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Charlotte Mason in Modern English
Charlotte Mason's ideas are too important not to be understood and implemented in the 21st century, but her Victorian style of writing sometimes prevents parents from attempting to read her books. This is an imperfect attempt to make Charlotte's words accessible to modern parents. You may read these, print them out, share them freely--but they are copyrighted to me, so please don't post or publish them without asking.
~L. N. Laurio
Ourselves, Volume 4 of the Charlotte Mason
Series: Book 2––Self-Direction
pg 1
'Order
my goings.'
Introduction
In Book 1 of Ourselves, which deals with Self-knowledge, I tried to
present a panoramic view of the Kingdom of Mansoul. I'll continue using
the term 'Mansoul.' It comes from John Bunyan, and I can't think of a
better phrase that illustrates what it's like to look at a large
country estate from the outside any better than that one. In Book 1, we
pretended to look down from above, getting a bird's eye view of the
rich treasures in Mansoul and the wonderful possibilities for every
human being entering into the world as if he's born into a great
inheritance.
All of the beauty and great thoughts in the world are available to
everyone. Everyone may receive what he needs and use it to serve the
world. Everyone can climb the 'delectable mountains' within his own
nature, and from there, get
pg 2
a vision of the City of God. Yes, Mansoul has unlimited resources and
glorious possibilities. But it also has various dangers, and any one of
them risks devastation and ruin. But none of these dangers is
inevitable, because Mansoul has an established government. It might be
helpful to think of this government as divided into four Houses.
We saw how the House of the Body is kept going by the Appetites, but if
any of these appetites gains total control, it brings ruin. The five
senses are like attendants going between body and mind and serving them
both.
The House of the Mind is specially outfitted with the perfect equipment
for gathering knowledge. 'Lessons are fun, they enrich life and provide
ability,' is written above its doors. Inside is everything needed to
deal with knowledge of all kinds. Intellect is waiting to seize on all
sorts of knowledge. Imagination takes living pictures of glorious
things from the past and strange things from far away places. The
Beauty Sense loves to say, 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever,' and is
always ready to take hold of any lovely thing in pictures, poems,
flowers or heavens, and save them as something to be enjoyed forever.
Reason is eager to understand causes and consequences, and to know the
'why's' of every fact that enters the mind. And, to make sure that the
Mind, with these useful assistants, doesn't become an empty place left
vacant and decaying, there are certain Desires that drive us to feed
the Mind in the same way that our Appetites spur us to feed our bodies.
Just as our bodily Appetites carry the possibility for abuse and excess
that can ruin Mansoul, each of
pg 3
the noble qualities of the Mind also has its own demons that threaten
to paralyze the part of the Mind it affects, or distort and weaken the
Mind altogether.
The House of the Heart is ruled by two kind aides, Love and Justice.
Sympathy, goodwill, empathy, thoughtfulness, graciousness,
thankfulness, bravery, faithfulness, modesty and cheerfulness are
Love's attendants. Justice also has its attendants. They are
impartiality, genuineness, clarity, integrity, honesty and accuracy.
Moderation, sobriety and purity are also members of the Household of
Justice. They help us to show Justice to our own selves. But even these
have their own demons. Getting through life safely depends on
recognizing and also on avoiding the bad tendencies that are ready to
wreak devastation on the House of the Heart. We all know how the
temptation to be fearful, mean, rude, slanderous, envious and unkind in
lots of other ways can trip us up. The dangers are great and the risks
are many. Many a fine Mansoul gets caught in the pitfalls and perishes
without ever realizing the vast wealth at his disposal. He is like a
prince
raised as a poor peasant who is totally unaware of his birthright. But
all who begin to understand the possibilities that are available
to Mansoul, and who also know how many perils are out there, will know
that they have a duty to manage themselves. All the powers they need
for this self-direction are within them every bit as much as intellect,
imagination, hunger and thirst.
The powers within us that govern Mansoul are
pg 4
the Conscience and the Will. But the Conscience, even if it's the
Conscience of a good Christian, isn't competent to make judgments about
different things in life if it hasn't been taught. It would be like
expecting an uneducated farmhand to solve a calculus equation.
The Conscience needs regularly scheduled,
incremental lessons that affect the body, heart and mind. One of the purposes of this
book is to draw attention to some of the things that the Conscience
needs to learn, and what the goals of its lessons should be. The
affairs of the heart are vitally connected to the mind and body. Much
of what we need to consider at this point is what's already
included in Book I (Self-Knowledge).
The Will is the second highest of all the powers of Mansoul, and also
needs some instruction. People tend to assume that the Will acts
automatically, but none of the powers of Mansoul acts by itself. The
Will, as Prime Minister, orders every other power in Mansoul, and a
little bit of knowledge about the way it works will help us to
understand its functions.
It's also a good idea for us to understand a little about the Soul,
which is what we're calling the part of us that knows and loves God, is
able to praise, pray and have faith, and decides whether or not to
enthrone the rightful King over Mansoul. We can be sure that God our
Creator is honored when we make an effort to understand the abilities
and dangers that go along with the human nature He has given us.
Paraphrased by L. N. Laurio
Please direct any comments or questions to me by emailing me at cmseries-owner at yahoogroups dot com.
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