New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-03
STRAIGHT THINKING
Mental Training-An Efficient
Little Book.

THINKING A. SCIENCE. By Henry H,zlitt.
l9mo. ID. 25i T.. p Dutton Co.
Simplicity and directness are the first
characteristics Of Mr.. Habits treatise.
There is not even a preface at the be-
ginning, for which. indeed, there was
no need; nor an index at the close, for
which, despite the smallness Of the
book. we might wish. He goes directly
at his subject, and he deals with 1t all
through in the most straightforward
and unaffected manner. II there is any
one who cannot readily comprehend
every sentence in the book, be sure the
book was never meant for him, for he
must be one incapable Of thinking.
Mr.. Hazlitt begins rightly with the
proposition that one of the chief eVlls
Of the world to-day is the neglect OF
thinking. Ii is so. There is too little
thinking. and too much of the thinking
that there is is of an inferior and un-
profitable if not of positively MIS-
chievous kind. II is not based upon
sound principles or facts. 1t does not
proceed logically. 1t is vague, lndeh-
mite, swashy. It is marked with zig
Gags instead Of straight lines. with
irregular polygons instead Of squares
II begins nowhere, meanders nowhither
and arrives nowhere. In the apt phrase
of the street, men don't really think
they merely think that they think!
That may seem TO be severe indlct-
ment, but when you come 70 read MT
Habits terse and irrefragible descrlp-
ton of what real thinking is you real.
ize the truth of il. The authors belle1
is that brains can be disciplined Just
as we'll as muscles, and that men can be
taught TO think efficiently just as tney
can be taught 20 work efficiently. Ihai
seems reasonable on the face Of IT, ana
it seems all the more so IN Mr.. haZ-
lifts intensely practical telling now II
is to be done. The setting up exer-
cises" of the gymnasium are not more
explicitly set forth than is his pre-
scription for what we may not inappro-
priately call the Setting up" of the
mind. 49,.
Mr.. Hazlitt's suggestions, hints
and prescriptions for efficient think,
ing are so sound, so lucid and
so convincing that we might wish for
their universal dissemination. If they
were generally accepted and practised
we should have something like an intel
lectual revolution, or at least renas-
cence, which would involve similar
changes in sociology, in politics and IN
every human activity. For men would
think sanely, and sane thinking would
induce sane action. We should realize
Huxley's famous ideal, of mind that
is "a clear cold logic engine, with all
its parts of equal strength and in per-
feet working order, ready to be turned
TO any kind of work, and TO spin gos-
samers as we'll as to forge anchors"
With so much, in design and in de-
tail, that is wholly admirable and in
the highest degree commendable. 1T is
to be regretted that Mr.. Hazlitt in
manner too frequently displays in
words the very same inaccuracy and
even slovenliness which he decries in
thoughts. How could so careful a
thinker be so careless a writer as to
split infnitives, confuse shall" and
will" describe one thing as being "dif-
ferent than" another, ignore the indis-
pensable conjunction that" use a
plural verb with a singular subject,
and otherwise misuse, mutilate and
pervert the English language? True,
| in spite of these blemishes his mean
ing is almost invariably quite clear.
/ But how much better it would have been
to have his verbal expression of his
/ thoughts as precise and as impeccable
as the thoughts themselves!