Evening star., 1929-12-20
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Books are apt to turn reason out of
doors" said Emerson in one of his
journals. "You find men talking every
where from their memories instead OF
from their understanding.
IF I stole this Thought from Mon
taigne, as is very likely, don't care, "
he adds with sly humor. Il should
have said the same myself"
If he could think so in his day, how
much more likely is it today that any
one who believes in the integrity OF the
upon occaSion
This is a matter which belongs not
to the everyday but to those rare occa-
sionS when one happens to think along
just such lines.
Perhaps stray idea at random ut
tered by some friend will put one in
mind of it. 1t is apparent that the
man is speaking from the book, not
from his own mind. He really does not
think what he thinks, but only says
what some one else has thought.
Today the emphasis has been placed
in education on the acquisition of facts
rather than upon original thinking or
that honesty of thought which is men,
tai integrity.
The Upright" child is the little one
with the best memory. There are
thousands of boys and girls who rank
in the schools as highly intelligent who
in reality have but one mental posses
sion-that of an exceedingly good
memory.
A layman's division of thought might
be into the following: Cd Facts, (2)
Originality, and (3) Honesty.
For every 90 persons who shine In the
R,.ek =; yIrill ta hut yyf1
excels in the second and maybe one in
the third. Perhaps it would be nearer
to the truth to say that there might be
one in the second but none in the third.
I; might be nearer to the truth to
say for every 998 persons who have
good memories there may be found one
who is an original thinker and another
who respects the integrity of his own
thought. The harm from books comes
mostly to the third and smallest class
those who might otherwise be honest
with themselves.
Intellectual honesty, it must be kept
in mind, is not the same as honesty in
money matters. The latter often is an
inherited tendency, but the former is
as near to the soul of a man as one may
get in this world.
The sad thing Is that thousands of
men never once realize that they are
not honest in their thoughts, not even
with themselves, or in the secret places
of their own hearts.
They fool themselves at every turn,
dishing up old out-worn ideas which
have done duty for so many centuries
that there is intellectual moss on them.
They think they are thinking, but all
the time they are only repeating by
rote.
Mankind's ideas of law, for instance,
have moved scarcely jot. The problem
of crime and punishment has stood
still. If George Washington came back
today, he would find nothing new in
these matters; Julius Caesar would dis
cover our prison riots perfectly compre-
hensible. There would be nothing about
them he would not understand, but he
would not know why an electric light
lights, or an automobile runs, or radio
sends forth music.
4 n ~
Even the man who realizes that most
often his thoughts belong to somebody
else, maybe gone centuries ago, finds it
a most difficult matter to think in any
other way.
He has given up trying to be original,
owing to a constitutional lack, combined
with a certain sense of humor, which
makes him admit what the more jeal-
Gus and covetous members of the hu-
man kind will Stubbornly refuse to
agree to, although the truth may be as