The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1901-04-18
MENTAL PHILOSOPHY.

will not make him philosopher. He
will be merely a believer in another
philosopher, who may be faulty in some
respects-perhaps in all.
Some lines of reasoning, once ac-
cepted at secondhand from religious
men, caused thousands of Jealous souls
in Europe to burn their fellow-beings
at the stake; caused Saul of Tarsus to
persecute the early Christians; caused
countless numbers of good Americans
to insist that African slavery was a
divine institution. All these awful
mistakes were corrected when many
began to use their own minds instead
OF passively following the lines of a
few.
The first step in the development of
the mind is to use the mental powers
whenever the occasion offers. Inform
alton received from wiser men is not
to be despised; indeed, it is absolutely
necessary. The weak must lean upon
the strong, but persistent leaning makes
the weak weaker. Some statements
may safely be accepted at once because
their accuracy can be proved, but no
statement suffers from being thought
over. The early geographers taught as
they believed, that the world was flat,
but a few men who turned this idea
over in their own minds reached a
contrary belief, which proved to be
correct. Many systems and deductions
of philosophy have been honestly
taught in the same manner; but most
of them have been demolished by some
individual who thought persistently
about them for some time. These in
dividuals were naturally no wiser than
those whose ideas they corr bated, but
they developed their own minds.
development" means a great deal
when applied to the human mind.
Probably the simplest definition is that
development gives all the mental
faculties ''a fair show" When we are
told that a certain tract of land has
been developed" we know at once
what is meant. Unnecessary trees
have been cut away so as to admit
light and sunshine, underbrush has
been removed, bogs have been drained,
stumps extracted, and roads cut. Even
then the land produces nothing of it's
own accord, but all of its natural ad-
vantages are made manifest, and its
possibilities can be estimated.
In like manner the human mind
must be developed before it can be put
to its best use. Prejudices, partialities,
notions and tancies must be got rid Of
InduIgences, the bog in which many a
human mind mired, the dense shades
and underbrush that excludes the light
Of heaven, must be subjected to the
most relentless treatment until they
give place to the virtues of which they
are perversions.
A noted man once said that if mems
minds were as skillful for the right as
they were when defending the wrong,
the millennium would be upon us before
we knew it.
To return to the real estate illustra-
tration, light and drainage are ab-
solutely necessary, but roads are also
made Before anything can be brought
out of tract of land there must be
ways for getting into it. The mind
must be approachable from all direc-
tions; it must be prepared to receive
all desirable impressions and in
fiuences. Many which are not desire
able may attempt to enter, but it is
only the slothful man who does nothing
because he fears "there is lion in the
way; shall be slain."
MAHNUD.