Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-12-27
KNOW ONE THING WELL.
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By Rev. George Clarke Peck.
Knowing one thing not very long
curriculum, surely, even for a man
born blind. Yet that single piece Of
knowledge was worth a ton of the
things ordinarily known. Moreover, he
did not say that ''one thing" was all he
knew. He merely seized upon the one
thing which meant most to him Just
then, the thing which he suprelnely
knesT, and thrust 1t in the faces of his
tornsentors -"cne thing know"
For men who can say that same
thing the age is always waiting. Men
who know one thing and who know that
one thing supremely well are always in
demand Many brilliant fellow has
been spoiled by his versatility. OF such
one, prominent in professional circles,
his friend said recently: HE failed by
knowing too many things and not know
Ing any one of them profoundly"
Not our versatility but our grip on
one particular thing is what really
counts. Most of us begin life as Eileen
In Chambers recent novel said she be-
gan; expecting to know everything
about everything Soon, however, we
reach the stage at which we are content
to know everything about something"
And we probably end as she did by con-
Tossing that the most we can hope is to
know something about something"
But to know that something supremely
well and to subordinate every other
knowledge to It, is one part of great
ness.
There were many things, doubtless,
which Gen. Grant did not know. As
wood seller he was worsted by all his
neighbors In the business He was 80
little fitted for commercial life that all
the world knew Of his failure. In
certain clerkship he was accounted
dreaming nobody. But he knew lone
thing'-knew 1t so thoroughly that he
left his whole country in debt to him
knew 1t SO splendidly that his name
has gone down in history as one of It's
greatest military strategists.
1t was said of a certain professor
that he knew nothing but Greek" So
cially he was hopeless; 50 absent-mind-
ed that If his head had been detached
he would have left 1t In the hall. He
lived Greek, dreamed Greek and IL one
might Judge from his cadaverous
cheeks he might have subsisted on
Greek roots. But he knew a thing
which his plying students had yet to
learn-that all the world asks of any
man Is that he know one thing we'll,
and dying he will leave the whole
world In his debt
Darwin once sadly confessed that he
had lost bis early love for poetry and
music But that confession registers
also the value of such a man TO the
world. he had to live his own life on
the principle of natural selection. To
turn In at one gate meant the shutting
of other gates behind him. And who
shall say but that the cultivation Of
an early taste for music and Shak-
sleare might have lessened the peerless
contribution he made to human knowl-
edge?
To know one thing and to know 1t
thoroughly; to dig into subject rather
than to make the leaves fly over 1t. is
the surest way to large place in life.
But let 1t be remembered what this
former blind man said he knew. 1t
was very simple. 1t was not something
which he had done. Something lad
been done for him. He had been recipi-
ent, not actor. God had opened his
eyes. His was that fundamental, ire
fraglble, final knowledge on which the
pillars of all knowledge rest-experi-
ence
whereas, was blind, now / see."
He was not 80 much believer as beloved
Tie had learned his greatest lesson by
letting another do something for him.
To know what that blind man knew,
and to know It in the way he knew II,
Is the greatest thing in the world
STRENGTH FOR THE DAILY TASK.
By Henry r. Cope.