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. 
When men have made themselves wise 
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. 
“Tf 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 
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 
Sensation with- 
out action. 
Impulse and 
action. 
Degeneration. 
