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John Bascom - Creator of Science of Mind - progenitor of New Thought

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John Bascom's

Science of Mind

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Introduction - Intellect - Mental Science's Divisions - Intellect's Divisions and Perceptions - The Understanding - The Reason - The Dynamics of the Intellect - Physical Feelings - Intellectual Feelings - Spiritual Feelings - Dynamics of Feelings - The Will - The Nervous System - Nervous System of Man - Executive Volition - Primary Volition, or Choice - Dynamics of the Will and the Mind - The Relations of the Systems Here Offered to Prevalent Forms of Philosophy - Index - Contents -


which have an intellectual basis. That they are not spontaneous, immediate impulses, a little thought will be sufficient to show. As universally stated they are directed toward abstract ideas, not toward concrete objects; they are desires of wealth, of power, of knowledge, not for wampum, for the ability to bend a bow, or to calculate an eclipse. Now a desire directed in the outset to a generalization, to an abstract quality, is an absurdity, since no such quality can be present to the mind except as the result of much comparison and many judgments. Neither should we avoid the difficulty by saying, that these desires fasten themselves with native, original force on specific objects under each of the categories of desire. There are no specific objects which draw forth universal desire, and which can stand as concrete types, or representations of the notions of power, wealth, honor. Specific powers become points of interest and desire according as they are able to gratify certain native appetites or tastes. Possession is a matter of interest to the child only as the thing claimed stands in some relation to its sports, by which it is capable of promoting its enjoyment.

Possession, without some connection with our pleasures, has no significance, either in early or later life. A square mile of territory on the frozen continent of the Antarctic Zone, has no power to awaken desire in any man. Now this discerning of the relation of things to our appetites, our active powers, our tastes, which makes them valuable, is an intellectual activity, receiving constant expansion as we grow older, and leading us to attach importance to the ownership of an increasing variety of things. The ignorant man cares not for a book, except as he can sell it; because the mental conditions which make possession important to him have not been met.

Our desires, then, are secondary feelings uniformly

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