Part 1 (1/2)
The Mystic Will.
by Charles G.o.dfrey Leland.
NOTICE.
This wonderful treatise was first published in England several years ago, under the t.i.tle of ”_Have You a Strong Will_?” and has run through several editions there. In its original form, it was printed in quite large type, double-leaded, and upon paper which ”bulked out”
the book to quite a thick volume. Some copies have been sold in America, but the price which dealers were compelled to charge for it, in its original shape, prevented the wide circulation that it merited, and which its author undoubtedly desired for it, for it seems to have been a labor of love with him, the interest of the race in his wonderful theories evidently being placed above financial returns by Mr. Leland. Believing that the author's ideas and wishes would be well carried out by the publication of an American edition printed in the usual size type (without the expedient of ”double-leading” unusually large type in order to make a large volume), which allows of the book being sold at a price within the reach of all, the publisher has issued this edition along the lines indicated.
The present edition is identical with the original English edition with the following exceptions:
(1) There has been omitted from this edition a long, tiresome chapter contained in the original edition, ent.i.tled ”On the Power of the Mind to master disordered Feelings by sheer Determination. As Set forth by Immanuel Kant in a letter to Hufeland,” but which chapter had very little to say about ”the power of the mind,” but very much indeed about Hygiene, Dietetics, Sleep, Care of Oneself in Old Age, Hypochondria, Work, Exercise, Eating and Drinking, Illness, etc., etc., from the point of view of the aged German metaphysician, which while interesting enough in itself, and to some people, was manifestly out of place in a book treating upon the development of Mental Faculties by the Will, etc. We think that Mr. Leland's admirers will find no fault with this omission.
(2) The word ”Suggestion” has been subst.i.tuted for the word ”Hypnotism” in several places in the original text, where the former word was manifestly proper according to the present views of psychologists, which views were not so clearly defined when the book was written.
(3) The chapter headings of the original book have been shortened and simplified in accordance with the American form.
(4) The t.i.tle ”The Mystic Will” has been subst.i.tuted in place of that used in the original edition, which was ”Have You a Strong Will?” This change was made for the reason that the original t.i.tle did not give one the correct idea of the nature of the book, but rather conveyed the idea of an inquiry regarding the ”iron-will,” etc., which the author evidently did not intend. The use of the Will, as taught in the book by Mr. Leland, is not along the lines of ”the iron-will,” but is rather in the nature of the employment of a mystic, mysterious, and almost weird power of the Human Will, and the t.i.tle of the present edition is thought to more correctly represent the nature of the book, and the author's own idea, than the inquiry embodied in the t.i.tle of the original edition.
(5) Several unimportant footnotes, references to other books, etc., have been omitted after careful consideration.
(Those who would wish to read the book in its original English edition will be able to procure it from the English publisher, Mr. Philip Wellby, 6 Henrietta street, Covent Garden, London, W. C, England.)
To the few readers of this book who are not familiar with the author, Mr. Charles G. Leland, it may be said that this gifted man was an American by birth, but who lived in Europe for many years before his death. He died March 20, 1903, at Florence, Italy, at the ripe age of 79 years, active until the last and leaving unpublished ma.n.u.scripts, some not completed. He lived up to his ideas and profited by them. His writings are spread over a period of nearly, or fully, fifty years, and his range of subjects was remarkable in its variety, style, and treatment.
Among his best known works were ”Practical Education,” ”Flaxius,” ”The Breitmann Ballads” (which introduced his well-known character ”Hans Breitmann”), ”Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling,” ”Wood Carving,”
”Leather Work,” ”Metal Work,” ”Drawing and Designing,” ”The Minor Arts,” ”Twelve Manuals in Art Work,” ”The Alb.u.m of Repousse Work,”
”Industrial Art in Education,” ”Hints on Self Education,” and many other works along the lines of Manual Training, etc., and the Development of the Constructive Faculties; ”Kulsop the Master, and other Algonquin Poems and Legends,” ”The Alternate s.e.x,” and many other works, some of which are now out of print, but a number of which may be purchased from, or through, any bookseller. There has been recently published a biographical work embodying his memoirs, written and edited by his beloved niece, Mrs. Pennell, to which volume all admirers of this wonderful man are referred.
Every subject touched upon by Mr. Leland was brightly illuminated by the power of his marvellous mind. He seemed to be able to go right to the heart of the subject, seizing upon its essential truth and at the same time grasping all of its details. His mind was so full of general information that it fairly oozed out from him in all of his writings.
The reader will notice this phenomenon in the present book, in which the author has evidently had to fight his own mind in order to prevent it from intruding all sorts of valuable and varied general information in among the particular subjects upon which he is treating. While not a professional psychologist, Mr. Leland has given utterance to some of the most valuable and practical psychological truths of the last fifty years, his contributions to this branch of human thought is sure to be recognized and appreciated in the near future. It is hoped that this little book will carry some of his valuable precepts and ideas to many who have never had the advantage and pleasure of his acquaintance up to this time.
It is believed by the publisher that this popular edition of Mr.
Leland's valuable work upon the Use of the Will, issued at a nominal price, will carry the author's teachings to the homes of many of those whom Lincoln called the ”plain people” of this American land, who need it so much, but who would not have been able to have purchased it in its original shape. This work has been well known in England, but here, in America, the birthplace of the author, it has been comparatively unheard of. It is to be hoped that this edition will remedy this grievous fault.
April 11, 1907 THE PUBLISHER.
PREFACE.
During the past few years the most serious part of the author's study and reflection has been devoted to the subjects discussed in this book. These, briefly stated, are as follows: Firstly, that all mental or cerebral faculties can by direct scientific treatment be influenced to what would have once been regarded as miraculous action, and which is even yet very little known or considered. Secondly, in development of this theory, and as confirmed by much practical and personal experience, that the Will can by very easy processes of training, or by aid of Auto-Suggestion, be strengthened to any extent, and states of mind soon induced, which can be made by practice habitual. Thus, as a man can by means of opium produce sleep, so can he by a very simple experiment a few times repeated--an experiment which I clearly describe and which has been tested and verified beyond all denial--cause himself to remain during the following day in a perfectly calm or cheerful state of mind; and this condition may, by means of repet.i.tion and practice, be raised or varied to other states or conditions of a far more active or intelligent description.
Thus, for ill.u.s.tration, I may say that within my own experience, I have by this process succeeded since my seventieth year in working all day far more a.s.siduously, and without any sense of weariness or distaste for labour, than I ever did at any previous period of my life. And the reader need only try the extremely easy experiment, as I have described it, to satisfy himself that he can do the same, that he can continue it with growing strength _ad infinitum_, and that this power will unquestionably at some future time be employed with marvellous results in Education. For, beyond all question--since any human being can easily prove or disprove it by a few experiments-- there is no method known by which inattention, heedlessness, or negligence in the young can be so promptly and thoroughly cured as by this; while on the other hand, Attention and Interest by a.s.siduity, are even more easily awakened. It has indeed seemed to me, since I have devoted myself to the study of Education from this point of view, as if it had been like the Iron Castle in the Slavonian legend, unto which men had for centuries wended their way by a long and wearisome road of many miles, while there was all the time, unseen and unknown, a very short and easy subterranean pa.s.sage, by means of which the dwellers in the Schloss might have found their way to the town below, and to the world, in a few minutes.
To this I have added a succinct account of what is, I believe, the easiest and most comprehensive Art of Memory ever conceived. There are on this subject more than five hundred works, all based, without exception, on the _a.s.sociative_ system, which may be described as a stream which runs with great rapidity for a very short time but is soon choked up. This, I believe, as a means applied to learning, was first published in my work, ent.i.tled _Practical Education_. In it the pupil is taught the _direct method_; that is, instead of remembering one thing by means of another, to impress _the image itself_ on the memory, and frequently revive it. This process soon becomes habitual and very easy. In from one year to eighteen months a pupil can by means of it accurately recall a lecture or sermon. It has the immediate advantage, over all the a.s.sociate systems, of increasing and enlarging the scope and vigour of the memory, or indeed of the mind, so that it may truly bear as a motto, _Vires acquirit eundo_--”it gains in power as it runs long.”
Finally, I set forth a system of developing the Constructive Faculty-- that which involves Ingenuity, Art, or manual _making_--as based on the teaching of the so-called Minor Arts to the young. The principle from which I proceed is that as the fruit is developed from the flower, all Technical Education should be antic.i.p.ated. Or begun in children by practicing easy and congenial arts, such as light embroidery, wood-carving or repousse, by means of which they become familiar with the elements of more serious and substantial work.