dwells upon fleeting things runs on with the water after it has

passed the mill-wheel -- on and on down the stream and out into

the ocean, accomplishing nothing. The wise man stays by the mill and looks for more water to turn his wheel. If water fails he conjures steam or electricity -- always something new. Always he looks ahead, not behind, for his power.

Why don’t we do that? When all things are failing us why do we think of the time when we used to have water to turn our wheel Why do we look down stream at the water that is past? What good will that water do us now? And does not the thinking of it simply fill us with despair and paralyze effort and common sense? Of course.

There is plenty more power where that flying water came from. Look up stream, not down; and be ready.

Your mental pictures are your ONLY source of power and wisdom. Your continued growth in wisdom and power depends upon your development as a mental artist. And that depends wholly upon quiet, wide-awake persistence.

Have you held beautiful mental pictures and worked faithfully to put them on life’s canvas? And did you fail? Well, what of it? There is more canvas ready. You have learned by your mistakes. Now wipe off everything and take a NEW mental picture. Get away from the old one. Begin as if this were your very first attempt in all the world.

Relax your physical efforts for a time. Get limp all over and let a new mental picture form. It will be a better work of art than the last one -- it will be nearer true to principle. We learn to make true mental pictures by making them. We learn by every one we make, even though the picture itself is smashed.

And by and by we learn to make such mental pictures as can be worked out without a mistake.

Success lies all in keeping at it. Faith and work will accomplish anything you can picture mentally.

When you cannot work a thing out just as you picture it, it is because you have not looked carefully enough at your picture.

If an artist keeps his eyes too steadily fixed upon the canvas where he is working out his picture he never makes a good picture. He looks at his model, looks long and with joy. As he