far. But while actually engaged in perusal, attend to what the writer actuall and endeavour fairly to arrive at his meaning, before you proceed to sp upon it for yourself. The study of a book, in short, should be conducted nearly according same rule that Bacon lays down for the study of nature. He warns philoso earnestly and often, against substituting for what he calls the "interrogatio ræ," ," the "anticipatio naturæ ;" that is, instead of attentive observation an periment, forming conjectures as to what seems to us likely, or fitting, acc to some hypothesis devised by ourselves. In like manner, in studying an a you should keep apart interpretation and conjecture. A good teacher warns a student of some book in a foreign language tha learning, not to guess what the author is likely to have meant, and then tw words into that sense, against the idiom of the language; but to be led words in the first instance; and then, if a difficulty as to the sense rema guess which of the possible meanings of the words is the most likely to right. E. g. The words in the original of John xviii. 15, ó ¿λdos μaðntís, plain nify "the other disciple;" and one of the commentators, perceiving that inconsistent with the opinion he had taken up, that this disciple was John self, (since John had not been mentioned before, and the article, therefore, make it refer to Judas, who alone had been just above named,) boldly su that the reading must be wrong, (though all the MSS. agree in it,) and th article ought to be omitted, because it spoils the sense; that is, the sense agrees with a conjecture adopted in defiance of the words of the passage. This one instance may serve as a specimen of the way in which some, in of interpreting an author, undertake to re-write what he has said. The like rule holds good in other studies, quite as much as in that of a lang We should be ever on our guard against the tendency to read through c spectacles. Educational habits of thought, analogies, antecedent reasonings, feelings wishes, &c., will be always leading us to form some conjectural hypothesis, is not necessarily hurtful, and may sometimes furnish a useful hint, but must be most carefully watched, lest it produce an unfair bias, and lead y strain into a conformity with it the words or the phenomena before you. A man sets out with a conjecture as to what the Apostles are likely to said, or ought to have said, in conformity with the the theological system I learnt; or what the Most High may have done or designed; or what is or agreeable to the " analogy of faith," (see Campbell on the Gospels ;) i. e piece with the christian system-namely, that which he has been taught, I lible men, to regard as the christian system; and then he proceeds to ex Scripture, as he would examine with leading questions a witness whom I summoned in his cause. As the fool thinketh, Perhaps he "prays through" all the Bible; not with a candid and tea mind, seeking instruction, but unconsciously praying that he may find himself in the right. And he will seldom fail. "Hic liber est in quo quærit sua dogmata quisque ; Invenit et pariter dogmata quisque sua." "In this book many students seek each one to find It is the same with philosophy. If you have a strong wish to find phenomena such as to confirm the conjectures you have formed, and allow that wish to bias your examination, you are ill-fitted for interrogating nature. Both that, and the other volume of the records of what God does,-Revelation,—are to be interrogated, not as witnesses, but as instructors. You must let all your conjectures hang loose upon you; and be prepared to learn from what is written in each of those volumes, with the aid of the conjectures of reason; not from reason, (nor, by the by, from feelings and fancies, and wishes, and human authority,) with Scripture for your aid. This latter procedure, which is a very common one with theological students, may be called making an anagram of Scripture,-taking it to pieces and reconstructing it in the model of some human system of "Institutes:" building a temple of one's own, consisting of the stones of the true one pulled down and put together in a new fashion. Yet divines of this description are often considered by others as well as by themselves, pre-eminently scriptural, from their continual employment of the very words of Scripture, and their readiness in citing a profusion of texts. But, in reality, instead of using a human commentary on Scripture, they use Scripture itself as a kind of commentary on some human system. They make the warp human, and interweave an abundance of Scripture as a woof; which is just the reverse of the right procedure. But this may be called, truly, in a certain sense, "taking a text from Scripture," "preaching such and such a doctrine out of Scripture," and "improving Scripture." Thus it is that men, when comparing their opinions with the standard of God's Word, suffer these opinions to bend the rule by which they are to be measured. But he who studies the Scriptures should remember that he is consulting the Spirit of Truth, and if he would hope for his aid, through whose enlightening and supporting grace alone those Scriptures can be read with advantage, he must search honestly and earnestly for the truth. "Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted." With respect to the deference due to the opinions (written or spoken) of intelligent and well-informed men, it may be remarked, that before a question has been fully argued, there is a presumption that they are in the right; but afterwards, if objections have been brought which they have failed to answer, the presumption is the other way. The wiser, and the more learned, and the more numerous, are those opposed to you, and the more strenuous and persevering their opposition, the greater is the probability that if there were any flaw in your argument thou would have refuted you. This important distinction is often overlooked. “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an man." Writing an Analysis, table of Contents, Index, or Notes to any book, is important for the study, properly so called, of any subject. And so, also, practice of previously conversing or writing on the subject you are abo study. I have elsewhere alluded to this kind of practice,' and suggested to the te "to put before his pupils, previously to their reading each lesson, some que pertaining to the matter of it, requiring of them answers, oral or written, the they can think of without consulting the book. Next, let them read the le having other questions, such as may lead to any needful explanations, put them as they proceed. And afterwards let them be examined (introducin merous examples framed by themselves and by the teacher) as to the portion have learned, in order to judge how far they remember it. "Of the three kinds of questions,-which may be called, 1, preliminary tions; 2, questions of instruction; and 3, questions of examination,—the alone are, by a considerable portion of instructors, commonly employed. the elementary books commonly known as catechims,' or 'books in question answer,' consist, in reality, of questions of this description. 'But the second kind-what is properly to be called instructive question is employed by all who deserve to be reckoned good teachers. "The first kind—the preliminary questioning-is employed (systematically constantly) but by few. And, at first sight, it might be supposed by those have not had experience of it, that it would be likely to increase the learner ficulties. But if any well-qualified instructor will but carefully and judici try the experiment (in teaching any kind of science,) he will be surprised to to how great a degree this exercise of the student's mind on the subject will tribute to his advancement. He will find that what has been taught in the above suggested, will have been learnt in a shorter time, will have been fa more thoroughly understood, and will be fixed incomparably the better in memory." Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory; t fore the first business of a teacher-first, not only in point of time, but of im ance-should be to excite, not merely a general curiosity on the subject o study, but a particular curiosity on particular points in that subject. To teac who has no curiosity to learn, is to sow a field without ploughing it. And this process saves a student from being (as many are) intellectually aged by having a very good memory. For an unskillful teacher is content t before his pupils what they have to learn, and ascertaining that they reme it. And thus those of them whose memory is ready and attentive, have mind left in a merely passive state, and are like a person always carried ab a sedan chair, till he has almost lost the use of his limbs. And then it is m wonder that a person who has been so well taught, and who was so qui 1 See Preface to Easy Lessons on Reasoning. Page v. earning and remembering, should not prove an able man; which is about as reasonable as to expect that a capacious cistern, if filled, should be converted into a perennial fountain. Many are saved, by the deficiency of their memory, from being spoiled by their education; for those who have no extraordinary memory, are driven to supply its defects by thinking. If they do not remember a mathe matical demonstration, they are driven to devise one. If they do not exactly retain what Aristotle or Smith have said, they are driven to consider what they were likely to have said, or ought to have said. And thus their faculties are invigorated by exercise. Now, this kind of exercises a skillful teacher will afford to all; so that no one shall be spoiled by the goodness of his memory. A very common practice may be here noticed, which should be avoided, if we would create a habit of studying with profit-that of making children learn by rote what they do not understand. "It is done on this plea-that they will hereafter learn the meaning of what they have been thus taught, and will be able to make a practical use of it."" But no attempt at economy of time can be more injudicious. Let any child whose capacity is so far matured as to enable him to comprehend an explanation,—e. g., of the Lord's Prayer,—have it then put before him for the first time, and when he is made acquainted with the meaning of it, set to learn it by heart; and can any one doubt that, in less than a half a day's application, he would be able to repeat it fluently? And the same would be the case with other forms. All that is learned by rote by a child before he is competent to attach a meaning to the words he utters, would not, if all put together, amount to so much as would cost him, when able to understand it, a week's labor to learn perfectly. Whereas, it may cost the toil, often the vain toil, of many years, to unlearn the habit of formalism—of repeating words by rote without attending to their meaning; a habit which every one conversant with education knows to be in all subjects most readily acquired by children, and with difficulty avoided even with the utmost care of the teacher; but which such a plan must inevitably tend to generate. It is often said, and very truly, that it is important to form early habits of piety; but to train a child in one kind of habit, is not the most likely way of forming the opposite one; and nothing can be more contrary to true piety, than the Romish superstition (for such in fact it is) of attaching efficacy to the repetition of a certain form of words as a charm, independent of the understanding and of the heart. "It is also said, with equal truth, that we ought to take advantage of the facility which children possess of learning; but to infer from thence, that Providence designs us to make such a use (or rather abuse) of this gift as we have been censuring, is as if we were to take advantage of the readiness with which a new-born babe swallows whatever is put into its mouth, to dose it with ardent spirits, instead of wholesome food and necessary medicine. The readiness with which children learn and remember words, is in truth a most important advantage if rightly employed; viz., if applied to the acquiring that mass of what may be called arbitrary knowledge of insulated facts, which can only be learned by rote, and which is necessary in after life; when the acquisition of it would both be more troublesome, and would encroach on time that might otherwise be better employed. mental to his future habits, moral, religious, or intellectual One very useful precept for students, is never to remain long puzzling difficulty; but lay the book and the subject aside, and return to it some after, or next day; after having turned the attention to something else. times a person will weary his mind for several hours in some efforts (which have been spared) to make out some difficulty; and next day, when he ret the subject, will find it quite easy. The like takes place in the effort to recollect some name. You may yourself in vain for hours together; and if you turn to something else (whi might as well have done at once) the name will, as it were, flash across you out an effort. There is something analogous to this, in reference to the scent of dogs. a wounded bird, for instance, has been lost in the the thicket, and the do after some search, to find it, a skillful sportsman always draws them off, and them elsewhere for an hour, and then brings them back to the spot to try a and they will often, then, find their game readily: though, if they had been ing for it all the time, they would have failed. It seems as if the dog-and the mind—having got into a kind of wrong continued in the same error, till drawn completely away elsewhere. Always trust, therefore, for the overcoming of a difficulty, not to long ued study after you have once got bewildered, but to repeated trials, at inte It may be here observed, that the student of any science or art should no distinctly understand all the technical language, and all the rules of the a also learn them by heart, so that they may be remembered as familiarly alphabet, and employed constantly and with scrupulous exactness. Othe technical language will prove an encumbrance instead of an advantage, jus suit of clothes would be, if instead of putting them on and wearing ther should carry them about in his hand. “There is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out studies." It is a pity that Bacon did not more fully explain the mode in which di kinds of studies act on the mind. As an exercise of the reasoning faculty mathematics is an admirable exercise, because it consists of reasoning alor does not encumber the student with any exercise of judgment: and it always to begin with learning one thing at a time, and to defer a combinat mental exercises to a later period. But then it is important to rememb mathematics does not exercise the judgment; and consequently, if too sively pursued, may leave the student very ill qualified for moral reasoning "The definitions, which are the principles of our reasoning, are very fe the axioms still fewer; and both are, for the most part, laid down and before the student in the outset; the introduction of a new definition or being of comparatively rare occurrence, at wide intervals, and with a statement, besides which, there is no room for doubt concerning either. other hand, in all reasonings which regard matters of fact, we introduce, at every step, fresh and fresh propositions (to a very great number) which] been elicited in the course of our reasoning, but are taken for granted; viz |