Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-09-27
WORDS OF COUNSEL.
Prof. Blackie Tells the Young Man How to
4

Prof. Blackie Tells the Young Man How to be
Happy and Wise.
Never whip your brain, writes Prof.
Blackie, in the Young Man. All high
pressure is dangerous. Study to think
as easily as you breathe. Never force
yourself to learn what you have no talent
for. knowledge without love will re-
main lifeless manufacture-not Q living
growth. Be content to be ignorant of
many things, that you may know one
thing we'll, and that the thing God special
~ endowed you to know. It requires
fire to fuse the material of thinking, no
less than to melt the iron in the foundry.
But remember this-however stIong
you may be physically, to strike blow,
and however sharp, intellectually, TO re-
cognize a fact and discern a difference,
your success in the game of life depends
on the serious culture which you give to
the third formative force in human
character-your moral nature; and of the
rightful supremacy of this clement, the
com prehensive expression is found in the
single word, love. On this all prophet s,
poets and philosophers are agreed. st.
Paul says: Glove is the fulfilling of the
law" Burns says:
The heart aye, the part ave.
And Goerh he more largely:
The bazaar on splendid trash
TemptS the buyer to spend his cash.
He who goes to learned college
Comes home crammed with empty knowledge:
But if true bliss you wish to brook,
Learn to live in quiet nook;
If your every vein you strain,
TO fill the mind with various lore,
'Tis well; but how to use your lore
The better wisdom this to gain
You must knock at another door.
Nor have you far tolsearch and seek;
Let the God within you speak;
Love al things that Lovely be,
And God will show His best to thee.
How is this? For two plain reasons
(1) because it is only by loving or sym
patheticaIly laying hold of that, which is
good in others, that we can enlarge the
narrowness and enrich the meagreness
of our individual selves; (2) because
without love man is q self confined
| mortal, and caCnot stand IL any cooper
alive relation to social whole, compos
| ed of mutually dependent parts. There
| fore, let every man measure his value as a
social unit, not SO much by lis power of
knowing, as by his capacity of loving.
Love, no doubt, In a reasonable world,
must always be accompanied by know
ledge; love with knoEledge is wisdom;
but it is better for all parties in the
social system to have much love with
li.tle knowledge, than to have much
| knowledge with little love.
But how is love to manifest itself? In
the sim plest way possible, By carrying
out in practice what, as an ethical thinker
and Christian, you must believe a
| theory; by treating every man as in
brother-as good as yourself, and per-
haps little better. Stamp out that bias
of mind, SO natural TO ell finite creatures
which leads them to overestinate their
own good qualities-real or Imaginary
and underestimate those OF their neigh
Dor. Avoid criticism, especially thai
species of it which deligh finding
fault. Seek in all things to enjoy Wha'
is good, and LET the evil drop; and if yoI
will Judge. begin with yourself, following
S"hlIler's rules Judge yourself severe
": your neighbor lenIently." Further
seize every opportunity of performing
acts of kindness, however small, to your
fellow beings, especially to your in
feriors rom. XIII, 10. Be like the sun