Sympathy of Thought

Irish Jesuit Province

Sympathy of ThoughtAuthor(s): William A. SuttonSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 25, No. 293 (Nov., 1897), pp. 609-613Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20499210 .

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Sympathy of Thought. 609

No. 18.

Of common birth, of elements the same,

The first with more of fire and firmer frame

Protects, until a common doom they share,

The second, of a mould more soft and fair.

1. If measured, you will always trace

From rim to rim an equal space.

2. The famous sage, it must be owned,

Produced a famous vagabond.

3. Than wildest RNenia wilder still,

The Irish cry is on the hill.

4. The brain-sick youth hath startled all

The revellers in that northern hall.

5. Your " bookish theoric " 's a fool,

'Tis I afford the safest rule. 0.

SYMPATHY OF THOUGHT.

y V HAT a solid pleasure it is to meet some one, who not only T likes but understands us! It is not enough to be liked,

though it is much and very much. Our best qualities come out

then, as our disagreeable ones do with those who dislike us, or whom we dislike. But to be liked and understood makes life for

the time being eminently worth living. To like, to be liked, to understand, to be understood: et demanm firmnia amicitia est. Men,

who may be otherwise prosy bores, are delightful companions, when these conditions are verified. This is especially so in the case of literary and thoughtful people. Men who can say the

things they would, who can express patiently, passioniessly, fearlessly views, persuasions, convictions on every subject of thought, who can listen without thinking of what they are going

to say themselves, who can put themselves into others' states and

circumstances, who are thinkers, not prejudiced passionate partizans (often much better men, but nothing like so charming to deal andl

converse with), men, who know what they know and what they do not know : such men, when they meet under favourable

conditions, verily revel in " the feast of reason and flow of soul." Such meetings are rare enough, I think. They mostly happen

by chance. Prearranged they are generally disappointing. Spontaneity is lacking. It has been said, "no one can be amusing to order; " the same seems true of interesting and thoughtful talk. Of course all who have the same likings, who

VOL. XxV. No. 293. 44



610 The Irish Monthly.

are interested in the same kinds of things, will always have plenty to say about them; hence talking is so pleasurable, even though it be mainly commonplace. It recalls past pleasurable states, it causes pleasurable anticipations, it relieves and consoles in number less ways.

Talk that is not triiling or commonplace, talk that is the

product of real thought and not mere repetition of what is said or

written by others, is one of the rare and delicate pleasures of

intellectual life. Addison says: " fine writing conasists in senti

ments that are true, b)ut not obvious." High-class talk is just

the same, the expression of a mind capable of appreciating justly and for itself the subject under discussion.

It was said above, such talk is mostly brought about accidentally. It often happens that people meet, who could talk so from having knowledge and power of expression, yet little or nothing comes to the surface. Nothing occurs to suggest or stimulate into conscious activity what lies dormant. They may essay to start some topic, but it is not at the time sympathetic. They are for the present mutually uninteresting. They separate sadder, not

wiser ; puzzled at their owna dullness, envying the commoner sort who so easily find enjoyment in one anothers' very ordinary conversation and pursuits.

To be able to think and talk like a thinker is no small matter. It may not be the best way to enjoy life. The Wise Man concedes that. Experience confirms it. Enjoyment of life we all long for. It is not common, certainly not on a large scale or for long. But to keep occupied is one of the best ways to make the best of life, and the very best, when we keep occupied in the right way. It is not always easy to keep occupied. Many complain they cannot find occupation. It is often very hard to suggest to people how they are to occupy themselves. It is one of the greatest benefits of a cultivated mind, that reading and thinking and writing and speaking are so many ways of useful, and more or less pleasurable, occupation. Idleness and listlessness are awful miseries-how great only the idle and listless know. Cultivated minds are by no means a guarantee against idleness and aversion

to occupation. Persistent afforts are necessary for all against the insidious syren sloth. But a cultivated mind is always able with

moderate effort to become energetic and find work ready to hand. Thinking is harder work than reading or writiuig. Still one



S!,7n2pathy1 of Thought. 611

mav think too much. Too much thinking saps intellectual energies of other kinds, and indeed energy in general. Hamlet is said to be an instance of how too much meditation destroys energy. He speculates about everything, which makes him the most interesting of dramatic characters ; but he always procrastinates. A mere thinker is a higher kind of idler, and often not much happier. A

mere reader is much on the same moral level. A reader and thinker should teach orally or in writing, if he would bring forth

worthy fruits. One may regret having made a solitary of himself by giving

way too much to such instincts. He may see with sorrow that he would have been a wiser and more contented man, if he had entered more into participation with social activities; but be can do good work still. Not every one will care for or appreciate such work. No doubt thought gives an exquisite flavour to speaking and writing, but the flavour is often enough " caviare to the general." In many minds it produces irritation and disgust. Not every kind of thoughtfulness, but some kinds most pleasurable to some. There are able and educat d men who cannot perceive,

or at any rate appreciate, every flavour imparted by real thought fulness. They have talent, and they understand and value talent. They duly appreciate clear and brilliant and persuasive statements of facts and trutlhs and known arguments; but the suggestiveness of thoughful groping after answers to the mind's obstinate questionings, the dim and subtle adumbrations of infinite realities, the grasping and fusing of mysterious incongruities and seeming inconsistencies in the spheres of mental struggles and longings all these are an unitelligible bore to them.

Thoughtfulness is not all or even mostly concerned with vague

and mysterious realities. It is employed about, and adds its

peculiar charm to, the ordinary affairs of life and objects of thought. Thoughtful remarks on these things are full of interest and frequently help us along and get us over

difficulties by providing us with some spur to exertion or some

cheering way of looking at things. "Nothing is either good or

bad, but thinking makes it so;" and so, if we get a view of things

that makes them less trying or more cherry, we are greatly helped thereby. In fact most of our miseries come from the way we

consider things, from the exaggerated opinion we entertain of their worth or worthlessness. We long for things we have not,



612 The Jr-ish Mionthly.

we envy those who possess them, we despise what we have, while others envy us their possession. Seeing all this by the aid of a shrewd or wise remark often cures us of our distorted vision and ill-balanced judgment. To be helped over small worries and difficulties is no small benefit, for our most clinging miseries are produced not by great trials but by comparatively petty troubles.

But the utility of thought is not its whole good. By no means. Its great good is itself. The power of thinking for oneself is the highest outcome of the cultivation of the intellect and hence a great thing in itself.

There are no advantages without disadvantages. Thinking

tends to make one a lonely being. " Never less alone than when

alone " is all very well, but very few are sufficient for themselves.

We are by nature social. Congenial society is one of the greatest

and most indispensable pleasures of life. Like all pleasures, it may be, and very often is, over indulged. It is of great importance

to be able to do with a moderate amount of it. Being able to be

alone and to like it, to converse with oneself, thinking, reading, writing, help much against yielding too much to the pleasures of social intercourse, when such can be had, and go far to supply for

it, when not to be had.

What a full and delicate pleasure it is to get hold of a book

that gives us fresh and interesting thoughts and sentiments, and stimulates us to form more of the same kind for ourselves. Then we realize the truth of Mill's saying about Ward, " thought sympathizes with thought." One who has himself worked at and struggled with the puzzles and problems of human life, immediately recognizes with delight a writer or speaker, whose

words reveal the genuine thinker, the fair-mincded inquirer, the discoverer of truths small and great, or aspects of truth. Any one who sees and expresses old or well known truths in a new

light, is a discoverer. He enjoys himself and affords to others

the surprise and joy of discovery, the interest and wonder of

novelty in the sphere of intellect and imagination. All kinds of pleasure pall. Men tire of everything. Those

who possess all the means of enjoying themselves, often find it impossible to do so. The (tedium vitie asserts itself everywhere.

People wonder at this. But this world is not made to be happy

in. No wonder, then, if thinkers tire of thinking and find it often " weary, stale, fiat and unprofitable " like the other "1 uses



Notes on New Books. 613

of the world-" It is itself a curious subject for speculation, how

dull it often is, how little it interests, how sluggish and disgusted the mind becomes, how weak and distracted its efforts to employ itself in anything like sustained thinking.

Sympathy is the greatest stimulus to thought and to its expression. Thought of every kind is evoked by it. A man of

wit will be dull in company he is not in harmony with, who will overflow with good things as soon as ever he becomes conscious, that he is with thtose who understand him and whose minds and feelings respond to his. He will then be "not only witty in himself, but the cause that wit is in other men." It is the same with interesting talk, the talk that is full of little surprises from the uncommon way that old things are said and new views advocated. Nothing is a greater incentive to writing than to find out that it is appreciated, that there are readers who enjoy it and profit by it. In this way a lonely thinker feels he is not all alone. But he must be able to endure and prefer much solitulde, and must be for the most part content with sympathy of the telepathetic kind.

A genuine thinker is not necessarily eminent or much skilled in any branch of art or knowledge. Nevertheless he may do

more helpful and more interesting work than men incomparably more erudite. But this is an aspect of the thinker's craft, which will require separate treatment.

W1LLIAM A. SUTTON, S.J.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 1. St. Atugustine of Canterbury and his Companions. From the

French of Father Brou, S.J. (Art and Book Company: London and leamington).

This is one of the most important and most satisfactory of the books inspired by recent commemorations-at least its publication in its present form was hastened in order that it might be in time for the centenary celebration of St. Augustine's mission to England. If it

were not expressly stated on the titlepage, it would be hard to believe that it is a translation from the French, it is so full of minute antiquarian lore and written in such excellent English. Our wonder, however, is somewhat diminished when we learn that the author, though a French Jesuit, has lived for manjy years at Canterbury, and that his work in its English form has passed through the hands of

Father Herbert Thurston, S.J. It is a solid and original work, far more valuable than histories of much greater pretensions; and the



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Sympathy of Thought