SPECIAL ARTICLE. THE ART OF THOUGHT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18918, 5 February 1927, Page 13

SPECIAL ARTICLE. THE ART OF THOUGHT.

• OJE PSYCHOLOGY OF CREATION. I STUDY OF MODERN EDUCATION. *»rm« * OB ™ p » ,,r> I [By J- B. CnsDtim:.] I liwtii- on "Tho Art of Thoi.gr fii ;3»dventure; but Graham Wal'L fa one of tho few living psycholo?Sto ¥ bo mißht bo expected to make £T»treatiso at once stimulating and 'Srtctive, interesting, and yet Sly sensible. There are few men "JThtTe exerted such influence over f J, fetell«*unl, or at any rato the > Utanic life of our generation, and > JTJo,' ft re clear that his influence "TrtSa tithtr than waning. Ever 1 11 ft well-known break from tho i Star fc«t| and fast, doctrinaire views •9SftW»n Socialists, ho has gone "J Writing further and further ' y t ft)W ch9 ' 0 8 icil ' rea,llies nf soclal l33Ecal life. There is no need i !Tiri« l? erc into a " y (lcscri P tion ~f f JSm triad of books in which he ' SITSIi subtle complexities of the 53 ioMems which in his youth he ' SJJSier to sotve by simplo legislaZafthoAi. They, and his teaching !isk London School of Economics, * ' ' - "lie inspiration of a school .bought which is becoming I powerful. tat volume he has turned jonsideration of political o the greatest and most era of tho day, the need for > maximum of creative, thought to gropplo with j problems that confront mity. His book is a plea, work has been, for tho culexceptional rather than liggnce, for creative rather re thinking. Few teachers o successful in developing dividualjty or personality U have possessed, and few itroaed so convincingly tho itween "education" as it is iderstood, and the training trainee pr develop original to Htoaan'Mind*iption of tie human mind tt.ha starts » lUumjpatmß , He meats the old. dualism cbTw4 fctelligence as mwhiMry Wtitatel by the rtUd in the lotar and [ess t toAmdwe jortwi* of tho abmtVby mm to pasiion ly many can l*< ' flSfff .develop the mt tL W J9yßfSHf l !*'w?t no muscle* cases, steady, \ JtSp^iW&b** this K rßttt - FMft <W time re-as-V '"S" central im- %<> JEfW* 9mmm intellect as the IVS* in human proE?"IR , \ w«*,*i>*n far too mnoh B* *WrtW "intellectualist Mi@^J!WW , wallas baa in mind iMIBiJBiW v* M«(lers, thinkers and maKHSfik' Pot the most part, |PljSiiS#tO>l )s addressed to those who are VKtn independent inKBSsliW' * trained SfenßsSHßi f7 ?*" wmarkjjbly honest ißHUfflffW wtatlartaal exrarjepce, his W»ny other original BwHPWW I'M,vide stndv and reading m raiding of any budding HSbsE**^'*.WPter, or i indeed of |!UNm%*J4- 9mm tp live an active a™E?JW' for * nc Tr guidance as ho j|||SP* T *pr obvious to all candid migKg|ji f t .Were incessant industry is HSsfit-lEiP' wa industry may, in BHMH..W* aewnal, intellectual workers of the devil," ffiKKj* we same time one need not Ufjajfcjjjy .™* "thousands of idle HBRPf Trho require to learn that, of industry of which HBKTwN|> bare no conception, no wor ]j can one *M habit of procrastination P 01 * disastrous to a pro■fflnPPHluiiker than it is to a man which Wallas gives of JBMBSJbPF. I " excessive industry is of wtereat to tu in New ZeaSTfDant time, since it deals maggm atUtade of a distinguished KBQ»VA» i| shortly to visit the DoBBwCiit 0 * j * person than the SHMf AtQnqon. Professor Wallas aaaraßK?? 8 OQ Bh to soy that there who, like myself, believe SbmkW ftawi reason to regret an inSmHPW Of intelleotua) leadership §SSeSS*L pW !f? qt fi i*b°P-" He goes on that the reason for this ipl&fSry MfPßebly the incessant routine of which tho Bishop in *&&£Bg4lses seems to be proud. ''One SgiagTß** wanders what would be the gjjjjE& ft °ff. Bishop were kept for ten and in silence by an illpainful nor dangerous, f^|tji r '* i * t * n * w »th full mental ac<WHe» Of Thought taken up by Wallas is Mffiror-«?t indicated by his division of thought (by whicli reasonins) into preUCQ batiop, illumination, and HrafflfWiWa. The first and the last trffifjL.ff* " obviously fully conscious. WERftr* o ™* degree of industry and ggjESgL" essential. But he pleadsrecognition of the importSMnTjjSI. tge two intervening stages, WJWmI workers to take leisure, ißg{|MS;Mtttt for the deeper processes to work out, not to numb *>th incessant passive rule-of-thumb, arithmetical fffflffPr 00 - puts w » tue ■ffJfSPy "hallow ness of tho typical to the habit common BwHSai'WJM of postponing considerato Ihe last moment. The iifflSSft'Pj incubation take place best WW interval it allowed for the over * problem which nas MKjffW but not solved. Therefore SHMJtfa'ito have more than one piece jßH|Bilg k j!Ja hand, to let problems sttnHHKlwmind while otßers are being HHBpffiJar or their solutions vehfied. of iJlnmination, the consciousness of •> new

idea or a new cbnncxion between old ideas, is a process difficult, if not imPos f»V i* to c °ntrol. The intimation, as Wallas calls it, of approaching mental activity is a shy, elusive spirit; but it can be encouraged. Indeed tho formation of certain habits may greatly assist the warming-up of the mind to active work. "If a man is writing his first novel, it may seem very unimportant whether ho sits down "to write attia.m., or C a.m., or 8 p.m. But if. day by day, ho chooses 9 a.m., he will find that tho gradual stimulation of his thinking into full activity, which some writers call 'warming-up l will occur more easily and more quickly at that hour than at any other hour of the day; and in a few weeks he will find that 'warming-up' will tend to occur almost automatically. Warming-up may then be preceded by an automatic intimation of its coming; and, if be breakfasts at 8 a.m., ho may at 8.45 a.m. begin to wander about the house with that vague and slightly idiotic expression on his face which is so irritating to those members of his household on whom the doily worries of housekeeping arc just descending." American Leadership. Space does not permit of much further quotation or illustration from this stimulating book. There are chapters dealing with tho place and dangers of so-called meditation or dissociation of consciousness in the stimulation of thought; with the relation of thought to emotion and especially to humour; and with tho oft-discussed subject of national differences of thought. It may bo of eomo interest to noto -that after an exhaustive discussion of tho contract between British methods of "muddling through" and French logicality, Professor Wallas opens a discussion on American thinking with tho words: "Sometimes I hopo that an art of thought which makes full use of every factor in the human organism may first bo developed in America. When I try to imagine my ideal of a twentieth century intellectual worker I find myself remembering certain Americans I have known. . . . Tfieso men attained a high simplicity of mind, an accessibility to tho feelings of kindness and humour, an amused humility in watching their own mental processes, an absence of the rigidity cither of class or profession, or nation, which may some day indicate to mankind many of tho most importnnt means for guiding human life by human thought." This generous appreciation, . whioli everyone who has met the best type of American knows to be wholly justified, does not blind our author to the obvious weaknesses nn.l dangers that exist in what another Fnnlishmen has recently called "Tho Babbitt Warren." But Wallas's review of these weaknesses mode from first-hand knowledge is surprisingly optimistic. Modern Education. The latter portion of the book deals with educational problems in the generally accepted sense of tho term. Wallas puts the question as to whether our modern educational methods, given the same human material, are likely to produce a Plato or a Milton. Tho drift of his answer, which is, of course, incapable of .summary compression,* is that the modern democratic care for the mass-av-erage is likely, on thp whole, to stifle the original, super-normal mind. Not that Wallas U in any way convinced j by the anarchic school of educational reformers. "Their experiments," ho says, "have failed, partly because human beings do not live for ever, and therefore must practise economy of time, partly because, in tho art of thought, as in other arts, that which experience Shows to"*be the best way of doing things is not tho most likely to occur to pno unaided mind."

Nor is ho a profound believer in tho wisdom of allowing tho teachers too much control of schools or of teaching, or of tho dosirability of vocational training basod upon so-called intelligence tests. His reasons for doubt need to bo read in full, but they are based upon his solicitous search for conditions likely to produce and not stifle the rare original thinker. He fears mass-production and the over-elabora-tion of technical methods, not because they are bad for the average child but because they may discourage genius. ** Scattered about the schools, one or two perhaps for each big school, would bo the potential thinkers of the nation, those who might have been Shelley, or Einstein, or Kelvin, or George Eliot, or William James, or Bernard Shaw, hating the compulsory attendance, the compulsory lessons, the compulsory or semi-compulsory games, and the student activities. One of them would occasionally pour his whole soul into a long clumsy essay, or a satirical poem, or produce an involved mathematical argument, which even the most,sympathetic Master of Arts among the teachers would not, when faced with tho professional objection to work out of soiool hours, find time to understand. But, as the years went on, their hunger for thought would slowly lose its edge; and when some crisis, economic or polltical, or military, or religious, came upon the nation, some of those who might have given leadership would bo silent."