How an Inventor Used "Happy-Thoughts"

Professor Elmer Gates of the Smithsonian Institution was one of the most successful inventors this country has ever known, and a recognized genius. He made a daily practice of "calling up pleasant ideas and memories" and believed that this helped him in his work. If a person wants to improve himself, he said, "Let him summon those finer feelings of benevolence and usefulness, which are called up only now and then. Let him make this a regular exercise like swinging dumbbells. Let him gradu­ally increase the time devoted to these psychical gymnas­tics, and at the end of a month he will find the change in himself surprising. The alteration will be apparent in his actions and thoughts. Morally speaking, the man will be a great improvement of his former self."