p. 229 | The Art of Thinking by Sydney Smith

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 15, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 15.

The Art of Thinking.

By Sydney Smith

ONE of the best modes of improving the art of thinking is to think over some subject before you read upon it, and then observe after what manner it has occurred to the mind of some great master; you will then observe whether you have been too rash or too timid; what you have omitted and what you have exceeded; and by this process you will insensibly catch the manner in which a great mind views a great question. It is right to study; not only to think when any extraordinary incident provokes you to think, but from time to time to review what has passed, to dwell upon it, and to see what trains of thought voluntarily present themselves to your mind. It is a most superior habit in some minds to refer all the particular truths which strike them to other truths more general, so their knowledge is beautifully methodized, and a particular truth at once leads to a general truth. This kind of understanding has an immense and decided superiority over those confused heads in which one fact is piled upon another without any attempt at classification or arrangement. Some men read with a pen in their hand, and commit to paper any new thought which strikes them; others trust to chance for its appearance. Which of these is the best method in the conduct of the understanding, must, I suppose, depend a good deal upon the understanding in question. Some men can do nothing without preparation; others, little with it—some are fountains; others reservoirs.—Sydney Smith.