More
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey
How
to read
>
Use every spare minute you have in reading. If you are going on
a journey that would take you an hour carry something with you
to read for that hour until you have reached the place. If you
are sitting down waiting for somebody, have something in your
pocket to read until the person comes. Don't waste time. Any
time you think you have to waste put it in reading something.
Carry with you a small pocket dictionary and study words whilst
waiting or travelling, or a small pocket volume on some
particular subject. Read through at least one book every week
separate and distinct from your newspapers and journals. It will
mean that at the end of one year you will have read fifty-two
different subjects. After five years you will have read over two
hundred and fifty books. You may be considered then a well read
man or a well read woman and there will be a great difference
between you and the person who has not read one book. You will
be considered intelligent and the other person be considered
ignorant. You and that person therefore will be living in two
different worlds; one the world of ignorance and the other the
world of intelligence. Never forget that intelligence rules the
world and ignorance carries the burden. Therefore, remove
yourself as far as possible from ignorance and seek as far as
possible to be intelligent.
>
Your
language being English you should study the English
language thoroughly. To know the English language
thoroughly you ought to be acquainted with Latin, because
most of the English words are of Latin origin. It
is also advisable that you know the French language
because most of the books that you read in English carry
Latin and French phrases and words. There is no use
reading a page or paragraph of a book or even a sentence without
understanding it.
>
If it has foreign words in it, before you pass over [them] you
should go to the dictionary, if you don't know the meaning and
find out the meanin[g]. Never pass over a word without knowing
its meaning. The dictionary and the books on word building which
can be secured from book sellers will help you greatly.
>
I know a boy who was ambitious to learn. He hadn't the
opportunity of an early school education because he had to work
ten hours a day, but he determined that he would learn and so he
took with him to his work place every day a simplified grammar
and he would read and me[m]orize passages and the rules of
grammar whilst at work.
>
After one year he was almost an expert in the grammar of his
language. He knew the differen[t] parts of speech, he could
paraphrase, analyse and construct sentences. He also took with
him a pocket dictionary and he would write out twenty-five new
words with their meanings every day and study these words and
their mords [forms?] and their meaning. After one year he had a
speaking vocabulary of more than three thousand words. He
continued this for several years and when he became a man he had
a vocabulary at his command of over fifteen thousand words. He
became an author because he could write in his language by
having command of words. What he wrote was his experiences and
he recorded his experiences in the best words of his language.
He was not able to write properly at the same age and so he took
with him to work what is called in school a copying book and he
practised the copying of letters until he was able to write a
very good hand. He naturally became acquainted with literature
and so he continued reading extensively. When he died he was one
of the greatest scholars the world ever knew. Apply the story to
yourself.
>
There is nothing in the world that you want that you cannot have
so long as it is possible in nature and men have achieved it
before. The greatest men and women in the world burn the
midnight lamp. That is to say, when their neighbours and
household are gone to bed, they are reading, studying and
thinking. When they rise in the morning they are always ahead of
their neighbours and their household in the thing that they were
studying[,] reading and thinking of. A daily repetition of that
will carry them daily ahead and above their neighbours and
household. Practise this rule. It is wise to study a couple of
subjects at a time. As for instance
a little geography, a little psychology, a little ethics, a
little theology, a little philosophy, a little mathematics, a
little science on which a sound academic education is built.
Doing this week after week, month after month, year after year
will make you so learned in the liberal arts as to make you
ready and fit for your place in the affairs of the world. If you
know what others do not know, they will want to hear you. You
will then become invaluable in your community and to your
country, because men and women will want to hear you and see you
everywhere.
>
As stated before, books are one's best companions. Try to get
the[m] and keep them. A method of doing so is every time you
have ten cents or twenty five cents or a dollar to spend
foolishly[,] either on your friends or yourself [,] think how
much more useful that ten or twenty five cents or dollar would
be invested in a book and so invest it. It may be just the thing
you have been looking for to give you a thought by which you may
win the heart of the world. The ten cent, twenty five cent or a
dollar, therefore, may turn out to be an investment of worth to
the extent of a million dollars. Never lend anybody the book
that you want. You will never get it back. Never allow anybody
to go to your bookshelf in your absence because the very book
that you may want most may be taken from the shelf and you may
never be able to get one of the kind again.
>
If you have a library of your own, lock it when you are not at
home. Spend most of your spare time in your library. If you have
a radio keep it in your own library and use it exhaustively to
listen to lectures, recitals, speeches and good music. You can
learn a lot from the radio. You can be inspired a lot by good
music [lines repeated]. Good music carries the sentiment of
harmony and you may think many a good thought out of listening
to good music.
>
Read a chapter from the Bible everyday, Old and
New Testaments. The greatest wisdom of the age is to be
found in the Scriptures. You can always quote from the
Scriptures. It is the quickest way of winning approval.
Marcus Garvey
|