One of the most exasperating things that can happen to a thinking person is to be told this: "You would be much more forceful if you weren't so sure you knew it all." How much time we all waste in vague, unthoughtful generalizations of this sort! The only person who really thinks he "knows it all" is that misguided soul who is always asking for advice, always giving advice, and eternally ignoring both that which he gives and which he receives. He is as muddled as a clear pool that has been stirred up with a stick; but the ripples convince him that the stirring-up has touched many shores. The person to whom the stigma of "knowing it all" is most often attached is he who believes that he knows something about himself and very little about anybody else. He is that person who takes care of his own problems with a certain ardor, with a sense of keen clearness, like the shining of a star through his deep, unmuddled pool. He has realized Arnold's _Self-Dependence_. But the muddled ones can never forgive him for that joy with which the stars perform their shining; nor can they ever understand the stupor of helplessness which descends upon him when he is asked to direct some one else's shining. Therefore, they argue, he is self-sufficient; and the adjective is a curse. Some one has said, quite untruly, that people never know the important things about themselves. But the only thing in the world a man can _really_ know is himself; and it is his chief business to push self-knowledge beyond its obvious boundaries to those reaches where even change becomes a comprehended element. The gist of the whole matter is this: People who know themselves are the only ones with whom we are wholly protected from that stupid and offensive practice of dictatorship; also, they are the only ones capable of receiving counsel with intelligence. My Middle Name My middle name rhymes not with satchel, So please do not pronounce it "Vatchel." My middle name rhymes not with rock hell, So please do not pronounce it "Vock Hell." My middle name rhymes not with hash hell, So please do not pronounce it "Vasch Hell." My middle name rhymes not with bottle, So please do not pronounce it "Vottle," My name is just the same as Rachel, With V for R; Please call me Vachel. _Nicholas Vachel Lindsay._ "Baboosya"