the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I

am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

 

--WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY.

 

_Authority is a factor in suggestion._ We generally accept as truth, and without

criticism, the words of an authority. When he speaks, contradictory ideas rarely

arise in the mind to inhibit the action he suggests. A judge of the Supreme

Court has the power of his words multiplied by the virtue of his position. The

ideas of the U.S. Commissioner of Immigration on his subject are much more

effective and powerful than those of a soap manufacturer, though the latter may

be an able economist.

 

This principle also has been used in advertising. We are told that the

physicians to two Kings have recommended Sanatogen. We are informed that the

largest bank in America, Tiffany and Co., and The State, War, and Navy

Departments, all use the Encyclopedia Britannica. The shrewd promoter gives

stock in his company to influential bankers or business men in the community in

order that he may use their examples as a selling argument.

 

If you wish to influence your audience through suggestion, if you would have

your statements accepted without criticism or argument, you should appear in the

light of an authority--and _be_ one. Ignorance and credulity will remain