The examination of our own thoughts-the observation of outward objects-the weighing, measuring, reasoning, praising, blaming which takes place in the mind is thinking, but our thinking is only really useful when it is rightly directed-we all think, but we do not all think correctly-the mental machinery is always in motion but not always with a profitable result.

One thinking man

Thought suggests thought. speaks, and those who listen to his words have their thoughts employed in one fixed direction. One thinking man writes, and those who read his compositions are put in possession of his thoughts. But no man can, in the highest and best sense of the expression, be said to think, who only thinks the thoughts of others. Such a man, in the best sense of the term, thinks not, he only thinks he thinks. The thoughts of another to a thoughtful mind suggest thoughts, they are "as good seed in good ground," they germinate, they bear fruit-true, whatever springs forth as the result of the seed-thought is but the growth of that thought, but there is a wide difference between such fruit and the mere routine of the man who has stored his mind with the thoughts of other men.