"I think it is," replied I, with great naivete.

"Well, then, let us have the breakfast things taken away, and do
something this morning."

"Willingly," said I, ringing the bell.

The table was cleared, and my uncle began his examination. Little,
poor man, had he thought, from my usual bearing and the character of my
education, that in general literature there were few subjects on which
I was not to the full as well read as himself. I enjoyed his surprise,
when little by little he began to discover the extent of my information,
but I was mortified to find it was only surprise, not delight.

"You have," said he, "a considerable store of learning; far more than
I could possibly have imagined you possessed; but it is knowledge not
learning, in which I wish you to be skilled. I would rather, in order
to gift you with the former, that you were more destitute of the latter.
The object of education, is to instil principles which are hereafter
to guide and instruct us; facts are only desirable, so far as they
illustrate those principles; principles ought therefore to precede
facts! What then can we think of a system which reverses this evident
order, overloads the memory with facts, and those of the most doubtful
description, while it leaves us entirely in the dark with regard to
the principles which could alone render this heterogeneous mass of
any advantage or avail? Learning without knowledge, is but a bundle of
prejudices; a lumber of inert matter set before the threshold of the
understanding to the exclusion of common sense. Pause for a moment,
and recal those of your contemporaries, who are generally considered
well-informed; tell me if their information has made them a whit the
wiser; if not, it is only sanctified ignorance. Tell me if names with
them are not a sanction for opinion; quotations, the representatives of
axioms? All they have learned only serves as an excuse for all they are
ignorant of. In one month, I will engage that you shall have a juster
and deeper insight into wisdom, than they have been all their lives
acquiring; the great error of education is to fill the mind first with
antiquated authors, and then to try the principles of the present day by
the authorities and maxims of the past. We will pursue for our plan, the
exact reverse of the ordinary method. We will learn the doctrines of the
day, as the first and most necessary step, and we will then glance over
those which have passed away, as resea