The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-03-31

osophical department OF Harvard
university. in a lecture on prasmn'
tism given In Chicago not long ago.
left his audience guessing over what
seemed very simple problem What he
had been saying had much OF It been ao-
struse, but in the end he used the follow
ing simple Illustration to prove or show
certain point:
He took quite a strip Of paper In his hand
and spoke Of 1t as having an upper ana q
lower surface. Then he Joined the two ends
and pointed to its inside and its outside sur
faces. He unjoined the ends, twisted the
paper half over and Joined the ends 50 that
one part Of what had been outside surface
became inside and vice versa, the whole
resembling the figure eight Of machinery
belt made after this fashion.
Prof Royce then told Of an engineer who
found a certain machine belt Of leather and
decided to cut It in two the long way In
order that he might have two belts of the
same length as the old one but only half
as wide. He did the cutting and was very
much surprised at the results II you join
the ends of a piece of paper twelve inches
long and an inch or two wide in the fashion
described and then cut It as the engineer
cut his belt you will be surprised at the re-
suits that is II you have never tried the
trick before.
There was but one student in his class
Prof. Royce told US. who was able to think
out the result without doing the cutting.
Can you think It out? Previously to this
Prof Royce had said that reasoning was the
most concrete thing in the world. more con-
crete than any physical act whatever.
=
Few Control Their Thoughts.
The amount Of controlled thinking in the
world is almost unbelievably small. Children
reason. There are strong proofs that many
animals reason, but men grow stupid when
faced by the problems that they ought be-
cause Of their age and estate TO solve. AS
they grow older there are in life % multi
plicity OF factors intricately complicated,
and they are either mentally lazy or they
have not disciplined their minds for the work
of separating and recomblng these. The
principles Of causation are rarely thought
out by the people, hence superstition and
blind yielding to situations that might be
controlled
How does It happen that while children
are so intelligent, men are so stupid?" asked
Alexander Dumas. He wittily answered
himself by saying, Education must be re-
sponsible for IT." The one way men have
Of actually learning, with help and guidance,
how to reason and control their thoughts
has too often failed to do so. Experimental
psychology with a history OF hardly more
than twenty years. has but now in this pres
ent decade centered its interest in the field
OF thought The experience OF thought is but
now receiving really scientific attention and
so is likely to be better understood as one
OF the wonderful processes Of life.
Nothing is really more fascinating than
feats Of mind. II the process OF education
was ideally conducted. and the great posi-
bilities OF mental training realized. men
would sell their coats 10 get an education
even II they were as old as Cato was when
he learned Greek-t is said that he was so.
II has never been ideally conducted and the
great educational reforners and pedagogists
are ever inveighing against its shameful fall
ures, against the mill which does its work so
poorly.