakening free from all tension and uncon- trolled passions. I relax, rest, sleep." The refreshment of such a night's relaxa- tion must be experienced to be fully appre- ciated. To get the swing of Nature's rhythm, rest must be alternated with activity. 166 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES In our present day strenuous lives we need more than the rest of the night following day. To keep ourselves in the best possible condi- tion for health, and constructive usefulness to society by which alone do we justify our right to enjoy its collective benefits, we must estab- lish the habit of relaxing nerve tension and waste upon the instant, when we have no active duty pressing. This can be done any- where. We get into a street car with nothing to do for several blocks. Let us relax at the extrem- ities, with the hands lying quietly upon the lap-not clutching at some little thing we may have been carrying, or aimlessly playing with anything about our wearing apparel. We sit down for a moment after an exhaust- ing piece of work, but with little true rest unless we relax perfectly and have the right thought in our minds. We hold a business conversation that calls for mental concentration. This must be fol- lowed by a quick letting-down of high nerve pressure if we are to get the perfect reaction. 167 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT We enjoy music, a play, social converse, a drive, almost anything in the line of pleasure, the better when we are in a state of serenity. These are occasions when we can sit with our vital organs carrying on their work in a free and unimpeded way (after we have learned how, Chapter XI) and our extremities so relaxed that every instant will be one of gain to Nature's upbuilding forces. The opportunities for nervous conservation are as many as for waste in the course of a day, when we have learned our lesson. It simply calls for establishing the habit. This can be done in the first instance, through the exercises given for the silence, and acquirement of a center of poise. Once the thought has become firmly fixed in the sub-conscious mind that nerve waste is as unmoral as any other, and vastly more disastrous to personal and collective sanity, muscles and nerves will quickly learn to obey the inner command to relax. Thus does the higher consciousness work for our material good. 168 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES While a number of swinging, circling, rhythmic exercises for muscular and nerve relaxation are given in our full course of training (these will be published later in one of our Triune Development Brieflets), those who faithfully follow the advice given in this lesson will find themselves enjoying a degree of immunity from muscular and nervous tension well worth the effort. From bad masters, nerves will soon be transformed into what they were designed to be, live currents of intelligently co-ordinated force in every human activity and endeavor. 169 CHAPTER X HOW TO MAKE THE EYES INDEPENDENT OF GLASSES T) ECAUSE of its wonderful mechanism and the diminutive size of the window-by poets sometimes called the w indow of the soul -through which we see so much at a glance, study of the eye is most interesting. In the present connection my purpose is to give a few simple rules for reasonable care of the eyes, which have proved effective in my own case. These should carry the more weight because I am now enabled to use my eyes without glasses as easily as I did in my girl- hood, although I wore them for ten years. It would seem needless to say that with the eyes, as with all other organs, general health counts for more than anything else Indeed, without this indispensable basis for good sight little can be accomplished by any system of exercises or care directed to these organs alone. 170 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES For the average reader a lengthy description of the eye would serve little purpose. In a gen- eral way it may be said that the eye consists in part of the cornea, iris, pupil, optic nerve and retina. The cornea or white of the eye translucent, clear and slightly violet tinted in health, some- times becomes yellowed by disease as in bilious troubles and jaundice. This should be useful information for all, as the cornea is something of an index to the general condition of that laziest of all our organs, the liver. The opaque cornea, a continuation of the cornea, is a tough, whitish membrane in which the pupil, or window, is set. The iris is the colored circle surrounding the pupil. The optic nerve, as everybody knows, is the sight nerve. It terminates in the retina, a net-like expansion having to do with sensation and refracted impressions through the lens from the pupil. Six muscles control the eye. These are at- tached to the eyeball at one end, and to the 171 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT bony structure in which the eye is housed at the other. These muscles are the superior, inferior, interior, exterior rectus muscles, and the supe- rior and inferior oblique muscles. One needs to know about these, because they are the muscles used in exercises for flex- ibility of both the eyeballs and lids. The beauty of the eye depends largely upon the coloring of the iris, and the strength of the contracting and restricting muscles which cause the dilation of the pupil accord- ing to the need for admitting more or less light. It is for artificial dilation and increased brilliancy of these parts that foolish women sometimes apply the deadly belladonna-a dangerous practice, which may easily do seri- ous injury to the sight, and will certainly cause an ultimate loss of all lustre of the eye. The only permanent brightness comes from health. Not without reason do we say, "the dull eye of disease, the gleaming eye of in- sanity, the glassy eye of death." 172 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES To preserve the eyes at their best, care must be taken to ward off local inflammation and failure of sight from overstrain and abuse. Very few people think to arrange their work so that the best possible light will fall upon it. In writing a desk should be so placed-unless one be left handed-that the light will fall over the left shoulder from behind. In sew- ing one should never face the light. In walk- ing in the brillihnt sunlight, or taking a sun bath, the eyes should be shaded. When walking or riding along a glistening, sandy beach, or over a hard white road, or in winter upon newly fallen, sparkling snow, or at sea when the sun shines brightly upon the water, smoked glasses are a great saving to the eyes, as they tone down the glare. Among the many abuses which tend .to early need for glasses may be mentioned a few of the most common, such as reading, sewing, or do- ing some other work that brings strain upon the eyes at twilight, or by an insufficient even- ing light. Reading in a reclining position, or 173 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT straining to get a focus for a newspaper or book in a moving train should be carefully avoided by those who prize good sight. Unquestionably one can ward off all need for artificial aid in seeing, and enjoy good eye- sight to the end of life if the general health be good, and there exists no malformation of the eyeball, no astigmatism, myopia or other troubles. Even with these, systematic exer- cise of the muscles of the eyes, alternated with complete relaxation of the muscles and nerves, together with right bathing for cleanliness and tonic effect, and right use for conservation, will go far toward correcting these troubles. It is one of the crimes against nature, that anybody who starts life with two sound eyes should ever be compelled to give them artificial aid in seeing. I am -not yet prepared to say whether I be- lieve that glasses must be worn when there exists a difference between the two eyes. Those who ought to know better than I, say so. I have heard it insisted upon by an ocu- 174 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES list of reputation that nothing else but glasses will help the headaches which very frequently follow this trouble in childhood. Before passing upon this dogmatically, I should wish to see the result of sound organic upbuilding of all of the vital organs of the body under the higher command. I should wish to see what right attention to reasonable use of the eyes, bathing for perfect cleanliness of the corners and lids as well as for. tonic effect, and right exercise of the eye muscles, alternated with complete muscle and nerve relaxation, would do. There are eye specialists who positively state that errors of refraction can be corrected without glasses. This is done by eye training, in which I am a firm believer. I know my own eyes have become most obedient under such training; and it is generally admitted that experience is a pretty good teacher. Sometimes the eyes water. This may be from different causes. If from closing tear ducts, a good oculist will stretch these and 175 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT easily correct the trouble unless it has gone so far as to require cutting. But at any stage, watering can be largely controlled by faithful practice of the exercises given below. Many children have suffered with weak eyes-when not made entirely blind-by infec- tion at birth. Great care should be taken to prevent this. A soft sterilized gauze, or piece of old linen, should be wet in a boracic acid solution and used to wipe the new-born baby's eyes entirely free of mucus. In fact, use of the same solution is cleansing to the eyes at all times. I advise it for children and adults alike, after a walk or ride on a dusty road, or exposure of the eyes to dirt anywhere. The first thing I do in the morning upon rising is to take my cold bath. This begins with dashing the water over my face and chest. Then I make a cup of the hollow of my hand into which I lay my eyes, one after the other, allowing the cold water to run about the ball of the eye freely. I then wipe the eyes inward with a soft towel, taking care not to press upon the ball. Then follows the body bath. 176 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES The exercises which I have practiced for my own eyes, and to which I attribute my present freedom from glasses in part at least, are given in the order in which I take them; and as I have taught them to others with the greatest good results. I sit down with my body generally relaxed except at the vital centres, making sure that there is no tension in the muscles of the throat, neck, shoulders, arms or hands. I first roll my eyes upward as far as I can, then downward. This exercise I repeat three times. I then roll the eyes up, to the right, down as far as possible and inward. This rolling should be both to the right and the left. In fact, all exercises must be practiced in opposition, for balance-that is, what we do on one side must be repeated upon the other. Take this ex- ercise, like the first, three times. Always make this rolling movement as nearly as possible in a perfect circle to follow Nature's rhythm. Standing, turn the eyes as far to the right as possible without moving the head. Re- 177 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT peat, turning to the left instead of the right and back and forth three times. Drop the head upon the chest and roll the eyes upward into the top of the head as it were. Drop the head backward upon the spine, and roll the eyes downward as far as possible. Take your seat again and relax the body as before, except at the vital centres. We are now ready for muscle and nerve relaxation exer- cises. Sit perfectly still with the eyes fixed steadily in space without staring or twitching of the eyelids, or strain of any kind. Practice this for a minute or more. When you have absolute relaxation of the eyes, choose a point on the wall, the smaller the better, and gaze at it steadily in a perfectly relaxed way without staring. Change the focus of your gaze to some- thing a little to the right, then to the left, always keeping the eyes steady and with the muscles consciously relaxed. 178 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Move your chair so that you see the same objects at different distances, from five to twenty feet away. It is better to move your chair than to change your gaze to one after another object, as by so doing you can more easily judge of the power of your eyes to ad- just to a different focus. Such exercises persisted in, always of course without glasses however much you may have been given to wearing them, will bring rich reward unless you have some organic difficulty of the vital organs, especially the kidneys, which needs correcting coincidently with the eye work. By this time I suppose it is unnecessary to tell a Triune Development student that the thought must be steadily held that spiritual confidence is an essential of success with these exercises-the thought that you are follow- ing Nature's laws, designed of God, and should gain the results of true mental and organic co- ordination because of the lawful means em- ployed. 179 CHAPTER XI FOUR FUNDAMENTAL EXERCISES THAT MUST BECOME SECOND NATURE STANDING COR- RECTLY, SITTING CORRECTLY, WALKING CORRECTLY, BREATHING CORRECTLY. TT took a world war to show the people of this country how physically unfit we were as a nation. When the awful devastation of it is over, despite its never-to-be-forgotten horrors, we shall have made one permanent gain, if no other. We shall have learned what systematic camp exercise in the open, together with regu- lar and temperate habits of eating, drinking and sleeping, have done for the health and manhood of our soldiers. By the same logic may it not be argued that right principles of body, mind and char- acter building applied to the rank and file, young and ol(j, of both sexes, would bring results of incalculable benefit in all of the walks of civil life? 180 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES This I believe, and for this I work with Triune Development principles and exercises. It is now twenty-five years since I began my teaching of health development for women -mothers and children-by proper exercise and right dressing, from the lecture platform and in books. For ten years I published a magazine devoted to these subjects. Always I was upon the alert to learn everything that promised to add strength and efficiency to my work. One cannot go through years of earnest study of any subject looking to human better- ment without reaching some conclusions of lasting value. Everything that I hold true to-day of constructive human upbuilding, stands for tried and proven experience. I may call it the vital residue left over from a very rigid process of eliminating, as I went along, what did not measure up to a given standard of results under trial From my present point of view, much that is taught as physical development is so me- chanical and unscientific as to fall far short 181 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT of the mark. Many exercises given for muscular development by those whose busi- ness it is to know better, do actual harm instead of good to the health of those who practice them. I have known several persons, of both sexes, who have suffered such strain from muscular over-development, especially of the heart, that they were left in anything but a state of physical vigor and efficiency after a long course in so-called physical training. Atrophy of the muscles is not uncommon among professional athletes after a few years. Many a winner of trophies in college sports has paid the price in the lowering of both mental and physical stamina later on. Certain types of exercise taught women in schools and gymnasiums are sowing the seeds for both difficulty and danger in maternity, should they marry-which statement must not be taken to mean that I am not in favor of physical exercise for women. There are certain intelligently considered exercises that 182 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES increase the health of every function of woman- hood; and make for easy and natural par- turition. It is the kind of exercise that is the kernel within the shell. Upon this subject I could write much, so keenly do I feel that in no other profession is greater ignorance of true principles of sound upbuilding shown than in much of what passes for physical culture. Too often is this subject treated as an op- portunity for display of muscular tricks, rather than as a science of understanding adjustment of vital parts for definite ends of noble development. As I have said over and over again, nothing is true education that does not fit the student for constructive living. Muscular agility does not necessarily imply good health. Even with men, sound development of the body does not begin and end with the ability to go through a series of contortions which bring great muscles into evidence. One may acquire such muscles and use them as mere brute 183 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT force, without adding anything to the essen- tials of true and balanced human develop- ment. With women they are a positive detriment to health, and more or less in the nature of a structural deformity, where should be only rounded contour. Symmetrical development is an interior as well as an exterior achievement. It cannot be taught either sex from the standpoint of physical exercise alone; for back of every exercise and activity indispensable to the well developed structure lies the controlling mind. From this center must there radiate a definite ideal, which will put into every cell of every organ exercised, the energy of an intelligent purpose. It has been the patriotic motive at the core of them, the ideal back of the camp life and work in preparation for "winning the world for democracy," that has put vitality into the physical training of even the least spiritually understanding of our soldier boys, that would 184 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES have been impossible under other conditions- the ideal of gaining victory in a noble cause. This ideal back of the exercise, this un- derstanding of something greater to be achieved than the mere development of muscular force, must be the animating prin- ciple of all true physical development in the future. Then shall we get a right perspective upon the proportion of things, and see that work with bodily members and organs is but one branch of human effort to develop that which stands for sound and vigorous manhood and womanhood and, collectively, for national strength. The world is going through the experience of a tremendous moral and spiritual awaken- ing, which will leave nothing as it was before. In the reconstruction period ahead those who have the vision of what constitutes the higher development will be under a moral compulsion to put every effort they are capable of into the work of helping to vitalize the education 185 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT of youth from infancy into a live and con- structive spiritual, moral and physical health development, as well as a means for mental attainment. Then will education be seen as a unity of all of the forces of nature designed of almighty wisdom for the making of a sane and balanced human being-not, as now, as a matter of sectional accomplishments which do not co- ordinate into a symmetrical whole of life. For such unity of all of our forces Triune Development stands. The work of the present lesson is to call attention to four fundamentals most import- ant to this general unity and that expresses, in part, in health of body and constructive activi- ties-correct standing, sitting, walking and breathing. Let us take the first of these, standing cor- rectly: To say that ninety-nine out of every hundred men and women stand badly may sound like an extravagant claim. It is true. I can ask volunteers to come upon the plat- 186 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES form from a mixed audience of a thousand people, and in the presence of all prove my statement. Without reposturing as a people we shall never exemplify sound national health. First, because vital organs too low down in the thoracic and abdominal cavities are like a family living in cramped quarters-no organ can perform its functions without friction. Second, because the chest is the center of expression for the moral nature. Unless this be raised and active we are out of the organic line of moral poise, with emphasis given to the physical nature. To stand straight most people throw the shoulders back, than which nothing could be worse except throwing them forward. To bring the scapula (shoulder blades) nearly together over the spine is as detrimental to health of the body as to sink the chest and round the shoulders. Standing erect is not a matter of doing this or that with the shoulders. It is a co-ordina- 187 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT tion of chest, abdominal, back and leg muscles. In many schools and colleges students are being wrongly taught this essential of physical well-being, simply because the teachers them- selves do not understand what constitutes right posturing. I have had a chance to know this from having some of these teachers as Triune Development students. A few months ago a boy was shown on a "movie" screen in "the perfect standing po- sition." As a fact that boy was sufficiently back of a plumb-line to bring constant pres- sure upon the solar plexus and spinal nerves. To stand correctly, do not "put this part or that against a door," do not "hang weighted strings" here or there to fall in a given line from a given part, or try any other mechanical trick. Get the thought right as a starting point. Remember that a moral and spiritual being was designed to express an inner, as well as an outer center of poise. The raised chest is the visible symbol of inner understanding of uprightness. 188 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Standing with the weight upon the balls of the feet (the broadest part) rise to prove whether you have the correct position or not. If you are in perfect poise you will not sway the body forward in the least. If you have to do so, then you are out of line. This fact is proven by the need to sway forward before rising. Stand before a mirror to practice this posture in the first place, in order that you may see what you do. Once you have the line that you believe to be correct, raise and lower the chest by the chest muscles (not the breath) several times. In this position, expressing moral poise, keep in mind that the head must be held easily, and without contracting the throat muscles rise on the balls of the feet as high as possible. Swaying forward ever so little to do this proves that you are out of plumb. Swaying backward in the least in coming to the level, is added proof that you have not yet the true center of poise. There is but one way to stand right. There are several popular ways to stand wrong. 189 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT One is with the chest sunken, abdomen pro- truded, and shoulder-blades rounded out. An- other, with one hip higher and one shoulder lower, than the other. Still another, with the shoulders thrown backward, and the abdomen slanted inward, causing depression at the small of the back, with an outward curve below the waistline-all about equally disas- trous to the nerves and general health, and contrary to sculptural art, if the moral aspect of such standing be left out of the question. One has never achieved correct standing until it becomes "second nature." Just so long as there is a "feeling of pitching forward," as so many express it, one has not gained the true central control which belongs by right to a spiritual being. Learning to stand correctly is an exercise for practice only so long as it takes to make it a permanent achievement for life. The same is true of sitting correctly, which also requires the vital torso, erect spine and raised chest at all times. 190 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES The habit of curving the spine outward, sinking the chest, with consequent shortening of the body from the neck to the waistline in front, and crowding the vital organs down upon each other, is responsible for many a case of spinal curvature, nervous indigestion, and sometimes sudden heart failure from gastric pressure, and other troubles which might have been avoided by learning how to hold the body in the right position at all times, especially in sitting. As one bright old lady said after hearing me talk upon this subject: "I've gat it all in a nutshell. When you sit down you must sit up." A tendency to do all sorts of nervous things with the head, hands and feet, gives way be- fore the correct sitting position which vitalizes the body at the life renewing center, and relaxes it at the extremities. "But how is one to rest if she may not loll, but must sit up stiff as a stake?" asked a woman of me recently. This question showed that the woman had 191 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT absolutely no idea of what constitutes the correct sitting posture, which is merely vital, never "stiff"-in fact the raised chest is the only position which does not induce nervous tension at some point. It is the only one that relieves all of the vital organs of the pres- sure that brings stiffness, allowing the hands and feet to make easy and unconsciously graceful movements. Naturally when the erect torso has become second nature, walking correctly is rendered easy. All one has to remember until the habit has been established, is that each forward step must bring the chest over the foot in advance. This obviates jar to the spine-one of the most dangerous effects of walking with a swaying from side to side movement, bringing the heels down solidly at each step. Most people who stand and walk incor- rectly lose in height as they grow older. This is inevitable from the pressure brought upon the spine. Gradually the cushions between the vertebrae, intended to save shock in movement, shrink. The body is let down pro- 192 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES portionately, and in a way that could not take place were the spine relieved of all strain by holding the body erect. The elasticity and vigor of the forward springing step can be preserved to the end of life by learning how, and putting what one learns into practice. It is well worth the trouble from the point of view of health and attractiveness alike. The last of the four fundamentals, indis- pensable to health, correct breathing, is only possible when correct standing, sitting and walking have been established. Our breathing apparatus cannot carry on its functions nor- mally while the lungs are compressed, and the diaphragm rendered inactive by a wrong pos- ture of the body. Enough books have been written upon this subject of breathing, for use by singers and others, to stock a library. The larger part of it not only valueless from lack of correct in- struction, but really harmful because of the abnormal things a student is told to do. Breathing is a natural process which, with 193 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT the body rightly postured, should not, by good right, need to be learned. Yet so much talk has there been about different kinds of breathing, abdominal, chest, or thoracic, and diaphragmatic, that one who does not under- stand the breathing structure and what each part and organ was intended to do, and how, may well become confused. To describe the process of breathing as simply as possible, let us begin at the nose. Here there must be no obstructions to prevent the free intaking of air There must be no adenoids, polypus tissue, deflected septum, or enlarged turbinates-the spongy bones inside the nose. Always the mouth must be closed. The air then passes into the trachea, or windpipe, by way of the larynx (the organ of voice) to the bronchial tubes and lungs. Now let us glance at the thorax and its contents, the rib cage enclosing the bronchi, the lungs with their air cells surrounded by capillaries and nerve plexus; the heart and big blood vessels-an air-tight compartment 194 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES of which the diaphragm, the most important of the breathing muscles, is the base or floor. Correct breathing requires that the lungs be free and unhampered by a wrong posture or constricting clothing-which has been the trouble with women a good deal of the time. With each inspiration of air the diaphragm, w hich is more or less arched, becomes straight- ened, pushing the contents of the abdomen slightly downward. At the same time the muscles of inspiration force the floating ribs out and up, thus increasing the expansion of the thorax. As the diaphragm again becomes arched, the air is forced to the apices (the top) of the lungs, vitalizing every cell. This, and this only, is the mechanism of correct breath- ing. But when all has been said of this function of organic life, as with every other for spiritual beings there still remains that aspect of the subject, which resides in the governing prin- ciple over all. In breathing we intake oxygen and ozone 195 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT from the atmosphere to increase lung power, and the vital quality of our life stream, the blood. But as well do we inbreathe and fill ourselves with the inner potency of the Im- manent Life and Energy in which "we live and move and have our being." Thus con- sciously identified in oneness with the spiritual universe, we bring this objective life of ours into the wholeness and proportion of an un- conquerable mental, moral and physical vigor and unity. 196 CHAPTER XII HOW TO BE NEITHER TOO STOUT NOR TOO THIN IT is doubtful if any other subject pertaining to health and comeliness has ever been more ignorantly and unscientifically treated than these two of how to gain flesh and how to get rid of it. Such impossible advice as I have seen given in all seriousness on the "Woman's Page" of more than one reputable publication, espe- cially in regard to reducing, would have been funny had it not been almost criminal-for advising people to do what must inevitably starve the body, and break down tissues from lack of nutriment in a wray to ruin health, and leave the skin hanging in unsightly folds and wrinkles is certainly a crime against nature not to be minimized. As a first proposition in reducing flesh we have to remember that generalization which will meet the needs of the larger number of 197 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT cases, will not answer for all. There is always that proverbial exception that proves the rule. Some people, though few as compared to the number of those who are too stout for comfort or good looks, are born with a tendency to flesh which they never get rid of to the end of life, do what they may. Such stout people are rarely ever big eaters, and as a rule are in reasonably good health. With them flesh is not, as it is in so many cases, the result of a more or less disorganized condition of the functions of digestion and elimination, for usually their flesh is fairly firm to the touch and fine in texture. Theirs is simply a natural tendency. An old colored mammy I used to employ at times, who was about as broad as she was tall, put the case very well for herself: "Ize jes' a stout pus'un, honey, and you can't mek nothin' else outen me. Gord 'Imighty cut me out dat way, an' dar ain't nothin' gwine to mek me no dif'runt dis yere side of heaben, 'cose I'ze marked to be jes' lik I am." 198 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES Any diet that appreciably reduces the flesh of the temperamentally stout, with very rare exceptions, does it on the starvation basis. It leaves them below normal physically, and far from looking as well as before. Occasion- ally a course of baths of the right kind, to- gether with carefully considered muscular exercises, will help some. But as a rule I advise such people not to attempt either the exercises or the baths with the determination to reduce at any cost, because they are then almost sure to overdo the matter. To employ these in a reasoned way and leave results to take care of themselves is the right thing. Sometimes this treatment proves most effectual. Always it is good for the general health. I have heard recently of one of these tem- peramentally stout people who patiently stands for fifteen or more minutes after each meal, in some prescribed position supposed to be efficacious in preventing the formation of flesh from eating. The same lady rolls herself 199 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT back and forth over the floor daily, hoping to roll the flesh off her hips. Yet not a frac- tion of a pound does she lose, according to my informant. There is a science of sound and desirable reduction which can be employed with perfect success, in nine cases out of ten, where the flesh is of the kind that should be reduced by good rights for health. But in nothing do I wish to be more explicit than in making my students understand that such reduction has nothing whatever to do with starvation. Neither with taking danger- ous drugs and acids into the stomach to injure the mucous membrane lining of this important laboratory of the digestive system and inter- fere with the natural action of the gastric juice. Poisons and ferments passed into the circula- tion, in whatever form, are detrimental to health. To what degree varies according to the way these are susceptible of being acted upon by the natural digestive fluids. Common sense must tell those who hap- 200 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES pen to be blessed with this rare but most desirable quality, that any nostrum strong enough to take off flesh without regard to nature's ordinary working processes, could not fail to do permanent injury, and should be avoided, no matter what the enticing claim made for it. Several vital factors enter into a reasonable system of reduction. I have been so fortunate as to help both men and women-I use the word help, because in each case the greater part of the work must be done by the student-to take off weight varying from ten to fifty pounds, according to individual needs. In most of these cases the flesh was of the soft, fatty, flabby kind, about equally disas- trous to good health and good looks. It may seem strange to those who do not un- derstand the different bodily processes, that mal-assimilation of food is often in good part responsible for the two extremes of too much and too little flesh. But such is the fact. Hence the question of what kind of food to eat is a large one in both cases. And in both must 201 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT a sufficient quantity be partaken to insure sound nourishment with not a hint of starva- tion. Next comes the question of whipping up lazy digestive organs by understanding exer- cise of these parts. Without activity in the digestive tract the best of food will fail of its purpose, from failure of the five digestive fluids to prepare it for taking into the circula- tion. Good digestion begins, as everybody ought to know from all that has been said and writ- ten upon the subject, with the saliva in the mouth. It continues with the gastric juice in the stomach, and the three digestive fluids which do the final work in the duodenum-the pancreatic juice, the bile from the liver, and the liquid secretion from the mucous membrane of the small intestines. The first digestive exercise is one of the jaws, teeth and tongue, or learning to chew so effectively that every particle of food that enters the mouth-meats only excepted-shall 202 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES be broken up and fully liquefied before being swallowed. The second, strengthening the chest muscles, diaphragm and other muscles controlling or- gans in proximity to the stomach, so that none of these will crowd upon this important chemical workshop and by abnormal pressure interfere with its operations. The last of these exercises has to do with increasing the activity of that lazy gland, the liver. For it is the alkaline bile that neutral- izes the acid contents of the stomach, and pre- pares the semi-digested food from that organ for the action of the pancreatic and intestinal juices. The bile also stimulates increased peristaltic action in the intestines. In its natural character as an antiseptic, it prevents the formation of bacteria, which so often leads to auto-intoxication, or self-poisoning of the system, and that very common trouble con- stipation-both of which are fatal to healthy flesh in the right proportions. Much of the digested contents from the 203 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT small intestines passes from the minute blood vessels back to the liver. There it is prepared for entering the circulation of the blood. Normal action of the liver is of the utmost im- portance to health. It secretes bile in the biliary orifice, so important to pure blood. It acts upon proteins and sugars; and its cells form an animal starch most necessary to nutrition of different bodily tissues. From the foregoing it will be seen that the exercises taken for stimulating the natural secretions and excretions of the body indis- pensable to a perfect condition of the fleshy tissues must be of such a nature that they can do their work intelligently. Again, it can be seen that these must be adapted to individual needs, as determined by the heart's action, the condition of the arteries, the lungs and general circulation. In short, reducing flesh must be scientifically and understandingly done, or not at all. From my point of view few rules can be laid down in books like this for so important 204 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES a matter. All rules that apply in general to sound up-building of the body, under spiritual and mental command, help in this, as in other things pertaining to right functioning, and symmetry and beauty in expression. But in the last analysis each case has its individual features which call for individual treatment. For every reason of health, the skin, an organ of secretion and excretion, should be kept in perfect condition to eliminate waste in con- nection with the kidneys and by way of the rectum. This has a most important bearing upon both flesh reduction and flesh making. To keep the skin functioning properly, perspiration must be induced in one way or another. In summer this can be done entirely by exercise followed by a tub bath. In winter the hot cabinet bath is needed. In both cases should follow rubbing, and rubbing-with still more rubbing. To keep down flesh, the foods eaten must be wisely chosen to give balanced nutriment without excess of those having fat-making 205 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT properties. Upon the other hand, when the desire is to gain flesh, the foods selected must have the fat-making qualities. But in neither case should it be forgotten that perfect diges- tion and assimilation are the important points to be gained. There are a good many different exercises that stimulate the nutrient functions of the body. But in general it is not altogether easy to teach these in a way that will insure their perfect adaptation to a given case of serious mal-assimilation without having knowledge of the exact condition that led to the trouble in the first place. This is one reason why I always advise all who wish to correct either of these two opposite conditions, to have a proper examination made of the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and other parts, by one who understands the body and its organic proc- esses. Medicine, food or exercise ignorantly tak- en to correct these difficulties can easily pro- duce strain upon the heart, and such serious 206 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES tissue waste and nervous debility that it will be going from bad to worse. Gaining and losing flesh are not matters for ignorant stunts in either eating, drinking or exercise. A single illustration will give emphasis to my meaning. A certain woman began to lose flesh rapidly. She became alarmed. What could it mean? Instead of going to one who understood and could have given her intelli- gent help, she took up with some kind of quack treatment for regaining her lost flesh. This treatment carried an excess of sweets. She grew rapidly worse. Later, when com- pelled to seek understanding advice, it was found that she had a case of diabetes, to which sugar is almost fatal. I could mention many other such instances, but need not. The point is simply this-for most cases of too much or too little flesh there is a corrective. But work of an individual character is needed when the exercises and instructions given for physical and mental 207 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT co-operation for the acquirement of health in general, do not overcome these conditions. As a rule exercise of the muscular system has a tendency to burn away excess of adipose tissue by generating heat in the muscles so overlaid. This answers for a generalization. It is true as far as it goes. But with a case of serious mal-assimilation muscular exercises, almost indispensable to the up-building of a perfect bodily condition in general, would be only one part of the work essential to a cure. In this, as all other efforts pertaining to the making of a body fit to be the temple of the spirit, and a revelation of God's supremest handiwork in creation, the individual and the law must come into full accord. There is no other way to vibrate this harp of a thousand strings to the full harmony in expression for which it was designed. Understanding reduction of weight accord- ing to individual need, based upon study of the individual condition, sometimes calls for a less amount of food than has been eaten, 208 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES but not always. The nature of the foods in combination, with right bathing, exercise, and equally important, right thinking, is what counts. Always those who wish to reduce must avoid an excess of carbohydrates and fats. But here again, knowledge of the chemistry of foods, and how they are acted upon by the digestive fluids is essential not to carry the eliminating process to a point to deprive the body of the nutriment and heat necessary to healthful functioning. Those who wish to gain flesh need both fats and carbohydrates, and the same general care of the body to stimulate digestion and cir- culation as with too much flesh. At the Triuneum, flesh making and flesh reduction are taught our students who intend to become teacher directors of Local Tri- uneums, according to scientific principles. 209 CHAPTER XIII EATING AS A FINE ART THE matter that follows in this chapter is more or less a continuation of the pre- ceding one, for the reason that the right amount of flesh for health and symmetry is bound up with the subject of right eating. Sources of information concerning the na- ture of different kinds of food, and their nutri- tive values as raw material, are so many at present that I shall give very little space to consideration of this phase of the question of eating as a fine art. The necessity for food saving forced upon the nations by war has led to the official publica- tion of so much about different substitutes for the more expensive varieties, and the conserva- tion of certain grains and meats, like wheat, beef, pork, etc., that people are thinking upon the subject of foods and their preparation in cheap and palatable form as never before. 210 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES It would seem as if those who wish to become well informed as to all that can be done under present handicaps, and how to meet an emergency in the easiest and most practical way possible, can find much to help them. The Department of Agriculture at Wash- ington publishes a great deal that is valuable relative to foods. This is available to all. There are many tables of foods showing the proportions of fats, proteids and carbohy- drates in different meats, vegetables and fruits in books and pamphlets easily obtained. Besides such information can always be found in an encyclopedia. But I shrewdly suspect that the most vital facts about the many varieties of organic and inorganic substances which are converted into blood and tissues in the human laboratory, are still but indifferently understood by a large proportion of those who talk glibly of these things, and the number of calories each represents in the daily bill of fare. Eating is a fine art, calling for a wide range 211 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT of adaptations to national and climatic char- acteristics. These sub-divide into individual temperamental differences, and varying needs according to age and occupation. This being true the whole subject of eating the right things, at the right time, in the right way, is of far greater importance than most people realize. It is not too much to say that individual health and efficiency, and national strength and greatness, depend in large measure upon organic nutrition as a first condition. We can- not sidetrack this forcing truth of physical nature, try as we may. Eat we must, or starve. Eat rightly we must to accumulate bodily capital for our daily activities, and to insure a reserve in the bank of health against the unexpected. Eating as a fine art consists in food and drink that will accurately rebuild waste and sustain vital energy unimpaired, without leav- ing a clogging residue to prevent proper work- ing of the human machinery. 212 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES When we consider these differences men- tioned in their true aspect one to another, we see that the problem of how to eat in a way to fulfill the requirements of nutrition and conservation for every part of the body and brain is a large one. With all classes, un- der all conditions, it is sufficiently complex to be regarded as a science of right eating for right results that, like any other, must be learned. The truth about eating has to be faced among the world's future readjustments for balanced progress. When we start upon the broad program of reconstruction that is in- evitable after the close of the present devas- tating struggle, and begin the work of bringing true principles of conservation to bear upon upbuilding our energies to save waste in ever so little, we shall find this subject of feeding pressing hard for a sound p'hysiological and economic solution. It will have to be met in a way that has never yet struck home to the the practical common sense of the many. 213 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT One of the most needed lessons of the time would be lost if we were to go on afterward with the same old ignorant, extravagant and wasteful handling of the nation's food prob- lem. This applies equally to food in bulk in the raw, and to its preparation for consump- tion in different forms. No longer can that which is indispensable to our very existence be left to haphazard chance in production and distribution; to shortage here and glut there; with greed and graft wherever an undeveloped conscience has the power to force a situation under stress of circumstances. Nor yet to unscientific han- dling which robs it of much of its nutritive value to the consumer, with far-reaching evil results to public health. The nation's food problem-I might say the world's-must be solved in a just and equi- table way that will mean safety and plenty for all, as well as scientific body building. This can be achieved in every phase, from the seed to the cooked product adapted to 214 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES sound nutrition, if it be taken hold of in all seriousness, as an issue involving the well being of the masses, and through them of the State. Long have I contended that the day must come when the waste of individual buying of food in small quantities, and its hit-or-miss preparation in family kitchens must cease. Neither is this any more a blow aimed at family life-as some alarmists argue-than was eliminating the spinning-wheel and shoe- maker's bench from the home. If we would have the collective life sound at the core, we must work for this consummation according to demonstrably sound principles. Functional disturbances subversive of physi- cal, mental and moral equilibrium must be corrected. There is but one way to do it. We must build bodies and minds to a better pattern according to more scientific methods. To illustrate the difficulties in regulating the nutriment of even a small family on a thor- oughly physiological and economic basis, we will take a suppositional case of father, mother. 215 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT grandmother and two children, a boy and a girl. We will say that father is a poorly-paid, be- cause mediocre, clerk. What he is physically can be traced backward to the lack of sound upbuilding during the developing years. His present sedentary occupation has reduced him to a state of body and mind that will re- main more or less permanent. He is a dys- peptic and a pessimist, who has capitulated en- tirely to life's hard discipline. Mother is more of a .personality in her way. She is of an opti- mistic disposition, quite the opposite of her husband. The combination of a right mental outlook and well exercised muscles in house- work has given her reasonable health and sound digestion. She can take care of food in quantity and quality that would be almost death to her husband. Grandmother is much like her son. She rocks and knits and grumbles and cannot eat this or that, and is hungry all of the time. She cordially resents her daughter-in-law's good 216 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES appetite as a kind of personal affront to her. The little girl is sickly and anaemic, with a tendency to rickets. The boy is a healthy young animal a few years older than his sister. Coming earlier in his parents' married life, before things had settled down to the dull monotony in which father now follows a treadmill existence day by day, the boy had a better chance than the girl from the start. The vital imperative with this family, as with all others, is that they must be fed. Father must furnish the money for it, no mat- ter how high raw materials soar. Mother must cook these after her own fashion, al- though there is not a ghost of a chance of her doing so in a way to furnish the right nutri- ment, in the right proportion and quantity to meet the needs of five such differently con- stituted people, all having bodily needs at variance with the others. Mother knows absolutely nothing about proteins and carbohydrates though she has heard that "fats are good for folks." She does 217 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT not know the meaning of red blood corpuscles, or that Jane lacks them. She has no idea that her diseased bones need lime for strength and elasticity; nor what edibles contain this earthly matter. She has never heard that nitrogenous foods feed muscle tissue. A talk about calories would be about as intelligible to her as Greek. She does know that Jane is always ailing and miserable-that she hardly touches food, and frequently needs the doctor. She knows that her husband has to take all kinds of stuff from soda to pepsin to ease the pain of his indi- gestion and keep him going. She knows that grandmother is awfully hard to get along with because she is so fussy about what she eats. She rejoices that she and John can eat anything and everything with a relish. There it ends, with nothing done to correct the situation. The same is true of hundreds of thousands of other families, of which this one is typical. Mal-nutrition is a national disease, due to the unscientific feeding of the people. 218 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES The condition of a large number of the chil- dren in public schools tells the story. We all know what was the physical status of the rank and file of the men called to the colors; and what training these men, who were regarded as all right for civil life, had to be put through before they were considered fit to face cannon. Supposing we put the matter for this par- ticular family in another way. We will assume that mother does know something of food tables, of proteids, fats and carbohydrates. We will take it for granted that she has heard that the potential energy in a calory has ap- proximately been estimated by the scientists as the amount of heat necessary to bring a pound of water to a temperature of 4 degrees Fahrenheit. So far, so good. But there still remains the question of why the same number of calories in the food Jane eats, does not produce the same results as with John, who grows like a weed and has energy to spare. Why, again, does the day laborer working on the road outside, 219 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT need more calories than even the healthy- mother? Why? and why? and why?-for there are many whys in reaching a reasonable conclusion as to why the problem of the eco- nomical and scientific feeding of a family for sound health and symmetry will never be achieved through the marketing and cooking of the individual mother in the individual family kitchen. Nor-following the same line of argument to its logical conclusion-a strong race of men and women spring from the loins of physical weakness at any waving of a magical wand. The whole solution of our future greatness rests upon sound body building from birth. Sound and proportioned individual and na- tional character must express to the eye in bodily symmetry and vigor. Right eating is but one phase of this far- reaching human upbuilding. But it is much too important a phase to be left to chance, as it has been in the past. The scientific co-operative kitchen, which 220 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES will conserve the family income, as well as the family health, by cutting the cost of the food eaten in half, at least, is bound to come sooner or later. The chef who will understand how to furnish the right substances for sound nutriment for every temperament is bound to supersede the drug doctor. Keeping folks well in the first place will be considered far better worth while and more consistent with sound progress than getting them well after they become ill as we become wiser. A volume could be written upon this sub- ject. Touching it lightly, as I must of neces- sity here, is merely setting the right vibration in motion. Eating as a fine art is not consistent with a superficial knowledge of the elements con- tained in this food or that, though such under- standing may aid a mother somewhat in her selection of the best things available at present. But much more is involved in the question of right nourishment of the body than merely knowing the nature of a few raw materials. 221 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT Besides, we have to remember that these may be completely changed in combination, and especially when acted upon by the digestive fluids. It is valuable information for us to know the dangers of over-eating-for most people do over-eat, especially at middle life and later- and other things of a similar nature. But no amount of generalizing upon foods will make up for the accurate chemical knowl- edge which should govern the preparation of all that goes into the human stomach. To fur- nish sustenance, and the essential elements of growth and repair of waste, especially dur- ing childhood, requires accurate knowledge. Common sense must be encouraged to hold greater sway in the essentials of our common life. It is at ground level that we carry on the practical activities, and all that pertains to these. We are vast store-houses of undeveloped resources. What we are capable of under right spiritual, mental and physical co-ordination is but little in evidence yet. Our field of vision 222 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES needs to be widened to take in more of our own possibilities. We need a better perspective upon the means by which to get firm hold upon all that will enable us to become captains of our own souls and lives. It is a big subject that harks back to study of the bases of things divinely ordained for our sound organic development under spiritual dominion. Our work is to gain the mastery of self and conditions; to mold circumstances and things to a diviner pattern. Never did the human conscience have a clearer call to self-understanding, and self-improvement ac- cording to law than to-day, when the old order is passing as we "pass under the rod." I know that some are going to be disappoint- ed because I have not given more of the kind of advice for doing this, that and the other, which so many love to swallow without even the proverbial grain of salt. I have not done so, because I know that understanding of the vital questions underlying sound human de- velopment demands reasoned study with in- 223 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT structors who know the laws governing, and are prepared to make principles clear in practical lessons following each other in or- dered sequence. It is to furnish the means for spreading such knowledge in workable form, that teacher - directors are equipped at the Triuneum to go forth and establish Local Chapters of the Triune Development Order in different towns and cities. This is a new work. It will take time to get it thoroughly established. But every Local Triuneum formed will be another means for giving mothers help in the great task of con- structive child development, which leads logic- ally to constructive national upbuilding. 224 CHAPTER XIV MAKING LIFE WORTH LIVING IN GENERAL I SHOULD hesitate to tell the number of times I have heard people say in the last three years, "Why did I ever live to see this day?"-or something to the same effect. To those of us who feel the sheer moral propulsion of an invulnerable spiritual pur- pose working beneath the surface of the present world horrors, it is difficult to under- stand that there are any who lack a realizing sense of the tremendous privilege of having a part, however small, in such an epoch-making period of human history. Awful it is beyond words to express- majestically awful we may say! But above every shell-torn and blood-soaked field of battle is the portent of "a new heaven and a new earth." Never since the birth in the manger, which ushered in a new ministry to mankind two 225 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT thousand years ago, has the God-conscious- ness moved upon the face of nature and in the hearts of men, with such living force as it does to-day. The leaven of personal surrender to collect- ive needs is working through the hideous moil of human passions with illuminating power that will purify the world of much of the vast selfishness, injustice and worldliness which has bewildered conscience and increased incon- sistencies out of joint with a civilization sprung from the Christ's life and teaching. The cross, symbol of sacrifice for others, is everywhere in evidence upon practical fields of human helpfulness to-day. Everywhere are men and women standing shoulder to shoulder in the very exaltation of desire to forget self in ministration to others' sufferings and sorrow. Everywhere is the evidence that God is coming into His own in human lives in a sense that will irresistibly change the destiny of men and nations. Where before existed religious faith that 226 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES spent itself largely in rapt devotion at altars and shrines in cathedrals and churches, to-day is irradiated the God-consciousness of more consistently righteous living in the open. Before the facts of a consecrated sociology in the making day by day, imagination ceases its functions. It took a tremendous moral emergency to vibrate the overtones in human conscience. But never again will these be silenced. From this day henceforth it is inevitable that the trend of human life shall be more spiritual, more sincere, more simple and consistent than ever before. No longer will mere money and things have the magic power they have had to override the higher ideals. The lessons we are learning in blood and agony could have had their source in no less an issue than the rights of men and nations to freedom-"the glorious freedom of the sons of God." Hereafter shall we know that in truth, "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth," but in the 227 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT power to win noble victory over the limitations set by tyrants within and without. For twenty centuries men have clothed a spiritual ideal with the paraphernalia of ecclesiastical pomp and ceremony, and largely satisfied their hunger after truth by seventh day public worship of their ideal, in softly cushioned pews, according to the established forms of traditional authority. But of daily living of the ideal there has been little save among a few choice spirits, here and there. Of inner consecration to right, of unworldliness, unselfishness, moral initia- tive, equity in practical affairs, love of human- ity and irresistible impulse to social service, the spiritual dynamics of the Christ life, the world has had little evidence outside the in- dividual exceptions, which prove the rule. Emerson's answer to the question, "Has Christianity been a failure?" sums it all up: "It has never been tried." To-day the Christ spirit is being exemplified in a way seldom witnessed. Not as a pro- 228 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES fession of faith, not in the name of church or creed, not as dogma or ritual, but as a practical expression of the spiritual consciousness work- ing at the hearts of humanity-the same that made the Christ life upon earth the most intense expression of love for God and human- ity that the world has ever seen. To the sneer, "that killing one's fellow-men by millions is a poor way to express this consciousness," there is but one answer: "It will well be worth the sacrifice in blood and treasure, if the final outcome be the open- ing of our eyes to the sublime truth that the safety of men and nations, and the social and economic institutions which they build, can never be secured by brute force armed with guns and ammunition; but only by the power of justice as ordained in the constitution of God, working upon the spirits of men in daily life." Could any sacrifice be too great for the making of a family of nations, and a universal brotherhood of men, pledged to constructive 229 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT upbuilding of the world's resources, and the equitable sharing of these as the righteous fruits of widely co-ordinated human effort? "A vision, a dream!" No!-a realization to come. Nearer to-day than ever before in human history, because for the first time the overwhelming necessity for it as a condition of simple human safety has been brought to focus in the awful revelation of the perils, waste, destruction and desolation, suffering and soul anguish that inevitably follow, sooner or later, in the train of a false separation be- tween man and man, and nation and nation. It took just what the world is going through to emphasize the practical advantages of social, ethical and industrial relationships based upon other ideals than the power to fight for them. We have so long built the larger numbers of our human institutions upon such insecure bases, that like a house of cards they have crumbled before the first vital test of their strength. At length we are face to face with 230 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES the awful evidence of the need for readjust- ments upon more solid and unshakeable foundations. We shall rebuild in a new spirit of under- standing in the days to come. Strengthened by nobler ideals of spiritual, moral and in- dustrial progress, what we build will stand. We are are just beginning to vision this won- drously great reconstructive process to follow the most destructive work of all time. We are in the mid-stream of the sanest understanding of the need for personal, social, national and international readjustments that has ever come to men en masse. When these have been brought to fruition the world will be a differ- ent place to live in. This is the hour of a clarion call for every one of us to lay our treasures upon the altar of a common cause. Every one of us is capable of doing some- thing to assist in uncovering the potentialities for sound development at the core of individ- uals and nations. Let us not shirk our task. 231 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT When we have passed beyond the present period of formative suffering in the cause of unified human progress, we shall realize that many a chasm of human separation has been automatically bridged meanwhile. But upon the other hand, let us not forget that achieving an understanding for future effort is but the beginning of the real work to be done in making life worth while in general. We have still to give thought to the unfold- ing of our individual lives, our domestic and social relationships, our moral, industrial and commercial progress along the transforming lines of this higher understanding born of a world's travail. We have found the inspiration for this in the scriptural words, made alive by the evidence: "Thou foolish one who layest up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." Still will the work be ours to do for the acquirement of the true riches of the God consciousness. Still will it be for us to vitalize every common- place duty and activity that goes to make the 232 PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISES sum total of our collective interests as a com- mon humanity. To put effective spurs to individual effort to make the most possible of the opportunities for proportioned unfolding offered by the present break between the workings of a destructive past, and the promises of a con- structive future, is the purpose of the Triune Development Orders and its Local Chapters. This science of development approaches all of the larger problems of life from within. It works from the individual to the many. As shown in the foregoing chapters it works with laws and principles that stand for sound bodies and minds. It anchors in safe and balanced spiritual and organic processes designed to put us in working command of every faculty and function of being. The manifold collective benefits that follow as a mere sequence of such individual expan- sion of powers, need not be enlarged upon here. They must be obvious to those who think. Triune Development makes a simple and 233 TRIUNE DEVELOPMENT direct appeal to common sense for develop- ment that develops; for education that edu- cates; for living that is vitally true in every fibre. In short, Triune methods are a chal- lenge to individuals to express the divinity within by becoming responsive and pro- ductive units of a constructive world order- an order which will have no future place for social parasites, or the pride of anything but wholesome victories over all degenerating tendencies due to ignorance, prejudice, spir- itual unbelief, and other ignoble limitations. 234 FATHER, MOTHER AND BABE BY ANNA JENNESS-MILLER A BOOK FOR THE EXPECTANT MOTHER ■ HTHE purpose of "Father, Mother and Babe," * is twofold: First, to teach how to insure the health of the prospective mother, the mother and the child; second, to teach parents how to weave the soul-stuff of the child into a beautiful, complete entity and how to live and conduct their physical, domestic and spiritual relations so as to render their own lives har- monious and complete. The prospective mother is instructed how to safeguard her physical welfare-detailed information is concisely presented concerning the care of health and hygienic living during pregnancy that will make for comfort during that period and a safe parturition. Next, the book teaches the mother how to care for the baby-the one hundred and one facts she must know to keep baby healthy and vigorous. "Father, Mother and Babe" includes a chapter written so as to be comprehensible to children and intended to be read by the mother to her boy or girl, which teaches the child how it came into being. The story of the formation and development of life and the meaning of sex is beautifully and delicately told, inculcating in the child respect for his or her body and respect for sex as the potential creator of life. CONTENTS A Foreword to Mothers Chapter I.-A Story of God's Human Garden: A Story for Boys and Girls about Life and Its Creation. Chapter II.-Plain Truths. Chapter III.-Looking Facts in the Face. Chapter IV.-Clothing for Prospective Mothers. Chapter V.-Bathing and Diet. Chapter VI.-Exercises for Making Child-birth Safe and Easy: Right and Wrong Ideas of Exercise. Chapter VII.-What a Woman Can Suffer but Need Not: What I Saw at a Twilight Sleep Birth. Chapter VIII.-Commonsense Care of Mother and Baby. Chapter IX.-Baby's First Clothes. Chapter X.-The Sin of Silence. "Father, Mother and Babe" will help those who are married or about to be married, and particularly the expectant mother. Handsomely bound in cloth with cover embellished by a portrait of author in colors. 288 pages. Illustrated from photographs and by diagrams of baby's clothing. Regular price, postpaid $1.10 Address Mrs. Jenness-Miller, 220 Madison Ave., N. Y. C. 235 DO YOU WANT A PROFESSION FOR LIFE? Take a Teachers' Course in Triune Development Most professions are overcrowded. For some time to come this will be an open field THE call for constructive human upbuilding, following the present world devastation, will ensure all who are able to demonstrate true knowledge and ability to help undeveloped and suffering humanity to Vital Health and Self-command, an oppor- tunity to do so. Students who take the full Teachers' Course in Triune Development, and prove their ability to do the work properly will receive a Teacher's Certificate, and Authority to organize a Local Chapter of the Triune Order with their own Triuneum in a locality where there is none. Certificates will not be given to two for teaching in the same place except by the request of both. Why not learn this work and make it your profession in your home city? For full particulars apply to Mrs. Jenness-Miller 220 Madison Av., New York Send for circular of Mrs. Jenness-Miller's Lessons in Triune Development by Mail. 236 At the Triuneum What We Shall Teach Our Students, From October 14th, 1918, until May 1st, 1919: The Laws Governing Self-control as a Spir- itual, Mental and Physical Unity of Forces. Physical and Other Exercises for Symmetrical Development of the Body. Methods for Achieving Concentration and Memory. Methods for Achieving Constructive Self- expression. Methods for Conservation of Nervous Energy. Methods for Conservation of the Vital Forces. Methods for Correcting such enemies to hu- man Efficiency as biliousness, indigestion, con- stipation, auto-intoxication*, headaches, sleep- lessness and other functional irregularities. Balanced Nutrition. Standardized Household Economics. Development of the Voice for Healthful and Effective Speech. Other subjects indispensable to proportioned and constructive living. Those preparing to take up the work of Teacher Directors of Local Chapters will be given special instruction in what, for want of a better term, must be called Constructive Social Relationships For terms and full particulars, address: MRS. JENNESS-MILLER, 220 Madison Ave., New York City 237 Triune Development by Mail Twelve Lessons Two Each Month for Six Months A chart of ninety-seven questions is sent each student to fill out. This calls for certain measurements and in- formation. Upon the receipt of this chart filled out, a diagnosis is made of each student's needs accord- ing to Triune Development Principles. When possible to do so, a photograph should be returned with the chart. Frequently I am asked: "Is teaching by mail as satisfactory as private or class work?" A candid answer must be, "Nothing takes the place of the inspiring personal touch between the teacher and student. But it has been proven that Triune Development teaching by mail does the work of correcting and upbuilding claimed for it, when the student does his or her part. This book, Triune Development Principles and Exercises, is suggestive. The correspondence course makes these suggestions alive and per- sonal, and adds many others. In twelve consistently condensed and illus- trated* lessons, vital principles are taught in logical order. These are all in concrete workable form, one lesson following and giving emphasis to another. Summed up, the benefits to those who take this course are self-understanding, self-control, a more sound and balanced outlook upon what each one of us can do to improve ourselves and help others, and how to do it. These prac- 238 tical exercises bring good spiritual perception, good mental poise, good physical health, good blood, a good heart, good muscles, good nerves, good digestion, good eyesight, good mental concentration, good memory, good constructive power, good relationships with others, and no less important than the rest, good looks as the natural expression of all the other Goods. What more does anyone want? The price of this course of twelve lessons, with personal directions based upon each personal chart, is $50. Twenty-five dollars is payable in advance and $25 at the end of three months. Remember this course shows students how to make life sound at the core, not in generaliza- tions, but in practically systematized work for every day in the year-work which, once it is learned, will not take over twenty minutes daily to keep one in good condition. These exercises upbuild and conserve the vital forces. Fifty dollars spent this way may save many times that amount in another. How long does it take to spend that sum in doctor's fees and medicines, when ill? One member of a family who takes this course can make it valuable to all of the rest. What saves illness, in the long run, saves money. What saves suffering, conserves human power for constructive achievement. Get Well, Keep Well, Look Well, Act Well. Address MRS. JENNESS-MILLER, 220 Madison Ave., New York City 239