Life, 1908-12-24 · page 14 of 20
Life — December 24, 1908 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This article mocks the popular "New Thought" movement of the early 20th century—a self-help philosophy promising that positive thinking and belief in one's desires could manifest material success and happiness. The satire works through exaggeration: a man claims the philosophy cured his rheumatism and bad temper, then describes absurd consequences—rich relatives conveniently dying, luxury cars appearing on his lawn, government bonds rejecting themselves. The author ridicules the movement's core claims by showing how its logic produces ridiculous, unearned outcomes. The accompanying cartoon depicts Santa Claus buried under scattered money and gifts, labeled "God Save Ye, Merry Gentlemen, Let Nothing Ye Dismay"—suggesting that New Thought followers expect wealth to materialize like Christmas presents without effort. The piece targets both the movement's magical thinking and its appeal to selfish materialism, exposing how it promises effortless prosperity through mere belief—a con fundamentally at odds with reality and genuine morality.
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728 The New Thought “T WAS once afflicted with rheuma- tism, sciatica, dyspepsia and chil- I had creeping pains up and back, often increasing to a dead run. I had queer feelings in head and couldn't dollar bill on I was irritable, Diains, see a the sidewalk. fretful, moody, A ugly, slapping my wife in fe the face on the slightest provo- cation. Since reading your book (any one of a hundred, they are all same) I'm an- & her. Heaven is in my heart. Sun- ine floods 1 soul. I Aurora Borealises on every horizon. Success has me by the arr mny prayers are answered. To sum up, I'm feeling grand.’ This is what the New Thought does for us. Read and ponder. Listen and vinced. Banish fear! Think love ! nding up with your ngle of 45 degrees. If you rolley, laugh it off face by a con- be co tho: chest at an i Pray are run over by a If you are punched in the f. ductor, don’t believe it The New Thought h greatly. We have sat up nights with ked the floor with it. We have read all about it. We have paid money to sit in reserved seats and watched it perform. An deeply. The idea of the New Thought i that it seems strange nobody ever What we are now 1 to do therefore is to think of interested us and w as a result we respect it is so of it before. we once thou; t we were. we have what we want to be, and we are IT. If that you desire you have only to think of it, and it will be if you sit and think, ided— there is anything yours for keeps. and wait, pro yy”: will understand and appreciate, of se, that when you desire a thing from a purely selfish motive, just be- cause you thi would be a nice thing ' for you to have—you won't get it. That would be wrong. Merely the fact that you desire it is proof enough in itself that you are on an ¢ ly plane Con- sequently don’t expect to get the base ¢ ings you th ou ought to o! The doesn't encov hat You get all these th they are mere incidents. Thought New s by and by, but After you th New Thought for a few right into years 4 { so you can slide lence without having to ALAS take a long breath first; when you can vibrate and pulsate to the music of the spheres at any hour of the day and night, when all you have to do is to nod care- lessly to your trusty old subliminal self and he comes right out of his upper berth and takes his trick at the wheel without a murmur—why then all these things come to you. Rich relatives die without any encour- agement. Six-cylinder automobiles hang around the front steps waiting for you to notice them. Stear ntly in the offing waiting for you to p aboard. You push away govern- nent bonds. Not for you a higher plane. yachts linger pa- You are up, ur, UP on You are int mystic cir- cle number three with an end seat rig on the aisle and holding hands with the Powers that Be. And pray don't fool yourself with the idea that Everything will come to you if you just pretend to be a New Thought- ist, Never! You've got to be the real thing D that isn’t aii, When you rise, and float, the prescription covers every- thing! The friend you depended on, who has now gone back on you, you greet with a glad smile” Your cherished ambition fails. Hooray! Nothing bothers you. You are now One with the Oneness. Am and arm with the All, you trip lightly down the main corridor of Time, with a lead pipe cinch on happiness and a solar plexus full of concentrated Dliss. i: ‘s what the New Thought does for GOD SAVE. YE , MERRY GENTLEMEN, LET NOTHING YE DISMAY snyone who can spare the time from a busy life to submit to regular treatment. It ought to be worth everything Think of meeting the girl you once loved and suffered over—the sweet, gen- tle, soulful eyed golden haired peaches- and-cream-girl who made you long to jump from a burning building or float for days on a marmalade raft on a cross, irritable ocean; who toyed with you and mangled your feelings and kept you guessing and your agonized heart bound- ing with anguish while you wondered what new form of torture she would de- vise next—think of that girl coming to you and hanging around just waiting for a kind look or a chance smile; think of saying to that girl in a kindly manner— for, of course, you are just full of kind- ness now—think of saying as you pat her gently on the head, “ There, there, little one—not to-day. I'm on a higher plane Run away and play in the garden. It’s my hour to go in to the Silence. Of course—then—you wouldn't even care about that. But it’s kind of nice to think it could be that way—once. now easy All you've got to do is not to care any more about the things you want, and then you'll get "em. Terms on application. Thomas L. Masson. “DQ ILLET announced his engagement to be married on the day he was graduated from college.”” “Well, that only gocs to show how little you really learn at college.”