THE MYSTIC WILL***
E-text prepared by Ruth Hart (ruthhart@twilightoracle.com)
Transcriber's note:
In the Introduction, I have changed "yet is is a very literal truth" to "yet it is a very literal truth". Also in the Introduction, I changed the spelling of "faculities" to "faculties" (other spelling remains unchanged). Finally, while most of the proper names are capitalized, not all of them are, and I have left the uncapitalized names as they appeared in the original.
THE MYSTIC WILL
A Method of Developing and Strengthening the Faculties of the Mind, through the Awakened Will, by a Simple, Scientific Process Possible to Any Person of Ordinary Intelligence
by
CHARLES G. LELAND
American Edition Published by The Progress Company 515-519 Rand McNally Building Chicago, Illinois English Representatives: L. N. Fowler & Co. 7, Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus, London, E. C.
In Memorium
Charles Godfrey Leland
AMERICAN AUTHOR WHO DIED MARCH 20, 1903 AT FLORENCE, ITALY AGED 79
"_The good that men do lives after them_."
PUBLISHER'S NOTICE.
This wonderful treatise was first published in England several years ago, under the title of "_Have You a Strong Will_?" and has run through several editions there. In its original form, it was printed in quite large type, double-leaded, and upon paper which "bulked out" the book to quite a thick volume. Some copies have been sold in America, but the price which dealers were compelled to charge for it, in its original shape, prevented the wide circulation that it merited, and which its author undoubtedly desired for it, for it seems to have been a labor of love with him, the interest of the race in his wonderful theories evidently being placed above financial returns by Mr. Leland. Believing that the author's ideas and wishes would be well carried out by the publication of an American edition printed in the usual size type (without the expedient of "double-leading" unusually large type in order to make a large volume), which allows of the book being sold at a price within the reach of all, the publisher has issued this edition along the lines indicated.
The present edition is identical with the original English edition with the following exceptions:
(1) There has been omitted from this edition a long, tiresome chapter contained in the original edition, entitled "On the Power of the Mind to master disordered Feelings by sheer Determination. As Set forth by Immanuel Kant in a letter to Hufeland," but which chapter had very little to say about "the power of the mind," but very much indeed about Hygiene, Dietetics, Sleep, Care of Oneself in Old Age, Hypochondria, Work, Exercise, Eating and Drinking, Illness, etc., etc., from the point of view of the aged German metaphysician, which while interesting enough in itself, and to some people, was manifestly out of place in a book treating upon the development of Mental Faculties by the Will, etc. We think that Mr. Leland's admirers will find no fault with this omission.
(2) The word "Suggestion" has been substituted for the word "Hypnotism" in several places in the original text, where the former word was manifestly proper according to the present views of psychologists, which views were not so clearly defined when the book was written.
(3) The chapter headings of the original book have been shortened and simplified in accordance with the American form.
(4) The title "The Mystic Will" has been substituted in place of that used in the original edition, which was "Have You a Strong Will?" This change was made for the reason that the original title did not give one the correct idea of the nature of the book, but rather conveyed the idea of an inquiry regarding the "iron-will," etc., which the author evidently did not intend. The use of the Will, as taught in the book by Mr. Leland, is not along the lines of "the iron-will," but is rather in the nature of the employment of a mystic, mysterious, and almost weird power of the Human Will, and the title of the present edition is thought to more correctly represent the nature of the book, and the author's own idea, than the inquiry embodied in the title of the original edition.
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