5. INDIFFERENT AND CARELESS THOUGHT.
It may be advanced as a plausible hypothesis that man, especially if he is an American, finds much trouble for himself, and makes much trouble for the world because of his indifference to thought. To leap first and look afterwards is the spirit of youth, and America is young. Think twice before you look and look twice before you leap is sound logical doctrine. A logically minded manrationalizes every new proposition before he adopts it. He marshals before the mind the favorable points and then bombards them with every conceivable objection. With the steady eye of an honest, earnest, open minded critic, he weighs the unfavorable against the favorable and then accepts the indications of the balance unequivocally. If logic did nothing else save to inspire young people to thus rationalize every doubtful undertaking, it would do its share toward world betterment.