THE FOREST SERVICE AND ITS MEN 661 



But, given time for both, the one who has acquired both technical or 

 theoretical knowledge of his profession and practical training, no matter 

 in zvhich order they were mastered, is usually superior in ability as an 

 all-round, broad administrator to the man who has had only the prac- 

 tical experience, even though he has made the most of his opportuni- 

 ties, just as the latter is superior to the physically trained man who has 

 not developed his mind at all. The weakness of the man without a 

 broad education is that he constantly tends to confine his reasoning to 

 his own experience, and it takes him too long to actually find out him- 

 self all the principles and facts which he needs. For instance, a certain 

 official whose principal experience had been in grazing took the atti- 

 tude that timber cruising was not a science and could be adequately 

 performed by green men without competent direction. He himself had 

 had no actual experience in timber cruising, but considered himself 

 adequate to judge. 



13. Common Sense. — Perhaps no quality is so difficult to define and 

 yet so well understood as common sense. It represents the consensus 

 of opinion of a man's associates that he is right instead of wrong on 

 matters of common interest which make up daily life. For this reason 

 one cannot be his own judge as to whether he possesses this quality. 



Common sense is the concrete result of the normal development of 

 mental powers by experience, observation, education, and reason. It is 

 the ability to think straight, with no selfish twist or bias, and to reach 

 intuitive conclusions whose sanity is at once evident to others, whether 

 they agree or not. Since the essence of common sense is the compre- 

 hension of common standards of right and wrong, common human 

 qualities and traits, and common ideals, no one who is not a student of 

 human nature from the standpoint of sympathetic understanding rather 

 than cynicism can ever hope to acquire common sense. It is the goal 

 of the struggle for character, not inherited or "come by naturally," but 

 acquired directly as the result of building up a balanced character — or 

 as the concrete summing up of the traits of character previously an- 

 alyzed in this article. 



14. Personality. — Some people and some nations have tried to reduce 

 human nature to terms of material facts and to measure human char- 

 acter with the yardstick of science and mathematics. It can't be done ! 

 The flaming spirit of man's immortal soul gives the lie to these gross 

 materialists and will overthrow on the blood-soaked fields of France 

 the damnable doctrine that character and riglit are non-existent because 

 they cannot be analyzed in a chemical retort. 



Personality is the intangible, but concrete, mental force and indi- 



