Every boy should study by concentrating his mind. The reason of so much ignorance is not through a lack of educational facilities, but lack of will force and mental force to master a subject in hand. Many a boy commits his lessons parrot-like, with little or no disposition to understand the whys and wherefores, while another studies and inquires until he comprehends the reason of all that he learns. The result is, one masters his study, the other is mastered by his study. When Sir Isaac Newton was asked “how he had discovered the true system of the universe” he replied, “By continually thinking upon it.”
EYES OPEN.
Every boy should study with eyes open. The inspired penman declared, “The wise man’s eyes are in his head,” not in his elbows or feet, though multitudes act as if they were. But “in his head,” just where they ought to be. In other words, the “wise man” is a careful observer; he possesses this faculty of comprehending the nature and reason of things. Not that observation alone insures success but this is one of the leading, indispensable elements of it.
Professor Morse, who was judge of pottery at the World’s Fair, Chicago, being asked to what he attributed his knowledge, answered, “To the habits of close inspection acquired in my boyhood when collecting shells.” General Sherman explains his victorious march to the sea by saying that during his college days he spent a summer in Georgia. While his companions were occupied with playing cards and foolish talk the young soldier tramped over the hills, made a careful map of the country and years later his expert knowledge won the victory.
Many persons go through life without an observation that is educative. Ten men will observe a steam engine only to admire its novelty, one studies each valve and screw until he understands the principle on which it is constructed. Ten travelers will pass through the country without noticing special peculiarities, one observes each tree, flower, hill, valley and river. Ten readers will skim over a book, catching only its general drift, one criticises style, expression and thought and is rapt with its beauties and sensitive to its faults. These are they who profit themselves and benefit others.
USING THE MOMENTS.
Every boy should study by utilizing the moments. As success in business depends upon the small margin of profit secured and retained, rather than upon the large volume done, so success in life may depend upon our ability to save the moments, the precious “margin” that is left after we have done the things which are necessary in order to discharge our duties or earn our daily bread.
Dr. Cotton Mather would express his regret after the departure of a visitor who had wasted his time, “I would rather have given my visitor a handful of money than have been kept so long out of my study.” Cæsar, it is said, would not permit a campaign, however exacting, to deprive him of minutes when he could write his Commentaries. Schliemann standing in line at the post-office and waiting for his letters when a boy, saved the fragments of time by studying Greek from a pocket grammar. Heine, the noted classicist of Germany, while shelling peas with one hand for dinner, held his book in the other. Matthew Hale’s “Contemplations” was composed while he was traveling as circuit judge. Henry Kirke White learnt Greek while walking to and from a lawyer’s office. Elihu Burritt is said to have mastered eighteen languages and twenty-two dialects by improving the fragments of time in his blacksmith’s shop. William E. Gladstone and Lord Lyttelton in their younger days always carried one of the smaller classics in their pockets to read if they had a leisure moment. Sir James Paget, in his youth, made tables of Cuvier’s classifications while dressing, which he posted in his bedroom. Cardinal Manning, when an undergraduate at Oxford, acquired a satisfactory Italian vocabulary during the time spent in shaving. Phillips Brooks combined the processes of shaving and study, and, it is said that Theodore Roosevelt carries constantly a small volume of Plutarch or Thucydides to read in spare moments. Fifteen minutes thus saved, or utilized, four times a day, gives us thirty hours in a month, the working time of about sixty days of six hours each in a year, or about five years’ study in thirty years’ time, and five years well used yield more fruit than a whole lifetime squandered.
PLEASURE AND PROFIT.
Every boy should study for the pleasure and profit there is in it. Knowledge is power, and sometime, somewhere, the information will come useful. When Sherman’s troops were passing through a critical experience during the Civil War, they captured a telegraph line of the enemy. Hastily cutting the wire, the General inquired if any of his men understood telegraphy. A young officer stepped forward saying, “One vacation I studied this art just for the pleasure of it.”