The Mind and Its Education | Page 8

from out the past--will probably come thronging in and occupy the
field to such extent that the fire burns low and the room grows cold, but
still the forms from the past hold sway. If we are young, visions of the
future may crowd everything else to the margin of the field, while the
"castles in Spain" occupy the center.
Our memories may also be accompanied by emotions--sorrow, love,
anger, hate, envy, joy. And, indeed, these emotions may so completely
occupy the field that the images themselves are for the time driven to
the margin, and the mind is occupied with its sorrow, its love, or its joy.
Once more, instead of the problem or the memories or the "castles in
Spain," give us the necessity of making some decision, great or small,
where contending motives are pulling us now in this direction, now in
that, so that the question finally has to be settled by a supreme effort
summed up in the words, I will. This is the struggle of the will which
each one knows for himself; for who has not had a raging battle of
motives occupy the center of the field while all else, even the sense of
time, place and existence, gave way in the face of this conflict! This
struggle continues until the decision is made, when suddenly all the
stress and strain drop out and other objects may again have place in
consciousness.
THE THREE FUNDAMENTAL PHASES OF

CONSCIOUSNESS.--Thus we see that if we could cut the stream of
consciousness across as we might cut a stream of water from bank to
bank with a huge knife, and then look at the cut-off section, we should
find very different constituents in the stream at different times. We
should at one time find the mind manifesting itself in perceiving,
remembering, imagining, discriminating, comparing, judging,
reasoning, or the acts by which we gain our knowledge; at another in
fearing, loving, hating, sorrowing, enjoying, or the acts of feeling; at
still another in choosing, or the act of the will. These processes would
make up the stream, or, in other words, these are the acts which the
mind performs in doing its work. We should never find a time when the
stream consists of but one of the processes, or when all these modes of
mental activity are not represented. They will be found in varying
proportions, now more of knowing, now of feeling, and now of willing,
but some of each is always present in our consciousness. The nature of
these different elements in our mental stream, their relation to each
other, and the manner in which they all work together in amazing
perplexity yet in perfect harmony to produce the wonderful mind, will
constitute the subject-matter we shall consider together in the pages
which follow.
4. WHERE CONSCIOUSNESS RESIDES
I--the conscious self--dwell somewhere in this body, but where? When
my finger tips touch the object I wish to examine, I seem to be in them.
When the brain grows weary from overstudy, I seem to be in it. When
the heart throbs, the breath comes quick, and the muscles grow tense
from noble resolve or strong emotion, I seem to be in them all. When,
filled with the buoyant life of vigorous youth, every fiber and nerve is
a-tingle with health and enthusiasm, I live in every part of my
marvelous body. Small wonder that the ancients located the soul at one
time in the heart, at another in the pineal gland of the brain, and at
another made it coextensive with the body!
CONSCIOUSNESS WORKS THROUGH THE NERVOUS
SYSTEM.--Later science has taught that the mind resides in and works
through the nervous system, which has its central office in the brain.

And the reason why I seem to be in every part of my body is because
the nervous system extends to every part, carrying messages of sight or
sound or touch to the brain, and bearing in return orders for movements,
which set the feet a-dancing or the fingers a-tingling. But more of this
later.
This partnership between mind and body is very close. Just how it
happens that spirit may inhabit matter we may not know. But certain it
is that they interact on each other. What will hinder the growth of one
will handicap the other, and what favors the development of either will
help both. The methods of their coöperation and the laws that govern
their relationship will develop as our study goes on.
5. PROBLEMS IN OBSERVATION AND INTROSPECTION
One should always keep in mind that psychology is essentially a
laboratory science, and not a text-book subject. The laboratory material
is to be found in ourselves and in those about us. While the text should
be thoroughly mastered, its statements