98 BEGINNING OF STUDY. 



that through the plant on which it grew to the grain 

 which produced that plant ; and after we had known 

 all the steps of growth and ripening, between one 

 grain and another, we might repeat the same circle 

 over and over, but would never get any additional 

 information. But at every stage between the one 

 perfect grain and the next in succession, the plant 

 nas a different appearance, and is fitted to a different 

 use ; and the maltster knows that if the natural pro-' 

 gress of the plant be arrested, and its power of again 

 returning to that progress destroyed when it is in 

 the sugary state, it will become malt, and the brewer 

 will purchase it. So, as soon as the maltster has 

 steeped it to perfection, he tosses it about, and breaks 

 off the sprout, and dries it ; whereas, when it is left 

 in the earth it roots itself there, and sends up its 

 stem, and becomes a plant ; and if the man can wait 

 and will attend to it, and collect each year's produce, 

 and sow it again next year, his one bushel will soon 

 become a thousand bushels. In these instances, 

 again, there is nothing but a succession of motions ; 

 and in them all there is a point at which the thing 

 gets too fine for weighing or measuring, and there 

 it glides slowly beyond our comprehension alto- 

 gether; and the very minutest guess, as it were, 

 that we can get of a thing, is the proper point at 

 which to begin the study of it. 



The neglect of small things is, indeed, the grand 

 error, in consequence of which so many pass in 

 ignorance and heaviness that life which nature and 

 art (for, after all, art is merely the application of 

 nature) are capable of rendering so intelligent and 

 so full of happiness. The fable of " The boy and 

 the goose with golden eggs" applies in most things 

 to many people, and in many things to all people. 

 The eggs of the goose were brought to their proper 

 size by a process of nature, which the owner of 

 the goose could forward in no other way than by 

 giving the goose plenty of wholesome food, and 



