Heart and Soul by Maveric Post

Victor Mapes

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• Publié par: chowyag
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 25
• Langue: English

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Project Gutenberg's Heart and Soul, by Victor Mapes (AKA Maveric Post)
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Title: Heart and Soul
Author: Victor Mapes (AKA Maveric Post)
Release Date: October 2, 2006 [EBook #19432]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART AND SOUL ***
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HEART AND SOUL
BY
MAVERIC POST
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1921
Copyright, 1921, by
The Century Co.APOLOGY
This book was not written with any idea of being published, but simply because
I could not help it.
I got thinking about various things, in the lives of people about me, and in my
own life, and, after a while, I found that my thoughts would not let me alone.
They kept coming back, to trouble and haunt me, until finally I realized that the
only way I could be rid of them and have a little peace, was to set them down
on paper.
After that, I had the indiscretion to read parts of them to one or two who are near
to me. These seemed to think that they might prove helpful to others who felt
the same way and urged me to publish them.
I cannot be blamed very much for conceiving a hope that this might prove true.
And, in that hope, I have followed their advice.
M.P.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Diagnosis 3
II The Up-to-Date Principle 43
III Reason and Experience 59
IV Affection 83
V Faith 109
VI Science and the Intellect 167
VII Hope 221
VIII Heart and Soul 234
Appendix 317
HEART AND SOUL[Pg 3]HEART AND SOUL
I
DIAGNOSIS
Many of us, to-day, are disturbed and alarmed by the point of view and the
behavior of people about us—especially the younger generation. Girls of good
family are seen on all sides, who smoke and gamble and drink and paint their
faces and laugh with scorn at the traditions and conventions which their grand-
parents regarded with almost sacred reverence. The young men are worse, if
anything, and as for the married people of the new era, what they are doing to
the sanctity of the home and the bonds of matrimony might seem like a weird
travesty of the teachings of the past.
What is the world coming to? Are things going on indefinitely, this way,—or
more so? If not, who, or what, is to stop the movement and turn it in another
[Pg 4]direction? What is the meaning of it all? What is to be done about it?
Before attempting to speculate on these questions, it might be a good idea to
consider for a moment the main, fundamental influences which have always
been at work, to a greater or less extent, in determining the conduct of human
beings.
First come the material instincts. Each individual is born with a large number of
desires, appetites, feelings, impulses, tastes. There is also a natural wish to
gratify these and the process of doing so brings with it a sense of satisfaction
and pleasure. So that if these natural instincts were the only things to be
considered, the problem of humanity in a general way would resolve itself into
preserving life and getting as much pleasure out of it as possible. Why not
follow the lead of our instincts, accept all opportunities as they come, and make
the most of them?
Is not this point of view, however briefly and crudely expressed, the first
principle of existence as it confronts each individual to-day, as it has confronted
them in the past, and as it will continue to confront them always?
Is it not, in its essence, the starting point—the ever-present raw material—which
must be recognized and dealt with somehow in any scheme of philosophy or
morality?
[Pg 5]The next consideration, which follows closely after, is that certain wishes
cannot be gratified, certain pleasures are forbidden, certain instincts must be
repressed or controlled.
Why?
For various reasons. The first being force and might. Some one stronger
interferes and prevents.
Every child comes in contact with this principle at an early stage. It cannot have
what it wants, it cannot do as it wills—because the nurse or the mother says
"no."
A little later, if it undertakes to gratify a certain wish which has been forbidden, if
it gives free play to an instinct for pleasure, against orders, it is slapped andscolded. It is made to feel that it has done wrong. And when one does wrong,
punishment follows—one must learn to expect that.
This same principle confronts the individual in later years,—all through life.
First the nurse and mother; then the father and other members of the family;
then the neighbors and people at large; the police and the laws. All these
embody the same principle, they represent greater force, without the individual,
which interferes with its instincts, its pleasures, its wishes, which forbids certain
[Pg 6]things—declares they are wrong—and punishes, if they are done.
On top of this comes the church and religion. In a more exalted way, appealing
to the imagination and the inner spirit, they nevertheless apply the same
principle. Certain things are sinful and wicked, certain instincts and desires are
temptations, contrived by an evil spirit. If temptations are yielded to, if evil is
committed, punishment is sure to follow, if not in this world, then in another, a
world beyond.
In this connection, it is not a question of any particular church, or creed, or any
particular religion, but simply of the fundamental idea of all churches and all
religions,—the idea that somewhere, somehow, in a spiritual world of some
sort, good will be rewarded and evil punished.
Crudely and briefly stated, it is the same fundamental principle that begins with
the child and nursemaid, and runs up through the highest forms of church and
religious appeal. This is good, you are allowed and urged to do it, and it will
bring reward; that is bad, you are commanded to resist it, and if you yield, it will
bring punishment.
This, then, is what we have called the second consideration in the problem of
life.
There is another consideration, of a different order, which exerts an influence
[Pg 7]on the acts of an individual; which causes it to repress certain appetites and
desires, on the one hand, and urges it, on the other hand, to do certain things
against its instincts and inclination.
This third consideration is the influence of reason and experience.
A crude example will suffice to illustrate the principle. A certain individual eats
a plate of sliced cucumbers. Their taste is delicious and the sensation most
enjoyable. An acute indigestion follows, however, with great discomfort and
distress. On a later occasion, another plate of fresh cucumbers is so tempting
that the experiment is tried again, with the same results.
Before long, this individual will refuse to eat a cucumber, no matter how fresh
and tempting it looks. There is no question of right or wrong here involved.
There is no outside force or command, to restrain him. It is his own reason,
based on experience, which determines him to give up a present pleasure for
the sake of avoiding a future pain.
In a reverse way, a certain individual who is tired and sleepy and yearns to go
to bed, will force himself to sit up and work over annoying papers, in order to be
free for a game of golf, the following day. He deliberately denies his desires
[Pg 8]and accepts present discomfort for the sake of future enjoyment.
This principle, if we look into it carefully and follow it through its ramifications
and side lights, is an active and important factor in the conduct of nearly
everybody. In its essence, it is personal, its force springs from within the
individual—and in that respect, at least, it is quite different from the orders of
parents, or the commandments of religion, which are issued from without andwhich the individual is called upon to accept and obey, irrespective of his own
notions or preferences.
There is still another main consideration in this question of conduct. It is a very
great factor in the lives of many people, and in some cases its force and
influence are overwhelming. And it is totally different in its very essence and
tendency from the other principles we have noted.
This is the influence of love and affection.
A mother will give up any pleasure, she will accept any pain for the sake of her
sick child. She does not do it because any one has ordered her, or because of
any commandment of any religion, or because of any reward or punishment in
this world, or another. There is no selfish motive of any kind involved in her
thought. Any sacrifice of self, she is ready to make without the slightest
hesitation. What she does, and what she is willing to do is for her child alone—
[Pg 9]because she loves it and, for the time being, its little life seems of more
importance than everything else in the world put together.
Now, if we pause right here a moment and reflect we can hardly fail to realize
that we are in the presence of something strange and wonderful. It appears to
be the very contrary and contradic