ADVANTAGES OF READING. 297 



If a man cannot acquire the knowledge of others without 

 losing his independence of thought, it is evident he cannot 

 become an original investigator. As a matter of fact, 

 however, acquiring the knowledge of others operates in 

 different ways according to the condition of the mind 

 acquiring it. If a man reads inattentively or too 

 rapidly, the chief effect is confusion; if he reads with 

 moderate attention and is not occupied by preconceived 

 opposite views, his mind is drawn into the groove of that 

 of the author, whether the latter be right or wrong ; but 

 if he attentively considers what he is reading, with a de- 

 termination to understand clearly the author's meaning, 

 he acquires a proper basis of knowledge on which to raise 

 hypotheses. So far as the statements of an author are 

 true it is highly desirable that an investigator should adopt 

 them, because he is thereby preserved from error. An 

 investigator who does not acquire sufficient knowledge of 

 the labours of others in science, runs a great risk of repeat- 

 irjg their experiments, and of falling into errors which they 

 have corrected, and no one should risk being erroneous for 

 the sake of being original. 



It is also of advantage to become acquainted with all 

 the researches which have been made in a particular sub- 

 ject before we proceed to investigate it. But, however 

 careful and diligent we may be in searching for such infor- 

 mation, we occasionally fail to find some one or more pub- 

 lished researches or experiments. One great reason of this 

 is, that the results of many researches published in foreign 

 languages have not been translated into English. The 

 magnificent ' Catalogue of Scientific Papers,' published by 

 the Eoyal Society (partly by the aid of a grant of money 

 from our Government), has greatly reduced the difficulty. 

 A great many scientific investigations have been made 

 since the year 1800, and the catalogue contains the names 



