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and however well able to judge of their worth, they may not be able to tell which books are worth most to you. Food may be very good, and yet not good for me. It may be well suited to some ages, and to some constitutions, but it may not be suited to mine. And books are the food of the mind, and those books which are very useful to some persons, are not so well adapted to benefit other persons, because those other persons are of a different age and of different habits. The best book for a person who has gone some way in mathematics, may be Bonycastle's Algebra, or Euclid's Elements; but these would not be the best for one who had only just got through long division. But when people recommend books, they do not always take into consideration the age, the habits, and the tastes of those to whom they are giving their advice. They often do as ignorant persons do when they meet with people that are ill; they advise them at once to take what did them good, without ever thinking that diseases and constitutions may be altogether different, All men have their peculiar tastes, and all have their favourite books; and many of them, in giving you advice. never consult your necessities, but speak as their own tastes prompt them. If therefore you trust wholly to the advice of your friends, you may pass your whole life without coming to a knowledge of the books most suited to your case. If you follow the advice of those who recommend you to have only a few books, you will be doubly wronged; you will both have poor food and little of it. If you examine plenty, and judge: for yourselves, you will be almost sure to find out what books are best for you. Again, it is impossible to. select a small number of books, which shall give you all the instruction you need. If you purchase abridgements and epitomes, they will teach you nothing per-. fetly. Abridgements and concise systems may help the memories of those who already understand the subjects, but they will never do for a student. A student wants full views of every thing, and abridgements give him full views of nothing.

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Every writer views his subject chiefly on one side, and in its bearings on some particular class of other subjects; so that if you confine yourselves to a few books, you will be in danger of having partial and ill-proportioned views of things. You can neither learn as much from a few books, nor will what you learn be so free from error. When one is confined to a few books, though they be the best, the most copious and the most interesting imaginable, it is impossible to make the same progress in study, as when one is possessed of a variety. Read them as well as he may, he will still be in danger of being left utterly ignorant on many important matters, and of having a very imperfect knowledge of others.

But if a man confine himself to a few books, he never can read them well; at least, he never can derive so much benefit from them, as he might if he were to read them in connexion with other books. It is possible, I know, for such as have an endless multiplicity of books at command, to contract an evil habit of looking only at the title pages, or of running over their contents in a careless and unprofitable manner,-it is possible, though I am far from thinking that the danger is so great as has often been represented. It will generally happen to a studious youth, who has access to a considerable variety of suitable books, that the perusal of one work will excite a desire to read another. Then the perusal of the second will illustrate, explain and render more interesting what he had read in the first, and so prepare him and dispose him to read it a second time with greater pleasure and advantage. Thus every book that he reads, will endear to him the books he has read before, and excite his curiosity after others; and those others will make him value still more the first, if it be one of genuine merit. Every work of real excellence that falls into his hands, will increase his love of reading, and make his reading more profitable.

But he who confines himself to a few books, will never understand those few books so well, or derive from

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them so much information, as he who should read the same books in connexion with several others. son who wishes to understand the philosophy of the human mind, has chosen for his instructor on that subject Locke's Essay on the understanding. He reads it through repeatedly, and with becoming attention and care, but refrains from reading other works on the same subject, by other authors. Another youth reads Locke, with the same object, but feeling a desire to see what other authors have written on the same subject, he looks over the works of Malebranche, and Malebranche refers him to Bacon. In Malebranche and Bacon he finds parts of the subject treated more at large, and several of Locke's principles more fully and clearly unfolded. Locke knew that those writers had written more copiously on those points, and it was on that account that he passed them over slightly. In the works of Malebranche and Bacon he has found some of Locke's principles proved by better arguments, or by arguments better adapted to his capacity; other principles he has found set down in better order, and expressed in a more lively and interesting style, and illustrated with more striking and impressive instances; while many other things are brought before him, which had been entirely overlooked by Locke. He now returns to Locke again, and is struck with many things in his work, which he had not noticed before, and discovers excellencies which, in his former reading, had quite escaped his observation. Locke is now twice as valuable to him, and proves twice as useful, as he was at first. From Locke he now proceeds to Watts, from Watts to Reid; by Reid he is referred to Berkley and Beattie, and these bring him to an acquaintance with Hartley, and Stewart, and Campbell and Kaimes, and in every one of these he finds much that he found in no preceding author, and they all send him back to his first authors with a keener relish, and with better abilities to comprehend and appreciate their sentiments. Thus he learns from his first author thrice as much, and he learns it thrice as well, by reading him in company with his

brethren, as he would have done if he had confined his attention and reading to him alone.

All sciences are related to each other, and to understand one science properly it is necessary to study it in connexion with its kindred sciences. No man can understand the science of the earth, unless he study the heavens as well; and no man can understand the science of the heavens, unless he view them in their relations to the earth. The sciences of medicine, of anatomy, of chemistry, and pathology are all linked together, and no one can acquire a proper knowledge of one, without a knowledge of the others. It is the same with moral sciences, and with the books of different authors who treat on them. Law, and Divinity, and Politics, and history, and the knowledge of the visible universe and of human nature are all intimately related; and a perfect knowledge of any one of these sciences is not to be acquired without a knowledge of the rest. Theology is the most comprehensive, the most perfect, and the most important of all sciences, and it is the most closely and extensively related to other sciences. Whoever wishes to understand it as a teacher of religion should do, must give himself to study every thing that affects the interests of mankind. He must especially be willing to read a considerable variety of books on religion itself. The Bible must be his first and great book; it must be his daily companion and his closest friend; it must be his text book, his system, his epitome; but it must not be his only book. It should be the master book, but it should have a many other books as servants. It should be his king of books, but it should have a many subjects. He must read authors of different classes, and several authors of each class. If he can he must form an acquaintance, and cultivate a free and familiar intercourse, with the worthiest writers of every age and sect. He should hold a few interviews with the Reformers; he should spend much of his time with the Puritans and Non-conformists; he should be often in the company of Barrow, and Wilkins, and Tillotson, and Taylor of the establishment. He should notice

some of the modern host of authors, and if he has the opportunity of consulting some of the Fathers, he will do well to improve it.

Some authors have written chiefly on the evidences of religion, others have written principally on its doctrines and duties. Some have treated religion systematically, others have taken portions of the divine system, and spent all their force on them. Some have written to give men knowledge, others have written to strengthen men's faith, and others have written to excite their affections, and to arouse their energies; some of all classes should be read. Some have written in every department, and have excelled in all; those should be our favourites. What authors deserve the preference in these several ranks, may be the subject of inquiry after; at present we only wish to recommend the perusal of a tolerable number,

Writers on Theology have had different creeds, and have written upon different principles; he who wishes to obtain a correct as well as comprehensive knowledge of religion must read men of different persuasions. If a writer be mysterious, or ill-tempered, or full of little objections, you may lay down his work as soon as you please; you will get little from him but the plagues of fire and darkness, But if the writer be patient, and gentle, and plain and honest, you are sure to reap advantage from reading his works,

He is to be pitied, who, when he first conceives a desire for knowledge, is not favoured with a tolerably large choice of books; while he who has variety at command, and yet confines himself to one or to a few, is both to be pitied and blamed. A man may be very ignorant, though possessed of five thousand volumes and he may be but an indifferent preacher though he may have read the greater part of them through: but we must not lay the blame of his ignorance and want of talents on the number of his books, or on the extent of his reading. He would probably have been a greater dunce and a worse preacher, if he had read fewer books, or read them less. If a man have common sense, and

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