WIXLIB

talents which are well developed, you willdo best in a business which calls for theexercise of those talents.Also, you will do best in a business whichis suited to your locality; an ice-creamparlor would do better in a warmclimate than in Greenland, and a salmonfishery will succeed better in the Northwestthan in Florida, where there are no salmon.But,asidefromthesegenerallimitations, getting rich is not dependentupon your engaging in some particularbusiness, but upon your learning to dothings in a Certain Way. If you are now inbusiness, and anybody else in yourlocality is getting rich in the samebusiness, while you are not getting rich, itis because you are not doing things in thesame Way that the other person is doingthem.No one is prevented from getting rich bylack of capital. True, as you get capital theincrease becomes more easy and rapid; but

one who has capital is already rich, anddoes not need to consider how to becomeso. No matter how poor you may be, ifyou begin to do things in the Certain Wayyou will begin to get rich; and you willbegin to have capital. The getting of capitalis a part of the process of getting rich; andit is a part of the result which invariablyfollows the doing of things in the CertainWay. You may be the poorest man on thecontinent, and be deeply in debt; you mayhave neither friends, influence, norresources; but if you begin to do things inthis way, you must infallibly begin to getrich, for like causes must produce likeeffects. If you have no capital, you can getcapital; if you are in the wrong business,you can get into the right business; if youare in the wrong location, you can go tothe right location; and you can do so bybeginning in your present business andin your present location to do things inthe Certain Way which causes success.

Is Opportunity Monopolized?NO man is kept poor because opportunityhas been taken away from him; becauseother people have monopolized thewealth, and have put a fence around it. Youmay be shut off from engaging in businessin certain lines, but there are other channelsopen to you. Probably it would be hard foryou to get control of any of the greatrailroad systems; that field is pretty wellmonopolized. But the electric railwaybusiness is still in its infancy, and offersplenty of scope for enterprise; and it willbe but a very few years until trafficand transportation through the air willbecome a great industry, and in all itsbranches will give employment to hundredsof thousands, and perhaps to millions, ofpeople. Why not turn your attention to thedevelopment of aerial transportation,instead of competing with J.J. Hill andothers for a chance in the steam railwayworld?

It is quite true that if you are a workman inthe employ of the steel trust you have verylittle chance of becoming the owner of theplant in which you work; but it is also truethat if you will commence to act in aCertain Way, you can soon leave theemploy of the steel trust; you can buy afarm of from ten to forty acres, and engagein business as a producer of foodstuffs.There is great opportunity at this time formen who will live upon small tracts ofland and cultivate the same intensively;such men will certainly get rich. You maysay that it is impossible for you to get theland, but I am going to prove to you that itis not impossible, and that you cancertainly get a farm if you will go to workin a Certain Way.At different periods the tide ofopportunity sets in different directions,according to the needs of the whole, andthe particular stage of social evolutionwhich has been reached. At present, inAmerica, it is setting toward agricultureand the allied industries and professions.

To-day, opportunity is open before thefactory worker in his line. It is open beforethe business man who supplies the farmermore than before the one who suppliesthe factory worker; and before theprofessional man who waits upon thefarmer more than before the one whoserves the working class.There is abundance of opportunity for theman who will go with the tide, instead oftrying to swim against it.So the factory workers, either asindividuals or as a class, are not deprivedof opportunity. The workers are not being"kept down" by their masters; they arenot being "ground" by the trusts andcombinations of capital. As a class, theyare where they are because they do not dothings in a Certain Way. If the workers ofAmerica chose to do so, they could followthe example of their brothers in Belgiumand other countries, and establish greatdepartment stores and co-operativeindustries; they could elect men of theirown class to office, and pass laws favoring

the development of such co- operativeindustries; and in a few years they couldtake peaceable possession of the industrialfield.The working class may become the masterclass whenever they will begin to dothings in a Certain Way; the law of wealthis the same for them as it is for all others.This they must learn; and they will remainwhere they are as long as they continue todo as they do. The individual worker,however, is not held down by the ignoranceor the mental slothfulness of his class; hecan follow the tide of opportunity to riches,and this book will tell him how.No one is kept in poverty by a shortness inthe supply of riches; there is more thanenough for all. A palace as large as thecapitol at Washington might be built forevery family on earth from the buildingmaterial in the United States alone; andunder intensive cultivation, this countrywould produce wool, cotton, linen, and silkenough to cloth each person in the world

finer than Solomon was arrayed in all hisglory; together with food enough to feedthem all luxuriously.The visible supply is practicallyinexhaustible; and the invisible supplyreally IS inexhaustible.Everything you see on earth is made fromone original substance, out of which allthings proceed.NewFormsare constantly beingmade, and older ones are dissolving;but all are shapes assumed by One Thing.There is no limit to the supply of FormlessStuff, or Original Substance. The universeis made out of it; but it was not all used inmaking the universe. The spaces in,through, and between the forms of thevisible universe are permeated and filledwith the Original Substance; with theformless Stuff; with the raw material ofall things. Ten thousand times as much ashas been made might still be made, and

even then we should not have exhaustedthe supply of universal raw material.No man, therefore, is poor because nature ispoor, or because there is not enough to goaround.Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse ofriches; the supply will never run short.Original Substance is alive with creativeenergy, and is constantly producing moreforms. When the supply of buildingmaterial is exhausted, more will beproduced; when the soil is exhausted sothat food stuffs and materials forclothing will no longer grow upon it, itwill be renewed or more soil will be made.When all the gold and silver has been dugfrom the earth, if man is still in such a stageof social development that he needs goldand silver, more will produced from theFormless. The Formless Stuff responds tothe needs of man; it will not let him bewithout any good thing.

This is true of man collectively; the race asa whole is always abundantly rich, and ifindividuals are poor, it is because they donot follow the Certain Way of doing thingswhich makes the individual man rich.The Formless Stuff is intelligent; it is stuffwhich thinks. It is alive, and is alwaysimpelled toward more life.It is the natural and inherent impulse of lifeto seek to live more; it is the nature ofintelligence to enlarge itself, and ofconsciousness to seek to extend itsboundaries and find fuller expression.The universe of forms has been made byFormless Living Substance, throwing itselfinto form in order to express itself morefully.The universe is a great Living Presence,always moving inherently toward more lifeand fuller functioning.Nature is formed for the advancement oflife; its impelling motive is the increase of

life. For this cause, everything which canpossibly minister to life is bountifullyprovided; there can be no lack unless Godis to contradict himself and nullify his ownworks.You are not kept poor by lack in the supplyof riches; it is a fact which I shalldemonstrate a little farther on that even theresources of the Formless Supply are at thecommand of the man or woman will actand think in a Certain Way.

The First PrincipleTHOUGHT is the only power which canproduce tangible riches from the FormlessSubstance. The stuff from which all thingsare made is a substance which thinks, and athought of form in this substance producesthe form.Original Substance moves according to itsthoughts; every form and process you seein nature is the visible expression of athought in Original Substance. As theFormless Stuff thinks of a form, it takesthat form; as it thinks of a motion, it makesthat motion. That is the way all thingswere created. We live in a thought world,which is part of a thought universe. Thethought of a moving universe extendedthroughout Formless Substance, and theThinking Stuff moving according to thatthought, took the form of systems ofplanets, and maintains that form. ThinkingSubstance takes the form of its thought,and moves according to the thought.

Holding the idea of a circling system ofsuns and worlds, it takes the form of thesebodies, and moves them as it thinks.Thinking the form of a slow- growing oaktree, it moves accordingly, and producesthe tree, though centuries may be requiredto do the work. In creating, the Formlessseems to move according to the lines ofmotion it has established; the thought of anoak tree does not cause the instantformation of a full-grown tree, but it doesstart in motion the forces which willproduce the tree, along established lines ofgrowth.Every thought of form, held in thinkingSubstance, causes the creation of theform, but always, or at least generally,along lines of growth and action alreadyestablished.The thought of a house of a certainconstruction, if it were impressed uponFormless Substance, might not cause theinstant formation, of the house; but itwould cause the turning of creative

energies already working in trade andcommerce into such channels as to result inthe speedy building of the house. And ifthere were no existing channels throughwhich the creative energy could work, thenthe house would be formed directly fromprimal substance, without waiting for theslow processes of the organic and inorganicworld.No thought of form can be impressed uponOriginal Substance without causing thecreation of the form.Man is a thinking center, and canoriginate thought. All the forms that manfashions with his hands must first exist inhis thought; he cannot shape a thing untilhe has thought that thing.And so far man has confined his effortswholly to the work of his hands; he hasapplied manual labor to the world of forms,seeking to change or modify those alreadyexisting. He has never thought of trying tocause the creation of new forms by

impressing his thoughts upon FormlessSubstance.When man has a thought-form, he takesmaterial from the forms of nature, andmakes an image of the form which is inhis mind. He has, so far, made little or noeffort to co-operate with FormlessIntelligence; to work "with the Father." Hehas not dreamed that he can "do what heseeth the Father doing." Man reshapes andmodifies existing forms by manual labor;he has given no attention to the questionwhether he may not produce thingsfromFormlessSubstancebycommunicating his thoughts to it. Wepropose to prove that he may do so; toprove that any man or woman may do so,and to show how. As our first step, we mustlay down three fundamental propositions.First, we assert that there is one originalformless stuff, or substance, from which allthings are made. All the seemingly manyelements are but different presentations ofone element; all the many forms found in

organic and inorganic nature are butdifferent shapes, made from the same stuff.And this stuff is thinking stuff; a thoughtheld in it produces the form of the thought.Thought, in thinking substance, producesshapes. Man is a thinking center, capable oforiginal thought; if man can communicatehis thought to original thinking substance,he can cause the creation, or formation, ofthe thing he thinks about. To summarizethis-- There is a thinking stuff from whichall things are made, and which, in itsoriginal state, permeates, penetrates, andfills the interspaces of the universe.A thought, in this substance, Produces thething that is imaged by the thought.Man can form things in his thought, and,by impressing his thought upon formlesssubstance, can cause the thing he thinksabout to be created.It may be asked if I can prove thesestatements; and without going into details,I answer that I can do so, both by logic andexperience.

Reasoning back from the phenomena ofform and thought, I come to one originalthinking substance; and reasoning forwardfrom this thinking substance, I come toman's power to cause the formation of thething he thinks about.And by experiment, I find thereasoning true; and this is my strongestproof.If one man who reads this book gets richby doing what it tells him to do, that isevidence in support of my claim; but ifevery man who does what it tells him to dogets rich, that is positive proof until someone goes through the process and fails. Thetheory is true until the process fails; andthis process will not fail, for every manwho does exactly what this book tells himto do will get rich.I have said that men get rich by doingthings in a Certain Way; and in order to doso, men must become able to think in acertain way.

A man's way of doing things is the directresult of the way he thinks about things.To do things in a way you want to do them,you will have to acquire the ability to thinkthe way you want to think; this is the firststep toward getting rich.To think what you want to think is to thinkTRUTH, regardless of appearances.Every man has the natural and inherentpower to think what he wants to think, butit requires far more effort to do so than itdoes to think the thoughts which aresuggested by appearances. To thinkaccording to appearance is easy; to thinktruth regardless of appearancesislaborious, and requires the expenditureof more power than any other work man iscalled upon to perform.There is no labor from which most peopleshrink as they do from that of sustainedand consecutive thought; it is the hardestwork in the world. This is especially true

when truth is contrary to appearances.Every appearance in the visible worldtends to produce a corresponding form inthe mind which observes it; and this canonly be prevented by holding the thoughtof the TRUTH.To look upon the appearance of diseasewill produce the form of disease in yourown mind, and ultimately in your body,unless you hold the thought of the truth,which is that there is no disease; it is onlyan appearance, and the reality is health.To look upon the appearances of povertywill produce corresponding forms in yourown mind, unless you hold to the truth thatthere is no poverty; there is onlyabundance.To think health when surrounded by theappearances of disease, or to think richeswhen in the midst of appearances ofpoverty, requires power; but he whoacquires this power becomes a MASTERMIND.

He can conquer fate; he can have what hewants. This power can only be acquired bygetting hold of the basic fact which isbehind all appearances; and that fact is thatthere is one Thinking Substance, fromwhich and by which all things are made.Then we must grasp the truth thatevery thought held in this substancebecomes a form, and that man can soimpress his thoughts upon it as to causethem to take form and become visiblethings.When we realize this, we lose all doubtand fear, for we know that we can createwhat we want to create; we can get whatwe want to have, and can become what wewant to be. As a first step toward gettingrich, you must believe the threefundamental statements given previouslyin this chapter; and in order to emphasizethem. I repeat them here:-There is a thinking stuff from which allthings are made, and which, in its original

state, permeates, penetrates, and fills theinterspaces of the universe.A thought, in this substance, Produces thething that is imaged by the thought.Man can form things in his thought, and,by impressing his thought upon formlesssubstance, can cause the thing he thinksabout to be created.You must lay aside all other conceptsof the universe than this monistic one;and you must dwell upon this until it isfixed in your mind, and has become yourhabitual thought. Read these creedstatements over and over again; fix everyword upon your memory, and meditateupon them until you firmly believe whatthey say. If a doubt comes to you, cast itaside as a sin. Do not listen to argumentsagainst this idea; do not go to churches orlectures where a contrary concept of thingsis taught or preached. Do not readmagazines or books which teach a differentidea; if you get mixed up in your faith, allyour efforts will be in vain.

Do not ask why these things are true, norspeculate as to how they can be true;simply take them on trust.The science of getting rich begins withthe absolute acceptance of this faith.

Increasing LifeYOU must get rid of the last vestige of theold idea that there is a Deity whose will itis that you should be poor, or whosepurposes may be served by keeping you inpoverty.The Intelligent Substance which is All, andin All, and which lives in All and lives inyou, is a consciously Living Substance.Being a consciously living substance, Itmust have the nature and inherent desire ofevery living intelligence for increase oflife. Every living thing must continuallyseek for the enlargement of its life, becauselife, in the mere act of living, must increaseitself

Getting rich is not the result of saving, or "thrift"; many very penurious people are poor, while free spenders often get rich. Nor is getting rich due to doing things which others fail to do; for two men in the same business often do almost exactly the same things, and one gets rich while the other remains poor or becomes bankrupt.