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and therefore lie is left behind in the race of life by many a 

 shrewd fellow who is not half as book-learned as he, but 

 who is a shrewd fellow — who keeps his eyes open — who is 

 always picking up new facts and turning them to some 

 practical use. 



Now, I don't mean to undervalue book-learning — no man 

 less. All ought to have some of it, and the time you spend 

 here on it is not a whit too long ; but the great use of a 

 public-school education to you is, not so much to teach you 

 things as to teach you how to learn — to give you the noble 

 art of learning, which you can use for yom-selves in after life 

 on any matter to which you choose to turn your mind. And 

 what does the art of learning consist in? First and foremost, 

 in the art of observing. That is, that the boy who uses his 

 eyes best on his book observes the words and letters of his 

 lesson most accurately and carefully — that is the boy who 

 learns his lessons best, I presume. 



You know as well as I know, one fellow will sit staring 

 at his book for an hour without knowing a word about it, 

 while another will learn the thing in a quarter of an hour. 

 Why ? Because one has actually not seen the words ; he has 

 been thinking of something else, looking out of the window, 

 repeating the words to himself like a parrot. The other 

 fellow has simply, as we say, looked sharp : he has looked at 

 the lesson with his whole mind, seen it, and seen into it, and 

 therefore knows all about it. 



Therefore, I say, that everything which helps a boy's 

 power of observation helps his powers of learning; and I 

 know from experience, that nothing helps that so much as 

 the study of the world about you, and especially of natural 

 history, — to be accustomed to Avateh for curious objects, to 

 know in a moment when you have come upon anything new — 

 which is observation ; to be quick at seeing when things are 

 like and when unlike — which is classification,- — all that must, 

 and, I well know, does, help to make a boy shrewd, earnest, 

 accurate, ready for whatsoever may happen. When we were 

 little boys, a long while ago, we used to have an old book, 

 called ' Evenings at Home,' in which was a story called 

 ' Eyes and ISTo Eyes,' and that story was of more use to me 

 than any dozen other stories I ever read. 



A regular old-fashioned formal story it is, but a right 

 good one, and thus it begins : — 



' Well, Robert, where have you been walking this after- 

 noon ? ' said Mr. Andrews, to one of his pupils at the close 

 of a holiday. 



