cles, sermons--all
intended to guide both young and old in the path of useful study. What
to read, when to read, and how to read,--have been themes of many an
essay, texts of many a discourse. According as Education at large has
been more and more discussed, the particular province of self-education,
as here marked out, has had an ample share of attention from more or
less qualified advisers.

What we have got before us, then, is, first, to define our ground, and
then to appropriate and value the accumulated fruits of the labour
expended on it. I have already indicated how I would narrow the subject
of Study, so as to occupy a field apart, and not jumble together matters
that follow distinct laws. The theory of Education in general is the
theory of good Teaching: that is a field by itself, although many things
in it are applicable also to self-education. To estimate the values of
different acquisitions--Science, Language, and the rest, is good for
all modes of culture. The laws of the understanding in general, and of
the memory in particular, must be taken into account under every mode of
acquiring knowledge. Yet the alteration of circumstances, when a pupil
is carving out his own course, and working under his own free-will,
leads to new and distinct rules of procedure. Also, that part of
self-education consisting in the application to books is distinct from
the other forms of mental cultivation, namely, conversing, disputing,
original composition, and tutorial aid. Each of these has its own rules
or methods, which I do not mean to notice except by brief allusion.

In connection with the Plan of study, it is material to ask what the
individual is studying for. Each profession, each accomplishment, has
its own course of education. If book reading is an essential part, then
the choice of books must follow the line of the special pursuit. This is
obvious; but does not do away with the consideration of the best modes
of studying whatever books are suitable for the end. One man has to read
in Chemistry, another in Law, another in Divinity, and so on. For each
and all of these, there is a profitable and an unprofitable mode of
working, and the speciality of the matter is unessential.

[DIFFERENT ENDS OF STUDY.]

The more important differences of subject, involving differences of
method, are seen in such contrasted departments as Science and Language,
Thought and Style, Reality and Poetry, Generality and Particularity. In