The human machine by Bennett Arnold 1867-1931

Author:Bennett, Arnold, 1867-1931
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Conduct of life
Publisher: New York : G.H. Doran

ATER a certain period of mental discipline, of deliberate habit-forming and habit-breaking, such as I have been indicating, a man will begin to acquire at any rate a super ficial knowledge, a nodding acquaintance, with that wonderful and mysterious affair, his brain, and he will also begin to perceive how important a factor in daily life is the control of his brain. He will assuredly be surprised at the miracles which lie between his collar and his hat, in that queer box that he calls his head. For the effects that can be accomplished by mere steady, per sistent thinking must appear to be miracles to apprentices in the practice of thought. When once a man, having passed an unhappy day be cause his clumsy, negligent brain forgot to con trol his instincts at a critical moment, has said to his brain: " I will force you, by concentrating you on that particular point, to act efficiently the next time similar circumstances arise," and when

he has carried out his intention, and when the awkward circumstances have recurred, and his brain, disciplined, has done its work, and so pre vented unhappiness — then that man will regard his brain with a new eye. " By Jove! " he will say; " I Ve stopped one source of unhappiness, anyway. There was a time when I should have made a fool of myself in a little domestic crisis such as to-day's. But I have gone safely through it. I am all right. She is all right. The atmo sphere is not dangerous with undischarged elec tricity! And all because my brain, being in proper condition, watched firmly over my in stincts ! I must keep this up." He will peer into that brain more and more. He will see more and more of its possibilities. He will have a new and a supreme interest in life. A garden is a fairly interesting thing. But the cultivation of a garden is as dull as cold mutton compared to the cultivation of a brain; and wet weather won't interfere with digging, planting, and pruning in the box.

In due season the man whose hobby is his brain will gradually settle down into a daily routine, with which routine he will start the day. The idea at the back of the mind of the

ordinary man (by the ordinary man I mean the man whose brain is not his hobby) is almost always this: " There are several things at pres ent hanging over me — worries, unfulfilled am bitions, unrealised desires. As soon as these things are definitely settled, then I shall begin to live and enjoy myself." That is the ordinary man's usual idea. He has it from his youth to his old age. He is invariably waiting for some thing to happen before he really begins to live. I am sure that if you are an ordinary man (of course, you are n't, I know) you will admit that this is true of you;

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