DYNAMIC THEORY OF LIFE AND MIND. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The action of the mind has always appeared to be involved in such 

 obscurity, to be so whimsical and so uncertain, that ordinarily, until lately, 

 it has been looked upon as something inscrutable and outside of investi- 

 gation. 



The mind itself has generally been regarded as a person ; one of the 

 two persons of an animal duality which is commonly supposed to be 

 made up of a mind and a body. The body has been recognized as being 

 material, subject to natural law, and liable to accident, disease, decay 

 and death. The mind has generally been considered as exempt from all 

 these accidents, especially the last, and to be immaterial, immortal and 

 indestructible. If it was ever thought to be subject to law, it was no 

 such law as anybody could find out anything about, and not at all anal- 

 ogous to laws that govern material things. Although mental diseases 

 were vaguely spoken of, it was only meant that the body was out of 

 order, by which the mental action became distorted; and that after death, 

 when the mind should be rid of the incumbrance of the diseased body, 

 it would itself be thereafter forever free from disease. The terms used 

 to designate this part of the supposed dual being are also various as 

 mind, soul, spirit. Some who use these terms profess to make distinc- 

 tions in their significance, but generally they are used indiscriminately 

 to mean the part of the man ( or animal ) that does the thinking. Not- 

 withstanding this thinking part is thus supposed to be the real man 

 while the body is only its tool or instrument, our daily language shows 

 how vaguely the idea is held, for we speak of a man ' ' making up his 

 mind," changing his mind," "altering his judgment," &c. ? as if the 

 man were superior to his mind and had some sort of supervisory control 

 over it. It is generally held that a man is a free agent and ' ' can do as 

 he pleases;" that he can change his plans, alter his opinions, and regu- 

 late his conduct according to his " will;" and this will is the main sov- 

 ereign energy of the inscrutable mind, soul or spirit. This will is above 



