the ear rather than through the eye, so long as they are expected to remember

thoughts of others rather than think for themselves, this proportion will

continue--one man in a million will be able to see, and one in a thousand to

think.

 

But, however thought-less a mind has been, there is promise of better things so

soon as the mind detects its own lack of thought-power. The first step is to

stop regarding thought as "the magic of the mind," to use Byron's expression,

and see it as thought truly is--_a weighing of ideas and a placing of them in

relationships to each other_. Ponder this definition and see if you have learned

to think efficiently.

 

Habitual thinking is just that--a habit. Habit comes of doing a thing

repeatedly. The lower habits are acquired easily, the higher ones require deeper

grooves if they are to persist. So we find that the thought-habit comes only

with resolute practise; yet no effort will yield richer dividends. Persist in

practise, and whereas you have been able to think only an inch-deep into a

subject, you will soon find that you can penetrate it a foot.

 

Perhaps this homely metaphor will suggest how to begin the practise of

consecutive thinking, by which we mean _welding a number of separate

thought-links into a chain that will hold_. Take one link at a time, see that

each naturally belongs with the ones you link to it, and remember that a single

missing link means _no chain_.