reat as the variety of
these large divisions of learning may appear, they are all held in union
by two capital principles of connexion. First, they are all quarried out
of one and the same great subject of man's moral, social, and feeling
nature. And secondly, they are all under the control (more or less strict)
of the same power of moral reason."

"If these studies," he continues, "be such as give a direct play and
exercise to the faculty of the judgment, then they are the true basis of
education for the active and inventive powers, whether destined for a
profession or any other use. Miscellaneous as the assemblage may appear,
of history, eloquence, poetry, ethics, etc., blended together, they will
all conspire in an union of effect. They are necessary mutually to explain
and interpret each other. The knowledge derived from them all will
amalgamate, and the habits of a mind versed and practised in them by turns
will join to produce a richer vein of thought and of more general and
practical application than could be obtained of any single one, as the
fusion of the metals into Corinthian brass gave the artist his most
ductile and perfect material. Might we venture to imitate an author (whom
indeed it is much safer to take as an authority than to attempt to copy),
Lord Bacon, in some of his concise illustrations of the comparative
utility of the different studies, we should say that history would give
fulness, moral philosophy strength, and poetry elevation to the
understanding. Such in reality is the natural force and tendency of the
studies; but there are few minds susceptible enough to derive from them
any sort of virtue adequate to those high expressions. We must be
contented therefore to lower our panegyric to this, that a person cannot
avoid receiving some infusion and tincture, at least, of those several
qualities, from that course of diversified reading. One thing is
unquestionable, that the elements of general reason are not to be found
fully and truly expressed in any one kind of study; and that he who would
wish to know her idiom, must read it in many books.

"If different studies are useful for aiding, they are still more useful
for correcting each other; for as they have their particular merits
severally, so they have their defects, and the most extensive acquaintance
with one can produce only an intellect either too flashy or too jejune, or
infected with some other fault of confined reading. History, for exa