THE EVOLUTION OF THE MIND. 



273 



tions or normal development, order comes and then ew 

 world dawns. Often some emotional stress or shock 

 strikes harmony into the struggling imperfection and 

 truth comes like a flash." 



The evil effect of the excess of sense impressions and 

 of thought dissociated from will and action has been 



noted many times and in many ways. 

 Sensation with- When men haye made themselves wise 

 out action. . , , , 



with the lore of others, the learning 



which ends in self and does not spend itself on action, 

 they have been neither virtuous nor happy. " Much 

 learning is a weariness of the flesh." Thought without 

 action ends in intense fatigue of the soul, the disgust 

 with all " the sorry scheme of things entire," which is 

 the mark of the unwholesome and insane philosophy of 

 pessimism. This philosophy finds its condemnation in 

 the fact that it has never yet been translated into pure 

 and helpful life. 



In like manner sentiment not woven into action 

 fails to be a source of effectiveness or of happiness. 

 " If thou lovest me," said Christ to 

 Simon Peter, " feed my lambs." Genu- 

 ine love works itself out in self-spend- 

 ing, in doing something for the help or pleasure of 

 those beloved. Religious sentimentalism, whatever the 

 form it may take, if dissociated from action, has only 

 evil effects. Appeal to the emotions for emotion's sake 

 has been a great factor in human deterioration. Much 



that has been called " degeneration " in 

 Degeneration. , ....... 



modern social life is due to the pre- 

 dominance of sensory impressions over motor move- 

 ment. The mind passes through a round of sensations, 

 emotions called up by literature, music, art, religion, 

 which may not have any direct bearing on human con- 

 duct. Their aggregate influence on the idle brain is 





