2. MAN’S SUPREMACY DUE TO POWER OF THOUGHT.

That man is the supreme agent of intelligent progress is due to three factors: First, to the existence of the natural world; second, to the existence of man himself; third, to man’s ability to think. Given life and the world as a place to evolve that life, and it is barely possible that man might have survived, but without thought he could never have become supreme. Man is king of the animal kingdom because of his power of thought. Let us illustrate:

Ages ago when England was a part of the main land; when there was no North Sea nor English Channel; we are told that there lived in the forest tracts there about many large and ferocious animals; such as the elephant, the lion, and the tiger. There lived also in the region a smaller and apparently a weaker animal. This creature had no tusks to hook with, no great jaws to crunch with, and no claws to tear with; and an eye witness would have said “Such a weakling has no possible chance against these enemies of his; he and his descendants will succumb and the species will become extinct.” The region was tropical; but, of a sudden, a cataclysmic twist changed the temperature from a torrid to a frigid state. What happened? The large and ferocious animals either migrated to the south or froze to death; but this weakling put on furs, built fires, and remained in the jungle as its king. His name was man, and though he had no horns to hook with, he possessed a brain to think with; this gave him supremacy over the forces of nature.

From the beginning the adaptation of the lower animals has been physical; whereas man’s has been more or less intellectual. By means of deliberative thought man made the bow and arrow which could kill at a distance of 200 yards; then he invented the repeating rifle which may kill a mile away. Thought has taught man to harness the forces of nature in the form of all kinds of invention. Thought has given man the power to build bridges and palaces, to paint pictures, to chisel angels. Thought has pierced the fog of ignorance and brought light to the dark spots of the globe. Thought has build nations and established the spirit of good will on earth. Through the long years, thought has been the one tool of conquest which has enabled man to build for himself, out of the furnishings of nature, a heaven on earth.

Can you recall a department of life which thought has not embellished? Can you recall a single factor that has been raised to the nth power of efficiency without thought? Steam and electricity plus thought lights the world, unites the world, feeds and clothes the world. To-day, as in the olden time, men who think are ever at a premium. This holds true from the Shopkeeper to the Magnate of Wall Street; from Basil, the Blacksmith, to Edison, the King Inventor; from Reuben, the Farmer, to Burbank, the Wizard.

3. IMPORTANCE OF PROGRESSIVE THOUGHT.

Man not only thinks but he thinks progressively. The average horse of to-day, for example, is probably no more intelligent than was the average equine of the time of Alexander the Great, whose war horse, Bucephalus, attained historical fame. Yet, intellectually, the average man of to-day is far above the average man of Alexander’s time. “Horse-knowledge” is more or less stationary. Through instinct each generation makes use of the knowledge of its ancestors without any noticeable accretions. But “man-knowledge” is a growing product of progressive thought. Man appropriates all the knowledge of his forbears, and then adds to this a bit of his own. By being able to think progressively, man is enabled to stand upon the shoulders of his ancestors and thus to take advantage of a broader vision.

We are now led to the conclusion that man’s supremacy is due not only to his ability to think, but to his power of progressive thought.

4. NECESSITY OF RIGHT THINKING.

In the main, man’s thinking has been for his good, that is, in the long run, it has contributed to his general progress. If this had not been so, long since would he have dropped back to the level of the non-thinking animals.

Thinking has been defined as the process of affirming or denying connections. Right thinking is, therefore, a matter of affirming the right connections or denying the wrong connections. To put it differently: right thinking is the process of adjusting the best means to a right end; whereas wrong thinking is a matter of overlooking the best means, or directing improper means to a wrong end. Right thinking involves proper adjustment; wrong thinking improper adjustment. In the intellectual world as in the physical, improper adjustment means extinction. Illustrations of this:

(1) A contractor undertakes to build a skyscraper. In the excavation an old wall is discovered. The thought of the contractor is, “Imust make a pot of money out of this job, and since this old wall is in the right spot Iwill build on it, and thus save me ‘five hundred’.” In the course of ten years, without warning, the building topples over and fifty women and children are killed. The contractor is convicted and sent to prison for life. If the builder had thought the right thought; namely, “Iwant to put up a building that will stand for generations,” he would have survived the competition of his fellows and entered his long home with success etched upon his soul.

(2) Two school teachers, A and B, are working in the same system. A’s ambition is to be promoted and she uses “pull” as the means. For a time she succeeds in pulling the wires, and likewise in pulling the “wool” over the eyes of the Board of Education. B aspires to professional growth, using as the means every opportunity for genuine improvement. In time both are known as they really are, not as they seem to be. A is denominated a “shirk,” a politician, a mere school keeper; whereas B is looked up to as the best equipped worker in the building, a real school teacher.

There may seem to be many exceptions to this point of view, and yet in the last analysis we find that these exceptions are only apparent. When we maintain that right thinking means survival and wrong thinking extinction, we assume that the standard adopted is genuine efficiency and not a certain money basis. High positions may be secured through wrong thinking, but these cannot be filled creditably without the preponderance of right thinking.

5. INDIFFERENT AND CARELESS THOUGHT.

It may be advanced as a plausible hypothesis that man, especially if he is an American, finds much trouble for himself, and makes much trouble for the world because of his indifference to thought. To leap first and look afterwards is the spirit of youth, and America is young. Think twice before you look and look twice before you leap is sound logical doctrine. Alogically minded man rationalizes every new proposition before he adopts it. He marshals before the mind the favorable points and then bombards them with every conceivable objection. With the steady eye of an honest, earnest, open minded critic, he weighs the unfavorable against the favorable and then accepts the indications of the balance unequivocally. If logic did nothing else save to inspire young people to thus rationalize every doubtful undertaking, it would do its share toward world betterment.

6. THE RATIONALIZATION OF THE WORLD OF CHANCE.

Man seems to be a natural born gambler. He loves to “take a chance” and herein lies much of his unhappiness. Without discussing the evils of the stock exchange, the horrors of the gambling den, and the unbusiness like procedure of the race track, we may merely attempt here to show how the rationalization of the conception of chance may be instrumental in dimming the glare of gambling to the average youth.

(1) The meaning of the term chance.

The term chance implies an inability to find a cause for any particular event. Whenever we trust to luck, we do so through ignorance. In reality every thing in this world is ordered according to law, and if we possessed infinite knowledge concerning these laws, then, for us, the word “chance” would have no meaning. One accomplishment of knowledge has been to rationalize superstition and chance. “Not a grain of sand lies upon the beach, but infinite knowledge would account for its lying there; and the cause of every falling leaf is guided by the same principles of mechanics as rule the motions of the heavenly bodies.”—Jevon’s Prin. of Science, vol.I, p.225.

That chance is a literal confession of ignorance, is a wholesome truth for all to bear in mind. If we were not so ignorant of atmospheric conditions, we would never be caught in the rain without an umbrella; if we knew perfectly the laws of mechanics, we would not speed our car and trust to luck that the car would hold together.

(2) Chance mathematically considered.

The principle of the “calculation of chances” has been discussed elsewhere. It will be sufficient here to illustrate the principle from a mathematical point of view.

Suppose that a jeweller desires to dispose of a ten-dollar watch by a raffle. He may place a hundred numbers in a box, one of which corresponds to the number on the watch. My chance of drawing the right number is one out of a hundred and may be expressed by the fraction ¹/₁₀₀. The fact that Imay draw the right number on the first trial or on the last trial is immaterial. The real meaning of the ratio “one out of a hundred” is, that in the long run, Ishall lose 99 times where Igain but once. This implies, that if Ipay 25 cents for each draw, Ishall in the end pay 99 times 25 cents for the watch, or Iwill have paid $24.75 for a ten dollar watch.

(3) Chance and gambling.

In all forms of gambling no wealth is produced. What one man gains the other man loses. In addition to this the institution which projects the gambling scheme must be supported. In consequence, more money must be lost than can possibly be gained. This leads to the conclusion that on the basis of averages he who would gamble must terminate his career “behind the game.” Statistics verify this conclusion.

(4) Chance and investments.

Interest, which is money paid for the use of money, is high when the demand for money exceeds the supply and low when the supply equals or exceeds the demand. The fact that the supply is short is largely due to the lack of confidence on the part of the investor. This means that he is unwilling to take the risk. Thus the principle: “High rate of interest, great risk; low rate of interest, little risk.”

7. THE RATIONALIZATION OF POLITICAL AND BUSINESS SOPHISTRIES.

“Win right or wrong” is a nut shell statement of modern sophistry. Corollaries to this are such aphorisms as “Of two evils choose the lesser”; “Do evil that good may come,” etc. Armed with these platitudes the modern business and political octopus will play the bully and squeeze the life out of the little fellow in the name of economy; will pay for editorials to elect the “right man”; will evade bad laws so-called; institute lobbies; buy votes; and perpetrate a thousand other immoral deeds in the name of “good business” or of “party loyalty.”

Half truths are the most atrocious of all kinds of fallacies in that they are the most misleading. “Do evil that good may come” is but half of the whole truth “Do evil that good may come, provided there is no other way open.” Again, “Of two evils choose the lesser, if a complete enumeration has shown that there is not a third course.”

A development of a finer ability of discernment under right influence should lead the common citizen to see through these various sophistries practiced by corporate greed, and should enable him by means of the ballot to “blaze a better way.”

The “public is a blunderbuss” because the average man either cannot, or will not, think his own thoughts. By developing greater skill and arousing greater interest in the thinking process, the crowd of camp followers will be reduced; selfish bossism will die; and a truer and more efficient democracy will reign supreme.

8. THE RATIONALIZATION OF THE SPIRIT OF PROGRESS.

Genuine progress comes through a happy combination of the old with the new. Alove for the old only, means ultra conservatism; whereas a love for the new only, means ultra radicalism; a love for both means rational liberalism.

That people love the old way may be attributed to two forces which will receive attention here.

(1) Race instinct.

It may be said that “life is a brief space between two eternities—a path between infinity and infinitude.” “Man is a pedestrian who perambulates along the way.” The eternities concern him not so much as the path which stretches between them. In a former day, one of the striking characteristics of the western plain was the beaten path stretching out along the table-land like an elongated, dust colored serpent; and often following this path would be a herd of buffalo winding its way in single file around boulder and ant hill till shut from view by the distant horizon. Thus has man travelled along the beaten path, following the “foot prints of the ages.” Here and there and everywhere do we see signs of those who have gone on before; father, grandfather, great grandfather; yes, even to the toe marks of those primeval ancestors of ours who shambled along the way, nobody knows how many years ago. From the dark recesses of the cave, have our forbears thrown a lasso of blood about our necks, and it seems as if we must follow the old, old way. “Being acorns of the ancestral oak,” we grow similar oak tree tendencies, living over again the life of our progenitors. “There lies in every soul the history of the universe.”

(2) Imitation.

But there is another reason for this ultra conservative spirit and it is that nature’s chief mode of instruction is by means of imitation. To every living thing of wood or field nature seems to say, “Your parents are always right, do as they do for this is the best way to learn the lessons of life.” Aman thinks, feels and wills his way through life in a certain manner largely because his father did likewise. Moreover, we not only imitate those who have gone on before, but we counterfeit each other; fashion is another name for world wide mimicry. We imitate our friends and those whom we admire; we talk like them, we walk like them, we live like them.

It now appears that we are held to the path of the past by means of race instinct and the power of imitation, and we are thus prone to believe that the old way is good enough. It is evident that to get out of the beaten path is dangerous. The wild animal that deserts the habits of the race dies a premature death, and the man who possesses the temerity to struggle through the thicket of new things must, of necessity, shorten his span of life. To follow the “same old rut” is easiest for the teacher; to be loyal to the “grand old party” is safest for the politician. But to the contrary, if every man of every generation had followed the beaten path blindly—without deviation, the human race would now be a horde of simians. Because man has possessed the power of progressive thought, he has developed the spirit of radicalism and has thereby made himself supreme.

“The old way anyway—the old way right or wrong” has been the world’s biggest stumbling block. Every innovation must fight for its life. Every good thing has to be condemned in its day and generation. It is Huxley who suggests three stages for the course of a new idea: First, it is revolutionary; second, it will make little difference; third, Ihave always believed in it. On the other hand, the new way anyway; “we must have a change whether or no”; “we must have something different despite the cost,” have ever been the slogans of waste and destitution. The wars which have not resulted from the prejudice of ultra conservatism have been brought about through the thoughtlessness of ultra radicalism. The revolutionist, the freak and the anarchist, products of impulse and the spirit of discontent, spring from an unwise love of change.

The world needs conservatism and radicalism not so much as it needs rationalism. It needs men who can hold to the good of the old and adopt the best of the new; men who neither “rust out” nor “waste out”; but wear out. That rational progress may obtain, there must be a perfect dovetailing of the old with the new. Man must leave the beaten path not altogether, but at times. He needs to blaze out a new way not so much as he needs to straighten the bends, tunnel through the mountains, and fill in the swamps of the old way. Arational “liberalism” implies a willingness to follow the old path with a view to improving the imperfections thereof.

9. A RATIONALIZATION OF THE ATTITUDE TOWARD WORK.

On the assumption that true happiness is the ultimate aim of life, we may conclude that anything which does not contribute to this end functions as a curse and not as a blessing. Happiness involves physical comfort and mental joy. To have comfort of the body implies moderate means. The poor cannot be happy because of bodily want. When “physical-man” is not given proper nourishment for healthy growth, then does he goad “spiritual-man” with the pricks of appetite and pain till his wants are appeased. This is a law of nature. On the other hand happiness is not attained through acquisition; neither the millionaires, nor the scholars, nor the famous are the happiest. This is a fact apparent to all. Over worry and over excitement follow closely the heels of much money and high position. Too little brings unhappiness through want; too much brings unhappiness through worry. Therefore man is cursed by his work when the remuneration is not enough for comfort of body, or when the income is too much for poise of mind.

Unless the organs of the body are used they atrophy. Every cell of the physical makeup demands exercise. Work which is not drudgery; work which causes the organs of the body and the powers of the mind to function normally; work which gives comfort without luxury; work which forces one to the highest actualization of his physical and spiritual powers is man’s greatest blessing. In and through such work will man attain his highest state of happiness.

10. THE LOGIC OF SUCCESS.

We may now hope to show that material aggrandizement, the adopted standard of success, is one of the illogical factors of modern life.

The tree of the forest always grows toward the light. It pushes its way through the darkness of the soil into the shadow of the underbrush and finally out into the unobstructed light of the sun. This parallels the progress of the race. From the darkness of savagery into the shadow of barbarism, and finally out into the full light of civilization. Thus has man grown steadily and continually toward better things. But “better things” is a relative term and has changed with the development of the race. “Agood healthy idea may not live longer than twenty years.” In consequence growth toward the light has been in accordance with man’s conception of a higher and a better life; which conception is ever changing.

Moreover, growth toward the best is always rewarded by real happiness. It therefore follows that the right road to real happiness extends along the way of better things as conceived by the traveller, man.

Any force which tends to lift the world up toward more light is a blessing, and any personality which contributes to this end is a success. When one drops a pin it falls down toward the earth, at the same time the earth comes up to meet the pin. This is according to the universal law of gravitation. It is true that the earth moves the pin through a much greater space than the pin moves the earth, and yet the fact remains that the pin does move the earth. The extent to which the smaller body is able to move the larger, depends on the two factors of weight and relative position. If the pin were lighter or farther away it would influence the earth so much the less. In like manner does the “pin-man” influence the “human-world.” The extent of this influence is controlled by man’s weight, or his “lifting power,” and the position which he occupies; just as the attraction of the pin for the earth is controlled by weight and position.

The facts of history have proved that man’s power to lift depends not so much upon what he has as upon what he is. In short, lifting power is directly in proportion to personal worth. Moreover, man’s ability to draw humanity up may be increased or decreased by the position which he occupies. Such a position must function for the best good of the world, and at the same time must elicit the highest development of the man.

TO SUMMARIZE:

Individual success involves these three elements:

First—A man of personal worth.

Second—A position which draws out the best in the man.

Third—A work which definitely contributes to the uplift of the world.

A definition is now in order:

Success is the right man in the right place doing his best for the highest good of the world.

11. OUTLINE.

LOGIC AND LIFE.

12. SUMMARY.

(1) To justify its having a place in any course of study, logic must lend itself to character building.

(2) Man is king of the animal kingdom because of his power of thought. From the beginning his adaption has been more or less intellectual and his chief weapon of conquest has ever been his thinking brain.

(3) Man’s supremacy has been due not only to his ability to think, but also to his power of progressive thought.

(4) Right thinking is the process of adjusting the best means to a right end. Wrong thinking involves improper adjustment, which in turn results in extinction.

(5) A “logically-minded” man rationalizes every new proposition before he adopts it. That is, he analyzes with the utmost care and with unprejudiced frankness all the favorable and unfavorable situations; he then throws them into the balance of honest judgment and adopts the indications of said balance, unequivocally.

(6) Chance is a confession of ignorance. If man possessed infinite knowledge, the term chance would have no place in his vocabulary.

The games of chance are money making schemes supported by the gambling fraternity. On the basis of averages, the gambler, in the long run, must terminate his career “behind the game.”

High rate of interest implies great risk; low rate of interest little risk.

(7) “Win right or wrong” epitomizes the teachings of modern sophistry. With the coming of better thinking, a more efficient democracy will obtain.

(8) Rational progress combines the best of the old with what seems to be the best of the new.

Blind love for the old, or ultra conservatism, is due to the two forces of race instinct and power of imitation.

An adherence to the “old way anyway” may mean retrogression; whereas following the new way, simply because of its newness, may involve unnecessary waste.

(9) Work which is not drudgery; work which causes the organs of the body and the powers of the mind to function normally; work which gives comfort without luxury; work which forces one to the highest actualization of his physical and spiritual powers is man’s greatest blessing.

(10) Logically considered personal aggrandizement is not a true standard of success. Success involves personal worth rather than personal holding.

Success is measured by man’s ability to help the world on toward better things.

Success is the right man in the right place doing his best for the highest good of the world.

13. REVIEW QUESTIONS.

14. QUESTIONS FOR ORIGINAL THOUGHT AND INVESTIGATION.