Her faith can govern death; she spreads her wings She floats on the broad deep with infinite delight, GENERAL DIRECTIONS RELATING TO OUR IDEAS. DIRECTION I.-Furnish yourselves with a rich variety of ideas; acquaint yourselves with things ancient and modern; things natural, civil, and religious; things domestic and national; things of your native land and of foreign countries; things pre sent, past, and future; and, above all, be well acquainted with God and yourselves; learn animal nature, and the workings of your own spirits. The way of attaining such an extensive treasure of ideas is, with diligence to apply yourself to read the best books; converse with the most knowing and the wisest of men, and endeavor to improve by every person in whose company you are; suffer no hour to pass away in a lazy idleness, in impertinent chattering, or useless trifles: visit other cities and countries when you have seen your own, under the care of one who can teach you to profit by travelling, and to make wise observations; indulge a just curi osity in seeing the wonders of art and nature; search into things yourselves, as well as learn them from others; be acquainted with men as well as books; learn all things as much as you can at first hand; and let as many of your ideas as possible be the represen tations of things, and not merely the representations of other men's ideas thus your soul, like some noble building, shall be richly furnished with original paintings, and not with mere copies. DIRECTION II.-Use the most proper methods to retain that treasure of ideas which you have acquired; for the mind is ready to let many of them slip, unless some pains and labor be taken to fix them upon the memory. And more especially let those ideas be laid up and preserved with the greatest care, which are most directly suited, either to your eternal welfare as a Christian, or to your particular station and profession in this life; for though the former rule recommends a universal acquaintance with things, yet it is but a more general and superficial knowledge that is required or expected of any man, in things which are utterly foreign to his own business; but it is necessary you should have a more particular and accurate acquaintance with those things that refer to your peculiar province and duty in this life, or your happiness in another. There are soine persons who never arrive at any deep, solid, or valuable knowledge in any science or any business of life, because they are perpetually fluttering over the surface of things in a curious and wandering search of infinite variety; ever hearing, reading, or asking after something new, but impatient of any labor to lay up and preserve the ideas they have gained. Their souls may be compared to a looking-glass, that, wheresoever you turn it, it receives the images of all objects, but retains none. In order to preserve your treasure of ideas and the knowledge you have gained, pursue these advices, especially in your younger years. 1. Recollect every day the things you have seen, or heard, or read, which may have made any addition to your understanding: read the writings of God and men with diligence and perpetual reviews: be not fond of hastening to a new book, or a new chap ter, till you have well fixed and established in your mind what was useful in the last: make use of your memory in this manner, and you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement of it, while you take care not to load it to excess. 2. Talk over the things which you have seen, heard, or learnt, with some proper acquaintance; this will make a fresh impression upon your memory; and if you have no fellow student at hand, none of equal rank with yourselves, tell it over to any of your acquaintance, where you can do it with propriety and de cency; and whether they learn any thing by it or no, your own repetition of it will be an improvement to yourself: and this practice also will furnish you with a variety of words and copious language, to express your thoughts upon all occasions. 3. Commit to writing some of the most consiaerable improvements which you daily make, at least such hints as may recall them again to your mind, when perhaps they are vanished and lost. At the end of every week, or month, or year, you may review your remarks for these two reasons: First, to judge of your own improvement, when you shall find that many of your younger collections are either weak and trifling; or if they are just and proper, yet they are grown now so familiar to you, that you will thereby see your own advancement in knowledge. And in the next place what remarks you find there worthy of your riper observation, you may note them with a marginal star, instead of transcribing them, as being worthy of your second year's review, when the others are neglected. To shorten something of this labor, if the books which you read are your own, mark with a pen, or pencil, the most considerable things in them which you desire to remember. Thus you may read that book the second time over with half the trouble, by your eye running over the paragraphs which your pencil has noted. It is but a very weak objection against this practice to say, I shal spoil my book; for I persuade myself that you did not buy it as a bookseller, to sell it again for gain, but as a scholar to improve your mind by it; and if the mind be improved, your advantage is abundant, though your book yield less money to your executors. Logic, or The Right Use of Reason, V. RULES OF IMPROVEMENT BY CONVERSATION. 1. If we would improve our minds by conversation, it is a great happiness to be acquainted with persons wiser than our selves. It is a piece of useful advice, therefore, to get the favor of their conversation frequently, as far as circumstances will allow and if they happen to be a little reserved, use all obliging methods to draw out of them what may increase your own know. ledge. :: 2. If you happen to be in company with a merchant or a sailor, a farmer or a mechanic, a milkmaid or a spinster, lead them into a discourse of the matters of their own peculiar province or profession; for every one knows, or should know, his own business best. In this sense a common mechanic is wiser than a philosopher. By this means you may gain some improvement in knowledge from every one you meet. 3. Confine not yourself always to one sort of company, or to persons of the same party or opinion, either in matters of learning, religion, or the civil life, lest if you should happen to be nursed up or educated in early mistake, you should be confirmed and established in the same mistake, by conversing only with persons of the same sentiments. A free and general conversation with men of very various countries and of different parties, opinions, and practices, (so far as it may be done safely,) is of excellent use to undeceive us in many wrong judgments which we may have framed, and to lead us into juster thoughts. 4. In mixed company, among acquaintance and strangers, endeavor to learn something from all. Be swift to hear, but be cautious of your tongue, lest you betray your ignorance, and perhaps offend some of those who are present too. 5. Believe that it is possible to learn something from persons much below yourself. We are all short-sighted creatures; ou views are also narrow and limited; we often see but one side of a matter, and do not extend our sight far and wide enough to reach every thing that has a connection with the thing we talk of: we see but in part, and know but in part, therefore it is no wonder we form not right conclusions, because we do not survey the whole of any subject or argument. 6. To make conversation more valuable and useful, whether it be in a designed or accidental visit, among persons of the same or of different sexes, after the necessary salutations are finished, and the stream of common talk begins to hesitate, or runs flat and low, let some one person take a book which may be agreeable to the whole company, and by common consent let him read in it ten lines, or a paragraph or two, or a few pages, till some word or sentence gives an occasion for any of the company to offer a thought or two relating to that subject. Interruption of the reader should be no blame, for conversation is the business; whether it be to confirin what the author says, or to improve it; to enlarge upon or to correct it; to object against it, or to ask any question that is akin to it; and let every one that pleases add his opinion and promote the conversation. When the discourse sinks again, or diverts to trifles, let him that reads pursue the page, and read on further paragraphs or pages, till some occasion is given by a word or sentence for a new discourse to be started, and that with the utmost ease and freedom. Such a method as this would prevent the hours of a visit from running all to waste; and by this means, even among scholars, they will seldom find occasion for that too just and bitter reflection, I have lost my time in the company of the learned. By such practice as this, young ladies may very honorably and agreeably improve their hours: while one applies herself to reading, the others employ their attention, even among the various artifices of the needle; but let all of them make their occasional remarks or inquiries. This will guard a great deal of that precious time from modish trifling impertinence or scandal, which might otherwise afford matter for painful repentance. Observe this rule in general; whensoever it lies in your power to lead the conversation, let it be directed to some profitable point of knowledge or practice, so far as may be done with decency; and let not the discourse and the hours be suffered to run loose without aim or design: and when a subject is started, pass not hastily to another, before you have brought the present theme or discourse to some tolerable issue, or a joint consent to drop it. 7. Attend with sincere diligence while any one of the company is declaring his sense of the question proposed; hear the argument with patience, though it differ ever so much from your sentiments, for you yourself are very desirous to be heard with patience by others who differ from you. Let not your thoughts be active and busy all the while to find out something to contra dict, and by what means to oppose the speaker, especially in matters which are not brought to an issue. This is a frequent and unhappy temper and practice. You should rather be intent and solicitous to take up the mind and meaning of the speaker, zealous to seize and approve all that is true in his discourse; nor yet should you want courage to oppose where it is necessary; but let your modesty and patience, and a friendly temper, be as conspicuous as your zeal. 8. As you should carry about with you a constant and sincere sense of your own ignorance, so you should not be afraid nor ashamed to confess this ignorance, by taking all proper opportu nities to ask and inquire for farther information; whether it be the meaning of a word, the nature of a thing, the reason of a proposition, or the custom of a nation. Never remain in ignorance for want of asking. 9. Be not too forward, especially in the younger part of life, to determine any question in company with an infallible and peremp tory sentence, nor speak with assuming airs, and with a decisive tone of voice. A young man in the presence of his elders should rather hear and attend, and weigh the arguments which are brought for the proof or refutation of any doubtful proposition; and when it is your turn to speak, propose your thoughts rather in way of inquiry. 10. As you may sometimes raise inquiries for your own instruction and improvement, and draw out the learning, wisdom, and fine sentiments of your friends, who perhaps may be too reserved or modest; so at other times, if you perceive a person unskilful in the matter of debate, you may, by questions aptly proposed in the Socratic method, lead him into a clearer know ledge of the subject: then you become his instructor, in such a manner as may not appear to make yourself his superior. 11. Take heed of affecting always to shine in company above the rest, and to display the riches of your own understanding or your oratory, as though you would render yourself admirable to all that are present. This is seldom well taken in polite com pany; much less should you use such forms of speech as would insinuate the ignorance or dulness of those with whom you con verse. 12. Banish utterly out of all conversation, and especially out of all learned and intellectual conference, every thing that tends to provoke passion, or raise a fire in the blood. Let no sharp language, no noisy exclamation, no sarcasms or biting jests be heard among you; no perverse or invidious consequences be drawn from each other's opinions, and imputed to the person. All these things are enemies to friendship, and the ruin of free conversation. The impartial search of truth requires all calmness and serenity, all temper and candor; mutual instruction can never be attained in the midst of passion, pride, and clamor, unless we suppose, in the midst of such a scene, there is a loud and penetrating lecture read by both sides on the folly and shameful infirmities of human nature. |