SKILL IN THINKING 403 



memories supply us with a vast fund of facts, ideas, emotions, and 

 the like, which may be more or less vividly recalled to mind and 

 which, therefore, afford the materials for such mental processes as 

 association, comparison, and discrimination in brief with the 

 materials of allthatis comprised under the term thought. Byappeal- 

 ing to our conscious memories we are able to note sequences of 

 events in the past and deduce necessary truths and so to fore- 

 see to a very useful extent the sequences of events in the future, 

 and in this way make provision for coming events and dangers. By 

 virtue of the intellectual powers thus conferred we are rational 

 beings in the strict sense of the word. Unlike the purely instinctive 

 animal which is impelled merely by emotion, we guide our more 

 complex and less habitual actions by thought, by intelligence and 

 reason. But though the whole domain of the intellect pertains to 

 the conscious memory, yet we are able to labour usefully in it only 

 by virtue of powers conferred by the unconscious recorder of our 

 experiences. We learn to think, to reason just as certainly as we 

 learn ' physical dexterities,' but, as in the case of the latter, the 

 springs of our ' mental ' dexterities cannot be recalled to mind in 

 the sense that an event or a fact may be recalled. That is, though 

 we may remember that we are skilful in thinking, and though we 

 may call to mind the ways in which we acquired the skill and the 

 results we obtain by the exercise of it, yet the skill itself depends 

 on concentrated experiences which cannot be recalled to mind any 

 more than those on which skill in walking depends. The skill is 

 useful, but the power of picturing it in mind would be of no 

 practical utility ; and therefore nature does not bestow it. 



666. An instinct impels us to sport with our limbs and so 

 supply them with the stimulus necessary for growth and our minds 

 with the practice which confers dexterity in using the limbs. This 

 growth of ' physical ' dexterity is, as we see, really a mental growth. 

 So also, an even more imperious instinct impels us to sport with our 

 thoughts. From birth forwards we think perpetually and cannot 

 help doing so. Fresh experiences recall antecedent experi- 

 ences with which they are compared, and, these again call up 

 yet other experiences. In our idlest moments we are busy 

 thinking. In this way we learn dexterity in thinking, and this 

 acquired dexterity is an essential part of intelligence and reason. 

 Obviously, therefore, reason is not, as all psychologists imply, an 

 * innate ' character like memory. It is learned just as surely as 

 reading and walking are learned. No child is born capable 

 of reasoning, and much of our school-room education is a 



