ON THE GRADUAL CONSTRUCTION OF THOUGHTS DURING SPEECH

IF there is something you want to know and cannot discover by meditation, then, my dear, ingenious friend, I advise you to discuss it with the first acquaintance whom you happen to meet. He need not have a sharp intellect, nor do I mean that you should question hini on the subject. No! Rather you yourself should begin by t e h g it all to him. 1 can see you opening your eyes wide at this and replying that in former years you were advised never to talk about anything that you do not already understand. In those days, however, you probably spoke with the pretentious purpose of enlightening others I want you to speak with the reasonable purpose of enlightening yourself, and it is possible that each of these rules of conduct, different as they are, will apply in certain cases. The French say: l'uppc'tit vierit en mangeuirt and this maxim holds true when parodied into: !'id& viertt en parlunt. Often I sit at my desk, poring over documents and trying to discover the point of view from which some complicated controversy might be judged. Then, when my inmost being is involved in the endeavour to arrive at the truth, I usually stare into the light, the brightest point in the room. Or when an algebraic problem arises, I look for the first preliminary statement, the equation, which expresses the given circumstances and from which later the solution can be easily deduced by calculation. But, lo and behold, if I mention it to my sister, who is sitting behind me and working, I discover facts which whole hours of brooding, perhaps, would not have revealed. Not that she literally tells them to me; for neither does she know the book of rules, nor has she studied Euler or Kastner. Nor is it that her skilful questioning leads mc on to the point which matters, though this may frequently be the case. But since I always have some obscure preconception, distantly connected in some way with whatever I am loolung for, I have only to bcgin boldly and the mitid, obliged to find an end for h s beginning, transforms my confused concept as I speak into thoughts that are perfectly clear, so that, to my surprise, the end of the sentence coincides with the desircd knowledge. I interpose inarticulate sounds, draw out the connecting words, possibly even use an apposition when required and employ other tricks wlich will prolong niy speech in order to gain sufficient time for the fabrication of my idea in the workshop of reason. During this process nothing is more helpful to me than a sudden move-