by Eusebius of Esdras, by Seneca of Hadrian, by Petrarch of Clement V., by Cicero and Quintilian, of Memory, 193; by Sir I. Newton of the key to knowledge, 200; by Johnson of improving by travels, 201; by Professor Sedgewick of Paley's Moral Philosophy, 213; by Mackintosh, Dr. Chalmers, and Dr. Arnold, of Butler's Sermons, 215; by Mrs. Somerville of the facility of the study of science, 215; by Fox of Burke's Letters on the French Revolution, 217; by Sir W. Scott of Sir David Wilkie's paintings, 234; by the Rev. H. Melville of the Scriptures tending to mental discipline, 249; by Coleridge of Melite, not Malta, 250; by Dr. Meuse of the Indian tradition of a deluge, 251; by Serle of the Trinity known to the Otaheitans, 251; by Mackintosh of Job xxix., by Wordsworth of Jeremiah, by Mrs. Hemans of St. John, by Coleridge of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 252; by the Edinburgh Review of Doddridge, 278; by George III. of Watson's "Apology for the Bible," 262; by Dr. Chalmers of the Fathers, 268; by the Duke of Wellington of Paley's Evidences, 269; by Abp. Leighton of the Schoolmen, 271; by Lord Burleigh of the Liturgy, 274; by Robert Hall of Burke and Howe, 275; by St. Augustine of Cicero, 276; by C. II. of Isaac Barrow, 277; by Johnson of Law's "Serious Call," 278; by Bolingbroke of Dryden's prose; by Mackintosh of Dryden's "Cock and the Fox," 284; by Mackintosh of obscurity in poetry —of Gray-of Johnson's injustice to Gray and Prior, 285; by Byron of Johnson's poems, 385; by Fox and Mackintosh of Crabbe, by Pitt of Scott, by Scott of Coleridge, by Mackintosh of Coleridge, 386; by Burns of Alison "On Taste," 387.

A COURSE

OF

ENGLISH READING.

PART I.

IN WHICH THE PATH OF LEARNING IS EXPLAINED TO BE NICELY SLOPED AND GRADUATED, AND SO PLENTEOUSLY STREWN WITH OBJECTS OF INTEREST AND CURIOSITY AS TO BE ENTERTAINING AND INVITING TO ALL.

"Est quiddam prodire tenus si non datur ultrâ."

"If you can't do as much as you would, at least do as much
as you can."

ALL the world would allow that a traveller would pass more easily from any one point to any other point by having a distinct picture of the road before he started. All the world would approve of a traveller's stopping once or twice in his journey, and asking himself, "To what place am I going?" and "Is this the best way to reach it?” But how many myriads in this world aforesaid do set out on the long and intricate road of life without a map, and, while they can only keep

B

moving, never stop to ask whether they are in their latitude or out of it. So blindly do men run after all the imaginary prizes of life, and just as blindly do they pursue any one of them. Consider intellectual pursuits. Many young persons have said to me, "I should so like to possess general information, and to be well-informed, like our very amusing friend. Is it not strange that, amidst all the toils of a most engrossing profession, he can find time to acquire so much knowledge on every subject?"

"Not at all strange; a few minutes a day, well employed, are quite enough."

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Really I do not find it so.

What I read

rarely interests me; so I forget nearly as fast as I read, and grow more and more confused."

"Too little interest, and too much confusion ! Really you have enough to complain of. Do you know that this may constitute all the difference between your acquirements and those of our friend?"

"But he is so clever."

"Can he do as much in one hour as you in six ?"

"No! certainly not. I see your argument. You are going to remind me I have more than six times the number of hours to study."

"Is there no one subject on which you feel your

self his equal?

Think of gardening, drawing,

scriptural reading," &c.

for

"True, but I am so fond of these subjects;

"For,

you would say, your attention never

flags, and your memory never fails."

"Just so. But I am not so fond of certain other subjects, which still I very much wish to know." "But do you not remember a time when you were not so fond even of these favourite subjects ?" Certainly; you would infer therefore"

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"I would infer what I positively have experienced both in myself and others, that a fondness and interest for study may be acquired, and under good guidance it is hardly ever too late to begin."

"And the advice you intend to give me is founded on

"Is founded on certain simple and self-evident means of creating an interest in all we read, and thus insuring attention, and consequently memory. Suppose you wished to nourish a man's body, you would say, Feed him.' But he does not digest.' 'Probably he has no appetite?' 'Yes; he will eat some few things.' Then choose these few; attend to his appetite, and by that judge when and what he can digest.' So with the mind; attend to the curiosity, which is the appetite of the mind,

B 2

for whatever the mind receives with avidity tends to its maturity and strength."

:

In this way I have reasoned with many of my friends and have had the satisfaction of seeing my advice attended with more success than I could ever anticipate. One pupil in particular is now present to my mind, a lady—a circumstance most encouraging to all who distrust their own abilities

and this especially is the case which induces me to think that the same advice may be generally useful. My prescriptions, I trust, are not like the panacea of the day, the same for all patients in all stages; but such as, being based on the same principles of mental health, are nicely modified to suit every age and constitution. If my rules seem obvious, and what all well-educated persons may be presumed to know, I answer, Do we not often hear readers say, I like a book that begins at the beginning of a subject that presumes not that I

have knowledge, but that I am generally ignorant? Have the best informed never searched for information, though with affected indifference they would not, on any account, be seen to do so even in a child's story-book, or penny catechism? Hesiod, as quoted by Aristotle, divides the world into three classes: the first have sense of their own; the second use the sense of their neighbours; the third do neither one nor the other.