This distinction, adequately appreciated, lifts Man above the animal plane and gives him a place among the gods; his material form, composed of muscle, hands, powers of locomotion and speech, being but tools with which to harness and coöperate with the other forces in Nature, under the direction of the godlike attribute of the Mind, in the removal of deterrents to free growth, and the cultivation of that Harmony which is the symbol of God.
Having assumed as an hypothesis that Man is Full Partner with Nature in Evolution; and having discovered his proper function in the "Division of Labour" in Nature, it is time for each of us to analyse the conditions which environ us as Man units, select those which seem to be useful to our scheme of construction and harmony, declare all deterrents to the growth of our selection to be weeds, and then proceed to remove them without delay, first, by pulling those which now exist, and following that by establishing strict quarantine against them.
I can teach only that which I have learned, and pronounce good only that which has led to happiness. I will therefore note the progress of my own discoveries and describe those which have brought increasing happiness, in order that they may serve as beacons and monuments to such as may seek the same goal along the same lines of inquiry.
The first forty-five years of my present life were spent in seeking happiness by means of personal accumulation. Money, friends, distinction, acquaintance with art in all its various expressions, lands, luxurious homes in favoured localities, pictures, rare porcelains, lacquers and other possessions, isolated for my own use, and for the enjoyment of chosen friends, seemed to be the necessary desiderata of happiness.
In turn, all of these came to me in sufficient abundance to give, at least, a taste of their quality and their efficacy in promoting happiness; but, in the midst of them were always obstructions to unhampered enjoyment, increasing with possession and accumulation of the coveted means, and constantly mocking, as with a mirage, the ultimate ideal desired.
During these forty-five years of quest of happiness there were constantly appearing above the horizon of my search flashes of hope, leading in new directions, which proved in turn to be but will o' the wisps, until the night—the morning—of my awakening, as related in my book "Menticulture."
It was then, for the first time, I heard that it was possible to get rid of anger and worry, the bêtes noires of my existence, which were, as I then believed and as I now know, the dreaded barriers between me and perfect happiness; not because the mere removal of these particular deterrents to happiness will accomplish happiness, but because the certain result of the removal of any principal mental obstructions leads to the disappearance of contingent errors, and permits freedom of growth of the elements of true happiness.