Page:Valid Objections to So-called Christian Science (1902).pdf/42

 other the darkest superstition and ignorance. On the one hand is individualistic development, on the other individualistic decadence. On the one hand are hopefulness and faith, and initiative towards the future, on the other idle, ruminative reflection within the past.

In short, the philosophy which fosters the habit of ignoring the outside world and dwelling continuously upon the thoughts and images raised by our own consciousness, is in the end entirely subversive of all vigorous action. Individuals or peoples whose habits are formed under such an ideal rapidly deteriorate and become inefficient. Man was put into the world to act and to do; not merely to think and to dream.

The mind was given to direct the energies, not to be exercised in shadows of actions within itself. The efferent nerves are a part of the machinery nature has given us to put thought into some active accomplishment; and the neglect of them means the weakening of the whole mental process. If there is, and has been no objective reality for them to act upon, how shall we account for their presence and function in the human organism? Our sight and hearing and touch were accorded by an in-