The Project Gutenberg EBook of Menticulture, by Horace Fletcher
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Title: Menticulture
or the A-B-C of True Living
Author: Horace Fletcher
Release Date: February 28, 2014 [EBook #45040]
Language: English
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underscores: _italics_.
EMANCIPATION
MENTICULTURE OR THE A-B-C OF TRUE LIVING
BY
HORACE FLETCHER
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & COMPANY
1895
COPYRIGHT, 1895
BY HORACE FLETCHER
CONTENTS
THEORY 13
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 25
A DISCUSSION 47
PLYMOUTH CHURCH CLUB AND ARMOUR INSTITUTE 59
DIAGNOSIS AND REMEDY 65
A PRESCRIPTION 73
SCRAPS OF EVIDENCE 77
FIRST PRINCIPLES OVERLOOKED 113
SLAVES OR FREEMEN--WHICH? 123
ORGANIZATION 139
HOPE 145
_This little paper; being a Kindergarten presentation of a theory
of menticulture through the elimination of the germs of the evil
passions; proven to be of practical benefit by a personal experience
in every-day life; was read before a gathering of Mental Scientists at
New Orleans. At the request of a number of my friends I have had it
put into printed form for them._
_I have added the substance of a discussion which followed the
reading of the paper, a diagnosis, a prescription, some scraps of
evidence from influential sources which have come to me, some
suggestions relative to the tendency to far-away search for happiness,
and a ray of hope that it can be found near at hand, through
Emancipation._
PREFACE
Medical science had struggled for centuries with the repression and
amelioration of physical disease before it discovered the possibility
of prevention by killing the germ.
Mental science pursued the same course of attempted repression in this
country until quite recently it was found that mental afflictions have
germs also, and it naturally follows that any who are interested in
the subject should try to discover, not only the germs themselves, but
methods of getting rid of them.
The discovery that I have made is not new, as Christ, Buddha,
Aristotle, Omar Khayyam and many others, have all suggested that the
elimination of the evil passions is entirely possible; but my special
analysis of them, and the easy method of defeat that I have found
possible to myself, have excited such interest, that I have been
induced to publish them, without attempting to follow the subject
beyond the elementary stage.
The theory that I have built up is based on a proper estimation of the
limitations of mental weaknesses, a discovery that they have roots,
and also that they can be "pulled out by the roots" and disposed of
just like any other weeds; only that the task, being mental and not
physical, can be more easily performed.
Literary grace has been sacrificed in the belief that redundant
reference to the germs will be effective in bringing them into
contempt.
EMANCIPATION
THEORY
[Sidenote: Anger and Worry are Germs]
All of the evil passions are traceable to one of two roots.
ANGER is the root of all the aggressive passions.
WORRY is the root of all the cowardly passions.
Envy, spite, revenge, impatience, annoyance, selfishness, prejudice,
unrest, and the like are all phases of anger.
Jealousy, fear, the belittling of self, the blues, and all the
introspective forms of depression are the children of worry.
Anger and worry are the most unprofitable conditions known to man.
While they are in possession of the mind, both mental and physical
growth are suspended.
[Sidenote: Anger and Worry are Thieves]
Anger and worry are thieves that steal precious time and energy from
life.
Anger is a highway robber and worry is a sneak thief.
Anger and worry are the most potent forms of self-abuse, for the reason
that in many cases anger is the result of misunderstanding, and in most
cases worry's prophecies never come true; or, if they do, the
fulfilment is generally caused by the worry itself.
Anger and worry do not stimulate to any good end.
Anger and worry not only dwarf and depress, but sometimes kill.
Anger and worry are bad habits of the mind and not necessary
ingredients.
Anger and worry are no more necessary than other passions civilized man
has learned to control, and it is only needful to realize that they are
unnecessary in order to make it impossible to feel, much less to show
them.
Anger and worry cannot be eliminated through process of repression any
more than a weed can be killed by cutting down the stalk, or a cancer
can be cured from the surface, or the drinking habit can be gotten rid
of by "tapering off." Germ eradication is not only the _easiest_, but
the _only sure cure_ for all physical diseases and mental handicaps.
The dispossession of anger and worry does not cause indifference or
encourage indolence.
The natural tendency of the emancipated mind is towards growth, both
intellectual and spiritual, just as the tendency of plant life is
towards vigorous growth and perfect blossoming, if it is kept free from
the gnawings of cankerous worms.
[Sidenote: Anger and Worry are Parasites]
Anger and worry are as much parasites as are the cankerous worms that
attack plants. The intelligent horticulturist knows that the worms are
parasites, picks them off his plant, and throws them away too far to
return. The intelligent menticulturist of the future will treat anger
and worry in the same intelligent manner.
It is not necessary to engage in battle the small army of lesser
passions if you concentrate your efforts against anger and worry, for
they are all children of these parents. Oppose them with a bold front;
make one heroic stand against them and they and all of their children
will fly. Disown them once and the ability to re-adopt them will have
disappeared with them.
[Sidenote: Worry Causes Dissipation]
Anger and worry, especially worry, are the cause of most of the
drunkenness and other dissipations which are the curses of the age.
Excuse for them or temptation to them is found in the desire to smother
the depression which they themselves cause.
Anger and worry are creations of the mind, and can be dispelled by the
same power that gave them birth.
[Sidenote: Anger and Worry are Phantoms]
Anger and worry are caused by phantoms that we create within ourselves
and whose only strength is that with which we endow them.
Anger and worry are like echoes; they do not exist until we call for
them, and the louder we call, the louder is their response. We can
never drown them; yet, if let alone, they drown themselves.
Fear is possibly the truer name for the cowardly root-passion than
worry; but as they are synonymous, and as anger and worry are more
frequently used together, and worry has a less formidable sound, I have
chosen to present it for attack under that title.
While the evil passions align themselves into two classes, as the
offshoots of Anger and Worry; they are, in fact, all growths from one
root. Worry (or fear) is the male principle, as it were, without which,
all the others wither and die. For instance; if we do not worry, we do
not fear; and if we do not fear aggression, or insult, or slight, we do
not become angry. We quarrel most frequently with what _we fear_ is
thought or intended by our adversary, and least frequently with what he
actually does or thinks. On the other hand our adversary endows us with
intentions which he himself creates, and each puts his own fuel on the
fire, to increase the heat of the controversy.
In Emancipation there is no fear, (or worry) and consequently no fuel
for discord.
[Sidenote: Emancipation Disarms]
Emancipation is a disarmament which disarms others, but adds strength
to itself.
To the Emancipated every moment is a delight, or a moment of calm,
during which he is susceptible only to good impressions, and the best
interpretation of everything, no matter what the external conditions.
Even in cases of sickness, the tendency of the emancipated mind is so
inclined to gratitude for the limitations of the calamity, that it has
little if any room left for regret. Its thankful appreciation of a half
loaf of blessings, leaves no place for disappointment that it is not a
whole one, and it certainly has no desire to question the wisdom of the
process of evolution to which it is related.
To question or to regret the inevitable seems to the emancipated mind
the greatest folly imaginable. It certainly is as foolish as barking at
the moon.
[Sidenote: "Sweet Sorrow"]
"Sweet sorrow" must not be classed with the depressing passions. It is
the tenderest expression of love. If tears of love or of sympathy
spring to the eyes, do not repress them; do not be ashamed of them;
they are like dew from Heaven and promote the growth of the soul.
Neither must friendly rivalry, nor ambition to excel, be classed as
aggressions; as they are phases of growth.
[Sidenote: Blesses or Curses]
The disposition of the Emancipated is to switch the current of the
Divine Spark (which is the energy of man) on to wires that connect with
motors belted to good acts, and good thoughts, and worthy appreciation,
and to cut out the circuits of worry and anger and their branch lines
entirely, leaving them to rust and decay through disuse. It is a matter
of voluntary selection. The same effort of thought can be made to bless
or to curse; can stimulate to good or stimulate to bad; can propel or
retard; can aid or obstruct; can nourish or kill.
[Sidenote: Perfection is Divinity]
Nature uses the same atoms to perform many services of widely differing
purpose. Where she is inanimate the blind and dumb law of the "survival
of the fittest" rules supreme. In her lowest forms of life this law
begins to be modified by selection, and protection from without. In the
higher forms of animal life memory, and selection, and division of
labor, and provision, and gratitude, show a degree of development that
is beautiful indeed; but it is left to man to perfect this development
within himself. To him is given the power, through cultivation, to
promote, without limit, growth towards Perfection, which is the
evidence of Divinity in him.
Soft mist, down-falling, from its cloud domain,
Bathes all the thirsty land with gentle rain;
Again, to Heaven ascends, by sunbeams wooed,
Then plunges back to earth in torrent mood.
As gentle rain it swells the softening seed;
In torrent force, it wrecks with demon greed;
Now, like the radiance of a loving heart;
Now, like the scorching of a lightning dart.
The self-same atom, hidden in a tear.
May shine with love, or note a potent fear;
When bound to others form the flintiest stone;
Or, floating freely, bear the subtlest tone.
Thoughts are like atoms, fashioned by the will;
Each has a mission, charged with good or ill;
Sometimes to bless; anon to desolate;
Love's messenger; or harbinger of hate.
In Nature's hands, one atom plays two parts,
As may be needed in her several arts;
In man alone, should love forever shine;
Displacing hate; proclaiming man Divine.
Love, and Appreciation, and Gratitude,--the ever-present and
ever-faithful handmaids of Emancipation,--are the natural and only
conditions favorable to growth; they are the less assertive but
stronger attributes which are always waiting to occupy the places left
vacant by anger and worry, and to fill the "void which Nature abhors."
Born of them is that other Divine attribute called Help or Charity, and
together they stimulate to good action and good thought, and lift into
life that plant of the soul, the Divine Responsibility of each member
of the human family.
Anger and worry are the rankest forms of Egotism.
[Sidenote: Emancipation not Phariseeism]
Emancipation is the reverse of Phariseeism. Phariseeism is
self-sufficiency; while Emancipation shows its desire for growth,
through the preparation of its mental and spiritual entity for
unimpaired growth, by clearing it of the weeds of egotism.
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
[Sidenote: Ernest Francisco Fenollosa]
It was my privilege one evening to be with Prof. Fenollosa in his
Japanesque apartment in Boston. Almost every article in view was the
product of some Japanese artist who had been the friend of Prof.
Fenollosa in Japan. The odor of incense added perceptibly to the
calming influence of the environment.
[Sidenote: We had met in Japan]
Many years ago we had met in far-off Japan amid similar surroundings,
and had discussed theories of true living that had been a source of
great pleasure to me, and whose influence had been with me to many
countries and climes, helping me to enjoy more fully than I otherwise
could, the beauties of nature, and of art, and of life.
We were exchanging the experiences of the intervening years, and I
became acutely interested in his account of the wonderful degree of
culture and self-control attained by some of his Japanese friends
through the practice of the Buddhist discipline.
It was all so interesting and beautiful, that under the spell of the
recital and the surroundings, I longed to taste some of the sweets of
the calm he pictured, and begged him to tell me the process of the
discipline, so that perchance I might follow it and reap some of the
benefits.
The philosopher saw that I was serious in my desire, and his face lit
up with approval as he said, "It is not easy to communicate at a
sitting what took me years of study to learn, but I can at least put
you in the way of a start. I can tell you where to begin to grow. _You
must first get rid of anger and worry._" "But," said I, "is that
possible?" "Yes," replied he, "it is possible to the Japanese, and
ought to be possible to us."
I was startled at the suggestion of the possibility of the entire
repression of anger and worry. I knew that their repression was
counselled by Christianity and Buddhism, and presumably by all codes of
religion and ethics; but I had never considered getting rid of them as
a human possibility, except under conditions of health and wealth and
ease, to which few, if any, ever attain.
[Sidenote: Get rid of Anger and Worry]
On my walk back to the Parker House, a distance of fully two miles, I
could not think of anything else but the words, "_get rid_," "_get
rid_;" and the idea must have continued to possess me during my
sleeping hours, for the first consciousness in the morning brought back
the same thought, with the revelation of a discovery, which framed
itself into the reasoning, "If it is possible to get rid of anger and
worry, why is it necessary to have them at all?" I felt the strength of
the argument and at once accepted the reasoning. The baby had
discovered that it could walk. It would scorn to creep any longer.
[Sidenote: Anger and Worry Instantly Removed]
From the instant I realized that these cancer spots of worry and anger
were removable, they left me. With the discovery of their weakness they
were exorcised. From that time life has had an entirely changed aspect.
Although from that moment the possibility and desirability of freedom
from the depressing passions has been a reality to me, it took me some
months to feel absolute security in my new position; but, as the usual
occasions for worry and anger have presented themselves over and over
again, and I have been unable to feel them in the slightest degree, I
no longer dread or guard against them, and I am amazed at my increased
energy and vigor of mind;--at my strength to meet situations of all
kinds, and at my disposition to love and appreciate everything.
[Sidenote: Wonderful Photographic Films]
[Sidenote: Sensitive only to Good]
I have had occasion to travel more than ten thousand miles by rail
since that morning; North, South, East and West, with the varying
comforts and discomforts, as they used to be. The same Pullman porter,
conductor, hotel waiter, peddler, book-agent, cabman, and others, who
were formerly a source of annoyance and irritation have been met, but I
am not conscious of a single incivility. All at once the whole world
has turned good to me. I am sure the change is not so much in the world
as in me. I have become, as it were, sensitive only to the rays of
good, as some photographic films of recent invention are sensitive only
to certain single colored rays of light.
If we are wise we never leave school. When the academy and the college
have put us through their curriculum, we have still before us the
example of Nature, and the walks of Science, and Art, and Brotherhood,
in which to search for suggestions to be applied in menticulture. May
we not learn a lesson from the newly discovered film?
Should not the chemical condition of selection be more difficult than a
similar voluntary mental accomplishment? In comparison with a similar
process in physics the more pliable material of the mind ought to be
fashioned with greater ease.
[Sidenote: A Fortunate Disappointment]
I could recount many experiences which prove a brand new condition of
mind, but one more will be sufficient. Without the slightest feeling of
annoyance or impatience I have seen a train that I had planned to take
with a good deal of interested and pleasurable anticipation, move out
of a station without me, because my baggage did not arrive. The porter
from the hotel came running and panting into the station just as the
train pulled out of sight. When he saw me he looked as if he feared a
scolding, and began to tell of being blocked in a crowded street and
unable to get out. When he had finished, I said to him, "It doesn't
matter at all, you couldn't help it, so we will try it again to-morrow.
Here is your fee, I am sorry you had all this trouble in earning it."
The look of surprise that came over his face was so filled with
pleasure that I was repaid on the spot for the delay in my departure.
Next day he would not accept a cent for the service, and he and I are
friends for life. The sequence of this incident has no bearing on its
value, but it has a significance. Had I taken the train I missed, I
would have been caught in a wreck in which two persons were killed and
several wounded, while my stay over in Cleveland proved to be both
pleasant and profitable.
During the first weeks of my experience I was on guard only against
worry and anger; but, in the meantime, having noticed the absence of
the other depressing and dwarfing passions, I began to trace a
relationship, until I was convinced that they are all growths from the
two roots I have specified.
I have felt the freedom now for so long a time that I am sure of my
relations toward it; and I could no more harbor any of the depressing
and thieving influences that once I nursed as a heritage of humanity
than a fop would voluntarily wallow in a filthy gutter: and the
strength of the position is reinforced by the experience of others.
[Sidenote: The Religions]
There is no doubt in my mind that pure Christianity, and pure Buddhism,
and the Mental Sciences, and all Religions, fundamentally teach what
has been a discovery to me; but none of them have presented it in the
light of a simple and easy process of absolute elimination. All of the
religions seemed to me to hinge principally on some other life, with
the usual features of punishment and reward, and with incidental
satisfaction or fear in this life. But as life reveals itself to me in
my present condition of mind, this world, these fellow men, the blush
of Spring, the blossom of Summer, the flame of Autumn, the sparkle of
Winter, and the violet-softened refulgence of every waking moment yield
a never failing succession of delights.
[Sidenote: Fear Eliminated]
At one time I wondered if elimination of the passions would not lead to
indifference and sloth. In my experience the contrary is the result. I
feel such an increased desire to do something useful that it seems as
if I were a boy again and the energy for play had returned. I could
fight as readily as, (and better) than ever, if there were occasion for
it. It does not make one a coward. It can't, since fear is one of the
things eliminated.
[Sidenote: Surprise Modified]
That fear is gotten rid of with worry is proven in many ways. I notice
the absence of timidity in the presence of any audience I am called on
to face, whereas I had never before conquered a tendency to partial
paralysis on such occasions. Timidity resulting from a shock has been
cured also. When I was a boy I was standing under a tree which was
struck by lightning and received a shock, from the effects of which I
never knew exemption until I had dissolved partnership with worry.
Since then lightning, and thunder, and storm clouds, with wind-swept
torrents of rain have been encountered under conditions which formerly
would have caused great depression and discomfort, without experiencing
a trace of either. Surprise is also greatly modified, and one is less
liable to become startled by unexpected sights or noises. Temperaments
may differ, but Emancipation strengthens all.
It has been suggested to me, in argument, that in Nature there is
sunshine and shadow, and that every height must have a corresponding
depression, and that immunity from the black or shadowy passions is an
unnatural condition. This is not true. In the process of growth and
evolution, conditions that once were natural, are changed to other
conditions equally natural. Weeds are pulled up by the roots to clear
the fields for the growing grain. Why should not mental weeds be pulled
up by the roots also, and the mind cleared for growth?
My experience teaches me that the natural evolution of the emancipated
mind is dominant calm, varied by seasons of exaltation, but never of
depression. It is a healthful succession of energy and rest, all
blessed with loving appreciation, which finds expression in
ever-present gratitude.
[Sidenote: I thanked the clock]
One morning recently I heard myself audibly thank the clock for
striking the time for me, and each awakening is as if on a much desired
holiday, no matter what the conditions of the weather or the comforts
of life at hand.
Contentment and happiness and gratitude and Heaven are generally
accepted as synonymous terms; but Emancipation embraces them all, and
in it only can they all be found.
[Sidenote: Heaven Here]
As far as I am individually concerned I am not bothering myself at
present as to what the result of this emancipated condition may be. I
have no doubt that the perfect health aimed at by Christian Science may
be one of the possibilities, for I note a marked improvement in the way
my stomach does its duty in assimilating the food I give it to handle,
and I am sure it works better to the sound of a song than under the
friction of a frown. Neither am I wasting any of this precious time
formulating an idea of a future existence or a future Heaven. The
Heaven that I have found within myself is as attractive as any that has
been promised or that I can imagine; and I am willing to let the growth
lead where it will, as long as anger and worry and their brood have no
part in misguiding it; but I feel the value of Mental Emancipation to
be so great that I long to spread the news of the discovery of an easy
and immediate means of attaining it.
[Sidenote: Practical Benefits]
[Sidenote: Everything to Woman]
The practical benefit of the emancipated mind to the individual, and of
the emancipated individual to the community, can not be over-estimated.
In every walk in life Emancipation is invaluable to the worker, and the
most potent aid to success. The emancipated peanut vender will have
more customers than his worm-eaten neighbor. The emancipated merchant
will find that trade will pass the door of his calamity-howling rival
and come to him. The emancipated writer will find writing an easy and
pleasant task as compared with that of his moody confrere, and that if
he has occasion to dip his pen in vinegar he can wield it better under
the influence of judicial calm than he can between the gulps of
rebellious indigestion. To woman Emancipation means everything. Any
other condition to her is like an ill fitting garment, and every lapse
from it is like adding a blotch to her complexion which succeeding
smiles can never entirely efface. Each expression of a shadowy passion
leaves a scar. The Emancipation of woman would mean the Emancipation of
the race. The adoption of the germ cure will be woman's means to that
end, and Emancipation will be her Heaven and man's Heaven at the same
time.
The influence of emancipated individuals in a community could be made
so great that if there were only one in ten, and they should organize
in clubs for the purpose, they would attract or rule the rest for good,
and something better than the social Utopia pictured by Edward Bellamy
in "Looking Backward" would follow as a natural sequence, and save us
from the threatened battle between capital and labor, which otherwise
seems inevitable. The horrors of such a conflict cannot be imagined;
and, unless the germ cure is sought to avert it, it is sure to come.
[Sidenote: Emancipation Cures All Ills]
The germ cure of the evil passions in the individual, followed by the
germ cure of social clumsiness in the body politic, form the only hope
of Emancipation from the evils which beset the social structure. For
these there is no real necessity. There is already such a surplus of
mechanical energy, such a surplus of creature comforts, and such a
surplus of luxuries on our planet, that a moderately sensible
distribution of them, would render every inhabitant comfortable and
happy. Among the Emancipated the desire to make a generous distribution
of these surplus stores would be as natural as is the habit of
recognizing "the rule of the road" among us all to-day. So also, the
vast amount of surplus energy born of Emancipation would find a natural
outlet in the arts.
In suggesting the possibility of a Social Paradise or Community Heaven,
it is presupposed that education along the lines of both intellectual
and manual training will have become universal, and that every one
shall render service to his fellows according to his strength; also
that idleness, when one should work, and deception in trade, will have
come to be classed as crimes, and not as evidences of "shrewdness."
[Sidenote: Thirty years of Travel]
It has been my good fortune to travel to and fro over the earth's
surface for thirty years, years of experience passed among the people
of many different nations. I have made quick comparisons of the habits
and customs of them all; and I have observed how easily some do things
that others perform clumsily. The standard measure of my comparison has
always been Japan. I could not help observing there less crime, better
appreciation of art and nature, more physical dexterity and skill,
fewer notes out of harmony, and more general happiness, gentleness, and
consideration for fellows and animals; less (almost no) religious or
sectional prejudice; a universal patriotism and respect for authority
(as good children are respectful of the authority of beloved parents);
a love of life, but no fear of death; and many other qualities that
have commanded the respect of the world under the bright light of
recent events.
[Sidenote: Brave Little Japan]
[Sidenote: World's Congress of Religions]
Brave, gentle, artistic, lovable little Japan, which, thirty odd years
ago, was nursing in quiet seclusion a beautiful flower of artistic
civilization, has been rudely but providentially forced into the
community of nations to teach the rest of the world a great lesson in
the art of true living. By the exercise of judicious but resistless
courage she has laid the Oriental Colossus who attacked her at her
feet; and if the bulldog and buzzard nations of the West, do not unite
their forces to obstruct her inclination, she will lift her fallen foe
from a condition of slavery to barbarous aliens to a condition of
tranquillity and happiness. She will do this through the introduction
of reforms in government and administration which she has gathered from
the best experience of all the world. What a missionary Japan is! A
missionary of the art of true living. A missionary of harmony. The
contact of Japan with the other nations made the World's Congress of
Religions possible; and what this means to the advancement of man on
the road to harmony and happiness, was recently stated by Prof. Max
Muller, when he prophesied that this event would come to be appreciated
as the greatest civilizing influence of the Nineteenth century.
[Sidenote: Extremes Brought Together]
May the example of Japan set the boors of the world to thinking, cause
them to take their fore feet out of the trough, look up to the sun and
the light of dawning civilization, accept the simple teachings of
Christ and Buddha and common sense, and start a Heaven here on earth.
Steam and electricity have brought the extremes of our earth together;
the telescope has let us into the secrets of the neighboring worlds,
and logic and common sense may find in the possibility of
_Emancipation_ a means of bringing Heaven to us in this life.
A DISCUSSION
WHICH FOLLOWED THE READING OF THE FOREGOING PAPER
"_Can anger and worry be entirely eliminated from the human mind?_"
"Yes; they are simply bad habits of the mind, parasites, unnatural, and
therefore uncivilized conditions, nursed by false ideas of pride or
necessity; and their elimination is a purely mental process within the
control of every intelligent person who has sufficient self-respect to
recognize within himself the reflection of the Divine Image."
"_In what does the germ cure of mental ills differ from the Christian
method of repression through answer to prayer?_"
[Sidenote: Christ Advocated Germ Cure]
"Christ clearly advocated the germ cure. He did not say 'Try to do unto
others as you would have others do unto you,' but '_Do_ unto others,'
etc. '_Be_ ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.' In all of
his teachings _do_ and _be_ were the commands. Most of the creeds,
however, endow man with a weakness which is self-condemning. The
prayers are offered perfunctorily, and sometimes without belief in
their efficacy, while the passions are nursed privately in full belief
that they are essential attributes of fallen man."
"_May not the elimination of anger and worry take away some of the
stimulation to effort that is necessary to human progress?_"
[Sidenote: Emancipation not Weakness]
"Assuredly not. The absence of anger and worry is an evidence of
strength and not of weakness. So-called righteous anger is a weakness
in the presence of judicial calm. Without anger and worry one is
stronger to ward off a blow, administer a correction, or protect a
principle. The emancipated mind is as eager for effort as a child is
for play. Freed from anger and worry one can shovel more dirt, plough
more furrows, perform every duty better, and with less fatigue, than if
under their influence."
"_Are there examples in every-day life, among every-day people, that
prove the possibility of superiority over anger and worry?_"
[Sidenote: The Strongest Evidence]
"Yes. Habitually profane men do not swear in the presence of ladies.
Vicious men are gentle when among those whom they respect. The passions
are subservient to the will under conditions that reverence or fashion
prescribe. _If they are subservient under any conditions they can be
controlled under all conditions._ Nothing for instance, could make you
angry while we are talking on this subject, because you would feel
ashamed to show slavery to a condemned and unmanly weakness."
"_If it is possible to get rid of the depressing passions, and they are
so unprofitable, why has not mankind become emancipated long before
this?_"
[Sidenote: Why not Always Known]
"This question can best be answered by asking others. Why were a
personal devil and witches and filmy ghosts considered possibilities as
late as the beginning of this century? Why was human slavery believed
to be a divine institution by the majority of the world's inhabitants
as late as fifty years ago? Why are the divine right of kings, and the
assumption that the sovereign can do no wrong, possibilities of the
present? Why is it possible that a Supreme Court of the United States
can be divided on questions of political significance, and the points
of difference of opinion be in harmony with the previous political
affiliations of the justices? Politics represent the selfish in human
contact as at present managed, while justice is supposed to be
spotlessly unselfish; yet the former unblushingly invades the sanctuary
of the latter, because selfishness is held to be a necessity."
[Sidenote: Emancipation not Selfish]
"_Is not the condition of Emancipation selfish? Is it not selfish not
to worry for one's friend, even if self-worry is eliminated?_"
"Emphatically, no! Emancipation puts one in a condition to be
unselfish. Suppose his friend need aid or sympathy; will worry furnish
either? With the extirpation of the depressing passions comes the
strength, and the ability, and the _desire_, to give to others, the aid
and sympathy they may be in need of. Actual, or even metaphorical,
wringing of hands, is not the sort of sympathy that soothes. It is like
the "blind leading the blind," or rather, the weak trying to assist the
weak. Better try to help with the strength born of Emancipation than
with the weakness of the enervating passions."
"_I can easily understand how anger can be classed as a sin, because it
is aggressive and affects something outside of us; as a sin, I can see
how it ought to be cast out; but as worry deals only with one's self, I
do not believe it can be called a sin; then why is it necessary to
eliminate it, especially as it may be an incentive to action, to
prevent the causes of the worry?_"
"This whole question has been answered before in the presentation of
the theory, but as it has not carried the force of impression that I
intended, I will take it up piecemeal, and try to be more clear.
[Sidenote: One's First Duty]
"In the first place, one's first duty is to one's self in the matter of
cultivation and care; this, not on account of egotism or selfishness,
but in order to fit him to be strong and useful and a good member of
his circle. As a parent, he should make himself the most perfect
progenitor and example possible; as a member of Society he should aim
to be the most able and useful; and as the custodian of the Divine
Essence within him, he should not harbor or encourage weeds of the
soul, whether visible to others, or within the secret corners of his
own heart.
"As to worry ever being an incentive to wise or good action, I will
repeat a section of the theory. 'Worry's prophesies are seldom
realized, and if they are, the realization is generally caused by the
worry itself.'"
"_How can emancipation be secured for the community?_"
[Sidenote: Woman's Opportunity]
"Through the influence of the emancipated individual; chiefly through
the influence of the emancipated woman. In the crossing of sabers she
cannot assist; but in a war against the enemies of the mind, when love
is the weapon, she can and will occupy a place in the front rank. She
can make anger and worry unfashionable, as she already has made
profanity and obscenity unfashionable.
[Sidenote: Emancipation Clubs]
"To accomplish this, let clubs be formed in each community and in each
church, and let each church become a club-house as well. Introduce
healthful amusements such as make other clubs attractive, and place in
large letters over the portal and the altar
GROWTH
EMANCIPATION
HELP.
"You will have then constantly before you the _only_ cure for mental
cancers, and the essence of all religions expressed in three words; you
will have touched the button of the Divine camera within you whose film
is sensitive only to the rays of good. Love and growth will do the
rest. The teachers of morality and religion will do abler work under
the realization that not only the 'old Adam,' but the Divine Essence as
well, have seats in each human soul, and that, when the good is
appealed to in terms of confidence and understanding, evil will be cast
out _instantly_, without a lifetime of controversy, and without waiting
for eternity, or even for the death-bed to unloose the fetters.
[Sidenote: Christian Societies]
"As a result of organization on the basis of Emancipation, and when it
has become an accepted fact that anger and worry are only bad habits of
the mind, no clergyman can show them and retain the respect of his
congregation; no King's Daughter can entertain them and be worthy of
her badge; no member of the Christian Endeavor Society can harbor
within himself the arch enemies of Christianity which the Master
commanded his disciples to cast out, and be loyal to his cause; and no
individual in the pursuit of duty, or even of selfish pleasure, can
afford to carry such weighty handicaps and hope to win the race."
PLYMOUTH CHURCH CLUB AND ARMOUR INSTITUTE
[Sidenote: Frank W. Gunsaulus]
A good example of a church club is that which forms a part of Plymouth
Church in Chicago. Plymouth Club was founded by Dr. Scudder and is
warmly encouraged by Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus, the present pastor of the
church. Dr. Gunsaulus is also president of Armour Institute, where
manual training is taught side by side with letters and the sciences to
men and women alike. In these two eminently practical organizations
most of the conditions favorable to growth are already furnished. Add
to these Emancipation as the motto of the club, and as the requisite
mental accomplishment for admission to the school, and the conditions
will be perfected to the highest degree.
The word Emancipation has a very formidable sound because it is
associated with a great war; but its attainment through germ
eradication is a simple and easy accomplishment.
[Sidenote: College Presidents Responsible]
The presidents of great mental and manual training institutions know
that the depressing and dwarfing phantoms of the mind are merely bad
habits--weeds that can be rooted out--and that anger and worry are the
roots.
They have provided commodious buildings, learned professors, the most
perfect chemical and mechanical appliances, and thousands of books, to
aid mental and manual culture; and yet, they fail to apply the first
principle of all their sciences to the preparation of the pupil. In
horticulture they do not tolerate worms or weeds; in chemistry they
first examine into the purity of the ingredients; and in mechanics the
greatest care is taken to avoid friction. Anger and worry are
conditions of extreme mental friction, which, during their presence,
stop the progressive action of the mental machine.
It would impose no impossibility, neither would it entail any hardship,
to require of students that they should subscribe to the following:
_Science teaches, and experience corroborates the fact, that the
depressing or evil passions are bad habits of the mind, and not
necessary ingredients._
_Anger and worry are the roots of the evil passions and can be pulled
out._
_In order to promote the best possible growth it is required that
Emancipation should be the rule of life of the student._
[Sidenote: A Rule of Life]
Under the suggestion of the possibility of Emancipation from
undesirable mental enemies, emanating from so respected a source as the
faculty of a chosen college, the student would acquire the prerequisite
condition of "faith"; while the absorbing work of college life,
surrounded by fellows working in sympathy with him, would strengthen
the faith into a belief; and the immediate recompense of harmony would
be evidence of its value as a rule of life.
[Sidenote: Emancipation will Spread]
From the school the student would carry the rule back into the family,
and into all walks in life; and with the aid of present means of
communication the influence would spread the world over, disarm the
prodigious preparations for struggle that are being made, and
distribute the palm branch to take the place of the sword.
Will not the great educators whom the world respects so highly, and in
whom it has so much faith, try the experiment? The promised fruit is
worth the trial.
DIAGNOSIS AND REMEDY
[Sidenote: Degeneration]
It is believed by many, that Society and Politics, at the present time,
are badly diseased. Mr. Max Nordau's diagnosis of them, which he
entitled _Degeneration_, has met with general approval. Legislative
(especially municipal) corruption, and the degradation of some of the
courts, are open evidence of the fact. Statesmanship and Politics have
been divorced, and are already strangers to each other. The marriage of
Might and Right, has been sanctioned by popular consent. Power is no
longer used as a lever with which to uplift the weak, but has been
transformed into a social crushing machine. Caste, ostentation,
dissipation, and insincerity, are the established idols that lure the
present generation towards greedy ambition.
[Sidenote: Ready to Break]
It is also believed, and is perhaps true, that the social ulcers have
been so irritated by ostentatious rivalry, and the commercial ulcers
are so distended with the pus of ruinous competition and corruption,
that they must soon come to a head, and that convalescence and cure may
be possibilities of the future.
While these symptoms of disease are visible to all, and are tolerated
as necessary evils, they fortunately do not cover the whole body
politic; but yet, they seriously disfigure its face, and grievously
affect the healthy action of its heart.
In the political world, many agents are actively at work to effect cure
of the evils which flaunt unblushing in the face of the public. The
Committee of Seventy in New York, The Civic Federation in Chicago, and
the National Municipal Reform League of the United States, are all
doing good temporary work, but they do not reach the root causes of the
evils they aim to correct; and it is doubtful if the reforms they
accomplish will be any more permanent than were those of their equally
zealous predecessors.
[Sidenote: Slow Repression Futile]
In the moral and religious world, much the same futile methods of cure
through repression are in use that obtained during the Dark Middle
Ages.
In the individual, phantoms of the imagination, whose presence impose
stagnation and disease, are created and clothed with the authority of
masters, under the belief that they are the curses which bind fallen
men to earth; and this in contradiction of every assurance and promise
of Christ; in opposition to all intelligent methods of culture used in
connection with animals and plants; and contrary to common sense.
These are strong statements, but they are indisputable; and if they are
true, what then, is the remedy?
As previously stated, _the only cure is the germ cure; and, beginning
with the individual._
[Sidenote: Task not Difficult]
The task is not a difficult one. Appreciation of the limitations of the
power of the depressing passions, and one's strength to extirpate them,
and to be superior to them, are the only necessary prerequisites to
victory. There is no tedious discipline, as in the various methods of
repression in vogue; and dividends are immediately and continuously
collectable on the fair face of the investment. No rule of conduct is
necessary; for, out of Emancipation, only _good_ conduct, to fit
environing circumstances, can be expected; and yet, every Christian,
every Jew, every Buddhist, every Mohammetan, every Free Mason, and
every Odd Fellow, can accept Emancipation as a rule of life, without
renouncing his other faiths and affiliations, because it is the
fundamental principle of them all, expressed in terms of present
knowledge, and unclouded by the shadows of ignorance and superstition,
which gave the name of Dark Ages to a period of our history.
[Sidenote: Skeptics Interested]
And outside of these devotees, there is the great mass of men, the
so-called Skeptics, who claim to adhere to logic, and scientific sense,
for their light on spiritual, as well as on material subjects. To
these, Emancipation will be a haven of repose for their spiritual
yearnings; and, unimpeded growth, under Divinely natural conditions,
"will do the rest" for them all.
PRESCRIPTION
[Sidenote: A Simple Remedy]
One grain of the assurance of Christ that man is made in the image of
God.
One grain of respect for the responsibility of the care and culture of
the Divine Essence with which we have been entrusted.
One grain of the command of Christ (implying a possibility) "Be ye
perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect."
One grain of the example of Buddha that man can grow to perfection
through the elimination of anger and worry and their brood of dependent
passions.
One grain of the wisdom of Aristotle which declared that the passions
are habits of the mind, and can be gotten rid of as physical habits are
gotten rid of.
One grain of the assurance of Omar Khayyam that Heaven and Hell are
within ourselves.
One grain of the assurance of Christ that "the Kingdom of Heaven is at
hand."
One grain of common sense applied to an analysis of mental handicaps
and the discovery of their limitations.
One grain of the to-day experience of the author that anger and worry
are the roots of all the passions which depress, and can be eliminated.
DIRECTIONS
[Sidenote: The Ever-full Never-full]
Take: and then let
The ever-full, never-full bounty of love,
Sing a song, tell a tale, strike a chord, from above,
Soften strife out of life, find a pleasure in giving,
Sound the key-note on earth, of the Art of True Living.
SCRAPS OF EVIDENCE
[Sidenote: Evidence Sought]
Early in life I was fortunate enough to acquire the belief that, what
seemed to be the consensus of opinion of the learned in any art or
science, ought to be true; and, accepting their dictum, I have tried to
grow up to an appreciation of their intelligence or taste in the
subjects of their study, without combatting it with my own callow
impressions. In this way I have enjoyed an early appreciation of the
classics in music and in art, much in advance of the ordinary
experience derived from personal contact. In this spirit of
investigation I have collected some scraps of evidence which all prove
my theory. No one has denied the possibility of Emancipation, but every
one has found a pleasure at once in the ray of hope it suggests.
Since my attention has been directed to the possible total emancipation
from the depressing passions, I have taken occasion to interview every
man who seemed to enjoy unclouded happiness, as to the secret of his
happiness. In almost every instance I have learned that the emancipated
condition has dated, not from infancy and inheritance, but from some
incident in later life that exposed the passions to ridicule, or showed
them to be a cause of danger; such as death as the result of worry, or
crime as the result of anger; some object lesson which proved the
danger of permitting the passions to absorb one. I enquired of
A PHYSICIAN
[Sidenote: A Physician]
[Sidenote: Possessed of Devils]
[Sidenote: Emancipation Assures Success]
who has recently been selected by vote of the members of his profession
to a position of honor among them, and who is conspicuous for his
enjoyment of such healthful recreation as only much younger men usually
enjoy, whether he did not consider anger and worry habits of the mind,
and not as necessary ingredients. "Certainly," said he, "and I know it
to be true by the best possible evidence, the evidence of experience."
After some further questioning I was able to get from him the following
story: "When I was a boy I had an ungovernable temper which brought
from my neighbors the prediction that I would come to some bad end. At
school I was known as one of the four or five 'roosters.' There was
scarcely a day that a ring was not formed, and some of us 'roosters'
did not engage in a fight. I followed my studies pretty closely,
however, in pursuance of a natural inclination to be 'on top,' but
without any laudable ambition in connection with them, and finally
graduated in medicine and began practice. I suffered great annoyance
from horses and servants, and quarreled with them constantly, and got
mad at my patients if they showed any unreasonable tendencies; until
one day it came to me as a sudden revelation, that, what most hindered
them from getting well, was the very thing that possessed me the
greater part of the time, and made me disagreeable to myself and
others; and I resolved to master myself as I had tried to master
others. From that time I date my success in life, and certainly my
happiness. I will not allow anything to worry me. If a driver or other
servant does not please me, I do not quarrel with him, but pay him off,
and let him go with the best of feeling. I have a collector who is very
faithful, and very candid at the same time. When he fails to collect an
account that is due, I sometimes ask him the reason, and he repeats to
me what my patient has said. One day I questioned him about an account
that had been long overdue, against a patient whom I met cordially
every day at the club, but who was evidently 'short' at the time and
suffered annoyance from collectors. 'What did he say?'said I. 'He said,
sir, "Tell the doctor to go to hell," replied the honest collector.
Most men would have taken offense at the message, and prosecuted his
patient for the debt, or 'cut' him, or expressed anger in some way; but
I simply didn't go where he had ordered, and never referred to the
matter with him. We are the best of friends now, and he is one of my
warmest advocates."
A MANUFACTURER
The president of one of the largest manufacturing corporations in the
country, having properties in a dozen states, related to me the
following story:
[Sidenote: Unreasonable Railway Magnate]
[Sidenote: Too Proud to Apologize]
"Some years ago I journeyed south with a railroad magnate who stood
very high at the time in the railway world. We came to a river crossed
by his road. The bridge had been washed away, and, while it was
rebuilding, trains were ferried to the further shores. Owing to some
accident there was no boat on hand to transport the official's car
across the stream. He became so angry that he flew into a wild passion,
and cursed and discharged the subordinates in charge of the division
without inquiry as to the cause of the delay. He learned afterward that
the accident to the boat was unavoidable, and that none of the employes
whom he had insulted so grossly and discharged so unfairly were
responsible for it; but he was too _proud_ to apologize.
[Sidenote: Did not Dare to be Angry]
"The incident made such an impression on me, that I resolved never to
show anger again before my employes; and I have kept my resolve. It has
led to my renouncing the habit altogether, and for many years anger has
ceased to be a component part of my nature. I am sorry that I did not
discharge worry at the same time, as results have proved that it has
had no real cause to exist; and it has, as you say, stolen much
precious time and energy out of my life."
A MADMAN
Another example of the possible control of the passions, and a most
important one, is told by another friend. One of the chums of his youth
had fits of anger during which he was possessed with an insatiable
desire to kill the object of his wrath, if it happened to be a living
being, or to break it if it were inanimate. During his seasons of calm
he deplored his weakness, and resolved not to permit it to take
possession of him. He stopped being angry because he was afraid of the
consequences. He _did not dare to be angry_. As a result he has lived a
life filled with charity and consideration for others, which has been a
blessing to himself and those about him.
MR. DANA
[Sidenote: Hard Work Never Kills]
Mr. Charles A. Dana once sent a member of the staff of the New York Sun
to learn, if possible, what was the probable cause of the death of some
men of high standing in the financial world who were reported to have
hastened their death by overwork. Mr. Dana did not believe that hard
work could kill. The result of the inquiry in each instance was to the
effect that these men were the victims of worry, which was as
unnecessary, as it was unprofitable and fatal.
AN AUTHOR
One of the most prolific, observing, and interesting writers of stories
and descriptive articles for the magazines, a war correspondent and one
time journalist, has endorsed and practiced the theory presented in
this paper, and has done me the honor to write approvingly as follows:
"I have succeeded in entirely ridding myself of the cancers, and am
amazed at the ease with which it was done. You are certainly an apostle
of sweetness and light, and I shall never be able to thank you enough
for letting me into your noble secret."
[Sidenote: An Author Feels Younger]
He notes especially an improved digestion, and feels younger each day
as he progresses in the new life.
A GENERAL MANAGER
The Southern General Manager of one of the largest British Insurance
Companies is a tried convert, and finds health and happiness which had
never been attained while under the thraldom of worry, which was his
only former affliction.
AN AUTHORESS
The author of a novel which has just come before the public, and which
is one of the purest and most ingenious stories ever published, is an
ardent convert to the belief that she is superior to the depressing
passions, and her naturally religious temperament finds great solace in
it.
A LAWYER
A leading lawyer of New Orleans, of very old family, religious by
nature, but not sectarian, found comfort in the idea of the possible
elimination of the passions, and the unrestricted growth of the
God-given faculties, in substance as follows:
[Sidenote: Germ Cure Logical to All]
[Sidenote: "Get Thee Behind me Satan"]
"The germ theory of cure must appeal to _all_ persons in a greater or
less degree, especially to such as find it difficult to believe in a
personal Deity who receives directly and directly answers prayer as a
special dispensation. They can find logic in the cultivation of the
Divine Spark which has been breathed in to them, and feel that in its
growth toward perfection the Laws of Nature are being assisted and not
violated; while to such as find faith in a personal God and comfort and
help in prayer, the ability to be superior to sinful thoughts will give
stimulation to their faith, and be a fulfilment of the Example, which
taught: _'Get thee behind me, Satan'!_"
A SOUTHRON
[Sidenote: "Superior to Niggers"]
I was traveling with a friend from the South who is one of the best
fellows that I know. He is kind, considerate, chivalrous, and all that
characterizes a Southern gentleman; but he has a false idea of dignity
in some respects, and precipitates controversy sometimes without cause,
and when he himself is to blame in the matter. We were discussing the
theory of Emancipation, and he agreed with me on almost all of the
points at issue, in fact to such an extent that I felt that he absorbed
the idea fully, when he said: "Yes, it is true, and I believe in it,
and I think I have practiced it somewhat; but I can't stand
impertinence from niggers; they rub up against me all the time, and
annoy me terribly, especially these Pullman porters." "Yes," said I in
reply, "you have attained pretty good self-control and have reason to
be proud of it; you are pretty nearly a perfect man; the only thing you
are not superior to is a nigger." The rebuke impressed him as a truism
that had never occurred to him in that light before.
The truth of the matter is, and I have had both experiences to prove it
to my own satisfaction, antagonism invites antagonism. A fostered
dislike or an anticipated friction sends out a shaft in advance which
rebounds and rebounds with quickening vibrations. If one is looking for
impertinence from any source he will be pretty sure to find it; but if
he carries a mind and heart free from prejudice, which is the condition
of Emancipation, the shaft will not be unloosed, and the disturbing
vibrations will not occur. I do not believe that Pullman porters were
ever discourteous to Phillips Brooks, or Edward Everett Hale, or
Professor Swing or men of their caliber of mind; or if they were, I do
not believe that the impertinence made any impression on them except to
excite pity.
FEAR DISPELLED
[Sidenote: Fear Dispelled]
The most remarkable evidence in support of my theory that fear is
dispelled with worry, and which corroborates my own experience, comes
from an old friend who once had a shock from a stroke of lightning, and
who, on account of it, has for years suffered wretchedly from a
depression akin to involuntary fear whenever the weather has indicated
an approaching storm. He has accepted the possibility of Emancipation
and enjoyed deliverance from the passions, but strangely enough has
also now immunity from any uncomfortable feeling during electric
storms.
TIMIDITY DISAPPEARS
Another convert states that he has lost all timidity, in the presence
of an audience, which formerly he could not overcome.
THOMSON J. HUDSON
[Sidenote: Psychic Evidence]
Mr. Thomson J. Hudson, in his _Law of Psychic Phenomena_, has
marshalled a great array of authentic evidence, gathered from the
researches of many Psychological Societies, which all prove the power
of the mind over itself and over the body, and its amenability to
suggestion, under the receptive condition of faith. One can not read
this able work without becoming convinced that Emancipation is entirely
possible. Any one who wishes to learn something of the power stored
within him, will do well to read the _Law of Psychic Phenomena_.
The success of the Keeley Cure in conquering the habits of drinking,
opium, and tobacco, is proof of the efficacy of germ treatment where
the germs are sensual, or mental. If bichloride of gold can cure such
dread passions of the appetite, may not bichloride of _common sense_
cure the bad habits of the mind that cause them?
A MASTER WORKMAN
[Sidenote: Source of All Wealth]
And now, comes a scrap of evidence that is valuable because it is
furnished by a man whose experience is wide among the people who make
the wealth which we all enjoy; to whom we are directly indebted for the
comforts and luxuries of life; and whose endorsement of an idea or
reform is necessary to make it become a feature of our system or
government. He went west many years ago from New York, a mechanic by
trade, and found employment in the shops of one of the great railroads.
In time he was advanced to the position of foreman. In private life he
is now a Baron Bountiful in the service of everybody within his reach.
As Masterworkman of Labor Organizations, he has urged the just cause of
his confreres with the success that follows earnest conviction. In the
intimate confidence of his employers, he has presented their side of a
controversy to the men without any of the misrepresentation of a
demagogue.
[Sidenote: Brings Sunniest Comfort]
He is the President of a sound Building and Loan Association, without
salary, not to make money for himself, but for the purpose of helping
his men to build and own homes; and those who have felt his assistance
in that direction, and owe him debts of gratitude for various
benefactions, are numbered by the hundreds. Whenever there is sickness,
he brings solid help and the sunniest of comfort; and when there is
death, he knows just how best to serve the afflicted family with those
delicate attentions which relieve them from repulsively material
details, his presence always bringing comfort even under circumstances
in which people want most to be alone. His sympathy is universal, and
reflects itself into the hearts of all with whom he comes in contact.
[Sidenote: Emancipation Appreciated]
To such a man, one would naturally think the depressing passions were
strangers, and that he must have been born without them; but he assures
me that he was a slave to them for many years, and that he was
frightened out of harboring them by a physician, and that whatever good
he has accomplished in his humble sphere (as he calls it) he attributes
to the partial Emancipation which his doctor's warning led him to
enforce upon himself. The story that follows was elicited on hearing an
outline of the theory of possible Emancipation as presented in these
pages.
[Sidenote: "The Old Gentleman Needs it"]
"Stop right there: don't go any farther till I have talked with you
about that part of it. It is as true as gospel, but I never knew what
it was. I have had an experience which makes me know that it is true,
but I didn't know the reason for it. When the doctors told me that I
must quit worrying and take it easy, or medicine would do me no good,
and I would die, why didn't they tell me that anger and worry were not
necessary, and that it was they that I was suffering from? I would have
understood it better, and I wouldn't have had so much trouble about
fearing I would have them back some time in spite of myself. Why didn't
the preachers tell me this when I was a boy, and let me begin to live
then, instead of waiting till I got to be an old man or pretty near to
it? You can bet that my boys will know this thing right away, and live
it too, and I want my men to know it. It is the only thing they need to
complete their happiness. The old gentleman needs it, and Mr.----, and
Mr---- (mentioning a number of well known men who are their own worst
enemies, who harm no one but themselves, but whose abuse of self,
through worry, is as merciless as the tortures of the Inquisition); and
what a blessing it would be for the women! See here, I want a hundred
of those books as soon as they are published, and I know where they
will do a heap of good. They will be better than the medicine of all
the doctors, and do a lot of good besides. I'm going to commit what you
have told me to memory, so as to tell people about it if I haven't got
a book by me. You see that I know all about this, for I have had an
experience. When I was a youngster, I was naturally ambitious, and
pretty smart with the tools, and 'took' with my employers, and finally
got to be superintendent. Then I got to be more ambitious, especially
after I was married and the children came. I wanted them to have a good
education and be fitted to be gentlemen, which I knew their mother's,
and I might remark incidentally, my own blood entitled them to be. I
was pretty sensitive, and was always standing up for my rights. I was
too apt to worry. I had not heard what you have told me and thought
worry necessary. If I had not worried I would not have got angry.
[Sidenote: "Got to be Superintendent"]
[Sidenote: It Became a Habit]
[Sidenote: "Frightened out of my Wits"]
[Sidenote: Anger and Worry Caused Sickness]
[Sidenote: Emancipation Makes Good Neighbors]
[Sidenote: "Looking Backward" from Emancipation]
"When I got to be superintendent I thought that one of the things that
I had to do was to be sure and maintain my dignity, and show it by
occasionally making believe mad at something. At first I did not feel
it half as much as I showed it; but I thought it was part of the
business of a boss to get mad, until finally it got to be a habit, and
grew on me till I was in a state of anger most of the time. I also
thought that I had to worry about things, or I would not show the
proper respect for my responsibilities. It was the way I had of letting
myself feel that I was carrying a terrible burden and earning my
salary. The trouble was that, while it was partly play-acting at first,
it came to be habit, and worked on my health in the end. The doctors
dosed me with all sorts of medicine. I was a regular pigeon, and gave
up many a hard-earned dollar to them for no good at all. One day Dr.
L----, to whom I went as a last resort, for I was beginning to have
dizzy spells and twitching in the face that was serious, asked me a lot
of questions about myself and my habits and duties. I told him frankly,
and when I had done so he said: 'There is no use giving you any
medicine, you have got to quit worrying and take it easy; that is the
only trouble with you. If you keep on with your worry I will have to
give your family a certificate of death; so, if you don't want me to do
that, you just quit your worrying and take life easy. Whatever you do,
don't get into fits of anger, for that is more wearing to a man in your
condition than anything else.' Well, to 'fess up and tell you the
truth, I got frightened out of my wits. I hadn't got near enough to
eighty (my limit) to think about dying, and I didn't want to do it
right then, especially as I hadn't got Mary and the boys well enough
fixed to leave. The other doctors had made a monkey of me, and took my
money, and told me that I would be all right in a few days; but this
honest German told me the truth and set me to thinking. I didn't say a
word to anyone, but made up my mind I would take his advice. At first I
thought that I was shirking some of the duties of a superintendent,
when I quit getting mad and worrying; but I squared it with myself by
saying to myself, 'Better be a tame donkey for the company than a dead
one.' Well, I didn't know it at the time; that is, I didn't know the
cause of it, but from that time I have just had luck under my wing all
the time. I have pleased my employers, and I have pleased the men, and
things have been coming my way in great shape, and they are still
a-coming. Why, I see it all as plain as the nose on your face. Those
little devils that keep a man back, and keep him from being happy, have
no business there by rights; and all you have got to know is that they
are poachers, and all you have got to do is to tell them to 'git.' And
just see how it would work if everybody knew this as I see it. If you
knew that your neighbor knew that Emancipation was possible, you would
know at the same time that he was no fool, and that, knowing it, he had
become Emancipated, of course, and there would be a trustful sympathy
established at once, and you would pull together and never apart after
that. If his fence accidentally encroached an inch on your land, you
would be glad of it; or, if your fence had been set on his side of the
legal line, he would not object; and so it would go on between you, and
you would be happy and good neighbors to each other. Why, I would
rather my men would have that secret and day's wages, than a million of
dollars without it; and my boys, if I don't leave them a cent, I will
leave them full of this secret, and won't worry about their future
happiness. I was much interested in that book you gave me several years
ago called 'Looking Backward.' What the author said about co-operation,
and all that, was all right and very beautiful; but I didn't take much
stock in it because I had such a poor opinion of human nature, that I
didn't think people could quit grabbing and get down to brass tacks in
a co-operative way. But if you can spread the idea of Mental
Emancipation as you have told it to me (and I don't see what can help
its spreading like wildfire as soon as it gets out), the social
paradise pictured in 'Looking Backward' will come as a matter of
course; and I see it a-coming. If you take off a brake I can see how a
car can run down a hill, but with the brake on I couldn't see how you
could push it down.
[Sidenote: Free-Masonry of Emancipation]
"The more I think of this thing the bigger it gets, and it is a sure
winner. Now suppose my family, and the B. family on the corner, and the
N. family next door had found out the secret, anybody that couldn't
grasp it couldn't live in the street, he would feel so uncomfortable.
In fact, if there were such an one, we could put him down for a crazy
man or an idiot, and treat him with the same consideration we treat
such weak people.
[Sidenote: Lawyer's Brains Prostituted]
[Sidenote: Emancipation Prevents Robbery]
"Or suppose the men over in the shops were the joint possessors of the
secret; why, the first thing you would know they would all be at work
on some co-operative plan for themselves. Not that any of us have
anything against the employers we work for, for there are no better in
the land; but it is the blamed stupidity of the system that makes men
work hard for small wages to feed the flames of ruinous rivalry. Look
at the brains locked up in the pates of lawyers which have nothing
better to do than to mix things up so that they will get the job of
unmixing them. Think what would happen if all that education and all
that ingenuity were turned towards invention! Most of the tangles they
are employed to unravel should never have existed, and would not have
existed in a community where the secret of Emancipation had been told.
In all of the clumsiness of competition, and the expense of pullback
methods, labor, the source of all we have, pays the whole freight in
one way or another; and the reason it does so is because of the little
parasite devils that are sawing wood and hatching eggs in the minds of
each individual worker and producer. With these little devils at work
in him he is suspicious, selfish, jealous, and what not else, because
he thinks his neighbor and fellow workman are similarly possessed, and
he must be so too to get along. Under this condition cohesion is
impossible, and schemers prey upon the separateness of the producing
community to rob it of as much of the product of its labor as possible.
Suppose that the secret of possible Emancipation should become general
(and for the life of me I cannot see how it can fail to do so), there
would be confidence, trustfulness, cohesion, ambition to be useful, and
the energy of the healthy child for play-work would return to the
rejuvenated man, and he would play work under those conditions and not
feel that it was a mark of servitude and necessity, and the land would
sing with the sound of willing industry."
[Sidenote: Emancipation Breeds Eloquence]
My friend had become eloquent under the inspiration of the possible
establishment of a Heaven on earth to which he could invite his
friends. Do not think that this is not a true report of a conversation
in real life. My friend is a real character; is well read and educated
by observation and experience, and could succeed in almost any position
in life except in such as did not give "value received" for the service
rendered. He is one of those "Noblemen by Nature" to whom the world
owes so much, but pays so little; but he is happy in doing good, and
the field he works in is one of the richest for that harvest, and the
compensation he prizes most highly, is the happiness he is able to give
others. He had the secret of True Living forced on him, in spite of the
example of the world, without knowing the true cause or value of his
good fortune; but his happiness was increased many fold when he learned
that it was his birthright; was a possession of which no one could rob
him; and would remain his as long as he lived. And as he has faith in
the Eternal Evolution of everything, he feels that, freed from the
depressing passions, there will be no end to his growth; that, at the
so-called middle age of human tenure, he is but in the beginning of
life; or, if not that, that each day is a wealth of joy unto itself in
spite of any external conditions; for he has found that "the kingdom of
Heaven is at hand" and that a branch of it has been established in his
own heart.
[Sidenote: Heaven is at Hand]
[Sidenote: Key-stones and Cornerstones]
[Sidenote: Cripple can be greater than a king]
All men are not constituted alike. In the economy of Nature it is her
purpose that no two things are made alike. In a million years a million
men could not count the spears of grass in the fields, or the hairs of
the heads of men; yet no patient investigator has been able to find any
two of them that did not differ from every other one when put under the
lens of the microscope. One thousand millions of humans inhabit this
earth. Each has essentially the same form, the same two eyes, the same
mouth, the same ears and hands and arms; and yet even in the case of
twins, where the nearest approach to similarity comes, the mother never
can mistake the one for the other. If you are unlike others, it is
because nature chose to cast you in a different mould to serve some
wise purpose; and with that form, comes the God-given essence of the
Divine, whose presence and growth are evidenced by an innate yearning
for spirituality. Much spirituality lifts a man above his less
spiritual fellows and makes of him a cornerstone, or a keystone, or
some other important segment of the social structure; and lack of it
condemns him to be a bit of rubble, or an atom of filling. The
cornerstones and the keystones help and support each other in the
stately arch, while the rubble and the atoms fall apart and become
dirt, when allowed to find their level. Which shall we choose to
become: the keystone of the arch, or some of the dirt of the earth
beneath it? Which shall we choose: happiness, health, growth,
usefulness, rest, and a fitting relationship to the Divine, or the
reverse? Each is what God made him plus what he can attain by growth.
Through eradication of the cankerous passions; through the extirpation
of the mental weeds; the dwarf may grow to be greater than the king;
and all can freely and fully enjoy life and growth, when they have
learned the A-B-C of True Living. The grammar, and the rhetoric, and
the poetry, and perhaps a higher intelligence than we know of now may
follow, and are sure to follow; but they will be but brighter phases of
happiness already attained.
A CHURCHWOMAN
[Sidenote: A Devout Churchwoman]
In searching for corroborative evidence of the possibility of
Emancipation, I was fortunate in meeting a lady whose acquaintance with
the several religions and metaphysics is exceptional; and whose clear
intelligence regarding the value of menticulture, makes her a rare
critic in questions of this kind. From her I received the most valued
encouragement. She is a devout church-woman, but has studied along the
several lines of psychology in search of additional light and strength.
She had read my simple presentation of the theory of germ cure, and
found in it a ray of hope, the effect of which she described as
follows: "The sensation that was produced in me by the suggestion, I
cannot describe. It was as if a great flood of light had burst upon me,
and I saw the possibility of an immediate realization of my spiritual
ideal; and I have prayed to God constantly, that it may not leave me.
There have been unusual occasions for worry and annoyance since then. I
have just moved to a new city; into a new house; and my husband and I
are beginning life anew in an untried field. All of my past
associations are broken up, and new sympathies among strangers are to
be formed. My husband's health has been poor, and mine has been
wretched, so that we have been compelled to seek climates more
favorable, at the expense of financial considerations; yet, the cloud
that hung over our prospects has been miraculously dispelled, and my
days and nights are soothed with a calm contentment and happiness which
I have never known before. My religion seems more precious to me than
ever. It seems as if one _simple little ingredient_ that it lacked has
been found; and that now it is perfect. I have always been possessed of
a desire to accomplish one act in life which should be conspicuous for
its usefulness to some one; and if I can ever succeed in giving to one
person the light and comfort that this revelation has given to me, I
shall feel that my ambition has been attained."
[Sidenote: Simple Little Ingredient]
Her discovery of a _simple little ingredient_, in the theory of germ
cure, led to a new appreciation of the idea of simplicity in connection
with it, which has been amplified in the succeeding chapter.
FIRST PRINCIPLES OVERLOOKED
[Sidenote: Simplicity and Harmony are Ultimate]
Simplicity and harmony are the ultimate conditions to be attained in
all things. In literature, and in music, and in oratory, and in
painting, and in mechanics, and in life, simplicity is at once the
greatest charm, and the best evidence of merit. In mechanics, a _simple
little device_ usually perfects the great labor-saving machine. In
chemistry, a _simple little ingredient_ may give culminating power to a
world-building or a world-destroying compound. In oratory, a _simple
and impassioned appeal_ is most potent to move the multitude to action;
and in menticulture, the _simple and direct application of the germ
cure_, may be able to effect a millennium in social evolution within a
generation. Stranger things have happened! Because it has not happened,
is no reason why it should not happen. In fact, there are logical
reasons why the habit of repression should have smothered any idea of
germ cure, till Science placed an analogy in physics before our eyes;
especially because the false hypothesis of original (or natural) sin,
has been persistently advanced as a law of our being.
[Sidenote: Germ Cure not Understood]
Christ taught the germ cure, and hinted at no other as an alternative.
In the sermon on the mount; in his talks by the Sea of Galilee; and in
his rebuke of the devil in the desert, there was no note of indecision
suggested. _Do_ and _be_ and _get_ were unmistakable commands. But
these commands were given in a gentle manner, to half-doubting
disciples, and faintly echoed by them to an incredulous world, that had
not learned the power of mind over matter, or over itself; and hence
the world waited for Science to prove even greater possibilities,
before giving heed to the _simple_ commands of the Great Teacher in the
manner he commanded.
[Sidenote: Order of Responsibility]
One of the great weaknesses of the age in which we live is the ignoring
of first principles, and a reaching out for the remote or unattainable.
In the matter of home responsibilities, and in menticulture, this is
most apparent. The order of responsibility is--the mind,--the body--the
mind of the child--the body or health of the child--and so on in the
sequence of relationship in the family, in the community, in the
nation, and in the world; not with selfish discrimination against the
more remote, but with zealous care of the nearer relationships. This
order, however, is rarely observed. We weed the garden, but do not weed
the mind. We pass laws to punish any who strike, or rob, or corrupt a
citizen, but there is no law to protect the abused or neglected
children of drunken or incompetent parents, except in extreme cases.
Breeders of fine animals take the greatest pains to guard all the
conditions surrounding their stock, and at the same time encourage
family alliance with consumptive plutocrats.
[Sidenote: _Laissez Faire_ Superseded]
The antiquated and primitive doctrine of _laissez faire_, has been
replaced by those of Division of Labor, and of Protection, in the cases
of the strong who have demanded them, or who have purchased them
through legislative cupidity; but still obtains in the cases of the
weak and non-assertive.
[Sidenote: Strength Protected Weakness Unprotected]
The truant subjects of great nations, scattered in foreign lands, are
hedged about with protection equal to an imperial guard; and thousands
of men and millions of money are sacrificed to revenge an insult to, or
protect the property of a claimant citizen at the Antipodes; while
hundreds and thousands of the producers at home are starving and dying,
because of the maladministration of the first principles of economies,
and the _laissez faire license_ given to selfish and unscrupulous
competition.
Arrogant commerce, and the already-powerful, have no end of protection;
but the mind, the health, the child, and the producer, are left to the
tender mercy of chance, or are hampered by crushing conditions of abuse
and neglect contrary to every law of growth; and thus it must be; until
we adopt the germ cure, as a principle of menticulture, and
Emancipation, as the first evidence of intelligence and respectability.
[Sidenote: Wasting Precious Time]
In self-administration, the far-away habit is quite as prevalent as in
the administration of Society. Men and women slave and save, to furnish
means for sending missionaries to India, to release the Indian mind of
imagined evils, while they crawl about servile to anger or worry, or
both anger and worry. They set their ideal of happiness at an
indefinite height, always out of reach. They hide their Heaven behind
the curtain of death, and refuse to look for it within the precincts of
their own heart. They waste precious time in speculating as to the form
and attributes of the Cause of all things, its residence and
disposition, while they smother under the pall of inappreciation, the
best evidence of its existence, and the most potent workings of its
power, within themselves. And all this because they work from the wrong
end, and are dull to the efficacy of growth from the basis of
Emancipation.
Their method of life is like the unraveling of a snarled skein from the
middle. They fumble futilely at the snarl, and accomplish little, if
anything, when they ought first to release the end within themselves,
and follow the cord from that beginning, along the line of growth and
organization, to the condition of unrestricted freedom, and
usefulness,--the condition of Emancipated Brotherhood.
[Sidenote: Nations Founded About an Idea]
Religions are founded, fraternal societies are formed, armies are
marshalled, and nations are grown about a sympathetic idea, to which
the majority subscribe. The aim is always the same: growth, protection,
harmony, happiness, Heaven. But the growth is slow, the protection is
only partial, the harmony is incomplete, perfect happiness is
impossible, and Heaven is indefinite and remote; because their
organization tolerates selfishness as a necessary "mark of Cain,"
instead of being built on the foundation of Emancipation.
All true calculation must recognize a unit of value; in menticulture
the only true unit is Emancipation.
In harmony, instruments cannot be tuned from several standards; there
must be one key-note; and harmony in menticulture can only come from
the key-note--Emancipation.
SLAVES OR FREEMEN--WHICH?
Within the memory of many now living, Society was dominated by the
belief that human body-slavery was a Divine institution.
Thirty-five years ago a great war was waged against the institution in
this country, at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives, and
thousands of millions of dollars worth of property.
That war resulted not only in killing the institution itself, but also
in the extirpation of the idea of its Divine origin.
[Sidenote: Body-Slavery Overcome]
It is no longer a question of debate in any part of the civilized word,
but an established international understanding, that slavery is not
only unjust to the enslaved, but an evil, the effects of which are
shared by the master.
[Sidenote: Mercenary Fashion a Cruel Master]
Negro slavery in America was, however, a mild and beneficent
institution, as compared to the voluntary servitude to Mercenary
Fashion, which enthrals so many at the present time. Mercenary Fashion
places burdens on rich and poor alike, and costs Society more lives and
property yearly, than all that was wasted during the war of the
Rebellion.
Most of the masters of the negro were kindly and considerate, and not a
few of the negro uncles and aunties now living, regret the "good old
times when marster and missus did all the plannin' and pervidin', and
all we uns had to do was work, and sing and dance."
[Sidenote: Ostentation Panders to Fashion]
On the other hand, Mercenary Fashion has headquarters in Paris, in
London, in Vienna, and in Berlin; and sets its traps all over the
world, baited with styles of such absurd taste and uselessness that
interest in them can only be brief. It is part of its deliberate
policy, not to suggest any form or style that has merit sufficient to
make it desirable a second season. It avoids any approach to the simple
and beautiful and comfortable drapery used by the ancient Greeks,
because of fear that its trade will be ruined by the stability of the
wares. Ostentation is the ever-ready victim to take the poisonous bait;
and then, there is a mad rush of the mimicking slaves, to assume the
fetters which bind them to constant toil. Dishonor, infamy, and shame,
are braved by men and women alike, in following the allurements of
Mercenary Fashion.
Fear (of criticism) and Envy are the two phases of the root passions,
that are the most powerful and active agents in securing victims for
Mercenary Fashion; but, if Emancipation were the established rule of
life, these agents would not exist; Ostentation would not be followed;
and Taste, and Usefulness, and Permanence, would be the leaders
instead; and a state of coöperation which might properly be named Good
Fashion, or God Fashion, would succeed the tyrant of the present; and
Fashion, under such conditions, would be a blessing instead of a curse
as at present.
[Sidenote: Bicycle Brings Freedom]
Mercenary Fashion has met with a formidable adversary in the bicycle.
The absurd costumes inflicted by it on a servile world, seem as
ridiculous when mounted on a bicycle, as if they were placed on the
David of Michael Angelo, or on the Venus de Milo. Bicycle costumes for
women may not displace all others; but, with the freedom of movement
enjoyed on the wheel, in a costume suitable to the unhampered action of
a biped; with the constant restraint of position rendered necessary by
the wearing of skirts removed, woman may soon become free to move and
act as Nature designed that she should move and act, and enjoyment of
this new freedom will greatly modify her slavery to Mercenary Fashion.
Fashion (or mimicry) is good, if properly led.
[Sidenote: Make Freedom Fashionable]
If it were fashionable to believe that anger and worry were unnecessary
weeds of the mind, were blemishes that could be removed from the
disposition, were habits that were unbecoming to civilized man, and
were handicaps to energy and happiness that could be put aside at will,
the world could follow _that_ fashion to a state of Emancipation, with
all the enthusiasm it could muster, and benefit itself by being
fashionable.
And, should a just appreciation of the power within us become
_fashionable_, the tendency to mimicry; which is now the connecting
link of resemblance between us and the monkey from which we have
evolved, would become an element of strength, instead of an element of
weakness.
We, as individuals, support the fashions, but we do not suggest them.
We support waste and discomfort, for the benefit of mercenary and
designing fashion-makers, with the product of never-ending toil,
because we ape Ostentation, cringe before Fear, and encourage Envy as
an attribute of Pride.
[Sidenote: Plows with a Stick]
[Sidenote: Druggists Convention]
We are slaves indeed! not only in the matter of clothes, but in the
matter of the distribution of the necessities and luxuries of life and
comfort. We do some things more cleverly than the rest of the world,
but in others we excel in clumsiness and inconsistency. In Mexico (our
nearest neighbor), a sharpened stick is still used for plowing; but,
that is not nearly as crude, of its kind, as some of the business
methods that we support in this country are of their kind; and in
matters of utmost importance, too. For instance: in the city of
Montgomery, Alabama, there is a square, or rather a diamond, around
which, and within a block of which, there are eight or nine drug
stores. This may not be an unusual bunching of druggists, but, as
Montgomery is a meeting point of several terminal railroads, and trains
from all directions are usually detained there one or two hours, I have
had abundant opportunity to study this constellation of red and green
lights, that blink and stare at all who visit the park they look on.
They all seem to be full fledged, and fully equipped drug stores, and
not devoted to specialties, as one would suppose as a reason for there
being so many of them.
[Sidenote: Montgomery, Alabama]
As it is, there are eight stores, eight stocks of goods, eight sets of
clerks, eight insurance policies, eight computations of interest, eight
gas or electric light bills, and probably eight many-other items of
expense chargeable to the profits on the sales, and supported by the
public, when one establishment would serve all the people of Montgomery
better than the eight do now. If these stores were scattered about the
city, the matter of convenience could be urged for their existence. To
support such prodigality, profits ranging from one hundred to one
thousand _per cent._ have to be charged, and the public evidently pays
them, for their existence from year to year is evidence of support from
some one. Suppose the Corporation of the City of Montgomery were to
vote an appropriation of fifty thousand (or perhaps only twenty
thousand) dollars, for the purpose of establishing a first-class
dispensary of medicines, etc., and should put it in charge of a
competent chemist, who would know what medicines were good, and what
compounds were not good? The patronage of the citizens would support
such an establishment on a ten _per cent._ basis of profit, and pay ten
_per cent._ interest on the investment without doubt, and the citizens
would not be at the mercy of chance or imposition, in a matter of prime
importance to health, as they are liable to be, under any but the most
perfect system of selecting and dispensing drugs and patent medicines.
[Sidenote: Slavery to Waste]
This is a single instance among thousands, of the unintelligent
application of the doctrine of _laissez faire_ to matters of vital
social interest; and is given here to illustrate a form of slavery to
inconvenience and waste, that would be cleared away like mist before
the sun, as the result of evolution, from the standpoint of
Emancipation.
It required a million guns, and the assistance of several million men,
with all the waste and blood which war carries with it, to free the
negro; and the advance of humanity the world over, was a fruit, worth
the cost of the war; but slavery of the individual to the parasite
passions, will not enlist the rescue of arms, although it entails
greater hardship than was ever suffered by the average negro slave.
Each individual must gain for himself this freedom; no one else can aid
him except through suggestion and moral help. It is his birthright
however, and awaits his call.
[Sidenote: The Martyr]
The face of the martyr glowed with radiant happiness, when he exclaimed
to his jailers from the confines of his chains, "You have bound my
body, but you cannot bind my soul! Kill my body if you like! it will
only give greater freedom to my soul." But the so-called free citizen
of to-day; who smothers himself under the blanket of worry; or, who
spits angry injustice at a self-created-phantom-cause for resentment,
is a weak and pitiable wretch, as compared with the bonded martyr or
negro of long ago.
[Sidenote: Axiom of the Circus]
Emancipation, or, a perfectly _de-angered_ and _de-worryized_ mind, can
only be secured through _conviction_ of its possibility, and not simply
through an intellectual admission of its possibility. Faith is the
pre-requisite of every successful accomplishment in life. An axiom of
the circus ring warns an acrobat, or a gymnast, never to attempt a
feat, unless he has perfect confidence in his ability to perform it
successfully. Knowledge and the appreciation of the power of the mind
over phantoms of its own creation, and confidence to expel them, is as
necessary in menticulture as is the confidence of the gymnast in
performing wonderful feats of menti-physical skill. The condition
required for growth to Emancipation, is that of perfect faith and
confidence, born of knowledge of the power God has given us to "cast
out evil," and in that condition, Emancipation, when attained, can be
anchored safely, protected from any of the battling and surging
elements of discord from without.
[Sidenote: Psychic Researches]
The researches of many scientific societies along the lines of Psychic
Phenomena, endorsed by every utterance of Christ, reveal the fact that
faith is a pre-requisite to subjection, or control, of the mind. The
best subjects in scientific hypnotism are the strongest minded (who
believe through knowledge), and the weakest minded (who believe through
credulity); while the creatures of vacillating impulses, are hopeless
dolts in the hands of the hypnotist, and will be those who will have to
acquire Mental Emancipation because it is fashionable, and not because
it is sensible.
The condition of Emancipation is one of faith in the beginning; but, as
soon as it is attained, there is no desire to replant mental weeds, and
no struggle to repress them, for there are no roots or seeds from which
to grow them.
Faith must precede, but examples of Emancipation are sure to develop in
every community, and soon the atmosphere will be pregnant with the
possibility of it. Then it will be easy to _follow the fashion_ and
dismiss anger and worry; and, after a little, shame will attach to the
possession of them. Growth and happiness will result from the
elimination of the germs of strife; natural coöperation will follow
natural growth; and we will catch up with Mr. Bellamy's prophecy, long
before the time specified in "Looking Backward," by the simple
unraveling of a silken skein of endless possibilities from the free end
within ourselves.
[Sidenote: Tottering House of Can't]
Fear that individuality will be lost in coöperation, is one of the
hot-shot missiles of mendacity, that is being fired at Coöperation from
the citadel of the condemned passions, by the slaves of the tottering
house of _Can't_, but will fall, harmless, before the armour of
Emancipation.
Does it lessen the individuality of the gardener to weed his soil? Does
it weaken the individuality of a patient to cut out the root of his
cancer? Does it militate against the power of a cause, to rid it of its
faults? Will the runner run less swiftly, or the jumper jump less far,
if they remove the handicap?
ORGANIZATION
While Emancipation in the individual is worth more than all the wealth
of the world to him without it, organization about the idea is
desirable for the purpose of aiding others; and, (through coöperation
and the most perfect economics) lightening the burden of compulsory
labor, in order that there shall be more time to devote to recreation
and recreative labor.
[Sidenote: Organization Desirable]
Organization on the basis of Emancipation is sure to be the next great
movement of reform and growth, in the light of whose strength, the puny
efforts of the past will seem like the light of a tallow dip beside an
electric cluster.
[Sidenote: Adds Everything Takes Nothing]
This will come; not because I have discovered it for myself and am
publishing an account of the discovery to my friends, but because the
world has learned something of the powers at its command; has learned
the possibility of germ cure in physics; has learned the efficacy of
mental therapeutics in matters of both mind and body; and is ripe for
it. When I tell my friends my experience and deductions, they are
prepared at once to accept them with credence. And so it will be with
them and their friends, for logic and self interest are merits to
commend it to all intelligent persons; and, in the immediate future, it
is not unreasonable to hope that Emancipation, as a basic condition
favorable to growth and Brotherhood, may not be an uncommon
accomplishment and requirement. I believe that it is one of the first
steps urged in Christian Science and rendered possible by the belief,
as it is in the Buddhist Discipline and Christian formula, and in the
circle of my acquaintance there are already many believers in the
possibility of Emancipation, who are enjoying its benefits; who find
that it is _the one little ingredient_ necessary to perfect their
established beliefs, and strengthen their present affiliations; and to
whom it adds everything and from whom takes nothing.
[Sidenote: No End to Growth]
All the members of religious sects; all the members of fraternal
societies, as well as many of the disconnected seekers after
intellectual and spiritual growth, should be eager to enroll themselves
under the banner of Emancipation; and if this should happen, the wished
for Utopia of the most fertile imagination, would not be as remote as
it has seemed to be in the past.
HOPE
When one has attained the condition of Emancipation, let him be sure
that it is only the elementary stage of growth, the happy childhood of
true life (no matter what the physical age of the body), and that there
is a possibility of development to a point of unselfishness, whence one
can view one's own individuality from without, and direct its action
from an impersonal standpoint. Then each of us can _will_ himself to
act as he would like to have a beloved friend or relative act in any
given situation.
I believe that this is true, and entirely possible to the emancipated
mind; but, as I have aimed to present only a personal discovery and
experience, I will leave a deeper consideration of the subject to the
test of a longer acquaintance with the new-found life.
PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY
AND SONS COMPANY, AT THE
LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL
MDCCCXCV
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