Evening star., 1932-12-27

Ideas vanish even quicker than money
and that Is pretty fast.
II any one has an idea about any
thing, or upon any subject, he should
jot 1t down for fear 1t will escape.
Never rest flrm m the belief that it
is such q "big idea" that it cannot be
forgotten.
The better an idea Is, the more eva
nescent 1t can be.
Like o soap bubble with its rain
bow colors, 1t seems tangible enough,
but the moment ones back Is turned 1t
Is gone.
This is all the more strange, since
ideas are at once the motive power OF
tremendous structures and great deeds.
Whatever the philosophers may say
about II, there are In essence two sorts
of ideas, the sort most persons use in
the everyday life, and such ideas as
The advantage Of the former type Is
that usually 1t Is single. whereas the
latter is more likely to form one of a
group, a growth unfolding.
In the former class might be placed
an idea which comes to business man
as to his product, or its manufacture,
or selling.
Such a bright idea is not very likely
to be forgotten over night. It may even
keep the man awake. His big idea''
obsesses him. There Is little danger
that 1t will escape.
Plars Of action as embodied in
ideas are the most definite and easily
retained Of all types of mind patterns.
There usually is no necessity for a
notebook in regard to them.
It is only when a human being be-
gins to think abstractly, as every one
does at times, that the elusive quality
Of ideas begins to impress him.
Then he realizes that Of all the facts
and fancies, those which come out Of
the mind are the most difficult to re-
tain, even after they have been thought
up," as the phrase has 1t.
How to you manage to think up an
idea every day?" is the question most
often asked of mental workers whose
profession demands that they do Just
that.
It Is q tribute, not only to them, but
in dealing with distractions. for out
o. these distractions must come, In all
probability, something very solid and
quite capable Of being handled.
Out Of an intangible often comes
the tangible; the little understood by
many in time comes to be common
place for the crowd to utilize.
Ideas as plans Of things to be aimed
at or created, are more easily held
onto than ideas As concepts, notions
conceived by the mind.
Even q way Of thinking. or a vague
belief, or a fancv. may be termed an
idea. If it falls into the pattern form.
And this need not be the "eternally
existing pattern" conceived by Plato, OF
which individual things in any class
are imperfect copies.
Ideas need not be. in fact most often
are not, merely theoretical. Even when
certain types o. humans might brand
them as such, they are not, but in time
will be realized as eminently practical.
Thus no idea, however small, Is to be
sneesed at, In the sense Of being ignored.
1t Is for this reason that the man
or woman who prizes the STRINGS of
intellect, which come, as 1t were, un-
hidden. should ever keep handy q note
BOOK of some sort, with attached pencil.
IIeas seldom pop up into conscious
nest without prior coeitation, as often
as they may seem to do so.
Actually much groundwork has gone
before. The actively curious person is
always on the think, II one may put it
that way.
The avenues of the senses are as
gathering hands, which forever seize
upon all that comes within reach.
Nothing escapes them, or, II 1t does