Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one more important, which he gives to himself.

The actual knowledge acquired by graduates of a high school is inconsiderable, in view of the fact that they did little less than study during a period of from 12 to 14 years. I believe the little that children accomplish in school is accounted for by the fact that they are taught in classes without consideration for their natural tendencies; hence, in many cases, their interest is not sufficiently awakened to fix their attention upon their studies.

It is generally supposed that people of mature years do not learn so readily as children. This is an error, for the mind does become keener and brighter with advancing years if exercised by studying things that are of special interest to the student. It therefore follows that men and women never grow too old to acquire more knowledge, providing they are intensely interested in a particular field of investigation. Study should never be hard whether the student is young or old.

Can you imagine Luther Burbank being fatigued while studying his various plants? Why not? Because he is always interested in each and every plant.

When you are particularly interested in anything your mind is concentrated upon it; you are studying it, and under such circumstances your memory, because of the interest you have manifested, receives deep impressions.

One cannot be forced to love anything. If you do not love your studies or your work you cannot become very efficient in either. Whatever a boy, girl, man or woman really desires to do, that, they can do, for it is the urge of the Soul.

One of the first steps toward self-improvement is to place one's self in the right attitude of mind and in the proper environment, and to this end a special study room is desirable. This study room should be well lighted by day and at night. There should be no superfluous furnishings in this room. A flat-top desk equipped with writing materials and small articles that may be needed, a filing cabinet, textbooks, reference books, are essentials.

Some of the most wonderful and valuable thoughts often come to us when we are in solitude. This fact is emphasized in the biographies of all great men.

When our mind is concentrated in a particular direction and is obsessed with an intense desire to find the answer to a particular problem; we are in deep study and in quiet meditation, we are in a subjective state of consciousness; in contact with the infinite storehouse of all knowledge, and need not be surprised at any wonderful new idea or revelation that may come to us.

The desire for knowledge in a particular direction is a sure indication that we have the potential power to acquire and assimilate that knowledge and become an authority on that particular subject. This desire is a seed which has somehow been sown in our mind, and is as much alive as the acorn which grows into a mighty oak.

If we contact consciously with the law of our being, our acquisition of real knowledge will be prodigious.

"How to Acquire Knowledge" is reprinted from Human Life from Many Angles. Walter Matthews. Cincinnati: Good-Will Publishing Co., 1922.