Above all, avoid conflict with the practical force of the establishment into which you are introduced.  It is better, as we have at another time advised, to establish friendly relations with the workmen and practical men with whom you have to do.

You are to be spared this evening any direct references to the “conceit of learning,” but you are asked and advised to bear with the conceit of ignorance.  You will find that practical men will be jealous of you on account of your opportunities, and at the same time jealous of their own practical information and experience, and that they may take some pains to hinder rather than aid you in your attempts to actively learn the practical details of the business.  The most disagreeable man about the establishment to persons like you, who perhaps goes out of his way to insult you, and yet should be respected for his age, may be one who can be of greatest use to you.  Cultivate his acquaintance.  A kind word will generally be the best response to an offensive remark, though gentlemanly words of resentment may be necessary when others are present.  Sometimes it will be sufficient to say, “I wish a little talk with you by yourself,” which will put the bystanders at a distance and enable you to mature your plans.  Ascertain as soon as possible that man’s tastes; what he reads and what he delights in.  Approach him as if you had no resentment and talk on his favorite topic.  If rebuffed, tell a pleasant story, and persist from time to time in the attempt to please, until his hardened nature relaxes and he begins to feel and perhaps speaks to others favorably of you.  St. Paul has said:  “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant of all that I might gain the more.”  This is the keynote of policy, and though in humbling yourself you control and hide your true feelings, recollect that all your faculties are given you for proper use.

We have referred to some who have acquired the happy faculty of making themselves immediately useful.  This is a much more difficult matter than the words imply.  If one of you should be so fortunate as to be ordered to make certain tests almost like those you have already conducted here, or to tabulate the results of tests as you have done it here, or to make inspections akin to those which have been fully explained here, there is every probability the work would be done satisfactorily in the first instance.  But let a much simpler case arise, for instance, if a superior hand one of you a letter with the simple instructions, “Get me the facts on that,” you may be very much puzzled to know what is to be done and how to do it.  It may be that the letter is a request for information in regard to certain work that was carried on in the past, in which case it will be necessary for you to hunt through old records, copy books, engineering notes, drawings, and the like, and get a list of all referring to the subject; to make an abstract of the letters and notes if they