The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-12
THE rH1NKEsr AND HIS THINK.
Bin Nye's Lucid Description Of the MeChan-
ism of the Mind.

| ism OF Gne DAAnus
Louisville Conrier-Journal A
What wonderful thing is thought What a
| complex piece of mechanism is the engine we
call our thinker, and what glorious result IS
! the think itself after it has just been thnnk
| There it lies, firm and fresh from the think
| ographer full of life, a new-laid idea that may
change the career of nation or knock tyranny
higher than Gilderoy's kite.
What then, is an ideal Is it not the evanes-
cent germ of the wherefore, floating through
space and at last caught up and terminated in
| the bosom of the intellectual forthwith do
not say that it is but is it mott Scientific truths
are first but theories, afterward demonstrated,
tested by time, and at last they become the pill
lars upon which other scientific truths may rest,
until altogether they constitute an architectural
pile, as strong and as symmetrical as the plaster
cast of a duck'sfoot in the mud.
Thought. however, must be coupled with en-
ergy and industry, or it may come to uaught.
Many thoughts protrude into the moist spring
air only to be gnawed off by the cut-worm of
neglect or slowly eaten by the sqashbng Of spec
ulation. / once knew man whose brain was
one of the most active of his time, and yet his
name is not known beyond the limits of his own
school district. When his brain began to act,
and as it were, to give down, you could almost
hear it. He had fine scholarly mind. and yet
his liver was torpid. To show how nature de-
lights to deal with incongruities, need only say
that, although this man was a poet and an artist
in his mind, he ate pie with a knife and finally
died in obscurity He was not practical with all
his greatness and he walked down the long vista
of life holding up his pautaloons by means of q
gle-naili How often is this the caseg Why
should men with the greatest mental endow-
ments be also most prone to gastric eccentrici-
tiesl And yet it is So am that way myself.
Sometimes am temped to repine, and to ask:
Why should run all to soul and to brain, and
be top heavy with intellect, and yet be the play
thing of bilious collie? 1t is but the natural pen
atty attached to eminence and intellectual super
iority. And yet at times am almost discon-
tented forget this great law of compensa-
ton, or wish that nature had endowed me with
a plain seven7octave brain and more genial
vitals. instead of such a waste Of brain along
with stubborn and short-sighted liver
Thought, however, is a great success With
out it we grope through the world staggering
into the legislature at last, whefe we sink into
oblivion. If we scorn to develope our thinkers,
what do we become2 We become anonymous
exercised in order to make it grow.
Exercise developes the thinker as it
does the biceps muscle We soon learn to
ride the bicycle If we practice constantly and so
we may train ourselves to straddle the bareback
of the frsky young idea, andat last make it sub
servient to our will. We should early accustom
ourselves to think, so that when we arrive at
middle age, if we have an idea, it will not give
us a nervous shock and feed us into premature
| grave. Those who think must at last become
| thoughtful, and it is surprising TO what an ex-
tent this is the case while on the other hand the
close student of human nature will be struck
| with the fact that those who roll up their think
| ers in napkin and put them away in the re-
| frigerator at last become gnoticeably thought
less. While at first blush This statement may
appear doubtful, careful observation will dem
onstrate it's thorough reliability. Give the
thing plenty of fresh air and exercise at last
| it will most naturally curl up and die.