The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-04-13
TEACHING TO THINK.

To be thoughtful, is one thing; to
teach another to think, is more COM
pick affair, One may be a born think
er, and go into unimagined deeps by
mere force of his nature. but to be
able to excite the same, power in
another, he must go back in his own
mind and analyze the elements which
have contributed to his success, then,
beginning at the simplest, patiently
draw ON his pupil, by short steps over
rough places, till he can run along In
an independent career.
IF education were but storing the
memory, the process would be more
easy, though its initial step would be
the same; for the rude substratum Of
all thinking is in the senses, and only
through the various organs Of sense
can it be reached. Nosoil holds water
that has not.a good hard-pan of clay.
Rock sheds it off, sand teaches it
through; but firm earth holds, diffuses
and Incorporates the shoWes in living
forms Of beauty and worth. So stolid-
ity, like rock, and gaping, aimless GU
Tiosity, like a sand-bank, get nothing
from the world they cucumber, and
give nothing to its. vital income. In
the shrewd integrity of eye and ear,
winning from tone, color, and from the
inner secret of things, the growing
mind is enriched, and by a compensate
ing evolution can make rich the world
it lays under contribution, as a lily
glorifes the garden that feeds it.
The first thing to be taught, then, is
a discriminating attention to the facts
of the senses, not merely to know the
smell Of a lily from the sound of flute,
q rich color from a delightful flavor, or
a lovely picture from tender caress,
all of which we vaguely blur by one
word, "sWeet" or ''fne," or sicklieSt of
all, "nicer but one must be called to
distinguished tone, shade, form, quail
ty, MISUNDERSTANDING that bears
the bound-line of a difference, every
sense upon the alert.
An expert in telegraphy reads the
meaning of a mere metallic clicking of
an insensible machine, as he would the
articulations of the human voice: and
out of a thousand tones without diff
ference to you or me, hears his own
promptly as if his name were spoken /;
nay, more, he can distinguish the per-
sonality of operators thousands Of
miles away as he would their visible
handwriting. This is done by train
ing the ear to accuracy, making the
slightest differences surrender their
meaning.
The eye that cannot tell go hawk
from hernshaw," or ha91ds0aO, as the
vulgar have it,Amay lead one safely
to mill, when the day is clear, but not
an inch on the way of finer acquisitions
of knowledge in the subtle ways of
modern research. You may fancy it
is no matter whether the crab you saw
had six legs or ten, or if a horse rose
first on it's forelegS and a COW on its
hind legs, or. the reverse, or on all to-
less obvious, are the key word to
gether, and yet facts thousand times
vast stores of knowledge, and the dis
eliminating habit it is the very touch
stone of mental integrity.
A vague and homely fashion of see
ing gives feeble and false conceptions.
What is but half defined in the senses
Will u0N0T CIySGdll1zo 1uUO ClOdl-cuO
ideas. The inattentive mind ii temp
ted into expression, sheds fog instead
of sunshine and goes rambling
through mire and mist, like creeks in
marsh. Give and require accurate in
formation were it only on the size and
color of the poker, or the location of
the seeds of strawberry. Clear facts
are the basis of clear thoughts. A
little ir Iistinctness in your premises
will give great uncertainty to your