Evening star., 1932-12-27
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

seem to escape, IT may make an uncon-
scious impression. later to come out as
The notebook habit will be found tc
be a very sane one, something OF
bother, but q real source Of pleasure,
as one comes to realize that the mind
too, has its materials, and its sources
Of supply, and that IN many ways 1t
presents q perfect analogue to the body
The mind grows on what 1t feeds on;
1t comes in time to respect itself and
to rejoice in its powers. Many persons
find it dinicult to consider thinking In
the abstract, or, at best, they get 9
very definite notion that the sort Of
thinking they do, in whatever Zine" II
may be. is the only worthwhile thinking
Surely nothing could be farther from
the truth. There Is never any telling
when something fine, interesting OF
really great may come from 1ninkins On
Only q sort Of intellectual snobbery
permits any one to acclaim his own
brand to the detriment Of the brands o.
other serious thinkers.
It viii seem to many that, In this re-
spect at least, the older ideas IN eouca
tion had something more OF truth ano
power In them than some OF our new.
tangled ideas, o modern" as they may
strike us now. The fallacy OF modern.
ism," ut any given time ana pace,
easily understood when one contem.
plates the pyramids. Time rolls away
beneath the feet OF mankind ever
quicker than ideas spring up and van
| ish unless jotted down.
cation lay precisely in the underlying
idea that there was such thing as
mind training, and that this was the
basic necessity in any sort OF mteuec-
| tual endeavor later.
The mind was regarded as sort OF
muscle. as it were-the thinking muscle
which. by proper exercise. could attain
a new size, almost, and . pettei
| functioning. !.
INST how such an idea fitted in-il
indeed. at all-with the concepts OF Lne
psychologists, Is study IN itsen: ine
point OF interest Is that the older edu-
cation felicitated mankind upon tne
nossession Of q brain and believed tna'
hv considering 1t as Q distinct possession
man might be able to come to hlmSeA
more easily and with more dignity.
IN the days Of such education tne
commonplace book" and the journal;
as well as the diary. had more ploml-
nent places than they occupy OSy.
This was because in those days tnere
was. among educated persons, q ratnei
larger appreciation Of thinking as tnmh-
inr not for what 1t might bring, N
| terms of money or entertainment, put
solely and simply as thinking 1or the
sake OF thinking.
The great Pepys' diary. for instance
| is good precisely because II was NJ n.- u
tended for publication. Inc man; 80 =
though he was In some ways, hao q
real respect for the activity OF the mino
He iotted down his thoughts In his
! notebooks, in q cipher which no one
understood. The manuscript lay 1of
many years after his death. until an
ambitious gentleman COT the no more
startlinr name than John SMITH de-
| termined to find out the key. wnlcn ns
did, to the subsequent edincation q
readers the world around.
Mans proud and lonely place IN tne
world of living things is based upon ms
self-consciousness, the use OF his IN
| tellect and his determination to oe
something greater than he evidently Is
No one should ever forget that IN
this lcng chain from man upward. IDEAS
/ play the most important part. II there
| is no hope in them. there is no hope in
ANYTHING. The idea Is an anchor. q
chain to the wind, light y the dark.
It is something apparently an our own
but which, reasoning forward, We deduce
! exists In o greater state Of power and
! grandeur In eternity.