Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-10-17
Mental LRZinosS.

FROM the London spectator.
We doubt If even thoughtful Englishmen, apart
always from limited class OF experienced and OBJ
servant teachers, are at all aware OF the extent to
which many men and more women are swayed BY
what Is really nothing but mental laziness Mum.
beers OF them positively will not apply their minds
result from ignorance, and emerge from School a.
ignorant as fishes; while still larger classes DOS
sioly even majority, betray the same Impulse as
heard 10 afllrn In confidential moments that Iney
literally "cannot" acquire this or that ordinary
branch OF knowledge. while they do learn at the
very same Time things much more dirncult aud
requiring precisely the same kind OF mental
capacities. Hundreds OF men win profess
positive We inability to learn the cominonest
when their own Is kindred to the one dis
cussed; while thousands OF women Will calculate
accurately all the measurements necessary FOR 4
dress, really dif1cult process II accuracy is To he
attained, and then declare unblushingly that thew
cannot, no, they can not understand rule-of-three
fortunes. Hair the men ialhs world who are nv not
sensitive TO music think 1t an impossibility for
them 70 learn 70 read musical notation; and we
have heard o man, not without power OF reason.
Ing, and with special aptitude for mental artth.
metic, declare that q thousand years OF tuition
would not enable him to comprehend ouadratic
equation. Indeed, 1t is one Of the phenomena of
mental laziness that 1t often reveals itself I'm its
acutest form In the naturally able and that it lie
Set OF syllogsms not one whit more dififcuIt than
those. he has already mastered. The inabiliIy il
noG poeilNc, Dut only relative, and Is produced
either by what We call "want OF INTEREST," in t6e
subject, which may be either Instructive or
natural, or by sense OF pain In the EFFORT, that,
like the pain TO the arms in swimming, can be
practice. II the necessity is peremptOry.
the inabindy speedily disappears, and that
often In way which at once Indicates It's
source: II does not disappear gradually; It Lasts,
apparently as insupera0le as ever, up 70 denna-
Bile moment; and then, prestoI 1t is gone never to
return. The truth Is enough has been learned to
awaken unc0nsciously the faculty OF attention.
Or In other words 10 take away the pain Of it, and
then the natural power has It's full swing That
Is, we believe the unvarying experience OF every
man VINO learns chess-whlch no man ever for
got-and or all except the few with ''natura bent'
who study any abstract science whatsoever In
men possessed OF the natural bent" there ia, OF
course. no lazlness because there is no sense OF
pain; they learn without effort perceptible to
themselves, as the savage learns the wilderness Of
natural facts necessary TO enable him to hunt or
nsh lor 1000 with success. savage ''never knows
anytaing about the iorest"-except the myriad OF
minute Indications necessary to tell him where TO
md the great maggots which he eats. He Is COM
PEELED 10 learn that and his mental laxtness there
lore, does not stop him 1t would II SIR J. Lub-
DOCK were 10 Try 70 teach him the anatomy OF q
lear. He could learn that anatomy II It were
equally essential 70 his existence"