The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04
CHAPTER III.
SIMPLICITY or THOUGHT.

SIMPLICITY OF TdOUdhT.
 VT is not alone among the practical
 manifestations of our life that
 there is need of making a clear \ ing; the domain of our ideas is in the same case. Anarchy reigns in hu- man thought We walk in the woods without compass or sun, lost among the brambles and briers of infinite de- tail
 When once man has recognized the fact that he has an aim, and that this aim is to be a man, he organizes his thought accordingly. Every mode of thinking or judging which does not make him better and stronger he re- jects as dangerous.
 And first of all he fees the too com mon contrariety of amusing himself with his thought. Thought is a tool, with it's own proper function; it isn't toy. Let us take an example. Here is the studio of painter. The implements are all in place; everything indicates that this assemblage of means Is ar- ranged with view to an end. Throw JUG IOOUl OPCA U aPSo- AhNJ 8AAA NAAAAD on the benches, swing from the cords, rig themselves in draperies, coif them selves with slippers, juggle with brush es, nibble the colors and pierce the can vases to see what Is behind the paint. I don't question their enjoyment. Ger tainly they must find this kind of ex- ercise extremely interesting. But an atelier is not made to let monkeys loose in. No more Is thought a ground for acrobatic evolutions. A man worthy of the name thinks as he is, as his tastes are; he goes about it with his whole heart, and not with that fitful and sterile curiosity which, under pre- thing, runs the risk of never experienc- ing deep and true emotion or accom- plishing a right deed.
 Another habit in urgent need of cor rection, ordinary attendant on conven- tional life, is the mania for examining and analyzing oneself at every turn. do not invite men to neglect intro spection and the examination of con science. The endeavor to understand ones own mental attitudes and motives of conduct Is an essential element of good living. But quite other is this ex- treme vigilance, this incessant obser- vation of ones life and thoughts, this dissectng of oneself, like piece of mechanism. It is waste of time and goes wide of the mark. The man who, to prepare himself the better for walk ing, should begin by making a rigid anatomical examination of his means of locomotion would risk dislocating something before he had taken step. You have what you need to walk with, then forward! Take care not to fall, and use your forces with discretion. Potterers and scruple mongers are soon reduced to inaction. It needs but a glimmer of common sense to perceive that man Is not made to pass his life in self centered trance.
 And common sense-do you not find what is designated by this name be- coming as rare as the common sense customs of other days? Common sense has become an old story. We must have something new, and we create a fictitious existence, refinement of living, that the vulgar crowd has not the wherewithal to procure It Is so agreeable to be distinguished! Instead of conducting ourselves like rational beings and using tho means most op- viously at our command we arrive py dint of absolute genius, at the most astonishing singularities. Better on the track than on the main line! All the bodily defects and deformities that orthopedy treats give but feeble idea of the humps. the tortuosities. the dis locations we have inflicted upon our selves in order to depart from simple common sense. and at our own ex- pense we learn that one does not de- form himself with impunity. Novelty, after all. is ephemeral. Nothing en- dures but the eternal commonplace,