(2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate. 
(3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements 
of the postuîate hâve not been fulfilled. 
(Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as 
when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures 
his patient. There may be failure to apply the right kind of 
force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There 
may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a 
wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the 
force in the right manner, as when one présents a chèque at the 
wrong window of the Bank. There may be failure to employ the 
correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece 
fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as 
when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.) 
(4) The first requisite for causing any change is 
ihorough qualitative and quantitative understanding of the 
conditions. 
(Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is 
ignorance of one’s own True Will, or of the means by which to 
fulfil that ill. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste 
his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter, and 
yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to 
that career.) 
(5) The second requisite of causing any change is the 
practical ability to set in right motion the necessary forces. 
(Illustration: A banker may hâve a perfect grasp of a given 
situation, yet lack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary 
to take advantage of it.) 
(6) “Every man and every woman is a star’. That is to 
say, every human being is intrinsically an independent individual 
with his own proper character and proper motion. 
( 7 ) Every man and every woman has a course, depending 
partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is 
natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from 
his own course, either through not understanding himself, 
or through external opposition, cornes into conflict with the 
order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly. 
XVIII