gruity; some are disjointed, some are articulated. When connected, they stimulate reflective thought; indeed, they usually occur in minds of logical capacity. These imaginative enterprises often precede thinking of the closeknit type and prepare the way for it. But they do not aim at knowledge, at belief about facts or in truths; and thereby they are marked off from reflective thought even when they most resemble it. Those who express such thoughts do not expect credence, but rather credit for a well-constructed plot or a well-arranged climax. They produce good stories, not-unless by chanceknowledge. Such thoughts are an efflorescence of feeling; the enhancement of a mood or sentiment is their aim; congruity of emotion, their binding tie. In its next sense, thought denotes belief resting upon some basis, that is, real or supposed knowledge going beyond what is directly present. It is marked by acceptance or rejection of something as reasonably probable or improbable. This phase of thought, however, includes two such distinct types of belief that, even though their difference is strictly one of degree, not of kind, it becomes practically important to consider them separately. Some beliefs are accepted when their grounds have not themselves been considered, others are accepted because their grounds have been examined. When we say, "Men used to think the world was flat," or, "I thought we went by the house," we express belief; something is accepted, held to, acquiesced in, or affirmed. But such thoughts may mean a supposition accepted without reference to its real grounds. These may be adequate, they may not; but their value with reference to the support they afford the belief has not been considered. Such thoughts grow up unconsciously and without reference to the attainment of correct belief. They are picked up we know not how. From obscure sources and by unnoticed channels they insinuate themselves into acceptance and become unconsciously a part of our mental furniture. Tradition, instruction, imitation-all of which depend upon authority in some form, or appeal to our own advantage, or fall in with a strong passion -are responsible for them. Such thoughts are prejudices, that is, prejudgments, not judgments proper that rest upon a survey of evidence. Thoughts that result in belief have an importance attached to them which leads to reflective thought, to conscious inquiry into the nature, conditions, and bearings of the belief. To think of whales and camels in the clouds is to entertain ourselves with fancies, terminable at our pleasure, which do not lead to any belief in particular. But to think of the world as flat is to ascribe a quality to a real thing as its real property. This conclusion denotes a connection among things and hence is not, like imaginative thought, plastic to our mood. Belief in the world's flatness commits him who holds it to thinking in certain specific ways of other objects, such as the heavenly bodies, antipodes, the possibility of navigation. It prescribes to him actions in accordance with his conception of these objects. The consequences of a belief upon other beliefs and upon behavior may be so important, then, that men are forced to consider the grounds or reasons of their belief and its logical consequences. This means reflective thought-thought in its eulogistic and emphatic sense. Men thought the world was flat until Columbus thought it to be round. The earlier thought was a belief held because men had not the energy or the courage to question what those about them accepted and taught, especially as it was suggested and seemingly confirmed by obvious sensible facts. The thought of Columbus was a reasoned conclusion. It marked the close of study into facts, of scrutiny and revision of evidence, of working out the implications of various hypotheses, and of comparing these theoretical results with one another and with known facts. Because Columbus did not accept unhesitatingly the current traditional theory, because he 'doubted and inquired, he arrived at his thought. Skeptical of what, from long habit, seemed most certain, and credulous of what seemed impossible, he went on thinking until he could produce evidence for both his confidence and his disbelief. Even if his conclusion had finally turned out wrong, it would have been a different sort of belief from those it antagonized, because it was reached by a different method. Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends, constitutes reflective thought. Any one of the first three kinds of thought may elicit this type; but once begun, it is a conscious and voluntary effort to establish belief upon a firm basis of reasons. WOMAN ENTHRONED 1 AGNES REPPLIER Few present-day writers have confined themselves so religiously to one type of writing as has Agnes Repplier. Such devotion has its compensations, however, for few Americans indeed can rival Miss Repplier as an essayist, both as far as the quantity and the quality of the output are concerned. No less than fifteen volumes of essays from her pen have been published. There are scarcely any readers of high-class magazines who are not familiar with the thought-provoking articles of this remarkable woman. Though today she is a woman of mature years, her birth date being April 1, 1858, her point of view is modern. The freshness and the vigor which marked her first essays are characteristics of her writings today, but added to them are a serene philosophy and a degree of conviction that come with living broadly and deeply in the world of affairs. An alert observer, a keen thinker, a woman of the world in the finest sense of that phrase, Miss Repplier has proved herself competent to discuss men and issues of wide importance as well as to deal with abstract themes. She has courage as well as ability. Her style does not lack sparkle because it is incisive, nor grace because it challenges attention by its force. Woman Enthroned gives evidence of her freedom from sentimentality as well as conventionality. Though she cannot be accused of being disloyal to her sex, she shows clearly that she entertains no illusions in regard to it. This characteristic of facing facts squarely is what makes her appeal to masculine minds. She voices her opinions, however, without losing any of the desirable sense of delicacy that belongs to womankind. THE Michigan magistrate who gave orders that a stalwart male angel presiding over the gateway of a cemetery should be recast in feminine mold may have been an erring theologian and a doubtful art-critic, but that he was a sound-hearted American no one can deny. He was not thinking of Azrael the mighty who had garnered 1 From Points of Friction, by permission of and special arrangement with the Houghton Mifflin Company. that little harvest of death, or of Michael, great leader of the "fighting seraphim," whose blade "Smote and felled or of Gabriel the messenger. Holy Writ was as remote from his mental vision as was Paradise Lost. He was thinking very properly of the "angel in the house," and this feminine ideal was affronted by the robust outlines, no less than by the robust virtues, associated with the heavenly host. Cowley's soothing compromise, which was designed as a compliment to a lady, and which, instead of unsexing angels, endowed them with a double line of potencies,— "They are than Man more strong, and more than Woman sweet,-" is not easily expressed in art. The very gallant Michigan gentleman simplified the situation by eliminating the masculine element. He registered his profession of faith in the perfectibility of women. It is awkward to be relegated to the angelic class, and to feel that one does not fit. Intelligent feminists sometimes say that chivalry-that inextinguishable point of view which has for centuries survived its own deathnotices—is more disheartening than contempt. Chivalry is essentially protective. It is rooted in the consciousness of superior strength. It is expansively generous and scrimpingly just. It will not assure to women a fair field and no favors, which is the salvation of all humanity; but it will protect them from the consequences of their own deeds, and that way lies perdition. Down through the ages we see the working of this will. Rome denied to women all civic rights, but allowed |