“Isn’t the time coming when we shall be able to control our physical condition better than we do now?” Mrs. Wylie asked.
“Yes, the mind—and what we call force in the eternal sense—has great influence over personal physical force. It performs no miracles, but prevents much yielding to what is really the forces of destruction, trying to hamper and delay accomplishment of any constructive kind.... The forces of disintegration are the busy boys, and it takes force and purpose and struggle to keep them out.”
“Is our decision to use your first name in the book right?” his father asked.
“Yes, sir. I am very happy about that. It will identify me, and therefore the message, to many people I should like to reach personally, and will not identify you to the public at large. I should not like to have Mother and the girls annoyed by publicity, but that was for you to choose. The message, as you know, is important and general. But to a lot of fellows I want to reach, Frederick will carry where Z. X. would fail to convince.... Your attitude about the book pleases me, too.... You and I both know the force of the primitive masculine feeling that a man’s family is his own, and its affairs private and personal. This time, the personal affair is also the eternal affair, vital and illuminating. And the fact that I have been one of the channels through which this came, that it was the search for me that made Margaret begin this work, must not be confused in anybody’s mind with the fact that the message is more than a message—it is a revelation. For that reason, you and I both will gladly sink the personal reluctance and remember the purpose we serve.”
A long pause ensued, while we sat soberly about the table, waiting. Then some one suggested that perhaps he wished us to ask questions.
“All I want is to talk like folks to the family,” he announced, with a force and rapidity amounting to emphasis. “For the love of Mike, stop thinking of me as different, and translated, and serious, and solemn! I do preach a lot, I admit. That’s for reasons you know. But I’m just as fond of a joke as I ever was, and I refuse to be set aside as a superior being! Come on, now, count me in as the Boy, and out as a thing to be treated with solemn reverence! I’m myself, and I want it recognized!”
After this, the talk drifted, much as it might have done had he returned visibly after a long absence, touching here and there.
Presently Lois asked, referring to a friend in Europe: “Did you know H—— was married? And to an American woman?”
“No, I didn’t know that. He should marry a free force, like an American girl. He was too blamed medieval in his feeling about females. We are all a bit inclined that way, we men, but American women are doing a lot to free force, the world over. They are more nearly free in purpose than any other women in the world, more truly individuals—when they don’t abuse it, and turn into dolls. American girls help women everywhere. They don’t stand for any harem stunts. H—— will learn a lot of things he needs to know, if she’s the real thing.”