Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-04-22
Presence Of Mind.


the list would be presence of mind.
Without this, indeed, all the others have
but half their value, for of what use is
chariot which can be got ready only after
you have finished your journey and
waded through the mud on foot? or
fre-escape which appears at your win
dows only when you have been scorched
and blackened in the flames? So of
what good the wit who lags behind the
occasion, and comes in limp and damp
when the time of the fireworks has
passed and the brightest flash falls dull
and dim? or the courage which is only
like the blind strength Of Samson, eye
less, confused, without the power OF dis
eliminating means or the ability to dis
Germ opportunities? What we want is
the presence of mind to make both wit
and courage available on the instant and
when wanted; the ready tact, the quick
eyesight, the facile word, the prompt act,
the use Of the faculties which measure
obstacles coincident with those which
balance powers, so that we may see
where the danger lies, and at the same
moment where the means of escape are
to be found. Without this power of
ready use, this presence OF mind, no
faculty we may possess has either fair
play or full value, and for all practical
purposes we might as well be without
those powers of which we cannot get the
good or make full use when required.
Take a tender, timid, easily dismayed
and distracted mother with her child in
flames, badly cut, half drowned or in
commissions. Theoretically, she knows
exactly what to do. She has read it
often, been Instructed in all the stages of
procedure, and knows the whole thing
by heart, beginning, middle and end-in
her armchair. Put her knowledge to the
test and it has gone, exhaled in fright
ened screams, in agonized distress, in
tears which do no good to her child or
anyone else, in wringing Of hands and
tearing of hair. When too late she re-
members what she ought to have done,
but lacking presence of mind for the &C.
casion, the moment of deliverance passed
and the child died or was manned for
life in consequence.
One evil result of very careful home
training is that children are not suffered
to run their little dangers, SO never learn
how to get out of them when they come.
And as presence of mind is, like every
thing else, a matter of use and educa-
tion we cannot wonder if the adult fails
because the child has never learnt, and
that the habit of screaming for help and
standing paralyzed Till it comes survives
the years when care was always about
and help at hand. For our own parts we
advocate the system of wise neglect"
which allows children to run into small,
childish difficulties and leaves them to
get out OF them again without help rath-
er than that which removes every straw
from their path lest they trip over it,
covers every smallest bruise with cotton
or wool, and suffers no free use of their
faculties lest that free use should in
clude the wholesome lesson of pain
taught 10y experience and the important
consequences of minor mishaps. We
think the cultivation of that faculty, or
rather of that ready result OF many
faculties, called in the concrete presence
of mind, worth little pain and danger
to attain. 1t may save life in the future
to have confusion now, and scalp
wound at eight is better than a crushed
skull at eight-and-twenty The most dar-
ing men are generally those who come
triumphant out of danger, and those who
fail and fall are, for the most part, men
who as children were overcared for, and
so have never learnt how to take care of
themselves when the hour of peril was
on them.
This is presence of mind in its phys
ical application, naturally the most i'm
portant of all, because dealing with life
and limb but presence of mind in social
matters is also of supreme Importance
in its own way, as dealing with ones self
respect, ones personal comfort, and ones
social standing. Watch person with
out presence of mind on whom a sudden
attack is made, such as sometimes even
so-called we'll people permit them
selves to make. Brain for brain he is far
in advance of his assaiant, but he has
not the faculty for ready use. He turns
red or pale, according to his tempera-
ment; is angry or distressed, according
to the state of his nerves and his diges-
ton; makes an impolitic answer, a blum
dering confession, or is silent altogether,
which is the most damaging thing of all
With the smallest infusion of presence
of mind he might have routed the ad.
versary with the weapons at his COM
mand; but they remained rusty and I'M
used IN the armory till the fitting time
was passed, when his cut and thrust fell
on empty air, and the wound in his own
personality remained A man with pres
ence of mind, if with no very superior
intelligence, would have made his adver-
sary rue the day when he crossed swords
with him. He would have caught him
out and taken his sharpest spears on his
buckler of impenetrable self-composure.
He would nave given him back thrust
for thrust, and would have come off con-
Queror in the fray he Idid not provoke.
He would not have stood there pale 10
his lips or flushed 10 the roots of his
hair, with his mouth wide open, looking
the picture of convicted guilt, of craven
imbecility, of conquered cowardice.
Not he. Active, alert, armed at all