And here we touch upon the Materialization of Thought, which conception loses a part of the absurdity with which Spiritualists and Occultists have invested it, if we regard all Nature as one substance. For, in truth, all that was ever perceived, even to the shadow of a dream by a lunatic, had as real an existence while it lasted as the Pyramids of Egypt, else it could not have been perceived. Sense cannot, even in dreams, observe what is not for the time an effect on matter. If a man imagines or makes believe to himself that he has a fairy attendant, or a dog, and fancies that he sees it, that man does really see something, though it be invisible to others. There is some kind of creative brain-action going on, some employment of atoms and forces, and if this be so, we may enter it among the Possibilities of the Future that the Material in any form whatever may be advanced, or further materialized or made real.

It is curious that this idea has long been familiar to believers in magic. In more than one Italian legend which I have collected, a sorceress or goddess evolves a life from her own soul, as a fire emits a spark. In fact, the fancy occurs in some form in all mythologies, great or small. In one old Irish legend a wizard turns a Thought into a watch-dog. The history of genius and of Invention is that of realizing ideas, of making them clearer and stronger and more comprehensive. Thus it seems to me that the word Forethought as generally loosely understood, when compared to what it has been shown capable of expressing, is almost as much advanced as if like the fairy Hermelina, chronicled by Grosius, it had been originally a vapour or mere fantasy, and gradually advanced to fairy life so as to become the companion of a wizard.

If an artist, say a painter, will take forethought for a certain picture, whether the subject be determined or not, bringing himself to that state of easy, assured confidence, as a matter of course that he will retain the subject, he will, if not at the first effort, almost certainly at last find himself possessed of it. * Let him beware of haste, or of forcing the work. When he shall have secured hypnotised Interest, let him will that Ingenuity shall be bolder, and his spirit draw from the stores of memory more abundant material. Thus our powers may be gradually and gently drawn into our service. Truly it would seem as if there were no limit to what a man can evolve out of himself if he will take Thought thereto.

* I am indebted to the distinguished artist Herkomer for very valuable testimony as regards experience in and confirmation of what I have here asserted.

Forethought can be of vast practical use in cases where confidence is required. Many a young clergyman and lawyer has been literally frightened out of a career, and many an actor ruined for want of a very little knowledge, and in this I speak from personal experience. Let the aspirant who is to appear in public, or pass an examination, and is alarmed, base his forethought on such ideas as this, that he would not be afraid to repeat his speech to one person or two - why should he fear a hundred? There are some who can repeat this idea to themselves till it takes hold strongly, and they rise almost feeling contempt for all in court - as did the old lady in Saint Louis, who felt so relieved when a witness, at not feeling frightened, that she bade judge and jury cease looking at her in that impudent way.

Having read the foregoing to a friend, he asked me whether I believed that by Forethought and Hypnotism a gentleman could be induced without diffidence to offer himself in marriage, since, as is well known, that the most eligible young men often put off wedding for years because they cannot summon up courage to propose. To which I replied that I had no great experience of such cases, but as regarded the method, I was like the Scotch clergyman who, being asked by a wealthy man if he thought that the gift of a thousand pounds to the Kirk would save the donor's soul, replied : "I'm na prepairet to preceesly answer thot question - but I wad vara warmly advise ye to try it."

It must be remembered that for the very great majority of cases, if really not for all, the practiser of this process must be of temperate habits, and never attempt after a hearty meal, or drinking freely, to exercise Forethought and Self-Hypnotism. Peaceful mental action during sleep, requires that there shall be very light labour of digestion, and disturbed or troublesome dreams are utterly incompatible with really successful results. Nor will a single day's temperance suffice. It requires many days to bring the whole frame and constitution into good fit order. Here there can be no evasion, for more than ordinary temperance in food and drink is absolutely indispensable.

It is a principle, recognized by all physiologists, that digestion and fixed thought cannot go on together; it is even unadvis-able to read while eating. Thus in all the old magical operations, which were in fact self-hypnotism, a perfect fast is insisted on, with reason. This is all so self-evident that I need not dwell on it. It will be needless for anyone to take up this subject as a trifling pastime, or attempt self-hypnotism and development of will with as little earnestness as one would give to a game of cards; for in such a halfway effort time will be lost and nothing come of it. Unless entered on with the most serious resolve to persevere, and make greater effort and more earnestly at every step, it had better be let alone.

All who will persevere with calm determination, cannot fail ere long to gain a certain success, and this achieved, the second step is much easier. However, there are many people who after doing all in their power to get to the gold or diamond mines, hasten away even when in the full tide of success, because they are fickle - and it is precisely such people who easily tire who are most easily attracted, be it to mesmerism, hypnotism, or any other wonder. And they are more wearisome and greater foes to true Science than the utterly indifferent or the ignorant.

This work will not have been written in vain should it induce the reader to reflect on what is implied by patient repetition or perseverance, and what an incredible and varied power that man acquires who masters it. He who can lead himself, or others, into a habit can do anything. Even Religion is in fact nothing else. "Religion," said the reviewer of "The Evolution of the Idea of God," * by Grant Allen, "he defines as Custom or Practice - not theory, not theology, not ethics, not spiritual aspirations, but a certain set of more or less similar observances: propitiation, prayer, praise, offerings, the request for Divine favours, the deprecation of Divine anger, or other misfortunes" - in short, Ritual That is to say, it is the aggregate of the different parts of religion, of which many take one for the whole. But this aggregation was the result of earnest patience, and had good results. And it is by the careful analysis and all-round examination of Ideas that we acquire valuable knowledge, and may learn how very few there are current which are more than very superficially understood - as I have shown in what I have said of the Will, the Imagination, Forethought, and many other faculties which are flippantly used to explain a thousand problems by people who can hardly define the things themselves.

* "Folk Lore," March, 1808. London: D. Nutt.