Sophocles was charged with insanity, he read his Edipus Coloneus to his judges, and was at once acquitted, so can all good men point to their works. Industry preaches of the greatness and the dignity of Difficulty, the renown of Danger, and the heroism and advantage of Suffering; and shows you how, when the cold, chill, wet earth, wraps round your remains, by a patient continuance in well doing, as the reward of all your seeking, training, education, comes Glory, Honour, Immortality, Eternal Life."

Before we close our introductory chapter, however, lest it should be thought that we have closed the door of Hope for the aged students, we will just say, "You are never too old to learn." SOCRATES, at an extreme old age, learned to play upon musical instruments; CATO, at eighty years of age, learned the Greek language; PLUTARCH was between seventy and eighty when he commenced the study of Latin; BoCCACIO neglected the polite Sciences until he was thirty years of age, yet he became one of the three great masters of the Tuscan Dialect; SIR HENRY SPELMAN was a most learned Antiquarian and Lawyer, yet he did not commence his studies until he was nearly sixty years of age; DR. JOHNSON commenced, we are told, the study of the Dutch language a few years before his death. Who then is too old to be a student? Let this be a motto with all-"Never

too old to learn." The above instances are only selections from thousands of similar cases. The great DR. HUNTER had been quite neglected in his youth, and only went to London to assist his brother in his surgery; he instantly demonstrated his powers, and became the first Anatomist of his age. Only this is certain: however old you may be, or however young, it is time to begin if you have not already begun.

CHAPTER II.

HOW TO OBSERVE.

IN Observation all knowledge begins. The vulgar idea is that the great method of obtaining knowledge is from books; but the method of the wise man is to value books, but to rate them at no more than their proper worth. The eye sees; but there is an inward eye which makes the optic lens subservient to its purpose; and the outward and visible eye is useless-it is without speculation and power, if it is not directed by the ever-vigilant inner eye. Observation-the power of reading Nature is the great entrance to the Temple of Knowledge: this is the cause of the interest attaching to men; this gives supreme value to their writings. Books by themselves can never make a man worthy of our attention. Books, when they have been read alone, and never compared with men and things, how valueless-how tame, "stale, flat, and unprofitable" they are. Books should never be regarded as more than indexes of reference-as

guide-books to Nature's walks and curiosities; and even in this particular, it is far better if we can traverse the walk, and discover the hidden path, and the curious thing, without them. Without the power to observe, it is certain that nothing originally worthy can be given to the world. The power to observe character, and to present it in its various lights and shades, as it passes before the eye-the power to observe Nature-to understand her moods, her tempers, her arrangements. All Nature is but one vast museum, to which museums, Louvres, Jardin de Plants, and Zoological Gardens, are poor, and mean, and tame. Man is perpetually on the stretch, on the gape, to behold the wonderful: he will travel miles, perhaps hundreds of miles, to see the extraordinary, when the truly extraordinary and wonderful-the noteworthy and the strange-are by his foot, and quite within his reach. Curiosities, I say, are all around; let us look after them, and you will not fail to find them. Think, for instance, if the common house-spider has, in every thread which it spins, above four thousand other threads; that four millions of the threadlets of a young spider would not be thicker than a hair of a man's beard. In the wonders of insect architecture, you will find that one species of spider lives in the water, and has a house like a diving-bell; that others build houses on the ground, and close the entrance with a door, having

an elastic hinge, which spontaneously keeps it shut. How many mistakes have been made from the ab.. sence of observation—that is, from trusting the eyes without the aid of the reflective powers: thus many of our readers will remember Buffon's description of a Bat :- "An animal which is half quadruped and half bird, and which, upon the whole, is neither the one nor the other, must be a monstrous being; because, by uniting the attributes of two opposite genera, it resembles some of those models presented to us in the great classes of Nature. It is an imperfect quadruped, and still more imperfect bird. A quadruped should have four feet, and a bird should have feathers and wings." And what is all this but a libel upon Nature's method, which is easily detected by the close observation of Nature. So also the wing of the bat has been called a wing of leather, and the idea attached to this undoubtedly is, that it is composed of a very callous membrane-that it is an insensible piece of stuff, like a glove, or a lady's shoe. Can anything be farther from the truth? Modern naturalists tell us, that of all things in creation, the bat's wing is the most exquisitely sensitive; its delicacy is so great, that it flies principally by the direction of its wing; this is a sort of helm by which it steers safely through all objects that might impede its flight, with as much precision if its eyes be bandaged, and in the night, as if they were un