Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1922-07-15
THE MIND IN THE MAKING"
Book Chat by Mary White Ovington.
Chairman of the Board of Directors
OF the National Association for t,su
Advancement Of Colored People.
(By James Harvey Robinson. Publish
ed by Harper and Brothers, New
York City. Price $3.50. Post
age Ten Cents.

"Creative intelligence, in its various
forms and activities, is what makes
man. So says one of the wisest
writer's OF today in his book. "Tho
Mind In The Making" book which
has the great asset OF making us use
our minds whom we, read It,
There IS nothing In Professor itop.
inson's book directly OH the race ques
ton, but his whole argument Is crti
cism OF prejudice and demand for
intelligent thought. We have, he tells
us, first, "rcvery," that spontaneous
form of thinking when we allow our
mind to travel where it will. Next
comes "rationalizing" which believes
its name since 1t is very irrational. It
is the effort to make everything
square with our ready-madc, little
thought out. conclusions. Much rat.
ionalizing consists in finding argu.
ments for going OH believing as we
already do" And lastly we have Great
Two thinking, tho highest form OF
thought, the thought which has trans
formed the world.
TO the creative thinker nothing is
sacred, that is nothing is right just be
cause it has been. "That an idea is
ancient and that it has been widely .e
ceived Is no argument in its favor,
and should Immediately suggest the
necessity of carefully testing it as a
probable instance Of naturalization"
The creative thinker is the one who
Is ready to change his mind.
Professor Robinson fills his book
with interesting examples Of creative
thinkers who have shown their great
ness by questioning the past, and
thinking new thoughts for the fu-
ture. He reviews Greek history pofnt
ing out that the Greeks were great be
cause Of their inquisitivness, their
readiness to accept new things. They
had no mass Of precedent back of
them, and were thus better able than
the churchman Of the Middle Ages or
the politician Of today to look keenly
into life and to tell honestly what they
found. Their weakness lay in their 10
ton of aristocracy which prevented
their studying mechanics or mechani-
cal things. Science was closed to the
gentleman and left to the slave. That
they were, however, amazingly mod
ern, anyone familiar with Greek liter
allure knows we'll. With the Dark
Ages knowledge became altogether
rationali2ing. Men started with the
proposition Of Aristotle and worked
from them. The eternal postulates
were always there. And now we are
In an age when along the lines Of
science men think creatively, but
when along tho lines Of economics Of
, politics Of the relation of man to
man, men still largely rationalize.
Professor Robinson does not use
the South as FIJI illustration but It
| would be an excellent one. The South
assumes that a certain attitude to.
ward the Negro, the assumption that
he is inferior, that black and white
must not intermingle. is an absolute
, truth. 1t Is an eternal proposition,
not to be questioned, but always to be
defeated. Starting out with this prop
oslt1on stops creative thinking and
the South becomes as Menken has said
desert Of Sahara. And what is true
of the Southern attitude on the race
question Is true of us all in various
ways. Unless we have an open mind,
ready to search for the truth no mat
ter what 1t costs us. we do not live the
full life Of man. We are back at the
stage Of the animal from which we
| have recently come. believing is far
! easier than thinking"
One could quote for pages in this
! clearly written, beautifully printed,
persuasive book. We nil need to read
1t. for we all have our pet subjects
which we fail to think through. We
like to bolster up our beliefs not to
challenge. But, to give last quota.