The Human Machine | Page 7

scheme or the draft letter, and
amusing itself with aspirations or regrets for half an hour, an hour,
sometimes a day. The serious part of our instinctive self feebly
remonstrates, but without effect. Or it may be that we have suffered a
great disappointment, which is definite and hopeless. Will the brain,
like a sensible creature, leave that disappointment alone, and instead of
living in the past live in the present or the future? Not it! Though it
knows perfectly well that it is wasting its time and casting a very
painful and utterly unnecessary gloom over itself and us, it can so little
control its unhealthy morbid appetite that no expostulations will induce
it to behave rationally. Or perhaps, after a confabulation with the soul,
it has been decided that when next a certain harmful instinct comes into
play the brain shall firmly interfere. 'Yes,' says the brain, 'I really will
watch that.' But when the moment arrives, is the brain on the spot? The
brain has probably forgotten the affair entirely, or remembered it too
late; or sighs, as the victorious instinct knocks it on the head: 'Well,
next time!'
All this, and much more that every reader can supply from his own
exciting souvenirs, is absurd and ridiculous on the part of the brain. It is
a conclusive proof that the brain is out of condition, idle as a nigger,
capricious as an actor-manager, and eaten to the core with loose habits.
Therefore the brain must be put into training. It is the most important
part of the human machine by which the soul expresses and develops
itself, and it must learn good habits. And primarily it must be taught
obedience. Obedience can only be taught by imposing one's will, by the
sheer force of volition. And the brain must be mastered by will-power.
The beginning of wise living lies in the control of the brain by the will;
so that the brain may act according to the precepts which the brain itself
gives. With an obedient disciplined brain a man may live always right
up to the standard of his best moments.

To teach a child obedience you tell it to do something, and you see that
that something is done. The same with the brain. Here is the foundation
of an efficient life and the antidote for the tendency to make a fool of
oneself. It is marvellously simple. Say to your brain: 'From 9 o'clock to
9.30 this morning you must dwell without ceasing on a particular topic
which I will give you.' Now, it doesn't matter what this topic is--the
point is to control and invigorate the brain by exercise--but you may
just as well give it a useful topic to think over as a futile one. You
might give it this: 'My brain is my servant. I am not the play-thing of
my brain.' Let it concentrate on these statements for thirty minutes.
'What?' you cry. 'Is this the way to an efficient life? Why, there's
nothing in it!' Simple as it may appear, this is the way, and it is the only
way. As for there being nothing in it, try it. I guarantee that you will
fail to keep your brain concentrated on the given idea for thirty
seconds--let alone thirty minutes. You will find your brain conducting
itself in a manner which would be comic were it not tragic. Your first
experiments will result in disheartening failure, for to exact from the
brain, at will and by will, concentration on a given idea for even so
short a period as half an hour is an exceedingly difficult feat--and a
fatiguing! It needs perseverance. It needs a terrible obstinacy on the
part of the will. That brain of yours will be hopping about all over the
place, and every time it hops you must bring it back by force to its
original position. You must absolutely compel it to ignore every idea
except the one which you have selected for its attention. You cannot
hope to triumph all at once. But you can hope to triumph. There is no
royal road to the control of the brain. There is no patent dodge about it,
and no complicated function which a plain person may not comprehend.
It is simply a question of: 'I will, I will, and I will.' (Italics here are
indispensable.)
Let me resume. Efficient living, living up to one's best standard, getting
the last ounce of power out of the machine with the minimum of
friction: these things depend on the disciplined and vigorous condition
of the brain. The brain can be disciplined by learning the habit of
obedience. And it can learn the habit of obedience by the practice of
concentration. Disciplinary concentration, though nothing could have
the