To repeat what others have thought is not at all evidence that he who
remembers is thinking. Great thoughts are often repeated
thoughtlessly. A man's Occupation betrays him or establishes his claim
to Knowledge. That which a man does proclaims that which he thinks or
in his thoughtlessness finds him out.
Of course, when the man had learned this, he said at first, quite
wrongly, that his school days were wasted. He said that what he had
called his education was all a mistake--that it was vanity only and
wholly worthless. But, as he went on gaining ever more and more
Knowledge from the thing that he was doing, and, through that thing,
of many other things, he came to understand that his school days were
not wasted but very well spent indeed. He came to see that what he had
called education was not a mistake. He came to understand that what
was wrong was this: he had considered his education complete,
finished, when he had only been prepared to begin. He had considered
his schooling as an end to be gained when it was only a means to the
end. He had considered his learning as wealth to hold when it was
capital to invest. He had mistaken the thoughts that he received from
others for Knowledge when they were given him only to inspire and to
help him in acquiring Knowledge.
And then, of this knowledge of Knowledge gained by the man from his
Occupation, there was born in him a mighty passion, a burning desire.
It was the passion for Knowledge. It was the desire to know. To know
the thing that he had found to do was not enough. He determined to use
that knowledge to gain Knowledge of many other things. He felt within
himself a new strength stirring--the strength of thought. He saw that
knowledge of things led ever to more knowledge, even as link to link
in a golden chain. One end of the chain he held in his Occupation; the
other was somewhere, far beyond his sight, hidden in the mists that
shroud the Infinite Fact, fast to the mighty secret of Life itself.
Link by link, he determined to follow the chain. From knowing things
to knowledge of other things he would go even until he held in his
grip the last link--until he held the key to the riddle--until he knew
the answer to the sum of Life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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