ourse of education, is only
a course which prepares a young man to educate himself. It is giving
him the keys of knowledge. But who will sit down contentedly and cease
to make effort, the moment he obtains the keys to the most valuable of
treasures? It is strange, indeed, that we should so long have talked of
finishing an education, when we have only just prepared ourselves to
begin it.

If any young man at twenty, twenty-five, or thirty, finds himself
ignorant, whether the fault is his own or that of others, let him not
for one single moment regard his age as presenting a serious obstacle
to improvement. Should these remarks meet the eye of any such
individual, let me prevail with him, when I urge him to make an effort.
Not a momentary effort, either; let him _take time_ for his experiment.
Even Rome was not built in a day; and he who thinks to build up a well
regulated and highly enlightened mind in a few weeks, or even months,
has yet to learn the depths of his own ignorance.

It would be easy to cite a long list of men who commenced study late in
life, and yet finally became eminent; and this, too, with no
instructors but themselves and their books. Some have met with signal
success, who commenced after forty years of age. Indeed, no reason can
be shown, why the mind may not improve as long, at least, as the body.
But all experience goes to prove that with those whose habits are
judicious, the physical frame does not attain perfection, in every
respect, till thirty-five or forty.

It is indeed said that knowledge, if it could be acquired thus late in
life, would be easily forgotten. This is true, if it be that kind of
knowledge for which we have no immediate use. But if it be of a
practical character, it will not fail to be remembered. Franklin was
always learning, till death. And what he learned he seldom forgot,
because he had an immediate use for it. I have said, it is a great
point to be convinced of the importance of knowledge. I might add that
it is a point of still greater consequence to feel our own ignorance.
'To know ourselves diseased, (morally) is half our cure.' To know our
own ignorance is the first step to knowledge; and other things being
alike, our progress in knowledge will generally be in proportion to our
sense of the want of it.

The strongest plea which indolence is apt to put in, is, that we have
no _time_ for study. Many a young man has had some sense of his own
ignorance, and a correspo