Is it that the thoughts go round and round a subject like a horse in a mill?
No; the horse is rather drawing a carriage along the same high road, but into ever new developments of the landscape.
In this light, the important thing is how you begin to think on any subject?
Precisely so; the initial thought or suggestion touches as it were the spring which sets in motion a possibly endless succession or train of ideas; thoughts which are, so to speak, elaborated in the brain almost without the consciousness of the thinker.
Are these thoughts, or successive ideas, random, or do they make for any conclusion?
They make for the logical conclusion which should follow the initial idea.
Then the reasoning power may be set to work involuntarily?
Yes; the sole concern of this power is, apparently, to work out the rational conclusion from any idea presented to it.
But surely this power of arriving at logical rational conclusions almost unconsciously is the result of education, most likely of generations of culture?
It exists in greater or less degree according as it is disciplined and exercised; but it is by no means the result of education as the word is commonly understood: witness the following anecdote:[17]