The same thing is true of opinions and beliefs of all kinds. After they have been held a certain length of time, they become, as it were, so stamped in by continual use that it is almost impossible now to change them. While we are young, we are continually taking in new ideas, altering our thought-patterns, "making up our minds" afresh. As we grow older, we become less and less able to accept any new idea which will not fit in with our existing thought-pattern. Thus we become, in James's term, Old Fogeys. Sometimes our thought-patterns set while we are still quite young. In a few rare cases they remain open or alterable even into old age. An Old Fogey may have become such at seventeen—or seventy. "I am almost afraid to say so (says James), but I believe that in the majority of human beings Old Fogeyism begins at about the age of twenty-five."
所有的观点与信念都是如此。人们在持有一段时间之后，可以说，由于不断被使用已在人们脑海中打上了深深的烙印，以致现在几乎无法改变。我们年轻时不断地接受新观念，改变着我们的思维模式，并重新“做出决定”。随着我们逐渐衰老,我们越来越没有能力接受任何不符合我们已有思维方式的新观点。于是，我们变成了詹姆士所说的“老顽固”。有时候，我们的思维模式在我们还相当年轻时就已定型。有时，那些思维模式甚至在高龄时期还保持开放或者变通，但这种情况极为罕见。一个人可能会在十七岁或七十岁变成“老顽固”。“我几乎不敢这样说(詹姆士语)，但是我相信，对于大多数人来说“顽固不化”大约在二十五岁时就开始了。”
Yet when full allowance has been made for all these non-rational factors in the determination of opinion, there remains—not in all minds, not in most minds, but in some—a desire to discover the facts; to think things out in a clear and rational way; to get at the truth at all costs, whatever it may turn out to be! For such minds this... is written.
尽管在确定思维的过程中有上述种种非理性的因素需要我们充分考虑在内，但仍然有人--虽然不是所有人，也不是多数人，但是有些人--脑子里渴望了解事实，清楚理性地考虑事情的方方面面；不惜任何代价地去寻求真理，而不管真相是什么！本文就为有这种头脑的人……所写。