Emotional Currents in American History (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Emotional Currents in American History Back of the events that are chronicled in the pages of history - back of the achievements and ambitions of the individuals that hold the front of the stage -there is in progress a stupendous drama, a battle of vast forces in whose hands the heroes of history seem but the painted figures of a marionette show, whose arms and legs are moved by invisible agencies that they but dimly discern. Correlative with the great process of evolution in the material world, in which the struggle for existence is continually eliminating the less fit while those better adapted fight desperately for supremacy, there is another battle in progress, no less stupendous because it is invisible. I refer to the Battle of Ideas. Here in the realm of thought the same struggle for existence is in progress, the same survival of the fittest. Ancient ideas that once dominated the world have been crushed out of existence like the prehistoric dinosaurs, and other forms now occupy the field. We are prone to think that an idea is just a thought. It is that and something more - just as a copper wire may be something more than a piece of metal. An idea may carry an emotional charge that will drive a man to suicide or a nation to revolution. I should like to define an idea as an emotionalized thought. The power of an idea depends on the emotional charge which it has accumulated. A mere intellectual formula has little effect on men. But when, like the Nicene creed, such a formula has gathered an emotional fringe of reverence, enthusiasm, prejudice, and other such dynamic, it can set men by the ears, and turn the world upside down. The idea of the Divine Right of Kings or the Infallibility of the Pope or the Doctrine of the Atonement is more than mere thought. All these ideas now carry powerful emotional charges. Moreover, they grow. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.