Evening star., 1934-05-15
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRICEWELL.

uine intelligence. This may be some
solace to the latter. Yet he never
will be able to free himself quite from
the belief that he Is very much at
fault not to be able to think as read
lily when addressed by any one at all
as when his own mind Is addressing
himself.
He feels that q better organization
for what Is commonly called success
full living would permit him to be as
clear-headed in the presence of
strangers as in the bosom of his
family.
He knows, too, that all this would
seem something of a bother over Moth
ing to the man who is not troubled
with it. Other peoples problems
never seem very much. 1t Is only
when a thing becomes personal that
it becomes worthwhile. That is why
the individual standpoint must be
considered, why tndividualism Is
precious. There is no real way Of
Jumping human beings into groups.
and treating them all alike. They are
never alike. Uniforms may make
them appear the same, but under
meath they differ vastly. Every one
knows this, of course, but many con-
veniently forget 1t.
-
Difference Is not, rs some would
claim, something to be frowned upon,
but Is the very gist of the mental life.
Perfect bodily health might be
alike for all human beings, there
hair u& nd a rIg in crtrh p
tiers, but perfection Of the mind Is far
to seek.
The only genuine perfection Of in
telligence most OF us can lay claim
to lies precisely in difference.
Only as We are different from
others. do we amount to anything in
tellectually.
There are some, Of course, who
would have 1t that an attempt at in
tellectual perfection Is nothing, after
all. and they will point to certain
giants of thought wt.o were criminal
ly defective. Such argument is futile.
Intellectual perfection does not nec-
essarily mean ord-breaking heights
Of mind, but rather such perfection
as the man or woman may attain to
by honest effort. 1t Is just here that
the sanctity of the individual life
enters the scheme Of things.
This vast realm of the mind-it
is secret labyrinth in which every
one explores endlessly all his days.
The very people who sit across table
from us do not. cannot, follow us
on these wanderings. The life Of a
mind is an incessant trial, an attempt,
and a rejection. and choosing. Be-
does not mean that he means 1t,
but only that he is playing with it,
trying it out in the head. before it
| has a chance Of manifesting itself out
wardly. The finest intelligences have
toyed with bad ideas, poor ideas, even
criminal ideas, and they have done
so II by no other means than reading
the bad, poor. even criminal. ideas
of others as finally made definite in
actions, actions which daily fill the
newspapers of the world.
The mind is a laboratory, in which
ideas spring to life, to be stified, or
pampered. or grown into glorious
| flowers and fruits. 1t is a world OF
! its own, with incessant movement
action. musing. thinking; filled with
good and bad. but the good not goody-
goody, nor the bad necessarily evil
The point of divergence may be good
or evil. but at any rate it is the self,
If anything Is the self. Difference is
the keynote. And he who finds some
difficulty in instantly answering q
| question, no matter on how trivial a
subject, or how great. may rejoice in
his impediment, as Epictetus did IN
his lame foot.