The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-03-17
TEACHERS COLUMN.
]. a. MADDEN, EpIroR.
counsel 10 tha Pupn.,-Mo. 4.

CounSel TO the Puph.---No. H.
In the short space to which I am
limited / could not possibly do
greater good with it than to per.
suade the pupil to purchase Todd's
Student Manual.
In it there is given the very best
advice for all crises that may arise
in the pupils life. The first requi,
site is to endeavor to get some idea
of what it is to study mere reading
is not study. Muttering the words
owe in a low gurgling tone, oil let
ting them glide in a soft half.audi-
BILE ripple upon your lips, is not
study. Going over the lesson in a
listless, dreamy way is not study
Study is work, study is agony. The
whole soul must be reused, its every
energy put forth with a fixed, rapt
attention. Study, worth of the
name, 'forgets for the time every
thing else, excludes everything else,
is incapable of being diverted by
anything else, the whole being bent
4pon making just n thing its
own. Such study of course soon
sxhausts the energies. 1t cannot
be long pr~otracted, nor need it be
Pr~otracted. Take rest in season of
TEST, but when you study study
with all your might. Throw your
whole soul into it. One hour of
such study accomplishes more than
whole days of ~listless pouring over
books. And, remember, you can.
not study in this by mere
willing to do it. 1t is an act re.
curing training and practice, and
thorough mental discipline.
Give up the illusion that absolute
reclusion and silence are necessary
to study. I do not say that at
times they r desirable; but they
do not of themselves generate earn.
est thought. The vacant mind that
has not yet learned to think is,
when thus left to solitude and still
ness, quite as likely to go a wool
gathering, or to fall asleep, AS to
wrestle with some hard inviting
train Of thoughts. The appliances
and the invitations to mental appli-
cation must be mainly in ourselves,
not our surroundings.
Besides, the greatest part of the
actual thinking and study, that
has to be done by those in profes.
sional life is done in circumstance
not of their own choosing, but just
as time and opportunity may offer,
by snatches and at odd intervals,
and often amid distracting sights
and sounds. And then action of
every kind, mental and material, is
to be aided or accelerated, if at all,
by forces Of the same kind with the
primary force. If a certain amount
of weight, avordupois, will not
make the scale kick the beam, we
may produce the effect by laying
OH the requisite number OF addi-
tional pounds--by adding force of
the same kind, as the primary or
original force. If the flame of our
candle does not produce the illumi
nation required for a particular
purpose, the addition of a second
or a third will.
So mental action is influenced
and induced by forces of the same
nature with itself. Nothing is
more obvious than that a mind fully
in sympathy with another does, by
that very circumstance, exercise an
increased mental power on that
other. In like we all feel
daily how our minds are lifted up,
enlarged, enlightened, strengthened
by intercourse with one of superior
intellect. And how often have we
felt, when ourselves wishing to in
influence one younger and weaker
than ourselves, that we might &c.
complish our ends the better if we
could only know certainly and ex-
actly what he was thinking if we
could, as it were, get into the cham
Der of his soul. This indeed we
a never do.
We think some times that we
come very near each other; but after
all we never touch. Between nv
mind and yours. between yours and
that of your most intimate friend
you have in the world, there. is a
barrier high as heaven, deep as hell,
impenetrable as adamant. Thus
far we can come and no farther
We can enter into the soul Of
any human being. Yet, my dear
pupil, did it never occur to you that
there is One Mind, and that a mind
of inhnity great and transcendent,
all'knowing, all-powerful mind, is
continually in direct contact with
the very essence of your mind?
Think you not that He who gives
to the body cannot also
give growth to the mind? "The
fearS of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom" Garry your feeble lamp
to great fountain Of light and radi-
ELSIE LEE NELSON.