Show KNOWING ONES SELF by THOMAS ARKLE CLARK dean of men university of illinois TD LIKE nothing better rust itald JL A to me when we were boys a n good many years ngo ago than to be ablo to run a farm of my own awni 1 I know I 1 could make inake money und ho he launched into it narrative of detail in an endeavor to te pr prove to 0 rne just feat ln ang bislich 16 n case he was sure ho he could accomplish even with my boyish inexperience I 1 felt that rusts plans plana were chimerical and I 1 entertained the gravest doubts is as to his being able to curry carry them out if lie he were given tile the chance ho he has hab had a farm to ma manage nage to lol I 1 these years but he la Is still a poor man it Is a valuable ablo asset and a rare one I 1 sometimes think for a man to be able adequately and justly to estimate est t mate his own strength and his bis own weakness to know what he can do best and to know also what his bla ilal are A wise vise old man whom I 1 once knew say in speaking of the somewhat difficult and treacherous game of 0 poker with which ho he had bad considerable practice if a man does not known know tho the cards he ought not to play the I 1 am sure that many men whom I 1 have observed in the game of life alfo have had a very faulty appreciation of the value of the cards carda which they were holding in their hands and sometimes threw away their ace and were disappointed when they did not take the trick with u v two spot when I 1 was engaged in the teaching tea chlup of composition and an eager boy came to we me at the beginning of the semes ter with the statement 1 I know I 1 ant am going to manage your courso all right because composition has always been my illy easiest subject I 1 knew almost to a certainty that I 1 had struck it man who could not spell who had bad no knowledge of even the elements of grammar and whose literary bill ties were ft era pretty hopeless powers WB was a good illustration of the titan man who bo did not know himself he was an unusually dramatic and magnetic speaker he be had bad an excellent brain good training mining and an attractive physique ho he was deeply and sincerely religious and possessed one of the roost most winning personalities I 1 have ever known As a preacher lie ho could have had find any crowd at his feet tie ile was obsessed however with the idea of be log ing a business man yet every bust ness which he touched collapsed un der his hand no he began life with a modest fortune but at fifty it was vas gane he be had sunk it all in first oay conr visionary scheme and then another but lie ha still kept on convinced tha iha ultimately ho he would make his fortune there are reasons I 1 have no doubt why rhy ter few of us know ourselves lest less well than we should we all late hate criticism we take advice unwillingly we attempt the things that flint we want very ery much to bo be able to do without considering onside ring seriously how well fitted we are for the accomplishment of these things we listen to the flat berer with fl a inure willing ear I 1 linn ilian to the candid friend who lio cometh U er not very ery kindly points out to us tilt faults we e are loathe to Q ISIS west warn ra |