794 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tliem when opportunity offered, a still larger percentage of my 

 practice would be lost." 



The undoubted fact that our own acts do not cause in us the 

 same emotions as similar acts on the part of others is one of the 

 strangest psychological truths. This legacy from unevolved man, 

 from the times when brute might was the only right, has been 

 handed down to us. This legacy is still a beam of varying size in 

 every human eye. We shall probably long continue to excuse 

 certain acts of our own and of our friends and to criticise our ene- 

 mies severely for those same deeds. We see this tendency full- 

 fledged in animals. A big, strong dog will take away a bone from 

 a starving dog. A wealthy railroad president and wealthy direct- 

 ors will plan to wreck a rival road whose bonds and stock may 

 constitute a large proportion of the investments of some orphans. 

 These men would experience intense emotion if any one attempted 

 to steal from a child of theirs. They will steal from the children 

 of others without a qualm. The advance in intelligence has many 

 times served to increase this tendency. Napoleon was a very in- 

 telligent man. The promoters of hydra-headed trusts are men of 

 great sagacity. It is nevertheless true that, as a man acquires 

 the habit of reflecting on his own actions, as he by an effort places 

 himself in a neutral position, and from that changed point of view 

 looks at his deeds with another's eyes, as he puts himself in the 

 place of those whom his acts have inconvenienced or wronged, 

 this brute legacy, so destructive of truth, will grow less and less. 

 But only the possessor of a vivid imagination, either natural or 

 acquired, can ever succeed in doing this. Children who are early 

 taught to regard each act from the point of view of those affected 

 by that act are placed in the royal road to overcome this tendency. 

 A successful business man recently said that he did not wish his 

 children thus taught, for such training would put them at a dis- 

 advantage in the struggle for existence. 



True conceptions are hampered not only by those emotions 

 which are popularly termed peculiarly egoistic, but by all emo- 

 tion, which a searching investigation shows to rest upon a hidden 

 foundation sunk deep in those feelings which affect the self for 

 weal or woe. All emotion has a twofold aspect in regard to 

 thought and the search for truth. On the one hand, emotion 

 supplies all the interest we feel in any subject, and is thus abso- 

 lutely necessary for all long-continued, earnest thought ; on the 

 other hand, there is thus a deflecting power necessarily at work 

 in the center of every thought. The strong desire to prove a cer- 

 tain theory has led the most honest of men to look at certain facts 

 through colored glasses. It is often dangerous to consult any 

 medical specialist at first, because he will have a tendency to see 

 unmistakable signs of the complaint which he treats. Only those 



