Class _"2£A&M Book ,T^- Copyright N° COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT, A LITTLE STUDY OF THE OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE MIND A CONDENSATION WITH COMMENTS o D * ! - ► .,« »' , ., BY ABBY JANE TAYLOR CHICAGO: JUSTITIA PUBLISHING COMPANY 1903 / THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Copies Received APR 27 1903 Copyright CLA55 CU S f Galilee, who came to show us how to live and, if need be, how to die, when He said, "Except ye become as little children ye cannot en^er the Kingdom 13 OBJECTIVE AND of Heaven. " In other word? ,- we must come to the full realization that all material knowl- edge is as naught compared with the inspira- tion and guidance of the Divvne Spirit. This we may hope for and receive if we cultivate that pure and child-like receptivity of mind which His precepts continually teach. C It has been said before that, however phenom- enal the exploits of the subjective mind may be, while it never reasons inductively it is often deductive or syllogistic, or 2 in other words, it never classifies or reasons up to prin- ciples, but will express a general principle or even reason back to inference. Argument is possible only in the objective state, as the sub- jective is immediately confused or upset by it. It acts under suggestion and without law and H SUBJECTIVE MIND. is satisfied that it knows and cannot endure doubt. Hence the especial inexpediency of the slightest leaning towards argument in any direction, at times or places, where spiritual, enlightenment is sought for. C,The memory of the subjective mind is remark- able, We have all of us undoubtedly had opportunities to know of instances where facts or words, songs, etc., long ?go acquired and seemingly forgotten, would come to the sur- face again in delirium, insanity or some other abnormal condition of the objective mind. By abnormal condition is meant « here it is in any way clouded or in abeyance. A sudden and unexplainable remembrance of some fact of importance, apparently long since forgotten, and perhaps at the time the knowledge of it 15 OBJECTIVE AND was acquired deemed of little account, coming to the surface when the mind has been under the influence of some deep emotion, has some- times resulted in great good. On the other hand, it is by no means an unheard-of inci- dent for distracted friends to stand by the side of some delicate-minded and good woman whose life has been so hedged in that it would seem impossible that even a thought of any- thing save the highest and n' blest could ever have crossed her mind, and yet their ears have been shocked and their hearts torn by fearful words, or perhaps even blasphemy, from the pure lips whose action was no longer under the control of the objective mind. This can only be accounted for upon the ground that at some time the sensitive ears and delicate ob- 16 SUBJECTIVE MIND. jective mind had been unexpectedly assailed, perhaps upon the street or some other public place, in the overhearing of such language and the shocked subjective mind, the "storehouse of memory/' had retained it. When delirium clouded the objective, which, even had one trace of such recollection remained therein, would have been capable of reasoning and reg- ulating it, the subjective, having preserved all the more vivid impression, owing to the pain- fulness of the shock at the time it was made, being in the abeyance of the powers of the subjective in a position to take control, brings it to the surface. This causes us to consider the danger to which we are all, more or less, exposed as we go on our way through life, of receiving impressions which we should be very unwilling to retain in "the storehouse of OBJECTIVE AND memory," liable to manifest when least ex- pected or desired. Let us, therefore, who know something of these laws and the powers which we possess, ever strive, lifting our thoughts in aspiration, that only the highest and best may find a resting place, either in the objective or the subjective minds. Thus we may, day by day, hour by hour, and mo- ment by moment, come more and more into that illumination which heralds the perfect day. CThe memory of the objective mind, being an action of the physical brain, may be de- stroyed in various ways, such as illness, men- tal or physical over-exertion, grief, etc., but the memory of the subjective can never be destroyed. There is always evidence of this 18 SUBJECTIVE MIND. fact, just as long as the physical retains the power of expression. The action of the mem- ory of the objective mind often requires effort and is really more appropriately designated as recollection. Locke has expressed it as fol- lows : "When an idea again recurs, without the operation of the like object on the external g memory, it is remembrance; if it is sought after by the mind and, with endeavor, found and brought to view, it is recollection. " An- other has said that "the subjective mind is, at once, the storehouse of memory and the source of inspiration, limited as to its methods and powers of reasoning, and at the same time subject to the imperial control of the objective mind." C Were the subjective to control the objective 19 OBJECTIVE AND in relation to the objective world, since it holds one idea until another is presented or sug- gested to it, and it is also amenable to sug- gestions from more than one source, it is plain- ly to be seen that such control might result in a distortion of the affairs of this world upon the natural or objective plane, and would, in all probability, do so in nine <;ases out of ten. The reasoning powers and material knowledge of the objective mind are requisite upon the material plane. When it is overbalanced by the subjective irresponsibility follows, and if to* a sufficient degree then insanity. When the two act and react harmoniously it is be- lieved that a state which is very near perfec- tion wi-11 result. This we may not know, as few, if any, have ever experienced it. 20 SUBJECTIVE MIND. C. The reasoning powers of the objective, with its capability for the acquirement of extended knowledge, combined with the marvelous mem ory of the subjective and its syllogistic meth- ods, and the cotemporary action of the two, neither dominating the other, would indeed en- gender a power to which we are thus far stran- gers. The predominance of the subjective is indicated by eccentricity, but, on the other hand, when the objective controls, then comes materialism, greater or less, according to the degree of the domination. Macaulay has rec- ognized this in his essay on Milton, and in this essay he also refers to' the relatively subjective mind in children. Chil- dren will fly, in great excitement and even ter- ror, before the threatened attack of a savage 21 OBJECTIVE AND wild beast personated by one of their own num- ber, and in this connection I would say that it is not difficult to demonstrate in the same man- ner the liability of grown people to the tem- porary domination of the subjective mind, and it is by no means the least intellectual who are the most easily affected, as will be found if the experiment is tried. It \s just as liable, also, to be one who regards himself or herself as entirely dominated by the objective mind, or, in other words, by reason upon the material- plane. Have you never known of any one who, although fully realizing the non-existence of some dreaded condition, and in spite of the fact that in all reason and common sense there was no probability that such a condition could ever exist, nevertheless lived m constant fear 22 SUBJECTIVE MIND. of it? This is just as likely to occur in the case of one who acknowledges only the mate- rial plane as in that of one who knows some- thing of, the subjective. C, Socrates, in his "Apology to the Athenians/' has expressed similar views to those of Ma- caulay, and in the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" Oliver Wendell Holmes recognizes the wonderful memory of the subjective mind, in saying that "the unconscious repetition of an- other's words is the snare o' the poet's foot- steps." C If the memory in such a ^ase were in the objective mind with it would also exist the knowledge that the words were acquired from * an outside source, and this innocent plagiarism could not occur; but the subjective, playing 23 OBJECTIVE AND upon the objective or overshadowing it, the words might come to the surface without the knowledge of their having been acquired in the objective. When the memoiy is in the ob- jective, even if the source from whence an idea comes has been forgotten, we do not fancy it to be original with ourselves, but we say, "Those lines are very familiar, how strange that I cannot remember the author," and straightway we cudgel our brains until, per- chance, we recollect, or it may be that we are forced to resort to some authority upon the subject, but in no case do we ever mistake those lines for our own, as we might do were they floated in upon us from the subjective plane, where the only memory of them existed. < While the subjective mind has so many won- 24 SUBJECTIVE MIND. derful powers the danger in permitting it to overshadow the objective is that without the reasoning powers of the objective it may go astray. The subjective is also, in another way, dependent upon the objective, \n that many of the facts preserved in its wonderful memory must first be acquired and assimilated in the objective. Hudson makes the statement that "no one without objective education may be- come a great artist, poet, orator or statesman, but that the subjective faculties alone have produced wonderful mathematicians and musi- cians."