HANDBOOK.

COURSES OF READING, &c.

"Of those who were so civil as to assist a novice with their advice what method to take, few agreed in the same; some saying one thing, some another, and among them rarely any one that was tolerably just."-ROGER NORTH.

SOME prejudice against what are called "courses of study" has been justly provoked by the great number and variety of those which have been proposed from time to time. When any particular course is recommended to the exclusion of all others, it may well be suspected, since no method of study can be devised which is equally adapted to all minds, or to the diversities of situation in which men will find themselves. Instead of inferring, therefore, from the variety of these courses, that none of them are “tolerably just,” it would be more reasonable to conclude that each one may have its value. They are generally suggested by the experience of their authors, and are published because they have been found useful in practice. Inasmuch, however, as every mind has its peculiarities of character and condition, and since these peculiarities will be likely to modify any methods of study it may adopt, and thus impair their value for general use, it would seem desirable to construct a system on broader principles, and with an enlightened reference, as well to the more fundamental laws of the human mind as to the existing state of literature. "To pretend to advise," says North, speaking of law studies, "is a matter of great judgment, which requires a true skill in books and men's capacities." To such skill the compiler of the following outline can make no pre

tensions. The utmost that he can claim for himself is, that he has felt the difficulty as well as importance of the undertaking, and has endeavoured to keep steadily in view the wants of different classes of minds. For the methods recommended, he can only hope that they will prove useful and seasonable helps to the young and inexperienced. At the outset, almost any course of reading is better than the desultory and irregular habits which prevail so extensively. When once the student has acquired a taste for good books, and some just ideas of the object and uses of reading, he may be safely left to glean for himself, from the counsels of others, such hints and directions as are best adapted to his own case. I put down the following, as cautions and suggestions, to which every reader or student ought have constant reference if he would have books prove benefactors indeed.

CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS.

1. Always have some useful and pleasant book ready to take up in "odd ends" of time. A good part of life will otherwise be wasted. "There is," says Wyttenbach, "no business, no avocation whatever, which will not permit a man who has an inclination to give a little time every day to the studies of his youth."

2. Be not alarmed because so many books are recommended. They are not all to be read at once, nor in a short time. "Some travellers," says Bishop Hall, "have more shrunk at the map than at the way; between both, how many stand still with their arms folded."

er."

3. Do not attempt to read much or fast. "To call him well read who reads many authors," says Shaftesbury, " is improp"Non refert quam multos libros," says Seneca," sed quam bonos habeas." Says Locke, "This is that which I think great readers are apt to be mistaken in: those who have read of everything, are thought to understand everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we

read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment."

A mistake here is so common and so pernicious, that I add one more authority. Says Dugald Stewart, "Nothing, in truth, has such a tendency to weaken, not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive and various reading WITHOUT REFLECTION. The activity and force of mind are gradually impaired, in consequence of disuse; and not unfrequently all our principles and opinions come to be lost in the infinite multiplicity and discordancy of our acquired ideas. It requires courage, indeed (as Helvetius has remarked), to remain ignorant of those useless subjects which are generally valued; but it is a courage necessary to men who either love the truth, or who aspire to establish a permanent reputation."

4. Do not become so far enslaved by any system or course of study as to think it may not be altered when alteration would contribute to the healthy and improving action of the mind. These systems begin by being our servants; they sometimes end by becoming masters, and tyrannical masters they are.

5. Beware, on the other hand, of frequent changes in your plan of study. This is the besetting sin of young persons. "The man who resolves," says Wirt, "but suffers his resolution to be changed by the first counter-suggestion of a friend; who fluctuates from opinion to opinion, from plan to plan, and veers like a weathercock to every point of the compass with every breath of caprice that blows, can never accomplish anything great or useful. Instead of being progressive in anything, he will be at best stationary, and more probably retrograde in all. It is only the man who carries into his pursuits that great quality which Lucan ascribes to Cæsar, nescia virtus stare loco, who first consults wisely, then resolves firmly, and then executes his purpose with inflexible

perseverance, undismayed by those petty difficulties which daunt a weaker spirit, that can advance to eminence in any line. Let us take, by way of illustration, the case of a student. He commences the study of the dead languages; presently comes a friend, who tells him he is wasting his time, and that, instead of obsolete words, he had much better employ himself in acquiring new ideas. He changes his plan, and sets to work at the mathematics. Then comes another friend, who asks him, with a grave and sapient face, whether he intends to become a professor in a college; because, if he does not, he is misemploying his time; and that, for the business of life, common mathematics is quite enough of the mathematics. He throws up his Euclid, and addresses himself to some other study, which, in its turn, is again relinquished on some equally wise suggestion; and thus life is spent in changing his plans. You cannot but perceive the folly of this course; and the worst effect of it is, the fixing on your mind a habit of indecision, sufficient in itself to blast the fairest prospects. No, take your course wisely, but firmly; and, having taken it, hold upon it with heroic resolution, and the Alps and Pyrenees will sink before you. The whole empire of learning will be at your feet, while those who set out with you, but stopped to change their plans, are yet employed in the very profitable business of changing their plans. Let your motto be, Perseverando vinces. Practice upon it, and you will be convinced of its value by the distinguished eminence to which it will conduct you.”

6. Read always the best and most recent book on the subject which you wish to investigate. "You are to remember," says Pliny the younger, "that the most approved authors of each sort are to be carefully chosen, for, as it has been well observed, though we should read much, we should not read many authors."

7. Study subjects rather than books: therefore, compare different authors on the same subjects; the statements of authors, with information collected from other sources; and the