operations you are unconscious and whose marvelous breadth and depth and
power have but recently been revealed to the world by scientific
experiment.

In this _Basic Course of Reading_ we shall lay before you in simple and
clear-cut but scientific form the proof that you have at your command
mental powers of which you have never before dreamed.

And we shall give you such specific directions for the use of these
new-found powers, that whatever your environment, whatever your
business, whatever your ambition, _you need but follow our plain and
simple instructions in order to do the thing you want to do, to be the
man you want to be, or to get the thing you want to have._

[Sidenote: Inadequacy of Body Training]

If you have any thought that the control of your hidden mental energies
is to be acquired by mere hygienic measures, put it from you. The idea
that you may come into the fulness of your powers through mere
wholesome living, outdoor sports and bodily exercise is an idea that
belongs to an age that is past. Good health is not necessary to
achievement. It is not even a positive influence for achievement. It is
merely a negative blessing. With good health you may hope to reach your
highest mental and spiritual development free from the harassment of
soul-racking pain. But without good health men have reached the summit
of Parnassus and have dragged their tortured bodies up behind them.

[Sidenote: Inadequacy of Business Specialization]

Nor does success necessarily follow or require long preparation in a