A system of natural religion includes not only the existence and natural
attributes of the Creator, but his moral character and the duties owed to
Him, to our fellow‐beings and to ourselves.
To discover these by the principles of common sense, unaided by
revelation, we must again turn to our own minds as our only directory.
This demands a more enlarged consideration of many of the specific powers
and operations of mind, as developed by experience and observation.
Mode of regulating our thoughts.
The mode by which the succession of our thoughts is regulated is
intimately connected with several subjects to be discussed, and will,
therefore, first receive attention.
It will be found that our _sensations_ and _perceptions_ vary in vividness
and distinctness according to the strength and permanency of certain
feelings of _desire_ which coexist with them. For example, we are
continually hearing a multitude of sounds, but in respect to many of them,
as we feel no desire to know the cause or nature of them, these sensations
are so feeble and indistinct as scarcely ever to be recalled to the mind
or recognized by any act of memory; but should we hear some strange
wailing sound, immediately the desire would arise to ascertain its nature
and cause. It would immediately become an object of distinct and vivid
perception, and continue so as long as the desire lasted.
While one sensation becomes thus clear and prominent, it will be found
that other sensations which were coexisting with it will become feebler
and seem to die away. The same impressions may still be made upon the eye
as before, the same sounds that had previously been regarded may still
strike upon the ear, but while the desire to learn the cause of that
strange wailing sound continues, the other sensations will all be faint
and indistinct. When this desire is gratified, then other sensations
resume their former distinctness and prominency.
Our _conceptions_, in like manner, are affected by the coexistence of
emotion or desire. If, for example, we are employing ourselves in study or
mental speculations, the vividness of our conceptions will vary in exact
proportion to the interest we feel in securing the object about which our
conceptions are employed. If we feel but little interest in the subject of
our speculations, every conception connected with them will be undefined
and indistinct; but if the desire of approbation, or the admonitions of
conscience, or the hope of securing some future good stimulate desire,
immediately our conceptions grow more vivid and clear, and the object at
which we aim is more readily and speedily secured.
The mind is continually under the influence of some desire. It constantly
has some plan to accomplish, some cause to search out, or some
gratification to secure. The present wish or desire of the mind imparts an
interest to whatever conception seems calculated to forward this object.
Thus, if the mathematician has a problem to solve, and this is the leading
desire of the mind, among the various conceptions that arise, those are
the most interesting which are fitted to his object, and such immediately
become vivid and distinct. If the painter or the poet is laboring to
effect some new creation of his art, and has this as the leading object of
desire, whatever conceptions seem best fitted to his purpose are
immediately invested with interest, and become distinct and clear. If the
merchant, or the capitalist, or the statesman has some project which he is
toiling to accomplish, whatever conceptions appear adapted to his purpose
soon are glowing and defined, in consequence of the interest with which
desire thus invests them.
From this it appears that the _chief end_, or leading object of desire of
the mind, will in a great measure determine the nature and the succession
of its conceptions. If a man has chosen to find his chief happiness in
securing power and honor, then those conceptions will be the most
interesting to his mind that best fall in with his object. If he has
chosen to find happiness in securing the various gratifications of sense,
then those conceptions that most coincide with this desire will become
prominent. If a man has chosen to find his chief enjoyment in doing the
will of God, then his conceptions will, to a great extent, be conformed to
this object of desire. The current of a man’s thoughts, therefore, becomes
the surest mode of determining what is the governing purpose or leading
desire of the mind.
But there are seasons in our mental history when the mind does not seem to
be under the influence of any governing desire; when it seems to relax,
and its thoughts appear to flow on without any regulating principle. At
such times the vividness of leading conceptions, which otherwise is
determined by _desire_, seems to depend upon our past experience. Those
objects which, in past experience, have been _associated with emotion_,
are those which thus begin to glow in the distinct lineaments with which
emotion at first invested them.
In past experience, all conceptions which were attended with emotion were
most distinct and clear, and therefore, when such conceptions return
united with others, they are the ones which are most interesting, and thus
most vivid and distinct. Thus, in our musing hours of idle reverie, as one
picture after another glides before the mind, if some object occurs, such
as the home of our youth, or the friend of our early days, the emotions
which have been so often united with these objects in past experience
cause them to appear in clear and glowing lineaments, and the stronger
have been the past emotions connected with them, the more clearly will
they be defined. It appears, then, that there are two circumstances that
account for the apparent _selection_ which the mind makes in its objects
of conception. The first is the feeling that _certain conceptions are
fitted to accomplish the leading desire of the __ mind_; and the second
is, that _certain objects in past experience have been attended with
emotion_.
But there is another phenomenon in our mental history which has a direct
bearing on the nature and succession of our conceptions. When any
conception, through the influence of desire or emotion, becomes the
prominent object, immediately other objects with which this has been
associated in past experience begin to return and gather around it in new
combinations. Thus a new picture is presented before the mind, from which
it again selects an object according as _desire_ or _emotion_ regulates,
which, under this influence, grows vivid and distinct. Around this new
object immediately begin to cluster its past associates, till still
another scene is fresh arrayed before the mind.
In these new combinations, those objects which are least interesting
continually disappear, while those most interesting are retained to form a
part of the succeeding picture. Thus, in every mental picture, _desire_ or
_emotion_ seems to call forth objects which start out, as it were, in bold
relief from all others, and call from the shade of obscurity the
companions of their former existence, which gather around them in new and
varied combinations.
Thus it is shown that the chief mode by which we regulate the nature and
succession of our thoughts is by the _choices_ we make of our objects of
pursuit. Whatever we choose as our _chief end_, or leading object of
desire, becomes the regulator of our emotions, our desires and our
thoughts. Thus we have power to control our thoughts aright only by
choosing right objects of pursuit. We have power to regulate them in this
way, and but very little power to control them in any other.
The mere determination to think only on certain subjects in which we feel
very little interest avails but for a short time. Speedily the mind
returns to its natural course, and brings forward only those objects
connected with our chief objects of desire and pursuit.