a thought of our native heath for months, perhaps years.
Recollection.
25. “Recollection” is the name given to the conscious revival of an impression made upon the brain and retained by it. Frequently recollection is spoken of as if it were synonymous with “memory,” but in reality recollection is only the third and final stage of the complete process. Facility in recollection depends primarily upon the intensity of the first impression. Secondly, it depends upon certain principles of association which will be explained in a later lesson.
Recollection may be brought about in various ways. Sometimes it is stimulated by a recurrence of the conditions which originated the first impression. Thus, if you “forget” an idea you will often find yourself able to “remember” it if you return to the exact spot where the idea first occurred to you. Sometimes a single circumstance will recall a whole group of ideas, as when the name of a novelist brings instantly to your recollection the incidents in various books which you have read of which he is the author. Sometimes an idea is recalled when its exact opposite is presented to the mind. From the scientific point of view, it is thought probable that particular ideas become connected with particular cells in the brain, and any excitement of a particular area in the brain is therefore likely to bring all the ideas located in that area within the range of ready recollection. We shall consider the subject again in further lessons, when we shall see the practical application and effect of the will in the act of recollection.
X. HEALTH AND MIND.
26. The brain partakes with the rest of the body in the circulation of the blood, and if the circulation is sluggish, the action of the brain also tends to become sluggish. It is partly because the circulation is improved by the exercise of the day that mental work is often accomplished more readily in the evening, though another cause for this lies in the number of brain cells stirred into activity by the events and thoughts of the day. In fever the brain is often more active by reason of the increased circulation of the blood, though sometimes the opposite effect is observable, owing to the presence of toxins. If after a period of sedentary mental work, you find yourself becoming inaccurate and your ideas flowing less freely, take a brisk walk for five minutes, or, if you have no heart weakness, run up and down stairs once or twice. This will frequently effect a noticeable improvement in thought.
You must not expect to obtain the highest quality of mental efficiency or the perfection of memory if you persistently ignore your bodily health. When you feel that your health is not what it should be, consult a properly qualified and registered medical practitioner. Do not attempt to dose yourself with patent medicines or advertised nostrums, and avoid the “quack” as you would the plague. It may be that the regular taking of a tonic for a week or so will brighten your whole outlook and vastly improve your mental alertness, but the tonic which may suit your friend may be extremely injurious to yourself. Only your doctor can prescribe for your own constitution.
Sleeplessness.
27. The inability to sleep is a terrible enemy of the mind. On no account whatever should you even occasionally endeavour to obtain sleep by the use of drugs without advice from a physician. No solid food or stimulants (including coffee) should be consumed within two hours of retiring at night, but a glass of hot milk may be taken the last thing. Sometimes sleep may be obtained by subconscious self-suggestion, by trying persistently to keep the eyes almost but not quite closed; form a mental picture of the state of sleep; breathe regularly and somewhat deeply. Whenever possible sleep with your bedroom windows open.
“Overstrain.”
28. A good deal is heard now-a-days of “overstrain.” This condition is far more often the result of wrong methods than of excessive work. The normal brain has an extraordinary capacity for knowledge, and its most serious danger lies not in activity but in worry. With regard to the avoidance of worry, it is more easy to give advice than to follow it. Should you be faced with any cause for anxiety, try to bear continually in mind the fact that worry can never in the smallest degree help in any situation, but that it can, and usually does, render one less competent to meet a crisis or difficulty by lowering the vitality and confusing the brain. You have one trouble: why take on another—the burden of worry? If calamity does come, determine that you will learn from it some lesson, whether of courage, or of patience, or of resource. In this way you may possibly make your gain in character more than balance your loss in other directions. True happiness, after all, depends infinitely more upon ourselves than upon our surroundings. The temporal possessions you have striven for and won so hardly may be taken away, but the priceless treasures of imagination none can wrest from you. Your body may be imprisoned in a dungeon, while your mind still enjoys the freedom of the Universe. When misfortune overtakes you, never gaze back on the opportunities of the past, but concentrate your attention on the opportunities of the future. Although instances of genuine mental overstrain unconnected with worry are extraordinarily rare, a sense of weariness may accrue from prolonged mental application. This may be avoided to a great extent if five minutes’ rest can be taken in every hour. Merely to rise from your seat and stretch your limbs will afford marked relief.
Rest.
29. Idleness is not necessarily restful, and it has a tendency to promote mind-wandering and lack of concentration. The most satisfactory form of rest usually consists in a change of occupation, or even in a mere change of study from one subject to another. To do nothing and to think of nothing is to invite physical and mental degeneration. Bodily idleness may sometimes be necessary for physical recuperation, but the same plea cannot be urged in extenuation of mental idleness.
Concluding Remarks.
At the conclusion of Lesson 1, as a new student you will be inclined to say: “What do I think of it?” We agree the question is not only natural but proper—indeed we desire to cultivate the reader’s critical abilities—but gradually.
Book I is a map more or less of the whole Course—an introduction to the science and art of mental training as understood and practised by the Pelman Institute. Judge it from that point of view and you will see that a rational system must first begin with the simple and proceed to the complex; and that to form a final opinion as to the merits of a Course, after studying one book, is about as intelligent as to value the ability of a pianist after hearing him play a few scales. Depend upon it, the particular aims you have in view—memory, concentration, will-power—will be dealt with fully in due time; so do not expect complete training at once. This is a Course, i.e., it extends to twelve lessons and each lesson contributes its quota to your development.
1 Reference to English money in these pages may easily be understood by Canadian and American students if the sovereign (£1) is reckoned as 5 dollars.
“DON’TS”
1.Don’t regard your difficulties as insuperable. Be hopeful.
2.Don’t abuse your memory; that is the way to make it worse.
3.Don’t say to-day “I can’t concentrate.” If you do, you will be less able to concentrate to-morrow.
4.Don’t
