rememberer. In his school days, the thoughts of others were offered
him and he, because he had accepted them, called them his own. He
came, now, to understand that thinking is not accepting the thoughts
of others but finding thoughts of your own in whatever it is that you
have found to do.

Thinking the thoughts of others is a delightful pastime and profitable
but it is not really thinking. Also, if one be blessed with a good
memory, he may thus cheaply acquire a reputation for great wisdom;
just as one, if he happens to be born with a nose of uncommon length
or bigness, may attract the attention of the world. But no one should
deceive himself. A man because he is able, better than the multitude,
to repeat the thoughts of other men must not therefore think himself a
better thinker than the crowd. No more should the one with the
uncommon nose flatter himself that he is necessarily handsome or
distinguished in appearance because the people notice him. He who
attracts the attention of the world should inquire most carefully into
the reason for the gathering of the crowd; for a crowd will gather as
readily to listen to a mountebank as to hear an angel from heaven.

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