第 40 节
作者:
暖暖 更新:2021-02-24 23:00 字数:9322
ct would produce no wish。 The image of something which has been experienced arouses an excitement akin to the secretion of saliva at the thought of food。 The wish which accompanies the excitement is a dissatisfaction; a tingling; an incomplete pleasurable emotional state which presses to action。 Sensuous pleasure; power; conformity to the ideal; whatever direction the wish takes; are sought because of the wish。 Right education is to train towards right wishing。 Because the wish is the prelude to action; it became all powerful in mythology and superstition。 Certain things would help you get your wishes; others would obstruct them。 Wishes became animate and had power;power to destroy an enemy; power to help a friend; power to bring good to yourself。 But certain ceremonies had to be observed; and certain people; magicians and priests had to be utilized in order to give the wish its power。 Wisdom and magic were mainly the ways of obtaining wishes。 Childhood still holds to this; and prayer is a faith that your wish; if placed before the All…Mighty; will be fulfilled。 Since wishing brings a pleasurable excitement; it has its dangers; in the daydream where wishes are fulfilled without effort。 Power; glory; beauty and admiration are obtained; the ugly Duckling becomes the Swan; Cinderella becomes the Princess; Jack kills the Giant and is honored by all men; the girl becomes the beauty and heroine of romance; the boy becomes the Hero; taking over power; wealth and beauty as his due。 The world of romance is largely the wish…world; as is the most of the stage。 The happy ending is our wish…fulfillment; and only the sophisticated and highly cultured object to it。 Moulding the world to the heart's desire has been the principal business of stage; novel and song。 In the normal relations of life; the wish is the beginning of will; as something definitely related to a future goal。 He who wishes finds his way to planning and to patient endeavor; IF training; circumstances and essential character meet。 To wish much is the first step in acquiring much;but only the first step。 For many it is almost the only step; and in the popular phrase these have a 〃wishbone in the place of a backbone。〃 They are the daydreamers; the inveterate readers of novels; who carry into adult life what is relatively normal in the child。 The introspective are this latter type; rarely indeed do the objective personalities spend much time in wishing。 Undoubtedly it is from the introspective that the wish as a symbol and worker of power gained its influence and meaning。 This transformation of the wish to a power is found in all primitive thought; in the power of the blessing and the curse; in the delusions of certain of the insane who build up the belief in their greatness out of the wish to be great; and in our days New Thought and kindred beliefs are modernized forms of this ancient fallacy。 It is a comforting thought to those who seek an optimistic point of view that most men wish to do right。 Very few; indeed; deliberately wish to do wrong。 But the difficulty lies in this; that this wish to do right camouflages all their wishes; no matter what their essential character。 Thus the contestants on either side of any controversy color as right their opposing wishes; and cruelties even if they burn people at the stake for heresy; kill and ruin; degrade and cheat; lie and steal。 Thus has arisen the dictum; 〃The end justifies the means。〃 The good desired hallows the methods used; and all kinds of evil have resulted。 Practical wisdom believes that up to a certain point you must seek your purpose with all the methods at hand。 But the temptation to go farther always operates; a man starts to do something a little underhanded in behalf of his noble wish and finds himself committed to conduct unqualifiedly evil。 5。 There are certain other emotional states associated with energy and the energy feeling of great interest。 What we call eagerness; enthusiasm; passion; refers to the intensity of an instinct; wish; desire or purpose。 In childhood this energy is quite striking; it is one of the great charms of childhood and is a trait all adults envy。 For it is the disappearance of passion; eagerness and enthusiasm that is the tragedy of old age and which really constitutes getting old。 Youth anticipates with eagerness and relishes with keen satisfaction。 The enthusiasm of typical youth is easily aroused and sweeps it on to action; a feature called impulsiveness。 Sympathy; pity; hope; sex feelingall the self…feelings and all the other feelingsare at once more lively and more demonstrative in youth; and thus it is that in youth the reform spirit is at its height and recedes as time goes on。 What we call 〃experience〃 chills enthusiasm and passion; but though hope deferred and a realization of the complexity of human affairs has a moderating; inhibiting result; there is as much or more importance to be attached to bodily changes。 If you could attach to the old man's experience and knowledge the body of youth; with its fresher arteries; more resilient muscles and joints; its exuberant glands and fresh bodily juices;desire; passion; enthusiasm would return。 In the chemistry of life; passion and enthusiasm arise; sickness; fatigue; experience and time are their antagonists。 This is not to deny that these energy manifestations can be aroused from the outside。 That is the purpose of teaching and preaching; the purpose of writer and orator。 There is a social spread of enthusiasm that is the most marked feature of crowds and assemblies; and this eagerness makes a unit of thousands of diverse personalities。 Further; the problem of awakening enthusiasm and desire is the therapeutic problem of the physician and especially in the condition described as anhedonia。 In anhedonia; as first described by Ribot; mentioned by James; and which has recently been worked up by myself as a group of symptoms in mental and nervous disease; as well as in life in general; there is a characteristic lack of enthusiasm in anticipation and realization; a lack of appetite and desire; a lack of satisfaction。 Nothing appeals; and the values drop out of existence。 The victims of anhedonia at first pass from one 〃pleasure〃 to another; hoping each will please and satisfy; but it does not。 Food; drink; work; play; sex; music; art;all have lost their savor。 Restless; introspective; with a feeling of unreality gripping at his heart; the patient finds himself confronting a world that has lost meaning because it has lost enthusiasm in desire and satisfaction。 How does this unhappy state arise? In the first place; from the very start of life people differ in the quality of eagerness。 There is a wide variability in these qualities。 Of two infants one will call lustily for whatever he wants; show great glee in anticipating; great eagerness in seeking; and a high degree of satisfaction when his desire is gratified。 And another will be lackadaisical in his appetite; whimsical; 〃hard to please〃 and much more difficult to keep pleased。 Fatigue will strip the second child of the capacity to eat and sleep; to say nothing of his desires for social pleasures; whereas it will only dampen the zeal and eagerness of the first child。 There is a hearty simple type of person who is naively eager and enthusiastic; full of desire; passion and enthusiasm; who finds joy and satisfaction in simple things; whose purposes do not grow stale or monotonous; there is a finicky type; easily displeased and dissatisfied; laying weight on trifles; easily made anhedonic; victims of any reduction in their own energy (which is on the whole low) or of any disagreeable event。 True; these sensitive folk are creators of beauty and the esthetic; but also they are the victims of the malady we are here discussing。 Aside from this temperament; training plays its part。 I think it a crime against childhood to make its joys complex or sophisticated。 Too much adult company and adult amusements are destructive of desire and satisfaction to the child。 A boy or girl whose wishes are at once gratified gets none of the pleasure of effort and misses one of the essential lessons of life。that pleasure and satisfaction must come from the chase and not from the quarry; from the struggle and effort as well as from the goal。 Montaigne; that wise skeptic; lays much homely emphasis on this; as indeed all wise men do。 But too great a struggle; too desperate an effort; exhausts; and as a runner lies panting and motionless at the tape; so we all have seen men reach a desired place after untold privation and sacrifice and who then found that there seemed to be no energy; no zeal or desire; no satisfaction left for them。 The too eager and enthusiastic are exposed; like all the overemotional; to great recessions; great ebbs; in the volume of their feeling and feel for a time the direst pain in all experience; the death in life of anhedonia。 After an illness; particularly influenza; when recovery has seemingly taken place; there develops a lack of energy feeling and the whole syndrome of anhedonia which lasts until the subtle damage done by the disease passes off。 Half or more of the 〃nervousness〃 in the world is based on actual physical trouble; and the rest relates to temperament。 When a great purpose or desire has