CHAPTER III.

ON STUDY.

IT seems to be an easy affair to study. There is the room, and there the books, and there the lesson: what more do you want? You want to know how to go to work-how to study. The interruptions to study, even when the student has nothing else to do, not a care, not a burden of any kind to trouble him, are numerous and vexatious. Deductions must be made for ill health, and seasons when the spirits droop, and when there is a total disrelish for study, and a want of courage, by which the mind can be brought up to action; for a total ignorance of the best methods of studying; for the time wasted in reading useless books; and, above all, for that natural, inherent indolence, which recoils from the task of rebuking the wandering of the thoughts, and bringing them back to their prescribed tasks. You must make up your mind that no one can go on in a course of study without interruptions from within and from without. Calculate upon this. And it is well that it is so; for, in real life, if you can get two full hours in a week without interruption, you may think it extraordinary. The mind must form the habit of being checked and interrupted, and of bringing

itself back to the point from which it was taken off, and at once pursuing the train of mental operations in which it was engaged. Till this power is obtained, you are not prepared for active life; and in proportion as it is acquired, in that proportion small hinderances appear to you of little consequence. I propose to make some suggestions in the form of hints in relation to study, not so much regarding the order of their introduction, as endeavouring not to omit any that are of real importance.

1. The number of hours of daily study.

No fixed time can be marked out for all. This must vary with the constitution of each individual. A mind that moves slowly requires, and will bear, more time for study. In my view, it is vastly better to chain the attention down closely, and to study hard, a few hours, than to try to keep it moderately fixed and engaged for a greater length of time. He who would study six hours a day, with all the attention of which the mind is capable, may expect that he will stand high in his calling. But mark me-it must be study as intense as the mind will bear. The attention must all be absorbed; the thoughts must all be brought in, and turned upon the object of study, as you would turn the collected rays of the sun into the focus of the glass, when you wish to get fire from those rays. Do not call miscellaneous reading, or anything which you do by way of relief or amusement, study; it is not study. Be sure to get as much of your study in the morning as possible. The mind is then in good order.

2. Have regard to the positions of the body while engaged in study.

Some men from early life habituate themselves to study, sitting at a low, flat table. This ought

to be avoided; for, as you advance in life, that part of the body which is between the shoulders and hips, becomes more and more feeble, and consequently the stooping habit is acquired. Few literary men walk or sit perfectly erect. Standing is undoubtedly the best method o study, if you will only begin in this way. In writing, in the study of languages, and most kinds of mathematics, you must be confined to one spot. If you can change positions, and stand a part, and sit a part of the time, it will be well; but the former should preponderate. As you advance in life, you will naturally sit more and more, till the habit becomes fixed. Few men are seen standing at their books after forty years of age. If you are composing, or reading, or committing to memory, this position is a desirable one. Be sure you have your table high enough, and keep clear of the easy-chair, with a writing leaf on the arm of it. Sitting in such a position gives the body a twisting position, which leads to bad health, and not unfrequently to the grave. If possible, so place your table, the top of which should slope a little, that the light may fall upon you from behind. This will be a kindness to the eyes. In the evening, it is well to have the lamp shaded, or to have a shade drawn over the eyes. I would hope, however, that you keep any prescribed lessons you may have, so much in advance, that the necessity of putting your eyes to a severe trial will be avoided. If your eyes are weak, be careful that a glare of light does not fall upon them; and be sure to wash them in cold water the last thing at night, and the first in the morning. In the choice of positions, the great desideratum is, to keep the body as upright as possible. A bending at the chest is by all

means to be avoided. Your dress, even to the slipper, should sit as loosely as possible; and your body, which is now to stand still, and in which the mind is to labour, should be as easy as it can be, without assuming a position which, by long habit, will court the embrace of sleep.

3. Be thorough in your study.

Passing over a field of study has been graphically compared to conquering a country. If you thoroughly conquer everything you meet, you will pass on from victory to victory; but if you leave here and there a fort and a garrison not subdued, you will have an army hanging on your rear, and your ground will soon need reconquering.

There is such a constant mortification and loss of self-respect attending the habit of going upon the surface, that, were it only for personal comfort, you should be thorough. At the first setting out, your progress will be slow-perhaps very slow; but, in the long race before you, you will be the gainer. How often have I seen a man, with a mind originally bright, chagrined and humbled at his want of accuracy! He makes an assertion, and calls it a quotation from some distinguished author. "Does not Burke say so, and advocate that sentiment?" "I never understood him so," says an accurate listener.

He now begins to hesitate, apologises, says it is a great while since he read Burke, but such is his impression. Has he not fallen in the estimation of every one present, and in his own also? And yet, such is the habit fixed upon him, that he will go and again tread over the same ground with hesitating steps.

How much better is knowledge-something that you know—than any amount of conjecture,

formed somewhere in the region of knowledge! One lesson, or one book, perfectly and thoroughly understood, would do you more good than ten lessons, or ten books, not half studied.

When you have a mind to improve a single thought, or to be clear in any particular point, do not leave it till you are master of it. View it in every light. Try how many ways you can express it, and which is shortest and best. Would you enlarge upon it, hunt it down from author to author; some of whom will suggest hints concerning it, which, perhaps, never occurred to you before; and give every circumstance its weight. Thus, by being master of every subject as you proceed, though you make but a small progress in the number of books which you study, you. will make a speedy one in useful knowledge. To leave matters undetermined, and the mind unsatisfied in what we study, is but to multiply halfnotions and introduce confusion, and is the way to make a pedant, but not a scholar.

4. Expect to become familiar with hard study. Study, which is hard for one man, is easy for another. Not only so, but the study which is easy to you to-day, may be intolerably irksome at another time. This is owing to the difficulty of confining the attention closely. The health being the same, study would at all times be equally agreeable, had we the same command over the attention. But who, that has tried it, does not know how much easier it is to study on a cold, stormy day in winter, when everything without is repulsive, than on the warm, bright day of spring, when all nature seems to invite you out, and when the soul seems to disdain and rebel against the restraints of study? You must make your calculations to study many hours, and at many