INTRODUCTION TO THE MASTER MIND 57owe both the beginning and the happy ending of the Revolution, for it
was his keen mind that both helped in drawing up the Declaration of
Independence and in persuading the signers of that document to trans-
late it into terms of reality.
In speaking of the source of his great storehouse of knowledge,
Paine thus described it:
Any person, who has made observations on the state of progress
of the human mind by observing his own, cannot but have
observed that there are two distinct classes of what are called
thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection
and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of
their own accord. I have always made it a rule to treat these
voluntary visitors with civility, taking care to examine, as well
as I was able, if they were worth entertaining; and it is from
them I have acquired almost all the knowledge that I have. As
to the learning that any person gains from school education,
it serves only like a small capital, to put him in the way of
beginning learning for himself afterwards. Every person of
learning is finally his own teacher, the reason for which is, that
principles cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of
mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so
lasting as when they begin by conception.In the foregoing words Paine described an experience that at one
time or another is the experience of every person. Who is there so
unfortunate as not to have received positive evidence that thoughts
and even complete ideas will pop into the mind from outside sources?
I believe that every thought vibration released by every brain is
picked up by the ether and kept in motion in circuitous wavelengths
corresponding in length to the intensity of the energy used in their
release; that these vibrations remain in motion forever; that they are