Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-10-13
HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
BY DIR. LEONARD KEENE HIRsHBERG
A. b., NJ. A, M. D. John Hopkins).

Are You an analytical or Synthetic"
| Thinker?
The modern Mother Goose has
changed the old rhyme. 1t is now
Johnny, Johnny, bright and bonny
| how are your ideas formed?" Mary
may continue to be contrary to her
| hearts content, it is less important
| to know how her garden grows than
to know how quickly, how well, or, if
at all Mary's ideas grow.
| In this commonplace as well as
strange workaday world, child or
mans ideas are formed in two gen.
| eral ways.
He either accepts things as they
are, for what they are worth as
building stones of knowledge and use,
or he is given to a deeply serious ex-
animation of the internal working of
| things.
If the child is of the former sort he
has a building" or Synthetic" turn
of thought. If of the latter type, he
is called analytical
You might at first think this a diff
ficult or impossibly dlstinguishable
difference. Nevertheless, the distinc-
tion between the synthetic and ana
lytic mind is as plain as print.
The individual who is given to de-
tailed thinking is apt to be very OBJ
servant He hits upon definite de-
tails of things, which he stores up as
building material for future use. He
learns, perceives and thinks in terms
of ultimate results.
How Glasses Differ.
This is the synthetic thinker. He
eternally realizes that the pin he
picks up will be of value to him; the
gutter he avoids would do him hurt.
xI.r4s to. hn
sticks himself ON a pin or trips over
a crossing, it is because he misses the
details in his analyzing mood of the
whole aspect of pins and crossings, as
pins and crossings. The larger as
pect, academically considered ab-
stracts his thoughts from them as
building materials.
The person who has a synthetic
mind is equipped for emergencies. He
not only sees and hears things, but
he applies them right and left. He Is
a keen observer and often draws
quick conclusions. He is the man or
| tact, of precision, of energy and earn
| ing power.
If a man or a child tells narrative
of an experience, the synthetically-
| minded one will give the details and
| their relations only to the essential
facts.
The synthetic one will have suppo-
sitions and guesses as to causes and
reasons.
Clear-eyed vision, firm muscular
precision, ears that hear accurately;
in a word, perceptions that are not
easily confused, send into your mem
ory a multitude of useful, synthetic
thoughts.
Rumors, scandals, idle gossip, talk,
4,,f GIInnnSi-
lions, motives attributed to acts are
all analytic examples of thinking.
Test Your Ideas.
Reformers, bigots, biased, preju-
diced, narrowly educated-no matter
how extensively educated-persons
have the analytic cast of thought.
History, geography, spelling, COM
position and rhetoric are analytic
subjects of the child. Mathematics,
grammar, science, logic and expert
mental studies are all synthetic.
A child shows aptitude in subjects
which indicate which type of mind 1t
has The child that loves arithmetic,
algebra, science, in preference to his
tory, spelling and geography, Is one
with a synthetic intellect.
The teacher often wrongly at
tributes these different childhood
only difference In mental degree"
she thinks.
Notwithstanding this belief it Is
real difference in kind and the sooner
parents and teachers realize it, the
sooner the deficiencies can be made
up. While it is true that the child
with the synthetic mind has some
thing Of the analytical, and the
analytic one a little of the synthetic,
much as one is right handed and the
other left handed, the child that has
too much of one over the other should
be the recipient of especial training
for it's future success.
The analytic powers of a child can
be tested by asking him to explain the
difference between a falsehood and a
mistake, or to make three separate
words Of the letters In the word
American.
The synthetic test is to give him
a mixture of half a dozen letters. to
be spelled in one word. Pictures with
something missing, which the child
is to name, show both its synthetic
capacity and its ability to observe.
| In this fashion. a proper balance of
mower can be trained into the indi-
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