11. Encourage not merely the book knowledge, but the personal pursuit of natural history, of field botany, of geology, of zoölogy; give the young fresh, unforgetting eye exercise and free scope upon the infinite diversity and combination of natural colors, forms, substances, surfaces, weights, and sizes. Give young students everything, in a word, that will educate their eye or ear, their touch, taste, and smell, their sense of muscular resistance; encourage them to make models, preparations, and collections of any natural objects; and above all, try and get hold of their affections and make them put their hearts into their work. Let them be drilled in composition; by this we mean the writing and spelling of correct, plain Englisha matter not of every-day occurrence; let them be encouraged in the use of a wholesome and manly literature. 12. But one main help is to be found in studying, and by this we do not mean the mere reading, but the digging into and through, the energizing upon, and mastering the best books. Taking up a book and reading a chapter of lively, manly sense, is like taking a game of cricket or a run to the top of Arthur's Seat. Exertion quickens your pulse, expands your lungs, makes your blood warmer and redder, fills your mouth with the pure waters of relish, strengthens and supplies your legs; and though on your way to the top you may encounter rocks and baffling débris, just as you will find in serious and honest books, difficulties and puzzles; still you are rewarded at the top by the wide view. You see as from a tower the end of all. You see the clouds, the bright lights, and the everlasting hills on the far horizon. You come down the hill a happier, a better, and a hungrier man, and of a better mind. 13. But, as we said, you must eat the book, you must crush it, and cut it with your teeth and swallow it; just as you must walk up, and not be carried up the hill, much less imagine you are there, or look upon a picture of what you would see were you up, however accurately or artistically done; no - you yourself must do both. He who has obtained any amount of knowledge is not truly wise unless he appropriates it and can use it for his need. JOHN BROWN, M. D. LV. AWAIT THE ISSUE. THOMAS CARLYLE. THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881). An original thinker, a hater of shams, a writer in bold unconventionalism of style, a vigorous intellectual literary force for his age,- such was Thomas Carlyle. His father was a Scotch village mason, who bequeathed to his son his rugged Scotch character. Carlyle was first intended for the ministry, but he gave up the idea, and devoted himself to literature. He married Jane Welsh, a woman whose patience and appreciation did much for her husband's success. Carlyle's bestknown books are: Sartor Resartus (The Tailor Made Over), The French Revolution, Heroes and Hero Worship, and A History of Frederick II. His was a It is safe to say that Carlyle has no literary successor. manner and a method so unique that attempt at copying him were impossible. His knowledge of German was marvelous. No other Englishman can surpass him in translating the German spirit into English words. His influence upon the character of the English-speaking people is unmistakable. For a vigorous presentation of the naked truth, Carlyle wears the palm. 1. In this world, with its wild whirling eddies and mad foam-oceans, where men and nations perish as if without law, and judgment for an unjust thing is sternly delayed, dost thou think that there is therefore no justice? It is what the fool hath said in his heart. It is what the wise, in all times, were wise because they denied, and knew forever not to be. I tell thee again, there is nothing else but justice. One strong thing I find here below: the just thing, the true thing. 2. My friend, if thou hadst all the artillery of Woolwich trundling at thy back in support of an unjust thing, and infinite bonfires visibly waiting ahead of thee to blaze centuries long for thy victory on behalf of it, I would advise thee to call a halt, to fling down thy baton, and say, “In Heaven's name, No!" 3. Thy "success"? Poor fellow, what will thy success amount to? If the thing is unjust, thou hast not succeeded; no, not though bonfires blazed from north to south, and bells rang, and editors wrote leading articles, and the just thing lay trampled out of sight, to all mortal eyes an abolished and annihilated thing. 4. It is the right and noble alone that will have victory in this struggle; the rest is wholly an obstruction, a postponement and fearful imperilment of the victory. Towards an eternal center of right and nobleness, and of that only, is all this confusion tending. We already know whither it is all tending what will have victory, what will have none! The heaviest will reach the center. The heaviest has its deflections, its obstructions, nay, at times its reboundings; whereupon some blockhead shall be heard jubilating: "See, your heaviest ascends!" but at all moments it is moving centerward, fast as is convenient for it; sinking, sinking; and, by laws older than the world, old as the Maker's first plan of the world, it has to arrive there. 5. Await the issue. In all battles, if you await the issue, each fighter has prospered according to his right. His right and his might, at the close of the account, were one and the same. He has fought with all his might, and in exact proportion to all his right he has prevailed. His very death is no victory over him. He dies indeed; but his work lives, very truly lives. 6. A heroic Wallace, quartered on the scaffold, cannot hinder that his Scotland become one day a part of England; but he does hinder that it become, on tyrannous unfair terms, a part of it; commands still, as with a god's voice, from his old Valhalla and Temple of the Brave, that there be a just, real union, as of brother and brother, not a false and merely semblant one, as of slave and master. If the union with England be in fact one of Scotland's chief blessings, we thank Wallace withal that it was not the chief curse. Scotland is not Ireland; no, because brave men rose there and said, "Behold, ye must not tread us down like slaves; and ye shall not, and cannot!” 7. Fight on, thou brave true heart, and falter not, through dark fortune and through bright. The cause thou fightest for, so far as it is true, no farther, yet precisely so far, is very sure of victory. The falsehood alone of it will be conquered, will be abolished, as it ought to be; but the truth of it is part of Nature's own laws, coöperates with the world's eternal tendencies, and cannot be conquered. THOMAS CARLYLE. LVI. PRAYER. AND slowly answer'd Arthur from the barge: I have lived my life, and that which I have done Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." ALFRED TENNYSON. LVII. THE MILL ON THE FLOSS. GEORGE ELIOT (1819–1880), whose real name was Mary Ann Evans, was an English poet and novel-writer of great ability. Her early home was in Warwickshire, England. Her later life was spent in London. Her bestknown prose works are Adam Bede, Romola, Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner. 1. A WIDE plain, where the broadening Floss hurries on between its green banks to the sea, and the loving tide, rushing to meet it, checks its passage with an impetuous embrace,on this mighty tide, the black ships, laden with the freshly scented fir-planks, with rounded sacks of oil-bearing seed, or with the dark glitter of coal, are borne along to St. Ogg's. This town shows its aged, fluted red roofs and the broad gables of its wharves, between the low-wooded hill and the river-brink, tinging the water with a soft purple hue under the transient glance of this February sun. 2. Far away, on each hand, stretch the rich pastures, and the patches of dark earth made ready for the seed of broad-leaved |