TO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. 



There is no royal or privileged road to knowledge. For the prince and 

 the peasant, the rich and the poor, there is one common way alone, and it 

 leads up a laborious steep. And though there be on this republican pathway, 

 many a flower, and many a sweet resting place, all who enter upon it are 

 doomed to incessant toil : for, those who loiter on the way side, instead of 

 reaching the temple, fall behind and are lost to those who began the journey 

 with them. 



There is no easy method of acquiring knowledge. It is only to be ob- 

 tained by close attention and unceasing labour. No matter what may be 

 the quality of his faculties, the brilliance of his talents, to become usefully 

 learned in any branch of human knowledge, every man must toil and take 

 advantage of all the means within his reach. 



It has been asserted that, to become familiar with any branch of physical 

 science, it is only necessary to see with the eyes and hear with the ears, 

 without resorting to other means. It is contended, for example, that Natural 

 History is best studied without " the use of any books whatever, except the 

 book of nature and its visible illustrations." This notion is entertained by 

 persons of so much learning and influence that it is worth our time to in- 

 quire briefly, whether the plan has pretensions that should lead to its general 

 adoption. 



He who reads only and draws all his knowledge from books, may perhaps 

 become very learned, a skilful rhetorician, a formidable critic, the author of 

 brilliant theories, the inventor of some ingenious system, but he will never, 

 by this means alone, be able to praciice usefully, what he has thus learned, 

 and in most instances, it will be found, that instead of having acquired ideas 

 of practical application, the memory has been filled only with words. 



The student who is content to follow lectures, will not be more successful. 

 One learns less in this way than by reading good authors. By reading, we 

 may comprehend the thoughts and opinions of an author, without making 

 him say, or attributing to him the reverse of wh.it he has written or 

 wished to express. If there is any uncertainty as to having rightly under, 

 stood the text, before confiding it to the memory, we have it in our power to 

 review those passages which seem to us, either obscure or extravagant; the 



