Part 1

Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with underscores: italics.

EMANCIPATION

MENTICULTURE OR THE A-B-C OF TRUE LIVING

HORACE FLETCHER

CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & COMPANY 1895

COPYRIGHT, 1895 BY HORACE FLETCHER

CONTENTS

THEORY 13

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 25

A DISCUSSION 47

PLYMOUTH CHURCH CLUB AND ARMOUR INSTITUTE 59

DIAGNOSIS AND REMEDY 65

A PRESCRIPTION 73

SCRAPS OF EVIDENCE 77

FIRST PRINCIPLES OVERLOOKED 113

SLAVES OR FREEMEN--WHICH? 123

ORGANIZATION 139

HOPE 145

This little paper; being a Kindergarten presentation of a theory of menticulture through the elimination of the germs of the evil passions; proven to be of practical benefit by a personal experience in every-day life; was read before a gathering of Mental Scientists at New Orleans. At the request of a number of my friends I have had it put into printed form for them.

I have added the substance of a discussion which followed the reading of the paper, a diagnosis, a prescription, some scraps of evidence from influential sources which have come to me, some suggestions relative to the tendency to far-away search for happiness, and a ray of hope that it can be found near at hand, through Emancipation.

PREFACE

Medical science had struggled for centuries with the repression and amelioration of physical disease before it discovered the possibility of prevention by killing the germ.

Mental science pursued the same course of attempted repression in this country until quite recently it was found that mental afflictions have germs also, and it naturally follows that any who are interested in the subject should try to discover, not only the germs themselves, but methods of getting rid of them.

The discovery that I have made is not new, as Christ, Buddha, Aristotle, Omar Khayyam and many others, have all suggested that the elimination of the evil passions is entirely possible; but my special analysis of them, and the easy method of defeat that I have found possible to myself, have excited such interest, that I have been induced to publish them, without attempting to follow the subject beyond the elementary stage.

The theory that I have built up is based on a proper estimation of the limitations of mental weaknesses, a discovery that they have roots, and also that they can be "pulled out by the roots" and disposed of just like any other weeds; only that the task, being mental and not physical, can be more easily performed.

Literary grace has been sacrificed in the belief that redundant reference to the germs will be effective in bringing them into contempt.

EMANCIPATION

THEORY