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bases his or her ideas of life upon the sayings and doings of the
characters in trashy novels and sensational plays is ill prepared
for the real work of life. The proper study of mankind is Man,
has been truly said. Man, know thyself another has said. Look
around you upon the living, acting, willing world of action, and
gain your experience from what you see and hear. Read good
books by all means, but avoid the trashy one as you would a
pestilence. Good standard works of fiction add to one s store
of experience, but the light, frothy, silly, sentimental stories
which are so popular, serve only to sink one deeper in the rut
of intellectual torpor, and to make it even more difficult to
actually think and decide from the reason.
Ask yourselves questions about things you see and hear.
Ask the never ending Why? This one word, if applied at the
right time and place will serve to save one from many follies.
Why that is the great question, after all. It is the question
of the child, which brings him his store of knowledge. If the
grown-ups would persist in its use they would continue to
absorb knowledge all their lives. How? Whence? Whither? these
also are good questions to apply to things. Apply this set of
questions to objects and subjects which may come before you
for attention:
1. What is it?
2. Whence comes it?
3. What is its use and its purpose? What is it good for?
4. What are its associations? What is like it? What different
from it? In what way is it better than similar or opposing things?
5. Where is it going? What will be its end? What consequences
will arise from it? Where will it lead me to?
These are merely hints intended to establish habits of inquiry
and analysis on your part. Do not be satisfied with the mere
say-so of others. Manifest the Missouri instinct, and demand
to be shown. Use your own thinking apparatus. Make up your
own mind, after hearing all that others have to say. Listen to
others and then do as seems best to you. Do the thing that
How to Develop Decision