restoring to normal life those who suffer with this
affliction. It has been done for one; it will be done for others.
There is no doubt in my mind that Blair would have been a deaf mute
all his life, if his mother and I had not managed to shape his mind
as we did. The doctor who attended at his birth told us, confidentially,
the child might never hear or speak. A few weeks ago, Dr. Irving
Voorhees, a noted specialist on such cases, examined Blair very
thoroughly. He was astounded when he learned how well my son now
hears, and speaks, and said his examination indicated that "theoretically,
the boy should not be able to hear at all." But the lad does
hear, despite the fact that X-ray pictures show there is no opening
in the skull, whatsoever, from where his ears should be to the brain.
When I planted in his mind the DESIRE to hear and talk, and live
as a normal person, there went with that impulse some strange influence
which caused Nature to become bridge-builder, and span the gulf
of silence between his brain and the outer world, by some means
which the keenest medical specialists have not been able to interpret.
It would be sacrilege for me to even conjecture as to how Nature
performed this miracle. It would be unforgivable if I neglected
to tell the world as much as I know of the humble part I assumed
in the strange experience. It is my duty, and a privilege to say
I believe, and not without reason, that nothing is impossible to
the person who backs DESIRE with enduring FAITH.
Verily, a BURNING DESIRE has devious ways of transmuting itself
into its physical equivalent. Blair DESIRED normal hearing; now
he has it! He was born with a handicap which might easily have sent
one with a less defined DESIRE to the street with a bundle of pencils
and a tin cup. That handicap now promises to serve as the medium
by which he will render useful service to many millions of hard
of hearing, also, to give him useful employment at adequate financial
compensation the remainder of his life.
The little "white lies" I planted in his mind when he
was a child, by leading him to BELIEVE his affliction would become
a great asset, which he could capitalize, has justified itself.
Verily, there is nothing, right or wrong, which BELIEF, plus BURNING
DESIRE, cannot make real. These qualities are free to everyone.
In all my experience in dealing with men and women who had personal
problems, I never handled a single case which more definitely demonstrates
the power of DESIRE. Authors sometimes make the mistake of writing
of subjects of which they have but superficial, or very elementary
knowledge. It has been my good fortune to have had the privilege
of testing the soundness of the POWER OF DESIRE, through the affliction
of my own son. Perhaps it was providential that the experience came
as it did, for surely no one is better prepared than he, to serve
as an example of what happens when DESIRE is put