Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-23
INSIGHT
By H. Addington Bruce


.THERE is quality which above all 9th
ers distinguishes so-caled men of mark
from their fellows. 1t is the quality of
insight.
Your man Of mark may or may not be
highly educated in the ordinary sense of the
word. He may be the possessor of many
university degrees or he may have had next
to no schooling.
Yet he is able through the precious quail
ty of insight, to arrive at judgments which
not only are soTnd but notably assist him
in charting his life course successfully.
That is to say, men of mark always dis
play in some degree the vision of the poet,
concerning whom it has been finely and wise
ly said;
1.-THE visible has meanings to the poet that
the poverty of speech renders difficult of ut
terance He feels what he does not compre-
bend; he senses what he does not know; and
sometimes he appears to recollect what he
has not experienced"
Similarly with the man Of mark In any
occupation.
Suppose, for example, that he is a bust
ness man. A situation develops calling for
an immediate decision and prompt action
In that situation elements are present coun-
selling to action of certain sort and other
elements suggesting the desirability of very
different action
There is time to reason the thing out
Or if there Is time the elements in the sit
uatiOn are so diverse as to Eafhe the form
ing of a reasoned Judgment. Insight comes
to the aid of the man of mark. it causes
him to feel" that he should act in such
and-such a way, and the event jus<ifes this
"feeng."
How, then, does he come to possess this
helpful insight? Is it gift with which he
was born, or is it something he has acquired
since birth?
In the former case, obviously, men of
mark literally are darlings of fortune, and
entitled to little or no credit for their
achievements. In the latter CASE, there is
hope for every man of normal intelligence
to gain recognition some day as a man of
mark.
And happily it can be insisted, thanks to
researches of modern psychology that in
sight is quality susceptible of DEVELOPMENT
by men in general, if they will but take suf-
ficient pains to develop it. The difficulty is
that, while it is a mental process altogether
different from conscious thinking, it is an
outcome of conscious thinking and depends
for It's development on amount of con-
scious thinking repugnant to most people,
Insight, to put it otherwise, results from
previous concentration on the special tasks
and problems of ones calling. whether that
calling be the writing Of poetry Or the sell
ing of boots and shoes.
The more one thinks about his work
keeping his eyes and ears wide open to ev-
erything pertaining to that work-the more
aboundant will be the material stocked in
the subconscous storehouse of the mind
Also the more actively will that material be
worked over in the subsconscious, and made
available for future use as the necessity
arises.
For the working over process psychology
has yet but the cumbersome term of Sub
conscious mentation." Insght-or intuition
is the name it gives to the process where
by the product of the working over is trans
terred from the subconscious to the con-
scous.
And always and only it functions for the
profit of those, who, whatever their school
ing, concentrate, mediate, contemplate and
ponder. This is the essential thing to re-
member so far as insight is concerned
(CopyrighG, 1929