THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 



AFTER becoming possessed of a good gun, in accordance 

 with the means, object and idea of the individual, the one 

 thing essential is to know how to use it. And this know- 

 ledge, once acquired, lasts for ever, yet does not last un- 

 changed, or, like most sublunary things, change only to 

 deteriorate ; for what is at first acquired with difficulty 

 and much painstaking, gradually becomes a habit, ripens 

 into a second nature, and, constantly improved by practice, 

 by experience, by freshly-discovered resources and trials 

 of the power of the weapon, shall be at last, almost, as it 

 were, an innate instinct, acting without deliberation or 



