Page:Philosophy and Fun of Algebra.djvu/53

LIMITS OF THE TEACHER'S FUNCTION As I said before, people who really conduct their minds strictly according to the algebra of logic are very prone to grow kindness and honesty towards other people, without thinking about it, as a matter of taste, of choice. They like being kind and honest better than being selfish and dishonest, and they become kind and honest without thinking much about it. But honesty to other people and honesty to yourself are two different things, and must be kept apart in your mind, just as, in physiology class, you keep apart the flesh of an animal and its skin. You believe that if the flesh is thoroughly healthy it will grow a good skin; but, while you are studying, you do not mix up statements about the one with guesses about the other. If we find that a man's logic was good, and his conduct what we should call bad, we must do what a doctor would do if he found a spot on a patient's skin which he could not account for by anything wrong in his circulation or digestion. He ought not to say either, "That spot is not there," or, "I suppose it is right that spot should be there," nor, on the other hand, to jump to the 49