, 1880-05-24
Instant Decisions.

A very large share of our decisions
must be made on the instant, whether
they concern snail things or great. If
we had to stop to deliberate over each
of the thousand little questions which
go to make up our daily life, our days
would be wasted in profitless inaction.
In great and critical times. too, we
must often decide instantly, or else lose
all the benefit which might be secured.
From the offer of another piece of
bread at the dinner-table, up to the
highest opportunity of earthly service,
we must he ready to make answer right
speedily, if We are to reply at all. In
matters of thought, word, and deed,
our choice must be, in the majority
of cases, between an instant decision n
on the one hand, and wretched display
of ignorance or imbecility on the other.
But a quick judgment is very diff
ferent thing from what is popularity
known as :" snap Judgment" If we
say or do what is wrong, it is far more
likely to be the fault of carelessness,
or shiftless mental disposition, than
of the urgency of the limit of tire at
our disposal. The human mind, for
tnnately, is a machine which is able to
act quickly. Physicists have measured
the fraction of second in which the
brain and nerves may perform all the
functions of perception, decision and
action. The machine is all ready for
whatever uses it may be called upon to
serve and if it does not perform them
il is because We ourselves have neg
lected or mlsused it. AS the eyelid
closes instantly and almost antomati-
cally on the approach of danger to the
eve, so both the mental and the moral
powers of man stand all ready to serve
us whenever we call. If they serve us
ought not. then let us look to it most
carefully lest we fall into an idle habit
of irresponsible thinking, which shall
constantly weaken our forces of mind
and soul, antil the value and rectitude
of our opinions and actions wear grad
ually away.
1t is sad fact that many people go
through the whole of life with pre-
disposition to sneer at, or condemn,
whatever comes to their notice. This
hateful tendency, which is shown in
their readiness to denounce or ride ule
nearly every thing at first sight, is really
something worse than cynicism, for even
cynicism may have some intellectual
fiber in its composition, while this
habit is grounded upon no real mental
strength whatever. The worst of it is
that these swift-heeled "words without
knowledge" are mistaken by some young
persons for signs of brightness and
wisdom. But if not corrected before
it is too late, they grow to be evidences
of nothing better than malignity and
bitterness of soul.
The remedy for this great danger Of
hasty judgment-and We speak now of
such evils as may also attend needless
laudation as we'll as hurried condemna-
tion-is sharply to question ones own
mental processes, and, on occasion,
those of others, by bringing them face
this, or do this?" Lcose thinking and
careless utterarce fade away at the first
ray of the clear light of intelligent rea-
soning. If We do not speak antll We
have thought, and DO not think until
we have Put ourselves in right state
for thought, we need have little fear of
getting into trouble from hasty conclu-
sions. Human nature is fallible, but it
eau ssain and grow by any resolute re-
versal of the processes by which, left
to itself, it would lose and decay. And
with every real decision, whether it re-
lates to the choice of lead-pencil or
the choice of church connection, the
mind grows stronger for the next test
which it must meet