In regard to Mind as a whole, there are still to be found among us some
remnants of a mistake, once universally prevalent and deeply rooted,
namely, the opinion that mind is not only a different fact from
body--which is true, and a vital and fundamental truth--but is to a
greater or less extent independent of the body. In former times, the
remark seldom occurred to any one, unless obtruded by some extreme
instance, that to work the mind is also to work a number of bodily
organs; that not a feeling can arise, not a thought can pass, without a
set of concurring bodily processes. At the present day, however, this
doctrine is very generally preached by men of science. The improved
treatment of the insane has been one consequence of its reception. The
husbanding of mental power, through a bodily _regime_, is a no less
important application. Instead of supposing that mind is something
indefinite, elastic, inexhaustible,--a sort of perpetual motion, or
magician's bottle, all expenditure, and no supply,--we now find that
every single throb of pleasure, every smart of pain, every purpose,
thought, argument, imagination, must have its fixed quota of oxygen,
carbon, and other materials, combined and transformed in certain
physical organs. And, as the possible extent of physical transformation
in each person's framework is limited in amount, the forces resulting
cannot be directed to one purpose without being lost for other purposes.
If an extra share passes to the muscles, there is less for the nerves;
if the cerebral functions are pushed to excess, other functions have to
be correspondingly abated. In several of the prevailing opinions about
to be criticised, failure to recognise this cardinal truth is the prime
source of mistake.
* * * * *
To begin with the FEELINGS.
I. We shall first consider an advice or prescription repeatedly put
forth, not merely by the unthinking mass, but by men of high repute: it
is, that with a view to happiness, to virtue, and to the accomplishment
of great designs, we should all be cheerful, light-hearted, gay.
I quote a passage from the writings of one of the Apostolic Fathers, the
Pastor of Hermas, as given in Dr. Donaldson's abstract:--
"Command tenth affirms that sadness is the sister of doubt, mistrust,
and wrath; that it is worse than all other spirits, and grieves the Holy
Spirit. It is therefore to be completely driven away, and, instead of
it, we are to put on cheerfulness, which is pleasing to God. 'Every
cheerful man works well, and always thinks those things which are good,
and despises sadness. The sad man, on the other hand, is always
bad.'"[2]
[FALLACY OF PRESCRIBING CHEERFULNESS.]
Dugald Stewart inculcates Good-humour as a means of happiness and
virtue; his language implying that the quality is one within our power
to appropriate.
In Mr. Smiles's work entitled "Self-Help," we find an analogous strain
of remarks:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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