326 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
final goal. He is in the thick of the fray; he does not occupy a detached position of passionless observation, where he can speculate, correlate, theorize. In fact he fails to appreciate the value of theory; he is not likely to have much regard for the theory of business itself. His ideas of men and things are such as grow up, without philosophical reflection, as a net result of the actual tussle of business dealing with them. Normally his mind moves in the region of proximate or secondary causes. Rarely does he make the effort to penetrate to primary causes ; or if he does, sec ondary are apt to appear to him to be primary causes. Whatever may be the ultimate explanation of any state of things, it must, so he reasons, be dealt with here and now ; and when the practical adjustment is found, his interest in the matter terminates. Hence we call him a " practical man," and that title pleases him better than any other. Re calling a distinction previously made, 1 we may say that, as a rule, his mental system has been built up un reflectively. I do not mean to say that he does not reflect much. He re flects a great deal upon the practical problems of his busi ness ; but the concepts which thus grow up in his mind are usually not logically analysed and worked over so as to secure theoretical consistency. The meanings which he or dinarily attaches to the words with which he is most familiar are the use or functional meanings, quite sufficient to guide his practical activity, but lacking the clear distinction, fine discrimination and broad comprehensiveness of theoretical thought.
In the fourth place, he is given to a quantitative evaluation of things. He is in the habit of dealing with things that can be weighed, measured, counted, calculated; and tends through force of habit to estimate everything in such terms. His type does not get hold of a thing securely and satisfac torily until it has in some way been quantitatively expressed. A singularly interesting expression of this tendency as seen in religion has been observed in the Layman s Missionary
i See Chap. III.
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