he pleases. He would better consult his soul-center than his “feelings.” He would better grow sensitive on the inside and give his thin skin a rest.

The principle of all being is to EXPRESS, to press outward. The jelly-fish, the clam and the crawfish of the human race press inward instead of outward. If one of them by any chance does happen to unbend and make a move to ex-press himself he is turned backward again by the first little show of an obstacle or the adverse opinion of some other clam or crawfish. There is no principle in him -- he is worked from without. He is attracted by this thing and repelled by that, moved back and forth and in and out, galvanized or paralyzed, all from outside. And he throws out innumerable little antenna for sensing these outside influences. He is so absorbed in them that he has no conscious­ness left for the soul-center within himself, where his principle of being is trying to manifest. His soul’s influence is the last influence he looks for or responds to.

Such a being is unhappy, unhealthy, unsuccessful; and he grows more so until he gets desperate and quits. Then he begins to withdraw consciousness from the outside and wake up on the inside. He begins to consult himself and do as he desires. Hitherto he has been so absorbed in outside things that he was unaware he had any desires on his own account. Now he begins to explore himself. He expands and grows sensitive on the inside. When he senses a little desire there he pushes out and acts upon it -- even if he does run against a snag or two, or a dozen. He has got hold of one end of the principle of his own being and is acting upon it. Henceforth, his way is straight ahead, instead of crawfishy or clammy.

Now a strange thing begins to manifest. In the old days the man was always getting into somebody’s way and getting hurt. He spent his time tacking and backing and scudding to keep from being hurt. But now that he has turned himself right side out and started ahead, he discovers everybody else hurrying to get out of his way, and even to help him along. Things seem to loom as obstacles, but lo, as he keeps straight ahead they melt away and he goes onward.

In every man’s soul is a course mapped out, a chart and compass