Thinking, An Art

THE ART OF THINKING--Ernest Dimnet--Simon & Schtuster ($2.50).

"This book is intended for average minds equally remote from genius which knows no obstacles, or from stupidity to which everything is an obstacle," says the author. How well he has gauged his readers is already demonstrated by the large sale and wide popularity of the book.

Briefly, thinking is a series of images. Even the ignoramus has images, but he is either incapable of being aware of them or too lazy to seize them. The greatest difficulty of the average person, Author Dimnet thinks, lies in the sorting out of confusing or conflicting images.

Introspection is the mother of image-sorting. So long as one is in a state of interior solitude, one can introspect almost anywhere--walking along a crowded street, in a sunny meadow, in a room where typewriters are banging, in a room alone with a fire, in bed in the morning or just before falling asleep at night.

Author Dimnet tells of the obstacles and the helps to thinking in a style that is as informal as it is polished and rich in literary background. One of his favorite devices is to hold thought-conversations between himself and his reader-of-the-moment.

An example of his advice is: treat intuitions tenderly. "The moment we feel their presence, it is as if we saw the ripple over Bethesda and we ought to know that our chance is near. Silence, both exterior and interior, should prevail; we ought to be attentive but not eager or, above all, curious. The beautiful visitor is like a butterfly, no longer the same when caught. . . ."

The Art of Thinking was first written in English, though Ernest Dimnet is a Frenchman and also writes facilely in Latin. He is 62, an abbe and a canon, and lives in the shadow of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Cardinal Newman's Apologia, which he won as a prize for playing handball in his schooldays, has influenced him more than any other book. He lectured at Harvard several years ago. He likes Columbia's Nicholas Murray Butler and dislikes the Freudian case system. The Bronte Sisters is his best known earlier work.