can set forces at work which will conquer the states or conditions which need to be outwitted. One may, for instance, put oneself in imagination in a more efficient state of mind, in contrast with the forebodings, nervous states, and influences which tend to intrude on a given occasion. One can make the mental picture very definite by calling up the surroundings in question, the people whom one is likely to meet, and trying to feel in anticipation the calmness, poise, and freedom required to meet the situation wisely. The ideal picture will have the best effect if dismissed in quiet confidence to do its work, with the realisation that it possesses actual power over the deeper processes of the mind, commonly called subconscious.

The suggestion which thus gives shape to the mental imagery is an activity sent forth in the desired direction. A suggestion thus takes effect only so far as it is not inhibited by opposing ideas, or is not in conflict with character. For suggestion has no magic power of its own, either to control the physical organism or the so-called subconscious mind. The suggestion is not itself the efficiency, but the efficiency lies in character, or in the organism. The associates of a mental picture count for as much as the picture, or the affirmation through which we will that it shall be realised. These associates may or may not be desires and habits that tend to further the purpose in view. Very