Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

16 BEING GREAT. certain conformations of the skull show talent as musicians, orators, mechanics, and so on. It has been argued from this that a man’s cranial formation must, to a great extent, decide his station in life, but this is an error.

It has been found that a small brain section, with many fine and active cells, gives as powerful expres- sion to faculty as a larger brain with coarser cells; and it has been found that by turning the Principle of Power into any section of the brain, with the will and purpose to develop a par- ticular talent, the brain cells may be multiplied indefinitely.

Any faculty, power, or talent you possess, no matter how small or rudimentary, may be increased; you can multiply the brain cells in this particular area until it acts as powerfully as you wish. It is true that you can act most easily through those faculties that are now most largely developed; you can do, with the least effort, the things which “come 17 THE SCIENCE OF naturally”; but it is also true that if you will make the necessary effort you can develop any talent.

You can do what you desire to do and become what you want to be. When you fix upon some ideal and proceed as hereinafter directed, all the power of your being is turned into the faculties required in the realization of that ideal; more blood and nerve force go to the cor- responding sections of the brain, and the cells are quickened, increased, and multiplied in number.

The proper use of the mind of man will build a brain capable of doing what the mind wants to do. The brain does not make the man; the man makes the brain. Your place in life is not fixed by heredity. Nor are you condemned to the lower levels by circumstances or lack of opportunity.

The Principle of Power in man is sufficient for all the require- ments of his soul. No possible com- 18 BEING GREAT. bination of cireumstances can keep him down, if he makes his personal attitude right and determines to rise. The power which formed man and pur- posed him for growth also controls the circumstances of society, industry, and government; and this power is never divided against itself.

The power which is in you is in the things around you, and when you begin to move for- ward, the things will arrange them- selves for your advantage, as described in later chapters of this book. Man was formed for growth, and all things external were designed to promote his growth.

No sooner does a man awaken his soul and enter on the advancing way than he finds that not only is God for him, but nature, society, and his fellow men are for him also; and all things work together for his good if he obeys the law.

Poverty is no bar to greatness, for poverty can always be removed. Martin Luther, as a child, sang in the streets for bread. Linnaeus 19 THE SCIENCE OF the naturalist, had only forty dollars with which to educate himself; he mended his own shoes and often had to beg meals from his friends.

Hugh Miller, apprenticed to a stone mason, began to study geology in a quarry. George Stephenson, inventor of the locomotive engine, and one of the greatest of civil engineers, was a coal miner, working in a mine, when he awakened and began to think.