Part 10 (2/2)
The her, finer type of ht to expect better results frorade, and better quality, than fro, the ood,” ”Fairly good,” applied either to character or to work are bad mottoes for an educated man
You should be able to demonstrate that the man with a diploma has learned to use the tools of life skilfully; has learned how to focus his faculties so that he can bring the whole man to his task, and not a part of himself Low ideals, slipshod work, aimless, systemless, half-hearted endeavors, should have no place in your prograrace for a man with a liberal education to botch his work, demoralize his ideals, discredit his teachers, dishonor the institution which has given him his chance to be a superior man
”Keep your eye on the reattheir work The trouble with most of us is that we do not keep our eyes on the ht to broaden a man's mind so that he will be able to keep his eye always on the model, the perfect ideal of his work, uninfluenced by the thousand and one petty annoyances, bickerings, s, and discords which destroy much of the efficiency of narrower, less cultivated ht to be able to rise above these things so that he can use all his brain power and energy and fling the weight of his entire being into work that is worth while
After the withdrawal of a play that has been only a short tie, we often read this comment, ”An artistic success, but a financial failure” While an education should develop all that is highest and best in a man, it should also make him a practical man, not a financial failure Be sure that you possess your knowledge, that your knowledge does not possess you
The mere possession of a diploma will only hold you up to ridicule, will onlyyour education to a focus and utilize it in a practical way
_Knowledge is power only when it can be made available, practical_
Only what you can use of your education will benefit you or the world
The great question which confronts you in the practical world is ”What can you do hat you know?” Can you transe into power? Your ability to read your Latin diploma is not a test of true education; a stuffed e that can be utilized, that can be translated into power, constitutes the only education worthy of the nae-bred e that they have never been able to utilize, to reat difference between absorbing knowledge,every bit of knowledge into power, into working capital
As the silkworm transmutes the mulberry leaf into satin, so you should transe into practical wisdom
There is no situation in life in which the beneficent influence of a well-assie ure anywhere The consciousness of being well educated should put one at ease in any society The knowledge that one's , that one has discovered his possibilities, not only adds wonderfully to one's happiness, but also increases one's self-confidence immeasurably, and _self-confidence is the lever that ood ability who feel crippled all their lives and are often uage, their sordid ideals, their narrow outlook on life, that they are not educated The superbly trained h the world with his head up and feel conscious that he is not likely to play the ignoranorance of matters which every well-infore ives infinite satisfaction
In other words, a liberal education makes a man think a little more of himself, feel a little surer of himself, have more faith in hireat satisfaction in the knowledge that one has not neglected the unfoldment and expansion of his o by uni you carry from your _ale of the sciences, languages, literature, art; it is soreater value than all these, and that is _your aroused ambition, your discovery of yourself, of your powers, of your possibilities; your resolution to be a little reatest, grandest thing possible to you_ This will mean infinitely more to you than all you have learned fro of all, however, if you have ement, inspiration, which you have absorbed from your teachers, froe spirit, the spirit of your _alma mater_; it is that which should make you reach up as well as on, which should rovel--look up, instead of down
The graduate should regard his education as a sacred trust He should look upon it as a power to be used, not alone for his advancement, or for his own selfish ends, but for the bettered in this world that no one can use his divine gift for hiet the best out of it To try to keep it would be as foolish as for the far it to the earth, for fear he would never get it back
Theof himself to the world, does it at his peril, at the cost of et the most out of ourselves, or out of life, is not to try to _sell_ ourselves for the highest possible price but to _give_ ourselves, not stingily, nanimously, to our fellows_ If the rosebud should try to retain all of its sweetness and beauty locked within its petals and refuse to give it out, it would be lost It is only by flinging them out to the world that their fullest development is possible The es for hi out for the les the very faculties he would develop
The trouble with most of us is that, in our efforts to sell ourselves for selfish ends or for the most dollars, we impoverish our own lives, stifle our better natures
The graduate should show the world that he has sothat bribery cannot touch, that influence cannot buy You should so conduct yourself that every one will see that there is soestion that you could be bought or bribed, or influenced to stoop to anything low or questionable
The collegein mediocrity, who lives a shi+ftless, selfish life, and does not lift up his head and show that he has races the institution that gave him his chance