of
trying to learn has been a discipline for the mind, but wasted so far as
the accomplishments themselves are concerned. And even this mental
discipline, on which so much stress is laid by those whose interest it
is to encourage unsound accomplishment, might be obtained more perfectly
if the subjects of study were less numerous and more thoroughly
understood. Let us not therefore in the studies of our maturity repeat
the error of our youth. Let us determine to have soundness, that is,
accurately organized knowledge in the studies we continue to pursue, and
let us resign ourselves to the necessity for abandoning those pursuits
in which soundness is not to be hoped for.

The old-fashioned idea about scholarship in Latin and Greek, that it
ought to be based upon thorough grammatical knowledge, is a good
example, so far as it goes, of what soundness really is. That ideal of
scholarship failed only because it fell short of soundness in other
directions and was not conscious of its failure. But there existed, in
the minds of the old scholars, a fine resolution to be accurate, and a
determination to give however much labor might be necessary for the
attainment of accuracy, in which there was much grandeur. Like Mr.
Browning's Grammarian, they said--

"Let me know all! Prate not of most or least
Painful or easy!"

and so at least they came to know the ancient tongues grammatically,
which few of us do in these days.

I should define each kind of knowledge as an organic whole and soundness
as the complete possession of all the essential parts. For example,
soundness in violin-playing consists in being able to play the notes in
all the positions, in tune, and with a pure intonation, whatever may be
the degree of rapidity indicated by the musical composer. Soundness in
painting consists in being able to lay a patch of color having exactly
the right shape and tint. Soundness in the use of language consists in
being able to put the right word in the right place. In each of the
sciences, there are certain elementary notions without which sound
knowledge is not possible, but these elementary notions are more easily
and rapidly acquired than the elaborate knowledge or confirmed skill
necessary to the artist or the linguist. A man may be a sound botanist
without knowing a very great number of plants, and the elements of
sound botanical knowledge may be printed in a portable volume. And so it
is with all the physical sciences;