"The pathological is the normal out of place." The person who is
master of himself, working together as a harmonious whole, is stronger
in every way than the person whose forces are divided. Given a little
self-knowledge, the nervous invalid often becomes one of the most
successful members of society,--to use the word successful in the best
sense.

=It Pays to Know.= To be educated is to have the right idea and the
right emotion in the right place. To be sure, some people have so well
learned the secret of poise that they do not have to study the why nor
the how. Intuition often far outruns knowledge. It would be foolish
indeed to suggest that only the person versed in psychological lore is
skilled in the art of living. Psychology is not life; it can make no
claim to furnish the motive nor the power for successful living, for
it is not faith, nor hope, nor love; but it tries to point the way and
to help us fulfil conditions. There is no more reason why the average
man should be unaware of the instincts or the subconscious mind, than
that he should be ignorant of germs or of the need of fresh air.

If it be argued that character and health are both inherently
by-products of self-forgetful service, rather than of painstaking
thought, we answer that this is true, but that there can be no
self-forgetting when things have gone too far wrong. At such times it
pays to look in, if we can do it intelligently, in order that we may
the sooner get our eyes off ourselves and look out. The pursuit of
self-knowledge is not a pleasurable pastime but simply a valuable
means to an end.


KNOWING OUR MACHINE