Despite this danger, however, we are informed on every hand that ideas, not machines, are our finest tools; they are priceless even though they cannot be recorded on a ledger page; they are the most valuable of commodities -- and the most salable, for their demand far exceeds supply. So all-important are ideas, we are told, that persons successful in business and happy in social life usually fall into two classes: those who invent new ideas of their own, and those who borrow, beg, or steal from others.

Seemingly, with an unrestricted flow of ideas, all will be well, and we are even assured that ``an idea a day will keep the sheriff away.'' That, however, may also bring the police, if the thinking does not meet with social approval. Criminals, as well as model citizens, exercise their minds. Merely having a mental image of some sort is not the all-important consideration.

Of course, there must be clarity: a single distinct impression is more valuable than many fuzzy ones. But clarity is not enough. The writer took a class of college students to the state hospital for the mentally ill in St. Joseph, Missouri. An inmate, a former university professor, expounded to us, logically and clearly, that someone was pilfering his thoughts. He appealed to us to bring his case to the attention of the authorities that justice might be done. Despite the clarity of his presentation, his idea was not of Einsteinian calibre.