How to Get on in the World

M >> Major A.R. Calhoon >> How to Get on in the World

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It is the intelligent eye of the careful observer which gives these
apparently trivial phenomena their value. So trifling a matter as the
sight of seaweed floating past his ship, enabled Columbus to quell
the mutiny which arose amongst his sailors at not discovering land,
and to assure them that the eagerly sought New World was not far off.

It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of
success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit in
life. Human knowledge is but an accumulation of small facts, made by
successive generations of men, the little bits of knowledge and
experience carefully treasured up by them growing at length into a
mighty pyramid. Though many of these facts and observations seemed in
the first instance to have but slight significance, they are all
found to have their eventual uses, and to fit into their proper
places. Even many speculations seemingly remote, turn out to be the
basis of results the most obviously practical. In the case of the
conic sections discovered by Apollonius Pergaeus, twenty centuries
elapsed before they were made the basis of astronomy--a science which
enables the modern navigator to steer his way through unknown seas
and traces for him in the heavens an unerring path to his appointed
haven. And had not mathematicians toiled for so long, and, to
uninstructed observers, apparently so fruitlessly, over the abstract
relations of lines and surfaces, it is probably that but few of our
mechanical inventions would have seen the light.

When Franklin made his discovery of the identity of lightning and
electricity, it was sneered at, and people asked, "Of what use is
it?" To which his reply was, "What is the use of a child? It may
become a man!" When Galvani discovered that a frog's leg twitched
when placed in contact with different metals, it could scarcely have
been imagined that so apparently insignificant a fact could have led
to important results. Yet therein lay the germ of the electric
telegraph, which binds the intelligence of continents together, and,
probably before many years have elapsed will "put a girdle round the
globe." So, too, little bits of stone and fossil, dug out of the
earth, intelligently interpreted, have issued in the science of
geology and the practical operations of mining, in which large
capitals are invested and vast numbers of persons profitably
employed.

The gigantic machinery employed in pumping our mines, working our
mills and manufactories, and driving our steamships and locomotives,
in like manner depends for its supply of power upon so slight an
agency as little drops of water expanded with heat--that familiar
agency called steam, which we see issuing from that common tea-kettle
spout, but which, when pent up within an ingeniously contrived
mechanism, displays a force equal to that of millions of horses, and
contains a power to rebuke the waves and set even the hurricane at
defiance. The same power at work within the bowels of the earth has
been the cause of those volcanoes and earthquakes which have played
so mighty a part in the history of the globe.

This art of seizing opportunities and turning even accidents to
account, bending them to some purpose, is a great secret of success.
Dr. Johnson has defined genius to be "a mind of large general powers
accidentally determined in some particular direction." Men who are
resolved to find a way for themselves, will always find opportunities
enough; and if they do not lie ready to their hand, they will make
them. It is not those who have enjoyed the advantages of colleges,
museums, and public galleries, that have accomplished the most for
science and art; nor have the greatest mechanics and inventors been
trained in mechanics' institutes. Necessity, oftener than facility,
has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all
has been the school of difficulty. Some of the very best workmen have
had the most indifferent tools to work with. But it is not tools that
make the workman, but the trained skill and perseverance of the man
himself. Indeed it is proverbial that the bad workman never yet had a
good tool. Some one asked Opie by that wonderful process he mixed his
colors. "I mix them with my brains, sir," was his reply. It is the
same with every workman who would excel. Ferguson made marvelous
things--such as his wooden clock, that accurately measured the hours--
by means of a common penknife, a tool in everybody's hand; but then
everybody is not a Ferguson. A pan of water and two thermometers were
the tools by which Dr. Black discovered latent heat; and a prism, a
lens and a sheet of pasteboard enable Newton to unfold the
composition of light and the origin of colors. An eminent foreign
_savant_ once called upon Dr. Wollaston, and requested to be shown
over his laboratories, in which science had been enriched by so many
important discoveries, when the doctor took him into a little study,
and, pointing to an old tea-tray on the table, containing a few
watch-glasses, test-papers, a small balance, and a blowpipe, said,
"There is all the laboratory I have!"

Stothard learnt the art of combining colors by closely studying
butterflies' wings: he would often say that no one knew what he owed
to those tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in
lieu of pencil and canvas. Bewiek first practiced drawing on the
cottage walls of his native village, which he covered with his
sketches in chalk; and Benjamin Watt made his first brushes out of
the cat's tail. Ferguson laid himself down in the fields at night in
a blanket, and made a map of the heavenly bodies by means of a thread
with small beads on it stretched between his eye and the stars.
Franklin first robbed the thundercloud of its lightning by means of a
kite made with two cross-sticks and a silk handkerchief. Watt made
his first model of the condensing steam-engine out of an old
anatomist's syringe, used to inject the arteries previous to
dissection. Gifford worked his first problems in mathematics, when a
cobbler's apprentice, upon small scraps of leather, which he beat
smooth for the purpose; whilst Rittenhouse, the astronomer, first
calculated eclipses on his plow handle.

The most ordinary occasions will furnish a man with opportunities or
suggestions for improvement, if he be but prompt to take advantage of
them. Professor Lee was attracted to the study of Hebrew by finding a
Bible in that tongue in a synagogue, while working as a common
carpenter at the repair of the benches. He became possessed with a
desire to read the book in the original, and, buying a cheap second-
hand copy of a Hebrew grammar, he set to work and learned the
language for himself. As Edmund Stone said to the Duke of Argyle, in
answer to his grace's inquiry how he, a poor gardener's boy, had
contrived to be able to read Newton's Principia in the Latin, "One
needs only to know the twenty-four letters of the alphabet in order
to learn everything else that one wishes." Application and
perseverance, and the diligent improvement of opportunities, will do
the rest.

The attention of Dr. Priestley, the discoverer of so many gases, was
accidentally drawn to the subject of chemistry through his living in
the neighborhood of a brewery. When visiting the place one day, he
noted the peculiar appearances attending the extinction of lighted
chips in the gas floating over the fermented liquor. He was forty
years old at the time, and knew nothing of chemistry. He consulted
books to ascertain the cause, but they told him little, for as yet
nothing was known on the subject. Then he began to experiment, with
some rude apparatus of his own contrivance. The curious results of
his first experiments led to others, which in his hands shortly
became the science of pneumatic chemistry. About the same time,
Scheele was obscurely working in the same direction in a remote
Swedish village; and he discovered several new gases, with no more
effective apparatus at his command than a few apothecaries' vials and
pigs' bladders.

Sir Humphry Davy, when an apothecary's apprentice, performed his
first experiments with instruments of the rudest description. He
extemporized the greater part of them himself, out of the motley
materials which chance threw in his way--to pots and pans of the
kitchen, and the vials and vessels of his master's surgery. It
happened that a French ship was wrecked off the Land's End, and the
surgeon escaped, bearing with him his case of instruments, amongst
which was an old-fashioned clyster apparatus; this article he
presented to Davy, with whom he had become acquainted. The
apothecary's apprentice received it with great exultation, and
forthwith employed it as a part of a pneumatic apparatus which he
contrived, afterward using it to perform the duties of an air-pump in
one of his experiments on the nature and sources of heat.

In like manner, professor Faraday, Sir Humphry Davy's scientific
successor, made his first experiments in electricity by means of an
old bottle, while he was still a working bookbinder. And it is a
curious fact, that Faraday was first attracted to the study of
chemistry by hearing one of Sir Humphry Davy's lectures on the
subject at the Royal Institution. A gentleman, who was a member,
calling one day at the shop where Faraday was employed in binding
books, found him pouring over the article "Electricity," in an
encyclopedia placed in his hands to bind. The gentleman, having made
inquiries, found that the young bookbinder was curious about such
subjects, and gave him an order of admission to the Royal
Institution, where he attended a course of four lectures delivered by
Sir Humphry. He took notes of them, which he showed to the lecturer,
who acknowledged their scientific accuracy, and was surprised when
informed of the humble position of the reporter. Faraday then
expressed his desire to devote himself to the prosecution of chemical
studies, from which Sir Humphry at first endeavored to dissuade him:
but the young man persisting, he was at length taken into the Royal
Institution as an assistant; and eventually the mantle of the
brilliant apothecary's boy fell upon the worthy shoulders of the
equally brilliant bookbinder's apprentice.

The words which Davy entered in his notebook, when about twenty years
of age, working in Dr. Beddoes' laboratory at Bristol, were eminently
characteristic of him: "I have neither riches, nor power, nor birth
to recommend me; yet if I live I trust I shall not be of less service
to mankind and my friends, than if I had been born with all these
advantages." Davy possessed the capability, as Faraday did, of
devoting the whole power of his mind to the practical and
experimental investigation of a subject in all its bearings; and such
a mind will rarely fail, by dint of mere industry and patient
thinking, in producing results of the highest order. Coleridge said
of Davy: "There is an energy and elasticity in his mind, which
enables him to seize on and analyze all questions, pushing them to
their legitimate consequences. Every subject in Davy's mind has the
principle of vitality. Living thoughts spring up like turf under his
feet." Davy, on his part said of Coleridge, whose abilities he
greatly admired: "With the most exalted genius, enlarged views,
sensitive heart, and enlightened mind, he will be the victim of a
want of order, precision, and regularity."

It is not accident, then, that helps a man in the world so much as
purpose and persistent industry. To the feeble, the sluggish and
purposeless, the happiest accidents will avail nothing--they pass
them by, seeing no meaning in them. But it is astonishing how much
can be accomplished if we are prompt to seize and improve the
opportunities for action and effort which are constantly presenting
themselves. Watt taught himself chemistry and mechanics while working
at his trade of a mathematical instrument maker, at the same time
that he was learning German from a Swiss dyer. Stephenson taught
himself arithmetic and mensuration while working as an engine-man,
during the night shifts; and when he could snatch a few moments in
the intervals allowed for meals during the day, he worked his sums
with a bit of chalk upon the sides of the colliery wagons. Dalton's
industry was the habit of his life. He began from his boyhood, for he
taught a little village school when he was only about twelve years
old--keeping the school in winter, and working upon his father's farm
in summer. He would sometimes urge himself and companions to study by
the stimulus of a bet, though bred a Quaker; and on one occasion by
his satisfactory solution of a problem, he won as much as enabled him
to buy a winter's store of candles. He continued his meteorological
observations until a day or two before he died--having made and
recorded upward of 200,000 in the course of his life.

With perseverance, the very odds, and ends of time may be worked up
into results of the greatest value. An hour in every day withdrawn
from frivolous pursuits would, if profitably employed, enable a
person of ordinary capacity to go far toward mastering a science. It
would make an ignorant man a well-informed one in less than ten
years. Time should not be allowed to pass without yielding fruits, in
the form of something learnt worthy of being known, some good
principle cultivated, or some good habit strengthened. Dr. Mason Good
translated Lucretuis while riding in his carriage in the streets of
London, going the round of his patients. Dr. Darwin composed nearly
all his works in the same way while driving about in his "sulky" from
house to house in the country ==writing down his thoughts on little
scraps of paper, which he carried about with him for the purpose.
Hale wrote his "Contemplations" while traveling on circuit. Dr.
Burney learnt French and Italian while traveling on horseback from
one musical pupil to another in the course of his profession. Kirke
White learnt Greek while walking to and fro from a lawyer's office;
and we personally know a man of eminent position who learnt Latin and
French while going messages as an errand-boy.

Hugh Miller was a busy man of observant faculties, who studied
literature as well as science, with zeal and success. The book in
which he has told the story of his life("My Schools and
Schoolmasters"), is extremely interesting, and calculated to be
eminently useful. It is the history of the formation of a truly noble
character in the humblest condition of life, and inculcates most
powerfully the lessons of self-help, self-respect, and self-
dependence. While Hugh was but a child, his father, who was a sailor,
was drowned at sea, and he was brought up by his widowed mother. He
had a school training after a sort, but his best teachers were the
boys with whom he played, the men amongst whom he lived. He read much
and miscellaneously, and picked up odd sorts of knowledge from many
quarters--from workmen, carpenters, fishermen and sailors, and above
all, from the old boulders strewed along the shores of the Cromarty
Firth. With a big hammer which had belonged to his great-grandfather,
an old buccaneer, the boy went about chipping the stones, and
accumulating specimens of mica, porphyry, garnet, and such like.
Sometimes he had a day in the woods, and there, too, the boy's
attention was excited by the peculiar geological curiosities which
came in his way. While searching among the rocks on the beach, he was
sometimes asked, in irony, by the farm-servants who came to load
their carts with sea-weed, whether he "was gettin' siller in the
stanes," but was so unlucky as never to be able to answer in the
affirmative. When of a suitable age he was apprenticed to the trade
of his choice--that of a working stone-mason; and he began his
laboring career in a quarry looking out upon the Cromarty Firth. This
quarry proved one of his best schools. The remarkable geological
formations which it displayed awakened his curiosity. The bar of
deep-red stone beneath, and the bar of pale-red clay above, were
noted by the young quarryman, who even in such unpromising subjects,
found matter of observation and reflection. Where other men saw
nothing, he detected analogies, differences, and peculiarities which
set him a-thinking. He simply kept his eyes and his mind open; was
sober, diligent and persevering; and this was the secret of his
intellectual growth.

His curiosity was excited and kept alive by the curious organic
remains, principally of old and extinct species of fishes, ferns, and
ammonites, which were revealed along the coast by the washings of the
waves, or were exposed by the stroke of his mason's hammer. He never
lost sight of the subject, but went on accumulating observations and
comparing formations, until at length, many years afterward, when no
longer a working mason, he gave to the world his highly interesting
work on the "Old Red Sandstone," which at once established his
reputation as a scientific geologist. But this work was the fruit of
long years of patient observation and research. As he modestly states
in his autobiography, "The only merit to which I lay claim in the
case is that of patient research--a merit in which whoever wills may
rival or surpass me; and this humble faculty of patience, when
rightly developed, may lead to more extraordinary development of
ideas than even genius itself."

"Chance," said an old Vermont farmer, "is like going into a field
with a pail, and waiting for a cow to come to you and back up to be
milked."

"Shun delays, they breed remorse;
Take thy time while time is lent thee;
Creeping snails have weakest force,
Fly their fault, lest thou repent thee;
Good is best when sooner wrought,
Ling'ring labors come to nought.

"Hoist up sail while gale doth last,
Tide and wind stay no man's pleasure!
Seek not time when time is past,
Sober speed is wisdom's leisure;
After-wits are dearly bought,
Let thy fore-wit guide thy thought.

"Time wears all his locks before,
Take thou hold upon his forehead;
When he flees he turns no more,
And behind his scalp is naked.
Works adjourn'd have many stays,
Long demurs breed new delays."

CHAPTER XVIII

CULTIVATE OBSERVATION AND JUDGMENT.

"Look before you leap," old Commodore Vanderbilt used to say. "I like
active men, but I have no use for the fellow who is so much in
earnest that he goes off half-cocked." We all know the danger of a
gun that goes off half-cocked, but it is not so apt to bring disaster
as is the man who goes off without due preparation.

It is fortunate for us that we cannot see into the future, but the
Father who has kept from us the gift of prophecy has blessed us with
a foresight and judgment that enable us to see pretty accurately what
must be the inevitable consequence of certain acts.

The power to observe carefully and judge accurately is a rare gift,
but it is one that can be cultivated. The ancients had a motto "Know
thyself," and the great poet Pope tells us that "the proper study of
mankind is man." A knowledge of human nature is invaluable in every
life-calling that brings us into contact with our fellows, and this
can be gained only by careful observation.

Stephen Girard attributed much of his success to his "ability to read
men at a glance." And so carefully did the great merchant prince,
Alexander T, Stewart, study this, that it is said he rarely made a
mistake in the character of a man he took into his employ.

Cultivate observation. Oliver Wendell Holmes maintained that all the
difference in men, no matter their callings, lay in the difference of
their ability to observe and draw proper conclusions from their
observations. Professor Huxley says that "observation is the basis of
all our scientific knowledge." And Andrew Carnegie attributes his
great success to his cultivation of this faculty.

Every young man, ambitious to win--and what young man worthy the name
is not?--should have a standard of excellence for himself, and then
he should carefully study and observe the methods of the men who he
admires or with whom he is brought into contact. It is the ability to
do this that constitutes the difference between the man drudge and
the man anxious to assume greater responsibilities by mastering his
necessary duties.

In a lecture to young men on this subject, Henry Ward Beecher said:

"The young should begin life with a standard of excellence before
them, to which they should readily conform themselves. There should
be a fixed determination to make the best of one's self, in whatever
circumstances we may be placed. Let the young man determine that
whatever he undertakes he will do well; that he will make himself
master of the business upon which he enters, and always prepare
himself for advancement by becoming worthy of it. It is not
opportunity of rising which is wanting, so much as the ability to
rise. It is not the patronage of friends and the outward helps of
fortune, to which the prominent men of our country owe their
elevation, either in wealth or influence, so much as to their own
vigorous and steady exertions. We hear a great many complaints, both
among young men and old, of the favoritism of fortune, and the
partiality of the world; but observation leads us to believe that, to
a very great extent, those who deserve promotion obtain it. Those who
are worthy of confidence will have confidence reposed in them. Those
who give evidence of ability and industry will find opportunity
enough for their exercise."

Take a familiar illustration. A young man engages in some business,
and is, in ever respect, a beginner in life. A common education is
all that he possesses. He knows almost nothing of the world, and very
little of the occupation on which he has entered. He performs his
duty from day to day sufficiently well, and does what he is expected
to do. But it does not enter into his mind to do anything beyond what
is required, nor to enlarge his capacities by reading or reflection.
He is, at the best, a steady plodding man, who will go forward, if at
all, very slowly, and will rise, if at all, to no great elevation. He
is not the sort of person who is looked for to occupy a higher
position. One opportunity of advancement after another may come
directly within his reach, and he asks the influence of friends to
help him to secure it. They give their aid feebly, because they have
no great hopes of success, and are not confident of their own
recommendation. As a matter of course, some one else, more competent
or more in earnest, steps in before him, and then we hear renewed
complaints of favoritism and injustice. Such a one may say in his
defense that he has been guilty of no dereliction of duty; that no
fault has been found with him, and that, therefore, he was entitled
to advancement. But this does not follow. Something more that that
may reasonably be required. To bestow increased confidence, we
require the capacity and habit of improvement in those whom we
employ. The man who is entitled to rise is one who is always
enlarging his capacity, so that he is evidently able to do more that
he is actually doing.

In every department of business, whether mechanical or mercantile, or
whatever it may be, there is a large field of useful knowledge which
should be carefully explored. An observing eye and an inquiring mind
will always find enough for examination and study. It may not seem to
be of immediate use--it may have nothing to do with this week's or
this year's duty--yet it is worth knowing. The mind gains greater
skillfulness by the intelligence which directs it.

The result is all the difference between a mere drudge and an
intelligent workman; between the mere salesman or clerk and the
enterprising merchant; between the obscure and pettifogging lawyer
and the sagacious, influential counselor. It is the difference
between one who deserves to be, and will be, stationary in the world,
and one who, having determined to make the best of himself, will
continually rise in influence and true respectability. This whole
difference we may see every day among those who have enjoyed nearly
equal opportunities. We may allow something for what are called the
accidents of social influence, and the turns of fortune. But, after
all fair allowance has been made, we shall find that the great cause
of difference is in the men themselves. Let the young man who is
beginning life put away from him all notions of advancement without
desert. A man of honorable feelings will not even desire it. He will
ever shrink from engaging in duties which he is not able fairly to
perform. He will, first of all, secure to himself the capacity of
performing them, and then he is ready for them whenever they come.

Without observation and judgment there can be no permanent advance.
Without observation, experience has no value, and the passing years
add nothing to our fund of useful knowledge. Judgment is the ability
to weigh these observations, and use them for our own protection or
advancement.

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