Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1878-08-15
On Using What You Know.

"They can never know too much"
said some one long ago, "who have the
happy faculty of using what they know"
A person, whose memory, experience,
talents and skill are all at his ready COM
mand, is the really efficient person, in
any capacity. he may not know nearly
so much as his totally inefficient neigh
Dor; but the knowledge of the latter is
water in pond that has no outlet, while
that of the former is water turning q
wheel, and moving the machinery of life
knowledge is power" So is steam. But
there is vast difference between steam
pouring out from the spout of tea ket-
tie and steam showing piston-rod or
harnessed to hy-wheel.
The cheap sneers of the critics against
''superflciality" have made many good
people mistrustfal of their pewers. But
in this age everybody is superficial in
some directions. No body s'knows it
ALL" Agassiz used to learn from the
fishermen. A veteran scientific agricul-
turist said he never met hired man on
a farm who couldn't tell him something
new. "He who doeth one thing" said the
Greeks, sis terrible" But nowadays
power does not necessarily lie in that
direction. There are something's that
only specialists can know or do thorough
~ we'll. The vast widening of the field
of knowledge has made specialists in
dispensable. But man is all the better
lawyer, doctor, clergyman, artisan OR
trader, and woman all the better wife,
mother or teacher, tor knowing something
else. The refining Of the tastes, the
development of sympathies, the broaden
ing Of views, the training of sensibilities,
the correction Of standards Of judgement
all these. and more, in what 60 to con-
stitute the culture Of the man, depend
upon little knowled &c of many things.
And this is something that the critics of
''superfciality" are apt to overlook.
Whether "a little learning is danger
Gus thing" or not, depends good deal
on the knowledge learned, but more yet
on the person who possesses it. A little
learning of wickedness is dangerous.
A little learning of science or art will
probably prove to be so if one sets HIM
self up as authority. In the sense in
which Pope used it, the caution to "drink
Deep is doubtless wise; but it is mani
testify mistake to apply it generally, in
world where we stop for so short time,
and where there are SO many things to
be learned.
It all comes back, at last, to "the hap
py faculty of using what we know" And
this is largely gift Of the fairy god-mo-
Their who smiles over our cradles. Some
men haven't useless fact in their heads,
or an idle talent in their napkins. Yet it
is faculty which can be cultivated, and
which should he carefully considered by
the young in the formation Of habits. If
you can sing, or play, or read, or declaim
If you can write, or draw, or paint, or
carve-if you can memorize readily. or
tell a story we'll, or do any worthy thing
better than all things else-begin to do
it. Some saver Of wise sounding words
once wrote that Half the failures in life
result from pulling up ones horse just as
he is ready to jump" But according to
our observation, more than half the fail
ures result from tying the horse up and
foddering him until he is twenty-five
years old, getting HIM ready to jump. It
is the men and women who begin early
to do what they can, and use what they
know, who grow in strength and knowl-
edge.
The field of knowledge being so wide
and rich, what shall one seek to know,
and how shall he utilize what he learns?
To measure the task is the wisdom Of
right beginning. Step into great libra
~ and look at the books. Compute
the number that you can probably read,
and learn to regulate your ambition and
guide your endeavors. Go out into the
world and see what science, art, industry,
discovery and enterprise have made it
necessary for one to know what would
not be 'superfcial." There are multi
tudes still engaged in the old futile task
Of trying to bale out the ocean with a
dipper; but the reasonable man perceives
that he can learn but few of the things
he wishes to know. He makes his Sc
lection and is content. If he choose
wisely, his first object will be to learn
how to live rightly-so that the life to
come shall be only the continuation and
complement Of his life here. He will
choose next to learn what he needs to
know, or has to do in his life work. The
abolition Of the apprenticeship system,
and the fatal facility with which every
thing is now taught, from shooting horse
to legislating for a Nation, has filled the
land with 'half-baked" men-men
trained for nothing in particular and
good for nothing in general. The man
who knows thing, and knows that he
knows it, is becoming more rare every
day. The average American is only Or
dinarly ''smart' it he has attended store,
taught school, taken turn at practicing
law, speculated in cotton or stocks, com.
handed regiment in the war, and
finally made a speech IN the Senate on
| the Silver bill. He does not come with.
in the category of those who can never
know too much, and he doesn't use to
good purpose any knowledge, for ne has
none.-G0lden Rule.