John Hancock PH D Author:William Henry Venable Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SELECTIONS John Hancock's Writings. A PLACE OF SOLEMN DELIGHT. What a delightful yet solemn place is a great library. NOT TOO CONSERVATIVE. I am n... more »ot such a conservative as that mentioned by Sidney Smith, who refused to look at the new moon on account of the regard he entertained for that ancient and respectable institution, the old one. IGNORANCE IS POWER. If knowledge is power, ignorance is power also ; and there must be an "irrepressible conflict" between the two. ONE SECRET OF SUCCESS. It is related that when one of the Massachusetts regiments stopped in New York on its way to the defence of the National Capital, the first thing each soldier did after encamping, was to sit down and write a letter home. Therein is the secret of our success. Our boys know how to read and write. A NATION'S POWER COMPUTED. To find the solid contents of a nation's power is a very simple sum in arithmetic. We have but to multiply the breadth of its education by its height, and we have the correct result. NATURAL ABILITY VERSUS EDUCATION. It would be amusing, were it not almost pathetic, to observe the dazed discomfiture of those whose reliance is on natural ability when they have been made to feel how weak and vain is such ability when brought into opposition with full information and long and severe training. KNOWLEDGE AND MODESTY. Great learning tends to great humility. TEACH HOW TO TALK. Children should be taught to talk as though their success in life depended on it—for success in life does depend on it. GREAT THINKERS UTTER THEMSELVES. The great thinkers of the world, so far as we can find out, have been those who have been talkers either with tongue or pen. DON'T BE TOO SERIOUS. If we had no talk but what is termed serious, society...« less