The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1907-12-26
KNOW ONE THING WELL.

By Rev. George c,

By Rev. George Clarke Peck.
Knowing one thing-not a very long
curriculum, surely, even for a man
born blind. Yet that single piece of
knowledge was worth ton OF the
things ordinarily known. Moreover, he
did not say that lone thing" was all he
knew. He merely seized upon the one
thing which meant most to him Just
then, the thing which he supremacy
knew, and thrust 1t In the faces Of his
tormentors-"Onet thing l know"
For men who can say that same
thing the age is always waiting. Men
who know on thing and who know that
one thing supremely well are always in
demand. Many a brilliant fellow has
been spoiled by his versatility. OF such
a 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
gam expecting TO know everything
about every thing." 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 supremacy
well and to subordinate every other
knowledge to Il, Is one part Of great
ness
There were many things, doubtless,
which Gen. Grant did not know. AS a
wood seller he was worsted by all his
neighbors in the business He was so
little fitted for commercial life that all
the world knew Of his failure. In a
certain clerkship he was accounted n
dreaming nobody. But he knew 'one
thing It 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 certain professor
that he knew nothing but Creek So
cially he was hopeless so absent-mind-
ed that If his head had been detached
he would have left 1t In the hall. He
lived Greek, dreamed Greek and If one
might judge from his cadaverous
cheeks he might have subsisted on
Greek roots. But he knew thing
which his plying students had yet to
learn-that all the world asks Of any
man is that he know one thing well
and dying he Will leave the whole
world In his debt
Darwin once sadly confessed that he
had lost his early love for poetry and
music. But that confession registers
also the value Of such 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 v ho
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 lnowl-
edge:
To know one thing and to know 1t
thoroughly; to dig into a subject rather
than to make the leaves fly over It 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 had
been done for him. He had been recIpi-
ent, not actor. God had opened his
eyes. His was that fundamental, ire
fragible, final knowledge on which the
pillars Of all knowledge rest-experl-
ence.
whereas, l was blind, now see"
He was not so much believer as beloved.
Hs had learned his greatest lesson by
letting another do something for him.
To know what that blind man knew.
and to know 1t In the way he knew it,
Is the greatest thing in the world.
STRENGTH FOR THE DAILY TASK
By Henry F. Cope.
But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength.-Is. xii, 81
1t Is the dull grind and monotony Of
life that makes 1t 80 hard to bear for
tho 80 per cent Of us Sometimes II
seems as though we spend all our DAYS
toilinS, wearing strength and hope, and
heart away for no other end than to
gain Just bread and shelter so as 70
keep the machine in condition for fur
Their toll.
How hopeless Is the outlook Of MANY
a life. The mother with the weary
round OF home duties day after dav
the father who gees to the same task
year after year. seeing the same people
doing the same things, and coming
home at the days end with the same
WEAKNESS only augmented as age
makes itself felt-all who toll feel at
times these depressing limita tons.
Little wonder that lives snatch at
every feeting, alluring promise Of re-
lief, through amusement, through any
thing that offers change and excitement,
ment. Little wonder that, robbed of
opportunity for vision, they foment
blind discomfort, so that we all feel
there is a mighty substratum OF wretch
edness AL of menace lying under our
social order
Yet there are few lives norhapo no