is low and the egoism intensified, is extremely difficult. But the
small persistent successes of the day will gradually have their
indirect influence on the night. A great deal can also be done by
simple resolute suggestion. Few persons seem to know--what is,
nevertheless, a fact--that the most effective moment for making
resolves is in the comatose calm which precedes going to sleep. The
entire organism is then in a passive state, and more permanently
receptive of the imprint of volition than at any other period of the
twenty-four hours. If regularly at that moment the man says clearly
and imperiously to himself, "I will not allow my business to preoccupy
me at home; I will not allow my business to preoccupy me at home; I
will not allow my business to preoccupy me at home," he will be
astonished at the results; which results, by the way, are reached by
subconscious and therefore unperceived channels whose workings we can
only guess at.

And when the obsession is beaten, destroyed, he will find himself not
merely fortified with the necessary pluck and initiative for importing
a new interest into his existence. His instincts of their own accord
will be asking for that interest, for they will have been set free.



V


In choosing a distraction--that is to say, in choosing a rival to his
business--he should select some pursuit whose nature differs as much
as possible from the nature of his business, and which will bring into
activity another side of his character. If his business is monotonous,