352 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



GENIUS 



By Dr. ROBERT MORRIS OGDEN 



UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE 



CONSIDEBED genetically, intellectual and physical functionings 

 oppose one another. The business of organisms is to act. And 

 action means primarily a direct response to stimuli. It is only as the 

 organism grows complex and there is opportunity for more than one 

 reaction to a given stimulus that there comes about a retardation in- 

 volving an inhibition of action. And this retardation is filled out with 

 weak reflections of the nerve paths which are being stimulated, i. e., 

 with thought. Thought, then, comes at the expense of the organism's 

 natural functionings. Thought brings bodily inertia. Were there no 

 thought, we should be mere reflex organisms. Health is conditioned 

 by physical acts and the healthful rest of the organism is accompanied 

 by sleep. 



Now all this means that we who think are in a sense artificial folk. 

 We are transcending nature in a way — at least in comparison with 

 the great mass of animal life which has a more or less reflex existence. 

 Still we have our compensations. We are knowing beings, having two 

 sides to our natures, a physical and an intellectual. We can react on 

 a given presentation in two ways, either intuitively in accordance with 

 our natural physical bias, or logically in accordance with our more 

 artificially developed reason. 



It is no mere matter of hyper-intellectualism which leads us in our 

 genesis from the first to the second of these modes of reaction, but a 

 matter of increasing complexity of the organism making simple in- 

 tuitive reaction more and more impossible. Therefore, as a general 

 proposition, this development is nothing we can or wish to strive for or 

 against. We simply have to accept it as it is. 



Yet, turning to the study of individual man, we find great diversity 

 of mental bias and disposition. The happiest and healthiest of men 

 is doubtless he who lives an active life out in the fresh air and amid 

 pleasant natural surroundings. His physical bias is strongly devel- 

 oped and affords a ready and never-failing intuitive force for good 

 and health. His mental outlook is clear if not profound. He takes 

 things as they are and, unless accident befall him to disturb his habitual 

 methods of functioning, he is able to meet the various situations of life 

 with positive equanimity. 



