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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 -


truth. As a simple means to an end it is a form of power, as in itself productive of pleasures it is truth.

Having so classified the desires, we must guard against a tendency to recognize as distinct desires any of the more remote objects to which wealth, power, honor, beauty, truth, virtue are the means. It is accurate, if not fitting language to say, I desire revenge. The heart also yearns for objects of affection, and that it itself should be made an object of love. When suffering pain, we desire its removal; when fearing punishment, we desire escape. These are not new desires under our list, but a few of the many gratifications to be reached by wealth, power, honor.

The desire of happiness is sometimes added to the list. The objection to this is, that this desire is a still broader generalization, including all the others. This desire embraces all our desires, is the utmost stretch of analysis and abstraction. Admit this, and there is no opportunity for further division all impulses are grouped under one general impulse common to each. The desire for existence is also a desire dependent for its force on those other desires which make life pleasurable. It, too, is a common condition of them all.

We regard desire, as a feeling, as indifferent; neither pleasurable nor painful, at least in its earlier forms. When nourished into full strength, it may assume a more positive character. A desire for wealth that is, as yet, neither gratified nor balked, while it becomes an immediate ground of pleasurable activity, while it gives direction and concert to the feelings, can hardly of itself be called distinctly painful or pleasurable. This is seen in the ease with which desire passes into pain or pleasure with any increase or decrease of the obstacles to its gratification. In the ordinary, familiar balance of effort and reward, desire guides rather than vexes or excites us. When it produces pleasure, it is

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