Latest / Classic Non-Fiction Book Collection / Your Mind And How to Use It - William Atkinson
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter one, What is the mind? Psychology is generally considered
- 0:06Speaker 1: to be the science of mind, although more properly it
- 0:10Speaker 1: is the science of mental states, thoughts, feelings, and acts
- 0:14Speaker 1: of volition. It was formerly the custom of writers on
- 0:18Speaker 1: the subject of psychology to begin by an attempt to
- 0:21Speaker 1: define and describe the nature of mind, before proceeding to
- 0:25Speaker 1: a consideration of the subject of the various mental states
- 0:29Speaker 1: and activities. But more reason authorities have rebelled against this demand,
- 0:34Speaker 1: and have claimed that it is no more reasonable to
- 0:37Speaker 1: hold that psychology should be held to an explanation of
- 0:40Speaker 1: the ultimate nature of mind than it is that physical
- 0:44Speaker 1: science beheld to an explanation of the ultimate nature of matter.
- 0:49Speaker 1: The attempt to explain the ultimate nature of either is futile.
- 0:53Speaker 1: No actual nessessity exists for explanation in either case. Physics
- 0:58Speaker 1: may explain the phenomena of matter, and psychology the phenomena
- 1:02Speaker 1: of mind, without regard to the ultimate nature of the
- 1:06Speaker 1: substance of either. The science of physics has progressed steadily
- 1:11Speaker 1: during the past century, notwithstanding the fact that the theories
- 1:15Speaker 1: regarding the ultimate nature of matter have been revolutionized during
- 1:19Speaker 1: that period. The facts of the phenomena of matter remain,
- 1:23Speaker 1: notwithstanding the change of theory regarding the nature of matter itself.
- 1:28Speaker 1: Science demands and holds fast to facts, regarding theories as
- 1:32Speaker 1: but working hypotheses at the best. Someone has said that
- 1:37Speaker 1: theories are but the bubbles with which the grown up
- 1:40Speaker 1: children of science amuse themselves. Science holds several well supported,
- 1:45Speaker 1: though opposing theories regarding the nature of electricity, But the
- 1:50Speaker 1: facts of the phenomena of electricity and the application thereof
- 1:54Speaker 1: are agreed upon by the disputing theorists. And so it
- 1:58Speaker 1: is with psychology. The facts regarding mental states are agreed upon,
- 2:03Speaker 1: and methods of developing mental powers are effectively employed, without
- 2:07Speaker 1: regard to whether the mind is a product of the
- 2:09Speaker 1: brain or the brain merely an organ of the mind.
- 2:13Speaker 1: The fact that the brain and nervous system are employed
- 2:16Speaker 1: in the phenomena of thought is conceded by all, and
- 2:19Speaker 1: that is all that is necessary for a basis for
- 2:22Speaker 1: the science of psychology. Disputes regarding the ultimate nature of
- 2:28Speaker 1: mind are now generally passed over to the philosophers and metaphysicians,
- 2:32Speaker 1: while psychology devotes its entire attention to studying the laws
- 2:36Speaker 1: of mental activities and to discovering methods of mental development.
- 2:41Speaker 1: Even philosophy is beginning to tire of the eternal why
- 2:46Speaker 1: and is devoting its attention to the how phase of things.
- 2:50Speaker 1: The pragmatic spirit has invaded the field of philosophy, expressing
- 2:54Speaker 1: itself in the words a professor William James, who said,
- 2:59Speaker 1: pragmatism the attitude of looking away from first things, principles, categories,
- 3:05Speaker 1: supposed necessities, and of looking forward toward last things, fruits, consequences, facts.
- 3:13Speaker 1: Modern psychology is essentially pragmatic in its treatment of the
- 3:17Speaker 1: subject of the mind. Leaving the metaphysics the old arguments
- 3:21Speaker 1: and disputes regarding the ultimate nature of mind, it bends
- 3:26Speaker 1: all its energies upon discovering the laws of mental activities
- 3:30Speaker 1: and states, and developing methods whereby the mind may be
- 3:34Speaker 1: trained to perform better and more work, to conserve its energies,
- 3:39Speaker 1: to concentrate its forces. To modern psychology, the mind is
- 3:44Speaker 1: something to be used, not merely something about which to
- 3:47Speaker 1: speculate and theorize. While the metaphysicians deplore this tendency, the
- 3:52Speaker 1: practical people of the world rejoice. Mind defined mind is
- 3:59Speaker 1: defined faculty or power, whereby thinking creatures feel, think, and will.
- 4:05Speaker 1: This definition is inadequate and circular in nature, but this
- 4:09Speaker 1: is unavoidable, for mind can be defined only in its
- 4:12Speaker 1: own terms, and only by reference to its own processes. Mind,
- 4:18Speaker 1: except in reference to its own activities, cannot be defined
- 4:22Speaker 1: or conceived. It is known to itself only through its activities.
- 4:27Speaker 1: Mind without mental states is a mere abstraction, a word
- 4:31Speaker 1: without a corresponding mental image or concept. So William Hamilton
- 4:35Speaker 1: expressed the matter as clearly as possible when he said,
- 4:39Speaker 1: what we mean by mind is simply that which perceives, thinks, feels, wills,
- 4:45Speaker 1: and desires. Without the perceiving, thinking, feeling, willing, and desiring,
- 4:51Speaker 1: it is impossible to form a clear conception or mental
- 4:54Speaker 1: image of mind. Deprived of its phenomena, it becomes the
- 4:58Speaker 1: merest abstraction. Think about that which thinks. Perhaps the simplest
- 5:06Speaker 1: method of conveying the idea of the existence and nature
- 5:08Speaker 1: of the mind is that attributed to a celebrated German
- 5:12Speaker 1: teacher of psychology who was wont to begin his course
- 5:15Speaker 1: by bidding his students think of something his desk, for example.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Then he would say, now think of that which thinks
- 5:24Speaker 1: about the desk. Then after a pause, he would add,
- 5:29Speaker 1: this thing which thinks about the desk, and about which
- 5:32Speaker 1: you are now thinking, is the subject matter of our
- 5:35Speaker 1: study of psychology. The professor could not have said more
- 5:39Speaker 1: had he lectured for a month. Professor Gordy has well
- 5:43Speaker 1: said on this point, the mind must either be that
- 5:46Speaker 1: which thinks, feels, and wills, or it must be the thoughts, feelings,
- 5:51Speaker 1: and acts of will of which we are conscious, mental facts.
- 5:55Speaker 1: In one word, But what can we know about that
- 5:58Speaker 1: which thinks, feels, and will RULs and what can we
- 6:01Speaker 1: find out about it? Where is it? You will probably
- 6:05Speaker 1: say in the brain. But if you are speaking literally,
- 6:10Speaker 1: if you say that it is in the brain as
- 6:12Speaker 1: a pencil is in the pocket, then you must mean
- 6:15Speaker 1: that it takes up room, that it occupies space, and
- 6:19Speaker 1: that would make it very much like a material thing.
- 6:22Speaker 1: In truth, the more carefully you consider it, the more
- 6:26Speaker 1: plainly you will see what thinking men have known for
- 6:29Speaker 1: a long time. That we do not know and cannot
- 6:32Speaker 1: learn anything about the thing which thinks and feels and wills.
- 6:37Speaker 1: It is beyond the range of human knowledge. The books
- 6:40Speaker 1: which define psychology is the science of mind, have not
- 6:44Speaker 1: a word to say about that which thinks, and feels
- 6:47Speaker 1: and wills. They are entirely taken up with these thoughts
- 6:51Speaker 1: and feelings and acts of the will mental facts in
- 6:55Speaker 1: a word, trying to tell us what they are, and
- 6:58Speaker 1: to arrange them in class and tell us the circumstances
- 7:02Speaker 1: or conditions under which they exist. It seems to me
- 7:06Speaker 1: that it would be better to define psychology as the
- 7:09Speaker 1: science of the experiences, phenomena, or facts of the mind, soul,
- 7:14Speaker 1: or self. Of mental facts in a word, in view
- 7:20Speaker 1: of the facts of the case, and following the example
- 7:23Speaker 1: of the best of the modern authorities, in this book,
- 7:26Speaker 1: we shall lead the consideration of the question of the
- 7:28Speaker 1: ultimate nature of mind to the metaphysicians, and shall confine
- 7:33Speaker 1: ourselves to the mental facts, the laws governing them, and
- 7:37Speaker 1: the best methods of governing and using them in the
- 7:40Speaker 1: business of life. The classification and method of development to
- 7:45Speaker 1: be followed in this book is as follows. One the
- 7:49Speaker 1: mechanism of mental states, that is, the brain, nervous system, sense, organs,
- 7:55Speaker 1: et cetera. Two the fact of consciousness and its plan.
- 8:01Speaker 1: Three mental processes or faculties that is, one sensation and perception,
- 8:08Speaker 1: two representation or imagination and memory. Three feeling or emotion,
- 8:16Speaker 1: four intellect or reason and understanding. Five will or volition.
- 8:24Speaker 1: Mental states depend upon the physical mechanism for manifestation. Whatever
- 8:28Speaker 1: may be the ultimate nature of mind, mental states, whatever
- 8:32Speaker 1: their special character, will be found to fit into one
- 8:35Speaker 1: of the above five general classes of mental activities. End
- 8:41Speaker 1: of Chapter one, Chapter two. The mechanism of mental states.
- 8:49Speaker 1: The mechanism of mental states. The mental machinery by means
- 8:52Speaker 1: of which we feel, think, and will consists of the brain,
- 8:57Speaker 1: nervous system, and the organs of sense. No matter what
- 9:01Speaker 1: may be the real nature of the mind, No matter
- 9:04Speaker 1: what may be the real nature of mind, no matter
- 9:07Speaker 1: what may be the theory held regarding its activities, it
- 9:11Speaker 1: must be admitted that the mind is dependent upon this
- 9:13Speaker 1: mechanism for the manifestation of what we know as mental states.
- 9:18Speaker 1: Wonderful as is the mind, it would seem to be
- 9:21Speaker 1: dependent upon its physical mechanism for the expression of its activities.
- 9:26Speaker 1: And this dependence is not upon the brain alone, but
- 9:29Speaker 1: also upon the entire nervous system. The best authorities agree
- 9:35Speaker 1: that the higher and more complex mental states are but
- 9:38Speaker 1: an evolution of simple sensation, and that they are dependent
- 9:41Speaker 1: upon sensation for their raw material of feeling and thought. Therefore,
- 9:47Speaker 1: it is proper that we begin by a consideration of
- 9:50Speaker 1: the machinery of sensation. This necessitates a previous consideration of
- 9:55Speaker 1: the nerves. The nerves. The body is traversed by an
- 10:00Speaker 1: intricate system of nerves, which has been likened to a
- 10:04Speaker 1: great telegraph system. The nerves transmit sensations from the various
- 10:08Speaker 1: parts of the body to the great receiving office of
- 10:11Speaker 1: the brain. They also serve to transmit the motor impulses
- 10:15Speaker 1: from the brain to the various parts of the body,
- 10:18Speaker 1: which impulses result in motion of appropriate parts of the body.
- 10:23Speaker 1: There are also other nerves with which we have no
- 10:26Speaker 1: concern in this book, but which perform certain physiological functions,
- 10:31Speaker 1: such as digestion, secretion, excretion, and circulation. Our chief concern
- 10:38Speaker 1: at this point is with the sensory nerves. The sensory
- 10:42Speaker 1: nerves convey the impressions of the outside world to the brain.
- 10:47Speaker 1: The brain is the great central station of the sensory nerves,
- 10:50Speaker 1: the latter having countless sending stations in all parts of
- 10:54Speaker 1: the body, the wires terminating in the skin. When theeds
- 10:58Speaker 1: nervous terminal stations are irritated or excited, they send to
- 11:02Speaker 1: the brain messages calling for attention. This is true not
- 11:07Speaker 1: only of the nerves of touch or feeling, but also
- 11:10Speaker 1: of those concerned with the respective senses of sight, smell, taste,
- 11:14Speaker 1: and hearing. In fact, the best authorities hold that all
- 11:19Speaker 1: the five senses are but an evolution of the primary
- 11:22Speaker 1: sense of touch or feeling, the sense of touch. The
- 11:27Speaker 1: nerves of the sense of touch have their ending in
- 11:30Speaker 1: the outer covering or skin of the body. They report
- 11:33Speaker 1: contact with other physical objects. By means of these reports,
- 11:38Speaker 1: we are aware not only of contact with the outside object,
- 11:41Speaker 1: but also of many facts concerning the nature of that object,
- 11:45Speaker 1: as for instance, its degree of hardness, roughness, etc. And
- 11:50Speaker 1: its temperature. Some of these nerve ends are very sensitive,
- 11:54Speaker 1: as for example, those of the tip of the tongue
- 11:57Speaker 1: and finger ends, while others are comparative, relacking in sensitiveness,
- 12:02Speaker 1: as for illustration, those of the back. Certain of these
- 12:06Speaker 1: sensory nerves can find themselves reporting contact and degrees of pressure,
- 12:11Speaker 1: while others concern themselves solely with reporting the degrees of
- 12:14Speaker 1: temperature of the object with which their ends come in contact.
- 12:18Speaker 1: Some of the latter respond to the higher degrees of heat,
- 12:22Speaker 1: while others respond only to the lower degrees of cold.
- 12:26Speaker 1: The nerves of certain parts of the body respond more
- 12:28Speaker 1: readily and distinctly to temperature than do those of other parts.
- 12:33Speaker 1: To illustrate, the nerves of the cheek are quite responsive
- 12:36Speaker 1: to heat impressions. The sense of sight, the nerves of
- 12:42Speaker 1: the sense of sight terminate in the complex optical apparatus,
- 12:46Speaker 1: which in popular terminology is known as the eye. What
- 12:50Speaker 1: is known as the retina is a very sensitive nervous
- 12:53Speaker 1: membrane which lines the inner back part of the eye
- 12:57Speaker 1: and in which the fibers of the optic nerve terminate.
- 13:01Speaker 1: The optical instrument of the eye conveys the focused light
- 13:04Speaker 1: vibrations to the nerves of the retina, from which the
- 13:07Speaker 1: impulse is transmitted to the brain. But contrary to the
- 13:11Speaker 1: popular notion, the nerves of the eye do not gauge
- 13:15Speaker 1: distances nor form inferences of any kind. That is distinctly
- 13:20Speaker 1: the work of the mind. The simple oppice of the
- 13:23Speaker 1: optical nerves consists in reporting color and degrees of intensity
- 13:27Speaker 1: of the light waves. The sense of hearing, the nerves
- 13:32Speaker 1: of the sense of hearing terminate in the inner part
- 13:35Speaker 1: of the ear. The tympanum or ear drum, receives the
- 13:39Speaker 1: sound vibrations entering the cavities of the ear and intensifying
- 13:43Speaker 1: and adapting them. It passes them on to the ends
- 13:47Speaker 1: of the auditory nerve in the internal ear, which conveys
- 13:50Speaker 1: the sensation to the brain. The auditory nerve reports to
- 13:55Speaker 1: the brain the degrees of pitch, intensity, quality, and harmony, respectively,
- 14:01Speaker 1: of the sound waves reaching the tympanum. As is well known,
- 14:05Speaker 1: there are certain vibrations of sound which are too low
- 14:08Speaker 1: for the auditory nerve to register, and others too high
- 14:11Speaker 1: for it to record. Both classes, however, capable of being
- 14:15Speaker 1: recorded by scientific instruments. It is also regarded as certain
- 14:20Speaker 1: that some of the lower animals are conscious of sound
- 14:22Speaker 1: vibrations which are not registered by the human auditory nerves.
- 14:28Speaker 1: The sense of smell the nerves of the sense of
- 14:32Speaker 1: smell terminating the mucous membrane of the nostrils. In order
- 14:36Speaker 1: that these nerves report the odour of outside objects, actual
- 14:39Speaker 1: contact of minute particles of the object with the mucous
- 14:43Speaker 1: membrane of the nostrils is necessary. This is possible only
- 14:47Speaker 1: through the passage through which the nostrils of air containing
- 14:50Speaker 1: these particles. Mere nearness to the nostril will not suffice.
- 14:55Speaker 1: These particles are, for the most part, composed of tenuous gases.
- 15:00Speaker 1: Certain substances affect the olfactory nerves much more than do others,
- 15:05Speaker 1: the difference arising from the chemical composition of the substance.
- 15:09Speaker 1: The olfactory nerves convey the report to the brain the
- 15:13Speaker 1: sense of taste. The nerves of the sense of taste
- 15:17Speaker 1: terminate in the tongue, or rather in the tiny cells
- 15:21Speaker 1: of the tongue, which are called taste buds. Substances taken
- 15:25Speaker 1: into the mouth chemically effect these tiny cells, and an
- 15:29Speaker 1: impulse is transmitted to the gustatory nerves, which then report
- 15:33Speaker 1: the sensation to the brain. The authorities claim that taste
- 15:37Speaker 1: sensations may be reduced to five general classes, that is, sweet, bitter, sour, salty,
- 15:45Speaker 1: and hot. There are certain nerve centers having important offices
- 15:50Speaker 1: in the production and expression of mental states, located in
- 15:53Speaker 1: the skull and in the spinal column the brain and
- 15:57Speaker 1: spinal cord, which we shall consider in the following chapter.
- 16:03Speaker 1: End of chapter two, Chapter three, the great nerve centers.
- 16:11Speaker 1: The great nerve centers which play an important part in
- 16:13Speaker 1: the production and expression of mental states are those of
- 16:16Speaker 1: the brain and spinal cord, respectively. The spinal cord. The
- 16:23Speaker 1: spinal cord is that cord or rope of nerve substance
- 16:27Speaker 1: which is enclosed in the spinal column or backbone. It
- 16:30Speaker 1: leaves the lower part of the skull and extends downwards
- 16:33Speaker 1: in the interior of the spiral column for about eighteen inches.
- 16:38Speaker 1: It is continuous with the brain, however, and it is
- 16:41Speaker 1: difficult to determine where one begins and the other ends.
- 16:45Speaker 1: It is composed of a mass of gray matter surrounded
- 16:48Speaker 1: by a covering of white matter. From the spinal cord.
- 16:52Speaker 1: Along its length emerge thirty one pairs of spinal nerves,
- 16:56Speaker 1: which branch out to each side of the body and
- 16:59Speaker 1: connect with the various smaller nerves extending to all parts
- 17:03Speaker 1: of the system. The spinal cord is the great central
- 17:07Speaker 1: cable of the nervous telegraphic system, and any injury too
- 17:11Speaker 1: or obstruction of it, cripples or paralyzes those portions of
- 17:15Speaker 1: the body the nerves of which enter the spinal cord
- 17:18Speaker 1: below the seat of the injury or abstruction. Injuries or
- 17:22Speaker 1: obstructions of this kind not only inhibit the sensory reports
- 17:27Speaker 1: from the affected area, but also inhibit the motor impulses
- 17:30Speaker 1: from the brain which are intended to move the limbs
- 17:34Speaker 1: or parts of the body. The ganglia or tiny brains,
- 17:40Speaker 1: what are known as ganglia or tiny bunches of nerve centers,
- 17:44Speaker 1: are found in various parts of the nervous system, including
- 17:48Speaker 1: the spinal nerves. These groups of nerve cells sometimes called
- 17:53Speaker 1: little brains, and perform quite important offices in the mechanism
- 17:58Speaker 1: of thought and action. The spinal ganglia receive sensory reports
- 18:03Speaker 1: and issue motor impulses in many cases without troubling the
- 18:07Speaker 1: central brain regarding the matter. These activities are known as
- 18:11Speaker 1: reflex nervous action. Reflex action, what is known as reflex
- 18:18Speaker 1: nervous action, is one of the most wonderful of the
- 18:21Speaker 1: activities the nervous and mental mechanism, and the knowledge thereof
- 18:25Speaker 1: usually comes as a surprise to the average person, for
- 18:28Speaker 1: he is generally under the impression that these activities are
- 18:31Speaker 1: possible only to the central brain. It is a fact
- 18:35Speaker 1: that not only is the central brain really a trinity
- 18:37Speaker 1: of three brains, but that in addition to these, every
- 18:41Speaker 1: one has a great number of little brains. Distributed over
- 18:45Speaker 1: his nervous system, any and all of which are capable
- 18:48Speaker 1: of receiving sensory reports and also of sending forth motor impulses.
- 18:54Speaker 1: It is quite worth while for one to become acquainted
- 18:56Speaker 1: with this wonderful form of neuro mental activity. A cinder
- 19:01Speaker 1: enters the eye, the report reaches a ganglion, a motor
- 19:05Speaker 1: impulse is sent forth, and the eyelid closes. The same
- 19:09Speaker 1: result ensues if an object approaches the eye, but without
- 19:13Speaker 1: actually entering it. In either case, the person is not
- 19:17Speaker 1: conscious of the sensation and motor impulse until the latter
- 19:20Speaker 1: has been accomplished. This is reflex action. The instinctive movement
- 19:25Speaker 1: of the tickled foot is another instance. The jerking away
- 19:29Speaker 1: of the hand burned by the lighted end of the
- 19:31Speaker 1: cigar or pricked by the point of the pin is
- 19:34Speaker 1: another instance. The involuntary activities and those known as unconscious
- 19:40Speaker 1: activities result from reflex action. More than this, it is
- 19:45Speaker 1: a fact that many activities, originally voluntary, become what is
- 19:49Speaker 1: known as acquired reflexes or motor habits, by means of
- 19:54Speaker 1: certain nervous centers acquiring the habit of sending forth certain
- 19:58Speaker 1: motor impulses in respet certain sensory reports. The familiar movements
- 20:03Speaker 1: of our lives are largely performed in this way, as
- 20:07Speaker 1: for instance, walking using knife and fork, operating typewriters, machines
- 20:13Speaker 1: of all kinds, writing, et cetera. The squirming of a
- 20:17Speaker 1: decapitated snake, the muscular movements of a decapitated frog, and
- 20:22Speaker 1: the violent struggles, fluttering and leaps of the decapitated fowl
- 20:26Speaker 1: are instances of reflex action. Medical reports indicate that in
- 20:31Speaker 1: cases of decapitation, even man may manifest similar reflex action.
- 20:36Speaker 1: In some cases. Thus we may see that we may
- 20:40Speaker 1: feel and will by means of our little brains as
- 20:44Speaker 1: well as by the central brain or brains. Whatever mind
- 20:48Speaker 1: may be, it is certain that in these processes it
- 20:51Speaker 1: employs other portions of the nervous system than the central brain.
- 20:56Speaker 1: The three brains. What is known as the brain of
- 21:00Speaker 1: man is really a trinity of three brains, known respectively
- 21:04Speaker 1: as one the modulla oblongata, two the cerebellum, and three
- 21:10Speaker 1: the cerebrum. If one wishes to limit the mental activity
- 21:13Speaker 1: to conscious intellectual effort, then and then only is he
- 21:18Speaker 1: correct in considering the cerebrum or large brain as the brain.
- 21:23Speaker 1: The medulla oblongata. The medulla oblongata is the enlargement of
- 21:28Speaker 1: the spinal cord at the base of the brain. Its
- 21:31Speaker 1: office is that of controlling the involuntary activities of the body,
- 21:35Speaker 1: such as respiration, circulation, assimilation, etc. In a broad sense,
- 21:41Speaker 1: its activities may be said to be of the nature
- 21:43Speaker 1: of highly developed and complex reflex activities. It manifests chiefly
- 21:49Speaker 1: through the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the vital functions.
- 21:54Speaker 1: It does not need to call on the large brain
- 21:56Speaker 1: in these matters ordinarily, and is able to perform its
- 21:59Speaker 1: tasks without the plane of ordinary consciousness. The cerebellum. The cerebellum,
- 22:07Speaker 1: also known as the little brain, lies just above the
- 22:10Speaker 1: medulla oblongata and just below the rear portion of the
- 22:13Speaker 1: cerebrum or great brain. It combines the nature of a
- 22:18Speaker 1: purely reflexed center on the one hand, with that of
- 22:21Speaker 1: habit mind on the other. In short, it fills a
- 22:25Speaker 1: place between the activities of the cerebrum and the medulla oblongata,
- 22:29Speaker 1: having some of the characteristics of each. It is the
- 22:33Speaker 1: organ of a number of important acquired reflexes, such as walking,
- 22:37Speaker 1: and many other familiar muscular movements which have first been
- 22:41Speaker 1: consciously acquired and then become habitual. The skilled skater, bicyclist, typist,
- 22:47Speaker 1: or machinist depends upon the cerebellum for the ease and
- 22:51Speaker 1: certainty with which he performs his movements without thinking of them.
- 22:55Speaker 1: One may be said never to have thoroughly acquired a
- 22:58Speaker 1: set of muscular movements such as we have mentioned until
- 23:01Speaker 1: a cerebellum is taken over the task and relieve the
- 23:05Speaker 1: cerebrum of the conscious effort. One's technique is never perfected
- 23:09Speaker 1: until a cerebellum assumes control and direction of the necessary
- 23:13Speaker 1: movements and impulses sent forth from below the plane of
- 23:16Speaker 1: ordinary consciousness the cerebrum. The cerebrum or great brain, which
- 23:23Speaker 1: is regarded as the brain by the average person, is
- 23:27Speaker 1: situated in the upper portion of the skull and occupies
- 23:31Speaker 1: by far the larger portion of the cavity of the skull.
- 23:35Speaker 1: It is divided into two great divisions, or hemispheres. The
- 23:39Speaker 1: best of the modern authorities are agreed that the cerebrum
- 23:42Speaker 1: has zones or areas of specialized functioning, some of which
- 23:46Speaker 1: we see the sensory reports of the nerves and organs
- 23:48Speaker 1: of sense, while others send forth the motor impulses which
- 23:52Speaker 1: result in voluntary physical action. Many of these areas or
- 23:56Speaker 1: zones have been located by science, other remain as yet unlocated.
- 24:02Speaker 1: The probability is that in time science will succeed in
- 24:06Speaker 1: correctly locating the area or zone of each and every
- 24:09Speaker 1: class of sensation and motor impulse. The cortex, the area
- 24:16Speaker 1: of thought, memory, and imagination, has not been clearly located,
- 24:20Speaker 1: except that these mental states are believed to have this
- 24:23Speaker 1: seat in the cortex or outer thin rind of gray
- 24:26Speaker 1: brain matter, which envelops and covers the mass of brain substance.
- 24:31Speaker 1: It is moreover considered probable that the higher processes of
- 24:35Speaker 1: reasoning are performed in or by the cortex of the
- 24:38Speaker 1: frontal lobes. The cortex of a person of average intelligence,
- 24:43Speaker 1: if spread out on a flat surface, measures about four
- 24:46Speaker 1: square feet. The higher the degree of intelligence possessed by
- 24:50Speaker 1: a lower animal or human being, as a rule, the
- 24:53Speaker 1: deeper and more numerous are the folds or convolutions of
- 24:57Speaker 1: the cortex, and the finer its structure. It may be
- 25:01Speaker 1: stated as a general rule, with but very few exceptions
- 25:05Speaker 1: of the higher. The degree of intelligence in the lower
- 25:07Speaker 1: animal or human being the greater is the area of
- 25:11Speaker 1: its cortex in proportion to the size of the brain.
- 25:15Speaker 1: The cortex, it must be remembered, is folded into deep
- 25:18Speaker 1: furrows or convolutions, the brain in shape, divisions and convolutions
- 25:23Speaker 1: resembling the inner portion of an English walnut. The interior
- 25:27Speaker 1: of the two hemispheres of the cerebrum is composed largely
- 25:30Speaker 1: of connective nerves, which doubtless serve to produce and maintain
- 25:35Speaker 1: the unity of function of the mental processes. While physiological
- 25:40Speaker 1: psychology has performed a great work in discovering brain centers
- 25:44Speaker 1: and explaining much of the mechanism of mental processes, it
- 25:47Speaker 1: has but touched the most elementary and simple of the
- 25:50Speaker 1: mental processes. The higher processes have so far to find
- 25:54Speaker 1: analysis or explanation in the terms of physiology. Chapter four Consciousness.
- 26:02Speaker 1: The fact of consciousness is the great mystery of psychology.
- 26:06Speaker 1: It is difficult even to define the term, although every
- 26:09Speaker 1: person of average intelligence understands what is sought to be
- 26:13Speaker 1: conveyed by it. Webster defines it as knowledge of one's
- 26:17Speaker 1: own existence, sensations, mental operations, etc. Immediate knowledge or perception
- 26:23Speaker 1: of any object, state or sensation, being aware being sensible
- 26:29Speaker 1: of another. Authority defines the term as the state of
- 26:34Speaker 1: being aware of one's sensations, the power, faculty or mental
- 26:38Speaker 1: image of being aware of one's own existence condition at
- 26:42Speaker 1: the moment, thoughts, feelings, and actions. Halex definition is that
- 26:48Speaker 1: indefinable characteristic of mental states which causes us to be
- 26:52Speaker 1: aware of them. It will be seen that the idea
- 26:57Speaker 1: of awareness is the essence of the idea of consciousness.
- 27:01Speaker 1: But at the last we are compelled to acknowledge that
- 27:05Speaker 1: it is impossible to closely define consciousness, for it is
- 27:09Speaker 1: something so entirely unique and different from anything else that
- 27:13Speaker 1: we have no other terms at all synonymous to it.
- 27:17Speaker 1: We can define it only in its own terms, as
- 27:20Speaker 1: we have seen by reference to the definitions above given,
- 27:23Speaker 1: and it is equally impossible to clearly account for its
- 27:26Speaker 1: appearance and being. Huxley has well said, how it is
- 27:32Speaker 1: that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness comes
- 27:35Speaker 1: about by the result of irritating nervous tissue is just
- 27:39Speaker 1: as unaccountable as the appearance of the genie when Aladdin
- 27:43Speaker 1: rubbed his lamp. All that we can ever know regarding
- 27:47Speaker 1: the nature of consciousness must be learned from turning the
- 27:50Speaker 1: consciousness in ourselves back upon itself, by focusing consciousness upon
- 27:55Speaker 1: its own mental operations by means of introspection. By turning
- 28:00Speaker 1: inward the conscious gaze, we may perceive the flow of
- 28:03Speaker 1: the stream of thought from its rise from the subconscious
- 28:06Speaker 1: regions of the mind to its final disappearance in the
- 28:10Speaker 1: same region. It is a common error to suppose that
- 28:14Speaker 1: we are directly conscious of objects outside of ourselves. This
- 28:19Speaker 1: is impossible, for there is no direct knowledge of such
- 28:21Speaker 1: outside objects. We are conscious merely of our sensations of
- 28:26Speaker 1: or mental images of the outside objects. All that is
- 28:30Speaker 1: possible for us to be directly conscious of are our
- 28:33Speaker 1: own mental experiences or states. We cannot be directly conscious
- 28:38Speaker 1: of anything outside of our own minds. We are not
- 28:41Speaker 1: directly conscious of the tree which we see. We are
- 28:45Speaker 1: directly conscious merely of the sensation of the nerves arising
- 28:48Speaker 1: from the impact of the light waves carrying the image
- 28:51Speaker 1: of the tree. We are not directly conscious of the
- 28:54Speaker 1: tree when we touch it and perceive its character in
- 28:57Speaker 1: that way, We are directly just merely of the sensation
- 29:01Speaker 1: reported by the nerves in the finger tips which have
- 29:04Speaker 1: come in contact with the tree. We are directly conscious,
- 29:08Speaker 1: even of our own bodies, only in the same way
- 29:12Speaker 1: it is necessary for the mind to experience that of
- 29:14Speaker 1: which it may become conscious. We are conscious only of
- 29:18Speaker 1: one that which our mind is experiencing at this moment,
- 29:23Speaker 1: or two that which it has experienced in the past,
- 29:27Speaker 1: and which is being re experienced this moment by the
- 29:30Speaker 1: process of the memory, or which is being recombined or
- 29:33Speaker 1: re arranged this moment by the imagination subconscious planes. But
- 29:41Speaker 1: it must not be thought that every mental state or
- 29:43Speaker 1: mental fact is in the field of consciousness. This error
- 29:47Speaker 1: has been exploded for many years. The fact is now
- 29:51Speaker 1: recognized that the field of consciousness is a very narrow,
- 29:54Speaker 1: unlimited one, and that the great field of mental activity
- 29:57Speaker 1: lies outside its narrow limit. Beyond and outside of the
- 30:02Speaker 1: narrow field of consciousness lies the great subconscious storehouse of memory,
- 30:07Speaker 1: in which are stored the experiences of the past, to
- 30:09Speaker 1: be drawn again into the field of consciousness by an
- 30:13Speaker 1: effort of the will in the act of recollection, or
- 30:16Speaker 1: by association in ordinary remembrance. In that great region also
- 30:21Speaker 1: the mind manifests many of its activities and performs much
- 30:25Speaker 1: of its work. In that great region are evolved the
- 30:28Speaker 1: emotions and feelings which play such an important part in
- 30:32Speaker 1: our lives, and which often manifest a vague, disturbing unrest
- 30:36Speaker 1: long before they rise to the plane of consciousness. In
- 30:39Speaker 1: that great region are produced the ideas, feelings, and conceptions
- 30:44Speaker 1: which rise to the plane of consciousness and manifest that
- 30:47Speaker 1: which men call genius. On a subconscious plane, the imagination
- 30:53Speaker 1: does much of its work and startles its owner by
- 30:56Speaker 1: presenting him with the accomplished result in the field of consciousness.
- 31:00Speaker 1: In the subconscious field is performed that peculiar process of
- 31:04Speaker 1: mental mastication, digestion, and assimilation with which all brain workers
- 31:09Speaker 1: are familiar, and which absorbs the raw mental material given
- 31:13Speaker 1: it separates, digests, and assimilates it, and represents it to
- 31:18Speaker 1: the conscious faculties some time after as a transformed substance.
- 31:24Speaker 1: It has been estimated that at least eighty five percent
- 31:26Speaker 1: of our mental activities are performed below or outside of
- 31:30Speaker 1: the field of consciousness. The psychology of today's paying much
- 31:34Speaker 1: attention to this formally neglected great area or areas of
- 31:38Speaker 1: the mind. The psychology of tomorrow will pay still greater
- 31:42Speaker 1: attention to it. The best of the modern authorities agree
- 31:47Speaker 1: that in the great field of subconscious mentation is to
- 31:50Speaker 1: be found the explanation of much that is unexplainable otherwise.
- 31:54Speaker 1: In fact, it is probable that before long consciousness will
- 31:58Speaker 1: be regarded as a mere focusing of it time tension
- 32:00Speaker 1: upon mental states, and the objects of consciousness merely as
- 32:04Speaker 1: that portion of the contents of the mind in the
- 32:07Speaker 1: field of mental vision created by such focusing. End of
- 32:12Speaker 1: Chapter four, Chapter five. Attention intimately connected with the object
- 32:19Speaker 1: of consciousness is that process of the mind which we
- 32:23Speaker 1: call attention. Attention is generally defined as the application of
- 32:28Speaker 1: the mind to a mental state, is often referred to
- 32:31Speaker 1: as concentrated consciousness, but others have ventured the somewhat daring
- 32:36Speaker 1: conjecture that consciousness itself is rather the result of attention,
- 32:41Speaker 1: instead of the latter being an incident of consciousness. We
- 32:45Speaker 1: shall not attempt to discuss this question here, except to
- 32:49Speaker 1: state that consciousness depends very materially upon the degree of
- 32:53Speaker 1: attention bestowed upon its object. The authorities place great importance
- 32:57Speaker 1: upon the intelligent direction of the attention, and hold that
- 33:01Speaker 1: without this the higher forms of knowledge are impossible. It
- 33:06Speaker 1: is the common belief that we feel, see, here, taste,
- 33:09Speaker 1: and smell whenever objects affecting those senses come in contact
- 33:14Speaker 1: with the organs of sense governing them. But this is
- 33:17Speaker 1: only a partial truth. The real truth is that we
- 33:20Speaker 1: become conscious of the report of these senses only when
- 33:23Speaker 1: the attention is directed toward the sensation voluntarily or involuntarily.
- 33:30Speaker 1: That is to say that in many cases, although the sense,
- 33:34Speaker 1: nerves and organs report are disturbance, the mind does not
- 33:37Speaker 1: become consciously aware of the report unless the attention is
- 33:40Speaker 1: directed toward it, either by an act of will or
- 33:44Speaker 1: else by reflex action. For instance, the clock may strike loudly,
- 33:50Speaker 1: and yet we may not be conscious of the fact,
- 33:52Speaker 1: for we are concentrating our attension upon a book. Or
- 33:55Speaker 1: we may eat the choicest food without tasting it. We
- 33:58Speaker 1: are listening intently the conversation of our charming neighbor. We
- 34:02Speaker 1: may fail to perceive some starfny occurrence happening under our
- 34:06Speaker 1: very eyes, for we are buried in deep thought concerning
- 34:09Speaker 1: something far removed from the present scene. There are many
- 34:14Speaker 1: cases on record showing that one may be so interested
- 34:17Speaker 1: in speaking, thinking, or acting that he will not experience
- 34:20Speaker 1: pain that would otherwise be intolerable. Writers have forgotten their
- 34:24Speaker 1: pain in the concentrated interests bestowed upon their work. Mothers
- 34:29Speaker 1: have failed to feel pain when their infants required urgent attention.
- 34:33Speaker 1: Orators have been so carried away by their own eloquence
- 34:37Speaker 1: that they have failed to feel the pricking of the
- 34:39Speaker 1: pin by means of which their friends have sought to
- 34:41Speaker 1: attract their attention. Not only perception and feeling depend largely
- 34:46Speaker 1: upon attention, but the processes of reasoning, memory, and even
- 34:50Speaker 1: of will depend upon attention for much of their manifestation.
- 34:55Speaker 1: Psychologists divide attention into two general classes, that is, one
- 35:00Speaker 1: voluntary attention and too involuntary attention. Voluntary attention is attention
- 35:07Speaker 1: directed by the will to some object of our own
- 35:10Speaker 1: more or less deliberate selection. It requires a distinct effort
- 35:14Speaker 1: of the will in order to focus the attention in
- 35:17Speaker 1: this way, and many persons are scarcely aware of its existence,
- 35:21Speaker 1: so seldom do they manifest it. Voluntary attention is the
- 35:25Speaker 1: result of training and practice, and marks the man of
- 35:28Speaker 1: strong will, concentration, and character. Some authorities go so far
- 35:34Speaker 1: as to say that much of that which is commonly
- 35:37Speaker 1: called will power is really but a developed form of
- 35:40Speaker 1: voluntary attention, the man of strong will holding before him
- 35:45Speaker 1: the one idea which he wishes to realize. Involuntary attention,
- 35:50Speaker 1: often called reflex attention, is attention called forth by a
- 35:54Speaker 1: nervous response to some sense stimulus. This is the common
- 35:59Speaker 1: form of attention, and is but the same form which
- 36:02Speaker 1: is so strongly manifested by children, whose attention is caught
- 36:06Speaker 1: by every new object, but which cannot be held for
- 36:09Speaker 1: any length of time by a familiar or uninteresting one.
- 36:14Speaker 1: It is of the utmost importance that one should cultivate
- 36:17Speaker 1: his power of voluntary attention. Not only is the will
- 36:20Speaker 1: power strengthened and developed in this way, but every mental
- 36:24Speaker 1: faculty is developed by reason thereof. The training of the
- 36:28Speaker 1: voluntary attention is the first step in mental development. Training
- 36:34Speaker 1: the attention. That the voluntary attention may be deliberately trained
- 36:39Speaker 1: and developed is a fact which many of the world's
- 36:41Speaker 1: greatest men have proved for themselves. There is only one
- 36:45Speaker 1: way to train and develop any mental power or faculty,
- 36:48Speaker 1: and that is by practice and use. By practice, interest
- 36:53Speaker 1: may be given to objects previously uninteresting, and thus the
- 36:57Speaker 1: use of the attention develops the interest, which it further
- 37:00Speaker 1: holds it. Interest is the natural road over which attention
- 37:04Speaker 1: travels easily. But interest itself may be induced by concentrated attention.
- 37:09Speaker 1: By studying and examining an object, the attention brings to
- 37:13Speaker 1: light many new and noble features regarding the thing, and
- 37:16Speaker 1: needs produce a new interest, which in turn attracts further
- 37:20Speaker 1: and continued attention. There is no royal road to the
- 37:25Speaker 1: development of voluntary attention. The only true method is work, practice,
- 37:29Speaker 1: and use. You must practice on uninteresting things, the primary
- 37:34Speaker 1: interest being your desire to develop the power of voluntary attention.
- 37:38Speaker 1: But as you begin to attend to the uninteresting thing,
- 37:42Speaker 1: you will become interested in the task for its own sake.
- 37:46Speaker 1: Take some object and place your mind upon it. Think
- 37:50Speaker 1: of its nature, where it came from, its use, its associations,
- 37:54Speaker 1: its probable future of things related to it, et cetera,
- 37:58Speaker 1: et cetera. Keep the attention firmly upon it, and shut
- 38:02Speaker 1: out all outside ideas. Then, after a little practice of
- 38:06Speaker 1: this kind, lay aside the object for the time being,
- 38:10Speaker 1: and take it up again the next day, endeavoring to
- 38:13Speaker 1: discover new points of interest in it. The main thing
- 38:16Speaker 1: to be sought is to hold the thing in your mind,
- 38:19Speaker 1: and this can be done only by discovering features of
- 38:22Speaker 1: interest in it. The interest loving attention may rebel at
- 38:26Speaker 1: this task at first, and will seek to wander from
- 38:29Speaker 1: the path into the green pastures which are found on
- 38:32Speaker 1: either side thereof. But you must bring your mind back
- 38:36Speaker 1: to the task again and again. After a time, the
- 38:41Speaker 1: mind will become accustomed to the drill, and will even
- 38:44Speaker 1: begin to enjoy it. Give it some variety by occasionally
- 38:48Speaker 1: changing the objects of examination. The object need not always
- 38:52Speaker 1: be something to be looked at. Instead, select some subject
- 38:56Speaker 1: in history or literature, and run it down in dring
- 39:00Speaker 1: to bring to light all the facts relating to it
- 39:02Speaker 1: that are possible to you. Anything may be used as
- 39:05Speaker 1: the subject or object of your inquiry, but what is
- 39:09Speaker 1: chosen must be held in the field of conscious attention
- 39:12Speaker 1: firmly and fixedly. The habit. Once acquired, you'll find the
- 39:16Speaker 1: practice most fascinating. You will invent new subjects or objects
- 39:21Speaker 1: of inquiry, investigation, and thought, which in themselves will well
- 39:25Speaker 1: repay you for your work and time. But never lose
- 39:29Speaker 1: sight of the main point, the development of the power
- 39:32Speaker 1: of voluntary attention. In studying the methods of developing and
- 39:37Speaker 1: training the voluntary attention. The student should remember that any
- 39:41Speaker 1: exercise which develops the will will result in developing the attention,
- 39:46Speaker 1: and likewise, any exercise which develops the voluntary attention will
- 39:50Speaker 1: tend to strengthen the will. The will and attention are
- 39:54Speaker 1: so closely bound together that what affects one also influences
- 39:58Speaker 1: the other. This fact should be borne in mind and
- 40:02Speaker 1: the exercises and practices based upon it. In practicing concentration
- 40:07Speaker 1: of voluntary attention, it should be remembered that concentration consists
- 40:12Speaker 1: not only of focusing the attention upon a given object
- 40:15Speaker 1: or subject, but also of the shutting out of impressions
- 40:19Speaker 1: from other objects or subjects. Some authorities advise that the
- 40:24Speaker 1: student endeavor to listen to one voice among many, or
- 40:27Speaker 1: one instrument among the many of a band or orchestra.
- 40:31Speaker 1: Others advise a practice of concentrating on the reading of
- 40:34Speaker 1: a book in a room filled by persons engaged in conversation,
- 40:38Speaker 1: and similar exercises. Whatever aids in narrowing the circle of
- 40:43Speaker 1: attention at a given moment tends to develop the power
- 40:46Speaker 1: of voluntary attention. The study of mathematics and logic is
- 40:51Speaker 1: also held to be an excellent practice in a concentration
- 40:55Speaker 1: of voluntary attention. Inasmuch as these studies require close concentration
- 41:00Speaker 1: and attention, attention is also developed by any study or
- 41:04Speaker 1: practice which demands analysis of a whole into its parts,
- 41:08Speaker 1: and then the synthesis or building up of a whole
- 41:11Speaker 1: from its scattered parts. Each of the senses should play
- 41:14Speaker 1: a part in the exercises, and in addition to this,
- 41:18Speaker 1: the mind should be trained to concentrate upon some one
- 41:21Speaker 1: idea held within itself, some mental image or abstract idea
- 41:26Speaker 1: existing independently of any objective immediate sense report. End of
- 41:34Speaker 1: Chapter five, Chapter six Perception. It is a common mistake
- 41:42Speaker 1: that we perceive everything that is reported to the mind
- 41:45Speaker 1: by the senses. As a matter of fact, we perceive
- 41:48Speaker 1: but a very small portion of the reports of the senses.
- 41:52Speaker 1: There are thousands of sights reported by our eyes, sounds
- 41:56Speaker 1: reported by our ears, smells reported by our nostrils, and
- 42:00Speaker 1: contacts reported by our nerves of touch every day of
- 42:03Speaker 1: our lives, but which are not perceived or observed by
- 42:07Speaker 1: the mind. We perceive and observe only when the attention,
- 42:11Speaker 1: reflex or voluntary is directed to the report of the senses,
- 42:15Speaker 1: and when the mind interprets the report. While perception depends
- 42:19Speaker 1: upon the reports of the senses for its raw material,
- 42:23Speaker 1: it depends entirely upon the application of the mind for
- 42:26Speaker 1: its complete manifestation. The student usually experiences great difficulty in
- 42:31Speaker 1: distinguishing between sensation and perception. A sensation is a simple
- 42:36Speaker 1: report of the senses which is received in consciousness. Perception
- 42:41Speaker 1: is the thought arising from the feeling of the sensation.
- 42:45Speaker 1: Perception usually combines several sensations into one thought or percept.
- 42:50Speaker 1: By sensation, the mind feels. By perception, it knows that
- 42:55Speaker 1: it feels and recognizes the object causing the sensation. Sensation
- 43:00Speaker 1: merely brings the report from outside objects, while perception identifies
- 43:05Speaker 1: the report with the object which caused it. Perception interprets
- 43:10Speaker 1: the reports of sensation. Sensation reports a flash of light
- 43:14Speaker 1: from above, Perception interprets the light as starlight or moonlight
- 43:19Speaker 1: or sunlight, or as the flash of a meteor. Sensation
- 43:23Speaker 1: reports a sharp, pricking, painful contact. Perception interprets it as
- 43:28Speaker 1: the prick of a pin. Sensation reports a red spot
- 43:31Speaker 1: on a green background. Perception interprets it as a berry
- 43:36Speaker 1: on a bush. Moreover, while we may perceive a simple
- 43:41Speaker 1: single sensation. Our perceptions are usually of a group of sensations.
- 43:46Speaker 1: Perception is usually employed in grouping sensations and identifying them
- 43:50Speaker 1: with the object or objects causing them. In its identification,
- 43:55Speaker 1: it draws upon whatever memory of past experiences the mind
- 43:59Speaker 1: may possess. Memory, imagination, feeling, and thought are called into
- 44:04Speaker 1: play to some extent. In every clear perception, the infant
- 44:09Speaker 1: has but feeble perception, but as it gains experience, it
- 44:13Speaker 1: begins to manifest perceptions and form percepts. Sensations resemble the
- 44:19Speaker 1: letters of the alphabet a perception the forming of words
- 44:22Speaker 1: and sentences from the letters. Thus, C, A, and T
- 44:27Speaker 1: symbolize sensations, while a word cat formed from them symbolizes
- 44:32Speaker 1: the perception of the object. It is held that all
- 44:36Speaker 1: knowledge begins with sensation, that the mental history the race
- 44:40Speaker 1: or individual begins with its first sensation. But while this
- 44:45Speaker 1: is admitted, it must be remembered that sensation simply provides
- 44:49Speaker 1: the simple, elementary raw material of thought. The first process
- 44:53Speaker 1: of actual thought or knowledge begins with perception. From our percepts,
- 44:59Speaker 1: all of our high concepts and ideas are formed. Perception
- 45:04Speaker 1: depends upon the association of the sensation with other sensations
- 45:08Speaker 1: previously experienced. It is based upon experience. The greater the experience,
- 45:14Speaker 1: the greater is the possibility of perception, all else being equal.
- 45:19Speaker 1: When perception begins, the mind loses sight of the sensation
- 45:23Speaker 1: in itself, for it identifies it as a quality of
- 45:26Speaker 1: the thing producing it. The sensation of light is thought
- 45:30Speaker 1: of as a quality of the star. The pricking sensation
- 45:34Speaker 1: is thought of as a quality of the pin or
- 45:37Speaker 1: chestnut burr. The sensation of odour is thought of as
- 45:41Speaker 1: a quality of the rose. In the case of the rose,
- 45:44Speaker 1: the several sensations of sight, touch, and smell, in their
- 45:48Speaker 1: impression of the qualities of color, shape, softness, and perfume,
- 45:53Speaker 1: are grouped together in the percept of the complete object
- 45:56Speaker 1: of the flower. A percept is that which is perceived
- 46:01Speaker 1: the object of the active perception. The percept, of course,
- 46:06Speaker 1: is a mental state corresponding with its outside object. It
- 46:10Speaker 1: is a combination of several sensations which are regarded as
- 46:13Speaker 1: equalities of the outside object, to which are combined the
- 46:17Speaker 1: memories of past experiences, ideas, feelings and thoughts. A percept, then,
- 46:23Speaker 1: while a simplest form of thought is seen to be
- 46:26Speaker 1: a mental state, The formation of a percept consists of
- 46:30Speaker 1: three gradual stages. That is, one, the attention forms definite
- 46:35Speaker 1: conscious sensations from indefinite nervous reports. Two, the mind interprets
- 46:41Speaker 1: these definite conscious sensations and attributes them to the outside
- 46:45Speaker 1: object causing them. Three, the related sensations are grouped together.
- 46:51Speaker 1: They unity perceived and are regarded as qualities of the
- 46:55Speaker 1: outside object. The plain distinction between a sensation and any percept
- 47:01Speaker 1: may be fixed in the mind by remembering the following.
- 47:04Speaker 1: A sensation is a feeling. A percept is a simple
- 47:07Speaker 1: thought identifying one or more sensations. A sensation is merely
- 47:11Speaker 1: the conscious recognition of an excitation of a nerve end
- 47:16Speaker 1: A percept results from a distinct mental process regarding the
- 47:19Speaker 1: sensation developing perception. It is of the utmost importance that
- 47:26Speaker 1: we develop and train our powers of perception, for our
- 47:30Speaker 1: education depends very materially upon our perceptive power. What matters
- 47:35Speaker 1: it to us if the outside world be filled with
- 47:38Speaker 1: manifold objects, if we do not perceive them to exist
- 47:42Speaker 1: upon perception depends the material of our mental world. Many
- 47:46Speaker 1: persons go through the world without perceiving even the most
- 47:49Speaker 1: obvious facts Their eyes and ears are perfect instruments. Their
- 47:54Speaker 1: nerves convey accurate reports, but the perceptive faculties of the
- 47:58Speaker 1: mind fail to observe. An in turn, separate the report
- 48:01Speaker 1: of the senses. They see and hear distinctly, But the
- 48:04Speaker 1: reports of the senses are not observed or noted by them.
- 48:08Speaker 1: They mean nothing to them. One may see many things,
- 48:12Speaker 1: and yet observe but few. It is not upon what
- 48:15Speaker 1: we see or hear that our stock of knowledge depends
- 48:19Speaker 1: so much as it does upon what we perceive, notice,
- 48:22Speaker 1: or observe. Not only is one's stock of practical knowledge
- 48:27Speaker 1: largely based upon developed perception, but one's success also depends
- 48:31Speaker 1: materially upon the same faculties. In business and professional life,
- 48:36Speaker 1: the successful man is usually he who has developed perceptive powers.
- 48:41Speaker 1: He who has learned to perceive, observe, and note. The
- 48:45Speaker 1: man who perceives and takes mental notes of what occurs
- 48:48Speaker 1: in his world is a man who is apt to
- 48:50Speaker 1: know things when such knowledge is needed. In this age
- 48:54Speaker 1: of book education, we find that the young people are
- 48:57Speaker 1: not nearly so observant as are those children who had
- 49:00Speaker 1: to depend upon the powers of perception for their knowledge.
- 49:04Speaker 1: The young Arab or Indian will observe more in an
- 49:07Speaker 1: hour than the civilized child will in a day. To
- 49:11Speaker 1: live in a world of books tends in many cases
- 49:14Speaker 1: to weaken the powers of observation and perception. Perception may
- 49:19Speaker 1: be developed by practice. Begin by taking notice of the
- 49:23Speaker 1: things seen and heard in your usual walks. Keep wide
- 49:28Speaker 1: open the eyes of the mind, notice the faces of
- 49:31Speaker 1: the people their walk, their characteristics. Look for interesting and
- 49:35Speaker 1: odd things, and you will see them. Do not go
- 49:38Speaker 1: through life in a day dream, but keep a sharp
- 49:41Speaker 1: lookout for things of interest and value. The most familiar
- 49:45Speaker 1: things will repay you for the time and work of
- 49:48Speaker 1: examining them in detail, and the practice gained by such
- 49:51Speaker 1: tasks will prove valuable in your development of perception. An
- 49:56Speaker 1: authority remarks that very few persons, even those to be
- 50:00Speaker 1: in the country, know whether a cow's ears are above, below, behind,
- 50:05Speaker 1: or in front of her horns, nor whether cats descend
- 50:08Speaker 1: from trees head first or tail first. Very few persons
- 50:13Speaker 1: can distinguish between the leaves of the various kinds of
- 50:15Speaker 1: familiar trees in their neighborhood. Comparatively, few persons are able
- 50:20Speaker 1: to describe the house in which they live. At least
- 50:23Speaker 1: beyond the most general features, the details are unknown. Who
- 50:29Speaker 1: d the French conjurer was able to pass by a
- 50:32Speaker 1: shop window and perceive every article in it, and then
- 50:35Speaker 1: repeat what he had seen. But he acquired this skill
- 50:39Speaker 1: only by constant and gradual practice. He himself decried his
- 50:43Speaker 1: skill and claimed that it was as nothing compared to
- 50:46Speaker 1: that of the fashionable women, who can pass another woman
- 50:49Speaker 1: on the street and take in her entire attire from
- 50:52Speaker 1: head to foot at one glance, and be able to
- 50:55Speaker 1: describe not only the fashion and quality of the stuffs,
- 50:59Speaker 1: but also day, if the lace be real or only
- 51:02Speaker 1: machine made. A former president of Yale is said to
- 51:05Speaker 1: have been able to glance at a book and read
- 51:08Speaker 1: a quarter of a page at one time. Any study
- 51:12Speaker 1: or occupation which requires analysis will develop the power of perception. Consequently,
- 51:18Speaker 1: if we will analyze the things we see, resolving them
- 51:21Speaker 1: into their parts or elements, we will likewise develop the
- 51:25Speaker 1: perceptive faculties. It is a good exercise to examine some
- 51:29Speaker 1: small object and endeavor to discover as many different points
- 51:32Speaker 1: of perception as possible, noting them on a sheet of paper.
- 51:36Speaker 1: The most familiar object, if carefully examined, will yield rich returns.
- 51:43Speaker 1: If two persons will enter into a contest of this kind,
- 51:47Speaker 1: the spirit of rivalry and competition will quicken the powers
- 51:50Speaker 1: of observation. Those who have had the patience and perseverance
- 51:54Speaker 1: to systematically practice exercises of this kind report that they
- 51:59Speaker 1: notice the steady improved from the very start. But even
- 52:02Speaker 1: if one does not feel inclined to practice in this way,
- 52:05Speaker 1: it will be found possible to begin to take notice
- 52:08Speaker 1: of the details of things one sees, the expressions of
- 52:11Speaker 1: person's faces, the details of their dress, their tone of voice,
- 52:16Speaker 1: the quality of goods we handle, and the little things especially.
- 52:20Speaker 1: Perception like attention follows interest, but likewise interests may be
- 52:26Speaker 1: created in things by observing their details, peculiarities, and characteristics.
- 52:32Speaker 1: The best knowledge gained by one is that resulting from
- 52:36Speaker 1: his own personal perception. There is a nearness and trueness
- 52:39Speaker 1: about that which is lacking in that he merely believes
- 52:42Speaker 1: because he is read or heard it. One can make
- 52:45Speaker 1: such knowledge a part of himself. Not only is one's
- 52:49Speaker 1: knowledge dependent upon what he perceives, but its very character
- 52:53Speaker 1: also results from the character of his percepts. The influence
- 52:57Speaker 1: of environment is great, and what is environment but things
- 53:01Speaker 1: perceived about one. It is not so much what lies
- 53:04Speaker 1: outside of one as what part of it gets inside
- 53:08Speaker 1: of one by perception. By directing his attention to desirable
- 53:12Speaker 1: objects and perceiving as much of them as is possible,
- 53:16Speaker 1: one really builds his own character at will. The world
- 53:20Speaker 1: needs good perceivers in all the walks of life. It
- 53:24Speaker 1: finds a shortage of them, and is demanding them loudly,
- 53:28Speaker 1: being willing to pay a good price for their services.
- 53:31Speaker 1: The person who can voluntarily perceive and observe the details
- 53:35Speaker 1: of any profession, business, or trade will go far in
- 53:39Speaker 1: that vocation. The education of children should take the faculty
- 53:43Speaker 1: of perception into active consideration. The kindergarten has taken some
- 53:48Speaker 1: steps in this direction, but there is much more to
- 53:51Speaker 1: be done. Chapter seven. Memory psychologist's class as representative mental processes.
- 53:59Speaker 1: Though known as memory and imagination respectively, the term representation
- 54:05Speaker 1: is used in psychology to indicate the processes of representation,
- 54:10Speaker 1: or presenting again to consciousness that which has formerly been
- 54:13Speaker 1: presented to it, but which afterwards passed from its field.
- 54:18Speaker 1: As Hamilton says, the general capability of knowledge necessarily requires that,
- 54:23Speaker 1: besides the power of evoking out of unconsciousness one portion
- 54:27Speaker 1: of our retained knowledge. In preference to another. We possess
- 54:31Speaker 1: the faculty of representing in consciousness what is thus evoked.
- 54:36Speaker 1: Memory is the primary representative faculty or power of the mind.
- 54:40Speaker 1: Imagination depends upon memory for its material as we shall
- 54:44Speaker 1: see when we consider that faculty. Every mental process which
- 54:48Speaker 1: involves the remembrance, recollection, or representation of a sensation, perception,
- 54:53Speaker 1: mental image, thought, or idea previously experienced must depend upon
- 54:59Speaker 1: memory for its material. Memory is the great storehouse of
- 55:03Speaker 1: the mind, in which are placed the records of previous
- 55:05Speaker 1: mental experiences. It is a part of the great subconscious
- 55:09Speaker 1: field of mental activity, and the greater part of its
- 55:12Speaker 1: work is performed below the plane of consciousness. It is
- 55:16Speaker 1: only when its results are passed into the field of
- 55:18Speaker 1: consciousness that we are aware of its existence. We know
- 55:23Speaker 1: memory only by its works. Of its nature we know
- 55:27Speaker 1: but little, although certain of its principal laws and principles
- 55:30Speaker 1: have been discovered. It was formerly customary to class memory
- 55:36Speaker 1: with the various faculties of the mind, but later psychology
- 55:39Speaker 1: no longer so considers it. Memory is now regarded as
- 55:43Speaker 1: a power of the general mind, manifesting in connection with
- 55:46Speaker 1: every faculty of the mind. It is now regarded as
- 55:50Speaker 1: belonging to the great subconscious field of mentation, and its
- 55:53Speaker 1: explanation must be sought there. It is utterly unexplainable. Otherwise
- 56:00Speaker 1: the importance of memory cannot be overestimated. Not only does
- 56:04Speaker 1: a man's character and education depend cheaply upon it, but
- 56:07Speaker 1: his very mental being is bound up with it. If
- 56:10Speaker 1: there were no memory, man would never progress mentally beyond
- 56:14Speaker 1: the mental state of the new born babe. He would
- 56:17Speaker 1: never be able to profit by experience. He would never
- 56:20Speaker 1: be able to form clear perceptions. He would never be
- 56:23Speaker 1: able to reason or form judgments. The processes of thought depend,
- 56:27Speaker 1: for material upon the memory of past experiences. This material, lacking,
- 56:33Speaker 1: there can be no thought. Memory has two important general functions.
- 56:39Speaker 1: Those are one the retention of impressions and experiences, and
- 56:44Speaker 1: to the reproduction of the impressions and experiences so retained.
- 56:50Speaker 1: It was formerly held that the memory retained only a
- 56:52Speaker 1: portion of the impressions and experiences originally noted by it,
- 56:56Speaker 1: but the present theory is that it retains every impress
- 57:00Speaker 1: and experience which is noted by it. It is true
- 57:04Speaker 1: that many of these impressions are never reproduced in consciousness,
- 57:08Speaker 1: but experiments tend to prove, nevertheless, that the records are
- 57:11Speaker 1: still in the memory, and that appropriate and sufficiently strong
- 57:15Speaker 1: stimuli will bring them into the field of consciousness. The
- 57:18Speaker 1: phenomena of somnambulism, dreams, hysteria, delirium, approach of death, etc.
- 57:25Speaker 1: Show that the subconscious mind has an immense accumulation of
- 57:29Speaker 1: apparently forgotten facts, which unusual stimuli will serve to recall.
- 57:35Speaker 1: The power of the memory to reproduce the retained impressions
- 57:38Speaker 1: and experiences is variously called remembrance, recollection, or memory. This
- 57:45Speaker 1: power varies materially in various individuals, but it is an
- 57:49Speaker 1: axiom of psychology that the memory of any person may
- 57:52Speaker 1: be developed and trained by practice. The ability to recall
- 57:57Speaker 1: depends to a great extent upon the clearness depth of
- 58:00Speaker 1: the original impression, which in turn depends upon the degree
- 58:04Speaker 1: of attention given to it at the time of its occurrence.
- 58:08Speaker 1: Recollection is also greatly aided by the law of association,
- 58:12Speaker 1: or the principle whereby one mental fact is linked to another.
- 58:17Speaker 1: The more facts to which are given fact is linked,
- 58:20Speaker 1: the greater the ease by which it is recalled or remembered.
- 58:24Speaker 1: Recollection is also greatly assisted by use and exercise. Like
- 58:28Speaker 1: the fingers, the memory cells of the brain become expert
- 58:31Speaker 1: and efficient by use and exercise, or stiff and inefficient
- 58:36Speaker 1: by lack of the same. In addition to the phases
- 58:40Speaker 1: of retention and reproduction, there are two important phases of memory.
- 58:45Speaker 1: That is three recognition of the reproduced impression or experience,
- 58:50Speaker 1: and for localization of the impression or its reference to
- 58:54Speaker 1: a more or less definite time and place. The recognition
- 58:59Speaker 1: of the recalled impress is quite important. It is not
- 59:02Speaker 1: enough that the impression be retained and recalled. If we
- 59:07Speaker 1: are not able to recognize the recalled impression as having
- 59:10Speaker 1: been experienced before, the recollection will be of but little
- 59:14Speaker 1: use to us in our thought processes. The purposes of
- 59:18Speaker 1: thought demand that we shall be able to identify the
- 59:21Speaker 1: record impression with the original one. Recognition is really recognition
- 59:27Speaker 1: re knowing. Recognition is akin to perception. The mind becomes
- 59:32Speaker 1: conscious of the recalled impression just as it becomes conscious
- 59:36Speaker 1: of the sensation. It then recognizes the relation of the
- 59:39Speaker 1: recalled impression to the original one, just as it realizes
- 59:43Speaker 1: the relation of the sensation to its object. The localization
- 59:48Speaker 1: of the recalled and recognized impression is also important. Even
- 59:52Speaker 1: if we recognize the recalled impression, it will be of
- 59:55Speaker 1: comparatively little use to us unless we are able to
- 59:58Speaker 1: locate it as having happened yesterday, last week, last month,
- 1:00:04Speaker 1: last year, ten years ago, or at some time in
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: the past, and as having happened in our office house,
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: or in such and such a place, in the street,
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: or in some distant place. Without the power of localization,
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: we should be unable to connect and associate the remembered
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: fact with the time, place, and persons with which it
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: should be placed to be of use and value to
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: us in our thought processes. Retention the retention of a
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: mental impression in the memory, depends very materially upon the
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: clearness and depth of the original impression, and this clearness
- 1:00:41Speaker 1: and depth, as we are previously stated, depend upon the
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: degree of attention bestowed upon the original impression. Attention, then,
- 1:00:50Speaker 1: is the important factor in the forming and recording of impressions.
- 1:00:54Speaker 1: The rule is slight attention, faint record, marked attention, clear
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: and deep record. To fix this fact in the mind,
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: the student may think of the retentive and reproductive phases
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: of memory as a phonographic record. The receiving diaphragm of
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: the phonograph represents the sense organs, and the recording needle
- 1:01:16Speaker 1: represents the attention The needle makes the record on a
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: cylinder deep or faint according to the condition of the needle.
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: A loud sound may be recorded, but faintly if the
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: needle is not properly adjusted. And further, it must be
- 1:01:31Speaker 1: remembered that the strength of the reproduction depends almost entirely
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: upon the clearness and depth of the original impression on
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: the cylinder. As is the record, so is the reproduction.
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: It will be well for the student to carry this
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: symbol of the phonograph in his mind. He will aid
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: him in developing his powers of memory. In this connection,
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: we should remember that attention depends largely upon interest. Therefore,
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: we would naturally expect to find that we were in
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: remember interesting things far more readily than those which lack interest.
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: This supposition is borne out in actual experience. This accounts
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: for the fact that everyone remembers a certain class of
- 1:02:11Speaker 1: things better than he does others. One remembers faces, another dates,
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: another spoken conversation, another written words, and so on. It
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: will be found as a rule that each person is
- 1:02:26Speaker 1: interested in the class of things which he most easily remembers.
- 1:02:30Speaker 1: The artist easily remembers faces and details of faces, or
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: scenery and details thereof. The musician easily recalls passages or
- 1:02:39Speaker 1: bars of music, often of a most complicated nature. The
- 1:02:44Speaker 1: speculator easily recalls the quotations of his favorite stocks. The
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: racing man recalls without difficulty the odds posted on a
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: certain horse on a certain day, or the details of
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: a race which was run many years ago. The moral
- 1:02:59Speaker 1: is arouse and induce an interest in the things which
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: you wish to remember. This interest may be aroused by
- 1:03:05Speaker 1: studying the things in question, as we have suggested in
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: a preceding chapter, visualization in memory. Many of the best
- 1:03:15Speaker 1: authorities hold that original impressions may be made clear and deep,
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: and the process of reproduction accordingly rendered more efficient by
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: the practice of visualizing. The thing to be remembered by
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: visualizing is meant the formation of a mental image of
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: the thing in the imagination. If you wish to remember
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: the appearance of anything, look at it closely with attention,
- 1:03:38Speaker 1: and then turning away from it, endeavor to reproduce its
- 1:03:41Speaker 1: appearance as a mental picture in the mind. If this
- 1:03:45Speaker 1: is done, a particularly clear impression will be made in
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: the memory, and when you recall the thing, you will
- 1:03:51Speaker 1: find that you will also recall the clear mental image
- 1:03:54Speaker 1: of it. Of course, the greater the number of details
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: observed and included in the original mental image, the greater
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: the remembered detail perception in memory. Not only is attention
- 1:04:08Speaker 1: necessary in forming clear memory records, but careful perception is
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: also important. Without clear perception, there is a lack of
- 1:04:17Speaker 1: detail in the retained record, and the element of association
- 1:04:20Speaker 1: is lacking. It is not enough to merely remember the
- 1:04:24Speaker 1: thing itself. We should also remember what it is and
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: all about it. The practice of the methods of developing
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: perception given in a preceding lesson will tend to develop
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: and train the retentive, reproductive, recognitive, and locative powers of
- 1:04:40Speaker 1: the memory. The rule is the greater the degree of
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: perception accorded a thing, the greater the detail of the
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: retained impression, and the greater the ease of the recollection.
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: Understanding and memory. Another important point in acquiring impressions in
- 1:04:58Speaker 1: memory is this, the better the understanding of the subject
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: or object, the clearer the impressions regarding it, and the
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: clearer the recollection of it. This fact is proved by
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: experiment and experience. A subject which will be remembered only
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: with difficulty under ordinary circumstances, will be easily remembered if
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: it is fully explained to the person and accompanied by
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: a few familiar illustrations or examples. It is very difficult
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: to remember a meaningless string of words, while a sentence
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: which conveys a clear meaning may be memorized easily. If
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: we understand what a thing is for its uses and employment,
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: we remember it far more easily than if we lack
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: this understanding. Elbringhouse, who conducted a number of experiments along
- 1:05:46Speaker 1: this line, reports that he could memorize the Stanza of
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: poetry at about one tenth the time required to memorize
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: the same amount of nonsense syllables god. He states that
- 1:05:57Speaker 1: he once asked capable students of the Johns Hopkins University
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: to give him an account of the lecture to which
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: he had just listened. I cannot do it, replied the student.
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: It was not logical. The rule is the more one
- 1:06:11Speaker 1: knows about a certain thing, the more easily is that
- 1:06:14Speaker 1: thing remembered. This is a point worth noting. End of
- 1:06:19Speaker 1: chapter seven, Chapter eight, Memory continued. The subject of memory
- 1:06:26Speaker 1: cannot be touched upon intelligently without a consideration of the
- 1:06:30Speaker 1: law of association. One of the important psychological principles, the
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: law of association, what is known in psychology as the
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: law of association, is based on the fact that no
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: idea exists in the mind except in association with other ideas.
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: This is not generally recognized, and the majority of persons
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: will dispute the law at first thought. But the existence
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: and appearance of ideas in the mind are governed by
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: mental law, as in veriariable and constant as the physical
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: law of gravitation. Every idea has associations with other ideas.
- 1:07:08Speaker 1: Ideas travel in groups, and one group is associated with
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: another group, and so on, until in the end, every
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: idea in one's mind is associated directly or indirectly with
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: every other idea. Theoretically, at least, it would be possible
- 1:07:25Speaker 1: to begin with one idea in the mind of a
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: person and then gradually unwind is entire stock of ideas,
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: like the yarn on the ball. Our thoughts proceed according
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: to this law. We sit down in a brown study
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: and proceed from one subject to another until we are
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: unable to remember any connection between the first thought and
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: the last, But each step of the reverie was connected
- 1:07:50Speaker 1: with the one proceeding and the one succeeding it. It
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: is interesting to trace back these connections. Poe based one
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: of his celebrated detective stories on this life. The reverie
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: may be broken into by sudden impression from outside, and
- 1:08:06Speaker 1: we will then proceed from that impression, connecting it with
- 1:08:09Speaker 1: something else already in our experience, and starting a new
- 1:08:12Speaker 1: chain of sequence. Often we fail to trace the associations
- 1:08:17Speaker 1: governing our ideas, but the chain is there. Nevertheless, one
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: may think of a past scene or experience without any
- 1:08:25Speaker 1: apparent cause. A little thought will show that something seen,
- 1:08:30Speaker 1: or a few notes of a song floating to the ears,
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: or the fragrance of a flower has supplied the connecting
- 1:08:36Speaker 1: link between the past and the present. A suggestion of
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: mignonette will recall some past event in which the perfume
- 1:08:43Speaker 1: played a part. Someone's handkerchief perhaps carried the same odor,
- 1:08:49Speaker 1: or an old familiar tune reminds one of someone, something,
- 1:08:53Speaker 1: or some place in the past. A familiar feature in
- 1:08:56Speaker 1: the countenance of a passer by will start one thinking
- 1:08:59Speaker 1: of someone else who had that kind of a mouth,
- 1:09:03Speaker 1: that shaped nose, or that expression of the eye, and
- 1:09:07Speaker 1: a way he will be off in a sequence of
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: remembered experiences. Often the starting idea or the connecting links
- 1:09:14Speaker 1: may appear but dimly in consciousness, but rest assured they
- 1:09:19Speaker 1: are always there. In fact, we frequently accept this law
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: unconsciously and without realizing his actual existence. For instance, one
- 1:09:29Speaker 1: makes a remark, and at once we wonder how did
- 1:09:32Speaker 1: he come to think of that? And if we are shrewd,
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: we may discover what was in his mind before he spoke.
- 1:09:40Speaker 1: There are two general classes of association of ideas in memory.
- 1:09:43Speaker 1: Those are one association of contiguity and two logical association.
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: Association of contiguity is that form of association depending on
- 1:09:56Speaker 1: the previous association in time or space, of ideas which
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: have been impressed on the mind. For instance, if you
- 1:10:04Speaker 1: met mister and Missus Wetterhorn, who were introduced to them
- 1:10:07Speaker 1: one after the other, thereafter you will naturally remember mister Thereafter,
- 1:10:13Speaker 1: you will naturally remember mister w when you think of
- 1:10:16Speaker 1: Missus W. And vice versa. You will naturally remember Napoleon
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: when you think of Wellington or Benedict Arnold when you
- 1:10:23Speaker 1: think of Major Andre for the same reason, you will
- 1:10:27Speaker 1: also naturally remember b at C When you think of a. Likewise,
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: you will think of abstract time when you think of
- 1:10:35Speaker 1: abstract space, of thunder, when you think of lightning, of colic,
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: when you recall green apples, of love making, and moonlit
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: nights when you think of college days. In the same way,
- 1:10:47Speaker 1: we remember things which occurred just before or just after
- 1:10:51Speaker 1: the event in our mind at the moment, of things
- 1:10:54Speaker 1: near in space to the thing of which we are thinking.
- 1:10:58Speaker 1: Logical association depends upon the relation of likeness or difference
- 1:11:03Speaker 1: between several things thought of. Things thus associated may have
- 1:11:08Speaker 1: never come into the mind at the same previous time,
- 1:11:11Speaker 1: nor are they necessarily connected in time and space. One
- 1:11:15Speaker 1: may think of a book and then proceed by association
- 1:11:18Speaker 1: to think of another book by the same author, or
- 1:11:21Speaker 1: of another author treating of the same subject. Or he
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: may think of a book directly opposed to the thirst
- 1:11:28Speaker 1: the relation of distinct difference causing the associated idea. Logical
- 1:11:33Speaker 1: association depends upon inner relations, are not upon the outer
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: relations of time and space. This innerness of relation between
- 1:11:42Speaker 1: things not connected in space or time is discovered only
- 1:11:47Speaker 1: by experience and education. The educated man realizes many points
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: of relationship between things that a thought by the uneducated
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: man to be totally unrelated. Wisdom and knowledge can insist
- 1:12:00Speaker 1: largely in the recognition of relations between things association in memory.
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: It follows from a consideration of the law of association
- 1:12:12Speaker 1: that when one wishes to impress a thing upon the memory,
- 1:12:15Speaker 1: he should, as an authority says, multiply associations. Entangle the
- 1:12:20Speaker 1: fact you wish to remember in a net of as
- 1:12:23Speaker 1: many associations as possible, especially those that are logical. Hence
- 1:12:28Speaker 1: the advice to place your facts in groups and classes
- 1:12:31Speaker 1: in the memory. As Blackie says, nothing helps the mind
- 1:12:35Speaker 1: so much as order and classification. Classes are always few,
- 1:12:40Speaker 1: individuals many. To know the class well is to know
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: what is most essential in the character of the individual
- 1:12:47Speaker 1: and what burdens the memory least. To retain. Repetition in memory,
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: Another important principle of memory is that the impressions acquire
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: depth and clearness by repetition. Repeat a line of poetry
- 1:13:02Speaker 1: once and you may remember it. Repeat it again, and
- 1:13:06Speaker 1: your chances of remembering it are greatly increased. Repeat it
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: a sufficient number of times and you cannot escape remembering it.
- 1:13:15Speaker 1: The illustration of the phonograph record will help you to
- 1:13:17Speaker 1: understand the reason of this. The rule is constant repetition
- 1:13:22Speaker 1: deepens memory impressions. Frequent reviewing and recalling what has been
- 1:13:27Speaker 1: memorized tends to keep the records clear and clean, besides
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: deepening the impression at each review. General rules of memory.
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: The following general rules will be of service to the
- 1:13:40Speaker 1: student who wishes to develop his memory. Making impressions. One
- 1:13:47Speaker 1: bestow attention. Two, cultivate interest, three manifest perception. Four, cultivate understanding.
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: Five form associationations. Six, repeat and review recalling impressions. One
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: endeavor to get hold of the loose end of association
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: and then unwind your memory ball of yarn. Two. When
- 1:14:16Speaker 1: you recall an impression, send it back with energy to
- 1:14:19Speaker 1: deepen the impression and attach it to as many new
- 1:14:21Speaker 1: associations as possible. Three. Practice a little memorizing and recalling
- 1:14:28Speaker 1: each day, if only a line of verse. The memory
- 1:14:31Speaker 1: improves by practice and deteriorates by neglect and disuse. Four.
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: Demand good service of your memory and it will learn
- 1:14:40Speaker 1: to respond. Learn to trust it, and it will rise
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: to the occasion. How can you expect your memory to
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: give good service when you continually abuse it and tell
- 1:14:50Speaker 1: everyone of the wretched memory I have, I can never
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: remember anything. Your memory is very apt to accept your
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: statements as truth. Our mental faculties have an annoying habit
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: of taking us at our word in these matters. Tell
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: your memory what you expect it to do. Then trust it,
- 1:15:09Speaker 1: and refrain from abusing it and giving it a bad name.
- 1:15:13Speaker 1: Final advice. Finally, remember this rule. You get out of
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: your memory only that which you place in it. Place
- 1:15:23Speaker 1: in it good, clear, deep impressions, and it will reproduce good, clear,
- 1:15:27Speaker 1: strong recollections. Think of your memory as a phonographic record,
- 1:15:32Speaker 1: and take care that you place the right kind of
- 1:15:34Speaker 1: impressions upon it. In memory, you reap that which you
- 1:15:38Speaker 1: have sown. You must give to the memory before you
- 1:15:42Speaker 1: can receive from it of one thing you may rest assured, namely,
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: that unless you take sufficient interest in the things to
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: be remembered, you will find that the memory does not
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: take sufficient interest in them to remember them. Memory demands
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: interest before it will take interest in the task. Demands
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: attention before it will give attention. It demands understanding before
- 1:16:05Speaker 1: it will give understanding. It demands association before it will
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: respond to association. It demands repetition before it will repeat.
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: The memory is a splendid instrument, but it stands on
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: its dignity and asserts its rights. It belongs to the
- 1:16:22Speaker 1: old dispensation. It demands compensation and believes in giving only
- 1:16:28Speaker 1: an equal measure to what it receives. Our advice is
- 1:16:31Speaker 1: to get acquainted with your memory and make friends with it.
- 1:16:35Speaker 1: Treat it well and it will serve you well. But
- 1:16:38Speaker 1: neglect it and it will turn its back on you.
- 1:16:42Speaker 1: Chapter nine. Imagination. The imagination belongs to the general class
- 1:16:48Speaker 1: of mental processes called the representative faculties, by which is
- 1:16:53Speaker 1: meant the processes in which there are represented or presented
- 1:16:57Speaker 1: again to consciousness impressions pre obviously presented to it. As
- 1:17:02Speaker 1: we have indicated elsewhere, the imagination is dependent upon memory
- 1:17:06Speaker 1: for its materials, its records of previous impressions. But imagination
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: is more than mere memory or recollection of these previously
- 1:17:15Speaker 1: experienced and recorded impressions. There is, in addition to the
- 1:17:20Speaker 1: representation and recollection, a process of arranging the recalled impressions
- 1:17:25Speaker 1: into new forms and new combinations. The imagination not only
- 1:17:30Speaker 1: gathers together the old impressions, but also creates new combinations
- 1:17:34Speaker 1: and forms from the materials so gathered. Psychology gives us
- 1:17:39Speaker 1: many hair splitting definitions and distinctions between simple reproductive imagination
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: and memory, but these distinctions are technical and as a
- 1:17:48Speaker 1: real perplexing to the average student. In truth, there is
- 1:17:53Speaker 1: very little, if any difference between simple reproductive imagination and memory,
- 1:17:58Speaker 1: although when you imagine indulges in constructive activity, a new
- 1:18:03Speaker 1: feature enters into the process which is absent in pure
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: memory operations. In simple reproductive imagination there is simply the
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: formation of the mental image of some previous experience, the
- 1:18:16Speaker 1: reproduction of a previous mental image. This differs very little
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: from memory, except that the recalled image is clearer and
- 1:18:24Speaker 1: stronger in the same way in ordinary memory, in a
- 1:18:28Speaker 1: manifestation of recollection, there is often the same clear, strong
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: mental image that is produced in reproductive imagination. The two
- 1:18:37Speaker 1: mental processes blend into each other so closely that it
- 1:18:41Speaker 1: is practically impossible to draw the line between them, in
- 1:18:44Speaker 1: spite of the technical differences urged by the psychologists. Of course,
- 1:18:49Speaker 1: the mere remembrance of a person who presents himself to
- 1:18:52Speaker 1: one is nearer to pure memory than to imagination, for
- 1:18:56Speaker 1: the process is that of recognition, but the memory memory
- 1:19:00Speaker 1: or remembrance of the same person when he is absent
- 1:19:03Speaker 1: from sight, is practically that of reproductive imagination. Memory in
- 1:19:09Speaker 1: its stage of recognition exists in the child mind before
- 1:19:12Speaker 1: reproductive imagination is manifested. The latter, therefore is regarded as
- 1:19:18Speaker 1: a higher mental process. But still higher in the scale
- 1:19:23Speaker 1: is that which is known as constructive imagination. This form
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: of imagination appears at a later period of child mentation
- 1:19:31Speaker 1: and is regarded as a later evolution of mental processes
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: of the race. Gaudy makes the following distinction between the
- 1:19:38Speaker 1: two phases of imagination. The difference between reproductive imagination and
- 1:19:44Speaker 1: constructive imagination is that the images resulting from reproductive imagination
- 1:19:49Speaker 1: are copies of past experience, while those resulting from constructive
- 1:19:54Speaker 1: imagination are not. To learn whether any particular image or
- 1:19:58Speaker 1: combination of images is a product of reproductive or constructive imagination,
- 1:20:04Speaker 1: all we have to do is to learn whether or
- 1:20:06Speaker 1: not it is a copy of a past experience. Our memories,
- 1:20:10Speaker 1: of course, are defective, and we may be uncertain on
- 1:20:13Speaker 1: that account, But apart from that, we need be in
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: no doubt whatever. Many persons hearing for the first time
- 1:20:22Speaker 1: the statement of psychologists that the imaginative faculties can represent
- 1:20:26Speaker 1: and reproduce or recombine only the images which have previously
- 1:20:31Speaker 1: been impressed upon the mind are apt to object that
- 1:20:34Speaker 1: they can, and frequently do, image things which they have
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: not previously experienced. But can they and do they? Is
- 1:20:44Speaker 1: it not true that what they believe to be original
- 1:20:46Speaker 1: creations of the imagination are merely new combinations of original impressions.
- 1:20:52Speaker 1: For instance, no one ever saw a unicorn, yet someone
- 1:20:56Speaker 1: originally imagined its form. But a little thought will show
- 1:21:00Speaker 1: that the image of the unicorn is merely that of
- 1:21:03Speaker 1: an animal, having the head, neck, and body of a horse,
- 1:21:07Speaker 1: with the beard of a goat, the legs of a buck,
- 1:21:10Speaker 1: the tail of a lion, and a long, tapering horn
- 1:21:13Speaker 1: sparally twisted in the middle of the forehead. Each of
- 1:21:17Speaker 1: the several parts of the unicorn exists in some living animal,
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: although the unicorn composed of all these parts is non
- 1:21:25Speaker 1: existent outside of fable. In the same way, the centaur
- 1:21:30Speaker 1: is composed of the body, legs, and tail of the
- 1:21:33Speaker 1: horse and the trunk, head and arms of a man.
- 1:21:37Speaker 1: The satter has the head body and arms of a man,
- 1:21:40Speaker 1: with the horns, legs, and hoofs of a goat. The
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: mermaid has the head, arms, and trunk of a woman,
- 1:21:48Speaker 1: joined at the waist to the body and tail of
- 1:21:50Speaker 1: a fish. The mythological devil has the head, body and
- 1:21:55Speaker 1: arms of a man, with the horns, legs, and cloven
- 1:21:58Speaker 1: foot of the lower animal, and a peculiar tail composed
- 1:22:02Speaker 1: of that of some animal, but tipped with a spear head.
- 1:22:06Speaker 1: Each of these characteristics is composed of familiar images of experience.
- 1:22:11Speaker 1: The imagination may occupy itself for a lifetime turning out
- 1:22:14Speaker 1: impossible animals of this kind, but every part thereof will
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: be found to correspond to something existent in nature and
- 1:22:22Speaker 1: experienced by the mind of the person creating the strange beast.
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: In the same way, the imagination may picture a familiar
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: person or thing acting in an unaccustomed manner, the latter
- 1:22:35Speaker 1: having no basis in fact so far as the individual
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: person or thing is concerned, but being warranted by some
- 1:22:41Speaker 1: experience concerning other persons or things. For instance, one may
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: easily form the image of a dog swimming underwater like
- 1:22:50Speaker 1: a fish, or climbing a tree like a cat. Likewise,
- 1:22:55Speaker 1: one may form a mental image of a learned or
- 1:22:57Speaker 1: wigged high chancellor, or a venerable Archbishop of Canterbury, dressed
- 1:23:02Speaker 1: like a clown, standing on his head, balancing a colored
- 1:23:05Speaker 1: football on his feet, sticking his tongue in his cheek,
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: and winking at the audience. In the same way, one
- 1:23:13Speaker 1: may imagine a railroad running across a barren desert or
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: a steep mountain upon which there is not as yet
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: a rail laid. The bridge across a river may be
- 1:23:22Speaker 1: imaged in the same way. In fact, this is the
- 1:23:26Speaker 1: way that everything is mentally created, constructed, or invented, the
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: old materials being combined in a new way and arranged
- 1:23:35Speaker 1: in a new fashion. Some psychologists go so far to
- 1:23:39Speaker 1: say that no mental image of memory is an exact
- 1:23:42Speaker 1: reproduction of the original impression, that there are always changes
- 1:23:47Speaker 1: due to the unconscious operation of the constructive imagination. The
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: constructive imagination is able to tear things to pieces in
- 1:23:56Speaker 1: search for material, as well as to join things together
- 1:24:00Speaker 1: yeather in its work of building. The importance of the
- 1:24:03Speaker 1: imagination in all the processes of intellectual thought is great.
- 1:24:08Speaker 1: Without imagination, man could not reason or manifest any intellectual process.
- 1:24:15Speaker 1: It is impossible to consider the subject of thought without
- 1:24:18Speaker 1: first regarding the processes of imagination, And yet it is
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: common to hear persons speak of the imagination as if
- 1:24:26Speaker 1: it were a faculty of mere fancy, useless and without
- 1:24:30Speaker 1: place in the practical world of thought. Developing the imagination,
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: the imagination is capable of development and training. The general
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: rules for development of the imagination are practically those which
- 1:24:45Speaker 1: we have stated in connection with the development of the memory.
- 1:24:49Speaker 1: There is the same necessity for plenty of material for
- 1:24:52Speaker 1: the formation of clear and deep impressions and clear cut
- 1:24:56Speaker 1: mental images, the same necessity for repeated impression and the
- 1:25:00Speaker 1: frequent use and employment of the faculty. The practice of visualization,
- 1:25:06Speaker 1: of course, strengthens the power of the imagination, as it
- 1:25:09Speaker 1: does that of the memory, the two powers being intimately related.
- 1:25:14Speaker 1: The imagination may be strengthened and trained by deliberately recalling
- 1:25:18Speaker 1: previous impressions and in combining them into new relations. The
- 1:25:23Speaker 1: materials of memory may be torn apart and then recombined
- 1:25:27Speaker 1: and regrouped. In the same way, one may enter into
- 1:25:31Speaker 1: the feelings and thoughts of other persons by imagining one's
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: self in their place and endeavoring to act out in
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: imagination the life of such persons. In this way one
- 1:25:42Speaker 1: may build up a much fuller and broader conception of
- 1:25:45Speaker 1: human nature and human motives. In this place also we
- 1:25:51Speaker 1: should caution the student against the common waste of the
- 1:25:54Speaker 1: powers of the imagination and the dissipation of its powers
- 1:25:57Speaker 1: in idle fancies and dadrea. Many persons misuse their imagination
- 1:26:03Speaker 1: in this way, and not only weaken its power for
- 1:26:06Speaker 1: effective work, but also waste their time and energy. Day
- 1:26:11Speaker 1: Dreamers are notoriously unfit for the real practical work of life.
- 1:26:18Speaker 1: Imagination and ideals. And finally, the student should remember that
- 1:26:24Speaker 1: in the category of the imaginative powers must be placed
- 1:26:27Speaker 1: that phase of mental activity which has so much to
- 1:26:30Speaker 1: do with the making or marring of one's life, the
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: formation of ideals. Our ideals are the patterns after which
- 1:26:38Speaker 1: we shape our life. According to the nature of our
- 1:26:41Speaker 1: ideals is the character of the life we lead. Our
- 1:26:46Speaker 1: ideals are the supports of that which we call character.
- 1:26:51Speaker 1: It is a truth old as the race are now
- 1:26:54Speaker 1: being perceived most clearly by thinkers. That indeed, as a
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The influence
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: of our ideals is perceived to effect not only our character,
- 1:27:07Speaker 1: but also our place and degree of success in life.
- 1:27:11Speaker 1: We grow to be that of which we have held ideals.
- 1:27:15Speaker 1: If we create an ideal, either of general qualities or
- 1:27:19Speaker 1: else these qualities as manifested by some person living or dead,
- 1:27:25Speaker 1: and keep that ideal ever before us, we cannot help
- 1:27:28Speaker 1: developing trays and qualities corresponding to those of our ideal.
- 1:27:33Speaker 1: Careful thought will show that character depends greatly upon the
- 1:27:37Speaker 1: nature of our ideals. Therefore we see the effect of
- 1:27:40Speaker 1: the imagination in character building. Moreover, our imagination has an
- 1:27:46Speaker 1: important bearing on our actions. Many a man has committed
- 1:27:50Speaker 1: an imprudent or immoral act which he would not have
- 1:27:53Speaker 1: done had he been possessed of an imagination which showed
- 1:27:56Speaker 1: him the probable results of the action. In the same way,
- 1:28:01Speaker 1: many men have been inspired to great deeds and achievements
- 1:28:04Speaker 1: by reason of their imagination picturing to them the possible
- 1:28:08Speaker 1: results of certain action. The big things in all walks
- 1:28:12Speaker 1: of life have been performed by men who had sufficient
- 1:28:16Speaker 1: imagination to picture the possibilities of certain courses or plans.
- 1:28:21Speaker 1: The railroads, bridges, telegraph lines, cable lines, and other works
- 1:28:26Speaker 1: of man are the results of the imagination of some men.
- 1:28:31Speaker 1: The good fairy Godmother always provides a vivid and lively
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: imagination among the gifts she bestows upon her beloved god children.
- 1:28:39Speaker 1: Worl did the old philosopher prey to the gods and
- 1:28:43Speaker 1: withal given to me a clear and active imagination. The
- 1:28:49Speaker 1: dramatic values of life depend upon the quality of the imagination.
- 1:28:54Speaker 1: Life without imagination is mechanical and dreary. Imagination may increase
- 1:28:59Speaker 1: the susceptibility to pain, but it pays for this bay
- 1:29:03Speaker 1: increasing the capacity for joy and happiness. The pig has
- 1:29:07Speaker 1: but little imagination, little pain, a little joy. But who
- 1:29:12Speaker 1: envies the pig? The man with a clear and active
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: imagination is, in a measure a creator of his world,
- 1:29:19Speaker 1: or at least a recreator. He takes an active part
- 1:29:23Speaker 1: in the creative activities of the universe, instead of being
- 1:29:26Speaker 1: a mere pawn pushed here and there in the game
- 1:29:30Speaker 1: of life. Again, the divine gift of sympathy and understanding
- 1:29:35Speaker 1: depends materially upon the possession of a good imagination. One
- 1:29:39Speaker 1: can never understand the pain or problems of another unless
- 1:29:43Speaker 1: he first can imagine himself in the place of the other.
- 1:29:47Speaker 1: Imagination is at the very heart of sympathy. One may
- 1:29:51Speaker 1: be possessed of great capacity for feeling, but owing to
- 1:29:54Speaker 1: his lack of imagination, may never have this feeling called
- 1:29:57Speaker 1: into action. And who would sympathize with others must first
- 1:30:02Speaker 1: learn to understand them and feel their emotions. This he
- 1:30:06Speaker 1: can do only if he has the proper degree of imagination.
- 1:30:10Speaker 1: Those who reach the heart of the people must first
- 1:30:13Speaker 1: be reached by the feelings of the people, and this
- 1:30:17Speaker 1: is possible only to him whose imagination enables him to
- 1:30:20Speaker 1: picture himself in the same condition as others, and thus
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: awaken his latent feelings and sympathies and understanding. Thus it
- 1:30:30Speaker 1: is seen that the imagination touches not only our intellectual life,
- 1:30:35Speaker 1: but also our emotional nature. Imagination is the very life
- 1:30:40Speaker 1: of the soul. End of Chapter nine, Chapter ten, the feelings.
- 1:30:49Speaker 1: In thinking of the mind and its activities, we are
- 1:30:52Speaker 1: accustomed to the general idea that the mental processes are
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: chiefly those of intellect reason thought. But as a fact,
- 1:31:01Speaker 1: the greater part of the mental activities are those concerned
- 1:31:04Speaker 1: with feeling and emotion. The intellect is the youngest child
- 1:31:08Speaker 1: of the mind, and while making its presence strenuously known
- 1:31:12Speaker 1: in a manner of all youngest children, so that one
- 1:31:15Speaker 1: is perhaps justified in regarding it as the whole thing
- 1:31:18Speaker 1: in the family. Nevertheless, it plays but a comparatively small
- 1:31:22Speaker 1: part in the general work of the mental family. The
- 1:31:26Speaker 1: activities of the feeling side of life greatly outnumber those
- 1:31:30Speaker 1: of the thinking side, are far stronger in their influence
- 1:31:33Speaker 1: and effect as a rule, and in fact so colour
- 1:31:37Speaker 1: the intellectual processes unconsciously, so as to constitute their distinctive quality,
- 1:31:43Speaker 1: except in the case of a very few advanced thinkers.
- 1:31:48Speaker 1: But there is a difference between feeling and emotion. As
- 1:31:51Speaker 1: the terms are employed in psychology, the former is the
- 1:31:54Speaker 1: simple phase, the latter the complex. Generally speaking, semblance or difference,
- 1:32:01Speaker 1: is akin to that existing between sensation and perception, as
- 1:32:05Speaker 1: explained in a previous chapter. Beginning with the simple, in
- 1:32:09Speaker 1: order later on to reach the complex, we shall now
- 1:32:13Speaker 1: consider that which is known as simple feeling. The term feeling,
- 1:32:19Speaker 1: as used in this connection in psychology, has been defined
- 1:32:23Speaker 1: as the simple, agreeable or disagreeable side of any mental state.
- 1:32:27Speaker 1: These agreeable or disagreeable sides of mental states are quite
- 1:32:31Speaker 1: distinct from the act of knowing which accompanies them. One
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: may perceive and thus know that another is speaking to him,
- 1:32:39Speaker 1: and be fully aware of the words being used and
- 1:32:42Speaker 1: of their meaning. Ordinarily, and so far as pure thought
- 1:32:46Speaker 1: processes are concerned, this would complete the mental state. But
- 1:32:51Speaker 1: we must reckon on the feeling side as well as
- 1:32:53Speaker 1: on the thinking side of the mental state. Accordingly, we
- 1:32:58Speaker 1: find that the knowledge of the words the other person
- 1:33:01Speaker 1: and the meaning thereof results in a mental state agreeable
- 1:33:05Speaker 1: or disagreeable. In the same way the reading of the
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: words of a book, the hearing of a song, or
- 1:33:12Speaker 1: a sight or scene perceived may result in a more
- 1:33:15Speaker 1: or less strong feeling, agreeable or disagreeable. This sense of
- 1:33:21Speaker 1: agreeable or disagreeable consciousness is the essential characteristic of what
- 1:33:25Speaker 1: we call feeling. It is very difficult to explain feeling
- 1:33:31Speaker 1: except in its own terms. We know very well what
- 1:33:34Speaker 1: we mean or what another means when it is said
- 1:33:38Speaker 1: that we or he feel sad, or has a joyous feeling,
- 1:33:43Speaker 1: or a feeling of interest, and yet we shall find
- 1:33:46Speaker 1: it very hard to explain the mental state except in
- 1:33:49Speaker 1: terms of feeling itself. Our knowledge depends entirely upon our
- 1:33:53Speaker 1: previous experience of the feeling. As an authority says, if
- 1:33:58Speaker 1: we have never felt pleasure, pain, fear, or sorrow. A
- 1:34:02Speaker 1: quarter of volume cannot make us understand what such a
- 1:34:05Speaker 1: mental state is. Every mental state is not distinguished by
- 1:34:10Speaker 1: strong feeling. There are certain mental states which are concerned
- 1:34:14Speaker 1: chiefly with intellectual effort, and in which all trace of
- 1:34:18Speaker 1: feeling seems to be absent, unless, as some have claimed,
- 1:34:22Speaker 1: the feeling of interest or the lack of same, is
- 1:34:25Speaker 1: a faint form of the feeling of pleasure or pain.
- 1:34:28Speaker 1: Habit may dull the feeling of a mental state until
- 1:34:31Speaker 1: it is apparently neutral, but there is generally a faint
- 1:34:34Speaker 1: feeling of like or dislike still left. The elementary forms
- 1:34:40Speaker 1: of feeling are closely allied with those of simple sensation,
- 1:34:44Speaker 1: but experiments have revealed that there is a distinction in consciousness.
- 1:34:49Speaker 1: It has been discovered that one is often conscious of
- 1:34:51Speaker 1: the touch of a heated object before he is of
- 1:34:54Speaker 1: the feeling or pain resulting from it. Psychologists have pointed
- 1:34:59Speaker 1: out another distinction, namely, when we experience a sensation, we
- 1:35:04Speaker 1: are accustomed to refer it to the outside thing, which
- 1:35:07Speaker 1: is the object of it, as when we touch the
- 1:35:09Speaker 1: heated object. But when we experience a feeling, we instinctively
- 1:35:13Speaker 1: refer it to ourselves as when the heated object gives
- 1:35:17Speaker 1: us pain. As an authority has said, my feelings belong
- 1:35:22Speaker 1: to me, but my sensation seem to belong to the
- 1:35:25Speaker 1: object which caused them. Another proof of the difference and
- 1:35:29Speaker 1: distinction between sensation and feeling is the fact that the
- 1:35:33Speaker 1: same sensation will produce different feelings in different persons experiencing
- 1:35:38Speaker 1: the former, even at the same time. For instance, the
- 1:35:42Speaker 1: same sight will cause one person to feel elated and
- 1:35:46Speaker 1: the other depressed. The same words will produce a feeling
- 1:35:49Speaker 1: of joy in one and a feeling of sorrow in another.
- 1:35:53Speaker 1: The same sensation will produce different feelings in the same
- 1:35:56Speaker 1: person at different times. Authority Well says, you drop your
- 1:36:02Speaker 1: purse and you see it lying on the ground as
- 1:36:05Speaker 1: you stoop to pick it up, with no feeling either
- 1:36:08Speaker 1: a pleasure or pain. But if you see it after
- 1:36:12Speaker 1: you have lost it and have hunted for it a
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: long time in vain, you have a pronounced feeling of pleasure.
- 1:36:19Speaker 1: There is a vast range of degree and kind in feeling.
- 1:36:23Speaker 1: God he says, all forms of pleasure and pain are
- 1:36:27Speaker 1: called feelings. Between the pleasure which comes from eating a peach,
- 1:36:31Speaker 1: and that which results from solving a difficult problem, of
- 1:36:34Speaker 1: learning good news of a friend, or thinking of the
- 1:36:37Speaker 1: progress of civilization. Between the pain that results from a
- 1:36:41Speaker 1: cut in the hand and that which results from the
- 1:36:44Speaker 1: failure of a long cherished plan or the death of
- 1:36:47Speaker 1: a friend, there is a long distance. But the one
- 1:36:50Speaker 1: group are all pleasures, the other all pains, And whatever
- 1:36:55Speaker 1: the source of the pleasure or pain, it is alike feeling.
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: There are many different kinds of feelings. Some arise from
- 1:37:03Speaker 1: sensations of physical comfort or discomfort, some from purely physiological conditions,
- 1:37:10Speaker 1: others from a satisfaction of accustomed tastes or the dissatisfaction
- 1:37:14Speaker 1: arising from the stimulation of unaccustomed tastes. Others from the
- 1:37:19Speaker 1: presence or absence of comfort, Others from the presence or
- 1:37:23Speaker 1: absence of things or persons for whom we have an
- 1:37:26Speaker 1: affection or liking. Over indulgence often transforms the feeling of
- 1:37:31Speaker 1: pleasure into that of pain, and likewise, habit and practice
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: may causes to experience a pleasurable feeling from that which
- 1:37:40Speaker 1: formerly inspired feeling of an opposite kind. Feelings also differ
- 1:37:45Speaker 1: in degree. That is to say, some things causes to
- 1:37:49Speaker 1: experience pleasurable feelings of a greater intensity than do others,
- 1:37:54Speaker 1: and some causes to experience painful feelings of a greater
- 1:37:57Speaker 1: intensity than do others. These degrees of intensity depend more
- 1:38:03Speaker 1: or less upon the habit or experience of the individual.
- 1:38:07Speaker 1: As a general rule, feeling may be classified into one
- 1:38:11Speaker 1: those arising from physical sensations, and two those arising from ideas.
- 1:38:18Speaker 1: The feelings, depending upon physical sensations, arise either from inherited
- 1:38:23Speaker 1: tendencies and inclinations or from acquired habits and experience. It
- 1:38:29Speaker 1: is an axiom of the evolutionary school that any physical
- 1:38:32Speaker 1: activity that has been a habit of the race long
- 1:38:35Speaker 1: continued becomes an instinctive pleasure giving activity in the individual.
- 1:38:40Speaker 1: For instance, the race for many generations was compelled to hunt, fish, travel, swim,
- 1:38:46Speaker 1: et cetera in order to maintain existence. The result is
- 1:38:51Speaker 1: that we, the descendants, are apt to find pleasure in
- 1:38:54Speaker 1: the same activities as sport, games, exercise, et cetera. Many
- 1:38:59Speaker 1: of our ten tendencies and feelings are inherited in this way.
- 1:39:03Speaker 1: To these, we have added many acquired habits of physical activity,
- 1:39:07Speaker 1: which follow the same rule. That is that habit and
- 1:39:11Speaker 1: practice impart more or less pleasurable feeling. We find more
- 1:39:16Speaker 1: pleasure in doing those things which we can do easily
- 1:39:18Speaker 1: or quite well than in the opposite kind of things.
- 1:39:23Speaker 1: The feelings depending upon ideas may also arise from inheritance.
- 1:39:28Speaker 1: Many of our mental tendencies and inclinations have come down
- 1:39:31Speaker 1: to us from the past. There are certain feelings that
- 1:39:35Speaker 1: are borne in one without a doubt. That is to say,
- 1:39:38Speaker 1: there is a great capacity for such feelings, which will
- 1:39:41Speaker 1: be transformed into manifestation upon the presentation of the proper stimulus.
- 1:39:46Speaker 1: Other mental feelings depend upon our individual past experience, association,
- 1:39:52Speaker 1: or suggestions from others upon our past environment. In fact,
- 1:39:57Speaker 1: the ideals of those around us will cause us to
- 1:39:59Speaker 1: experience pleasure or pain, as the case may be. Under
- 1:40:03Speaker 1: certain circumstances. The force of suggestion along these lines is
- 1:40:08Speaker 1: very strong. Indeed, not only do we experience feelings in
- 1:40:12Speaker 1: response to present sensations, but the recollection of some previous
- 1:40:16Speaker 1: experience will also arouse feeling. In fact, feelings of this
- 1:40:21Speaker 1: kind are closely bound up with memory and imagination. Persons
- 1:40:26Speaker 1: of vivid imagination are apt to feel far more than others.
- 1:40:30Speaker 1: They suffer more and enjoy more. Our sympathies, which depend
- 1:40:35Speaker 1: largely upon our imaginative power, are the cause of many
- 1:40:39Speaker 1: of our feelings of this kind. Many of the facts
- 1:40:43Speaker 1: which we generally ascribe to feeling are really part of
- 1:40:46Speaker 1: the phenomena of emotion, the latter being the more complex
- 1:40:49Speaker 1: phase of feeling. For purposes of this consideration, we have
- 1:40:54Speaker 1: regarded simple feeling as the raw material of emotion, the
- 1:40:58Speaker 1: relation being compared to that exist between sensation and perception.
- 1:41:03Speaker 1: In our consideration of emotion, we shall see the fuller
- 1:41:07Speaker 1: manifestation of feeling and its more complex expressions Chapter eleven.
- 1:41:14Speaker 1: The emotions. As we have seen in the preceding lessons,
- 1:41:19Speaker 1: an emotion is the more complex phase of feeling. As
- 1:41:23Speaker 1: a rule, an emotion arises from a number of feelings. Moreover,
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: it is of a higher order of mental activity. As
- 1:41:31Speaker 1: we have seen, a feeling may arise either from a
- 1:41:34Speaker 1: physical sensation or from an idea. Emotion, however, as a rule,
- 1:41:40Speaker 1: is dependent upon an idea for its expression, and always
- 1:41:44Speaker 1: upon an idea for its direction and its continuance. Feeling,
- 1:41:48Speaker 1: of course, is the elemental spirit of all emotional states, and,
- 1:41:53Speaker 1: as an authority has said, is the threat upon which
- 1:41:56Speaker 1: the emotional states are strung, says, when representative ideas appear,
- 1:42:03Speaker 1: the feeling in combination with them produces emotion. After the
- 1:42:08Speaker 1: waters of the Missouri combined with another stream, they receive
- 1:42:12Speaker 1: a different name, although they flow toward the Gulf in
- 1:42:15Speaker 1: as great volume as before. Suppose we liken the feeling
- 1:42:19Speaker 1: due to sensation to the Missouri River, the train of
- 1:42:23Speaker 1: representative ideas to the Mississippi before its junction with the Missouri.
- 1:42:28Speaker 1: Emotion may then be likened to the Mississippi after its junction.
- 1:42:33Speaker 1: After feeling has combined with representative ideas, the emotional stream
- 1:42:38Speaker 1: will not be broader and deeper than before. This analogy
- 1:42:42Speaker 1: is employed only to make the distinction clearer. The student
- 1:42:46Speaker 1: must remember that mental powers are never actually as distinct
- 1:42:50Speaker 1: as two rivers before their union. The student must beware
- 1:42:54Speaker 1: of thinking that we have done with feeling when we
- 1:42:56Speaker 1: consider emotion. Just as the waters of the Missouri flow
- 1:43:00Speaker 1: on until they reach the Gulf, so does feeling run
- 1:43:03Speaker 1: through every emotional state in the above analogy. The term
- 1:43:08Speaker 1: representative ideas, of course, means the ideas of memory and imagination.
- 1:43:13Speaker 1: As explained in previous chapters, there is a close relation
- 1:43:18Speaker 1: between emotion and a physical expression. Thereof a peculiar mutual
- 1:43:23Speaker 1: action and reaction between a mental state and the physical
- 1:43:27Speaker 1: action accompanying it. Psychologists are divided regarding this relation. One
- 1:43:33Speaker 1: school holds that the physical expression follows and results from
- 1:43:37Speaker 1: the mental state. For instance, we hear or see something
- 1:43:41Speaker 1: and thereupon experience the feeling or emotion of anger. This
- 1:43:45Speaker 1: emotional feeling reacts upon the body and causes an increased
- 1:43:49Speaker 1: heart beat, a tight closing of the lips of frown
- 1:43:52Speaker 1: and lowered eyebrows, and clenched fists. Or we may perceive
- 1:43:57Speaker 1: something which causes the feeling or emotion of fear, which
- 1:44:01Speaker 1: reacts upon the body and produces pallor raising of the hair,
- 1:44:06Speaker 1: dropping of the jaw, opening of the eyelids, trembling of
- 1:44:10Speaker 1: the legs, et cetera. According to this skirl and the
- 1:44:14Speaker 1: popular idea, the mental state precedes and causes the physical expression.
- 1:44:20Speaker 1: But another school of psychology, of which the late Professor
- 1:44:24Speaker 1: William James is a leading authority, holds that the physical
- 1:44:27Speaker 1: expression precedes and causes the mental state. For instance, in
- 1:44:32Speaker 1: the cases above cited, the perception of the anger causing
- 1:44:37Speaker 1: or fear causing sight first causes a reflex action upon
- 1:44:41Speaker 1: the muscles according to inherited race habits of expression. This
- 1:44:45Speaker 1: muscular expression and activity, in turn is held to react
- 1:44:50Speaker 1: upon the mind and to cause the feeling or emotion
- 1:44:53Speaker 1: of anger or fear, as the case may be. Professor James,
- 1:44:58Speaker 1: in some of his works makes a forcible argument in
- 1:45:01Speaker 1: support of this theory, and his opinions have influenced the
- 1:45:04Speaker 1: scientific thought of the day upon this subject. Others, however,
- 1:45:09Speaker 1: have sought to combat his theory by equally forcible argument,
- 1:45:13Speaker 1: and the subject is still under lively and spirited discussion
- 1:45:16Speaker 1: in psychological circles. Without taking sides in the above controversy,
- 1:45:22Speaker 1: Many psychologists proceed upon the hypothesis that there is a
- 1:45:26Speaker 1: mutual action and reaction between emotional mental states and the
- 1:45:30Speaker 1: appropriate physical expression thereof, each in a measure being the
- 1:45:34Speaker 1: cause of the other, and each likewise being the effect
- 1:45:38Speaker 1: of the other. For instance, in the cases above cited,
- 1:45:43Speaker 1: the perception of the anger producing or fear producing sight
- 1:45:47Speaker 1: causes almost or quite simultaneously the emotional mental state of
- 1:45:52Speaker 1: anger or fear, as the case may be, and the
- 1:45:55Speaker 1: physical expression thereof then rapidly ensues a series of mental
- 1:46:00Speaker 1: and physical reactions. The mental state acts upon the physical
- 1:46:03Speaker 1: expression and intensifies it. The physical expression, in turn reacts
- 1:46:08Speaker 1: upon the mental state and induces a more intense degree
- 1:46:12Speaker 1: of the emotional feeling, and so on, until a mental
- 1:46:16Speaker 1: state and physical expression reach their highest point and then
- 1:46:20Speaker 1: begin to subside from exhaustion of energy. This middle ground
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: conception meets all the requirements of the facts and is
- 1:46:28Speaker 1: probably more nearly correct than either extreme theory. Darwin, in
- 1:46:34Speaker 1: his classic work The Expression of the Emotions in Man
- 1:46:37Speaker 1: and Animals, has thrown a great light on the subject
- 1:46:40Speaker 1: of the expression of emotion in physical motions. The Florentine
- 1:46:45Speaker 1: scientist Paolo Mantegazza added to Darwin's work with ideas of
- 1:46:50Speaker 1: his own and countless examples drawn from his own experience
- 1:46:53Speaker 1: and observation. The work of Frosware del Sart, the founder
- 1:46:58Speaker 1: of the school of Expression, which, as his name, is
- 1:47:01Speaker 1: also a most valuable addition to the thought on this subject.
- 1:47:05Speaker 1: The subject of the relation and reaction between emotional feeling
- 1:47:09Speaker 1: and physical expression is a most fascinating one and one
- 1:47:13Speaker 1: in which we may expect interesting and valuable discoveries during
- 1:47:16Speaker 1: the next twenty years. The relation and reaction above mentioned
- 1:47:21Speaker 1: are interesting not only from a viewpoint of theory, but
- 1:47:25Speaker 1: also because of their practicable application in emotional development and training.
- 1:47:30Speaker 1: It is an established truth of psychology that each physical
- 1:47:33Speaker 1: expression of an emotional state serves to intensify the latter.
- 1:47:38Speaker 1: It is pouring oil on the fire. Likewise, it is
- 1:47:42Speaker 1: equally true that the repression of the physical expression of
- 1:47:45Speaker 1: an emotion tends to restrain and inhibit the emotion itself.
- 1:47:51Speaker 1: Halleck says, if you watch a person grow angry, we
- 1:47:54Speaker 1: shall see the emotion increase as he talks loud, frowns deeply,
- 1:47:59Speaker 1: clinch his fist, and gesticulates wildly. Each expression of his
- 1:48:04Speaker 1: passion is reflected back upon the original anger and adds
- 1:48:07Speaker 1: fuel to the fire. If he resolutely inhibits the muscular
- 1:48:11Speaker 1: expressions of his anger, it will not attain great intensity,
- 1:48:15Speaker 1: and it will soon die a quiet death. Not without
- 1:48:19Speaker 1: reason are those persons called cold blooded who habitually restrain
- 1:48:25Speaker 1: as far as possible, the expression of their emotion, who
- 1:48:28Speaker 1: never frown or throw any feeling into their tones. Even
- 1:48:32Speaker 1: when a wrong inflicted upon someone demands aggressive measures, there
- 1:48:36Speaker 1: is here no way of bodily expression to flow back
- 1:48:40Speaker 1: and augment the emotional state. In this connection, we call
- 1:48:44Speaker 1: your attention to the familiar and oft quoted passage from
- 1:48:48Speaker 1: the works of Professor William James. Refuse to express a
- 1:48:52Speaker 1: passion and it dies count ten before venting your anger
- 1:48:57Speaker 1: and its occasion seems ridiculous. Wishing to keep up courage
- 1:49:01Speaker 1: is no mere figure of speech. On the other hand,
- 1:49:05Speaker 1: sit all day in a moping posture, sigh and reply
- 1:49:08Speaker 1: to everything with a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers.
- 1:49:13Speaker 1: There is no more valuable precept in moral education than this,
- 1:49:17Speaker 1: as all who have experienced know, if we wish to
- 1:49:20Speaker 1: conquer undesirable emotional tendencies in ourselves, we must assiduously, and
- 1:49:26Speaker 1: in the first instance, cold bloodedly, go through the outward
- 1:49:30Speaker 1: movements of those contrary dispositions which we prefer to cultivate.
- 1:49:34Speaker 1: Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather
- 1:49:39Speaker 1: than the ventral aspect of the frame, and speak in
- 1:49:42Speaker 1: a major key, and your heart must be frigid, indeed,
- 1:49:45Speaker 1: if it does not gradually thaw. Along the same lines,
- 1:49:50Speaker 1: Haleck says, act as are frequently testified to the fact
- 1:49:54Speaker 1: that emotion will arise if they go through the appropriate
- 1:49:58Speaker 1: muscular movements. In talking to a character on the stage.
- 1:50:02Speaker 1: If they clench the fists and frown, they often find
- 1:50:05Speaker 1: themselves becoming really angry. If they start with counterfeit laughter,
- 1:50:10Speaker 1: they find themselves growing cheerful. A German professor says that
- 1:50:14Speaker 1: he cannot walk with the schoolgirl's mincing step and air
- 1:50:18Speaker 1: without feeling frivolous. The wise student will acquire a great
- 1:50:22Speaker 1: control over his emotional nature if he will re read
- 1:50:26Speaker 1: and study the above statements and quotations until he has
- 1:50:29Speaker 1: grasped their spirit and essence. In those few lines, he
- 1:50:34Speaker 1: has given a philosophy of self control and self mastery
- 1:50:37Speaker 1: that will be worth much to him if he will
- 1:50:40Speaker 1: but apply it in practice. Patience, perseverance, practice and will
- 1:50:45Speaker 1: are required, but the reward is great. Even to those
- 1:50:49Speaker 1: who have not the persistency to apply this truth fully.
- 1:50:53Speaker 1: There will be a partial reward if they will use
- 1:50:55Speaker 1: it to the extent of restraining, so far as possible,
- 1:50:59Speaker 1: any undue physical expression of undesirable emotional excitement. Some writers
- 1:51:05Speaker 1: seem to regard capacity for great emotional excitement and expression
- 1:51:09Speaker 1: as a mark of a rich and full character or
- 1:51:12Speaker 1: noble soul. This is far from being true. While it
- 1:51:16Speaker 1: is a fact that the cultivation of certain emotions tends
- 1:51:19Speaker 1: to create a noble character and a full life. It
- 1:51:23Speaker 1: is equally true that the tendency to gush and indulge
- 1:51:26Speaker 1: in hysterical or sentimental excesses is a mark of an
- 1:51:30Speaker 1: ill controlled nature and a weak rather than strong character. Moreover,
- 1:51:36Speaker 1: it is a fact that excess in emotional excitement in
- 1:51:39Speaker 1: expression tends toward the dissipation of the finer and nobler
- 1:51:43Speaker 1: feelings which otherwise would seek an outlet in actual doing
- 1:51:47Speaker 1: and practical action. In the language of the old Scotch
- 1:51:51Speaker 1: engineer in the story, they are like the old locomotive,
- 1:51:54Speaker 1: which so much steam of the whistle that she has
- 1:51:58Speaker 1: neh degerebay. Emotional excitement and expression are largely dependent upon
- 1:52:04Speaker 1: habit and indulgence, although there is a great difference, of course,
- 1:52:08Speaker 1: in the emotional nature and tendencies of various persons. Emotions,
- 1:52:13Speaker 1: like physical actions or intellectual processes, become habitual by repetition,
- 1:52:19Speaker 1: and habit renders all physical or mental actions easy of repetition.
- 1:52:24Speaker 1: Each time one manifests anger, the deeper the mental path
- 1:52:28Speaker 1: is made, and the easier it is to travel that
- 1:52:31Speaker 1: path the next time in the same way. Each time
- 1:52:34Speaker 1: that anger is conquered and inhibited, the easier will it
- 1:52:38Speaker 1: be to restrain it the next time. In the same way,
- 1:52:42Speaker 1: desirable habits of emotion and expression may be formed. Another
- 1:52:47Speaker 1: point in the cultivation, training, and restraint of the emotions
- 1:52:51Speaker 1: is that which has to do with the control of
- 1:52:53Speaker 1: the ideas which we allow to come into the mind.
- 1:52:57Speaker 1: Ideate of habits may be formed, are formed, in fact
- 1:53:01Speaker 1: by the majority of persons. We may cultivate the habit
- 1:53:05Speaker 1: of looking on the bright side of things, of looking
- 1:53:08Speaker 1: for the best in those we meet, of expecting the
- 1:53:11Speaker 1: best things instead of the worst. By resolutely refusing to
- 1:53:15Speaker 1: give welcome to ideas calculated to arouse certain emotions, feelings, passions, desires, sentiments,
- 1:53:23Speaker 1: or similar mental states, we may do much to prevent
- 1:53:26Speaker 1: the arousing the emotion itself. Emotions usually are called forth
- 1:53:31Speaker 1: by some idea, and if we shut out the idea,
- 1:53:35Speaker 1: we may prevent the emotional feeling from appearing. In this connection,
- 1:53:39Speaker 1: the universal rule of psychology may be applied. A mental
- 1:53:43Speaker 1: state may be inhibited or restrained by turning the attention
- 1:53:47Speaker 1: to the opposite mental state. The control of the attention
- 1:53:52Speaker 1: is really the control of every mental state. We may
- 1:53:56Speaker 1: use the will in the direction of the control of
- 1:53:59Speaker 1: the attention, the development and direction of voluntary attention, and
- 1:54:04Speaker 1: thus actually control every phase of mental activity. The will
- 1:54:08Speaker 1: is nearest to the ego or central being of man,
- 1:54:12Speaker 1: and the attention is the chief tool and instrument of
- 1:54:14Speaker 1: the will. This fact cannot be repeated too often. If
- 1:54:19Speaker 1: it is impressed upon the mind, it will prove to
- 1:54:21Speaker 1: be useful and valuable in many emergencies of mental life.
- 1:54:25Speaker 1: He who controls his attention controls his mind, and in
- 1:54:29Speaker 1: controlling his mind, controls himself. End of Chapter eleven. Chapter twelve,
- 1:54:38Speaker 1: The instinctive Emotions. Many attempts to classify the emotions have
- 1:54:44Speaker 1: been made by the psychologists, but the best authorities hold that,
- 1:54:48Speaker 1: beyond the purpose of ordinary convenience in considering the subject,
- 1:54:52Speaker 1: any classification is scientifically useless by reason of its incompleteness.
- 1:54:57Speaker 1: As James cleverly puts it, any classification of the emotions
- 1:55:02Speaker 1: is seen to be as true and as natural as
- 1:55:04Speaker 1: any other if it only serves some purpose. The difficulty
- 1:55:08Speaker 1: attending the attempted classification arises from the fact that every
- 1:55:13Speaker 1: emotion is more or less complex, and is made up
- 1:55:16Speaker 1: of various feelings and shades of emotional excitement. Each emotion
- 1:55:21Speaker 1: blends into others. Just as a few elements of matter
- 1:55:25Speaker 1: may be grouped into hundreds of thousands of combinations, so
- 1:55:28Speaker 1: the elements of feeling may be grouped into thousands of
- 1:55:31Speaker 1: shades of emotion. It is said that the two elements
- 1:55:35Speaker 1: of carbon and hydrogen form combinations resulting in five thousand
- 1:55:39Speaker 1: varieties of material substance, from anthracite to marsh gas, from
- 1:55:44Speaker 1: black coke to colourless naphther. The same thing may be
- 1:55:48Speaker 1: said of the emotional combinations formed from two principal elements
- 1:55:52Speaker 1: of feeling. More Over, the close distinction between sensation and
- 1:55:57Speaker 1: feeling on the one hand, between feeling and emotion on
- 1:56:01Speaker 1: the other, serves to further complicate the task. For the
- 1:56:06Speaker 1: purposes of our consideration, let us divide the emotions into
- 1:56:10Speaker 1: five general classes as follows. One instinctive emotions, two social emotions,
- 1:56:18Speaker 1: three religious emotions, four esthetic emotions, five intellectual emotions. Which
- 1:56:27Speaker 1: shall now consider each of the above five classes in turn.
- 1:56:32Speaker 1: Instinctive emotions. Instinct is defined as unconscious, involuntary, or unreasoning
- 1:56:39Speaker 1: prompting to any action, or the natural, unreasoning impulse by
- 1:56:44Speaker 1: which an animal is regarded to the performance of any
- 1:56:47Speaker 1: action without thought of improving the method. An authority says,
- 1:56:52Speaker 1: instinct is a natural impulse, leading animals, even prior to
- 1:56:56Speaker 1: all experience, and to perform certain actions tending to the
- 1:57:00Speaker 1: welfare of the individual or the perpetuation of the species,
- 1:57:05Speaker 1: apparently without understanding the object at which they may be
- 1:57:08Speaker 1: supposed to aim, or deliberating as to the best methods
- 1:57:12Speaker 1: to employ. In many cases, as in the construction of
- 1:57:16Speaker 1: the cells of the bee, there is a perfection about
- 1:57:19Speaker 1: the result which reasoning man could not have equalled except
- 1:57:23Speaker 1: by an application of the high mathematics to direct the
- 1:57:26Speaker 1: operations carried out. Mister Darwin considers that animals in time
- 1:57:31Speaker 1: past as now have varied in their mental qualities, and
- 1:57:35Speaker 1: that those variations are inherited. Instincts also vary slightly in
- 1:57:41Speaker 1: a state of nature. This being so, natural selection can
- 1:57:45Speaker 1: ultimately bring them to a high degree of perfection. It
- 1:57:49Speaker 1: was formerly the fashion to describe instinct in the lower
- 1:57:52Speaker 1: animals and in man to something akin to innate ideas
- 1:57:57Speaker 1: implanted in each species, and thereafter can continued by inheritance.
- 1:58:02Speaker 1: But the application of the ideal of evolution to the
- 1:58:05Speaker 1: science of psychology has resulted in brushing away these old ideas. Today,
- 1:58:11Speaker 1: it holds that that which we call instinct is result
- 1:58:15Speaker 1: of gradual development in the course of evolution, the accumulated
- 1:58:18Speaker 1: experience of the race being stored away in the race memory,
- 1:58:22Speaker 1: each individual adding a little there too by his acquired
- 1:58:26Speaker 1: habits and experiences. Psychologists now hold that the lower forms
- 1:58:31Speaker 1: of these race tendencies are closely akin to purely reflex actions,
- 1:58:36Speaker 1: and the higher forms, which are known as instinctive emotions,
- 1:58:41Speaker 1: are phenomena of the subconscious mind resulting from race memory
- 1:58:45Speaker 1: and race experience. Claude says instinct is the higher form
- 1:58:51Speaker 1: of reflex action. The salmon migrates from sea to river.
- 1:58:56Speaker 1: The bird makes its nest, or migrates from one's zone
- 1:58:59Speaker 1: to another by an unvarying root, even leaving its young
- 1:59:02Speaker 1: behind to perish. The bee builds its six sided cell.
- 1:59:07Speaker 1: The spider spins its web. The chick breaks its way
- 1:59:10Speaker 1: through the shell, balances itself, and picks up grains of corn.
- 1:59:15Speaker 1: The newborn babe sucks its mother's breast, all in virtue
- 1:59:19Speaker 1: of like acts on the part of their ancestors, which
- 1:59:23Speaker 1: arising the needs of the creature and gradually becoming automatic
- 1:59:27Speaker 1: have not varied during long ages, the tendency to repeat
- 1:59:31Speaker 1: them being transmitted within the germ from which insect, fish, bird,
- 1:59:36Speaker 1: and man have severally sprung. Schneider says, it is the
- 1:59:41Speaker 1: fact that men, especially in childhood, fear to go into
- 1:59:45Speaker 1: a dark cavern or a gloomy wood. This feeling of
- 1:59:49Speaker 1: fear arises, to be sure, partly from the fact that
- 1:59:52Speaker 1: we easily suspect that dangerous beasts may lurk in these localities,
- 1:59:57Speaker 1: a suspicion due to stories we have heard and read.
- 2:00:00Speaker 1: But on the other hand, it is quite sure that
- 2:00:03Speaker 1: this fear at a certain perception is also directly inherited.
- 2:00:08Speaker 1: Children who have been carefully guarded from all ghosts stories,
- 2:00:11Speaker 1: are nevertheless terrified and cry if led into a dark space,
- 2:00:16Speaker 1: especially if sounds are made there. Even an adult can
- 2:00:20Speaker 1: easily observe that an uncomfortable amidity steals over him in
- 2:00:23Speaker 1: a lonely wood at night, although he may have the
- 2:00:26Speaker 1: fixed conviction that not the slightest danger is near. This
- 2:00:30Speaker 1: feeling of fear occurs in many men even in their
- 2:00:34Speaker 1: own houses after dark, although it is much stronger in
- 2:00:37Speaker 1: a dark cavern or forest. The fact of such instinctive
- 2:00:42Speaker 1: fear is easily explicable when we consider that our savage ancestors,
- 2:00:46Speaker 1: through immemorial generations were accustomed to meet with dangerous beasts
- 2:00:51Speaker 1: in caverns, especially bears, and were for the most part
- 2:00:55Speaker 1: attacked by such beasts during the night and in the woods,
- 2:00:59Speaker 1: And that thus an inseparable association between the perceptions of darkness, caverns, woods,
- 2:01:05Speaker 1: and fear took place and was inherited. James says, nothing
- 2:01:12Speaker 1: is commoner than the remark that man differs from lower
- 2:01:15Speaker 1: creatures by the almost total absence of instincts and the
- 2:01:19Speaker 1: assumption of their work in him. By reason, we may
- 2:01:22Speaker 1: confidentially say that, however uncertain man's reactions upon his environment
- 2:01:27Speaker 1: may sometimes seem in comparison with those of the lower mammals,
- 2:01:31Speaker 1: the uncertainty is probably not due to their possession of
- 2:01:34Speaker 1: any principles of action, which he lacks. On the contrary,
- 2:01:39Speaker 1: man possesses all the impulses that they have, and a
- 2:01:42Speaker 1: great many more. Besides High places cause fear of a
- 2:01:46Speaker 1: peculiarly sickening sort. Though here again individuals differ the utterly
- 2:01:52Speaker 1: blind instinctive character of the motor impulses. Here is shown
- 2:01:56Speaker 1: by the fact that they are almost always entirely un reasonable,
- 2:02:01Speaker 1: but that reason is powerless to suppress them. Certain ideas
- 2:02:05Speaker 1: of supernatural agency associated with real circumstances produce a peculiar
- 2:02:10Speaker 1: kind of horror. This horror is probably explicable as a
- 2:02:14Speaker 1: result of a combination of simple horrors. To bring the
- 2:02:18Speaker 1: ghostly terror to its maximum, many unusual elements of the
- 2:02:21Speaker 1: dreadful must combine, such as loneliness, darkness, inexplicable sounds, especially
- 2:02:28Speaker 1: of a dismal character, moving pictures half discerned or if discerned,
- 2:02:34Speaker 1: of dreadful aspect, and a vertiginous baffling of the expectation.
- 2:02:39Speaker 1: In view of the fact that cadaveric, reptilian, and underground
- 2:02:43Speaker 1: horrors play so specific and constant a part in many
- 2:02:47Speaker 1: nightmares and forms of delirium, it seems not altogether unwise
- 2:02:52Speaker 1: to ask whether these forms of dreadful circumstance may not,
- 2:02:56Speaker 1: at a former period have been more normal objects to
- 2:02:58Speaker 1: the environment than now. The evolutionist ought to have no
- 2:03:02Speaker 1: difficulty in explaining these terrors and the scenery that provokes them,
- 2:03:06Speaker 1: as relapses into the consciousness of the cave men, a
- 2:03:10Speaker 1: consciousness usually overlaid in us by experiences of a more
- 2:03:14Speaker 1: recent date. Instinctive emotion manifests as an impulse arising from
- 2:03:20Speaker 1: the dim recesses of the feeling or emotional nature, an
- 2:03:24Speaker 1: incentive toward a dimly conscious end. It differs from the
- 2:03:28Speaker 1: almost purely automatic nature of certain forms of reflex process,
- 2:03:33Speaker 1: for its beginning is a feeling arising from the subconscious regions,
- 2:03:37Speaker 1: which strives to excite an activity of conscious volition. The
- 2:03:41Speaker 1: feeling is from the subconscious, for the activity is conscious.
- 2:03:45Speaker 1: The end may not be perceived in consciousness, or at
- 2:03:49Speaker 1: least is but dimly perceived, but the action leading to
- 2:03:52Speaker 1: the end is in full consciousness. Instinct is seen to
- 2:03:56Speaker 1: have its origin in the past experiences of the race,
- 2:04:00Speaker 1: transmitted by heredity and preserved in the race memory. It
- 2:04:04Speaker 1: has for its object the preservation of the individual and
- 2:04:08Speaker 1: of the species. Its end is often something far removed
- 2:04:12Speaker 1: in time from the moment, or the welfare of the
- 2:04:14Speaker 1: species rather than that of the individual. For instance, the
- 2:04:19Speaker 1: caterpillar providing for its future states, or the bird building
- 2:04:23Speaker 1: its nest, or the bees building cells and providing honey
- 2:04:27Speaker 1: for their successes. For very few bees live to partake
- 2:04:30Speaker 1: of the honey which they have gathered and stored. They
- 2:04:33Speaker 1: are animated by the spirit of the hive. The most
- 2:04:38Speaker 1: elementary form to the instinctive emotions are those which have
- 2:04:41Speaker 1: to do with the preservation of the individual is comfort
- 2:04:45Speaker 1: and purely physical welfare. This class of emotions comprises what
- 2:04:50Speaker 1: are generally known as purely selfish feelings, having little or
- 2:04:54Speaker 1: no concern for the welfare of others. In this class
- 2:04:58Speaker 1: we find the emotional feelings which have to do with
- 2:05:01Speaker 1: the satisfaction of hunger and thirst, the securing of comfortable
- 2:05:05Speaker 1: quarters and warm clothing, and a spirit of combatant strife,
- 2:05:09Speaker 1: arising from the desire to obtain these These elemental feelings
- 2:05:14Speaker 1: had their birth early in the history of life, and
- 2:05:17Speaker 1: indeed life itself depended very materially upon them for its
- 2:05:21Speaker 1: preservation and continuance. It was necessary for the primitive living
- 2:05:25Speaker 1: thing to be selfish. When man appeared, Only those survived
- 2:05:30Speaker 1: who manifested these feelings strongly. The others were pushed to
- 2:05:34Speaker 1: the wall unperished. Even in our civilization, the man below
- 2:05:39Speaker 1: the average in this class of feelings will find it
- 2:05:42Speaker 1: difficult to survive. Chapter thirteen. The passions arising from the
- 2:05:50Speaker 1: most elemental instinctive emotions, we find what may be termed
- 2:05:54Speaker 1: the passions. By the term passion is meant those strong
- 2:05:59Speaker 1: feelings in which the elemental selfish instincts are manifested in
- 2:06:03Speaker 1: relation to other persons, either in the phase of attraction
- 2:06:06Speaker 1: or repulsion. In this class we find the elementary phases
- 2:06:11Speaker 1: of love and the feelings of hate, anger, jealousy, revenge, etc.
- 2:06:17Speaker 1: This class of emotions usually manifests violently as compared with
- 2:06:21Speaker 1: the other emotions. The passions generally arise from self preservation,
- 2:06:26Speaker 1: race preservation and reproduction, self interest, self aggrandizement, etc. And
- 2:06:33Speaker 1: may be regarded as a more complex phase of the
- 2:06:35Speaker 1: elemental instinctive emotions. The elemental instinctive emotions of self preservation
- 2:06:41Speaker 1: and self comfort cause the individual to experience and manifest
- 2:06:45Speaker 1: the passional emotions of desire for combat, anger, hate, revenge, etc.
- 2:06:52Speaker 1: While instinctive emotions leading to reproduction and continuance of the
- 2:06:55Speaker 1: race give rise to the passional emotions of sexual love,
- 2:06:59Speaker 1: jealous et cetera. The desire to attract the other sex
- 2:07:03Speaker 1: increases ambition, vanity, love of display, and other feelings. It
- 2:07:10Speaker 1: is only when this class of emotions blends with the
- 2:07:13Speaker 1: higher emotions, that the passions become purified and refined. But
- 2:07:18Speaker 1: it must not be forgotten that these emotions were very
- 2:07:21Speaker 1: necessary for the welfare of the race in the early
- 2:07:24Speaker 1: stage in its evolution, and that they still play an
- 2:07:27Speaker 1: active part in human life under the greater or less
- 2:07:30Speaker 1: restraint imposed by civilized society. Nor should it be forgotten
- 2:07:35Speaker 1: that Tromney's emotions have evolved the highest love of one
- 2:07:39Speaker 1: human being for another. From instinctive sexual love and the
- 2:07:44Speaker 1: racial instinct, have developed the higher affection of man for
- 2:07:48Speaker 1: woman and woman for man in all their beautiful manifestations,
- 2:07:53Speaker 1: and the love of the parent for the child, and
- 2:07:56Speaker 1: the love of the child for the parent. The first
- 2:07:59Speaker 1: manifestation of altruism arises in the love of the living
- 2:08:03Speaker 1: creature for its mate, and in the love of the
- 2:08:05Speaker 1: parents for their offspring. In certain forms of life, where
- 2:08:10Speaker 1: the association of the sexes is merely for the moment
- 2:08:13Speaker 1: and is not followed by protection, mutual aid, and companionship,
- 2:08:18Speaker 1: there is found an absence of mutual affection of any kind,
- 2:08:22Speaker 1: the only feeling being an elemental reproductive instinct bringing the
- 2:08:26Speaker 1: male and female together for the moment, an almost purely
- 2:08:30Speaker 1: reflex activity in the same way in the cases of
- 2:08:34Speaker 1: certain animals the rattlesnake, for instance, in which the young
- 2:08:39Speaker 1: are able to protect themselves from birth, there is seen
- 2:08:42Speaker 1: a total absence of parental affection or the return thereof
- 2:08:46Speaker 1: human love between the sexes in its higher and lower
- 2:08:50Speaker 1: degrees is a natural evolution from passional emotion of a
- 2:08:54Speaker 1: low order. Due to the growth of social, ethical, moral,
- 2:08:58Speaker 1: and esthetic emotion arising from the necessities the increasing complexity
- 2:09:03Speaker 1: and development of human life, the simpler forms of passional
- 2:09:08Speaker 1: emotion are almost entirely instinctive in their manifestation. Indeed, in
- 2:09:13Speaker 1: many cases there appears to be but little more than
- 2:09:16Speaker 1: a high form of reeflex nervous action. The following words
- 2:09:20Speaker 1: of William James give us an interesting view of this
- 2:09:23Speaker 1: fact of life. The cat runs after the mouse runs
- 2:09:28Speaker 1: or shows fight before the dog, avoids falling from walls
- 2:09:31Speaker 1: and trees, shuns fire and water, not because he has
- 2:09:36Speaker 1: any notion either of life or of death or of
- 2:09:39Speaker 1: self preservation. He acts in each case separately and simply
- 2:09:44Speaker 1: because he cannot help it, being so framed that when
- 2:09:47Speaker 1: that particular running thing called a mouse appears in his
- 2:09:51Speaker 1: field of vision, he must pursue that when that particular
- 2:09:55Speaker 1: barking an obstreperous thing called a dog appears there street
- 2:10:00Speaker 1: higher if at a distance, and scratch if close by,
- 2:10:05Speaker 1: that he must withdraw his feet from water and his
- 2:10:08Speaker 1: face from flame, et cetera. Now, why do the various
- 2:10:12Speaker 1: animals do what seem to us such strange things in
- 2:10:15Speaker 1: the presence of such outlandish stimuli? Why does the hen,
- 2:10:20Speaker 1: for instance, submit herself to the tedium of incubating such
- 2:10:23Speaker 1: a fearfully uninteresting set of objects as a nest full
- 2:10:27Speaker 1: of eggs, Unless she have some sort of profetic inkling
- 2:10:30Speaker 1: of the result, the only answer is ad hominem. We
- 2:10:35Speaker 1: can only interpret the instinct of brutes by what we
- 2:10:38Speaker 1: know of instincts in ourselves. Why do men always lie
- 2:10:42Speaker 1: down when they can on soft beds rather than on
- 2:10:45Speaker 1: soft floors. Why do they sit around a stove on
- 2:10:49Speaker 1: a cold day. Why in a room do they place
- 2:10:53Speaker 1: themselves ninety nine times out of one hundred with their
- 2:10:56Speaker 1: faces towards the middle rather than to the wall. Why
- 2:11:01Speaker 1: does the maiden interest the youth so much that everything
- 2:11:04Speaker 1: about us seems more important and significant than anything else
- 2:11:08Speaker 1: in the world. Nothing more can be said than that
- 2:11:11Speaker 1: these are human ways, and that every creature likes its
- 2:11:15Speaker 1: own ways and takes to following them. As a matter
- 2:11:18Speaker 1: of course, science may come and consider these ways and
- 2:11:22Speaker 1: find that most of them are useful. But it is
- 2:11:26Speaker 1: not for the sake of the utility that they are followed,
- 2:11:29Speaker 1: but because at the moment of following them, we feel
- 2:11:31Speaker 1: that it is the only appropriate and natural thing to do.
- 2:11:36Speaker 1: Not one man in a million, when taking his dinner,
- 2:11:39Speaker 1: ever thinks of its utility. He eats because the food
- 2:11:43Speaker 1: tastes good and makes him want more. If you should
- 2:11:46Speaker 1: ask him why he wants to eat more of what
- 2:11:49Speaker 1: tastes like that, instead of revering you as a philosopher,
- 2:11:54Speaker 1: he will probably laugh at you for a fool, James continues,
- 2:11:59Speaker 1: It takes, in short, what Berkeley called a mind debauched
- 2:12:03Speaker 1: by learning to carry the process of making the natural
- 2:12:06Speaker 1: seem strange so far as to ask the why of
- 2:12:09Speaker 1: any instinctive human act. To the metaphysician alone, can such
- 2:12:14Speaker 1: questions arise as why do we smile when pleased and
- 2:12:18Speaker 1: not scowl? Why are we unable to talk to a
- 2:12:22Speaker 1: crowd as to a single friend, Why does the particular
- 2:12:26Speaker 1: maiden turn our wits upside down? The common man can
- 2:12:30Speaker 1: only say, of course we smile. Of course our heart
- 2:12:34Speaker 1: palpitates at the sight of the crowd. Of course we
- 2:12:37Speaker 1: love the maiden, that beautiful soul clad in that perfect form,
- 2:12:42Speaker 1: so palpably and flagrantly made from all eternity to be loved.
- 2:12:47Speaker 1: And so probably does each animal feel about the particular
- 2:12:51Speaker 1: things it tends to do in the presence of particular objects.
- 2:12:55Speaker 1: They too, are up priori syntheses. To the lion. It
- 2:13:00Speaker 1: is the lioness which is made to be loved to
- 2:13:03Speaker 1: the bear, the she bear to the broody hen. The
- 2:13:07Speaker 1: notion would seem monstrous that there should be a creature
- 2:13:10Speaker 1: in the world to whom a nest full of eggs
- 2:13:12Speaker 1: was not the utterly fascinating precious, and never to be
- 2:13:16Speaker 1: much sat upon object which it is to her. Thus
- 2:13:20Speaker 1: we may be sure that, however mysterious some animal's instincts
- 2:13:24Speaker 1: may appear to us, our instincts will appear no less
- 2:13:27Speaker 1: mysterious to them. And we may conclude that to the
- 2:13:31Speaker 1: animal which obeys it, every impulse in every step of
- 2:13:35Speaker 1: that instinct shines with its own sufficient light, and seems,
- 2:13:39Speaker 1: at the moment the only externally right and proper thing
- 2:13:43Speaker 1: to do. It may be done for its own sake exclusively.
- 2:13:48Speaker 1: One has very little need, as a rule, to develop
- 2:13:51Speaker 1: the passional emotions. Instinct has taken pretty good care that
- 2:13:56Speaker 1: we shall have our share of this class of feelings.
- 2:13:59Speaker 1: But there is a need to train, restrain, govern and
- 2:14:02Speaker 1: control these emotions, for the conditions which brought about their
- 2:14:06Speaker 1: original being have changed. Our social conventions require that we
- 2:14:11Speaker 1: should subordinate these passional feelings to some extent. At least.
- 2:14:16Speaker 1: Society insists that we must restrict our love impulses to
- 2:14:19Speaker 1: certain limits and to certain quarters, and that we subdue
- 2:14:23Speaker 1: our anger and hate except toward the enemies of our land,
- 2:14:27Speaker 1: the disturb us a public peace, and the menaces of
- 2:14:30Speaker 1: the social conventions of our time and land. The public
- 2:14:34Speaker 1: welfare requires that we inhibit our fighting impulses, except in
- 2:14:38Speaker 1: cases of self defense or war. Public policy requires that
- 2:14:43Speaker 1: we keep our ambitions within reasonable limits, which limits change
- 2:14:47Speaker 1: from time to time. Of course, in short, society has
- 2:14:52Speaker 1: stepped in and insisted that man as a social being
- 2:14:56Speaker 1: must not only acquire a social conscience, but must also
- 2:14:59Speaker 1: develop sociable emotions and inhibit his unsociable ones. The evolution
- 2:15:05Speaker 1: of man's nature has caused him unconsciously to modify his
- 2:15:09Speaker 1: elemental instinctive passional emotions and subordinate them to the dictates
- 2:15:14Speaker 1: of social, ethical, moral, and esthetic feelings and ideals, and
- 2:15:19Speaker 1: to intellectual considerations. Even the original elemental instincts of the
- 2:15:24Speaker 1: lower animals have been modified by reason of the social
- 2:15:27Speaker 1: requirements of the pack, herd or drove, until a modified
- 2:15:32Speaker 1: instinct is now the ruling force. The general principles of
- 2:15:37Speaker 1: emotional control, restraint, and mastery, as given in a preceding chapter,
- 2:15:43Speaker 1: are applicable to the particular class of emotions now under
- 2:15:46Speaker 1: consideration here. One, by refraining from a physical expression, one
- 2:15:52Speaker 1: may at least partially inhibit the emotion. Two, By refusing
- 2:15:58Speaker 1: to create the habit, one may more easily manifest control. Three.
- 2:16:04Speaker 1: By refusing to dwell upon the idea or mental picture
- 2:16:07Speaker 1: of the exciting object, one may lessen the stimulus. Four.
- 2:16:13Speaker 1: By cultivating the opposite class of emotions, one may inhibit
- 2:16:17Speaker 1: any class of feeling. Five. And finally, by acquiring a
- 2:16:23Speaker 1: control of the attention by means of the will, one
- 2:16:26Speaker 1: has the reins firmly in hand, and may drive or
- 2:16:29Speaker 1: hold back the steeds of passion as he wills. The
- 2:16:34Speaker 1: passions are like fiery horses, useful if well under control,
- 2:16:39Speaker 1: but most dangerous if the control is lost. The ego
- 2:16:43Speaker 1: is the driver, the will, his hands, attention, the reins
- 2:16:47Speaker 1: habit the bit, and the passions the horses. To drive
- 2:16:52Speaker 1: the charity of life under social conditions, the ego must
- 2:16:55Speaker 1: have strong hands will to tighten or loosen the rain
- 2:17:00Speaker 1: of attention. He must also employ a well designed and
- 2:17:03Speaker 1: shaped bit of habit. Without strong hands, good rains, and
- 2:17:08Speaker 1: well adjusted bit, the fiery steeds of passion may gain
- 2:17:12Speaker 1: control and running away dash the chariot in its driver
- 2:17:17Speaker 1: over the precipice and on to the jagged rocks below.
- 2:17:22Speaker 1: End of Chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen the social emotions. As
- 2:17:31Speaker 1: man became a social animal, he developed new trays of character,
- 2:17:35Speaker 1: new habits of action, new ideals, new customs, and consequently
- 2:17:41Speaker 1: new emotions. Emotions, long entertained and long manifested by the
- 2:17:45Speaker 1: race become more or less instinctive and are passed along
- 2:17:49Speaker 1: in the form of either a inherited stimulus akin to
- 2:17:54Speaker 1: but less in degree and force than, the more elemental emotions,
- 2:17:59Speaker 1: or be of inherited tendency to manifest the acquired emotional
- 2:18:04Speaker 1: feeling upon the presentation of sufficiently strong stimuli. Hence arises
- 2:18:10Speaker 1: that which we have called the social emotions. Under the
- 2:18:14Speaker 1: classification of the social emotions are those acquired tendencies of
- 2:18:19Speaker 1: action and feeling of the race which are more or
- 2:18:22Speaker 1: less altruistic, and are concerned with the welfare of others
- 2:18:27Speaker 1: and one's duties and obligations towards society and our fallow Men.
- 2:18:32Speaker 1: In this class are to be found the emotions which
- 2:18:34Speaker 1: impel us to perform what we consider or feel to
- 2:18:37Speaker 1: be our duty toward our neighbours, and our obligations and
- 2:18:41Speaker 1: duty toward the state as expressed in its laws, the
- 2:18:45Speaker 1: customs of men of our country, or the ideals of
- 2:18:48Speaker 1: the community. In another phase, it manifests a sympathy, fallow feeling,
- 2:18:54Speaker 1: and kindness in general. In its first phase, we find
- 2:18:59Speaker 1: civic virtue, law abiding inclination, honesty, square dealing, and patriotism.
- 2:19:06Speaker 1: In its second phase, we find sympathy for others, charity,
- 2:19:10Speaker 1: mutual aid, the alleviation of poverty and suffering, the erection
- 2:19:15Speaker 1: of asylums for orphans and the aged, hospitals for the sick,
- 2:19:19Speaker 1: and the formation of societies for general charitable work. In
- 2:19:24Speaker 1: many cases, we find the social, ethical and moral emotions
- 2:19:28Speaker 1: closely allied with religious emotion, and by many these are
- 2:19:32Speaker 1: supposed to be practically identical, but there is a vast
- 2:19:36Speaker 1: difference in spite of their frequent association. For instance, we
- 2:19:41Speaker 1: find many persons of high civic virtue, of exalted moral ideals,
- 2:19:46Speaker 1: and manifesting ethical qualities of the most advanced type, who
- 2:19:50Speaker 1: are lacking in the ordinary religious feelings. On the other hand,
- 2:19:54Speaker 1: we too frequently find persons professing great religious zeal and
- 2:19:59Speaker 1: apparently exp experiencing the most intense religious emotional feeling, who
- 2:20:03Speaker 1: are defficient in social, civic, ethical, and moral qualities in
- 2:20:08Speaker 1: the best sense of these terms. The aim of all
- 2:20:11Speaker 1: religion worthy of the name, however, is to encourage ethical
- 2:20:15Speaker 1: and moral as well as religious emotions. We must here
- 2:20:20Speaker 1: make the distinction between those manifesting the actions termed ethical
- 2:20:24Speaker 1: and moral because they feel that way, and those who
- 2:20:28Speaker 1: merely comply with the conventional requirements because they fear the
- 2:20:31Speaker 1: consequences of their violation. The first class have the true social,
- 2:20:37Speaker 1: ethical and moral feelings, tastes, ideals, and inclinations, while the
- 2:20:42Speaker 1: second manifest merely the elementary feelings of self preservation and
- 2:20:47Speaker 1: selfish prudence. The first class are good because they feel
- 2:20:52Speaker 1: that way and find it natural to be so, while
- 2:20:55Speaker 1: the others are good merely because they have to be
- 2:20:59Speaker 1: or be punished by legal penalty or public opinion, loss
- 2:21:03Speaker 1: of prestige, loss of financial support, etc. The social, moral,
- 2:21:10Speaker 1: and ethical emotions are believed to have arisen in the
- 2:21:13Speaker 1: race by reason of the association of individuals and communities
- 2:21:17Speaker 1: and the rise of the necessity for mutual aid and forbearance.
- 2:21:21Speaker 1: Even many of the species of the lower animals have social,
- 2:21:25Speaker 1: moral or ethical codes of their own based on the
- 2:21:28Speaker 1: experience of the species or family in fractions of which
- 2:21:32Speaker 1: they punish severely. In the same way, sympathy and the
- 2:21:37Speaker 1: altruistic feelings are supposed to have arisen. The community of
- 2:21:42Speaker 1: interest and understanding in the tribe, family, or clan brought
- 2:21:47Speaker 1: not only the feeling of natural defense and protection, but
- 2:21:50Speaker 1: also the finer in a sympathetic feeling of the pains
- 2:21:54Speaker 1: and sufferings of their associates. This, in the progress of
- 2:21:58Speaker 1: the race has to be developed into broader and more
- 2:22:01Speaker 1: complex ideals and feelings. Theology explains the moral feelings as
- 2:22:07Speaker 1: resulting from conscience, which it holds to be a special
- 2:22:10Speaker 1: faculty of the mind or soul divinely given. Science, while
- 2:22:16Speaker 1: emitting the existence of the state of feelings which we
- 2:22:19Speaker 1: call conscience, denies its supernatural origin and ascribes it to
- 2:22:23Speaker 1: the result of evolution, heredity, experience, education, and suggestion. Conscience,
- 2:22:30Speaker 1: according to science, is a compound of intellectual and emotional states.
- 2:22:36Speaker 1: Conscience is not an invariable or infallible guide, but depends
- 2:22:40Speaker 1: entirely upon the heredity, education, experience, and environment of the individual.
- 2:22:46Speaker 1: It accompanies the moral and ethical codes of the race,
- 2:22:49Speaker 1: which vary with time and with country. Actions which were
- 2:22:53Speaker 1: thought right a century ago are condemned now. Likewise, things
- 2:22:58Speaker 1: condemned a century agoin Soo are thought right now. What
- 2:23:03Speaker 1: is commended in Turkey is condemned in England, and vice versa.
- 2:23:08Speaker 1: Moral tastes and ideals, like esthetic ones, vary with time
- 2:23:12Speaker 1: and country. There is no absolute code which has always
- 2:23:16Speaker 1: been true in all places. There is an evolution in
- 2:23:19Speaker 1: the ideals of morals and ethics, as in everything else,
- 2:23:23Speaker 1: and conscience and the moral and ethical emotions accompany the
- 2:23:27Speaker 1: changing ideals. Many of the moral and ethical principles originally
- 2:23:33Speaker 1: arose from necessity or utility, but have since developed into natural,
- 2:23:37Speaker 1: spontaneous feeling on the part of the race. It is
- 2:23:41Speaker 1: held that the race is rapidly developing a social conscience
- 2:23:45Speaker 1: which will cause the wiping out of many social conditions
- 2:23:48Speaker 1: which are now the disgrace of civilization. It is predicted
- 2:23:52Speaker 1: that in time the race will look back upon the
- 2:23:55Speaker 1: existence of poverty in our civilization, as our generation now
- 2:24:00Speaker 1: looks back upon the existence of slavery, imprisonment for debt,
- 2:24:04Speaker 1: capital punishment for the theft of a loaf of bread, the
- 2:24:07Speaker 1: killing of prisoners of war, et cetera. It is thought
- 2:24:11Speaker 1: that in time wars of conquest will be deemed as
- 2:24:14Speaker 1: utterly immoral as today is regarded the murder of a
- 2:24:18Speaker 1: body of men by a band of pirates or bandits.
- 2:24:22Speaker 1: In the same way, the economic slavery of today will
- 2:24:25Speaker 1: be seen as immoral as now seems the physical slavery
- 2:24:29Speaker 1: of the past. In not far distant time, it will
- 2:24:33Speaker 1: seem incredible that society could ever have allowed one of
- 2:24:35Speaker 1: its members to die of hunger in the streets, or
- 2:24:38Speaker 1: of poverty and inattention in the sick room of the hovel.
- 2:24:43Speaker 1: Not only will the ideals and feelings of ethical and
- 2:24:45Speaker 1: moral responsibility change and evolve, but the feelings of personal
- 2:24:50Speaker 1: sympathy will evolve in accordance therewith at least, such is
- 2:24:54Speaker 1: the dream and prophecy of some of the world's greatest thinkers.
- 2:25:00Speaker 1: Social ethical, and moral emotions may be developed by a
- 2:25:03Speaker 1: study of the evolution and meaning of society on the
- 2:25:06Speaker 1: one hand, and a perception of the condition of the
- 2:25:09Speaker 1: lives of less fortunate individuals on the other. The first
- 2:25:13Speaker 1: will awaken new ideas of the history and real meaning
- 2:25:16Speaker 1: of social association and mutual intercourse, and will develop a
- 2:25:21Speaker 1: new sense of responsibility, duty, and civic and social pride.
- 2:25:26Speaker 1: The second will awaken understanding and sympathy, and a desire
- 2:25:30Speaker 1: to do what one can to help those who are
- 2:25:33Speaker 1: the underdog, and also to bring about a better state
- 2:25:37Speaker 1: of affairs in general. The study of history and civilization,
- 2:25:41Speaker 1: of sociology and civics will do much in the first direction.
- 2:25:46Speaker 1: The study of humankind and its life problems and conditions
- 2:25:50Speaker 1: will do the same thing in the second case. In
- 2:25:53Speaker 1: both cases, there will be awakened a new sense of
- 2:25:57Speaker 1: right and wrong, a new conception of aught and aught
- 2:26:01Speaker 1: not regarding one's relations to the race, society, and his
- 2:26:06Speaker 1: fellow beings. Let no one deceive himself or herself by
- 2:26:11Speaker 1: the smug assumption that the race is entirely emerged from
- 2:26:14Speaker 1: barbarism and is now on the top wave of civilization.
- 2:26:19Speaker 1: The truth, as known to all careful and conscientious thinkers,
- 2:26:23Speaker 1: is that we are but half civilized, if indeed that much.
- 2:26:28Speaker 1: Many of our customs and conventions are those of a
- 2:26:31Speaker 1: half barbarous people. Our ideals are low, our customs often vile.
- 2:26:38Speaker 1: We lack not only high ideals, but in many cases
- 2:26:41Speaker 1: we show a lack of sanity in our social conventions.
- 2:26:45Speaker 1: But evolution is moving slowly ahead. A better day is dawning.
- 2:26:50Speaker 1: The signs are in the air to be seen by
- 2:26:53Speaker 1: all thoughtful men. Civilization is climbing the ladder, aided by
- 2:26:57Speaker 1: the evolution of the social, ethical, and moral emotions and
- 2:27:01Speaker 1: the development of the intellect. In connection with this phase
- 2:27:06Speaker 1: of the emotions, we invite the student to consider the
- 2:27:08Speaker 1: following excellent words of Professor Davidson in his History of
- 2:27:12Speaker 1: Greek Education. It is not enough for a man to
- 2:27:15Speaker 1: understand the conditions of rational life in his own time.
- 2:27:19Speaker 1: He must likewise love these conditions and hate whatever leads
- 2:27:24Speaker 1: a life of an opposite kind. This is only another
- 2:27:28Speaker 1: way of saying that he must love the good and
- 2:27:30Speaker 1: hate the evil, for the good is simply what conduces
- 2:27:34Speaker 1: to rational or moral life, and the evil simply what
- 2:27:37Speaker 1: leads away from it. It is perfectly obvious as soon
- 2:27:42Speaker 1: as it is pointed out that all immoral life is
- 2:27:45Speaker 1: due to a false distribution of affection, which again is often,
- 2:27:49Speaker 1: though by no means always, due to a want of
- 2:27:52Speaker 1: intellectual cultivation. He that attributes to anything a value greater
- 2:27:57Speaker 1: or less than it really possesses in the order of
- 2:27:59Speaker 1: things has already placed himself in a false relation to it,
- 2:28:04Speaker 1: and will, certainly when he comes to act with reference
- 2:28:06Speaker 1: to it, act immorally. End of Chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen.
- 2:28:15Speaker 1: The religious emotions. By the religious emotions is meant that
- 2:28:20Speaker 1: class of emotional feeling arising from the faith and belief in,
- 2:28:25Speaker 1: or consciousness of the presence of supernatural beings, powers, entities,
- 2:28:31Speaker 1: or forces. This form of emotion is regarded as distinct
- 2:28:35Speaker 1: from the ethical and moral emotions, although frequently found in
- 2:28:38Speaker 1: connection therewith Likewise, it is independent of any special form
- 2:28:44Speaker 1: of intellectual belief, for it is far more fundamental and
- 2:28:47Speaker 1: often exists without creed philosophy or stated belief, the only
- 2:28:52Speaker 1: manifestation in such cases being a feeling of the existence
- 2:28:56Speaker 1: of supernatural beings, forces, and powers to which man has
- 2:29:01Speaker 1: a relation and to which he owes obedience. To those
- 2:29:05Speaker 1: who may think that this is too narrow a conception
- 2:29:07Speaker 1: of religious emotion, we refer the following definitions of religion
- 2:29:11Speaker 1: from the dictionaries. The acts or feelings which result from
- 2:29:15Speaker 1: the belief of a god or gods having superior control
- 2:29:19Speaker 1: over matter, life, or destiny. Religion is subjective, designating the
- 2:29:24Speaker 1: feelings and acts of men which relate to God. Theology
- 2:29:29Speaker 1: is objective, denoting the science which investigates the existence, laws,
- 2:29:33Speaker 1: and attributes of God. Or objectively the outer form and
- 2:29:39Speaker 1: embodiment which the inward spirit of a true or false
- 2:29:42Speaker 1: devotion assumes, subjectively the feeling of veneration with which the
- 2:29:48Speaker 1: worshiper regards the being he adores. Darwin, in his Descent
- 2:29:53Speaker 1: of Man, says that the feeling of religious devotion is
- 2:29:57Speaker 1: a highly complex one, consisting of of love, complete submission
- 2:30:02Speaker 1: to an exalted and mysterious superior, a strong sense of dependence, fear, reverence, gratitude,
- 2:30:09Speaker 1: hope for the future, and perhaps other elements. He is
- 2:30:13Speaker 1: of the opinion that no man can experience so complex
- 2:30:16Speaker 1: an emotion until advanced in his intellectual and moral faculties
- 2:30:20Speaker 1: to at least a moderately high level. The authorities generally
- 2:30:24Speaker 1: agree with Darwin, although the most recent study of the
- 2:30:28Speaker 1: history of religion has shown that religious feeling has a
- 2:30:31Speaker 1: far more primitive origin than that indicated by Darwin. It
- 2:30:37Speaker 1: is true that the lower animals are not deemed capable
- 2:30:40Speaker 1: of anything approaching religious feeling unless there is a feeling
- 2:30:43Speaker 1: approaching it in the attitude of the dog and horse
- 2:30:46Speaker 1: and other domestic animals toward their masters. But man, as
- 2:30:51Speaker 1: soon as he is able to attribute natural phenomena to
- 2:30:54Speaker 1: a supernatural cause and power manifest secrude religious feeling and emotion.
- 2:31:00Speaker 1: He begins by believing in, fearing and worshiping natural forces
- 2:31:05Speaker 1: and objects, such as the sun, the moon, the wind,
- 2:31:09Speaker 1: thunder and lightning, the ocean, rivers, mountains, et cetera. It
- 2:31:15Speaker 1: is claimed that there is no natural object that has
- 2:31:18Speaker 1: not been deified and worshiped by some people at some
- 2:31:22Speaker 1: time in the history of the race. Later, man acquired
- 2:31:26Speaker 1: the anthropomorphic conception of deities and created many gods in
- 2:31:30Speaker 1: his own image, endowing them with his own attributes, qualities,
- 2:31:35Speaker 1: and characteristics. The mental, characteristics and morals of a people
- 2:31:40Speaker 1: can always be ascertained by knowledge of the average conception
- 2:31:43Speaker 1: of Deity held by them. Polytheism, or the belief in
- 2:31:47Speaker 1: many gods, were succeeded by monotheism, or belief in one God.
- 2:31:54Speaker 1: Monotheism ranges from the crudest conception of a manlike God
- 2:31:58Speaker 1: to the highest conception of a spirit will be transcending
- 2:32:01Speaker 1: all human qualities, attributes, or characteristics. Man began by believing
- 2:32:07Speaker 1: in many God things, then in many God persons, then
- 2:32:13Speaker 1: in one God person, then in one God who is
- 2:32:16Speaker 1: a spirit, then in one universal Spirit, which is God.
- 2:32:21Speaker 1: It is a far cry from the savage, man like
- 2:32:23Speaker 1: God of old to the conception of universal spirit of
- 2:32:27Speaker 1: the God. Drunken philosopher Spinotza, the extreme of religious belief
- 2:32:32Speaker 1: is that which holds that there is nothing but God.
- 2:32:35Speaker 1: All else is illusion, a pantheistic idealism. Buddhism, at least
- 2:32:41Speaker 1: in its original form, discarded the idea of a supreme
- 2:32:45Speaker 1: being and held that alternate reality is but universal law.
- 2:32:49Speaker 1: Hence the accusation that Buddhism is an atheistic religion, although
- 2:32:55Speaker 1: it is one of the world's greatest religions, having over
- 2:32:58Speaker 1: four hundred million followers. But the beliefs of the religious
- 2:33:03Speaker 1: person may be considered as resulting from intellectual processes. His
- 2:33:08Speaker 1: religious feelings and emotions arise from another part of his
- 2:33:11Speaker 1: mental being. It is the testimony of the authorities of
- 2:33:15Speaker 1: all religions that religious conviction is an inner experience rather
- 2:33:20Speaker 1: than an intellectual conception. The emotional element is always active
- 2:33:24Speaker 1: in religious manifestations everywhere. The purely intellectual religion isnaught but
- 2:33:30Speaker 1: a philosophy. Religion without feeling and emotion is an anomaly.
- 2:33:36Speaker 1: In all true religion, there exists a feeling of inner
- 2:33:39Speaker 1: assurance and faith, love or dependence, submission, reverence, gratitude, hope,
- 2:33:47Speaker 1: and perhaps fear. The emotional element must always be present,
- 2:33:52Speaker 1: not necessarily in the form of emotional excess, as in
- 2:33:55Speaker 1: the case of revival hysteria or the dance of the
- 2:33:58Speaker 1: whirling Derbishes, but at least in the form of the calm,
- 2:34:02Speaker 1: fervent feeling of that peace which passeth understanding. When religion
- 2:34:08Speaker 1: departs from the emotional phase, it becomes merely a school
- 2:34:11Speaker 1: of philosophy or an ethical culture. Society. The student must
- 2:34:18Speaker 1: not lose sight of the uplifting influence of true religious
- 2:34:21Speaker 1: emotion by reason of his knowledge of its lowly origin.
- 2:34:25Speaker 1: Like the lotus, which has its roots in the slimy,
- 2:34:28Speaker 1: fuelthy mud of the river, and its stem in the muddy, stagnant,
- 2:34:32Speaker 1: and foul waters thereof, but its beautiful flower unfolded in
- 2:34:36Speaker 1: the clear air and facing the sun. So is religious
- 2:34:40Speaker 1: feeling responsible for some of the most beautiful and uplifting
- 2:34:43Speaker 1: ideals and actions of the race. If its origin and
- 2:34:47Speaker 1: history contain much that is not consistent with the highest
- 2:34:50Speaker 1: ideals of the race today, it is not the fault
- 2:34:53Speaker 1: of religion, but of the race itself. Religion, like all
- 2:34:58Speaker 1: else in the universal manifestation, is under the laws of evolution, growth,
- 2:35:02Speaker 1: and development. While the religion of the future may be
- 2:35:06Speaker 1: we know not. But the prophets of the race are
- 2:35:09Speaker 1: dreaming visions of a religion as much higher than that
- 2:35:12Speaker 1: of to day, as the latter is higher than the
- 2:35:15Speaker 1: crude fetishism of the savage. The following quotation from John fiskes,
- 2:35:21Speaker 1: through Nature to God is appropriate in this place. Fists says,
- 2:35:26Speaker 1: my aim is to show that that other influence that
- 2:35:30Speaker 1: inward conviction, the craving for final cause. The theistic assumption
- 2:35:36Speaker 1: is itself one of the master facts of the universe,
- 2:35:39Speaker 1: and as much entitled to respect as any fact in
- 2:35:43Speaker 1: physical nature can possibly be. The argment flashed upon me
- 2:35:47Speaker 1: about ten years ago while reading Herbert Spencer's controversy with
- 2:35:51Speaker 1: Frederic Harrison concerning the nature and reality of religion. Because
- 2:35:56Speaker 1: Spencer derived historically the greater part of modern bloe in
- 2:36:00Speaker 1: an unseen world from the Savage's primeval world of dreams
- 2:36:04Speaker 1: and ghosts, some of his critics maintained that logical consistency
- 2:36:09Speaker 1: required him to dismiss the modern belief as utterly false,
- 2:36:13Speaker 1: otherwise he would be guilty of seeking to evolve truth
- 2:36:17Speaker 1: from falsehood by no means, replied Spencer. Contrariwise, the ultimate
- 2:36:23Speaker 1: form of the religious consciousness is the final development of
- 2:36:27Speaker 1: a consciousness which, at the outset contained a germ of
- 2:36:31Speaker 1: truth obscured by multitudinous errors. Fisk, in this connection quotes
- 2:36:37Speaker 1: the Tennysonian question who forged that other influence, that heat
- 2:36:43Speaker 1: of inward evidence by which he doubts against the sense
- 2:36:48Speaker 1: the religious emotions may be developed by allowing the mind
- 2:36:51Speaker 1: to dwell upon the power underlying the universe of fleeting
- 2:36:54Speaker 1: changing forms, by reading prose and poetry in which an
- 2:36:58Speaker 1: appeal is made, the religious instinct, by listening to music
- 2:37:03Speaker 1: which awakens the emotion of reverence and awe, and finally
- 2:37:07Speaker 1: by meditating upon the inner spirit imminent in every living being.
- 2:37:12Speaker 1: As an old Hindus age once said, there are many
- 2:37:15Speaker 1: paths by which men arrive at a knowledge of the
- 2:37:17Speaker 1: presence of God, but there is but one goal and destination,
- 2:37:23Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen. The esthetic emotions, by the esthetic emotions, is
- 2:37:29Speaker 1: meant those emotional feelings which are concerned with the perception
- 2:37:33Speaker 1: of beauty or taste, and by reason of which we
- 2:37:37Speaker 1: like or dislike certain perceptions of century impressions. In order
- 2:37:41Speaker 1: to give a better idea, let us consider what is
- 2:37:44Speaker 1: meant by beauty and taste. Beauty is defined as that
- 2:37:49Speaker 1: quality or assemblage of qualities in an object which gives
- 2:37:53Speaker 1: the eye or the ear intense pleasure, or that characteristic
- 2:37:57Speaker 1: in an object which gratifies the intellectual or moral feeling.
- 2:38:02Speaker 1: Taste in this sense of the term is defined as
- 2:38:06Speaker 1: nice perception or the power of perceiving and relishing excellence
- 2:38:10Speaker 1: in human performances. The power of appreciating the fine qualities
- 2:38:15Speaker 1: of art, the faculty of discerning beauty, order, congruity, proportion, symmetry,
- 2:38:21Speaker 1: or whatever constitutes excellence, particularly in the fine arts or literature.
- 2:38:27Speaker 1: The faculty of the mind, by which we both perceive
- 2:38:30Speaker 1: and enjoy whatever is beautiful or sublime in the works
- 2:38:34Speaker 1: of nature and art. The possession of taste ensures grace
- 2:38:38Speaker 1: and beauty in the works of an artist, and the
- 2:38:40Speaker 1: avoidance of all that is low or mean. It is
- 2:38:44Speaker 1: as often the result of an innate sense of beauty
- 2:38:47Speaker 1: or propriety as of art education, and no genius can
- 2:38:51Speaker 1: compensate for the want of it. Tastes differ so much
- 2:38:55Speaker 1: among individuals, nations, or in different ages and conditions of civilization,
- 2:39:01Speaker 1: that it is utterly impossible to set up a standard
- 2:39:04Speaker 1: of taste applicable to all men and to all stages
- 2:39:07Speaker 1: in the evolution of society. The esthetic sense, feeling, and
- 2:39:12Speaker 1: emotion are products of the latest stages of the evolution
- 2:39:15Speaker 1: of the mind of man. Their roots, however, may be
- 2:39:19Speaker 1: seen in the crude attempts at decoration and adornment in
- 2:39:22Speaker 1: the savage, and still further back, in the tendency of
- 2:39:26Speaker 1: certain birds to adorn their nests or bowers. Moreover, some
- 2:39:32Speaker 1: sense of beauty must exist in the lower animals, which
- 2:39:35Speaker 1: are influenced thereby in the selection of their mates, the
- 2:39:38Speaker 1: bright plumage of the birds and the coloring of the
- 2:39:41Speaker 1: insects and higher animals, evidencing the existence of at least
- 2:39:46Speaker 1: a primitive esthetic sense. Herbert Spencer says that one characteristic
- 2:39:51Speaker 1: of the esthetic feelings is that they are separated from
- 2:39:54Speaker 1: the functions vitally requisite and necessary to sustain life, and
- 2:39:58Speaker 1: it is not until the latter are reasonably well satisfied
- 2:40:01Speaker 1: that the former begin to manifest in force. The authorities
- 2:40:06Speaker 1: hold that the basic element concerned in the manifestation of
- 2:40:10Speaker 1: the esthetic emotional feeling is the sensory element, which consists
- 2:40:14Speaker 1: of the pleasure arising from a perception of objects of
- 2:40:17Speaker 1: vision or hearing which are deemed beautiful. There is a
- 2:40:21Speaker 1: certain nervous satisfaction which arises from a perception of the
- 2:40:25Speaker 1: sensation of the sight of a beautiful thing or the
- 2:40:28Speaker 1: hearing of beautiful sound. Just why certain sights prove agreeable
- 2:40:33Speaker 1: and others disagreeable, or certain sounds pleasant and others unpleasant,
- 2:40:38Speaker 1: is very difficult to determine. Association and habit may have
- 2:40:43Speaker 1: something to do with the beauty of sight object, and
- 2:40:46Speaker 1: it may be natural harmony of vibration in colours, as
- 2:40:49Speaker 1: there is in sound. In the case of sounds, there
- 2:40:53Speaker 1: is undoubtedly a natural harmony between the vibrations of certain
- 2:40:56Speaker 1: notes of the scale, and in harmony between others. Some
- 2:41:01Speaker 1: have held that the secret of the enjoyment of music
- 2:41:04Speaker 1: is found in the natural appreciation of rhythm, as rhythm
- 2:41:08Speaker 1: is a cosmic manifestation evident in everything from great to small.
- 2:41:13Speaker 1: But these theories do not account for differences existing in
- 2:41:16Speaker 1: the tastes regarding color and music, manifested by different individuals, races,
- 2:41:22Speaker 1: and classes of people. Grant Allen says the valgrare pleased
- 2:41:28Speaker 1: with great masses of color, especially red, orange, and purple,
- 2:41:32Speaker 1: which give their coarse nervous organization the requisite stimulus. The refined,
- 2:41:38Speaker 1: with nerves of less caliber but greater discriminativeness, require delicate
- 2:41:43Speaker 1: combination of complimentaries, and prefer neutral tints to the glare
- 2:41:47Speaker 1: of the primary hues. Children and savages love to dress
- 2:41:52Speaker 1: in all the colors of the rainbow. In the same way,
- 2:41:55Speaker 1: persons of certain types of taste are pleased with rag
- 2:41:59Speaker 1: time and cheap, rollicking songs or dances, while others shudder
- 2:42:03Speaker 1: at these and find the light in the classic productions
- 2:42:06Speaker 1: of the great composers. There is also the intellectual element
- 2:42:11Speaker 1: to be reckoned with in the esthetic emotions. The intellect
- 2:42:15Speaker 1: must discover the beauty in certain objects before the emotion
- 2:42:18Speaker 1: is aroused by the perception. Hallick says, every time the
- 2:42:22Speaker 1: mind discerns unity amid variety, order, rhythm, proportion, or symmetry,
- 2:42:28Speaker 1: and esthetic emotion arises, the traveler with a trained intellect
- 2:42:34Speaker 1: will see far more beauty than an ignorant one. In
- 2:42:37Speaker 1: looking at a cathedral, a large part of the esthetic
- 2:42:40Speaker 1: enjoyment comes from tracing out the symmetry, from comparing part
- 2:42:44Speaker 1: with part. Not until this process is complete will the
- 2:42:49Speaker 1: full beauty of the structure as a whole be perceived.
- 2:42:53Speaker 1: If the traveler knows something of the medieval architecture before
- 2:42:56Speaker 1: starting on his European trip, he will see far more beauty.
- 2:43:00Speaker 1: The opposite of the esthetic, which we call the ugly,
- 2:43:04Speaker 1: is the unsymmetrical, the disorderly, that in which we can
- 2:43:08Speaker 1: discover no rhythm, plan or beauty. The element of associative
- 2:43:13Speaker 1: suggestion also enters into the manifestation of esthetic emotional feeling.
- 2:43:19Speaker 1: The mind accepts the suggestion and the beauty of certain
- 2:43:21Speaker 1: styles of art, or the excellence of certain classes of music.
- 2:43:26Speaker 1: There are fashions in art and music, as in clothes,
- 2:43:30Speaker 1: and what is thought beautiful today may be deemed hideous tomorrow.
- 2:43:35Speaker 1: This is not entirely due to the evolution of taste,
- 2:43:38Speaker 1: for in many cases the old fashions are revived and
- 2:43:42Speaker 1: again deemed beautiful. There is, moreover, the effect of the
- 2:43:46Speaker 1: association of the object of emotion with certain events or persons.
- 2:43:51Speaker 1: This association renders a thing popular and therefore agreeable and
- 2:43:55Speaker 1: beautiful for the time being. The suggestion in a story
- 2:44:00Speaker 1: will often cause the beauty of a certain scene or
- 2:44:03Speaker 1: the harmony of a certain piece of music to dawn
- 2:44:05Speaker 1: upon thousands of persons. Some noted person sets the seal
- 2:44:09Speaker 1: of approval upon a certain picture or musical composition, and
- 2:44:14Speaker 1: lo the multitude calls it beautiful. It must not be supposed, however,
- 2:44:20Speaker 1: that the crowd always counterfeits this sense of beauty and
- 2:44:23Speaker 1: excellence which has been suggested to it. On the contrary,
- 2:44:27Speaker 1: genuine aesthetic feeling often results from the discovery so made.
- 2:44:33Speaker 1: There is style and fashion in the use of words
- 2:44:36Speaker 1: resulting from fashion, which gives rise to esthetic feelings regarding them.
- 2:44:41Speaker 1: These feelings do not arise from a consideration of the
- 2:44:44Speaker 1: nature of the object expressed by the word. Of two
- 2:44:48Speaker 1: words designating the same thing, one causes disgust and the
- 2:44:52Speaker 1: other at least passive tolerance. For instance, in speaking of
- 2:44:56Speaker 1: the sensible moisture which is omitted from the pause of
- 2:44:59Speaker 1: the skin, we may use either of the respective terms
- 2:45:03Speaker 1: sweat or perspiration. Both mean the same thing and have
- 2:45:08Speaker 1: an equally respectable origin. But to many persons the word
- 2:45:12Speaker 1: sweat causes an unpleasant esthetic emotion, while a word perspiration
- 2:45:17Speaker 1: is accepted without remonstrance. Some persons abhore the term vitials,
- 2:45:22Speaker 1: while viands or food are accepted without protest. There is
- 2:45:27Speaker 1: often an unpleasant, low vulgar association connected with some words,
- 2:45:31Speaker 1: which accounts for the disfavor with which they are received,
- 2:45:35Speaker 1: and which association is absent from the more polite terms
- 2:45:39Speaker 1: employed to indicate the same thing. But in other cases
- 2:45:43Speaker 1: there is nothing but the simple suggestion of fashion and
- 2:45:46Speaker 1: style to account for the esthetic acceptance or rejection. It
- 2:45:51Speaker 1: is possible that some psychologists of the future will establish
- 2:45:55Speaker 1: the truth of the theory now tentatively advanced by a
- 2:45:58Speaker 1: few investigators, namely, the taste and the sense of beauty
- 2:46:03Speaker 1: depend almost entirely upon the element of suggestion, manifested as association, influence,
- 2:46:09Speaker 1: of authority, habit, fashion, imitation, et cetera. It is known
- 2:46:15Speaker 1: that the emotional nature is peculiarly liable to suggestion, and
- 2:46:20Speaker 1: that taste may be created or destroyed by repeated suggestion
- 2:46:24Speaker 1: under the most favorable circumstances. It is thought likely that
- 2:46:28Speaker 1: if we could trace back to its roots every emotion
- 2:46:31Speaker 1: of taste, we would find it arising from some associative
- 2:46:34Speaker 1: suggestive influence connected with another and more elemental class of emotions.
- 2:46:41Speaker 1: Regarding the fact that there is no universal standard of
- 2:46:44Speaker 1: taste or beauty, Halek says, it has been said that
- 2:46:49Speaker 1: esthetics cannot be created in a scientific way because there
- 2:46:52Speaker 1: is no standard of taste. De gustibus non s disputandum,
- 2:46:58Speaker 1: there is no disputing about taste. Is an old proverb
- 2:47:02Speaker 1: of two equally intelligent persons. One may like a certain book,
- 2:47:06Speaker 1: the other dislike it. While it is true that the
- 2:47:10Speaker 1: standard of taste is a varying one within certain limits,
- 2:47:14Speaker 1: it is no more so than that of morals. As
- 2:47:17Speaker 1: men's nervous systems, education, and associations differ, we may scientifically
- 2:47:22Speaker 1: conclude that their tastes must differ. The greater the uniformity
- 2:47:26Speaker 1: in the factors, the less does the product vary. On
- 2:47:30Speaker 1: the other hand, within certain limits, the standard of esthetics
- 2:47:34Speaker 1: is relatively uniform. It is fixed by the majority of
- 2:47:38Speaker 1: intelligent people of any age and country. To estimate the
- 2:47:42Speaker 1: standard by which to judge of the correctness of a language,
- 2:47:45Speaker 1: or of the literary taste of any era, we examine
- 2:47:48Speaker 1: the conversations of the best speakers the works of the
- 2:47:52Speaker 1: standard writers. The esthetic emotions may be developed and cultivated
- 2:47:57Speaker 1: by exercise and practice, and particular sularly by association and
- 2:48:02Speaker 1: familiarity with beautiful things and with those who have good taste.
- 2:48:07Speaker 1: Appreciation of beauty is more or less contagious up to
- 2:48:11Speaker 1: a certain point of development, at least, and if one
- 2:48:14Speaker 1: wishes to recognize, understand, and appreciate beauty, he should go
- 2:48:19Speaker 1: where beauty is and where its votaries are gathered. The
- 2:48:23Speaker 1: study of standard works of art or object of nature,
- 2:48:26Speaker 1: or the best productions of the composers of music, will
- 2:48:29Speaker 1: do much to develop and unfold one's high esthetic feelings
- 2:48:33Speaker 1: and understanding. It is claimed by some of the best
- 2:48:37Speaker 1: authorities that to develop the finer and higher esthetic feelings
- 2:48:41Speaker 1: and understanding, we must learn to find beauty and excellence
- 2:48:44Speaker 1: in things removed from ourselves or our selfish interests. The narrow,
- 2:48:49Speaker 1: selfish emotions kill the esthetic feelings. The two cannot exist together.
- 2:48:56Speaker 1: The persons whose thoughts are centered on himself or herself
- 2:49:00Speaker 1: very rarely finds beauty or excellence in works of art
- 2:49:03Speaker 1: or music. Grant Allen well sums up the subject in
- 2:49:06Speaker 1: the following words. Good taste is a progressive product of
- 2:49:10Speaker 1: progressing fineness and discrimination in the nerves, educated attention, high
- 2:49:16Speaker 1: and noble emotional constitution, and increasing intellectual faculties. End of
- 2:49:23Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, Chapter seventeen. The intellectual emotions, by the intellectual emotions,
- 2:49:32Speaker 1: is meant that class of emotional feeling resulting from the
- 2:49:36Speaker 1: presence of objects of intellectual interest. This class of emotions
- 2:49:40Speaker 1: depends for its satisfaction upon the exercise of the intellectual faculties,
- 2:49:45Speaker 1: from the most simple to the most complex, and including perception, memory, imagination, reason, judgment,
- 2:49:53Speaker 1: and all the logical faculties. Those who are accustomed to
- 2:49:56Speaker 1: employing the mind through voluntary attention, particularly in the direction
- 2:50:00Speaker 1: of creative ideation or constructive imagination, experience these emotions to
- 2:50:06Speaker 1: a greater or less degree. The exercise of perception, if
- 2:50:11Speaker 1: we are skilled therein, gives us a pleasurable feeling, and
- 2:50:15Speaker 1: if we succeed in making an interesting or important discovery
- 2:50:18Speaker 1: by reason thereof, we experience a strong degree of emotional satisfaction. Likewise,
- 2:50:25Speaker 1: we experience agreeable feelings when we are able to remember
- 2:50:29Speaker 1: distinctly something which might well have been forgotten, or when
- 2:50:33Speaker 1: we succeed in recalling something which had escaped our memory
- 2:50:36Speaker 1: for the moment. In the same way, the exercise of
- 2:50:39Speaker 1: the imagination is a source of great pleasure in many cases,
- 2:50:43Speaker 1: in the direction of writing, planning, inventing, or other creative processes,
- 2:50:48Speaker 1: or even in the building of air castles. The exercise
- 2:50:52Speaker 1: of the logical faculties gives great pleasure to those in
- 2:50:55Speaker 1: whom these faculties are well developed. Well says there is
- 2:51:02Speaker 1: probably not a happier moment in Newton's life than when
- 2:51:05Speaker 1: he has succeeded in demonstrating that the same power which
- 2:51:08Speaker 1: caused the apple to fall held the moon and the
- 2:51:11Speaker 1: planets in their orbits. When what discovered the steam might
- 2:51:15Speaker 1: be harnessed like the horse, when an inventive succeeds in
- 2:51:19Speaker 1: perfecting a labor lightening device, whenever an obscurity is cleared away,
- 2:51:24Speaker 1: the reason for a thing understood, and a baffling instance
- 2:51:28Speaker 1: brought under a general law. Intellectual emotion results. The pleasurable
- 2:51:34Speaker 1: feelings we experience upon the reading of a good book
- 2:51:37Speaker 1: or the discovery of real poetry are forms of intellectual emotion.
- 2:51:42Speaker 1: The same class of emotional feeling is aroused when we
- 2:51:45Speaker 1: witness a good play. Among other instances of this class,
- 2:51:49Speaker 1: we mention a perception of clever work of any kind,
- 2:51:52Speaker 1: intricate machinery, ingenious devices, helpful improvements, or other works of
- 2:51:58Speaker 1: man which indicate the existence, stance of thought and inventive
- 2:52:01Speaker 1: ability in the designer or builder. To appreciate mental work
- 2:52:05Speaker 1: of this kind, we must bring a mind developed along
- 2:52:08Speaker 1: the same or similar lines. It has well been said
- 2:52:13Speaker 1: that before one can take away anything from a book,
- 2:52:15Speaker 1: he must bring something to it. It takes mentality to
- 2:52:19Speaker 1: recognize and appreciate mentality or the work of mentality. The
- 2:52:25Speaker 1: study of scientific subjects is a source of great pleasure
- 2:52:28Speaker 1: to those who are inclined to such pursuits. To the
- 2:52:31Speaker 1: scientific mind, the study of the latest work on a
- 2:52:34Speaker 1: favorite branch gives a joy which nothing else is capable
- 2:52:38Speaker 1: of arousing. To the philosopher, the works of other philosophers
- 2:52:42Speaker 1: of the same skiol give intense satisfaction. It is claimed
- 2:52:47Speaker 1: that the sense of humour and wit is an intellectual emotion,
- 2:52:51Speaker 1: for it depends upon the detection of the ludicrous features
- 2:52:53Speaker 1: of a happening. Certain psychologists have held that the distinctive
- 2:52:58Speaker 1: element of humour is a feeling tended upon the perception
- 2:53:01Speaker 1: of incongruity, while that of wit is the feeling of
- 2:53:04Speaker 1: superiority on the part of the witty person and a
- 2:53:08Speaker 1: corresponding chagrin of the object of his wit. It would seem, however,
- 2:53:13Speaker 1: that the appreciation of wit must depend upon the intellectual
- 2:53:16Speaker 1: perception of cleverness of expression and the pleasure resulting from
- 2:53:20Speaker 1: the discovery thereof, and that the feeling of humor is
- 2:53:24Speaker 1: aroused principally by reason of the incongruous element. The feeling
- 2:53:28Speaker 1: of self satisfaction, as contrasted with the discomfiture of the
- 2:53:32Speaker 1: other person, belongs to the more selfish emotions. An authority says,
- 2:53:38Speaker 1: Humor is the mental faculty which tends to discover incongruous
- 2:53:42Speaker 1: resemblances between things which essentially differ, or essential differences between
- 2:53:47Speaker 1: things put forth as the same, the result being internal
- 2:53:51Speaker 1: mirth or an outburst of laughter. Wit does so likewise,
- 2:53:56Speaker 1: but the two are different. Hum has deep human sympathy
- 2:54:00Speaker 1: and loves men while raising a laugh against their weaknesses.
- 2:54:04Speaker 1: Wit is deficient in sympathy, and there is often a
- 2:54:07Speaker 1: sting in its ridicule. Somewhat contemptuous of mankind. It has
- 2:54:11Speaker 1: not the patience to study them thoroughly, but must content
- 2:54:14Speaker 1: itself with noting superficial resemblances or differences. Humor is patient
- 2:54:20Speaker 1: and keenly observant, and penetrates beneath the surface. While therefore
- 2:54:25Speaker 1: the sallies of wit are often one sided and unfair,
- 2:54:29Speaker 1: those of humor are, as a rule just and wise.
- 2:54:34Speaker 1: The development and cultivation of the intellectual emotions depend, of course,
- 2:54:39Speaker 1: upon education, training, exercise, and practice. The cultivation of the intellect,
- 2:54:45Speaker 1: which has been referred to in part in the previous
- 2:54:48Speaker 1: parts of this book, and which will again be considered
- 2:54:51Speaker 1: in the chapters devoted to the intellect, results in the
- 2:54:54Speaker 1: development and cultivation of the emotions accompanying intellectual effort. In
- 2:54:59Speaker 1: a jet general way. However, it may be said that
- 2:55:03Speaker 1: the reading of the best works of fiction, science, and
- 2:55:05Speaker 1: philosophy will bring out in time the best form of
- 2:55:09Speaker 1: intellectual enjoyment and feeling. The highest gives the best. That
- 2:55:14Speaker 1: is the rule. The present chapter should be read and
- 2:55:17Speaker 1: studied in connection with those devoted to the intellect blended emotions.
- 2:55:24Speaker 1: As we have said at the beginning of our consideration
- 2:55:27Speaker 1: of the subject of the emotions, the majority of emotions
- 2:55:30Speaker 1: are composed of several feelings intend to lend and combine
- 2:55:34Speaker 1: emotional elements. For instance, the emotion of sexual love certainly
- 2:55:39Speaker 1: has its origin in instinctive feelings of the race, and
- 2:55:42Speaker 1: its motive element is that of passion. But passion is
- 2:55:46Speaker 1: far from being all their ears in human sexual love.
- 2:55:49Speaker 1: Above the plane of passion is found the social emotion
- 2:55:52Speaker 1: of companionship, protection and care, the desire for the welfare
- 2:55:57Speaker 1: of the loved one, the mingling of the love of
- 2:56:00Speaker 1: the parent with that of the mate. Human love manifests
- 2:56:03Speaker 1: many of the altruistic emotions. During its course, the welfare
- 2:56:08Speaker 1: of the loved one becomes the chief concern of life.
- 2:56:11Speaker 1: Often stronger even than self preservation. The joy of the
- 2:56:15Speaker 1: loved one becomes the greatest joy, far surpassing the more
- 2:56:19Speaker 1: selfish forms of happiness. Then come the esthetic feelings, which
- 2:56:23Speaker 1: find satisfaction in the two liking the same things. Sympathy
- 2:56:28Speaker 1: and community of feeling being their connecting link. The several
- 2:56:32Speaker 1: ideals of the two combining there is produced an idealistic union,
- 2:56:37Speaker 1: which is often called spiritual harmony. Finally, there is found
- 2:56:41Speaker 1: the blending of the intellectual emotions, in which harmony there
- 2:56:45Speaker 1: exists one of the highest forms of pleasure, satisfaction between
- 2:56:49Speaker 1: two persons of opposite sexes. It is said that the
- 2:56:53Speaker 1: more things that a man and woman like in common,
- 2:56:56Speaker 1: the closer will be their liking for each other. I
- 2:57:00Speaker 1: love you because you love the things I love is
- 2:57:03Speaker 1: no rare thought and expression. So it is seen that
- 2:57:08Speaker 1: though born in elemental instinct and passion, human sexual love
- 2:57:12Speaker 1: is something far different in its flowering, and yet without
- 2:57:16Speaker 1: its root it would not be and cannot be. This
- 2:57:20Speaker 1: is an excellent example of the complex nature of the
- 2:57:22Speaker 1: most common emotions. It may be used as a typical illustration.
- 2:57:27Speaker 1: What is true of it is also true in a
- 2:57:30Speaker 1: way and in a degree of every other form of emotion. Therefore,
- 2:57:35Speaker 1: in studying a particular emotion, be not too quick to
- 2:57:39Speaker 1: cry it is this, it is that, but rather seek
- 2:57:43Speaker 1: to say it is composed of this and that. Few,
- 2:57:47Speaker 1: if any, emotions are simple. The majority are very complex.
- 2:57:52Speaker 1: Hence the difficulty of satisfactory classification and the danger of
- 2:57:56Speaker 1: dogmatic definition. Eighteen. The role of the emotions. The average
- 2:58:04Speaker 1: person greatly underestimates the part played by the emotional nature
- 2:58:08Speaker 1: in the mental activities of the individual. He is inclined
- 2:58:12Speaker 1: to the opinion that, with exception of the occasional manifestation
- 2:58:16Speaker 1: of some strong emotional feeling, the majority of persons go
- 2:58:19Speaker 1: through life using only the reasoning and reflective faculties in
- 2:58:23Speaker 1: deciding the problems of life and guarding the mental course
- 2:58:27Speaker 1: of action. There can be no greater mistake concerning the
- 2:58:30Speaker 1: mental activities. So far from being subordinate to the intellect,
- 2:58:35Speaker 1: the emotional nature in the majority of cases dominates the
- 2:58:39Speaker 1: reasoning faculties. There are but very few persons who are
- 2:58:43Speaker 1: able to detach themselves, even in the small degree, from
- 2:58:47Speaker 1: the feelings, and to decide questions cold bloodedly by pure
- 2:58:51Speaker 1: reason or intellectual effort. Moreover, there are but few persons
- 2:58:56Speaker 1: whose wills are guided by pure reason. The feelings supply
- 2:59:00Speaker 1: the motive for the majority of acts of will. The intellect,
- 2:59:04Speaker 1: even when used, is generally employed to better carry out
- 2:59:07Speaker 1: the dictates of feeling and desire. Much of our reasoning
- 2:59:11Speaker 1: is performed in order to justify our feelings or to
- 2:59:14Speaker 1: find proofs for the position dictated by our desires, feelings, sympathies, prejudices,
- 2:59:20Speaker 1: or sentiments. It has been said that men seek not
- 2:59:24Speaker 1: reasons but excuses for their actions. Moreover, in the elementary
- 2:59:30Speaker 1: processes of the intellect, the emotions play an important part.
- 2:59:34Speaker 1: We have seen that attention largely follows interest, and interest
- 2:59:38Speaker 1: follows from feeling. Therefore, our attention and that which arises
- 2:59:43Speaker 1: from it, is dependent largely upon the feelings. Thus, feeling
- 2:59:48Speaker 1: asserts its power in guarding the very outer gate of
- 2:59:51Speaker 1: knowledge and determines largely what shall or shall not enter therein.
- 2:59:56Speaker 1: It is one of the constantly appearing paradoxes of psychology that,
- 3:00:00Speaker 1: while feelings have originally arisen from attention, is equally true
- 3:00:04Speaker 1: that attention depends largely upon the interest resulting from the feelings.
- 3:00:09Speaker 1: This is readily admitted in the case of involuntary attention,
- 3:00:12Speaker 1: which always goes out toward object of interest and feeling.
- 3:00:16Speaker 1: But is likewise true of even voluntary attention, which we
- 3:00:20Speaker 1: direct to something of greater or more nearly ultimate interest
- 3:00:24Speaker 1: than the things of lesser or more immediate interest. Sully says,
- 3:00:30Speaker 1: by an act of will, I may resolve to turn
- 3:00:32Speaker 1: my attention to something, say, a passage in a book.
- 3:00:36Speaker 1: But if after the preliminary processes of adjustment of the
- 3:00:39Speaker 1: mental eye, the object opens up no interesting phase, all
- 3:00:43Speaker 1: the willing in the world will not produce a calm,
- 3:00:45Speaker 1: settled state of concentration. The will introduces mind and object,
- 3:00:50Speaker 1: it cannot force an attachment between them. No compulsion of
- 3:00:54Speaker 1: attention ever succeeded in making a young child cordially embrace
- 3:00:58Speaker 1: and appropriate by an ant active concentration an unsuitable and
- 3:01:02Speaker 1: therefore uninteresting object. We thus see that even voluntary interest
- 3:01:07Speaker 1: is not removed from the sway of interest. What the
- 3:01:11Speaker 1: will does is to determine a kind of interest that
- 3:01:13Speaker 1: shall prevail at the moment. Again, we may see that
- 3:01:18Speaker 1: memory is largely dependent upon interest. In recording and recalling
- 3:01:22Speaker 1: its impressions, we remember and recall most easily that which
- 3:01:26Speaker 1: most greatly interests us. In proportion to the lack of
- 3:01:29Speaker 1: interest in a thing, do we find difficulty in remembering
- 3:01:33Speaker 1: or recalling it. This is equally true of the imagination,
- 3:01:37Speaker 1: for it refuses to dwell upon that which is not interesting.
- 3:01:41Speaker 1: Even in the reasoning processes, we find the will balking
- 3:01:44Speaker 1: at uninteresting subjects, but galloping along, pushing before it the
- 3:01:48Speaker 1: rolling chair of interesting intellectual application. Our judgments are affected
- 3:01:54Speaker 1: by our feelings. It is much easier to approve the
- 3:01:57Speaker 1: actions of some person we like or whose views accord
- 3:02:00Speaker 1: with our own, than of an individual whose personality and
- 3:02:04Speaker 1: views are distasteful to us. It is very difficult to
- 3:02:08Speaker 1: prevent prejudice for or against from influencing our judgments. It
- 3:02:13Speaker 1: is also true that we find that for which we
- 3:02:16Speaker 1: look in things and persons, and that which we expect
- 3:02:20Speaker 1: and look for, is often dependent upon our feelings. If
- 3:02:24Speaker 1: we dislike a person or thing, we are usually able
- 3:02:27Speaker 1: to perceive no end of undesirable things in him or it,
- 3:02:31Speaker 1: while if we are favorably inclined, we easily find many
- 3:02:34Speaker 1: admirable qualities in the same person or thing. A little
- 3:02:38Speaker 1: change in our feeling often results in the formation of
- 3:02:41Speaker 1: entirely new set of judgments regarding a person or thing.
- 3:02:46Speaker 1: Halleck Well says, on the one hand, the emotions are
- 3:02:50Speaker 1: favorable to intellectual action, since they supply the interest one
- 3:02:54Speaker 1: feels in study. One may feel intensely concerning a certain
- 3:02:58Speaker 1: subject and be all the better student. Hence, the emotions
- 3:03:02Speaker 1: are not, as was formerly thought, entirely hostile to intellectual action.
- 3:03:07Speaker 1: Emotion often quickens the perception, burns things indelibly into the memory,
- 3:03:12Speaker 1: and doubles the rapidity of thought. On the other hand,
- 3:03:16Speaker 1: strong feelings often vitiate every operation of the intellect. They
- 3:03:20Speaker 1: cause us to see only what we wish to, to
- 3:03:22Speaker 1: remember only what interests our narrow feeling at the time,
- 3:03:26Speaker 1: and to reason from selfish data only. Emotion puts the
- 3:03:30Speaker 1: magnifying end of the telescope to our intellectual eyes, where
- 3:03:34Speaker 1: our own interests are concerned, the minimizing end when we
- 3:03:38Speaker 1: are looking at the interest of others. Thought is deflected
- 3:03:42Speaker 1: when it passes through an emotional medium, just as a
- 3:03:45Speaker 1: sunbeam is when it strikes water. As for the will,
- 3:03:50Speaker 1: the best authorities hold that it is almost, if not entirely,
- 3:03:54Speaker 1: dependent upon desire for its motive force. As desire is
- 3:03:58Speaker 1: an outgrowth and development of feeling and emotion. It is
- 3:04:01Speaker 1: seen that even the will depends upon feeling for its
- 3:04:04Speaker 1: inciting motives and its direction. We shall consider this point
- 3:04:08Speaker 1: at greater detail in the chapters devoted to the activities
- 3:04:11Speaker 1: of the will. We would remind you again at this
- 3:04:15Speaker 1: point of the great triangle of the mind, the emotional,
- 3:04:19Speaker 1: ideative and volitional activities feeling, thinking, and willing, and their
- 3:04:25Speaker 1: constant reaction upon each other an absolute interdependence. We find
- 3:04:30Speaker 1: that our feelings arise from previous willing and ideation, and
- 3:04:34Speaker 1: are aroused by ideas and repressed by will. Again, we
- 3:04:38Speaker 1: see that our ideas are largely dependent upon the interest
- 3:04:41Speaker 1: supplied by our feelings, and that our judgments are influenced
- 3:04:45Speaker 1: by the emotive side of our mental life, the will
- 3:04:48Speaker 1: also having its part to play in the matter. We
- 3:04:51Speaker 1: also see that the will is called into activity by
- 3:04:53Speaker 1: the feelings and often guided or restrained by our thoughts,
- 3:04:58Speaker 1: the will indeed being considered as moved entirely by our
- 3:05:01Speaker 1: feelings and ideas. Thus is the trinity of mental forces
- 3:05:05Speaker 1: seen ever in mutual relation, constant action and reaction ever
- 3:05:10Speaker 1: existing between them. End of Chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen, the
- 3:05:18Speaker 1: emotions and happiness. Happiness has been defined by an authority
- 3:05:24Speaker 1: as the pleasurable emotion arising from the gratification of all desires,
- 3:05:29Speaker 1: the enjoyment of pleasure without pain. Another has said that
- 3:05:34Speaker 1: happiness is the state in which all desires are satisfied.
- 3:05:38Speaker 1: But these definitions have been attacked. It is held by
- 3:05:41Speaker 1: many that a state of absolute satisfaction of desire would
- 3:05:45Speaker 1: not be happiness, for happiness consists largely in pleasurable anticipation
- 3:05:50Speaker 1: and imaginings, which disappear upon the realization of the desire.
- 3:05:55Speaker 1: It is held that absolute satisfaction would be a negative state.
- 3:06:00Speaker 1: Pale expressed a better idea when he said that any
- 3:06:03Speaker 1: condition may be denominated happy in which the amount or
- 3:06:07Speaker 1: aggregate of pleasure exceeds that of pain, and the degree
- 3:06:11Speaker 1: of happiness depends upon the quantity of this excess. Some
- 3:06:16Speaker 1: have held that an existing contrast between pain and pleasure,
- 3:06:20Speaker 1: the balance being in favor of the latter, is necessary
- 3:06:24Speaker 1: to establish happiness. Be this as it may, it is
- 3:06:28Speaker 1: admitted by all that one's happiness or unhappiness, depends entirely
- 3:06:32Speaker 1: upon one's emotional nature and the degree of the satisfaction thereof,
- 3:06:37Speaker 1: and it is generally admitted that to be happy is
- 3:06:40Speaker 1: the great aim and object of the life of the
- 3:06:42Speaker 1: majority of persons, if indeed not of every person. The happiness,
- 3:06:47Speaker 1: of course, depending on the quality and degree of the
- 3:06:50Speaker 1: emotions forming a person's emotional nature. Thus it is seen
- 3:06:55Speaker 1: that we are depended upon the emotional side of our
- 3:06:57Speaker 1: mental life in this as in nearly every anything else,
- 3:07:00Speaker 1: making life worthwhile. Theologians have often sought to point out
- 3:07:06Speaker 1: that happiness is not the goal of life and living,
- 3:07:10Speaker 1: but human nature has always insisted that happiness is the
- 3:07:13Speaker 1: greatest end, and philosophy has generally supported it. But wisdom
- 3:07:18Speaker 1: shows that happiness is not always dependent upon the pleasure
- 3:07:21Speaker 1: of the moment, For the sacrifice of immediate pleasure frequently
- 3:07:25Speaker 1: results in a much greater happiness in the future. In
- 3:07:28Speaker 1: the same way, an immediate disagreeable task often gains for
- 3:07:33Speaker 1: us a greater satisfaction in the future. Likewise, it is
- 3:07:37Speaker 1: frequently greater happiness to sacrifice a personal pleasure for the
- 3:07:41Speaker 1: happiness of others than it would be to enjoy the
- 3:07:44Speaker 1: pleasure of the moment at the expense of the pain
- 3:07:47Speaker 1: of the other. There is often a far greater pleasure
- 3:07:50Speaker 1: resulting from an altruistic action of self sacrifice than in
- 3:07:54Speaker 1: the performance of the selfish egoistic act. But as the
- 3:07:58Speaker 1: subtle reasoner may e see whist, the result is the same,
- 3:08:02Speaker 1: the ultimate happiness and satisfaction of the self. This conclusion
- 3:08:07Speaker 1: does not rob the altruistic act of its virtue. However,
- 3:08:11Speaker 1: for the person who finds his greatest pleasure in giving
- 3:08:13Speaker 1: pleasure to others is to be congratulated, as is the
- 3:08:17Speaker 1: community which shelters him. There is no virtue in pain, suffering, sacrifice,
- 3:08:24Speaker 1: or unhappiness for its own sake. This illusion of asceticism
- 3:08:28Speaker 1: is vanishing from the human mind. Sacrifice on the part
- 3:08:32Speaker 1: of the individual is valuable and valid only when it
- 3:08:35Speaker 1: results in high present or future happiness for the individual
- 3:08:39Speaker 1: or someone else. There is no virtue in pain, physical
- 3:08:43Speaker 1: or mental, except as a step to a greater good
- 3:08:46Speaker 1: for ourselves or others. Pain, at the best is merely
- 3:08:51Speaker 1: nature's alarm and warning of not this way, it is
- 3:08:55Speaker 1: also held that pain serves to bring out pleasure, by contrast,
- 3:08:59Speaker 1: and is therefore more valuable in this way. Be this
- 3:09:02Speaker 1: as it may, no normal individual deliberately seeks ultimate pain
- 3:09:07Speaker 1: in preference to ultimate happiness. The greatest ultimate happiness to
- 3:09:11Speaker 1: one's self and to those he loves is the normal
- 3:09:15Speaker 1: and natural goal of the normal person, but the concept
- 3:09:19Speaker 1: of those he loves in many cases includes the race
- 3:09:23Speaker 1: as well as the immediate family. Wisdom shows the individual
- 3:09:28Speaker 1: that the greatest happiness comes to him who controls and
- 3:09:31Speaker 1: restrains many of his feelings. Dissipation results in pain and unhappiness. Ultimately,
- 3:09:38Speaker 1: the doctrine of thoughtless indulgence is unphilosophical and is contradicted
- 3:09:43Speaker 1: by the experience of the race. Moreover, wisdom shows that
- 3:09:47Speaker 1: the highest happiness comes not from the indulgence of the
- 3:09:50Speaker 1: physical feelings alone or to excess, but rather from the cultivation, development,
- 3:09:56Speaker 1: and manifestation of the higher feelings. The sa esthetic and
- 3:10:01Speaker 1: intellectual emotions. The higher pleasures of life, literature, art, music, science, invention,
- 3:10:09Speaker 1: constructive imagination, et ce. Yield a satisfaction and happiness keener
- 3:10:14Speaker 1: and more enduring than can possibly the lower forms of feeling.
- 3:10:19Speaker 1: But the human being must not despise any part of
- 3:10:21Speaker 1: his emotional being. Everything has its uses which are good,
- 3:10:26Speaker 1: and its abuses, which are bad. Every part of one's being,
- 3:10:31Speaker 1: mental and physical, is well to use, but no part
- 3:10:35Speaker 1: is well used if it uses the individual instead of
- 3:10:38Speaker 1: being itself used. A recent writer has held that the
- 3:10:44Speaker 1: end and aim of life should not be the pursuit
- 3:10:46Speaker 1: of happiness, but rather the building of character. The obvious
- 3:10:51Speaker 1: answer is that the two are identical in spirit, For
- 3:10:55Speaker 1: to the man who appreciates the value of character, its
- 3:10:58Speaker 1: attainment is the greatest happiness. The wise teach that the
- 3:11:02Speaker 1: greatest happiness comes to him who is possessed of a
- 3:11:05Speaker 1: well rounded, developed character. Another writer has said that the
- 3:11:10Speaker 1: aim of life should be self improvement, with a due
- 3:11:13Speaker 1: regard to the interest of others. This is but saying
- 3:11:17Speaker 1: that the greatest happiness to the wise man lies in
- 3:11:20Speaker 1: this course. Any One who is wise enough or great
- 3:11:24Speaker 1: enough to make these ends the aim and goal of
- 3:11:27Speaker 1: his life will find the greatest happiness. Therefrom Arnold Bennett
- 3:11:31Speaker 1: advances as a good working philosophy of life cheerfulness, kindliness,
- 3:11:36Speaker 1: and rectitude. Can any one doubt that this course would
- 3:11:40Speaker 1: bring great ultimate happiness. Happiness consists in that which contents
- 3:11:46Speaker 1: the spirit and the latter. It depends entirely upon the
- 3:11:49Speaker 1: character of the feelings and emotions entertained by one has
- 3:11:53Speaker 1: weighed in the balance of reason and has passed upon
- 3:11:56Speaker 1: by judgment and the sense of right action. The greatest
- 3:12:00Speaker 1: degree of happiness, or at least the greatest ratio of
- 3:12:04Speaker 1: pleasure over pain, is obtained by a careful and intelligent
- 3:12:08Speaker 1: cultivation of the feeling side of one's being, in connection
- 3:12:11Speaker 1: with the cultivation of the intellect and the mastery of
- 3:12:15Speaker 1: the will. To be able to bring the capacity for
- 3:12:18Speaker 1: enjoyment to its highest, to be able to intelligently choose
- 3:12:22Speaker 1: that which will bring the greatest ultimate happiness in accordance
- 3:12:25Speaker 1: with right action, and finally, to be able to use
- 3:12:29Speaker 1: the will in the direction of holding fast to that
- 3:12:32Speaker 1: which is good and rejecting that which is bad. This
- 3:12:36Speaker 1: is the power of creating happiness. The feelings, the intellect,
- 3:12:41Speaker 1: and the will here as ever combine to manifest the result. Finally,
- 3:12:49Speaker 1: it must be remembered that all human happiness consists in
- 3:12:52Speaker 1: part of the ability to bear pain, to suffer. There
- 3:12:57Speaker 1: must be the dash of stoicism in the wise epicure.
- 3:13:01Speaker 1: One must learn to pluck from pain, suffering, and unhappiness
- 3:13:05Speaker 1: the secret drop of honey which lies at its heart,
- 3:13:08Speaker 1: and which consists in the knowledge of the meaning and
- 3:13:11Speaker 1: use of pain, and the means whereby it may be
- 3:13:14Speaker 1: transmuted into knowledge and experience, from which later happiness may
- 3:13:18Speaker 1: be distilled, to profit by pain, to transmute suffering into joy,
- 3:13:24Speaker 1: to transform present unhappiness into a future greater happiness. This
- 3:13:29Speaker 1: is the privilege of the philosopher. The mental states and
- 3:13:33Speaker 1: activities known as desire are a direct development of the
- 3:13:37Speaker 1: feeling and emotional phase of the mind and form the
- 3:13:40Speaker 1: motive power of the will. Desire in fact may be
- 3:13:44Speaker 1: said to be composed of feeling on one side and
- 3:13:47Speaker 1: will on the other. But the influence of the intellect
- 3:13:51Speaker 1: or reasoning faculties has a most important part to play
- 3:13:55Speaker 1: in the evolution of feeling into desire and in the
- 3:13:59Speaker 1: consequent action of the will by the presentation and weighing
- 3:14:02Speaker 1: of conflicting desires. Therefore, the logical place for the consideration
- 3:14:08Speaker 1: of the activities of the intellect is at this point
- 3:14:11Speaker 1: between emotion and will. Accordingly, we shall lead the subject
- 3:14:16Speaker 1: of feeling and emotion for the present to be taken
- 3:14:19Speaker 1: up again in connection with the subject of desire, after
- 3:14:23Speaker 1: we have considered the intellectual processes of the mind. But
- 3:14:28Speaker 1: as has been indicated, we shall see the presence and
- 3:14:31Speaker 1: influence of the feelings and emotions even in the activities
- 3:14:34Speaker 1: of the intellect. Chapter twenty, the intellect, the class of
- 3:14:40Speaker 1: mental states or processes, grouped together under the name of
- 3:14:44Speaker 1: intellectual processes, formed a second great division of the mental states,
- 3:14:49Speaker 1: the two others being feeling and will, respectively. Intellect has
- 3:14:54Speaker 1: been defined as follows, the part or faculty of the
- 3:14:58Speaker 1: human mind by which it as distinguished from the power
- 3:15:02Speaker 1: to feel and to will. The thinking faculty the understanding
- 3:15:07Speaker 1: also as that faculty of the human mind by which
- 3:15:11Speaker 1: it receives or comprehends the ideas communicated to it by
- 3:15:15Speaker 1: the senses or the perception or other means, as distinguished
- 3:15:19Speaker 1: from the power to feel and to will, The power
- 3:15:23Speaker 1: or faculty to perceive objects in their relations, the power
- 3:15:27Speaker 1: to judge and comprehend also the capacity for higher forms
- 3:15:31Speaker 1: of knowledge, as distinguished from the power to perceive and imagine.
- 3:15:37Speaker 1: In the preceding chapters, we have seen that the individual
- 3:15:40Speaker 1: is able to experience sensations in consciousness and that he
- 3:15:44Speaker 1: is able to perceive them mentally, the latter being the
- 3:15:47Speaker 1: first step in intellectual activity. We have also seen that
- 3:15:51Speaker 1: he is able to reproduce the perception by means of
- 3:15:54Speaker 1: memory and imagination, and that by means of the latter
- 3:15:57Speaker 1: he is able to recombine and rearray the objects of perception.
- 3:16:02Speaker 1: We have also seen that he has what are known
- 3:16:05Speaker 1: as feelings, which depend upon his previous experience and that
- 3:16:09Speaker 1: of his progenitors. So far, the mind has been considered
- 3:16:14Speaker 1: merely as receiving and reproducing instrument, with the added attachment
- 3:16:18Speaker 1: of the recombining power of the imagination. Up to this point,
- 3:16:23Speaker 1: the mind may be compared to the phonographic cylinder with
- 3:16:26Speaker 1: an attachment capable of recombining its recorded impressions. The impressions
- 3:16:31Speaker 1: received and perceived are stored away, are reproduced, and by
- 3:16:37Speaker 1: the use the imagination, are recombined. Up to this point,
- 3:16:43Speaker 1: the mind is seen to be more or less of
- 3:16:45Speaker 1: an automatic instinctive faculty. It may be traced through a
- 3:16:49Speaker 1: purely reflex activity of the lowest forms of life up
- 3:16:53Speaker 1: through the lower animals, step by step, until a very
- 3:16:57Speaker 1: high degree of mental power is perceived in animals like
- 3:17:00Speaker 1: the horse, dog or elephant. But there is something lacking.
- 3:17:05Speaker 1: There is missing that peculiar power of thinking in symbols
- 3:17:09Speaker 1: and abstract conceptions which distinguishes the human race, and which
- 3:17:13Speaker 1: is closely bound up with the faculty of language or
- 3:17:16Speaker 1: expressing thoughts in words, The comparatively high mental process of
- 3:17:21Speaker 1: the lower animals is dwarfed by the human faculty of thinking,
- 3:17:26Speaker 1: and thinking is a manifestation of the intellect. What is
- 3:17:31Speaker 1: it to think? Strange to say? Very few persons can
- 3:17:35Speaker 1: answer this question correctly. At first. They find themselves inclined
- 3:17:39Speaker 1: to answer the inquiry in the words of the child.
- 3:17:42Speaker 1: Why to think is to think? Let us see if
- 3:17:46Speaker 1: we can make it plain. The dictionary definition is a
- 3:17:49Speaker 1: little too technical to be of much use to the beginner.
- 3:17:53Speaker 1: But here it is to employ any of the intellectual
- 3:17:56Speaker 1: powers except that of simple perception through the senses. But
- 3:18:00Speaker 1: what are the intellectual powers so employed, and how are
- 3:18:04Speaker 1: they employed? Let us see, stating the matter plainly. In
- 3:18:10Speaker 1: common terms, we may say that thinking is the mental
- 3:18:13Speaker 1: process of one comparing our perceptions of things with each other,
- 3:18:18Speaker 1: noting the points of likeness and of difference, two, classifying
- 3:18:23Speaker 1: them according to the ascertained likeness or difference, and thus
- 3:18:27Speaker 1: tying them up in mental bundles, with each set of
- 3:18:30Speaker 1: things of a kind in its own bundle. Three, forming
- 3:18:35Speaker 1: the abstract symbolic mental idea concept of each class of
- 3:18:40Speaker 1: things so grouped that we may afterwards use as we
- 3:18:43Speaker 1: use figures in mathematical calculations. Four, using these concepts in
- 3:18:49Speaker 1: order to form inferences, that is, to reason from the
- 3:18:53Speaker 1: known to the unknown, and to form judgments regarding things, five,
- 3:18:59Speaker 1: comparing thesejudgements and adducing higher judgements from them, and so on.
- 3:19:05Speaker 1: Without thinking, man would be dependent upon each particular experience
- 3:19:09Speaker 1: for his knowledge, except so far as memory and imagination
- 3:19:13Speaker 1: could instinctively aid him. By thought processes, he is enable
- 3:19:18Speaker 1: to infer that, if certain things be true of one
- 3:19:21Speaker 1: of a certain kind of things, the same thing may
- 3:19:24Speaker 1: be expected from others of the same class. As he
- 3:19:27Speaker 1: is able to note points of likeness or difference, he
- 3:19:31Speaker 1: is able to form clearer and truer inferences. In addition,
- 3:19:35Speaker 1: he is able to apply his constructive imagination to the
- 3:19:38Speaker 1: rearrangement and recombination of things whose nature he has discovered,
- 3:19:43Speaker 1: and thus progress along the line of material achievement as
- 3:19:47Speaker 1: well as of knowledge. It must be remembered, however, that
- 3:19:51Speaker 1: the intellect depends entirely for its material upon the perception,
- 3:19:56Speaker 1: which in turn receives its raw material from the senses.
- 3:20:00Speaker 1: The intellect merely groups together the material of perception, makes inferences,
- 3:20:06Speaker 1: draws conclusions from and forms conclusions regarding them, and, in
- 3:20:11Speaker 1: the case of constructive imagination, recombines them in effective forms
- 3:20:15Speaker 1: and arrangement. The intellect is the last in order of
- 3:20:19Speaker 1: the course of mental evolution. It appears at last in
- 3:20:22Speaker 1: order in the mind of the child, but it often
- 3:20:25Speaker 1: persists in old age, after the feelings have grown dim
- 3:20:29Speaker 1: and the memory weak. Concepts what is known as the
- 3:20:35Speaker 1: concept is the first fruit of the elemental processes of thought.
- 3:20:39Speaker 1: The various images of outside objects are sensed, then perceived,
- 3:20:44Speaker 1: and then grouped according to their likenesses and differences, and
- 3:20:48Speaker 1: the result is a production of concepts. It is difficult
- 3:20:52Speaker 1: to define a concept so as to convey any meaning
- 3:20:55Speaker 1: to the beginner. For instance, the dictionaries give the definition
- 3:20:59Speaker 1: as an abstract general conception, idea, or nation formed in
- 3:21:04Speaker 1: the mind. Not very clear this is it. Perhaps we
- 3:21:09Speaker 1: can understand it better if we say that the terms dog, cat, man, horse, house,
- 3:21:16Speaker 1: et cetera. Each expresses a concept. Every term expresses a concept.
- 3:21:22Speaker 1: Every general name of a thing or quality is a
- 3:21:25Speaker 1: term applied to the concept. We shall see this a
- 3:21:29Speaker 1: little clearer as we proceed. We form a concept. In
- 3:21:33Speaker 1: this way, one we perceive a number of things. Two
- 3:21:38Speaker 1: then we notice certain qualities possessed by things, certain properties, attributes,
- 3:21:43Speaker 1: or characteristics which make the thing what it is. Three.
- 3:21:49Speaker 1: Then we compare these qualities of the thing with the
- 3:21:52Speaker 1: qualities of other things, and see that there is a
- 3:21:54Speaker 1: likeness in some cases in various degrees, and a difference
- 3:21:59Speaker 1: in other cases in various degrees. Four. Then we generalize
- 3:22:04Speaker 1: or classify the perceived things according to their ascertained likenesses
- 3:22:08Speaker 1: and differences. Five. Then we form a general idea or
- 3:22:13Speaker 1: concept embodying each class of thing. And finally we give
- 3:22:17Speaker 1: to the concept a term or name, which is its symbol.
- 3:22:23Speaker 1: The concept is a general idea of a class of things.
- 3:22:27Speaker 1: The term is the expression of that general idea. The
- 3:22:30Speaker 1: concept is the idea of a class of things. The
- 3:22:34Speaker 1: term is the label affixed to the thing. To illustrate
- 3:22:38Speaker 1: this last distinction, let us take the concept and term
- 3:22:41Speaker 1: of bird, for instance. By perception, comparison, and classification of
- 3:22:47Speaker 1: the qualities of living things, we have arrived at the
- 3:22:49Speaker 1: conclusion that there exists a great general class, the qualities
- 3:22:54Speaker 1: of which may be stated thus warm blooded, feathered, winged
- 3:22:59Speaker 1: of viparous vertebrate. To this general class of quality possessing animals,
- 3:23:04Speaker 1: we apply the English term bird. The name is merely
- 3:23:08Speaker 1: a symbol. In German, the term is fogel in Latin ABIs.
- 3:23:15Speaker 1: But in each and every case, the general idea or
- 3:23:18Speaker 1: concept above stated that is warm blooded, feathered, winged, oviparous
- 3:23:24Speaker 1: vertebrate is meant. If anything is found having all those
- 3:23:29Speaker 1: particular qualities, then we know it must be what we
- 3:23:32Speaker 1: call a bird, and everything we call a bird must
- 3:23:36Speaker 1: have those qualities. The term bird is the symbol for
- 3:23:40Speaker 1: that particular combination of qualities existing in a thing. There
- 3:23:46Speaker 1: is a difference between a mental image of the imagination
- 3:23:49Speaker 1: and a concept. The mental image must always be of
- 3:23:52Speaker 1: a particular thing, while a concept is always an idea
- 3:23:56Speaker 1: of a general class of things which cannot be clearly
- 3:23:59Speaker 1: pictured in the mind. For instance, the imagination may form
- 3:24:04Speaker 1: a mental picture of any known bird, or even of
- 3:24:07Speaker 1: an imaginary bird, for that bird always will be a distinct,
- 3:24:11Speaker 1: particular bird. Try to form a mental image of a
- 3:24:14Speaker 1: general class of birds. How would you do it? Do
- 3:24:18Speaker 1: you realize the difficulty? First, such an image would have
- 3:24:21Speaker 1: to include the characteristics of the large birds such as
- 3:24:25Speaker 1: the eagle, ostrich and condor, and of the small birds
- 3:24:29Speaker 1: such as the wren and humming bird. It must be
- 3:24:32Speaker 1: a composite of the shape of all birds, from the ostrich, swan,
- 3:24:36Speaker 1: eagle crane down to the sparrow, swallow and hummingbird. It
- 3:24:42Speaker 1: must picture the particular qualities of birds of prey, water birds,
- 3:24:46Speaker 1: and domestic fowls, as well as the grain eaters. It
- 3:24:50Speaker 1: must exhibit all the colors found in bird life, from
- 3:24:53Speaker 1: the brightest reds and greens down to the sober grays
- 3:24:56Speaker 1: and browns. A little thought will show that a clear
- 3:25:00Speaker 1: mental image of such a concept is impossible. What the
- 3:25:04Speaker 1: most of us do when we think of bird is
- 3:25:06Speaker 1: the picture a vague flying shape of dull color. For
- 3:25:10Speaker 1: when we shop to think that the term must also
- 3:25:13Speaker 1: include the waddling duck and the scratching barnyard chicken, we
- 3:25:17Speaker 1: see that our mental image is faulty. The trouble is
- 3:25:20Speaker 1: that the term bird really means all bird, and we
- 3:25:24Speaker 1: cannot picture an all bird from the very nature of
- 3:25:28Speaker 1: the case. Our terms, therefore are like mathematical figures or
- 3:25:32Speaker 1: algebraic symbols, which we use for ease, speed and clearness
- 3:25:37Speaker 1: of thinking. The trouble does not end here. Concepts not
- 3:25:42Speaker 1: only include the general idea of things, but also the
- 3:25:45Speaker 1: general idea of the qualities of things. Thus sweetness, hardness, courage,
- 3:25:51Speaker 1: and energy are concepts, but we cannot form a mental
- 3:25:55Speaker 1: image of them by themselves. We may picture a sweet thing,
- 3:25:59Speaker 1: but not not sweetness itself. So you see that a
- 3:26:03Speaker 1: concept is a purely abstract mental idea. A symbol akin
- 3:26:08Speaker 1: to the figures one, two, three, et cetera, and used
- 3:26:12Speaker 1: in the same way they stand for general classes of things.
- 3:26:17Speaker 1: A term is the verbal and written expression of the
- 3:26:19Speaker 1: general idea or concept. The student is requested to fix
- 3:26:24Speaker 1: these distinctions in his mind so as to render future
- 3:26:27Speaker 1: understanding of them easy. End of Chapter twenty Chapter twenty
- 3:26:35Speaker 1: one Conception. The idea of conception has been well defined
- 3:26:40Speaker 1: by Gaudy as that active mind by which it forms
- 3:26:44Speaker 1: an idea of a class, or that act of the
- 3:26:47Speaker 1: mind which enables us to use general names intelligently. He adds,
- 3:26:52Speaker 1: it is of course understood that I am using the
- 3:26:55Speaker 1: word class to denote an indefinite number of individuals. The
- 3:26:59Speaker 1: re resemble each other in certain particulars. Perception the first
- 3:27:06Speaker 1: step in conception, as we have seen is that of perception.
- 3:27:10Speaker 1: It is readily perceived that the character of our intellectual
- 3:27:13Speaker 1: processes depends materially upon the variety, clearness, and accuracy of
- 3:27:19Speaker 1: our perceptions. Therefore, again we would refer our students to
- 3:27:24Speaker 1: the chapter in which we have stated the importance of
- 3:27:27Speaker 1: clear perception memory. The future steps of conception depend materially
- 3:27:33Speaker 1: upon the clearness of the memory, as we can classify
- 3:27:37Speaker 1: objects only by remembering their qualities beyond the immediate moment
- 3:27:41Speaker 1: of actual original perception. Therefore, the memory should be strengthened
- 3:27:46Speaker 1: for this as well as other objects. Abstraction. The second
- 3:27:52Speaker 1: step in conception is that of the mental abstraction of
- 3:27:56Speaker 1: qualities from the observed thing. That is, we must receive
- 3:28:00Speaker 1: and then mentally set aside the observed qualities of the thing.
- 3:28:04Speaker 1: For instance, man first perceived the existence of certain qualities
- 3:28:08Speaker 1: in things. He found that a certain number of things
- 3:28:11Speaker 1: possessed some of these qualities in common, while others possessed
- 3:28:15Speaker 1: other qualities in the same way, and thus arose classification
- 3:28:19Speaker 1: from comparison. But both comparison and classification are possible only
- 3:28:24Speaker 1: by abstraction or the perception of the quality as a thing. Thus,
- 3:28:29Speaker 1: the abstraction of the idea of the quality of sweetness
- 3:28:32Speaker 1: from the idea of sugar. Sweetness is a quality rather
- 3:28:36Speaker 1: than a thing itself. It is something possessed by sugar,
- 3:28:40Speaker 1: which helps to make sugar what it is. Colour, shape, size,
- 3:28:46Speaker 1: mental qualities, habits of action. These are some of the
- 3:28:49Speaker 1: qualities first observed in things and abstracted from them in thought. Redness, sweetness, hardness, softness, largeness, small, illness, fragrance, swiftness, slowness, fierceness, gentleness, warmness, coldness,
- 3:29:08Speaker 1: et cetera. These are abstracted qualities of things. Of course,
- 3:29:13Speaker 1: these qualities are never really divorced from things, but the
- 3:29:16Speaker 1: mind divorces them in order to make thinking easier. An
- 3:29:20Speaker 1: authority says animals are incapable of making abstractions, and that
- 3:29:25Speaker 1: is the reason why they cannot develop formal thought. Abstract
- 3:29:29Speaker 1: thought is identical with rational thought, which is the characteristic
- 3:29:33Speaker 1: feature of the thought of speaking beings. This is the
- 3:29:36Speaker 1: reason why abstract thought is upon earth the exclusive property
- 3:29:41Speaker 1: of man, and why brutes are incapable of abstract thought.
- 3:29:45Speaker 1: The process of naming is the mechanism of abstraction, for
- 3:29:49Speaker 1: names establish the mental independence of the objects named. The
- 3:29:54Speaker 1: processes of abstraction depend upon attention. Concentrated ATTENTI Attention directed
- 3:30:02Speaker 1: to the qualities of a thing tends to abstract the
- 3:30:04Speaker 1: qualities in thought from the thing itself. Mill says abstraction
- 3:30:10Speaker 1: is primarily the result of attention. Hamilton says attention and
- 3:30:15Speaker 1: abstraction are only the same process viewed in different relations.
- 3:30:20Speaker 1: Cultivation of the power of abstraction means, principally cultivation of attention.
- 3:30:26Speaker 1: Any mental activity which tends towards analysis or separation of
- 3:30:30Speaker 1: a thing into its parts, qualities or elements will serve
- 3:30:34Speaker 1: to cultivate and develop the power of abstraction. The habit
- 3:30:38Speaker 1: of converting qualities into concepts is acquired by transforming adjective
- 3:30:43Speaker 1: terms into their corresponding noun terms. For instance, a piece
- 3:30:48Speaker 1: of colored candy possesses the qualities of being round, hard, red, sweet,
- 3:30:54Speaker 1: et cetera. Transforming these adjective qualities into noun terms, we
- 3:30:59Speaker 1: have the concept of roundness, hardness, redness, and sweetness, respectively. Comparison.
- 3:31:08Speaker 1: The third step in conception is that of comparison, in
- 3:31:12Speaker 1: which the qualities of several things are compared or examined
- 3:31:15Speaker 1: for likenesses and differences. We find many qualities in which
- 3:31:19Speaker 1: several things differ and a few in which there is
- 3:31:22Speaker 1: a likeness. Classes are formed from resemblances or likenesses, while
- 3:31:27Speaker 1: individuals are separated from apparent classes by detection of differences. Finally,
- 3:31:33Speaker 1: it is found that separate things, while having many points
- 3:31:36Speaker 1: of difference which indicate their individuality, nevertheless have a few
- 3:31:40Speaker 1: points of likeness which indicate that they belong to the
- 3:31:43Speaker 1: same general family or class. The detection of likenesses and
- 3:31:47Speaker 1: differences in the qualities of various things is an important
- 3:31:51Speaker 1: mental process. Many of the higher thought processes depend largely
- 3:31:56Speaker 1: upon the ability to compear things properly. The development of
- 3:31:59Speaker 1: a tension and perception tends to develop the power of comparison, classification,
- 3:32:07Speaker 1: or generalization. The fourth step in conception is that of
- 3:32:11Speaker 1: classification or generalization, whereby we place individual things in a
- 3:32:16Speaker 1: mental bundle or class, and then this bundle, in company
- 3:32:20Speaker 1: with other bundles, into a higher class, and so on.
- 3:32:24Speaker 1: Thus we grip all the individual small birds having certain
- 3:32:27Speaker 1: characteristics into a species, then several related species into a
- 3:32:32Speaker 1: larger family, and this into a still larger until we
- 3:32:36Speaker 1: finally grip all the bird families into the great concept,
- 3:32:39Speaker 1: which we call birds, and of which the simple term
- 3:32:43Speaker 1: bird expresses the general concept. Jevons says, we classify things
- 3:32:50Speaker 1: together whenever we observe that they are like each other
- 3:32:53Speaker 1: in any respect, and therefore think of them together. In
- 3:32:57Speaker 1: classifying a collection of objects, do not merely put together
- 3:33:01Speaker 1: into groups those which resemble each other, but we also
- 3:33:04Speaker 1: divide each class into smaller ones in which the resemblance
- 3:33:08Speaker 1: is more complete. Thus, the class of white substances may
- 3:33:12Speaker 1: be divided into those which are solid and those which
- 3:33:15Speaker 1: are fluid, so that we get the two minor classes
- 3:33:18Speaker 1: of solid white and fluid white. It is desirable to
- 3:33:22Speaker 1: have names by which to show that one class is
- 3:33:24Speaker 1: contained in another, and accordingly we call the class which
- 3:33:29Speaker 1: is divided into two or more smaller species, the genus,
- 3:33:33Speaker 1: and the smaller ones into which it is divided the species.
- 3:33:38Speaker 1: Every species is a small family of the individuals composing it,
- 3:33:42Speaker 1: and at the same time is an individual species of
- 3:33:45Speaker 1: the genus just above it. The genus, in turn, is
- 3:33:49Speaker 1: a family of several species, and at the same time
- 3:33:52Speaker 1: an individual genus in the greater family or genus above it.
- 3:33:58Speaker 1: The student may familiarize himself with the idea of generalization.
- 3:34:01Speaker 1: By considering himself as an individual John Smith, John represents
- 3:34:06Speaker 1: that unit of generalization. The next step is to combine
- 3:34:10Speaker 1: John with the other Smiths of his immediate family. Then
- 3:34:14Speaker 1: this family may be gripped with his near blood relations,
- 3:34:17Speaker 1: and so on, until finally all the related Smiths, near
- 3:34:21Speaker 1: and remote are grouped together in a great Smith family.
- 3:34:26Speaker 1: Or in the same way, the family group may be
- 3:34:29Speaker 1: enlarged until it takes in all the white people in
- 3:34:32Speaker 1: a county, then all the white people in the state,
- 3:34:35Speaker 1: then all in the United States, then all the white races,
- 3:34:40Speaker 1: then all the white and other light skinned races, then
- 3:34:43Speaker 1: all mankind. Then, if one is inclined, the process may
- 3:34:48Speaker 1: be continued until it embraces every living creature from moneron
- 3:34:53Speaker 1: to man. Reversing the process. Living creatures may be divided
- 3:34:57Speaker 1: and subdivided until all man can is seen to stand
- 3:35:01Speaker 1: as a class. Then the race of man may be
- 3:35:04Speaker 1: divided into sub races according to color. Then the white
- 3:35:07Speaker 1: race may be subdivided into Americans and non Americans, and
- 3:35:12Speaker 1: the Americans may be divided into the inhabitants of the
- 3:35:15Speaker 1: several states, or into Indianas or non Indianans. Then into
- 3:35:21Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the several counties of Indiana, and thus
- 3:35:24Speaker 1: the Posey Countians are reached. Then the Posey County people
- 3:35:29Speaker 1: are divided into Smiths and nonsmiths, then the Smith family
- 3:35:33Speaker 1: into its constituent family groups, and then into the smaller families,
- 3:35:38Speaker 1: and so on, until the classification reaches one particular John Smith,
- 3:35:43Speaker 1: who at last is found to be an individual in
- 3:35:46Speaker 1: a class by himself. This is the story of the
- 3:35:50Speaker 1: ascending and descending processes of generalization. Chapter twenty two, Classes
- 3:35:57Speaker 1: of Concepts. In the preceding chapter we have seen the
- 3:36:02Speaker 1: process of conception of the forming of concepts. The idea
- 3:36:07Speaker 1: of a general class of things or qualities is a concept.
- 3:36:11Speaker 1: Each concept contains the qualities which are common to all
- 3:36:14Speaker 1: the individuals composing the class, but not those qualities which
- 3:36:18Speaker 1: pertain only to the minor classes or the individuals. For instance,
- 3:36:23Speaker 1: the concept of bird will necessarily include the common qualities
- 3:36:27Speaker 1: of warm bloodedness, featheredness, wingness, of viperousness, and vertebrateness, but
- 3:36:34Speaker 1: it will not include color, special shape, size, or special
- 3:36:39Speaker 1: features or characteristics of the subfamilies or individuals composing the
- 3:36:43Speaker 1: great class. The class comprises the individuals and subclasses composing it.
- 3:36:50Speaker 1: The concept includes the general and common qualities which all
- 3:36:54Speaker 1: in the class possess. A percept is the mental image
- 3:36:58Speaker 1: of a particular thing. A concept is the mental idea
- 3:37:02Speaker 1: of the general qualities of a class of things. A
- 3:37:06Speaker 1: percept arises from a perception of a sensation. A concept
- 3:37:11Speaker 1: is a purely mental, abstract creation whose only existence is
- 3:37:15Speaker 1: in the world of ideas, and which has no corresponding
- 3:37:18Speaker 1: individual object in the world of sense. There are two
- 3:37:23Speaker 1: general classes of concepts, namely one concrete concepts, in which
- 3:37:29Speaker 1: the common qualities of a class of things are combined
- 3:37:32Speaker 1: into one conceptual idea, such as bird of which we
- 3:37:37Speaker 1: have spoken. Two abstract concepts, in which is combined the
- 3:37:42Speaker 1: idea of some quality common to a number of things,
- 3:37:46Speaker 1: such as sweetness or redness. Gevens well known rule for
- 3:37:51Speaker 1: terms is an aid in remembering this classification. A concrete
- 3:37:55Speaker 1: term is the name of a thing. An abstract term
- 3:37:59Speaker 1: is then name of a quality ever thing. It is
- 3:38:03Speaker 1: a peculiar fact and rule of concrete concepts that one,
- 3:38:08Speaker 1: the larger the class of things embraced in a concept,
- 3:38:11Speaker 1: the smaller are its general qualities, and two, the larger
- 3:38:15Speaker 1: the number of general qualities included in a concept, the
- 3:38:19Speaker 1: smaller the number of individuals embraced by it. For instance,
- 3:38:23Speaker 1: the term bird embraces a great number of individuals, all
- 3:38:27Speaker 1: the birds that are in existence, in fact, but it
- 3:38:30Speaker 1: has but few general qualities, as we have seen. On
- 3:38:34Speaker 1: the contrary, the concept stalk has a much larger number
- 3:38:39Speaker 1: of general qualities, but embraces far fewer individuals. Finally, the
- 3:38:44Speaker 1: individual is reached, and we find that it has more
- 3:38:47Speaker 1: qualities than any class can have, but it is composed
- 3:38:51Speaker 1: of the smallest possible number of individuals one. The secret
- 3:38:56Speaker 1: is this, No to individuals can have as many qualities
- 3:39:00Speaker 1: in common as each has individually, unless they are precisely alike,
- 3:39:05Speaker 1: which is impossible in nature imperfect concepts. It is said
- 3:39:12Speaker 1: that outside of strictly scientific definitions, very few persons agree
- 3:39:17Speaker 1: in their concepts of the same thing. Each has his
- 3:39:20Speaker 1: or her own concept of the particular thing which he
- 3:39:24Speaker 1: or she expresses by the same term. A number of
- 3:39:28Speaker 1: persons asked to find a common term like love, religion, faith, belief,
- 3:39:34Speaker 1: et cetera, will give such a variety of answers as
- 3:39:38Speaker 1: to cause wonderment. As Green says my idea or image
- 3:39:43Speaker 1: is mine alone. The reward of careless observation if imperfect,
- 3:39:48Speaker 1: of attentive, careful and varied observation if correct. Between mine
- 3:39:53Speaker 1: and yours a great gulf is fixed. No man can
- 3:39:57Speaker 1: pass from mind to yours, or from yours to neither,
- 3:40:01Speaker 1: in any proper sense of the term can mine be
- 3:40:04Speaker 1: conveyed to you. Words do not convey thoughts. They are
- 3:40:08Speaker 1: not vehicles of thoughts in any true sense of that term.
- 3:40:13Speaker 1: A word is simply a common symbol which each associates
- 3:40:16Speaker 1: with his own idea or image. The reason of the
- 3:40:21Speaker 1: difference in the concepts of several persons is that very
- 3:40:25Speaker 1: few of our concepts are nearly perfect. The majority of
- 3:40:29Speaker 1: them are quite imperfect and incomplete. Gevons gives us an
- 3:40:33Speaker 1: idea of this in his remarks on classification. Things may
- 3:40:38Speaker 1: seem to be very like each other, which are not so. Whales, porpoises, seals,
- 3:40:44Speaker 1: and several other animals live in the sea exactly like
- 3:40:47Speaker 1: a fish. They have a similar shape and are usually
- 3:40:51Speaker 1: classed among fish. People are said to go whale fishing,
- 3:40:56Speaker 1: for these animals are not really fish at all, but
- 3:40:58Speaker 1: are much more like dogs and horses and other quadrupeds
- 3:41:02Speaker 1: than they are like fish. They cannot live entirely under
- 3:41:05Speaker 1: water and breathe the air contained in the water like fish,
- 3:41:09Speaker 1: but they have to come to the surface at intervals
- 3:41:12Speaker 1: to take breath. Similarly, we must not class bats with birds,
- 3:41:17Speaker 1: because they fly about. Although they have what would be
- 3:41:20Speaker 1: called wings, these wings are not like those of birds,
- 3:41:24Speaker 1: and in truth bats are much more like rats and
- 3:41:27Speaker 1: mice than they are like birds. Botanists used at one
- 3:41:32Speaker 1: time to classify plants according to their size, as trees, shrubs,
- 3:41:37Speaker 1: or herbs. But we now know that a great tree
- 3:41:40Speaker 1: is often more similar in character to a tiny herb
- 3:41:43Speaker 1: than it is to other great trees. A daisy has
- 3:41:47Speaker 1: very little resemblance to the great Scotch thistle, yet the
- 3:41:51Speaker 1: botanist regards them as very similar. The lofty growing bamboo
- 3:41:55Speaker 1: is a kind of grass, and a sugar cane also
- 3:41:58Speaker 1: belongs to the same class with wheat and oats. It
- 3:42:03Speaker 1: is a matter of importance that clear concepts should be
- 3:42:06Speaker 1: formed regarding at least the familiar things of life. The
- 3:42:10Speaker 1: list of clear concepts should be added to from time
- 3:42:13Speaker 1: to time by study, investigation, and examination. The dictionary should
- 3:42:18Speaker 1: be consulted frequently and a term studied until one has
- 3:42:22Speaker 1: a clear meaning of the concept. The term seeks to express.
- 3:42:26Speaker 1: A good encyclopedia, not necessarily an expensive one. In these
- 3:42:31Speaker 1: days of cheap editions, will also prove very useful in
- 3:42:34Speaker 1: this respect. As Halleck says, it must be borne in
- 3:42:38Speaker 1: mind that most of our concepts are subject to change
- 3:42:41Speaker 1: during our entire life, that at first they are made
- 3:42:45Speaker 1: only in a tentative way. That experience may show us
- 3:42:49Speaker 1: at any time that they have been erroneously formed, that
- 3:42:53Speaker 1: we have abstracted too little or too much, have made
- 3:42:56Speaker 1: the class too wide or too narrow, or that here
- 3:43:00Speaker 1: a quality must be added, or there one taken away.
- 3:43:05Speaker 1: It is a good practice to make a memorandum of
- 3:43:08Speaker 1: anything of which you may hear but of which you
- 3:43:11Speaker 1: know nothing, and then later to make a brief but
- 3:43:14Speaker 1: thorough investigation of that thing by means of the dictionary
- 3:43:17Speaker 1: and encyclopedia, and of whatever good works may be obtained
- 3:43:21Speaker 1: on the subject, not leaving it until you feel that
- 3:43:25Speaker 1: you have obtained at least a clear idea of what
- 3:43:28Speaker 1: the thing really means. A half hour each morning devoted
- 3:43:32Speaker 1: to exercise of this kind will result in a wonderful
- 3:43:35Speaker 1: increase of general information. We have heard of a man
- 3:43:38Speaker 1: who made a practice of reading a short article in
- 3:43:41Speaker 1: the Encyclopedia every evening, giving reference to subjects generally classed
- 3:43:45Speaker 1: as familiar. In a year, he made a noticeable advance
- 3:43:49Speaker 1: in general knowledge, as well as habits of thought. In
- 3:43:53Speaker 1: five years he was looked upon by his associates as
- 3:43:56Speaker 1: a man of a remarkably large field of general information,
- 3:44:00Speaker 1: and of more than ordinary intelligence, which verdict was a
- 3:44:03Speaker 1: just one. As a rule, we waste far more time
- 3:44:07Speaker 1: on worthless fiction than we are willing to devote to
- 3:44:10Speaker 1: a little self improvement of this kind. We shrink at
- 3:44:13Speaker 1: the idea of a general course of instructive reading, little
- 3:44:17Speaker 1: realizing that we can take our study in small installments
- 3:44:20Speaker 1: and at a very little cost in time or labor.
- 3:44:25Speaker 1: Our concepts form the material which our intellect uses in
- 3:44:29Speaker 1: its reasoning processes. No matter how good a reasoner one
- 3:44:33Speaker 1: may be, unless he has a good supply of general
- 3:44:35Speaker 1: information about the things of which he is reasoning, he
- 3:44:39Speaker 1: will not make much real headway. We must begin at
- 3:44:42Speaker 1: the bottom and build a firm foundation upon which the
- 3:44:45Speaker 1: intellectual structure may be erected. This foundation is composed of facts.
- 3:44:52Speaker 1: These facts are represented by our clear and correct concepts.
- 3:44:57Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty two, Chapter twenty three, Judgments. We
- 3:45:04Speaker 1: have seen the several steps of the mental process, whereby
- 3:45:07Speaker 1: simple sensations are transformed into percepts and then into concepts
- 3:45:12Speaker 1: or general ideas. The formation of the concept is considered
- 3:45:16Speaker 1: as the first great step in thinking. The second great
- 3:45:20Speaker 1: step in thinking is that in the formation of the judgment.
- 3:45:24Speaker 1: The definition of judgment, as the term is used in logic,
- 3:45:29Speaker 1: is the comparing together in the mind of two ideas
- 3:45:32Speaker 1: of things and determining whether they agree or disagree with
- 3:45:35Speaker 1: each other, or that one of them does or does
- 3:45:38Speaker 1: not belong to the other. Judgment is therefore a affirmative
- 3:45:44Speaker 1: or be negative, as a snow is white or b
- 3:45:50Speaker 1: all white men are not Europeans. What in logic is
- 3:45:55Speaker 1: called a proposition is the expression, in words, of a
- 3:45:59Speaker 1: logical judgement. Hisslop defined the term proposition as follows any
- 3:46:04Speaker 1: affirmation or denial of an agreement between two conceptions. For instance,
- 3:46:10Speaker 1: we compare the concepts sparrow and bird and find that
- 3:46:14Speaker 1: there is an agreement and that the former belongs to
- 3:46:17Speaker 1: the latter. This mental process is a judgment. We then
- 3:46:21Speaker 1: announce the judgment in the proposition the sparrow is a bird.
- 3:46:26Speaker 1: In the same way, we compare the concepts bat and bird,
- 3:46:30Speaker 1: find that there is a disagreement, and form the judgment
- 3:46:33Speaker 1: that neither belongs to the other, which we express in
- 3:46:36Speaker 1: the proposition the bat is not a bird. Or we
- 3:46:40Speaker 1: may form the judgment that sweetness is a quality of sugar,
- 3:46:43Speaker 1: which we express in the proposition sugar is sweet. Likewise,
- 3:46:48Speaker 1: we may form the judgment which results in the proposition
- 3:46:52Speaker 1: vinegar is not sweet. While a process of judgment is
- 3:46:56Speaker 1: generally considered as constituting a second a great step of thinking,
- 3:47:00Speaker 1: coming after the formation of the concept, and consisting of
- 3:47:04Speaker 1: the comparing of concepts, it must be remembered that the
- 3:47:07Speaker 1: act of judging is far more elementary than this, for
- 3:47:10Speaker 1: it is found still farther back in the history of
- 3:47:13Speaker 1: thought processes by that peculiar law of paradox, which we
- 3:47:18Speaker 1: find everywhere operative in mind processes. The same process of
- 3:47:22Speaker 1: forming judgments which has been used in comparing concepts, has
- 3:47:26Speaker 1: also been used in forming the same concepts in the
- 3:47:29Speaker 1: stage of comparison. In fact, the result of all comparison
- 3:47:34Speaker 1: high or low, must be a judgment Halleck says judgment
- 3:47:40Speaker 1: is necessary in forming concepts. When we decide that equality
- 3:47:44Speaker 1: is or is not common to a class, we are
- 3:47:47Speaker 1: really judging. This is another evidence of the complexity and
- 3:47:51Speaker 1: unified action of the mind. Brooks says, the power of
- 3:47:56Speaker 1: judgment is a very great value in its products. It
- 3:47:59Speaker 1: is involved in, or accompanies every act of the intellect,
- 3:48:03Speaker 1: and thus lies at the foundation of all intellectual activity.
- 3:48:08Speaker 1: It operates directly in every act of the understanding, and
- 3:48:11Speaker 1: even aids the other faculties of the mind in completing
- 3:48:14Speaker 1: their activities and products. Strictly speaking, every intelligent act of
- 3:48:20Speaker 1: the mind is accompanied with a judgment. To know is
- 3:48:24Speaker 1: to discriminate, and therefore to judge. Every sensation or cognition
- 3:48:30Speaker 1: involves a knowledge and so a judgment that it exists.
- 3:48:34Speaker 1: The mind cannot think without judging. To think is to judge.
- 3:48:39Speaker 1: Even in forming the notions which judgment compares the mind,
- 3:48:43Speaker 1: it judges. Every notion or concept implies a previous act
- 3:48:47Speaker 1: of judgment to form it. In forming a concept, we
- 3:48:51Speaker 1: compare the common attributes before we unite them, and comparison
- 3:48:55Speaker 1: is judgment. It is thus true that every concept is
- 3:48:59Speaker 1: a control acted judgment. Every judgment an expanded concept. It
- 3:49:05Speaker 1: is needless to say that, as judgments lie at the
- 3:49:08Speaker 1: base of our thinking and also appear in every part
- 3:49:11Speaker 1: of its higher structure, the importance of correct judgment in
- 3:49:15Speaker 1: thought cannot be overestimated. But it is often very difficult
- 3:49:19Speaker 1: to form correct judgment, even regarding the most familiar things
- 3:49:23Speaker 1: around us. Halleck says, in actual life, things present themselves
- 3:49:28Speaker 1: to us, with their qualities disguised or obscured by other
- 3:49:31Speaker 1: conflicting qualities. Men had, for ages seen burning substances and
- 3:49:37Speaker 1: had formed a concept of them. A certain hard, black,
- 3:49:41Speaker 1: stony substance had often been noticed, and a concept had
- 3:49:45Speaker 1: been informed of it. This concept was imperfect, but it
- 3:49:49Speaker 1: is very seldom that we meet with perfect, sharply defined
- 3:49:52Speaker 1: concepts in actual life. So it happened that for ages,
- 3:49:58Speaker 1: the concept of burning substance was never linked by judgment
- 3:50:01Speaker 1: to the concept of stone coal. The combustible quality in
- 3:50:05Speaker 1: the coal was overshadowed by its stony attributes. Of course,
- 3:50:10Speaker 1: stone will not burn, people said, one cannot tell how
- 3:50:15Speaker 1: long the development of mankind is retarded. For that very reason,
- 3:50:20Speaker 1: England would not to day be manufacturing products for the
- 3:50:23Speaker 1: rest of the world. Had not someone judged coal to
- 3:50:26Speaker 1: be a combustible substance. Judgment is ever silently working in
- 3:50:30Speaker 1: comparing things that the past ages seemed dissimilar, and it
- 3:50:35Speaker 1: is constantly abstracting and leaving out of the field of
- 3:50:39Speaker 1: view those qualities which have simply served to obscure the
- 3:50:42Speaker 1: point at issue. Gordy says, the credulity of children is proverbial.
- 3:50:49Speaker 1: But if we get our facts at first hand, if
- 3:50:52Speaker 1: we study the living, learning, playing child, we shall see
- 3:50:56Speaker 1: that he is quite as remarkable for incredulity as for Curdurey.
- 3:51:01Speaker 1: The explanation is simple. He tends to believe the first
- 3:51:04Speaker 1: suggestion that comes into his mind, no matter from what source,
- 3:51:09Speaker 1: And since his belief is not the result of any
- 3:51:11Speaker 1: rational process, he cannot be made to disbelieve it in
- 3:51:14Speaker 1: any rational way. Hence it is that he is very
- 3:51:18Speaker 1: credulous about any matter about which he has no ideas.
- 3:51:22Speaker 1: But let the idea once get possession of his mind,
- 3:51:24Speaker 1: and he is quite as remarkable for incredulity as before
- 3:51:28Speaker 1: for credulity. If we study the larger child, the man
- 3:51:32Speaker 1: with the child's mind, an uneducated man, we shall have
- 3:51:37Speaker 1: the same truth forced upon us if the beliefs of
- 3:51:40Speaker 1: men were due to processes of reasoning where they have
- 3:51:43Speaker 1: not reasoned, they would not believe. But do we find
- 3:51:47Speaker 1: it so? Is it not true that the men who
- 3:51:50Speaker 1: have the most positive opinions on the largest variety of subjects,
- 3:51:54Speaker 1: so far as they have ever heard of them, are
- 3:51:56Speaker 1: precisely those who have the least right to them. Socrates,
- 3:52:00Speaker 1: we remember, was count of the wisest man in Athens,
- 3:52:04Speaker 1: because he alone resisted his natural tendency to believe in
- 3:52:07Speaker 1: the absence of evidence. He alone would not delude himself
- 3:52:12Speaker 1: with the conceit of knowledge without the reality. And it
- 3:52:15Speaker 1: would scarcely be too much to say that the intellectual
- 3:52:18Speaker 1: strength of men is in direct proportion to the number
- 3:52:22Speaker 1: of things they are absolutely certain of. I do not,
- 3:52:26Speaker 1: of course, mean to intimate that we should have no
- 3:52:28Speaker 1: opinions about matters that we have not personally investigated. We take,
- 3:52:34Speaker 1: and ought to take the opinion of some men about law,
- 3:52:37Speaker 1: and others about medicine, and others about particular sciences, and
- 3:52:41Speaker 1: so on, For we should clearly realize the difference between
- 3:52:44Speaker 1: holding an opinion on trust and holding it as a
- 3:52:48Speaker 1: result of our own investigations. Brooks says it should be
- 3:52:53Speaker 1: one of the leading objects of the culture of young
- 3:52:56Speaker 1: people to lead them to acquire the habit of forming judgments.
- 3:53:00Speaker 1: They should not only be led to see things, but
- 3:53:03Speaker 1: have opinions about things. They should be trained to see
- 3:53:06Speaker 1: things in their relations and to put these relations into
- 3:53:09Speaker 1: definite propositions. Their ideas of objects should be worked up
- 3:53:14Speaker 1: into thoughts concerning the objects. Those methods of teaching are
- 3:53:18Speaker 1: best which tend to excite a thoughtful habit of mind
- 3:53:22Speaker 1: that notices the similitudes and diversities of objects, and endeavors
- 3:53:26Speaker 1: to read the thoughts which they embody and of which
- 3:53:29Speaker 1: they are the symbols. The study of logic, geometry, and
- 3:53:34Speaker 1: the natural sciences is recommended for exercise of the faculty
- 3:53:38Speaker 1: of judgment and the development thereof. The study and practice
- 3:53:42Speaker 1: of even the lower branches of mathematics are also helpful
- 3:53:46Speaker 1: in this direction. The game of checkers or chess is
- 3:53:50Speaker 1: recommended by many authorities. Some have advocated the practice of
- 3:53:54Speaker 1: solving enigmas, problems, ribusses, et cetera. But giving exercise to
- 3:53:59Speaker 1: this fact. Fulty of the mind, the cultivation of the
- 3:54:03Speaker 1: why attitude of mind, and the answering of one's own
- 3:54:06Speaker 1: mental questions is also helpful, if not carried to excess.
- 3:54:11Speaker 1: Doubting Thomas is not always a term of reproach in
- 3:54:14Speaker 1: these days of scientific habits of thought, and the man
- 3:54:17Speaker 1: from Missouri has many warm admirers. Chapter twenty four Primary
- 3:54:24Speaker 1: Laws of Thought. In connection with this subject we hear
- 3:54:29Speaker 1: with call the attention of the student to the well
- 3:54:31Speaker 1: known primary laws of thought, which have been recognized as
- 3:54:34Speaker 1: valid from the time of the ancient Greek logicians. These
- 3:54:39Speaker 1: laws are self evident and are uncontradictible. They are axiomatic.
- 3:54:44Speaker 1: Jevons says of them. Students are seldom able to see
- 3:54:48Speaker 1: at first their full meaning and importance. All arguments may
- 3:54:52Speaker 1: be explained when these self evident laws are granted, and
- 3:54:56Speaker 1: it is not too much to say that the whole
- 3:54:58Speaker 1: of logic will be plain to those who will constantly
- 3:55:01Speaker 1: use these laws as their key. Here are the three
- 3:55:05Speaker 1: primary laws of thought. One law of identity. Whatever is is,
- 3:55:13Speaker 1: Two law of contradiction, nothing can both be and not be.
- 3:55:20Speaker 1: Three law of excluded middle Everything must either be or
- 3:55:25Speaker 1: not be. There is no middle course. One. The first
- 3:55:31Speaker 1: of these laws, called the law of identity, informs us
- 3:55:35Speaker 1: that the thing is always itself, no matter under what
- 3:55:38Speaker 1: a guise or form it is perceived or may present itself.
- 3:55:42Speaker 1: An animal is always a bird if it possesses the
- 3:55:45Speaker 1: general characteristics of a bird, no matter whether it exhibits
- 3:55:49Speaker 1: the maner characteristics of an eagle, a wren, a stalk,
- 3:55:53Speaker 1: or a hummingbird. In the same way, a whale is
- 3:55:56Speaker 1: a mammal because it possesses the general characteristics of a mammal,
- 3:56:00Speaker 1: notwithstanding that it swims in the water like a fish. Also,
- 3:56:05Speaker 1: sweetness is always sweetness, whether manifested in sugar, honey, flowers,
- 3:56:11Speaker 1: or products of coal tar. If a thing is that thing,
- 3:56:15Speaker 1: then it is, and it cannot be logically claimed that
- 3:56:19Speaker 1: it is not two. The second of these laws, called
- 3:56:24Speaker 1: the law of contradiction, informs us that the same quality
- 3:56:28Speaker 1: or class cannot be both affirmed and denied of a
- 3:56:31Speaker 1: thing at the same time and place. A sparrow cannot
- 3:56:35Speaker 1: be said to be both bird and not bird at
- 3:56:38Speaker 1: the same time. Neither can sugar be said to be
- 3:56:41Speaker 1: sweet and not sweet at the same time. A piece
- 3:56:45Speaker 1: of iron may be hot at one end and not
- 3:56:48Speaker 1: hot at another, but it cannot be both hot and
- 3:56:51Speaker 1: not hot at the same place. At the same time. Three.
- 3:56:57Speaker 1: The third of these laws, called the law of excluded middle,
- 3:57:01Speaker 1: informs us that a given quality or class must be
- 3:57:05Speaker 1: affirmed or denied to everything at any given time and place.
- 3:57:10Speaker 1: Everything either must be of a certain class or not,
- 3:57:13Speaker 1: must possess a certain quality or not at a given
- 3:57:17Speaker 1: time or place. There is no alternative or middle course.
- 3:57:22Speaker 1: It is axiomatic that any statement must either be or
- 3:57:25Speaker 1: not be true of any certain other thing at any
- 3:57:29Speaker 1: certain time and place. There is no escape from this.
- 3:57:33Speaker 1: Anything either must be black or not black, a bird
- 3:57:37Speaker 1: or not a bird, alive or not alive at any
- 3:57:41Speaker 1: certain time or place. There is nothing else that it
- 3:57:45Speaker 1: can be. It cannot both be and not be at
- 3:57:48Speaker 1: the same time and place, as we have seen. Therefore,
- 3:57:52Speaker 1: it must either be or not be that which is
- 3:57:55Speaker 1: asserted of it. The judgment must decide which alternative, but
- 3:57:59Speaker 1: it has only two possible choices. But the student must
- 3:58:04Speaker 1: not confuse opposite qualities or things with nottness. A thing
- 3:58:10Speaker 1: may be black or not black, but it need not
- 3:58:12Speaker 1: be white to be not black, For blue is likewise
- 3:58:16Speaker 1: not black, just as it is not white. The neglect
- 3:58:20Speaker 1: of this fact frequently causes error. We must always affirm
- 3:58:23Speaker 1: either the existence or non existence of equality in a thing,
- 3:58:27Speaker 1: but this is far different from affirming or denying the
- 3:58:30Speaker 1: existence of the opposite quality. Thus, a thing may be
- 3:58:34Speaker 1: not hard, and yet it does not follow that it
- 3:58:37Speaker 1: is soft. It may be neither hard nor soft. Fallacious application,
- 3:58:44Speaker 1: there exists what are known as fallacies of application of
- 3:58:47Speaker 1: these primary laws. A fallacy is an unsound argument or conclusion.
- 3:58:53Speaker 1: For instance, because a particular man is found to be
- 3:58:56Speaker 1: a liar, it is fallacious to assume that all men
- 3:58:59Speaker 1: are lies, for lying is a particular quality of the
- 3:59:03Speaker 1: individual man, are not a general quality of the family
- 3:59:06Speaker 1: of men. In the same way, because a stork has
- 3:59:10Speaker 1: long legs and a long bill, it does not follow
- 3:59:13Speaker 1: that all birds must have these characteristics simply because the
- 3:59:16Speaker 1: stalk is a bird. It is fallacious to extend an
- 3:59:20Speaker 1: individual quality to a class, but it is sound judgment
- 3:59:24Speaker 1: to assume that a class quality must be possessed by
- 3:59:27Speaker 1: all individuals in that class. It is a far different
- 3:59:31Speaker 1: proposition which asserts that some birds are black from that
- 3:59:35Speaker 1: which asserts that all birds are black. The same rule,
- 3:59:38Speaker 1: of course, is true regarding negative propositions. Another fallacy is
- 3:59:44Speaker 1: that which assumes that because the affirmative or negative proposition
- 3:59:48Speaker 1: has not been or cannot be proved, it follows that
- 3:59:52Speaker 1: the opposite proposition must be true. The true judgment is
- 3:59:55Speaker 1: simply not proven. Another fallac judgment is that which is
- 4:00:01Speaker 1: based on attributing absolute quality to that which is but
- 4:00:05Speaker 1: relative or comparative. For instance, the terms hot and cold
- 4:00:10Speaker 1: are relative and comparative and simply denote one's relative opinion
- 4:00:14Speaker 1: regarding a fixed and certain degree of temperature. The certain
- 4:00:18Speaker 1: thing is the degree of temperature, say seventy five degrees fahrenheit.
- 4:00:23Speaker 1: Of this we may logically claim that it is or
- 4:00:26Speaker 1: is not true. At a certain time and place. It
- 4:00:30Speaker 1: either is seventy five degrees fahrenheit or it is not.
- 4:00:34Speaker 1: But to one man this may seem warm and to
- 4:00:36Speaker 1: another cold. Both are right in their judgments as far
- 4:00:40Speaker 1: as their own relative feelings are concerned. But neither can
- 4:00:44Speaker 1: claim absolutely that it is warm or cold. Therefore, it
- 4:00:49Speaker 1: is a fallaity to ascribe absolute quality to a relative one.
- 4:00:53Speaker 1: The absolute fact comes under the law of excluded middle,
- 4:00:57Speaker 1: but a personal opinion is not an absolute fact. There
- 4:01:01Speaker 1: are other fallacies which will be considered in other chapters
- 4:01:04Speaker 1: of this book under their appropriate heading end of Chapter
- 4:01:09Speaker 1: twenty four Chapter twenty five Reasoning reasoning the third a
- 4:01:17Speaker 1: great stepic thinking may be said to consist of ascertaining
- 4:01:20Speaker 1: new truths from old ones, new judgments from old ones,
- 4:01:25Speaker 1: unknown facts from known ones. In short, are proceeding logically
- 4:01:30Speaker 1: from the known to the unknown, using the known as
- 4:01:33Speaker 1: a foundation for the unknown, which is sought to be known.
- 4:01:37Speaker 1: Gordy gives us the following excellent definition of the term
- 4:01:42Speaker 1: reasoning is the act of going from the known to
- 4:01:44Speaker 1: the unknown through other beliefs. Are basing judgment upon judgments,
- 4:01:49Speaker 1: reaching beliefs through beliefs. Reasoning then is seen to be
- 4:01:54Speaker 1: a process of building a structure of judgments, one resting
- 4:01:58Speaker 1: upon the other, the topmost point being the final judgment,
- 4:02:02Speaker 1: but the whole constituting an edifice of judgment. This may
- 4:02:06Speaker 1: be seen more clearly when the various forms of reasoning
- 4:02:09Speaker 1: are considered immediate reasoning. The simplest form of reasoning is
- 4:02:16Speaker 1: that known as immediate reasoning, by which is meant reasoning
- 4:02:20Speaker 1: by directly comparing two judgments without the intervention of the
- 4:02:23Speaker 1: third judgment, which is found in the more formal classes
- 4:02:27Speaker 1: of reasoning. This form of reasoning depends largely upon the
- 4:02:31Speaker 1: application of the three primary laws of thought to which
- 4:02:34Speaker 1: we have referred in a previous chapter. It will be
- 4:02:38Speaker 1: seen that if a a thing is always itself, then
- 4:02:42Speaker 1: b all that is included in it must partake of
- 4:02:46Speaker 1: its nature. Thus, the bird family has certain class characteristics. Therefore,
- 4:02:51Speaker 1: by intermediate reasoning, we know that any member of that
- 4:02:55Speaker 1: family must possess those class characteristics, whatever particular character istics
- 4:03:00Speaker 1: it may have. In addition, and we likewise know that
- 4:03:04Speaker 1: we cannot attribute these particular characteristics as a matter of course,
- 4:03:08Speaker 1: to the other members of the class. Thus, though all
- 4:03:12Speaker 1: sparrows are birds, it is not true that all birds
- 4:03:15Speaker 1: are sparrows. All biscuits are bread, but all bread is
- 4:03:20Speaker 1: not biscuit. In the same way, we know that the
- 4:03:24Speaker 1: thing cannot be bird and mammal at the same time,
- 4:03:27Speaker 1: for mammals form a not bird family. And likewise we
- 4:03:32Speaker 1: know that everything must be either bird or not bird.
- 4:03:35Speaker 1: But that being not bird does not mean being a mammal,
- 4:03:39Speaker 1: for there are many other not bird things than mammals.
- 4:03:43Speaker 1: In this form of reasoning, distinction is always made between
- 4:03:46Speaker 1: the universal or general class, which is expressed by the
- 4:03:49Speaker 1: word all, and the particular or individual which is expressed
- 4:03:54Speaker 1: by the word sum. Many persons fail to note this
- 4:03:57Speaker 1: difference in their reasoning, and fallacious reason, for instance, that
- 4:04:02Speaker 1: because some swans are white, all swans must be so,
- 4:04:06Speaker 1: which is a far different thing from reasoning that if
- 4:04:08Speaker 1: all is so and so, then some must be so
- 4:04:12Speaker 1: and so. Those who are interested in this subject are
- 4:04:15Speaker 1: referred to some elementary textbook on logic, as the detailed
- 4:04:19Speaker 1: consideration is too technical for consideration here. Reasoning by analogy.
- 4:04:27Speaker 1: Reasoning by analogy is an elementary form of reasoning and
- 4:04:31Speaker 1: is a particular kind of reasoning employed by the majority
- 4:04:33Speaker 1: of persons in ordinary thought. It is based upon the
- 4:04:37Speaker 1: unconscious recognition by the human mind of the principle, which
- 4:04:41Speaker 1: is expressed by jevons as if two or more things
- 4:04:44Speaker 1: resemble each other in many points, they will probably resemble
- 4:04:48Speaker 1: each other in more points. The same authority says, reasoning
- 4:04:52Speaker 1: by analogy differs only in degree from that type of
- 4:04:55Speaker 1: reasoning called generalization. When many things resemble each each other
- 4:05:00Speaker 1: in a few properties, we argue about them by generalization.
- 4:05:04Speaker 1: When a few things resemble each other in many properties,
- 4:05:08Speaker 1: it is a case of analogy. While this form of
- 4:05:12Speaker 1: reasoning is frequently employed with more or less satisfactory results,
- 4:05:16Speaker 1: it is always open to a large percentage of error. Thus,
- 4:05:20Speaker 1: persons have been poisoned by toadstools by reason of the
- 4:05:23Speaker 1: false analogous reason that because mushrooms are edible, then toadstools
- 4:05:29Speaker 1: which resemble them must be also fit for food. Or
- 4:05:33Speaker 1: in the same way, because certain berries resemble other edible berries,
- 4:05:37Speaker 1: they must likewise be good food. As Brooks says, to
- 4:05:42Speaker 1: infer that because John Smith has a red nose and
- 4:05:45Speaker 1: is also a drunkard, that Henry Jones, who also has
- 4:05:49Speaker 1: a red nose, is also a drunkard, would be dangerous inference.
- 4:05:54Speaker 1: Conclusions of this kind drawn from analogy are frequently dangerous.
- 4:06:00Speaker 1: Many false analogies are manufactured, and it is excellent thought
- 4:06:04Speaker 1: training to expose them. The majority of people think so
- 4:06:07Speaker 1: little that they swallow these false analogies, just as new
- 4:06:11Speaker 1: fledged robins swallows small stones dropped into their Mouths. Jevons,
- 4:06:17Speaker 1: one of the best authorities on the subject, says, there
- 4:06:21Speaker 1: is no way in which we can really assure ourselves
- 4:06:23Speaker 1: that we are arguing safely by analogy. The only rule
- 4:06:27Speaker 1: that can be given is this that the more closely
- 4:06:30Speaker 1: two things resemble each other, the more likely it is
- 4:06:34Speaker 1: that they are the same in other respects, especially in
- 4:06:37Speaker 1: points closely connected with those observed. In order to be
- 4:06:41Speaker 1: clear about our conclusions, we ought, in fact, never to
- 4:06:45Speaker 1: rest satisfied with mere analogy, but ought to try to
- 4:06:48Speaker 1: discover the general laws governing the case. We find that
- 4:06:53Speaker 1: reasoning by analogy is not to be depended upon unless
- 4:06:56Speaker 1: we make such an inquiry into the causes and laws
- 4:06:59Speaker 1: of the things in question that we really employ inductive
- 4:07:03Speaker 1: and deductive reasoning higher forms of reasoning. The two higher
- 4:07:11Speaker 1: forms of reasoning are known, respectively as one inductive reasoning,
- 4:07:16Speaker 1: or inference from particular facts to general laws, and two
- 4:07:22Speaker 1: deductive reasoning, or inference from general truths to particular truths.
- 4:07:27Speaker 1: While the class distinction is made for the purpose of
- 4:07:29Speaker 1: clear consideration, it must not be forgotten that the two
- 4:07:33Speaker 1: forms of reasoning are generally found in combination. Thus, in
- 4:07:38Speaker 1: inductive reasoning, many steps are taken by the aid of
- 4:07:42Speaker 1: deductive reasoning, And likewise, before we can reason deductively from
- 4:07:47Speaker 1: general truths to particular ones, we must have discovered the
- 4:07:50Speaker 1: general truths by inductive reasoning from particular facts. Thus there
- 4:07:55Speaker 1: is a unity in all reasoning processes, as there is
- 4:07:59Speaker 1: in all mental oper operations. Inductive reasoning is a synthetical process,
- 4:08:04Speaker 1: deductive reasoning an analytical one. In the first, we combine
- 4:08:09Speaker 1: and build up. In the latter we dissect and separate.
- 4:08:14Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty five, Chapter twenty six Inductive reasoning.
- 4:08:23Speaker 1: Inductive reasoning is based upon the axiom what is true
- 4:08:26Speaker 1: of the many is true of the whole. This axiom
- 4:08:30Speaker 1: is based upon man's belief in the uniformity of nature.
- 4:08:34Speaker 1: Inductive reasoning is a mental ladder by which we climb
- 4:08:37Speaker 1: from particular facts to general laws, but the latter rests
- 4:08:41Speaker 1: upon the belief that the universe is governed by law.
- 4:08:46Speaker 1: The steps in inductive reasoning are as follows one observation, investigation,
- 4:08:53Speaker 1: and examination of particular facts or things. If we wish
- 4:08:57Speaker 1: to know the general characteristics of the bird family, we
- 4:09:00Speaker 1: must first examine a sufficient number of birds of many kinds,
- 4:09:04Speaker 1: so as to discover the comparatively few general characteristics possessed
- 4:09:09Speaker 1: by all of the bird family, as distinct from a
- 4:09:12Speaker 1: particular characteristics possessed by only some of that family. The
- 4:09:17Speaker 1: greater the number of individuals examined, the narrower becomes our
- 4:09:20Speaker 1: list of the general qualities common to all. In the
- 4:09:24Speaker 1: same way, we must examine many kinds of flowers before
- 4:09:27Speaker 1: we come to the few general qualities common to all flowers,
- 4:09:31Speaker 1: which we combine in the general concept of flower. The same,
- 4:09:36Speaker 1: of course, is true regarding the discovery of general laws
- 4:09:39Speaker 1: from particular facts. We examine the facts and then work
- 4:09:43Speaker 1: toward a general law which will explain them. For instance,
- 4:09:47Speaker 1: the law of gravitation was discovered by the observation and
- 4:09:51Speaker 1: investigation of the fact that all objects are attracted to
- 4:09:54Speaker 1: the earth. Further investigation revealed the fact that all material
- 4:09:58Speaker 1: objects are attracted to each other. Then the general law
- 4:10:02Speaker 1: was discovered, or rather, the hypothesis was advanced, was found
- 4:10:07Speaker 1: to explain the facts, was verified by further experiments and
- 4:10:11Speaker 1: observation two. The second step in inductive reasoning is the
- 4:10:18Speaker 1: making of an hypothesis. And hypothesis is a proposition or
- 4:10:22Speaker 1: principle assumed as a possible explanation for a set or
- 4:10:26Speaker 1: class of facts. It is regarded as a working theory
- 4:10:30Speaker 1: which must be examined and tested in connection with the
- 4:10:33Speaker 1: facts before it is finally accepted. For instance, after the
- 4:10:38Speaker 1: observation that a number of magnets attracted steel, he was
- 4:10:42Speaker 1: found reasonable to advance the hypothesis that all magnets attract steel.
- 4:10:47Speaker 1: In the same way was advanced the hypothesis that all
- 4:10:50Speaker 1: birds are warm blooded, winged, feathered, oviparous vertebrates. Subsequent observation
- 4:10:57Speaker 1: an experiment established the hypothesis regards arding the magnet and
- 4:11:01Speaker 1: regarding the general qualities of the bird family. If a
- 4:11:05Speaker 1: single magnet had been found which did not attract steel,
- 4:11:08Speaker 1: then the hypothesis would have fallen. If a single bird
- 4:11:12Speaker 1: had been discovered which was not warm blooded, then that
- 4:11:15Speaker 1: quality would have been stricken from the list of the
- 4:11:18Speaker 1: necessary characteristics of all birds. A theory is merely an
- 4:11:23Speaker 1: hypothesis which has been verified or established by continued and
- 4:11:28Speaker 1: repeated observation, investigation, and experiment. Hypotheses and theories arise very
- 4:11:36Speaker 1: generally from a subconscious simulation of a number of particular
- 4:11:40Speaker 1: facts and the conscious flashing of a great guess or
- 4:11:44Speaker 1: a sacred suspicion of the truth into the conscious field
- 4:11:47Speaker 1: of attention. The scientific imagination plays an important part in
- 4:11:51Speaker 1: this process. There is, of course, a world of difference
- 4:11:55Speaker 1: between a blind guess based upon insufficient data and a
- 4:12:00Speaker 1: scientific guess resulting from the accumulation of a vast store
- 4:12:04Speaker 1: of careful and accurate information. As Brooks says, the forming
- 4:12:09Speaker 1: of an hypothesis requires a suggestive mind, a lively fancy,
- 4:12:14Speaker 1: a philosophic imagination that catches a glimpse of the idea
- 4:12:18Speaker 1: through the form, or sees the law standing behind the fact.
- 4:12:22Speaker 1: But accepted theories in a majority of cases arise only
- 4:12:27Speaker 1: by testing out and rejecting many promising hypotheses and finally
- 4:12:31Speaker 1: setting upon the one which best answers all the requirements
- 4:12:35Speaker 1: and best explains the facts. As an authority says, to
- 4:12:39Speaker 1: try wrong guesses is with most persons the only way
- 4:12:43Speaker 1: to hit upon right ones. Three. Testing the hypothesis by
- 4:12:49Speaker 1: deductive reasoning is the third step in inductive reasoning. This
- 4:12:53Speaker 1: test is made by applying a hypothetical principle to particular
- 4:12:57Speaker 1: facts or things. That is, to follow out mentally the
- 4:13:02Speaker 1: hypothetical principle to its logical conclusion. This may be done
- 4:13:07Speaker 1: in this way. If so and so is correct, then
- 4:13:10Speaker 1: it follows that thus and so is true, et cetera.
- 4:13:14Speaker 1: If the conclusion agrees with reason, then the test is
- 4:13:17Speaker 1: deemed satisfactory so far as it has gone, But for
- 4:13:21Speaker 1: the result proves to be logical, absurdity, or inconsistent with
- 4:13:25Speaker 1: natural facts, then the hypothesis is discredited. Four. Practical verification
- 4:13:32Speaker 1: of the hypothesis is the fourth step in inductive reasoning.
- 4:13:36Speaker 1: This step consists of the actual comparison of observed facts
- 4:13:40Speaker 1: with the logical conclusions arising from applying deductive reasoning to
- 4:13:45Speaker 1: the general principle assumed as a premise. The greater number
- 4:13:49Speaker 1: of facts agreeing with the conclusions arising from the premise
- 4:13:52Speaker 1: of the hypothesis. The greater is deemed the probability of
- 4:13:56Speaker 1: the latter. The authorities generally assume and hyph apothesis to
- 4:14:00Speaker 1: be verified when it accounts for all the facts which
- 4:14:04Speaker 1: properly are related to it. Some extremists contend, however, that
- 4:14:08Speaker 1: before an hypothesis may be considered as absolutely verified, it
- 4:14:13Speaker 1: must not only account for all the associated facts, but
- 4:14:16Speaker 1: that also there must be no other possible hypothesis to
- 4:14:21Speaker 1: account for the same facts. The facts referred to in
- 4:14:25Speaker 1: this connection may be either one observed phenomena or two
- 4:14:31Speaker 1: the conclusions deductive reasoning arising from the assumption of the hypothesis,
- 4:14:36Speaker 1: or three the agreement between the observed facts and the
- 4:14:40Speaker 1: logical conclusions. The last combination is generally regarded as the
- 4:14:44Speaker 1: most logical. The verification of an hypothesis must be an
- 4:14:49Speaker 1: all around one, and there must be an agreement between
- 4:14:52Speaker 1: the observed facts and the logical conclusions. In the case,
- 4:14:56Speaker 1: the hypothesis must fit the facts, and a fact must
- 4:15:00Speaker 1: fit the hypothesis. The facts are the glass slipper of
- 4:15:04Speaker 1: the Cinderella legend, the several sisters of Cinderella were discarded hypotheses,
- 4:15:09Speaker 1: the slipper and the sisters not fitting. When Cinderella's foot
- 4:15:13Speaker 1: was found to be the one foot upon which the
- 4:15:16Speaker 1: glass slipper fitted, then the Cinderella hypothesis was considered to
- 4:15:20Speaker 1: have been proved. The glass slipper was hers, and the
- 4:15:23Speaker 1: prince claimed his bride. Chapter twenty seven, Deductive reasoning. We
- 4:15:30Speaker 1: have seen in the preceding chapter that from particular facts
- 4:15:34Speaker 1: we reason inductively to general principles or truths. We have
- 4:15:39Speaker 1: also seen that one of the steps of inductive reasoning
- 4:15:42Speaker 1: is the testing of the hypothesis by deductive reasoning. We
- 4:15:47Speaker 1: shall now also see that the results of inductive reasoning
- 4:15:51Speaker 1: are used as premises or bases for deductive reasoning. These
- 4:15:56Speaker 1: two forms of reasoning These two forms of reasoning are
- 4:16:00Speaker 1: opposites and yet complementary to each other. They are in
- 4:16:04Speaker 1: a sense independent and yet are interdependent. Brooks says the
- 4:16:10Speaker 1: two methods of reasoning are the reverse of each other.
- 4:16:13Speaker 1: One goes from particulars to generals, the other from generals
- 4:16:18Speaker 1: to particulars. One is a process of analysis, the other
- 4:16:23Speaker 1: is a process of synthesis. One rises from facts to laws,
- 4:16:28Speaker 1: the other descends from laws to facts. Each is independent
- 4:16:33Speaker 1: of the other, and each is a valid and essential
- 4:16:35Speaker 1: method of inference. Halleck Well expresses the spirit of deductive
- 4:16:41Speaker 1: reasoning as follows. After induction is classified certain phenomena and
- 4:16:46Speaker 1: thus given us a major premise, we may proceed deductively
- 4:16:51Speaker 1: to apply the inference to any new specimen that can
- 4:16:54Speaker 1: be shown to belong to that class. Induction hands over
- 4:16:58Speaker 1: to deduction are ready mans premise. Deduction takes that as
- 4:17:03Speaker 1: a fact, making no inquiry regarding its truth. Only after
- 4:17:08Speaker 1: general laws have been laid down, after objects have been classified,
- 4:17:12Speaker 1: after major premisses have been formed, can deduction be employed.
- 4:17:18Speaker 1: Deductive reasoning proceeds from general principles to particular facts. It
- 4:17:23Speaker 1: is a descending process, analytical in its nature. It rests
- 4:17:28Speaker 1: upon the fundamental axiomatic basis that whatever is true of
- 4:17:32Speaker 1: the whole is true of its parts, or whatever is
- 4:17:36Speaker 1: true of the universal is true of the particulars. The
- 4:17:41Speaker 1: process of deductive reasoning may be stated briefly as follows. One,
- 4:17:47Speaker 1: a general principle of a class is stated as a
- 4:17:50Speaker 1: major premise. Two, A particular thing is stated as belonging
- 4:17:55Speaker 1: to that general class, this statement being the minor premiss. Therefore, three,
- 4:18:02Speaker 1: the general class principle is held to apply to the
- 4:18:04Speaker 1: particular thing, this last statement being the conclusion. A premiss
- 4:18:10Speaker 1: is a proposition assumed to be true. The following gives
- 4:18:15Speaker 1: us an illustration of the above process. One major premiss
- 4:18:20Speaker 1: A bird is a warm blooded, feathered, winged O viparous vertebrate.
- 4:18:25Speaker 1: Two minor premis the sparrow is a bird. Therefore three conclusion,
- 4:18:33Speaker 1: the sparrow is a warm blooded, feathered, winged of viperous vertebrate.
- 4:18:38Speaker 1: Or again, one major premiss. Rattlesnakes frequently bite when enraged,
- 4:18:44Speaker 1: and their bite is poisonous. Two minor premis, this snake
- 4:18:50Speaker 1: before me is a rattlesnake. Therefore three conclusion, this snake
- 4:18:56Speaker 1: before me may bite when enraged, and its light will
- 4:19:00Speaker 1: be poisonous. The average person may be inclined to object
- 4:19:05Speaker 1: that he is not conscious of going through this complicated
- 4:19:08Speaker 1: process when he reasons about sparrows or rattlesnakes, but he does. Nevertheless,
- 4:19:14Speaker 1: he is not conscious of the steps because mental habit
- 4:19:17Speaker 1: has accustomed him to the process, and it is performed
- 4:19:21Speaker 1: more or less automatically. But these three steps manifest in
- 4:19:25Speaker 1: all processes of deductive reasoning, even the simplest. The average
- 4:19:30Speaker 1: person is like the character in the French play who
- 4:19:33Speaker 1: was surprised to learn that he had been talking prose
- 4:19:36Speaker 1: for forty years without knowing it. Jevons says that the
- 4:19:41Speaker 1: majority of persons are equally surprised when they find out
- 4:19:44Speaker 1: that they have been using logical forms more or less correctly,
- 4:19:49Speaker 1: without having realized it. He says, a large number, even
- 4:19:53Speaker 1: of educated persons, have no clear idea of what logic is.
- 4:19:59Speaker 1: Yet in way, everyone must have been a logician since
- 4:20:03Speaker 1: he began to speak. There are many technical rules and
- 4:20:07Speaker 1: principles of logic which we cannot attempt to consider here.
- 4:20:11Speaker 1: There are, however, a few elementary principles of correct reasoning
- 4:20:16Speaker 1: which should have a place here. What is known as
- 4:20:19Speaker 1: a syllogism, is the expression in words of the various
- 4:20:23Speaker 1: parts of the complete process of reasoning or argument. Weightly
- 4:20:27Speaker 1: defines it as follows. A syllogism is an argument expressed
- 4:20:32Speaker 1: in strict logical form, so that its conclusiveness is manifest
- 4:20:36Speaker 1: from the structure of the expression alone, without any regard
- 4:20:40Speaker 1: to the meaning of the term. In short, if the
- 4:20:43Speaker 1: two premisses are accepted as correct, it follows that there
- 4:20:47Speaker 1: can be only one true logical conclusion resulting therefrom. In
- 4:20:52Speaker 1: abstract or theoretical reasoning, the word if is assumed to
- 4:20:57Speaker 1: precede each of the two premisses. The therefore before the
- 4:21:01Speaker 1: conclusion resulting from the if. Of course, the following are
- 4:21:07Speaker 1: the general rules governing the syllogism. One. Every syllogism must
- 4:21:12Speaker 1: consist of three and no more than three propositions, namely,
- 4:21:17Speaker 1: one the major premiss, two the minor premiss, and three
- 4:21:23Speaker 1: the conclusion. Two. The conclusion must naturally follow from the premisses.
- 4:21:29Speaker 1: Otherwise the syllogism is invalid and constitutes a fallacy or sophism. Three.
- 4:21:36Speaker 1: One premiss at least must be affirmative. Four. If one
- 4:21:42Speaker 1: premiss is negative, the conclusion must be negative. Five, One
- 4:21:48Speaker 1: premiss at least must be universal or general. Six. If
- 4:21:53Speaker 1: one premiss is particular, the conclusion also must be particular.
- 4:21:59Speaker 1: The last two rules five and six contain essential principles
- 4:22:04Speaker 1: of all the rules regarding syllogisms, and any syllogism which
- 4:22:08Speaker 1: breaks them will be found also to break other rules,
- 4:22:12Speaker 1: some of which are not stated here for the reason
- 4:22:15Speaker 1: that they are too technical. These two rules may be
- 4:22:18Speaker 1: tested by constructing syllogisms in violation of their principles. The
- 4:22:23Speaker 1: reason for them is as follows Rule five, because from
- 4:22:28Speaker 1: two particular premises no conclusion can be drawn. As for instance, one,
- 4:22:35Speaker 1: some men are mortal. Two John is a man. We
- 4:22:39Speaker 1: cannot reason from this either that John is or is
- 4:22:43Speaker 1: not mortal. The major premise should read all men. Rule
- 4:22:47Speaker 1: six because a universal conclusion can be drawn only from
- 4:22:52Speaker 1: two universal premises, an example being needless here as a
- 4:22:56Speaker 1: conclusion is so obvious cultivation of reasoning faculties. There is
- 4:23:03Speaker 1: no royal road to the cultivation of the reasoning faculties.
- 4:23:07Speaker 1: There is but the old familiar rule practice exercise use. Nevertheless,
- 4:23:14Speaker 1: there are certain studies which tend to develop the faculties
- 4:23:17Speaker 1: in question. The study of arithmetic, especially mental arithmetic, tends
- 4:23:23Speaker 1: to develop correct habits of reasoning from one truth to another,
- 4:23:27Speaker 1: from cause to effect. Better still is the study of geometry,
- 4:23:33Speaker 1: and best of all, of course, is the study of
- 4:23:35Speaker 1: logic and the practice of working out its problems and examples.
- 4:23:39Speaker 1: The study of philosophy and psychology also is useful in
- 4:23:43Speaker 1: this way. Many lawyers and teachers have drilled themselves in
- 4:23:47Speaker 1: geometry solely for the purpose of developing their logical reasoning powers.
- 4:23:53Speaker 1: Brooks says, so valuable is geometry as a discipline that
- 4:23:57Speaker 1: many lawyers and others review their geometry every year in
- 4:24:01Speaker 1: order to keep the mind drilled to logical habits of thinking.
- 4:24:05Speaker 1: The study of logic will aid in the development of
- 4:24:07Speaker 1: the power of deductive reasoning. It does this first by
- 4:24:12Speaker 1: showing the method by which we reason, to know how
- 4:24:15Speaker 1: we reason, to see the laws which govern the reasoning process.
- 4:24:20Speaker 1: To analyze the syllogism and see its conformity to the
- 4:24:23Speaker 1: laws of thought is not only an exercise of reasoning,
- 4:24:27Speaker 1: but gives that knowledge of the process that will be
- 4:24:29Speaker 1: both a stimulus and a guide to thought. No one
- 4:24:33Speaker 1: can trace the principles and processes of thought without receiving
- 4:24:37Speaker 1: thereby an impetus to thought. In the second place, the
- 4:24:42Speaker 1: study of logic is probably even more valuable because it
- 4:24:45Speaker 1: gives practice in deductive thinking. This perhaps is its principal value.
- 4:24:51Speaker 1: Since the mind reasons instinctively without knowing how it reasons.
- 4:24:56Speaker 1: One can think without the knowledge of the science of thinking,
- 4:25:00Speaker 1: as one can use language correctly without a knowledge of grammar. Yet,
- 4:25:04Speaker 1: as the study of grammar improves one's speech, so the
- 4:25:07Speaker 1: study of logic can but improve one's thought. In the
- 4:25:12Speaker 1: opinion of the writer hereof one of the best those
- 4:25:16Speaker 1: simple methods of cultivating the faculties of reasoning is to
- 4:25:19Speaker 1: acquaint oneself thoroughly with the more common fallacies or forms
- 4:25:24Speaker 1: of false reasoning, so thoroughly that not only is the
- 4:25:27Speaker 1: false reasoning detected at once, but also the reason of
- 4:25:31Speaker 1: its falsity is readily understood. To understand the wrong ways
- 4:25:36Speaker 1: of reasoning is to be on guard against them. By
- 4:25:40Speaker 1: guarding against them, we tend to eliminate them from our
- 4:25:43Speaker 1: thought processes. If we eliminate the false, we have the
- 4:25:47Speaker 1: true left in its place. Therefore, we recommend the weeding
- 4:25:51Speaker 1: of the logical garden of the common fallacies to the end,
- 4:25:55Speaker 1: that the flowers of pure reason may flourish in their stead. Accordingly,
- 4:26:01Speaker 1: we think it well to call to your attention in
- 4:26:03Speaker 1: the next chapter to the more common fallacies and the
- 4:26:07Speaker 1: reason of their falsity. End of Chapter twenty seven, Chapter
- 4:26:13Speaker 1: twenty eight. Fallacious reasoning. A fallacy is defined as an
- 4:26:20Speaker 1: unsound argument or mode of arguing, which, while appearing to
- 4:26:24Speaker 1: be decisive of a question, is in reality not so,
- 4:26:28Speaker 1: or a fallacious statement or proposition in which the error
- 4:26:32Speaker 1: is not readily apparent. When a fallacy is used to
- 4:26:35Speaker 1: deceive others, it is called sophistry. It is important that
- 4:26:40Speaker 1: the student should understand the nature of the fallacy and
- 4:26:43Speaker 1: understand its most common forms. As Jevons says, in learning
- 4:26:48Speaker 1: how to do right, it is always desirable to be
- 4:26:51Speaker 1: informed as to the ways in which we are likely
- 4:26:54Speaker 1: to go wrong. In describing to a man the road
- 4:26:57Speaker 1: which he should follow, we ought to tell tim not
- 4:27:00Speaker 1: only the turnings which he is to take, but also
- 4:27:03Speaker 1: the turnings which he is to avoid. Similarly, it is
- 4:27:08Speaker 1: a useful part of logic which teaches us the ways
- 4:27:11Speaker 1: and turnings by which people most commonly go astray in reasoning.
- 4:27:16Speaker 1: In presenting the following brief statement. Regarding the more common
- 4:27:20Speaker 1: forms of fallacy, we omit so far as possible the
- 4:27:23Speaker 1: technical details which belong to text books on logic fallacies.
- 4:27:31Speaker 1: One true collective, but false particular. An example of this
- 4:27:35Speaker 1: fallacy is found in the argument that because the French
- 4:27:39Speaker 1: race collectively are excitable, therefore a particular Frenchman must be excitable,
- 4:27:45Speaker 1: or that because the Jewish race collectively are good business people,
- 4:27:50Speaker 1: therefore the particular jew must be a good business man.
- 4:27:54Speaker 1: This is as fallacious as arguing that because a man
- 4:27:57Speaker 1: may drown in the ocean, he should avoid the bath,
- 4:28:00Speaker 1: basin or cup of water. There is a vast difference
- 4:28:04Speaker 1: between the whole of a thing and its separate parts.
- 4:28:07Speaker 1: Nitric acid and glycerine separately are not explosive, but combined
- 4:28:13Speaker 1: they form nitroglycerin, a most dangerous and powerful explosive. Reversing
- 4:28:19Speaker 1: this form of illustration, we remind you of the old
- 4:28:22Speaker 1: saying salt is a good thing, but one doesn't want
- 4:28:26Speaker 1: to be put in pickle two irrelevant conclusion. This fallacy
- 4:28:32Speaker 1: consists in introducing in the conclusion matter not contained in
- 4:28:36Speaker 1: the premisses, or in the confusing of the issue. For instance,
- 4:28:42Speaker 1: one all men are sinful. Two John Smith is a man. Therefore,
- 4:28:49Speaker 1: three John Smith is a horse thief. This may sound absurd,
- 4:28:54Speaker 1: but many arguments are as fallacious as this, and for
- 4:28:57Speaker 1: the same reason or another and more subtile form. One,
- 4:29:02Speaker 1: all thieves are liars. Two John Smith is a liar,
- 4:29:07Speaker 1: Therefore three John Smith is a thief. The first example
- 4:29:12Speaker 1: arises from the introduction of new matter, and the last
- 4:29:15Speaker 1: from the confusion of the issue three false cause. This
- 4:29:22Speaker 1: fallacy consists in attributing cause to a thing which is
- 4:29:25Speaker 1: merely coincident with or precedent to the effect. For instance, one,
- 4:29:32Speaker 1: the cock crows just before or at the moment of sunrise.
- 4:29:36Speaker 1: Therefore two the cock crowing is the cause of the sunrise.
- 4:29:40Speaker 1: Or again one, bad crops follow the election of a
- 4:29:44Speaker 1: Whig president. Therefore two the Whig party is the cause
- 4:29:49Speaker 1: of the bad crops. Or again one. Where civilization is
- 4:29:54Speaker 1: the highest, there we find the greatest number of high hats. Therefore,
- 4:30:00Speaker 1: two high hats are the cause of civilization. Four. Circular reasoning.
- 4:30:07Speaker 1: In this form of fallacy, the person reasoning or arguing
- 4:30:11Speaker 1: endeavors to explain or prove a thing by itself or
- 4:30:15Speaker 1: its own terms. For instance, one, the Whig party is
- 4:30:20Speaker 1: honest because it advocates honest principles. Two, The Whig principles
- 4:30:25Speaker 1: are honest because they are advocated by an honest party.
- 4:30:29Speaker 1: A common form of this fallacy in its phase of sophistry,
- 4:30:33Speaker 1: is the use of synonyms in such a manner that
- 4:30:35Speaker 1: they seem to express more than the original conception, whereas
- 4:30:39Speaker 1: they are really but other terms for the same thing.
- 4:30:43Speaker 1: An historical example of circular reasoning is the following One
- 4:30:47Speaker 1: the Church of England is the true church because it
- 4:30:50Speaker 1: was established by God. Two it must have been established
- 4:30:54Speaker 1: by God because it is the true Church. This form
- 4:30:58Speaker 1: of sophistry is most effect of when employed in long
- 4:31:01Speaker 1: arguments in which it is difficult to detect it five
- 4:31:07Speaker 1: begging the question. This fallacy arises from the use of
- 4:31:10Speaker 1: a false premiss, or at least of a premise the
- 4:31:14Speaker 1: truth of which is not admitted by the opponent. It
- 4:31:17Speaker 1: may be stated simply as the unwarranted assumption of a
- 4:31:20Speaker 1: premiss generally the major premise. Many persons in public life
- 4:31:26Speaker 1: argue in this way. They boldly assert an unwarranted premiss
- 4:31:30Speaker 1: and then proceed to argue logically from it. The result
- 4:31:33Speaker 1: is confusing to the average person. For the steps of
- 4:31:37Speaker 1: reasoning being logical, it seems as if the argument is sound,
- 4:31:41Speaker 1: the fact of the unwarranted premiss being overlooked. The person
- 4:31:46Speaker 1: using this form of sophistry proceeds on Aaron Burr's theory
- 4:31:49Speaker 1: of truth being that which is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained.
- 4:31:56Speaker 1: Bulwin makes one of his characters mention a particularly atroci
- 4:32:00Speaker 1: form of this fallacy, although an amusing one, in the
- 4:32:03Speaker 1: following words, whenever you are about to utter something astonishingly false,
- 4:32:09Speaker 1: always begin with it is an acknowledged fact, et cetera.
- 4:32:14Speaker 1: Sir Robert Filmer was a master of this manner of writing. Thus,
- 4:32:18Speaker 1: with what a solemn face that great man attempted to cheat.
- 4:32:22Speaker 1: He would say, it is a truth undeniable that there
- 4:32:25Speaker 1: cannot be any multitude of men whatsoever, either great or small,
- 4:32:30Speaker 1: et cetera. But in that same multitude there is one
- 4:32:34Speaker 1: man among them, that, in nature hath a right to
- 4:32:36Speaker 1: be king of all the rest, as being the next
- 4:32:39Speaker 1: heir of Adam. Look carefully for the major premise of
- 4:32:43Speaker 1: propositions advanced in argument, spoken or written. Be sure that
- 4:32:48Speaker 1: the person making the proposition is not begging the question
- 4:32:52Speaker 1: by the unwarranted assumption of the premise. General rule of inference,
- 4:33:00Speaker 1: Hislop says, concerning valid inferences and fallacious ones, we cannot
- 4:33:05Speaker 1: infer anything we please from any premisses we please. We
- 4:33:10Speaker 1: must conform to certain definite rules or principles. Any violation
- 4:33:15Speaker 1: of them will be a fallacy. There are two simple
- 4:33:18Speaker 1: rules which should not be violated. One, the subject matter
- 4:33:23Speaker 1: in the conclusion should be of the same general kind
- 4:33:26Speaker 1: as in the premisses. Two, the facts constituting the premisses
- 4:33:31Speaker 1: must be accepted and must not be fictitious. A close
- 4:33:36Speaker 1: observance of these rules will result in the detection and
- 4:33:39Speaker 1: avoidance of the principal forms of fallacious reasoning and sophistry
- 4:33:45Speaker 1: sophistical arguments. There are a number of tricky practices resorted
- 4:33:50Speaker 1: to by persons in argument that are fallacious in intent
- 4:33:54Speaker 1: and result, which we do not consider here in detail,
- 4:33:58Speaker 1: as they scarcely belong to the particular subject of this book.
- 4:34:02Speaker 1: A brief mention, however, may be permitted in the interest
- 4:34:05Speaker 1: of general information. Here are the principal ones. One arguing
- 4:34:11Speaker 1: that a proposition is correct because the opponent cannot prove
- 4:34:14Speaker 1: the contrary. The fallacy is seen when we realize that
- 4:34:18Speaker 1: the statement the moon is made of green cheese is
- 4:34:21Speaker 1: not proved because we cannot prove the contrary. No amount
- 4:34:25Speaker 1: of failure to disprove a proposition really proves it, and
- 4:34:29Speaker 1: no amount of failure to prove a proposition really disproves it.
- 4:34:33Speaker 1: As a general rule, the burden of proof rests upon
- 4:34:36Speaker 1: the person stating the proposition, and his opponent is not
- 4:34:40Speaker 1: called upon to disprove it or else have it considered proved.
- 4:34:45Speaker 1: The old cry of you cannot prove that it is
- 4:34:48Speaker 1: not so is based upon a fallacious conception. Two. Abuse
- 4:34:54Speaker 1: of the opponent, his party, or his cause. This is
- 4:34:58Speaker 1: no real argument or reasoning. It is akin to proving
- 4:35:01Speaker 1: a point by beating the opponent over the head. Three.
- 4:35:07Speaker 1: Arguing that an opponent does not live up to his
- 4:35:09Speaker 1: principles is now argument against the principles he advocates. A
- 4:35:14Speaker 1: man may advocate the principle of temperance and yet drink
- 4:35:17Speaker 1: to excess. This simply proves that he preaches better than
- 4:35:21Speaker 1: he practices. But the truth of the principle of temperance
- 4:35:24Speaker 1: is not affected in any way. Thereby, the proof of
- 4:35:28Speaker 1: this is that he may change his practices and it
- 4:35:31Speaker 1: cannot be held that the change of his personal habits
- 4:35:34Speaker 1: improves or changes the nature of the principle. Four. Argument
- 4:35:39Speaker 1: of authority is not based on logic. Authority is valuable
- 4:35:44Speaker 1: when really worthy, and merely as corroboration or adding weight,
- 4:35:48Speaker 1: but it is not logical argument. The reasons of the
- 4:35:52Speaker 1: authority alone constitute a real argument. The abuse of this
- 4:35:56Speaker 1: form of argument is shown in the above reference to
- 4:35:59Speaker 1: begging the question in a quotation from Bulwa. Five. Appeal
- 4:36:05Speaker 1: to prejudice or public opinion is not a valid argument,
- 4:36:09Speaker 1: for public opinion is frequently wrong, and prejudice is often unwarranted,
- 4:36:15Speaker 1: and at the best, they have nothing to do with
- 4:36:18Speaker 1: the case from the standpoint of logic. The abuse of
- 4:36:22Speaker 1: testimony and claimed evidence is also worthy of examination, but
- 4:36:27Speaker 1: we cannot go into the subject here. Fallacies of prejudice,
- 4:36:33Speaker 1: but perhaps the most dangerous of all fallacies in the
- 4:36:36Speaker 1: search for truth on the part of the most of
- 4:36:38Speaker 1: us are those which arise from the following one. The
- 4:36:43Speaker 1: tendency to reason from what we feel and wish to
- 4:36:46Speaker 1: be true rather than from the actual facts of the case,
- 4:36:50Speaker 1: which causes us unconsciously to assume the mental attitude of
- 4:36:55Speaker 1: if the facts agree with our likes and pet theories,
- 4:36:58Speaker 1: all is well. If they do not, so much the
- 4:37:01Speaker 1: worse for the facts. Two. The tendency in all of
- 4:37:06Speaker 1: us to perceive only the facts that agree with our theories,
- 4:37:10Speaker 1: and to ignore the others. We find that for which
- 4:37:13Speaker 1: we seek and overlook that which does not interest us.
- 4:37:18Speaker 1: Our discoveries follow our interest and our interests follows our
- 4:37:21Speaker 1: desires and beliefs. The intelligent man or woman realizes these
- 4:37:27Speaker 1: tendencies of human nature and endeavors to avoid them in
- 4:37:30Speaker 1: his or her own reasoning, but is keenly conscious of
- 4:37:34Speaker 1: them in the arguments and reasoning of others. A failure
- 4:37:38Speaker 1: to observe and guard one's self against these tendencies results
- 4:37:42Speaker 1: in bigotry, intolerance, narrowness, and intellectual astigmatism. Chapter twenty nine.
- 4:37:50Speaker 1: The will. The activities of the will comprise the third
- 4:37:55Speaker 1: great class of mental processes. Psychologists always have differed greatly
- 4:38:01Speaker 1: in their conception of just what constitutes these activities. Even today,
- 4:38:06Speaker 1: it is difficult to obtain a dictionary definition of the
- 4:38:09Speaker 1: will that agrees with the best opinion on the subject.
- 4:38:13Speaker 1: The dictionaries adhere to the old classification and conception which
- 4:38:17Speaker 1: regarded the will as that faculty of the mind or
- 4:38:21Speaker 1: soul by which it chooses or decides. But with the
- 4:38:25Speaker 1: growth of the idea that the will acts according to
- 4:38:28Speaker 1: the strongest motive, and that the motive is supplied by
- 4:38:31Speaker 1: the average struck between the desires of the moment under
- 4:38:35Speaker 1: the supervision of the intellect, the conception of will as
- 4:38:39Speaker 1: the choosing and deciding faculty is passing from favor. In
- 4:38:44Speaker 1: place of the older conception has come the newer one,
- 4:38:47Speaker 1: which holds that the will is primarily concerned with action.
- 4:38:53Speaker 1: It is difficult to place the will in a category
- 4:38:56Speaker 1: of mental processes, but it is generally agreed that it
- 4:39:00Speaker 1: abides in the very center of the mental being and
- 4:39:03Speaker 1: is closely associated with what is called the ego or self.
- 4:39:09Speaker 1: The will seems to have at least three general phases.
- 4:39:12Speaker 1: Those are one the phase of action, two the phase
- 4:39:17Speaker 1: of deliberation or choice, and three the phase of expression
- 4:39:23Speaker 1: in action. In order to understand the will, it is
- 4:39:27Speaker 1: necessary to consider each of these three phases of its activities.
- 4:39:33Speaker 1: One desire. The first phase of will, which is called desire,
- 4:39:39Speaker 1: is in itself somewhat complex. On its lower side, it
- 4:39:44Speaker 1: touches and in fact blends into feeling and emotion. Its
- 4:39:49Speaker 1: center consists of a state of tension akin to that
- 4:39:52Speaker 1: of a coiled spring or a cat crouching ready for
- 4:39:56Speaker 1: a spring. On its higher side, it touches, penetrates, and
- 4:40:01Speaker 1: blends into the other phases of the will which we
- 4:40:04Speaker 1: have mentioned. Desire is defined as a feeling, emotion, or
- 4:40:10Speaker 1: excitement of the mind directed toward the attainment, enjoyment, or
- 4:40:14Speaker 1: possession of some object from which pleasure, profit, or gratification
- 4:40:19Speaker 1: is expected. Halleck gives us the following excellent conception of
- 4:40:23Speaker 1: the moving spirit of desire. Desire has for its object
- 4:40:28Speaker 1: something which will bring pleasure or get rid of pain,
- 4:40:32Speaker 1: immediate or remote for the individual or for someone in
- 4:40:36Speaker 1: whom he is interested. Aversion or a striving away from
- 4:40:41Speaker 1: something is merely the negative aspect of desire. In Halleck's
- 4:40:46Speaker 1: statement above quoted, we have the explanation of the part
- 4:40:51Speaker 1: played by the intellect in the activities of will. The
- 4:40:54Speaker 1: intellect is able to perceive the relations between present action
- 4:40:58Speaker 1: and future results, and is able to point the way
- 4:41:01Speaker 1: toward the suppression of some desires in order that other
- 4:41:05Speaker 1: and better ones may be manifested. It also serves its
- 4:41:09Speaker 1: purposes in regulating the striking of the average between conflicting desires.
- 4:41:15Speaker 1: Without the intervention of the intellect, the temporary desire of
- 4:41:19Speaker 1: the moment would be invariably acted upon without regard to
- 4:41:23Speaker 1: future results or consequences to one's self and others. It
- 4:41:27Speaker 1: also serves to point out the course of action calculated
- 4:41:31Speaker 1: to give the most satisfactory expression of the desire. While
- 4:41:36Speaker 1: it is a fact that the action of will depends
- 4:41:39Speaker 1: almost entirely upon the motive force of desire, it is
- 4:41:43Speaker 1: likewise true that desire may be created, regulated, suppressed, or
- 4:41:48Speaker 1: even killed by the action of the will. The will,
- 4:41:52Speaker 1: by giving or refusing attention to a certain class of desires,
- 4:41:57Speaker 1: may either cause them to grow and wax strong, or
- 4:42:00Speaker 1: else die and fade away. It must be remembered, however,
- 4:42:05Speaker 1: that this use of the will itself springs from another
- 4:42:09Speaker 1: set of desires or feelings. Desire is aroused by feelings
- 4:42:14Speaker 1: or emotions rising from the subconscious planes of the mind
- 4:42:18Speaker 1: and seeking expression and manifestation. We have considered the nature
- 4:42:23Speaker 1: of the feelings and emotions in previous chapters, which should
- 4:42:27Speaker 1: be read in connection with the present one. It should
- 4:42:30Speaker 1: be remembered that the feeling or emotional side of desire
- 4:42:34Speaker 1: arises from either inherited race memories existing as instincts, or
- 4:42:39Speaker 1: from a memory of the past experiences of the individual.
- 4:42:43Speaker 1: In some cases, the feeling first manifests in a vague
- 4:42:47Speaker 1: unrest caused by subconscious promptings and excitement. Then the imagination
- 4:42:53Speaker 1: pictures the object of the feeling or certain memory images
- 4:42:57Speaker 1: connected with it, and the desire thus manifes tests on
- 4:43:00Speaker 1: the plane of consciousness. The entrance of the desire feeling
- 4:43:05Speaker 1: into consciousness is accompanied by that peculiar tension which marks
- 4:43:10Speaker 1: the second phase of desire. This tension, when sufficiently strong,
- 4:43:16Speaker 1: passes into the third phase of desire, or that in
- 4:43:19Speaker 1: which desire blends into will action. Desire in this stage
- 4:43:24Speaker 1: makes a demand upon will for expression and action. From
- 4:43:29Speaker 1: mere feeling and tension of feeling. It becomes a call
- 4:43:33Speaker 1: to action. But before expression and action are given to it,
- 4:43:38Speaker 1: the second phase of will must manifest, at least for
- 4:43:41Speaker 1: a moment. This second phase is that known as deliberation,
- 4:43:46Speaker 1: or the weighing and balancing of desires two deliberation. The
- 4:43:54Speaker 1: second phase of will, known as deliberation, is more than
- 4:43:58Speaker 1: the purely intellectual process which the term would indicate the
- 4:44:03Speaker 1: intellect plays an important part. It is true, but there
- 4:44:06Speaker 1: is also an almost instinctive and automatic weighing and balancing
- 4:44:10Speaker 1: of desires. There is seldom only one desire presenting its
- 4:44:14Speaker 1: claims upon the will at any particular moment. It is
- 4:44:18Speaker 1: true that occasionally there arises an emotional desire of such
- 4:44:23Speaker 1: dominant power and strength that it crowds out every other
- 4:44:26Speaker 1: claimant of the bar of deliberation. But such instances are rare,
- 4:44:32Speaker 1: and as a rule there are a host of rival claimants,
- 4:44:35Speaker 1: each insisting upon its rights in the matter at issue.
- 4:44:39Speaker 1: In the manner of weak or undeveloped and untrained intellect,
- 4:44:43Speaker 1: the struggle is usually little more than a brief combat
- 4:44:46Speaker 1: between several desires, in which the strongest of the moment wins.
- 4:44:51Speaker 1: For with the development of intellect, new factors arise and
- 4:44:55Speaker 1: new forces are felt. Moreover, the more complex one's emotional nature,
- 4:45:02Speaker 1: and the greater the development of the higher forms of feeling,
- 4:45:05Speaker 1: the more intense is the struggle of deliberation, or the
- 4:45:08Speaker 1: fight of the desires. We see in Halleck's definition that
- 4:45:14Speaker 1: desire has not only the object of bringing pleasure or
- 4:45:18Speaker 1: getting rid of pain. For the individual, but that the
- 4:45:21Speaker 1: additional element of the welfare of someone in whom he
- 4:45:25Speaker 1: is interested is added, which element is often the deciding factor.
- 4:45:30Speaker 1: This element, of course, arises from the development and cultivation
- 4:45:34Speaker 1: of one's emotional nature. In the same way, we also
- 4:45:38Speaker 1: see that it is not merely the intermediate welfare of
- 4:45:42Speaker 1: one's self or those in whom one is interested that
- 4:45:45Speaker 1: speaks before the bar, but also the more remote welfare.
- 4:45:50Speaker 1: This consideration of future welfare depends upon the intellect and
- 4:45:54Speaker 1: cultivated imagination under its control. Moreover, the trained intellect is
- 4:46:00Speaker 1: able to discover possible greater satisfaction in some course of
- 4:46:04Speaker 1: action other than in the one prompted by the clamoring
- 4:46:07Speaker 1: desire of the moment. This explains why the judgment and
- 4:46:10Speaker 1: action of an intelligent man as a rule are far
- 4:46:14Speaker 1: different from those of the unintelligent one, and also why
- 4:46:19Speaker 1: a man of culture tends toward different action from that
- 4:46:22Speaker 1: of the uncultured, and likewise by the man of broad
- 4:46:26Speaker 1: sympathies and high ideals acts in a different way from
- 4:46:31Speaker 1: one of the opposite type. But the principle is ever
- 4:46:35Speaker 1: the same. The feelings manifest in desire, the greatest ultimate
- 4:46:40Speaker 1: satisfaction apparent at the moment is sought, and the strongest
- 4:46:44Speaker 1: set of desires wins the day. Hallick's comment on this
- 4:46:49Speaker 1: point is interesting. He says desire is not always proportional
- 4:46:54Speaker 1: to the idea of one's own selfish pleasure. Many persons,
- 4:46:58Speaker 1: after forming an idea of the vast amount of earthly distress,
- 4:47:02Speaker 1: desire to relieve it, and the desire goes out in action.
- 4:47:06Speaker 1: As the benevolent societies in every city testify here, the
- 4:47:11Speaker 1: individual pleasure is none the less, but it is secondary,
- 4:47:15Speaker 1: coming from the pleasure of others. The desire of the
- 4:47:18Speaker 1: near often raises a stronger desire than the remote. A
- 4:47:23Speaker 1: child frequently prefers a thing immediately if it is only
- 4:47:26Speaker 1: one tenth as good as something he might have a year. Hence,
- 4:47:31Speaker 1: a student often desires more the leisure of to day
- 4:47:34Speaker 1: than the success of future years. Though admonished to study,
- 4:47:39Speaker 1: he wastes his time and thus loses incomparably greater pleasure
- 4:47:43Speaker 1: when he is tossed to the rear in a struggle
- 4:47:46Speaker 1: for existence. The result of this weighing and balancing of
- 4:47:51Speaker 1: the desire is or should be, decision and a choice,
- 4:47:55Speaker 1: which then passes into action. But many persons seem unable
- 4:48:00Speaker 1: to make up their own mind, and require a push
- 4:48:03Speaker 1: or urge from without before they will act. Others decide
- 4:48:08Speaker 1: without proper use of the intellect, upon what they call impulse,
- 4:48:13Speaker 1: but which is merely impatience. Some are like the fabled donkey,
- 4:48:17Speaker 1: which starve to death when placed at an equal distance
- 4:48:21Speaker 1: between two equally attractive haystacks, and was unable to decide
- 4:48:25Speaker 1: towards which to move. Others follow the example of Jep
- 4:48:29Speaker 1: in the comedy, who, when given a coin with which
- 4:48:33Speaker 1: to buy a piece of soap for his wife, stood
- 4:48:36Speaker 1: on the corner deliberating whether to obey orders or to
- 4:48:39Speaker 1: buy a drink with the money. He wants the drink,
- 4:48:42Speaker 1: but realizes that his wife will beat him if he
- 4:48:45Speaker 1: returns without the soap. My stomach says drink, My back
- 4:48:49Speaker 1: says soap, says Jep. But finally he remarks, is not
- 4:48:55Speaker 1: a man's stomach more to him than his back? Yes,
- 4:48:58Speaker 1: says I. The final decision depends upon the striking a
- 4:49:03Speaker 1: balance between the desires, the way of desire for and
- 4:49:08Speaker 1: desire against desire for this or desire for something else.
- 4:49:13Speaker 1: The strength of the several desires depends upon nearness and
- 4:49:17Speaker 1: present interest arising from attention as applied to the feelings
- 4:49:21Speaker 1: and emotions arising from heredity, environment, experience, and education which
- 4:49:28Speaker 1: constitute character, and also upon the degree of intellectual clearness
- 4:49:33Speaker 1: and power in forming correct judgments between the desires. It
- 4:49:38Speaker 1: must be remembered, however, that the intellect appears not as
- 4:49:42Speaker 1: an opponent of the principle of the satisfaction of desire,
- 4:49:45Speaker 1: but merely as an instrument of the ego in determining
- 4:49:49Speaker 1: which course of action will result in the greatest ultimate satisfaction,
- 4:49:53Speaker 1: direct or indirect, present or future. For at the last,
- 4:49:59Speaker 1: every individual acts so as to bring himself the greatest
- 4:50:02Speaker 1: satisfaction immediate or future, direct or indirect, either personal or
- 4:50:08Speaker 1: through the welfare of others, as this may appear to
- 4:50:11Speaker 1: him at the particular moment of deliberation. We always act
- 4:50:15Speaker 1: in the direction of that which will greater content our spirit.
- 4:50:19Speaker 1: This will be found to be the spirit of all decisions.
- 4:50:23Speaker 1: Although the motive is often hidden and difficult to find
- 4:50:26Speaker 1: even by the individual himself, many of the strongest motives
- 4:50:30Speaker 1: having their origin in the subconscious planes of mentality. Three. Action,
- 4:50:38Speaker 1: The third and final phase of will is that known
- 4:50:42Speaker 1: as action the act of volition by which the desire
- 4:50:45Speaker 1: idea is expressed in physical or mental activity. The old
- 4:50:50Speaker 1: conception of the will held that the decisive phase of
- 4:50:53Speaker 1: the will was its characteristic and final phase, ignoring the
- 4:50:57Speaker 1: fact that the very essence or spirit of will is
- 4:51:00Speaker 1: bound up with action. Even those familiar with a newer
- 4:51:04Speaker 1: conception frequently assume that the act of decision is the
- 4:51:08Speaker 1: final phase of will, ignoring the fact that we frequently
- 4:51:12Speaker 1: decide to do a thing and yet may never carry
- 4:51:14Speaker 1: out the intention and decision. The act of willing is
- 4:51:18Speaker 1: not complete unless action is expressed. There must be the
- 4:51:22Speaker 1: manifestation of the motor element or phase of will, else
- 4:51:26Speaker 1: the will process is incomplete. A weakness of this last
- 4:51:31Speaker 1: phase of will affects the entire will and renders its
- 4:51:34Speaker 1: processes ineffective. The world is filled with persons who are
- 4:51:39Speaker 1: able to decide what is best to do and what
- 4:51:42Speaker 1: should be done, but who never actually act upon the decision.
- 4:51:46Speaker 1: The few persons who promptly follow up the decision with
- 4:51:49Speaker 1: vigorous action are those who accomplish the world's work without
- 4:51:53Speaker 1: the full manifestation of this third phase of will. The
- 4:51:57Speaker 1: other two phases are useless types of will. So far,
- 4:52:04Speaker 1: we have considered merely the highest type of will, that
- 4:52:07Speaker 1: which is accompanied by conscious deliberation, in which the intellect
- 4:52:12Speaker 1: takes an active part in this process. Not only do
- 4:52:16Speaker 1: the conflicting feelings push themselves forward with opposing claims for recognition,
- 4:52:21Speaker 1: but the intellect is active in examining the case and
- 4:52:24Speaker 1: offering valuable testimony as to the comparative merits of the
- 4:52:28Speaker 1: various claimants and the effect of certain courses of action
- 4:52:32Speaker 1: upon the individual. There are, however, several lower forms of
- 4:52:36Speaker 1: will manifestation which we should briefly consider. In passing reflex action,
- 4:52:44Speaker 1: the will is moved to action by the reflex activities
- 4:52:47Speaker 1: of the nervous system, which have been mentioned in the
- 4:52:49Speaker 1: earlier chapters of this book. In this general type, we
- 4:52:53Speaker 1: find unconscious reflex action, such as that manifested when a
- 4:52:58Speaker 1: sleeper is touched and moves away, or when a frog's
- 4:53:01Speaker 1: leg twitches when the nerve end is excited. We also
- 4:53:06Speaker 1: find conscious reflex action, such as that manifested by the
- 4:53:10Speaker 1: winking of the eye, or the performance of habitual physical motion,
- 4:53:14Speaker 1: such as the movement in walking, operating the sewing machine
- 4:53:18Speaker 1: or typewriter, playing the piano, et cetera impulse of action.
- 4:53:25Speaker 1: The will is often moved to action by a dim
- 4:53:28Speaker 1: idea or vague perception of purpose or impulse. The action
- 4:53:33Speaker 1: is almost instinctive, although there is a vague perception of purpose.
- 4:53:38Speaker 1: For instance, we feel an impulse to turn toward the
- 4:53:41Speaker 1: source of a strange sound or sight, or other source
- 4:53:44Speaker 1: of interest or curiosity. Or we may feel an impulse
- 4:53:48Speaker 1: arising from the subconscious plane of our mind, causing a
- 4:53:52Speaker 1: dimly conscious idea of movement or action to relieve the tension.
- 4:53:57Speaker 1: For instance, one may feel a desire to exercise eyes
- 4:54:00Speaker 1: or to seek fresh air or green fields, although he
- 4:54:04Speaker 1: had not been thinking of these things at the time.
- 4:54:09Speaker 1: These impulses arise from a subconscious feeling fatigue, or desire
- 4:54:13Speaker 1: for change, which, added to a fleeting idea, produces the impulse.
- 4:54:19Speaker 1: Unless an impulse is inhibited by the will activities inspired
- 4:54:22Speaker 1: by other desires, habits, ideas, or ideals, we act upon
- 4:54:27Speaker 1: it in precisely the same way that a young child
- 4:54:31Speaker 1: or animal does. Hofting says of this type of action,
- 4:54:35Speaker 1: the psychological condition of the impulse is that with a
- 4:54:39Speaker 1: momentary feeling and sensation should be combined a more or
- 4:54:43Speaker 1: less clear idea of something which may augment the pleasure
- 4:54:47Speaker 1: or diminish the pain of the moment instinctive action. The
- 4:54:53Speaker 1: will is frequently moved to action by an instinctive stimulus.
- 4:54:57Speaker 1: This form of will activity closely resembles the last mentioned form,
- 4:55:02Speaker 1: and often it is impossible to distinguish between the two.
- 4:55:06Speaker 1: The activities of the bee in building its comb and
- 4:55:09Speaker 1: storing its honey, the work of the silk worm and
- 4:55:12Speaker 1: caterpillar in building their resting places are examples of this
- 4:55:16Speaker 1: form of action. Indeed, even the building of the nest
- 4:55:20Speaker 1: of the bird may be so classed. In these cases,
- 4:55:24Speaker 1: there is an intelligent action toward a definite end, but
- 4:55:28Speaker 1: the animal is unconscious of that end. The experiences of
- 4:55:32Speaker 1: the remote ancestors of these creatures recorded their impressions upon
- 4:55:36Speaker 1: the subconscious mind of the species, and they are transmitted
- 4:55:40Speaker 1: in some way to all of that species. The nervous
- 4:55:44Speaker 1: system of every living thing is a record cylinder of
- 4:55:47Speaker 1: the experiences of its early ancestors, and these cylinders tend
- 4:55:51Speaker 1: to reproduce these impressions upon appropriate occasions. In preceding chapters,
- 4:55:57Speaker 1: we have shown that even man is under the inn
- 4:56:00Speaker 1: influence of instinct to a greater extent than he imagines
- 4:56:03Speaker 1: himself to be. Chapter thirty. Will training. It is of
- 4:56:09Speaker 1: the utmost importance that the individual develop, cultivate, and train
- 4:56:13Speaker 1: his will, so as to bring it under the influence
- 4:56:15Speaker 1: of the higher part of his mental and moral being.
- 4:56:19Speaker 1: While the will is used most effectively in developing and
- 4:56:22Speaker 1: training the intellect and building character, it itself must be trained
- 4:56:26Speaker 1: by itself to habitually come under the guidance of the
- 4:56:30Speaker 1: intellect and under the influence of that which we call character.
- 4:56:35Speaker 1: The influence of the trained will upon the several mental
- 4:56:38Speaker 1: faculties is most marked. There are no faculties which may
- 4:56:42Speaker 1: not be cultivated by the will. The first and great
- 4:56:46Speaker 1: task of the will in this direction is the control
- 4:56:49Speaker 1: and direction of the attention. The will determines the kind
- 4:56:53Speaker 1: of interest that shall prevail at the moment, and the
- 4:56:56Speaker 1: kind of interest largely determines the character of the man,
- 4:56:59Speaker 1: his tastes, his feelings, his thoughts, his acts. Gordy says,
- 4:57:06Speaker 1: co operating with a pre existing influence, the will can
- 4:57:09Speaker 1: make a weaker one prevail over a stronger. He determines
- 4:57:13Speaker 1: which of pre existing influences shall have control over the mind. Moreover,
- 4:57:20Speaker 1: concentrated and continued attention depends entirely upon the exercise of
- 4:57:24Speaker 1: the will, As Gordy says, if the will relaxes its
- 4:57:29Speaker 1: hold upon the activities of the mind, the attention is
- 4:57:32Speaker 1: liable to be carried away by any one of the
- 4:57:34Speaker 1: thousands of ideas that the laws of association are constantly
- 4:57:38Speaker 1: bringing into our minds. Even in the matter of mental images,
- 4:57:44Speaker 1: the will asserts its sway, and the imagination may be
- 4:57:47Speaker 1: trained to be the obedient servant of the developed will.
- 4:57:51Speaker 1: Regarding the influence of the will upon character, Davidson says,
- 4:57:56Speaker 1: it is not enough for a man to understand correctly
- 4:57:59Speaker 1: and love duly the conditions of moral life in his
- 4:58:02Speaker 1: own time. He must still further be willing and able
- 4:58:06Speaker 1: to fulfill these conditions, and he certainly cannot do this
- 4:58:10Speaker 1: unless his will is trained to perfect freedom, so that
- 4:58:14Speaker 1: it responds with the utmost readiness to the suggestions of
- 4:58:17Speaker 1: his discriminating intelligence and the movements of his chastened affections.
- 4:58:23Speaker 1: Halleck says, we gradually make our characters by separate acts
- 4:58:27Speaker 1: of will, just as a blacksmith, by repeated blows, beats
- 4:58:31Speaker 1: out a horseshoe, or an anchor from a shapeless mass
- 4:58:35Speaker 1: of iron. A finished anchor or horseshoe was never the
- 4:58:39Speaker 1: product of a single blow. Training the will, perhaps the
- 4:58:44Speaker 1: best way to train the will is to use it
- 4:58:46Speaker 1: intelligently and with a purpose. The training of any faculty
- 4:58:51Speaker 1: of the mind is at the same time a training
- 4:58:54Speaker 1: of the will. The attention being so closely allied to
- 4:58:58Speaker 1: the will, it follows that a careful training of attention
- 4:59:01Speaker 1: will result in a strengthening of the will. The training
- 4:59:05Speaker 1: of the emotional side of one's nature also brings results
- 4:59:08Speaker 1: in the strengthening of the will. Pallack gives his students
- 4:59:13Speaker 1: excellent advice regarding the training of the will. It would
- 4:59:17Speaker 1: be hard to find anything better along these lines than
- 4:59:20Speaker 1: the following from his pen. Nothing schools the will and
- 4:59:24Speaker 1: renders it ready for effort in this complex world, better
- 4:59:28Speaker 1: than accustoming it to face disagreeable things. Professor James advises
- 4:59:32Speaker 1: all to do something occasionally for no other reason than
- 4:59:36Speaker 1: that they would rather not do it, if it is
- 4:59:38Speaker 1: nothing more than giving up a seat in a street car.
- 4:59:42Speaker 1: He likens such effort to the insurance that a man
- 4:59:45Speaker 1: pays on his house he has something that he can
- 4:59:48Speaker 1: fall back on in time of trouble. A will schooled
- 4:59:51Speaker 1: in this way is always ready to respond, no matter
- 4:59:54Speaker 1: how great the emergency, while another would be crying over
- 4:59:58Speaker 1: spilled milk. The possessed sure of such a will as
- 5:00:01Speaker 1: already found another cow. The only way to secure such
- 5:00:04Speaker 1: a will is to practice doing disagreeable things. There are
- 5:00:09Speaker 1: daily opportunities. A man who had declared his aversion to
- 5:00:13Speaker 1: what he deemed the dry facts of political economy, was
- 5:00:16Speaker 1: one day found knitting his brow average chapter of John
- 5:00:19Speaker 1: Stuart Mill. When a friend expressed surprise, the man replied,
- 5:00:25Speaker 1: I am playing the schoolmaster with myself. I am reading
- 5:00:28Speaker 1: this book because I dislike it. Such a man has
- 5:00:32Speaker 1: the elements of success in him. On the other hand,
- 5:00:36Speaker 1: the one who habitually avoids disagreeable action is training his
- 5:00:39Speaker 1: will to be of no use to him at a
- 5:00:42Speaker 1: time when supreme effort is demanded. Such a will can
- 5:00:46Speaker 1: never elbow its way to the front. In life habits
- 5:00:51Speaker 1: habits are the beaten track over which the will travels.
- 5:00:55Speaker 1: The beaten path of habit is the line of least
- 5:00:57Speaker 1: resistance to the will. One who train his will must
- 5:01:01Speaker 1: needs pay attention to providing it with the proper mental
- 5:01:04Speaker 1: paths over which to travel. The rule for the creation
- 5:01:08Speaker 1: of habits is simply this, travel over the mental path
- 5:01:12Speaker 1: as often as possible. The rule for breaking undesirable habits
- 5:01:16Speaker 1: is this cultivate the opposite habit. In these two rules
- 5:01:21Speaker 1: is expressed the gist of what has been written on
- 5:01:23Speaker 1: the subject. Professor William James has left to the world
- 5:01:28Speaker 1: some invaluable advice regarding the cultivation of right habits. He
- 5:01:33Speaker 1: bases his rules upon those of Professor Bain, elaborates these
- 5:01:38Speaker 1: and adds some equally good ones. We herewith quote freely
- 5:01:42Speaker 1: from both James and Baine on this subject. It is
- 5:01:45Speaker 1: the best ever written regarding habit building. One, in the
- 5:01:50Speaker 1: acquisition of a new habit or the leaving off of
- 5:01:53Speaker 1: an old one, launch yourself with as strong and decided
- 5:01:56Speaker 1: an initiative as possible. This will give your new begin
- 5:02:00Speaker 1: such a momentum that the temptation to break down will
- 5:02:03Speaker 1: not occur as soon as it otherwise might. And every
- 5:02:07Speaker 1: day during which a breakdown is postponed adds to the
- 5:02:10Speaker 1: chances of it not occurring at all. James two, never
- 5:02:16Speaker 1: suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is
- 5:02:19Speaker 1: securely rooted in your life. Every lapse is like the
- 5:02:23Speaker 1: letting fall of a ball of string which one is
- 5:02:26Speaker 1: carefully winding up. A single slip undoes more than a
- 5:02:29Speaker 1: great many turns will wind again, James. It is necessary,
- 5:02:35Speaker 1: above all things, in such a situation never to lose
- 5:02:39Speaker 1: a battle. Every gain on the wrong side undoes the
- 5:02:42Speaker 1: effect of many conquests on the right. The essential precaution
- 5:02:46Speaker 1: is so to regulate the two opposing powers, that the
- 5:02:49Speaker 1: one may have a series of uninterrupted successes until repetition
- 5:02:53Speaker 1: has fortified it to such a degree as to enable
- 5:02:56Speaker 1: it to cope with the opposition under any circumstances. Bain
- 5:03:02Speaker 1: three sees the very first possible opportunity to act on
- 5:03:06Speaker 1: every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you
- 5:03:10Speaker 1: may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire. Again,
- 5:03:15Speaker 1: it is not in the moment of their forming, but
- 5:03:17Speaker 1: in the moment of their producing motor effects, that resolves
- 5:03:20Speaker 1: and aspirations communicate their new set to the brain, James.
- 5:03:26Speaker 1: The actual presence of the practical opportunity alone furnishes the
- 5:03:30Speaker 1: fulcrum upon which the lever can rest, by which the
- 5:03:33Speaker 1: moral will may multiply its strength. And raise itself aloft.
- 5:03:38Speaker 1: He who has no solid ground to press against will
- 5:03:41Speaker 1: never get beyond the stage of empty gesture making Bain. Four.
- 5:03:48Speaker 1: Keep the faculty alive in you by a little gratuitous
- 5:03:51Speaker 1: exercise every day, that is, be systematically ascetic or heroic
- 5:03:57Speaker 1: in little unnecessary points. Do every day something for no
- 5:04:01Speaker 1: other reason than that you would rather not do it,
- 5:04:04Speaker 1: so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh,
- 5:04:08Speaker 1: it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand
- 5:04:12Speaker 1: the test. The man who has daily inured himself to
- 5:04:15Speaker 1: habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self denial in
- 5:04:20Speaker 1: unnecessary things will stand like a tower when everything rocks
- 5:04:24Speaker 1: around him, and when his softer fellow mortals are winnowed
- 5:04:28Speaker 1: like chaff in the blast James, end of Chapter thirty
- 5:04:36Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one will Tonic. In addition to the general
- 5:04:42Speaker 1: rules for developing and training the will given in the
- 5:04:45Speaker 1: preceding chapter, we ask you to tone up and strengthen
- 5:04:48Speaker 1: the will by the inspiration to be derived from the
- 5:04:51Speaker 1: words of some of the world's great thinkers and doers.
- 5:04:55Speaker 1: In these words, there is such a vital statement of
- 5:04:58Speaker 1: the recognition realization a manifestation of that something within which
- 5:05:03Speaker 1: we call will, that it is a dull soul, indeed,
- 5:05:07Speaker 1: which is not inspired by the contagion of the idea.
- 5:05:10Speaker 1: These expressions are the milestones on the path of attainment,
- 5:05:14Speaker 1: placed by those who have preceded us on the journey.
- 5:05:19Speaker 1: We submit these quotations without comment. They speak for themselves,
- 5:05:24Speaker 1: words of the wise. They can who think they can.
- 5:05:30Speaker 1: Character is a perfectly educated will. Nothing can resist the
- 5:05:35Speaker 1: will of a man who knows what is true, and
- 5:05:38Speaker 1: wills what is good in all difficulties, advance and will,
- 5:05:43Speaker 1: for within you is a power, a living force, which,
- 5:05:47Speaker 1: the more you trust and learn to use, will annihilate
- 5:05:50Speaker 1: the opposition of matter. The star of the unconquered will.
- 5:05:55Speaker 1: It rises in my breast, serene and resolute, and still
- 5:05:59Speaker 1: and harm and self possessed. So now is grandeur to
- 5:06:03Speaker 1: our dust, So near is God to man. When duty
- 5:06:08Speaker 1: whispers low, thou must, the youth replies, I can. The
- 5:06:14Speaker 1: longer I live, the more certain I am that the
- 5:06:17Speaker 1: great difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful,
- 5:06:21Speaker 1: the great and the insignificant, is energy, invincible, determination, a purpose,
- 5:06:28Speaker 1: once fixed, then death or victory. That quality will do
- 5:06:32Speaker 1: anything that can be done in this world, and no talents,
- 5:06:36Speaker 1: no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two leged creature
- 5:06:41Speaker 1: a man without it. Buxton, the human will, that force unseen,
- 5:06:48Speaker 1: the offspring of a deathless soul, can hew a way
- 5:06:51Speaker 1: to any goal. Though wars of granite intervene. You will
- 5:06:56Speaker 1: be what you will to be. Let failure find its
- 5:06:59Speaker 1: false content in that poor word environment. But spirit scorns
- 5:07:04Speaker 1: it and is free. It masters time, it conquers space,
- 5:07:08Speaker 1: It cows at bastful trickster chance, and bids the tyrant
- 5:07:13Speaker 1: circumstance uncrown and fill a servant's place. Resolve is what
- 5:07:19Speaker 1: makes a man manifest, Not puny resolve, not crude determinations,
- 5:07:25Speaker 1: not errant purpose, but that strong and indefatigable will, which
- 5:07:29Speaker 1: treads down difficulties in danger, as a boy treads down
- 5:07:33Speaker 1: the heaving frost lands of winter, which kindles his eye
- 5:07:36Speaker 1: and brain with a proud pulse beat toward the unattainable.
- 5:07:41Speaker 1: Will makes men giants. Donald g. Mitchell. There is no chance,
- 5:07:48Speaker 1: no destiny, no fate can circumvent or hinder or control
- 5:07:52Speaker 1: the firm resolve of a determined soul gifts count for nothing.
- 5:07:58Speaker 1: Will alone is great. All things give way before it
- 5:08:02Speaker 1: soon or late? What obstacle can stay the mighty force
- 5:08:06Speaker 1: of the sea seeking river in its course, or cause
- 5:08:09Speaker 1: the ascending orb of day to wait? Each well born
- 5:08:12Speaker 1: soul must win what it deserves. Let the fool's prate
- 5:08:16Speaker 1: of luck. The fortunate is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
- 5:08:22Speaker 1: whose slightest action or inaction serves the one great aim.
- 5:08:27Speaker 1: Why even death itself stands still and waits an hour
- 5:08:31Speaker 1: sometimes for such a will, Ello Wheeler Wilcox. I have
- 5:08:37Speaker 1: brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a
- 5:08:41Speaker 1: human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and
- 5:08:45Speaker 1: that nothing can resist a will which will stake even
- 5:08:48Speaker 1: existence upon its fulfillment, Lord Beaconsfield, A passionate desire and
- 5:08:56Speaker 1: an unwearied will can perform impossibilities. What may seem to
- 5:09:00Speaker 1: be such to the cold and feeble Sir John Simpson,
- 5:09:06Speaker 1: It is wonderful how even the casualties of life seem
- 5:09:09Speaker 1: to bow to a spirit that will not bow to them,
- 5:09:12Speaker 1: and yield to subserver a design which they may, in
- 5:09:15Speaker 1: their first apparent tendency, threaten to frustrate. When a firm
- 5:09:20Speaker 1: decisive spirit is recognized. It is curious to see how
- 5:09:23Speaker 1: the space clears around a man and leaves him room
- 5:09:27Speaker 1: and freedom. John Foster. The great thing about General Grant
- 5:09:33Speaker 1: is cruel persistency of purpose. He is not easily excited,
- 5:09:37Speaker 1: and he has got the grip of a bull dog.
- 5:09:40Speaker 1: When he once gets his teeth in, nothing can shake
- 5:09:43Speaker 1: him off. Abraham Lincoln. I am bigger than anything that
- 5:09:48Speaker 1: can happen to me. All these things are outside my door,
- 5:09:52Speaker 1: and I've got the key. Man was meant to be,
- 5:09:56Speaker 1: and ought to be, stronger and more than anything that
- 5:09:59Speaker 1: can have And to him, circumstances, fate, luck are all outside,
- 5:10:05Speaker 1: and if he cannot change them, he can always beat them.
- 5:10:09Speaker 1: Charles F. Lummus. The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.
- 5:10:16Speaker 1: Impossible is a word found only in the Dictionary of Fools. Circumstances,
- 5:10:23Speaker 1: I make circumstances, Napoleon, He who fails only half wills,
- 5:10:30Speaker 1: so worrow. That which the easiest becomes a habit in
- 5:10:35Speaker 1: us is the will. Learn then to will strongly and decisively.
- 5:10:40Speaker 1: Thus fix your floating life, and leave it no longer
- 5:10:43Speaker 1: to be carried hither and thither like a withered leaf.
- 5:10:46Speaker 1: By every wind that blows. Man owes his growth chiefly
- 5:10:52Speaker 1: to that act of striving of the will that encounter,
- 5:10:55Speaker 1: which we call effort. And it is astonishing to find
- 5:10:59Speaker 1: how often results apparently impracticable are thus made possible. It
- 5:11:04Speaker 1: is will force of purpose that enables a man to
- 5:11:07Speaker 1: do or be whatever he sets his mind upon being
- 5:11:11Speaker 1: or doing. A strong, defiant purpose is many handed and
- 5:11:16Speaker 1: lays hold of whatever is near that can serve it.
- 5:11:19Speaker 1: It has a magnetic purpose that draws to itself whatever
- 5:11:22Speaker 1: is kindred. Let it be your first study to teach
- 5:11:25Speaker 1: the world that you are not wood and straw, that
- 5:11:28Speaker 1: there is some iron in you. Munger, it's duggard, as
- 5:11:34Speaker 1: does it Yorkshire proverb. One talent with a will behind
- 5:11:40Speaker 1: it will accomplish more than ten without it. As a
- 5:11:43Speaker 1: thimbleful of powder in a rifle, the bore of whose
- 5:11:46Speaker 1: barrel will give it direction, will do greater execution than
- 5:11:50Speaker 1: a carload burned in the open air. O. S. Marden.
- 5:11:56Speaker 1: Will may not endow a man with talents or capacities,
- 5:12:00Speaker 1: but it does one very important matter. It enables him
- 5:12:03Speaker 1: to make the best, the very best of his powers.
- 5:12:08Speaker 1: Fothergill tender handed stroke, a nettle, and it stings you
- 5:12:13Speaker 1: for your pains. Grasp it like a man of metal,
- 5:12:17Speaker 1: and its soft as down remains. Don't flinch, don't fowl,
- 5:12:23Speaker 1: but hit the line hard, Roosevelt. The more difficulties one
- 5:12:28Speaker 1: has to encounter, within and without, the more significant, and
- 5:12:32Speaker 1: the higher an inspiration his life will be