The steam engine may stand in the same
spot while its wheels revolve madly; it may move along the tracks alone,
and accomplish nothing; or it may transport a great train of loaded
cars. Unless it moves to some definite point and carries merchandise or
people there, it is a useless, indeed, a dangerous invention. We find,
in fact, that it functions to the very definite end of taking man and
his chattels to specified places.
And so it is with the mind. If it is thinking and feeling and willing
only for the sake of exercising these mental powers, it might better not
be. But what end do we actually find these functions serving?
Mind, with its powers of thinking, feeling, and willing, gives an
external world of matter; an internal world of thought, and so relates
them to each other as to make them serve man's purposes. Thus these
functions exist for accomplishment.
In the solving of a problem, for instance, the mind thinks, primarily;
in the enjoyment of music it feels, primarily, though its feeling may be
determined by the intellectual verdict on the music; in forcing its
owner to sit at the piano and practice in the face of strong desire to
attend the theater, it wills, primarily.
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