46 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
need to be subjected to the test of practice in order that they may be " realized," or be adequately grasped, and that they may be kept free from useless and misleading elements. A theoretical meaning becomes much more real to one when he becomes vividly conscious how it determines or modifies action. The idea must be interpreted in terms of the kin- aesthetic sensations in order that one may get a lively sense of its meaning. And when the meaning of the concept is thus reduced to its lowest terms it is not only more vividly realized, but its adequacy or inadequacy, its truth or false ness, is more readily perceived. Thus the theoretical mean ings must be tested by being reduced to the functional mean ings. They are not scientific, nor are they established as meanings, until confirmed by practical application. The practical application should be by experiment, when that is possible, as it usually is in the physical sciences, and to a certain extent in psychology; or by repeated recurrence under various and widely different circumstances, as in the social sciences.
The " practical " man is one who puts great emphasis upon the use meanings, and usually speaks with contempt of theory. The " theoretical " man is one who places the emphasis upon the abstract meanings and is mainly inter ested in knowledge as an end. He finds his satisfaction in the systematic correlation of ideas, with secondary, if any, reference to their practical applications. Both attitudes are partial and lead to unsatisfactory results. The practical man who wholly discards theory will be short-sighted and narrow, " bumptious " and full of prejudices, and in un familiar circumstances is liable to gross error; the theoretical man, neglecting practical applications, will be fanciful and fall into many absurdities, because his think ing lacks the correction of facts. The two attitudes com bined will yield both " common sense " and breadth of vision ; will enable one to keep his feet planted firmly upon the solid earth of reality and yet see, beyond the details
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