ncluding, in fact, every known author on every one of a wide
circle of subjects. This was characteristic of the man: he was a
voracious reader himself, and an example to show, in opposition to
Hobbes, that original genius is not necessarily quenched by great or
even excessive erudition. As bearing on the art of study, especially for
striplings under twenty, Milton's scheme is open to two criticisms:
first, that the amount of reading on the whole is too great; second,
that in subjects handled by several authors of repute, one should have
been selected as the leading text-book and got up thoroughly; the others
being taken in due time as enlarging or correcting the knowledge thus
laid in. Think of a boy learning Rhetoric upon six authors taken
together!

[LOCKE'S CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING.]

The transition from Milton to Locke is the inverse of that from Hobbes
to Milton. Locke was also a man of few books. If he had been sent to
school under Milton, as he might have been,[16] he would have very soon
thrown up the learned drudgery prescribed for him, and would have
bolted.

The practical outcome of Locke's enquiries respecting the human
faculties is to be found in the little treatise named--"The Conduct of
the Understanding". It is an earnest appeal in favour of devotion to the
attainment of truth, and an exposure of _all_ the various sources of
error, moral and intellectual; more especially prejudices and bias.
There are not, however, many references to book study; and such as we
find are chiefly directed to the one aim of painful and laborious
examination, first, of an author's meaning, and next of the goodness of
his arguments. Two or three sentences will give the clue. "Those who
have read of everything, are thought to understand everything too; but
it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of
knowledge; it is thinking makes what we read ours. We are of the
ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great
deal of collections, unless we chew them over again, they will not give
us strength and nourishment." Farther: "Books and reading are looked
upon to be the great helps of the understanding, and instruments of
knowledge, as it must be allowed that they are; and yet I beg leave to
question whether these do not prove a hindrance to many, and keep
several bookish men from attaining to solid and true knowledge". Here,
again, is his stern way of dealing with any author:--"T