Importance of Thought
Dublin Core
Title
Importance of Thought
Creator
[Unknown]
Source
http://addison.vt.edu/record=b1775388~S1
Publisher
Blacksburg News Print
Date
March 1884
Contributor
Ryan Beck, Jonathan Harding, Roshani Dhamala
Rights
Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA.
Format
Text
Language
English
Type
Essay
Identifier
LD5655.V8 L4, ser.2, v.1, no.2 (March 1884), p.7
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 7
IMPORTANCE OF THOUGHT.
If anyone be not accustomed to reflect, they cannot understand how much knowledge supplies our necessities, mitigates our troubles, and increases our happiness ; but if they be given to reflection they will easily be made to comprehend this. A knowledge of agriculture provides us with food, and an acquaintance, with manufactures supplies us with clothing. The gigantic powers of the steam engine confers great advantages; and we cannot limit the good effects that the art of printing has spread abroad in the world.
The safety-lamp, preserving the life of the miner, and the electric lights which beautify our streets and habitations, demand our admiration. When we examine the microscope, which reveals millions of creatures before unknown ; the telescope, bringing remote and countless worlds nearer our observation ; and the telegraph, conveying information almost instantaneously to distant parts of the globe; when we see the ship uniting together the inhabitants of the East and the West, the North and the South, and inspect the compass which directs her in her passage across the deep ; when we regard the lighthouse, braving the mountainous billows and warning the tempest-tossed mariner to escape from danger; when we gaze o the life-boat, breasting the wind and tide, and ploughing its way through the foaming breakers, redeeming human beings from destruction; when we see these things, we must be blindly ignorant not to acknowledge the advantage of reflection. And the men who invented
These were subject to deep meditation, and pondered a number of years over them before they were completed.
The mind is the greatest gift that has mean bestowed on man, but the power
of thought may be truly said to be the second best. Without it, mankind mould not be able to accomplish anything,. Many of the greatest discoveries in the world have been brought about by accident, but it is the thinking people that have developed them into advantage, use and profit. Gunpowder vas discovered by accident, as well as the power of steam, to which the world
is now so much indebted ; and it was by the accidental falling of an apple, that the thinking mind of Sir Isaac Newton was led to form his beautiful system of the heavenly bodies.
Thinking extends our knowledge and power, quickens our faculties, corrects our judgment, enlarges our minds, and explains many things around us which we do not understand. To men who have learned to think, this world is a different place to what it once appeared. He will not only learn to look at things singly, but at the world at large. He will reflect on its continents and islands; its mountains and valleys; its rivers, lakes and oceans; regarding it as the dwelling place of man. He will turn to the animated creation, and gaze with wonder on the different natures of insects, birds and beasts. Men who have learned to think easily overcome all others in the world.
IMPORTANCE OF THOUGHT.
If anyone be not accustomed to reflect, they cannot understand how much knowledge supplies our necessities, mitigates our troubles, and increases our happiness ; but if they be given to reflection they will easily be made to comprehend this. A knowledge of agriculture provides us with food, and an acquaintance, with manufactures supplies us with clothing. The gigantic powers of the steam engine confers great advantages; and we cannot limit the good effects that the art of printing has spread abroad in the world.
The safety-lamp, preserving the life of the miner, and the electric lights which beautify our streets and habitations, demand our admiration. When we examine the microscope, which reveals millions of creatures before unknown ; the telescope, bringing remote and countless worlds nearer our observation ; and the telegraph, conveying information almost instantaneously to distant parts of the globe; when we see the ship uniting together the inhabitants of the East and the West, the North and the South, and inspect the compass which directs her in her passage across the deep ; when we regard the lighthouse, braving the mountainous billows and warning the tempest-tossed mariner to escape from danger; when we gaze o the life-boat, breasting the wind and tide, and ploughing its way through the foaming breakers, redeeming human beings from destruction; when we see these things, we must be blindly ignorant not to acknowledge the advantage of reflection. And the men who invented
These were subject to deep meditation, and pondered a number of years over them before they were completed.
The mind is the greatest gift that has mean bestowed on man, but the power
of thought may be truly said to be the second best. Without it, mankind mould not be able to accomplish anything,. Many of the greatest discoveries in the world have been brought about by accident, but it is the thinking people that have developed them into advantage, use and profit. Gunpowder vas discovered by accident, as well as the power of steam, to which the world
is now so much indebted ; and it was by the accidental falling of an apple, that the thinking mind of Sir Isaac Newton was led to form his beautiful system of the heavenly bodies.
Thinking extends our knowledge and power, quickens our faculties, corrects our judgment, enlarges our minds, and explains many things around us which we do not understand. To men who have learned to think, this world is a different place to what it once appeared. He will not only learn to look at things singly, but at the world at large. He will reflect on its continents and islands; its mountains and valleys; its rivers, lakes and oceans; regarding it as the dwelling place of man. He will turn to the animated creation, and gaze with wonder on the different natures of insects, birds and beasts. Men who have learned to think easily overcome all others in the world.