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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


BY

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