Evening star., 1932-04-02

Thinking has its ebbs and flows, too
There are tides in the mind, as vel
! as in the affairs of men.
"One day I am a doctor and the
next I am a Ounce" wrote great
American intellectual.
| Many today would say that the fel-
low must have suffered from the blues,
but 1t went great deal deeper thar
that.
1t goes much deeper even today.
| There is no one who uses his mind
at least to the best of his ability-whc
does not know the "off days" when one
not only does not care to think, but
when one cannot think.
! Not think. that is, in the sense OF
mental work which results in some real
accomplishment, however small.
There is thinking and thinking. OF
course. Nothing is easier to sneer al
than the mental processes of another
human being
To think or not to think, that is the
question, as Hamlet said, and between
, the two there sometimes may come an
inevitable hiatus
This lapse often is found in books, a
sort of intellectual "let-down,' during
which the author has permitted the
threads Of his work to wander as they
will
The reader calls this portion of the
/ work dull.
This same mental hiatus often occurs
in music, especially in longer works
such as symphonies and the like. It
may be in the music, as written, or il
may be put there by poor musicians, or
what Is worse, a poor conductor.
Sometimes one hears the belief eX-
pressed that a good orchestra needs nc
conductor, that the players could play
as well by themselves, without the show
Of one man standing with silly small
stick in his hand, making gestures in
their faces.
But the leaderless orchestra doesn't
work out very we'll. Even with him,
these inevitable lapses occur in other
! wise good compositions. Sometimes the
music is as fine here as elsewhere in
! the piece, but a slowing up IN the
tempo permits the auditor to get the
feeling that the musicians do not know
what they are doing
At this point a really good leader
will summon them to new effort, not
only by what appears to the audience
1 to be little extra work with his hands
and eyes, and sometimes even his
shoulders, but also by an exercise OF
sheer will power when he throws into
their minds the needed stimulus tc
take them on to brilliant finish.
4
Unhappily, the average human being
/ has no leader" or conductor" to pull
him out of mental depressions-none
that is, except himself and it is that
very person. indeed, who is responsible
for the flaw in the first place
No, the term blues" won't do, except
in a very rudimentary way. The as
sortment of mental ills to which the
world gives the unscientific name OF
blues" while very well known to al
but the professional optimists, is largely
different from the feeling which in
spired the wise man to write, "One
day am doctor and the next I am
a Ounce"
We believe that this latter feeling is
a revolt Of the human animal against
the human brain. Let us look at 1t
this way: Mankind has been struggling
to create for himself thinking mech
anism, and it has taken him all these
, thousands Of years to get 1t to the
place it now holds in the world OF
living things.
There are so many millions of people
however, that there cannot be said to
be any level attained by the entire
body of men, except in a Theoretical
way. Even two brothers may differ as
widely as day and night One will
think vividly and correctly on many
/ problems, while the next will refuse tc
use what brain he has, preferring to
live a more strictly animal existence
Nevertheless, it may be held, with
some Justice, that the water level OF
human thinking tends to rise, and that