depend, of course, upon the quality of
the thinking. But while clear thinking does not assure lucid reading
(since there are other elements in the problem), the converse is true,
that good reading implies clear thinking. For it is impossible to read
convincingly unless one is thinking vitally, which brings us to the
object of this study: _To Establish Vitality in Thinking._

Do you know what it means to think vitally in reading? It means a
concentration of your mind upon the thought before you until you,
yourself, seem to be thinking that thought for the first time,--until
you seem to be bringing forth a thought of your own conception instead
of rethinking the conception of another's mind. Is this a familiar
experience? It must become one if you are to become a true interpreter.
For the true interpreter is first of all the keen thinker.

We do not say of the great actor, after a performance of Hamlet, "He
played Hamlet wonderfully!" We say, rather, "He was Hamlet." The great
actor creates the part he plays each time he plays it. He creates the
part by living the part. Even in the same way the great interpreter
creates the thought he voices through a concentration of mind which
appropriates the thought and makes it his own to voice.

We have said that the greatest need of the human heart is for
self-expression. To satisfy the heart that act of expression must be a
creative act. True interpretation is creative expression. The
fundamental step toward creative expression is complete possession of
the thought to be expressed. Complete possession depends upon your power
to concentrate your mind upon a thought until it is your own. The first
step in interpretation is to establish vitality in thinking.

The new arithmetic trains the mind to see the relation behind the
mathematical statement of the relation. The child who "says his tables"
to-day is not repeating by rote words and figures, he is realizing vital
relations, he is developing a sense of proportion, he is learning to
think vitally. The old method in arithmetic left the statement "two
times one is two" a cold mathematical fact; the new method makes it a
key to living relations. One in the "tables" of the child in mathematics
to-day stands for a definite object, and the statement "two times one is
two" is an interesting and significant fact. The statement through
imaginative thinking, which is vital thinking, may be invested with
personal significance and become a