The thinking process is the digestive process of the mind. Much as the digestive organs assimilate the food stuff of the physical world, so the thinking organ assimilates the food stuff of the mental world. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE THINKING PROCESS: (1) The child is unable to explain the meaning of “hocus-pocus” as it occurs in the question, “What hocus-pocus is this?” The child mind is unable to establish any connection between the word and its real meaning. In short, is unable to _think into it a meaning_; it therefore becomes necessary for the teacher to establish some basis of connection and this he does by suggesting _nonsense_ as a _synonym_. (2) The teacher holds before the class an Egyptian house god and asks, “What is it?” After a moment of hesitation some child who has seen pictures of “his satanic majesty” avers that the object is a “little devil.” Thus has a connection been established between the idol and pictures of satan. (3) John is unable to solve the following problem as he can discern no connection between the data given and the data required. Problem. 3/4 of my salary is $900, what is my salary? Data. Given: 3/4 of salary = $900. Required: 4/4 of salary = ? In order that John may _think_ a solution the teacher must lead him to see some connection between 3/4 and 4/4. With this in mind the form of the data is changed to Given: 3-fourths = $900 Required: 4-fourths = ? or Given: 3 parts = $900 Required: 4 parts = ? John now notes that 4 parts is 4/3 times 3 parts and consequently writes 4/3 of $900, which is $1,200 as the answer. Or he may find the value of 1 part and then of 4 parts. =4. NOTIONS, INDIVIDUAL AND GENERAL.= _A notion is any product of the knowing mind――anything which the mind notes or becomes aware of._ But the mind knows in two ways, by intuition and by thinking. In consequence the mind has two kinds of notions, those which are intuitive or _individual notions_ and those which originally result from thinking or _general notions_. _An individual notion is a notion of one thing. A general notion is a notion of a class of things._ _Note._ Here it is necessary to distinguish between a thing and an object. _An object is a thing which occupies space_ such as a pencil or a book. “_Thing_” is, therefore, a broader term than “_object_.” “_A thing is that which has individual existence._” From the viewpoint of logic “thing” includes objects, qualities, relations, spiritual entities. Gravitation is a thing but not an object. A tree is both an object and a thing. ILLUSTRATIONS OF NOTIONS. My notion of the pencil with which I am writing is an individual notion, but my notion of pencil as a _class name_ is general. My yellow dog, the honesty of Lincoln, Albert White, New York City, are individual notions, while dog, honesty, man, city, are general notions.