8 DEFINITION OF A POPULAR BOOK. 



the same time strengthen the desire of obtaining more. 

 And here, again, I must meet any charge of vanity 

 which may be brought against me by those who view 

 plain matters in a learned light who in fact consider 

 the subject only in that point of view which, as I shall 

 endeavour to show in a subsequent part of these 

 works, is the erroneous one. Great learning is not 

 required for the accomplishment of my object ; for 

 the excess of learning is the root of the evil. A 

 moderate degree of information, accurate as far as it 

 goes, connecting itself readily with all the other parts 

 of knowledge, readily available to the practical 

 purposes of life, and expressed in a clear and plain, 

 but, at the same time, an inviting manner, are 

 the requisites of a book of instruction for the people; 

 a book, in short, which shall convey the requisite- 

 degree of knowledge, which may or should be read 

 in the school, but which shall be read willingly, and 

 sought after, out of the school, whether in the family 

 or by the individual, is the book wanted, and the one 

 which I shall labour to the utmost of my power to 

 produce. 



Such is the simple foundation of the elementary 

 works which I had planned ; and as, upon many of 

 the subjects, I had had abundant practical experience 

 of where the difficulty of the subject itself lies, and 

 where the force of repulsion in the ordinary modr 

 of treating it begins to act ; and further, as I had 

 taken note of these matters at the time, without any 

 object to warp or bias my judgment, I saw no great 

 difficulty in the execution. But still there was some 

 difficulty in knowing how to begin, so as to obtain 

 that hearing from the public, upon which the success 

 and the usefulness of every thing addressed to the 

 public must depend. This was a difficulty which 



