ABSTRACT
If a thought without a thinker comes along, it may be what is a ‘stray thought’, or it could be a thought with the owner’s name and address upon it, or it could be a ‘wild thought’. The problem, should such a thought come along, is what to do with it. Of course, if it is wild, you might try to domesticate it. I shall consider later how you might try to do that. If its owner’s name and address is attached, it could be restored to its owner, or the owner could be told that you had it and he could collect it any time he felt inclined. Or, of course, you could purloin it and hope either that the owner would forget it, or that he would not notice the theft and you could keep the idea all to yourself. If the owner is prepared to allow you to have it, or if it was understood that you were quite entitled to keep it, then you might try to train it in the way it should go and in a manner that would make it more amenable to the habits of your own resident thoughts and to the thoughts of the community of which you were a member, in such a way that it would gradually become assimilated and part and parcel of the totality of the group or person in whom the thought is to continue its existence.
