 This work of excluding discordant thinking from the mind does not involve any attempt to proselyte or to interfere with others in any way. It does not directly concern any one but the person who is engaged in the work for himself, and it certainly does not deal with any one else; neither ought another to interfere unless asked, because such interference would not only be an impertinence but a hindrance. Walt Whitman stated the case clearly and concisely when he wrote:-- " No one can acquire for another--not one. No one can grow for another -- not one." This is true because one cannot either see, hear, or think for another, but each must do these things for himself. Because one's thinking is entirely his own and cannot by any possibility be another's, whatever is involved in thinking with all its contingencies and consequences is necessarily one's own and depends exclusively upon one's own efforts; but the exclusion of discordant thoughts and the ushering in of harmonious ones is the business of thinking solely, and therefore it belongs to one's own self and cannot be delegated to another. The actual cleansing of the temple must be one's own work. Other things depend more or less on the action of some one else to hinder or to help, but a man's thoughts need not depend in the least upon what another does, or says, or thinks. A man's mind is a domain where, unless he consents, no one but himself can enter, and he need not allow another to have the slightest control over it. His thinking is his own and never another's, and another's need never be his unless he chooses to accept it; therefore the responsibility is all his own also, but the compensation for that lies in the fact that his action may be unimpeded and uninfluenced -- free. The law, in the person of an officer, can take charge of one's body and transport it from place to place or lock it up in prison, can dispose of a man's property as it sees fit, and may compel him to do many things which he himself does not wish to do; but unless he allows it, no human power can enter his mind to interfere with his thinking, A man's thoughts are his own until he gives them utterance, and in the world of his own mind each man may reign supreme. It is the divine right of every human being to think as he pleases. More important than the old poet imagined was the truth he uttered when he said: "My mind to me a kingdom is," and he would have added to the accuracy and power of the expression if he had said: "My mind to me my kingdom is." A man's mind is indeed his own kingdom, and he ought never to allow it to become the kingdom of another wherein he himself is a subject. If a man has trained his thinking, he may declare more truly than the lone Selkirk:-- " I am monarch of all I survey, my right there is none to dispute." This is most favorable to the prosecution of mental training, because it places the whole work of development in one's own hands, unimpeded Holding to this principle, but forgetting that a divine right relates to divine things, it has been widely held that a man has the right to think what he pleases, provided his thoughts have no out- ward expression in word or deed; but the conclusion is irresistible that a man has no more right to think wrong thoughts than he has to do wrong deeds. Immoral thinking should be held in abeyance as inflexibly as immoral action, for it is the root of all immorality. And uninfluenced by others. A modern writer has truly said, though with a note of sadness which does not belong to it, that "in all its deepest experiences the soul is solitary. Every crucial choice must be solitary." Though this mental solitariness is a necessity, it does not cause a man to hold aloof from others, nor does it prohibit one single valuable social pleasure or advantage; but it is a boon, and a glory as well, and it may bring a consciousness of power, dominion, and freedom that cannot come from any other source. He, who has trained his mind to obey his own behests and has asserted and realized his rightful mental supremacy over himself, can better enjoy contact with his fellows and can reap greater advantage from association with them. Over him there can- not be any domination by others, whatever their course, and he will enjoy a freedom that nothing but mental control can give. Here at last is ideal freedom, which, when coupled with recognition of the self-control which is inseparable from it, gives man a sense of ability to be and to do such as nothing else can. The greatest strength lies in the vivid realization of this fact when one really awakes to its existence. He can himself, as he chooses, thrust aside impedimenta within himself without interfering with another, and with no one to interfere with his action or to ask why. This ability is not to be spasmodically expressed, but is always to be steadily maintained. In nothing else does man need to be alone, but here he stands entirely alone and yet without any sense of loneliness; indeed, this very aloneness may become one of his greatest blessings, for, having banished discordant thoughts, here one may, as Emerson directs, "stay at home in his heaven." The results for good may reach out into the vast unknown of humanity in unexpected and undreamed-of ways which were never planned. |
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