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time by his application, the leading spirit in the school. The course of

study there being completed, he went to an office across in Delaware as

a clerk. That year, the Representative to Congress from Delaware, when

about to appoint a youth to enter the Naval Academy at Annapolis,

announced a competitive examination. The country lad competed and

secured the prize. Friends whom he had made raised funds for the

necessary uniforms. At the end of his course a good appointment in the

navy followed. Visits to various countries gave him command of three

languages. A change to shore duty permitted him to study law. At a

recent courtmartial trial at Brooklyn he served as advocate for the

Government so acceptably that he has been offered and has accepted,

membership in one of the largest law firms in New York. The change from

the rough lad to the cultured advocate indicates success.



On a bench in an old-fashioned shoe shop sat a young man working at his

trade. A singing teacher, passing along, noticed the rich voice of the

young man, singing as he worked. The teacher inquired where he sang in

church and if he sang in public. Learning that the young man sang

no-where, had had no instruction or education, and lacked even the

clothes necessary to a respectable appearance, he interested himself in

the youth and lived to see him become the leading oratorio basso of

America. Success! You will say these two had great natural gifts, all

their faculties, and had friends. Another case: A boy at six, was left

as a result of scarlet fever, stone blind. Nor has he since seen a ray

of light. A necessary faculty to success gone, is it? To-day that young

man is one of the best musicians and singers; getting $1,500 for his

choir singing. Success.



There is within each and every one that ability and prime element,

which, properly commanded and developed, COMPELS success. But few

understand themselves or realize the power within them. Without

comprehension of what is within, no start toward success can be made. A

reason for absence of comprehension lies in the fact that but one side

of self is ever seen, and that side is the grosser one. The body--a

head, a trunk, arms and legs. These we see with our physical eyes and

call the object, man. We incline to think if these parts are comely,

well shapen, strong, beautiful, the possessor may march on to success.

"Trust not to appearance." Were the body the root of all things, or of

especial worth, the race would be to the swift, the fight to the strong.

But that seen, felt, heard, is not the real self. Within the body, as a

dweller and a motive power, is the ego, the real self. It is that and

that only which can be developed and which possesses those attributes,

compelling, bye and bye, success. It is that which must, to some degree,

be understood. Be the body what it may, the real self has the power of

expression and improvement. That real self will be spoken of as the ego,

and its power considered.



There enters into existence at birth or early in life an indefinable

something. We term it soul, spirit, mind. When we meet or associate

with a person, in a short time we recognise that mind. At first we may

notice the body or even the dress and be influenced by it. In time we

see back of that outward covering and see the mind behind it. After, we

forget the body in the acquaintance with the mind. A homely person

becomes illumined with new life. A beauty loses attraction. We have

learned to know the ego in our acquaintance. That ego we come to know as

all there is of the acquaintance. A dozen bodies in the dissecting room

of the medical college are almost exactly alike. More alike than are the

suits of clothes cast off last year by a dozen men. The ego from a dozen

men will have small point of resemblance. The ego has so many

characteristic elements that it makes possibility of development,

throughout the years allotted to man while passing over the earth's

crust, into ANYTHING. The body is the home of the ego and the tool for

its development and action. Train the body to ability to respond to the

demands of the ego, and keep it healthful, and no more can be done with

it. For now nothing more need be said of the body. In speaking of the

cause of non-success, limited success or disaster, reference to it will

be made.



Attributes of mind lead always in the direction of progress. Ego, mind,

real self, is God within us. "He breathed in his nostrils the breath of

life and man became a living soul." That "breath of life" is God. That

cannot tend downward. The attributes of God are the attributes of the

ego. Love, thought, sympathy, ambition, helpfulness, desire for

refinement, culture, expansion--these are such attributes. Is any mind

lacking these? If we say yes, look within ourselves and see if they are

lacking in us. Accord the same faculties or attributes of mind to each

of our fellow men. These attributes cultivated will cause growth of the

ego as surely as it is that God liveth and we are in Him. But this

growth makes the ego greater and by its reaching out after the things of

the world and taking them to itself, produces that which we term

success. Understand, then, the ego. Grow it. Reach and possess. These

attributes are the forces within each and these forces are the elements

of success.



But, asks one, what is the bearing of this on our study and on our

singing. It has been plain to me as a teacher, and it grows stronger

every year, that all success in singing arises from a comprehension of

the ego within us, and the cultivation of these attributes bearing

directly upon singing and music. Three only of those attributes may be

considered now.



First,--ambition. What would you become? Yes, a musician and singer.

Consult one who knows your body better than you and enough of your mind

to judge well, and if he says you may become one, plan your life work to

making your ambition gratified. Aim high. But few persons lack the

capacity of singing well. The goal of most is that, to sing well. At

home only, it may be. For friends, and for self-pleasure. Others would

become professional artists. Aim at the highest and best. No ambition is

too high and, provided we will cultivate the ego, no ambition will

remain ungratified. Do not be modest in expectancy. Nothing is too good

or too high, too great or too noble for the God within us. Therefore

plan large things.



Second--thought. Having planned a broad campaign and having resolved

on faithfulness, bend the thought toward the result. Now, thought is not

the subtle nonentity we let ourselves consider it. The text of a book

recently examined is, "Thoughts are things." Thought is an emanation of

the ego; a messenger of the mind. We shoot thoughts out by the thousands

and millions. Generally we fly them at random. If they strike a mark we

gain a result. Stop shooting them at random, aim correctly, hit the mark

each time and each thought brings a result. Pure thought, the thought

from the ambitious ego, is upward, and when centered, concentrated on

the plan which ambition has prompted, it carries that plan

onward--upward--to the end, success. Concentration of thought, say

you? Do we not have it? Let me ask you to fix the thought on one object

five seconds. Tear this paper slowly from end to end and think of

nothing else while doing it. Probably the thought during the five

seconds will embrace a dozen things besides the act of tearing. Of what

paper is made, how far apart the lines are, be the texture fine, how

much does it cost, some other paper bought last week, where you bought

it, the salesman who served you, what a frightful rainy day that was,

how you caught cold and what a scolding you got at home for being out--a

long way from the act of tearing. The first thought is lost.

Concentrate. Acquire the habit of concentration. In nothing more than in

thinking should we say, "Do one thing at a time." Concentration of

thought makes steady growth of the plan of ambition's suggestion and

moves it on to success.



Third--expression. Every growth produces another. Emerson says in

substance that the end of every act is but the beginning of another. It

used to be said that if a man made $5,000 he was sure to become

rich--meaning that the money invested and reinvested, and added to by

constant earning, would surely bring wealth. Every growth of attribute

of mind, be it of those mentioned or of others, develops possibilities

of further growth. Love, a powerful attribute of the ego, first circles

in the home, then expands into the circle of friends, then reaches the

business, society, the world. One begins by caring for the want of a

hurt bird or other pet. He ends by raising and healing mankind. One

quietly slips a few pennies into the hand of an unfortunate. He ends by

being a philanthropist. One speaks a kind word. He ends by raising the

fallen. These, you see, touch upon sympathy, helpfulness. Each attribute

expands. Have you followed? Isn't this true? How, then, about desire for

refinement? If the others expand, will not that? A noble thought, an

association with the pure in art, and beauty in poem, story, song, sky,

flower, but leads us to another even more beautiful. Each touch of

beauty, of docility, of refinement, expands that line of our ego, and we

feel ourselves raised, drawing nearer and nearer that great Mind, and

keeping us more and more in that grace which passeth all understanding.

The end must be success in our plan. Mental growth means more power to

grasp and wrest from circumstances and the world itself, successful

prosecution of the plan which ambition framed. Successful prosecution

means ultimate success.



In mind I hear some one say, this is good theory and a beautiful

picture. What of it is practical enough for my mind. Let us turn for a

few minutes to a darker side and then again to the brighter, and see if

a practical word does not exist for each. What prevents success, and is

there false success?



A few minutes ago I spoke of the bodies which the ego inhabits. Those

bodies possess attributes and faculties. St. Paul said once that he

would be out of the body and be in the spirit; meaning, as I believe,

that he would rather live in the ego, and not be hindered by the body.

The body must be fed and clothed. It has appetites. Appetite grows,

requiring more delicacies, higher spiced and richer food, and perhaps

more food. Clothing takes much attention, and develops pride and vanity.

Has not each said many a time, "If I but had time to attend to study and

did not have to attend to my clothes, my food, and take the time to earn

money for them, I could do so much"? True, but the body is here and if

these things are not done, the ego would have no home in which to stay.

The care of the body is necessary. Cannot, however, even these necessary

demands be somewhat reduced for the sake of attending to the ego within,

more fully? If not, cannot the appetite and the pride, which, after all,

give no satisfaction when all is done, be so held in check by care and

reasonableness that the demands of body will not grow upon us? After

all, those necessary demands of body, grown abnormal, or into the

unnecessary, are not so bad as other attributes of body. Laziness! Light

gossip! Fretting! Uncleanness! Disease! These things can't be part of

the ego, for the real man is the "breath of life"--God. They must be of

body. They are the things which play havoc with our time, our energy,

our thought. It is a commonly accepted belief that man must be now and

then on the sick bed. That commonly-accepted belief is slowly but surely

disappearing before the fact that the body only becomes diseased as it

is neglected, overfed or attacked by bacillae. If a plant dies we look

for the worm at its root, or the insect on the leaf. If it has had good

soil, earth and sun, we expect it to flourish. The body is the same

material--dust. Attend it, not abuse it, and except from contagion it

will serve us without disease. Solomon said, "Know thyself." Maybe he

meant know to care for the body. When this is done the ego is allowed

its chance to go to success. Without it, the body, full of appetite,

pride, hatred, laziness, envy, fretfulness and disease, weighs with

compelling force, the ego down to earth. Instead of success follows

failure. Emancipate the ego from the body before even planning. This

body and this alone can cause failure. A success arising from a pretty

face, a good figure, graceful dancing, agile singing and trifling speech

is false success and is worse than failure. How about circumstances and

their influences? Surroundings. They surely effect us. Yes, but just so

surely as the ego throws off the lower self, within the body, and

resolves to rise, just so quick will the circumstances and surroundings

begin to change. Just so fast as the ego develops its attributes just so

fast will appropriate circumstances and surroundings for its further

growth open. Like begets like. Water seeks its level. Seek low things on

bodily planes and low friends will surround you. Like is with like.

Raise yourself a peg and you will find those with whom you can follow.

Your old associates will not go with you, and some will call you mean

and cry, "Come back," and try to pull you back. Bid them adieu and go

higher. New surroundings are there and will make a place for you in

them. The past becomes a stepping stone and if you have cleared the ego

of your own body, you will rise again. Like draws like. The new friends,

the new town, the new music, the new activity will lend you their aid to

go higher. Clear yourself at each step of the weight brought on by body

and circumstances will seem different. "God helps him who helps

himself." Those who would pull back are by our very inertia cast off. We

rise to success.



The thousand things which might be well said in connection with the

subject must be left. Recapitulation and application to the individual

singing student show these:



1st. Plan, and concentrate thought on its execution.



2d. Cultivate the real self and not permit the shell or body to

dominate.



3d. By that command of the self, win friends and compel success. That

which conduces most toward success is even disposition and geniality.

These grow into kindly independence which develops for us experience.



How long, ask you, will it take to become an artist? No one knows. Two

minds differ--in fact, no two are alike. A few months suffice to make

the crudest student an adept singer; or rather, is time enough to make

him sing as well as his mind wishes. From that time on the voice grows

better only as the mind grows and comprehends how to further use the

voice. So, then, as soon as one can sing so as to acceptably please

friends, it is a duty which the pupil owes himself to sing for those

whom he pleases. The effort gives him experience and prepares him to

meet the next circle. As the ability grows, seek to sing before greater

artists, and with the best singers. The time will come--it may be one

year, two years, three years, or even more--when it is best to go before

the best artists of the world and secure their commendation and their

co-operation (silently it may be) to further for you the prosecution and

completion of your pre-arranged plan regarding your music. What matters

it how long this takes. Life is, if you are using it aright, a

perfection of a plan of existence which will end only when we pass over

the River. A portion, more or less long, used in making a musician and

an artist, is but a part of the whole, and a development of the talent

lent us by the good Father, and which we, by our effort, eventually

return to Him, added to, and made beautiful because of the Heavenborn

Art--music--which we have absorbed to ourselves. Nor is this all, for in

the development of our own talent we have carried the whole world

unconsciously upward nearest the pure, the beautiful and the true.