The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-05-28


Not a very long curriculum, surely,
even for a man born blind. Yet that
single piece of knowledge was worth
q ton of the things ordinarily known.
Moreover, he did not say that zone
thing" was all he knew. He merely
seized upon the zone thing" which
meant most to L.m just then, the
thing which he supremely knew, and
thrust it in the faces OF his tormcn.
togs-"One thing | know"
For men who can say that same
thing the age is always waiting. Mea
who know one thing, and who know
that one thing supremely well, are al.
ways in demand Many brilliant
fellow has been spoiled by his versa.
tility. or such a one, prominent il
professional circles, his friend said
recently: He failed by knowing TOO
many things, and not knowing any
one of them profoundly" Not our
versatility. but our grip on one par.
ticular thing, is what really counts.
Most of us begin life as Eileen"
in Chambers recent novel, said she
began-expecting to know "every-
thing about everything" Soon, how.
ever, we reach the stage at which we
are content to know everything
about something" And we probably
end, as she did, by confessing that
the most we can hope is to know
something about something" But to
know that something supremely well,
and to subordinate every other knowl-
edge to it, is one part of greatness.
There were many things, doubtless,
which General 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 certain clerkship he was account
ed dreaming nobody. But he knew
"one thing''-knew it so thoroughly
that he left his whole country in debt
to him; knew it 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.
Socially he was hopeless-so absent
minded that if his head had been de-
tachable he would have left it 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 a thing which his plying stu.
dents 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 regis
ters also the value of such man in
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 hin,
And who shall say but that the cult
vation of an early taste for music and
Shakespeare might have lessened the
peerless contribution he made to hu
man knowledge. To know one thing
and to know it thoroughly; to submit
to be called narrow and perverse; Il
dig into subject rather than to make
the leaves fly over it, is the sures
way to large place in life.
But let it be remembered what this
former blind man said he knew. i
was very simple. 1t was not some
thin which he had done. Something
had been done for him. He had beer
recipient, not actor. God had opened
his eyes. His was that fundamental
irrefragable, final knowledge rest
experience. Whereas l was blind
now l see." He was not so much lov
er as beloved. He had learned hi
greatest lesson by letting another dt
something for him. To know wha
that blind man knew, and to know i
in the way he knew it, is the creates
thing in the world.