Man m the Light of Evolution 



thought is Imposed from without it will probably 

 be and remain " new cloth on an old garment." 

 It remains a patch, something foreign. The 

 new thought must be a growth, stimulated, in- 

 deed, by the teacher, if it is to form any real 

 part of the pupil's mind and life. 



Learned and often far-seeing men frequently 

 fail of influence in the community just because 

 they strive by sheer weight of learning or 

 argument or by dialectic skill to force a new 

 thought upon the minds of their fellows. They 

 try to make them see something which they have 

 never seen before. They fail ignominiously. 

 People object, very wrongly undoubtedly, but 

 universally and naturally, to be conquered by 

 weight of argument or skill in logic. The new 

 truth does not fit in well with the conceptions 

 already in possession of their minds. Even if 

 lodged in the mind as a persuasion, It remains 

 foreign and bears little fruit. ^ 



Socrates had a far more excellent way. 

 When he would open men's minds to a new 

 thought or truth or their eyes to a grander vl- 



1 Cf. Stevenson, R. L., " Familiar Studies, Walt Whit- 

 man," Chapter I, close. 



150 



