Every Man His Own University
By RUSSELL H. CONWELL
VOLUME 4
NATIONAL
EXTENSION UNIVERSITY
597 Fifth Avenue, New York
Observation—Every Man His Own University
Copyright, 1917, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
I. Every Man's University
II. Animals and "The Least Things"
III. The Bottom Rung
IV. Home Reading
V. Thoughtfulness
VI. Instincts and Individuality
I
EVERY MAN'S UNIVERSITY
A distinct university walks about under each man's hat. The only man whoachieves success in the other universities of the world, and in thelarger university of life, is the man who has first taken his graduatecourse and his post-graduate course in the university under his hat.There observation furnishes a daily change in the curriculum. Booksare not the original sources of power, but observation, which may bringto us all wide experience, deep thinking, fine feeling, and the power toact for oneself, is the very dynamo of power.
Without observation, literature and meditation are shower and sunshineupon unbroken soil. Only those schools and colleges are true schools[Pg 60]and colleges which regard it as the chief business of all theirteaching to persuade those under their charge to see more perfectly whatthey are looking at, to find what they should have been unable toobserve had it not been for their school instruction. You can't make agood arrow from a pig's tail, and you can seldom get a man worth whileout of one who has gone through the early part of his life withouthaving learned to be alert when things are to be seen or heard. JohnStuart Blackie says that it is astonishing how much we all go about withour eyes wide open and see nothing, and Doctor Johnson says that somemen shall see more while riding ten miles upon the top of an omnibus,than some others shall see in riding over the continent.
How to observe should be the motto, not only in the beginning of ourlife, but throughout our career. With the same intellectual gifts,interested in the same ideas, two men walk side by side through the samescenery and meet the same people. One man has had much inspiration fromthe country traversed, and has been intent upon all that he has seen and[Pg 61]heard among the people. The other has caught no inspiration from beautyor bird or blossom, and only the trivialities of the people have amusedhim.[1]
A traveler in Athens or Rome, Paris or London, may be shown these citiesby a professional guide, and yet gain only a smattering of what thesecities hold in store for him, and remember little of what he has seen.Another traveler, unattended by a guide, but observant of everythingthat comes to his eyes and ears, will carry away stores from his visitto those cities, which shall be of life-long interest and beserviceable...