Horace Fletcher - Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought

Only a few of the words relative to our treatise are defined – only such as have been found to cause discussion in consideration of the subject.

No definition of the Christian conception of God can be adequate. God is the source of all, in all, and around all. "The Absolute," "Father," "Creator," "Jehovah," "Source" and other terms are used for euphony and to express separate God-qualities. Whoever attempts to define God, shows pitiful limitations thereby. We may feel God, but we cannot define God. Appreciation of God is the measure of man's possibilities of growth and the key to power and happiness.

Even in its material application, "appreciation" is a word of greatest importance, and should mean the highest form of intelligence . It is commonly used to express only a simple knowledge of value, but it should have a larger significance, by conveying the idea of fullest cultivation and enjoyment as well as knowledge.

Wealth, for instance, can be measured only by appreciation. The child in appreciating a toy is richer than a drowning man with a thousand dollars in gold in his pocket. We will therefore understand appreciation to mean knowledge and full cultivation and enjoyment .

"Appreciation" might justly be given first place in the language, as, in its spiritual application, it implies the knowledge of God that gives birth to Love.

Our definition, "knowledge – or understanding – cultivation and full enjoyment," conveys the largest and highest meaning of "appreciation," but the realization of it is not complete until every God-expression is included, even to the smallest wonder of the universe.

Neglect of the cultivation of appreciation of everything – of the commonest things in our surroundings – is loss of opportunity to conserve the greatest aid to progress and growth; because, appreciation of lesser things insures a better appreciation of the most important things.

Cultivation of appreciation is cultivation of the germ of all good and the opening wide of the spiritual flood-gates. Even the complete, yet simple, dignity of the Lord's Prayer can be epitomized within the prayer, Father, teach Thou us Appreciation .

In its pure form, as Christ meant it, Love makes no distinction between creatures nor between things; its merit is in the act – or thought – and not in the object loved.

The divine quality in man, growing out of appreciation, finds first expression in love; not the passive principle, the opposite of hate, but the growing, active principle, which is constantly flowing forth from the spiritually blessed to bathe with warmth of unselfishness the just and the unjust alike. Love begets altruism.

As "perfect love casteth out fear," so does the eradication of fear insure the wooing of perfect love.

Next in the scale of importance is Comte's word "altruism," which was coined to suggest the Christ-like attitude of unselfish service between fellow-men. It is, however, as before stated, now commonly understood to be the social or business application of the principle of love which needs and expects to be reciprocal. Men were asked to become altruists when they were asked to "do unto others as you would that others should do unto you." Growth towards divinity is the fruit of perfect altruism. Perfect Love begets Perfect Altruism. Christ is the Perfect Altruist.

Any degree of altruism is good and is sure to lead to higher degrees, but the perfect type is best kept in view by the use of the qualified form expressed by the adjective "spontaneous" – meaning voluntary, without reward, except as found in the act itself. This qualification is almost necessary to prevent the lowering of the value of the term, as "perfect" was required to express Christ-Love, in contra-distinction to worldly love.

Optimism is forethought . Christianity, pure and undefiled, is perfect optimism. Christ is the Perfect Optimist. 2 2 Note: The motto of Optimism is, as elsewhere stated, " All can be , and therefore shall be , well."

"Forethought" is the logical, trustful, hopeful, Christian, and therefore stimulating, consideration of the future .

Forethought cannot be contrasted as the opposite of fearthought for the same reason that a tree cannot be contrasted as the opposite of its shadow; one being the growing, fruit-bearing substance; and the other being the unsubstantial, unillumined simulation of the living reality.

Surroundings which impress themselves upon the mind and assist to influence and form character and opinions.

Sometimes called unconscious cerebration; intelligence not derived from experience ; principally obtained during undisturbed sleep, and, seemingly, supernaturally clear to consciousness on awakening in natural manner; Spiritual Cerebration is man's best partner, if confidently listened to, heeded and followed.

Unconscious physical attraction ; assisting sustenance, protection, development and reproduction; attribute of all life.

Attribute only of Man; distinguishing Man from the rest of Creation; exercised in modifying the brute law of the "survival of the fittest, or strongest," by cultivating harmonic conditions favoring growth and producing happiness; God's Higher Law of Harmony executed through Man.

The evidence and fruit and reward of growth as involved in Altruism.

As commonly used, "nature" means creation apart from man. The accepted definition is "creation," and as such includes man and all created things, and also the processes of creation – generation, degeneration and regeneration – as involved in growth. The common use of the word "nature" is a convenient one, and hence let us make use of it as meaning creation other than man .

Egociation is, Appreciation of self as a creation of God and as an instrument of Altruism – to be cultivated to its greatest possibilities in order that it may render Altruistic service in the execution of the Higher Law of Harmony .

There are two distinct kinds of ego – self: The ego that is physically and intellectually born only, and whose tendencies are egotistically selfish, and therefore, animalesque : And the ego that enjoys Appreciation, realizes God, loves spontaneously, understands the Higher Law of Harmony and serves with enthusiasm in the execution of the Law by the exercise of Divine Selection, and thereby attains True Happiness.

The mental equipment of the unthinking is dulled by a confusion of these two egos , and hence they cultivate egotism, believing it to be Egociation ; as they cultivate fearthought , believing it to be forethought; and as they tolerate license, believing it to be an attribute of liberty.

The desirability of separating the lower, or animal, self from the Higher Self, warrants the coining of a term, sufficiently new to attract attention and sufficiently allied to well-known words to explain itself. With this object in view I have empirically selected a combination of ego and appreciation , and in so doing, have coined the euphonious term Egociation as an antithesis of "egotism," especially useful in inculcating a general understanding of the Higher Law of Harmony and in securing recognition of the place of the Higher Self within the Law.