If we had no power over our own mental
operations, it would seem as unjust to punish us for our delinquencies
in these particulars as to censure us for the depravity of a resident
of Asia or Africa. But can you defend such a position as this? Have
you no power to determine what themes _shall_ and what shall _not_
employ your meditations? Are you the mere slave for your thoughts,
compelled to follow as they, by some caprice, may direct? No
intelligent mind in which the will is ruler is prepared to admit that
it has been subjected to such vassalage.
The truth is, and I appeal to your own consciences in support of the
declaration, that you are endowed with the power of thinking upon just
such subjects as you may prefer. You can, at pleasure, direct your
attention to any topic, agreeable or disagreeable, lawful or unlawful,
connected with the past, present, or future; you can revolve it in
your mind for a longer or shorter period, and then you can dismiss it
entirely from your consideration. If this were not true; if your
thoughts were not under the control of the will, you would be
incompetent to manage your business; you would be disqualified for
every pursuit of life involving the exercise of reason.
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