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Vol. XVI
EXTRA NO. 1
University Record
AUGUST, 1921
No. 3
Published quarterly by the University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
GAINESVILLE
THE MIND OF MAN
Commencement Address delivered by
JUDGE THOMAS M. SHACKELFORD, SR.
June 7, 1921
Entered September 6, 1906, at the Postoffice at Gainesville, Florida, as second
class mail matter, under Act of Congress, July 16., 1894
THE MIND OF MAN
Upon the fly-leaf of Sir William Hamilton's Lectures on
Metaphysics you will find this motto:
"On earth, there is nothing great but man;
In man, there is nothing great but mind."
I read these wonderful lectures as a youth and this motto
made a profound impression upon me which has deepened as
the years have come and gone. During that portion of this
precious hour which has been so kindly given to me I invite
you to consider with me some thoughts which this motto has
suggested. Sir William Hamilton tells us what he means by
mind is "that which-perceives, thinks, feels, wills and desires."
This would seem to be a concise and correct definition of the
human mind, which, as you will have observed, includes not
only intellect but also sensibility and will. In other words, in
this address let us mean by the term human mind that some-
thing in us which thinks, knows, feels and wills. Intellect,
then, forms only a part of the mind and is by no means synony-
mous with it. This being true, we cannot agree with the state-
ment of Dr. William W. Ireland that "The only thing worth
having in man is his intellect. An ape much surpasses him in
strength and agility; an eagle in sight; a dog in smell and
hearing; a bat in touch; a pig in powers of digestion and as-
similation; but through his finely developed intellect man is
the master of them all." Grant that the animals mentioned
by Dr. Ireland surpass man in the several particulars which
he enumerates, it does not follow that the intellect is the only
thing worth having in man. I would also deny that man is
master of the animals below him and rules them only by virtue
of and through his intellect.
William James has declared that "Man's chief difference
from the brutes lies in the exuberant excess of his subjective
propensities,-his pre-eminence over them simply and solely
in the number and in the fantastic and unnecessary character
of his wants, physical, moral, aesthetic, and intellectual."
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As has been recognized by modern psychologists and as
Prof. James B. Pratt has finely said, "It is feeling alone which
gives value to life. Sensation and ideation merely report on
the facts. If man Were only a c6ld intellect who saw and
judged, one thing would be as valuable as another-in fact for
him there would be no values in the universe but only truths.
It is only because man has feelings, emotions, impulses,, that
anything in heaven or earth has value."
Perhaps this quotation from Professor J. M. Baldwin will
help to make the distinction clearer to you: "You can know
what I know and you can will what I will, but you cannot by
any possibility feel what I feel."
And as you will recall, Tennyson in those beautiful lines in
his "In Memoriam" declares that when the intellect under-
takes to dictate to man,
"A warmth within the breast would melt
The freezing reason's colder part,
And like a man in wrath the heart
Stood up and answered 'I have felt.' "
You will also remember that the supreme gift for which
King Solomon asked and received was an understanding heart.
In fact, the word heart was used by both the Old and New
Testament writers to convey the meaning which we now at-
tach to the word mind. Solomon admonishes us to keep our
heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life and
he also tells us that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
And a greater teacher than, Solomon has told us that out of
the heart proceed evil thoughts and St. Paul declared that
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. It has been
pointed out that the word brain is not found in the Bible,
which I believe is also true of the word intellect, while heart
is used many times, as is also true of mind, heart and mind
apparently being used interchangeably. I have dwelt some-
what upon what I understand by the human mind because I
consider it of the utmost importance for you to recognize the
distinction between mind and intellect, lest you become en-
snared in "Vicious intellectualism," to use William James's
forceful term.
Let me give you an illustration to show you something of
the danger, which I take from Robert Browning's remarkable
,*THE MIND OF MAN
poem Paracelsus, published when the author was only twenty-
five. -Paracelsus started out to conquer the whole world by
knowledge. Aspiring to all knowledge, he believed that when
he attained it he would have unlimited power, declaring that
he had "determined to become the greatest and most glorious
man on earth." He shut out from his life, love, emotion and
God. Intellect became his God and the quest for all knowledge
his sole aim. As you will remember, the poem tells us that
during this life-long quest for universal knowledge which was
to give him all power Paracelsus meets Aprile, the poet, whose
aim in life was diametrically opposite to that of Paracelsus.
April would love infinitely and be loved, aspiring to attain
every form of love. He cared not for knowledge but wor-
shipped love and beauty and believed that through them he
would attain supreme happiness. He convinces Paracelsus
that love is what he wants while Paracelsus convinces Aprile
that knowledge was his lack. Each realized that he was the
complement of the other, that knowledge is of no value with-
out love and that love without knowledge is blind. Both Para-
celsus and Aprile had failed in their quest seemingly because
they had not combined their aims and joined love and knowl-
edge, intellect and the feelings. Undoubtedly this was par-
tially true, but it was not the whole truth. Knowledge and
love, intellect and the feelings must be joined together, must
go hand in hand, else each will fail, but this is not sufficient.
Will must not be left out but is requisite .in order to direct the
intellect and the feelings aright in their quest and show them
that the goal of happiness can be reached only through duty
and service. As Paracelsus just prior to his death declared to
his friend Festus there was a time when he was happy and
.when Festus asked him when that time was Paracelsus re-
plied, "When, but the time I vowed myself to man ?" In those
pathetic lines just before his death Paracelsus exclaimed:
"Let men regard me, and the poet dead long ago
Who loved too rashly; and shape forth a third
And better tempered spirit, warned by both."
But I must forbear to quote further. Let me urge you to
read the poem for yourselves and take to heart the great lesson
which it teaches. In this poem Browning, the poet, was the
precursor of Bergson, the philosopher, who tells us in his
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"Creative Evolution" that "There are things that intelligence
alone is able to seek, but which, by itself, it will never find.
These things instinct alone can find; but it will never see
them." What is this but the great lesson which Browning has
taught in his poem?
You would think, would you not, that intellect was the
supreme ruler in the realm of mathematics? Let me give you
this story, which is told by Professor Cassius J. Keyser. He
relates that on one occasion when Charles Sanders Peirce,
whom he declares was the greatest of American logicians, was
delivering a lecture in which he undertook to enumerate the
powers that constitute the born geometrician, after he had
named Conception, Imagination and Generalization, he paused.
Thereupon from one in the audience there came the challenge,
"What of Reason?" The instant reply, not less just than
brilliant, was: "Ratiocination-that is but the smooth pave-
ment on which the chariot rolls."
I have now given you the first thought which I would im-
press upon you, that the human mind comprises intellect, feel-
ing and will, and if we ignore any one of these great factors
we do so at our peril. But we have still to determine what
mind really is, what it does and how it operates or manifests
itself. After reading widely and pondering over the subject,
I have reached the conclusion that Emerson proclaimed a
great truth when he announced his doctrine of the universal
mind, or the Over-Soul, as he generally calls it. So far as I
have been able to find, this theory was first promulgated by
Plato and elaborated by Plotinus and Proclus, by all of whom
Emerson was greatly influenced. Saturated with their teach-
ing Emerson after brooding over it through long years gave
us the doctrine in its present form. Very concisely stated,
there is but one mind in the universe which is the creator of
all things, therefore is universal. This universal mind is
poured into or given to every man in greater or less degree
in proportion to his varying capacity or receptivity. The dif-
ference, then, is in degree and not in kind. Does this seem
startling or perhaps even sacrilegious to you ? Let me hasten
to explain. We are taught by holy writ that man was created
in God's image. This cannot mean physical for we are further
told that God is spirit. Very well, then, in creating man in
His image man must have been created spirit, therefore as
THE MIND OF MAN
spirit he is the image of God. Are we not further taught by
the Bible that we are the temple of the living God, or as it is
elsewhere expressed that our body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit? This being true, God through His spirit dwelleth
within us and is an immanent, not an absentee God. Did not
the Master say that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us?
I would also call to your remembrance St. Paul's statement in
that wonderful sermon which he preached on Mars hill at
Athens: "That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might
feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every
one of us." If we do not find him within by feeling after him,
I sadly fear that we shall never find him in the external world
through the intellect. Each one of us, then, is spirit having
and using a body which we are privileged to control and direct.
We are further taught by the author of the epistle to the He-
brews that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen." Faith belongs to and is a part
of mind. It necessarily follows that mind is substance, and
I feel warranted in saying that mind is spiritual substance.
You remember Emerson's lines:
"So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, I can."
Likewise Tennyson has said:
"Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit
with Spirit can meet-
Closer is He than breathing and nearer than
hands and feet."
You are of royal lineage and have a divine pedigree, the
Spirit of God dwelleth within you, therefore I bid you be of
good cheer and have courage. How dare you abase yourselves
and be filled with fear? You are not "worms of the dust,"
but men and should acquit yourselves like men. What, you
say, we are not worms of the dust ? Do not the Scriptures de-
clare that we are such? Yes and no. Bildad the Shuhite did
say to Job that man is a worm and David in one of his despair-
ing and despondent moments declared that he himself was "a
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people." But read that wonderful eighth Psalm in which King
David after asking of the Lord, "What is man, that thou art
mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visiteth
him ?" triumphantly makes answer "For thou hast made him
a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory
and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the
works of thy hands, thou hast put all things under his feet."
Let me also call to your attention that fine apostrophe of
Shakespeare:
"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in
reason!
How infinite in faculty! in form and moving
Express and admirable! in action how like an
angel!
In apprehension how like a god!
I would have you sufficiently Greek to claim the privilege
of standing upright and looking all things squarely in the
face, and yet with sufficient Hebraic element in your nature
to fill you with reverence and make you willing to take off your
shoes whenever you approach holy ground.
So much for the origin of the human mind and what it is.
Let us now briefly consider how it works and what it does, but
before doing this it may be well to suggest to you what has
been called the dual mind hypothesis. This is nothing new but
has been in the world, more or less recognized, at least as far
back as Plato, but was popularized a few years ago by the late
Thomson J. Hudson under the terms objective and subjective
mind. Previously it had been clearly and logically developed
and wrought out by the late Frederic W. H. Myers, to whom
we are indebted for what has become known as the subliminal
self theory. I cannot within the brief time which remains
undertake to elaborate this dual mind hypothesis. Suffice it
to say that the organ of the conscious or objective mind
through which it manifests itself or operates is the brain,
though how this is done I am unable to tell you nor do I be-
lieve that anyone else can do so satisfactorily, though it has
been widely discussed for centuries and many books have been
written concerning it and different hypotheses have been ad-
vanced, no one of which has met with general acceptance.
:THE MIND OF MAN
Perhaps the best known hypotheses or theories are those
which have been designated as automatism, interactionism
and parallelism, no one of which is entirely convincing or satis-
factory. I cannot enter into a discussion of their respective
claims, although the subject is intensely interesting. It has
been claimed that the brain produces thought, either Voght or
Buchner, German philosophers, going so far as to declare that
the brain secretes thought just as the liver secretes bile, but
this has met with little acceptance. The late Professor Hux-
ley declared that if he were compelled to choose between this
materialism of the two German philosophers and the idealism
of Berkley .he should have to agree with Berkley and proclaim
himself a spiritualist or an idealist, though, of course, no such
choice was forced upon him and he agreed with neither. Hux-
ley further declared that he was not a materialist because he
found himself "utterly incapable of conceiving the existence
of matter if there is no mind in which to picture that ex-
istence." Of course, the statement of these German philoso-
phers is absurd and carries on its face its refutation. The liver
is material and can secrete bile which is also material, but how
the brain which is material can secrete or produce thought
which is psychical is simply beyond us. Moreover, as has been
pointed out, the brain is a ductless gland. It is important for
us to understand this because if the brain produces thought
then the argument of the materialists that with the death of
the body of which the brain is part the mind and spirit must
also die has much force. Without a brain there could be no
mind and there would be no survival of bodily death. But hap-
pily for us the brain does not produce thought but only trans-
mits it, as William James has superbly demonstrated in his
"Human Immortality."
The conscious mind derives its information through the
five senses which report their impressions from the external
world, upon which the conscious mind can reason both deduc-
tively and inductively and transmit the conclusions which it
reaches to the unconscious or as I should prefer to say sub-
conscious nind, which accepts such conclusions as correct and
deduces whatever consequences therefrom which lie therein, its
powers of deductive reasoning being practically perfect, but
it is incapable of inductive reasoning. Within this subjective
mind are stored all of our memories which embrace everything
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
that we have ever at any time in our life felt, thought, seen or
heard, nothing being lost, though all may not be recalled or
recollected at will, yet all is there stored up. This sub-con-
scious mind also has control of all the vital functions of life
which are performed automatically without any action of the
conscious mind. This subjective or sub-conscious mind per-
vades every part of the body and acts through the entire body,
not being limited to the brain. It has been claimed in both
ancient and modern times that the solar plexus is the organ
of the subjective mind and perhaps the advocates of this hy-
pothesis are larger in number today than at any former period,
but I cannot stay to argue this hypothesis with you. Suffice
it for my present purpose to state that I am of the opinion that
. Myers and others have succeeded in demonstrating the exist-
ence of this subliminal self within us which forms by far the
larger part of our real self. Myers has two similes which he
is fond of using, that of an iceberg of whose total mass at least
eight-ninths float beneath the surface, and that of the spec-
trum beyond which at both the red and violet ends extend
other rays, the existence of which we are only beginning to
apprehend. To use some of Myers' own words, "Beyond each
end of our conscious spectrum extends a range of faculty and
perception exceeding the known range, but as yet indistinctly
guessed."
Largely by reason of this work of Myers and the work of
William James, we are beginning to realize that we are far
more than we have ever dreamed. In other words, we are
just learning to grasp the real powers man possesses of which
he has made such scanty use. I urge upon you the importance
of realizing your powers and of using them. Let me especially
commend to you William James' remarkable address upon
"The Energies of Men." Learn what these powers are and
put them to work in your everyday lives. It will mean much
to you in every way. We are so accustomed to contemplating
the external world that we have largely lost sight of the world
within, and yet it is to this internal world we must go to
obtain power. It is there that we may get in touch with the
divine power, which we will never find in the external world.
It is in the Silence that we must go to receive the messages
from on high. Emerson tells us this again and again, in which
he but follows the voice of the Master who bade us enter into
THE MIND OF MAN
our closet and close the door and then get in communion with
our Father through prayer. I fear that we have not realized
the power of silence. The Orientals have always done so and
we would do well to follow their example. It is in the Silence
that we conceive and visualize that which later takes form and
is manifested in the external world, This is true of every
great work which man has accomplished along any line. The
processes go on in the subjective mind which never sleeps but
is always busily engaged. A problem arises in the objective
mind and demands a solution. It is relegated to the subjective
mind which is capable of solving any problem which is prop-
erly presented to it. We are not conscious of it, but the work
is constantly going on until finally the solution presents itself
to the conscious mind. Mozart, Handel and Hayden have told
us something of how their great musical compositions were
produced. Likewise Sir William Rowan Hamilton has told us
how he discovered quaternions as Poincare has done of his
discovery of fuchsian functions. We have still fuller accounts
by Tesla of his wonderful electrical discoveries and inventions.
It all reads like romance but time will not permit me to tell you
these wonderful stories, but I shall give you one instance
which strikingly illustrates the point I am trying to make. An
officer who served with Stonewall Jackson relates that on one
occasion he went to Jackson's tent at night and found him sit-
ting in darkness in deep meditation. The visitor spoke of the
absence of any light, when Jackson replied that the light was
too trying upon his eyes, whereupon the visitor suggested that
he had better go to bed. Jackson answered that he could not
spare the time as he had most important work to do. What,
asked the visiting officer, working at night in the darkness?
Yes, was Jackson's response, it is the very best time to work.
It developed that Jackson was accustomed to go into the silence
and it was there that he formed his plans of battle which
brought him such brilliant victories. This teaches us an im-
portant truth. Let me urge upon you that you set apart a
certain period each day of at least fifteen minutes duration for
going into the Silence. Try it, you have no conception how
richly it will reward you. You must sow the seed in the
Silence, then will come "first the blade, then the ear, after that
the full corn in the ear."
UNIVERSITY OF..FLORIDA
I shall give you still another illustration,. Over the desk
of the famous Mayo brothers at Rochester, .Minn., hangs a
wool-embroidered motto which reads as follows: "Though you
live in the heart of a forest, if you have something the world
wants, it will cut a path to your door." This motto was made
and given by their mother to the old doctor, the father of the
present Doctors Mayo. Evidently it profoundly impressed
their subconscious minds, with the result that they have be-
come the most renowned surgeons in the United States, per-
haps in the world. They have something' which the world
wants and thousands come annually to the little city of Roches-
ter, Minn., to get it.
I must say a few words before I conclude about the power
of thought. Do you realize that thought is the greatest force
in the world? It may be called mind in action. It not only
precedes but is the cause of and may be said to create every
action. Do you realize just what this means? As Emerson
has said in his poem, "The Problem", in speaking of the Par-
thenon, the Pyramids and England's abbeys, ,.
"Out of thought's interior sphere,
These wonders rose to upper air.'':
This is true of everything that exists, whether the works
of Nature or of man. They must first have existed as thoughts
in some mind. Every great painting, piece of sculpture, archi-
tecture, engineering, musical or literary composition or what-
not, had its origin in some mind, existing first in its entirety
in the thought world before it could be manifested in the ex-
ternal world. Every thought, whether good or bad, idle or
useful, is productive of some action. This is a well recognized
principle in psychology. As William James has said, there is
"no reception without reaction, no impression without corre-
lative expression." "A current that runs in has got to run
out somewhere." Also, "Mental states always lead to acts,"
they "occasion also changes in the calibre of blood-vessels, or
alteration in the heart-beats or processes more subtle still,
in glands and viscera. If these are taken into account, as well
as acts which follow at some remote period because the mental
state was once there, it will be safe to lay down the general
law that no mental modification ever occurs which is not ac-
companied or followed by a bodily change." You see, then,
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the iniliortaAce bf tight thinking, not only upon your minds
but also upon y6ur bodie-. You may think success or failure,
health or disease, anid a -youti thoughts are so will your actions
and conduct be. It has been actually demonstrated in the
psychological, physical and chemical- laboratories that as a
man thinketh in his heart, so is he, is literally true not only
morally, but mentally and physically. So we must give an ac-
count, not only in the day of judgment but in this life, 6f every
idle word that we speak. There is also a sound psychological,
as well as a moral and religious reason for us to heed St. Paul's
admonition: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
pure, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any
virtue and if there be any praise think on these things." This
is not only a great religious truth, but is also sound psychol-
ogy. By following the admonition we form mental habits
which not only affect our minds but likewise our bodies and
entire lives. As we have seen, through our thoughts we are
constantly re-creating our bodies whether for good or ill. By
right thinking, then, we can make ourselves just what we will.
The faith-curists, mental-healers, new-thought advocates and
Christian-scientists have glimpsed a great truth but they have
only glimpsed it, as they have seen through a glass darkly.
They have all performed remarkable cures and done wonderful
things but they have all had most colossal failures. They have
claimed too much and where they have met with success it has
been not by reason" of but in spite of their claims. One great
law governs all, which William James has recognized and
pointed out, and whenever this law was complied with success
has crowned their efforts. In speaking of one of these cults,
I will not say which, Henry Holt declared that "The votaries
have got hold of a truth though many of them have got it by
the tail."
Recalling what William James said in one of his lectures to
an audience composed of teachers and students, the responsi-
bility which I am assuming today in addressing you is appall-
ing to me. He said:
"As I talk here, and you listen, it might seem as if no
action followed. You might call it a purely theoretic process
with no practical results. But it must have a practical result.
It cannot take place at all and leave your conduct unaffected.
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If not today, then on some far future day you will answer some
question differently by reason of what you are thinking now.
Some of you will be led by my words into new veins of inquiry,
into reading special books. These will develop your opinion
whether for or against. That opinion will in turn be ex-
pressed, will receive criticism from others in your environment
and will affect your standing in their eyes."
If what I have said shall cause you to go direct to the au-
thors from whom I have quoted, I shall feel that this hour has
been of benefit to you. May I hope, as I now conclude and
release your attention from the strain to which I have sub-
jected you, that you will consult these authors, especially Em-
erson, James and Browning.
Let my closing words be these lines from Browning:
"Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward thing, whatever you may believe.
There is an inmost center in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness; and around
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception-which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and to KNOW
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without. Watch narrowly
The demonstration of a truth, its birth,
And you trace back the effluence to its spring
And source within us."
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