William Atkinson - Nuggets of the New Thought

I do not like writing a preface – it seems too much like an apology. I have no special apology to tender for offering this collection of New Thought nuggets. They may possess no literary merit, but they have helped men and women. With the exception of "The Secret of the I Am," these essays appeared from month to month in "New Thought," of which magazine I am associate editor. They were written hastily, principally upon the demand of the printer for "copy," and, for the most part, were printed just as they were written, there being no time for revision or polishing up. You may pick up any one of them and find many sentences needing straightening out – many thoughts which could be better expressed by the change of a few words. Knowing these things, I first thought that I would go over each essay and add a little here, and take away a little there, polishing up and burnishing as I went along. But when I looked over them, my heart failed me. There they were just as they were written – just as they were dug out of my mind – and I hadn't the heart to change them. I remembered the circumstances surrounding the writing of every one of them, and I let them alone. A "nugget" polished up would be no longer a nugget. And these thoughts are nuggets – I dug them myself. I will not say much regarding the quality of the metal – that is for you – but you see them just as they came from the mine – rough, unpolished, mixed with the rock, queerly shaped. If you think that they contain metal of sufficiently good quality, refine them, melt them and fashion them into something useful or ornamental. For myself, I like things with the bark on – with the marks of the hammer – with the original quartz adhering to the metal. But others are of different taste – they like everything to feel smooth to the touch. They will not like these nuggets. Alas, I cannot help it – I cannot produce the beautifully finished article – I have nothing to offer other than the crude product of the mine. Here they are, polish them up yourself if you prefer them in that shape – I will not touch them.

Chicago, October 2, 1902.

"I Can and I Will" – The recognition – Equal to any task – A feeling of calm confidence – An abiding sense of power, reserve force and security – The Something within – The triple key to the door of attainment – The vibrations of Success.

"I Can and I Will!!!" Have you ever said these words to yourself with a firm conviction that you were speaking the truth – with the strong feeling that needed no other proof. If so, you then felt within you a thrill which seemed to cause every atom of your being to vibrate in harmony with some note in the grand scale of Life, sounded by the Real Self. You caught a momentary glimpse of the Inner Light – heard a stray note of the Song of the Soul – were conscious for the moment of YOURSELF. And in that moment of ecstasy you knew that untold power and possibilities were yours. You felt that you were in touch with all Strength, Power, Knowledge, Happiness and Peace. You felt that you were equal to any task – capable of executing any undertaking. For the moment there was no Fear in the world for you. All the Universe seemed to vibrate in the same key with your thought. For the moment you Recognized the Truth.

But alas, the spirit of doubt, distrust, fear and unfaith called you again to Earth – and the vision faded. And yet, the remembrance of the sight – the echo of the sound – the remnant of the new-found strength – is with you still. You still find that memory to be a stimulus to great efforts – a comforting thought in times of weakness and trial. You have been able to accomplish much by the aid of the lingering vibrations of the mighty thought.

In times of great peril – grave perplexities – life and death struggles, a feeling of calm confidence and strength often comes to us, and we are borne on by a power of us and in us (and yet in everything else, too) that seems to lift us off our feet and sweep us on to safety – to peace – to rest. We are possessed of an abiding sense of power, reserve force and security. When extraordinary conditions confront us – when our bodies seem paralyzed – our minds stupefied – our will power gone, we are often made conscious of the existence of the Real Self, and it answers our involuntary demand, and comes to rescue with the cheering cry: "I AM HERE"!

Many of us have made use of this inner strength without realizing it. One day we were sorely distressed and made the demand, and lo! it was answered. We knew not from whence came this new-found strength, but we were conscious of the uplift, and felt more confidence in ourselves. The next time we confidently demanded the aid, and again we were answered. We acquired that which we call confidence and faith in ourselves, and were carried over many a dark place and started on the road to Success. Our repeated success caused us to think and speak of our "luck," and we grew to believe that we had a "star," and took chances and risks that others would not dream of. We dared. We made some apparent failures, but we soon came to know them as only lessons leading to ultimate success. The "I Can and I Will" feeling carried us over rough places safely, and we got to simply know that we would "get there" in the end.

And so we went on and on, knowing that if we advanced three steps and slipped back two, we were still one step ahead. We had confidence, because we knew that "things would come our way" in the end. And so long as we held this attitude, we did succeed, and it was only when we lost heart at some unexpected slip – only when, after having attained success, we became dazed and frightened, and began to fear that our "luck might turn" and that we would lose all of our accumulations – it was only then , I say – that our star waned.

Talk with any successful man, and, if truthful, he will admit having felt, from the time of his first success, that he had some sort of "pull" with Fate – some "lucky star" – some special Providence operating in his behalf. He grew to expect results – to have confidence in things turning out right – to have faith in something of which he knew not the nature – and he was not disappointed. Things seemed to work in his favor – not always just in the way he expected, sometimes in an entirely different way – matters seemed somehow to straighten themselves out in the end – so long as he kept his "nerve." He did not know the source of his strength, but he believed in it and trusted it just the same.

Let us wake up and recognize this Something Within – let us begin to understand this "I Can and I Will" feeling – let us cherish it if we have it, and cultivate it if we have it not. Do you know that we are young giants who have not discovered our own strength? Are you not aware that there are powers latent within us, pressing forth for development and unfoldment? Do you not know that earnest desire, faith and calm demand will bring to us that which we require – will place at our hand the tools with which we are to work out our destiny – will guide us in the proper use of the tools – will make us grow? Do you not know that Desire, Faith and Work is the triple key to the doors of Attainment? There are possibilities before us, awaiting our coming, of which we have never dreamed. Let us assert ourselves – take up the key – unlock the doors – and enter our kingdom.

To accomplish, we must be possessed of earnest desire – must be as confident of ultimate success as we are of the rising of to-morrow's sun – we must have Faith. And we must work out the end with the tools and instruments that will present themselves day by day. We will find that Desire, Confidence, Faith and Work will not only brush aside the obstacles from our path, but will also begin to assert that wonderful force, as yet so little understood – the Law of Attraction – which will draw to us that which is conducive to our success, be it ideas, people, things, yes, even circumstances . Oh, ye of little Faith, why do you not see these things?