Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1891-08-28
MUTUAL. LAZINESS.
A State of Mind Which Sadly tntefferea
With Human Progress.

With Human Progress.
81 declare am discouraged" said
schoolgirl, as she threw her books on
the lounge and sank into chair, with
an expression of utter WEAKNESS.
"What is it?o queried her mother,
anxiously, Are you ill?"
mo; / am well enough, but I don't
seem to get along in school" was the
reply. Somehow the lessons seem
very hard, aid feel sure / will not get
promoted this term"
~ am afraid you are lazy" said her
mother, gently,
Lazy" exclaimed the girl, in evil
dent surprise How can you say so.
You know put in as much time study
ing as sister Lulu"
every true; but that is not what l
meant. You are mentally lazy. You
repeat the words of your lesson as
many times as your sister and do "a
much manual work, but you are mon.
tally lazy. You do not work your brain
at all"
"Nonsense!' said the schoolgirl
"Who ever heard of such a thing9"
That is what mahB people say; but
none the less, it is true that mental
laziness is one of the greatest of human
frailties. 1t may be witnessed in any
school, where, among hundred pupils,
only ten will work their brains, while
the remaining ninety, though appa-
rently working just as hard, lag behind
because their mental faculties are DOR
mant.
1t is so much easier to accept dog
matte teaching than to concentrate our
thoughts and work out the lessons of
our own observations.
How many pupils in the grammar
schools understand srhy the hypothenuse
of right-angle triangle is found by ex-
tracing the square root of the sum of
the squares of the base and perpendic-
ular? They know hov to do it, but can
not give any explanation of the process
How many advanced pupils can tell
whv in the division of fractions it is
necessary to invert the divisor and null
tiply?
There must be cause for every oper-
alton in arithmetic, since mathematics
is the purest reason, yet how many
students trouble themselves to master
the cause?
This is mental laziness, and it crops
out in many other branches of life out
side of the schoolhouse. 1t is so much
easier to initiate than to originate, and
it saves so much trouble to simply take
anothers word for it, instead of delving
out the truth for oneself
BY giving way to this mentsl indo-
lence, the brain becomes dormant and
self-reliance disappears gradually but
surely. 1t is forgotten and nothing il
true because somebody has said so, but
because it has been proven to be true
If everybody had accepted current opin'
/ ions, we would never have known that
the world is round, that the seas were
navigable, and million other things
now so necessary to our life and happi
| ness.
To be des itute of individualism is tc
be mentally lazy, and that is nothing
more than being parrot, that only re
peats and never originates Not that
it is necessary to be quarrelsome or dis
putatious-not at all 1t is only neces
sary to take nothing on trust, to weigh
carefully all statements, and maste:
| the why and wherefore of every pro
/ cess.
Exercise the brain on every subject
and keep it from getting lazy by max
ing it work. There is no danger of ex
hausting it, if, like the muscles of the
arm, it is not strained indeed, like The
same muscles, it gains strength Will
exercise, until brain work becomes :
pleasure .nstead of a hardship. --MyrOE
Percy, in Golden Days