it. Readers bent on enjoyment
dwell on the passing page, and are not inclined to carry with them what
has gone before, in order to understand what is to follow.

[REPUDIATION OF METHOD BY MEN OF REPUTE.]

Very intelligent and superior men have wholly repudiated the notion of
study by method. We must not lay too much stress upon these disclaimers,
seeing that they are usually cited from those in advanced years, or men
whose day of methodical education is passed. When Johnson said--"A man
ought to read just as inclination leads him," he was not thinking of
beginners, for whom he would probably have dictated a different course.
Still, it is a prevailing tendency of many minds, to read all books
equally, provided the interest or enjoyment of them is equal. Macaulay,
Sir William Hamilton, De Quincey, as well as Johnson, and a numerous
host besides, were book-gluttons, books in breeches; they imbibed
information copiously, and also retained it, but as a matter of chance.
The enjoyment of their life was to read; whereas, to master thoroughly a
considerable field of knowledge, can never be all enjoyment. Gibbon was
a book devourer, but he had a plan; he was organizing a vast work of
composition. Macaulay, also, showed himself capable of realizing a
scheme of composition; both his History and his Speeches have the stamp
of method, even to the pitch of being valuable as models. Hamilton and
De Quincey, each in his way, could form high ideals of work, and in part
execute them; but their productiveness suffered from too much bookish
intoxication. While readers generally mix the motive of instruction with
stimulation, the class that seek instruction solely is but small; the
other extreme is frequent enough.

[DIFFICULTY IN CHOOSING A FIRST TEXT-BOOK.]

In many subjects, the difficulties of fixing upon the proper Text-book
are not inconsiderable. The mere reputation of a book may be great, and
well-founded; and yet the merits may not be of the kind that fits it for
the commencing student. Such conditions as the following must be taken
into account. The Form or Method should be of a high order: this we
shall have occasion to illustrate under the next head. It should be
abreast: of the time, on its own subject. It should be moderately full,
without being necessarily exhaustive in detail. It is on this point that
the cheap primers of the present day are mainly defective. They state
general ideas, and lay down outlines; but they do no