26 READY USE OP THKSE KEYS. 



comes as certain as failure is when we invert the 

 order of nature. This method of proceeding, makes 

 the acquiring of knowledge and the business of active 

 life go hand and hand, and mightily assist each 

 other ; or rather it shows us that they are parts of 

 the same succession of mental employment, which 

 ought never to be separated. The error of the 

 opposite system furnishes its own reproof, and should 

 suggest its own correction, from the cases of those 

 learned persons who, when they are unexpectedly 

 turned back upon the road of formal and technical 

 learning, are so inefficient and even helpless among 

 the active part of mankind. 



And this is exactly what might be expected from 

 those who are accustomed to begin with the details, 

 and arrive at the general conclusion, which is to be 

 the rule of action, only after a patient study and induc- 

 tion of these. The event of life, like the production 

 of nature, presents itself as a whole, and in its con- 

 nexion; and if we are so to take advantage of it as 

 to turn it to any useful purpose, we must be ready to 

 act at once; for the opportunity, having arrived, will 

 not wait till we have prepared ourselves for it. 



Thus, every subject which can present itself, in 

 reality, for our consideration, whether the result of 

 that consideration is to be knowledge only as the 

 means of future action, or is to be action according to 

 knowledge at the time, presents itself as a whole and 

 in a connexion ; and the operation which it calls for 

 on our part is analysis a following out of the details, 

 virtually or really, and an observation of the relations 

 and connexions. This power and readiness at ana- 

 lysing is the only thing which can be considered as 

 education ; and, therefore, whether the means be by 

 tutor, by book, or by personal observation, we must first 

 view the subject as whole, and then work out the de- 



