THE explanations and practices of concentration given up to this point should enable the student to follow a line of thought fairly steadily. Next comes thinking. Thinking is the combining of two or more ideas to embody another idea, which is no more contained in the originals than water is contained in hydrogen and oxygen. In some cases, as in learning, two ideas are given, and to understand the matter we have to think them into a unity.

Teachers says that the three angles of a triangle equal two right angles. We have to think how it comes about that that is so. To do this we concentrate on a triangle. Having this very clear in mind, we then think of two right angles side by side. Thinking is thus an extension of the practice of concentration, and depends upon it.

Another occasion of thinking occurs when we use it for discovery. In this case we hold all the data or facts in mind and review them in all their relationships until the new idea pops up. Monsieur and Madame Curie peeped into their laboratory one dark night and saw a glow in some little dishes in which they had evaporated a liquid. “That is not merely dust”, they exclaimed. They began to think, “It must be something that we missed in our analysis. What is it?” Somewhat thus radium was discovered.

Concentration is needed for thinking. The stronger the grip and fuller the grasp of the concentration the more direct and less wandering the thinking will be. One person, thinking from A to B may wander about before reaching his goal, as in the following diagram:

while a more trained mind will reach its conclusion almost in a straight line. So let us try a series of experiments calculated to strengthen concentration-on-the-move.

angles of a triangle, concentrate, concentration, explanations, line of thought