PINIONS.--Mere facts, some of which may be the result of laborious
investigation, may be accepted without verification, if the authority
is good. When the student reads that the river Nile rises in
Equatorial Africa, flows in a northerly direction through Egypt into
the Mediterranean sea, he cannot verify this statement nor reason out
that it must be so. It is a mere fact and a name, and he simply
accepts it, perhaps looking at the map to fix the fact in his mind.
So, too, if he reads that the atomic weight of oxygen is 16, or that a
cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds, he cannot be expected to
perform the experiments necessary to verify these statements. If he
were to do this throughout his reading, he would have to make all the
investigations made in the subject since man has studied it, taking no
advantage of the labor of others.

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Very different are conclusions or opinions deduced from facts; and
logical conclusions are very different from mere opinions. The facts
may be sufficient to prove logically a certain conclusion. On the
other hand, the facts may simply give reasonable ground, or appear to
give reasonable ground, for a certain opinion, though they may fall far
short of demonstration. The student must, therefore, discriminate
constantly between mere statements of facts, necessary conclusions
which follow therefrom, and mere opinions which they seem to render
reasonable.

Some conclusions also, like those of mathematics or logic, may be
arrived at by the unaided reason without the previous accumulation of
facts deduced from experiments or observation. Such truths or
conclusions should be distinguished from those which are based upon
facts, experiments or observation. If the student reads, therefore,
that the sum of the angles of a plane triangle is equal to two right
angles, he should see that this is not a mere fact, but an inevitable
truth, the reason for which he should perceive, and not accept simply
because he reads it.

The continual exercise of this discrimination, which comes from an
attitude of mental courage and independence, is an essential of proper
study.

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(_c_) THE STUDENT'S MIND SHOULD BE A CONTINUAL INTERROGATION
POINT.[1]--He should always ask himself, regarding any statement which
he reads, whether there is a reason for it, and if there is, whether it
is inherent in the nature of things, so that he might independently
arrive at it, or whether it follows from fac