148 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
paralysis of chronic doubt as it is from the dead crystalliza tion of the mind which never doubts because it refuses to think. The open mind is not at all inconsistent with positive conviction and constructive activity; rather the contrary. It has convictions that have been so thoroughly tested in the crucible of thought that opposing ideas can be met without awakening disturbing fears; and its activity is constructive because the true definition of construction is the more per fect correlation of life with environment.
III. If we compare the conditions under which belief and doubt occur and the conditions under which feeling arises, the intimate connection between them becomes ap parent.
In the first place, it is evident that the act of belief, con sidered in and by itself alone, is pleasantly toned, because it is an experience which falls in with and quickens the mental process actually going on. This, however, is often obscured by the fact that the content of the belief, the thing believed, imposes a decided check upon the deeper instinc tive tendencies and processes of life. The pleasure which the mere act of believing causes is thus submerged and lost in the stronger tide of unpleasantness caused by the disagree able idea or fact believed. Likewise the suspense of doubt, in and by itself, is always unpleasant; except, perhaps, in the case of the chronic doubter, who has formed the habit of doubt, which each suspension of judgment coincides with and strengthens. And even then, as in the case of every bad habit, the experience is not one of pure and unmixed pleas ure but is shot through with a vague unpleasantness, due to the fact that the habit is in opposition to fundamental vital processes.
In the second place, it is apparent not only that belief and doubt are accompanied by feeling-tones but that these atti tudes are in some measure determined by feelings. Differ ences of opinion may exist as to the emphasis which should be placed upon feeling as a factor in determining these re actions, and it may be claimed that it does not play an
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