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who love me in private, knowing as I do, what a treasure is the possession of a friend's mind, when he is no more. At all events, nothing, while I live and think, can deprive me of my value for such treasures. I can help the appreciation of them while I last, and love them till I die; and perhaps, if fortune turns her face once more in kindness upon me before I go, I may chance, some quiet day, to lay my over-beating temples on a book, and so have the death I most envy."

A single word about the getting a library together. How much do you spend in cigars? How much in beer, ale, or wine? How much in

fruit, oranges, nuts? Whatever may be its aggre

gate at the end of the year, and I think it very likely to amount even to pounds, this you know is extracted from the furniture of the mind. Is it not solemn, to hear young men declare their inability to purchase the means of mental illumination, while odious cigars and pipes are every where in use among them! In the name of all common sense let these be removed, and then-then

CHAPTER IV.

THE ART OF THINKING.

IF the Self Educator reads in the fashion and manner we have recommended, the art of reading will also train him in the art of thinking; this is the real difficulty of the Intellectual Life. It is, however, this culture of the thought which is the main purpose of all education. The three leading characteristics of healthy thought are clearness, comprehension, and adroitness; and although it may tax the powers for a considerable time, it should be the object of the Educator to train an intellectual energy by which the most vivid impression of a subject should be presented to the mind, not merely by itself, but with all its attendant relations and bearings, and this distinct and compendious view reached by the most rapid and immediate perception. On many subjects, this rapid insight into the core and the circumference of subjects is impossible, even with profound and accomplished thinkers; but the well-trained mind

will be so fitted for intellectual gladiatorship, that most of the sophistries which cross the path of ordinary life, will be cloven through at once by the two-edged sword. There is a twofold method of regarding a subject, which greatly aids the thinking power: the first is the collection of details, and throwing them into generalizations the perpetually looking at parts in relation to wholes; thus the mind finds its views enlarged; thus it is emancipated from the village-life view of things, to the lofty and universal framework of being; but if the mind is too much accustomed to look at things in their larger relations, then let it be educated by reflecting on the infinitely small and minute parts which make up the whole instead of tracing from the inner to the outer, it becomes then the duty to trace from the outer to the inner.

The great and indispensable preliminary to correct thinking is METHOD. We have called it the preliminary, but it is the very soul and body of the Art of Thinking. All that Logic can do is to methodise our thoughts-it does not profess to give us thoughts; as Rhetoric professes to teach us the arrangement of our diction, so as to make words in their application effective, so Logic professes to teach us how to arrange our reasons and our ideas so that they may wear the most complete appearance. Method, therefore, we say, should be studied. First arrange your own ideas, and

you will be the better able to detect the discordancy of those which may be presented to you, even in some of your great men. Upon being admitted into the chambers of their intellect, we behold the wardrobe and vestments of their minds scattered about in ridiculous disarray; and whenever this is perceived, although you admire the genius, it is certain that you lose a large amount of your previous confidence in the teacher. Methodic minds move in a solar pathway, and they leave a track of light after them in the path along which they travel.

There is a story told by Mr. Smith in his "Irish Diamonds," which will not be without its value here, as containing a hint and an illustration of the value of method in the art of thinking. "A lady was complimenting a clergyman on the fact that she could hear and recite more of the matter of his sermons than those of any other minister she was in the habit of hearing. She could not account for this, but she thought that the fact was worthy of observation. The reverend gentleman remarked that he could explain the cause. 'I happen,' he said, 'to make a particular point of classifying my topics-it is a hobby of mine to do so; and therefore I never compose a sermon without first settling the relationship and order of my arguments and illustrations. Suppose, madam, that your servant was starting for town, and you were

obliged hastily to instruct her about a few domestic purchases, not having time to write down the items, and suppose you said, "Be sure to bring some tea, and also some soap, aud coffee too, by the bye; and some powder-blue-and don't forget some light cakes and a little sugar; and now I think of it-soda;" you will not be surprised if her memory failed with regard to one or two of the articles. But if your commission ran thus― "Now, Mary, to-morrow, we are going to have some friends to tea; therefore, bring a supply of tea, coffee, and sugar, and light cakes; and the next day you know is washing day, so that we shall want soap, and starch, and powder-blue;" it is most likely she would retain your order as easily as you retain my sermons.'

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A most important section of study is the investigation of the nature of Analogic Evidence.Analogy or Probability: Comparison we shall find to be the great clue-line of thought. In countless instances of our lives Probability throws the determining weight into the scale. With what admirable, and, indeed, overwhelming force, is this circumstance used by Bishop Butler. How few things are believed by Demonstration; or, rather, how few things are known by us to be. Demonstration is plain and simple, while Probable Evidence, as the Bishop has remarked in the very first sentence of his immortal work, admits of degrees,

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