Evening star., 1932-04-26
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACEWELL.

| tuition, or have followers, or be q
teacher In the ordinary sense.
His great teaching was that all Of
us should stand on our own mental
feet. This was the gist Of his mental
life This will mean that none Of us,
| however much cause We may have at
times to doubt our own mental equip
ment, must hesitate to apply the tests
Of such reason as we have to the ideas
Of others, whether in books or CONVEX
Sation.
Unhappily many who unconsciously
happen to act upon this good plan
seem to think it necessary to openly
! criticize (as they call being rude) the
thoughts of others. Failure to take
direct open issue with another human
being is often essential, If ordinary
good manners are to be observed. Not
one man in a thousand possesses the
ability-it might well be termed sheer
genius-to dispute another to his face
| gracefully.
The 999 others ought to reserve their
differences for the arena Of their own
minds. 1t takes most of us half life
! time, at least, to realize that the essen
tial thing is to know. not to speak out
in meeting. If we are not fooled by
hypocrisy and expediency and plain
ballyhoo, it makes little difference,
after all, whether we tell the world OF
our cleverness. Often the remedy for
things one can't help Is secret con-
/ tempt
The questioning and weighing with
the mind is the important thing, not
the display of the results to world
which is mostly too busy to heed any
but famous names, and them only until
/ another fonorIlc nlIStc them from
the limelight.
There are thousands of human be-
ings whose very nature precludes them
from being alone with themselves, as II
is called. Many of them will be able
to get more real help from books than
in any other way. Indeed. they might
! seclude themselves in solitudes for half
century and come out no wiser than
they went in, but shut them up in a
library for a year, with nothing else to
do but read. they would display that
ordinary human optimism which con-
sists in making the best of situation
by turning 1t to human advantage.
They would emerge, in all likelihood.
we'll read men and women, in posses
sion of a fund of knowledge which
/ would come back to them in the most
unexpected ways and stand them IN
bOOd oNCdA OFCl % AAACtAAllCs Az w wen
read-a happy phrase-iS the best sub
stitute in this life for that genius which
is the portion of but few. 1t means
that mental oSmosis has gone on, that
much wisdom has trickled through from
one mind to another, being absorbed
through the very tissues, as 1t were,
without forcing or cranr.ning or a con-
scious effort to memorize, all of which
processes tend to destroy the precious
light of interest and intelligence. 1t is
common knowledge that schoolboys
who cram for exams" forget all they
have learned when the necessity for
retention has vanished.
If one will keep his knowledge to
himself, except when 1t is called for, he
will find that the conscious scrutiny of
other mems wisdom, either in books,
magazines, newspapers or daily speech,
is much easier and more effective than
If he were required to justify himself
at every step to an angry opponent.
Man is an animal, and an angry ami
NAL. despite Emerson's ideas to the
contrary, and his anger is a proof of
his relationship. What shames him is
not his ancestry and its necessary
physical anger, device for self-pro
lection, natures first law, but the
mental ire which is so easily aroused
through false pride.
This is what hurts the spirit of man
and makes the sage hang his head in
the face of the gravity of animals, and
their splendid eyes II man, wise or
trying to be wise, would avoid the anger
which hurts, let him refrain from tell
ing everything he thinks. The think
ing itself is the essential thing, not the
telling thereof He must test the
thoughts of others by his own mental
yardsticks, and If he does so he will find
that few statements are entirely true
except in relation to their context, and
then often only for the man who made
them