1026 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 22,1872. 
complete failure. Mind per se is immaterial, and 
therefore beyond the reach of anatomical research. 
But I pass on to the consideration of my subject 
in a manner at once trite and practical. Lord | 
Brougham says,—“ He, who, in whatever station 
his lot may he cast, prefers the refined and elevating 
pleasures of knowledge to the low gratification of 
the senses, richly deserves the name of a pliilo- 
sopher.” We might object here to the term “ philo¬ 
sopher,” because it is one which admits of very 
wide signification. The meaning, however, is suffi¬ 
ciently apparent as distinguishing those who are 
seekers after knowledge from those who prefer 
in its place the low gratification of the senses. A j 
true philosopher must not only have knowledge, he 
must have wisdom to guide him in its application. ( 
The mere reading of books will never make us 
philosophers. Books, however, cannot he too highly 
prized as aids to knowledge and goodness; but 
withal there are so many of various kinds issuing 
from the press daily—I may say almost hourly—and 
so many ways of reading them when they come into 
our possession, that it is quite possible to wade 
through a mass of miscellaneous literature without 
a single accession to previous acquirement either 
in one direction or the other. That there is a good 
and a bad method in the matter of reading, there 
cannot be a doubt. By the adoption of the former 
we shall obtain great profit, but by the latter no 
profit at all. Some readers seem to delight in the 
number of pages they can turn over in a given time, 
whilst the majority too frequently ignore the very > 
portion of a book which should first claim their 
attention, namely, the preface. The preface is, or 
•ought to be, the key to the entire volume, and should 
taever be passed over. Nor should the reader begin 
(as I regret to say I have seen some do) at the end 
<of a book and read backwards—a little here and a 
little there — denouncing it as “dry” should he 
happen in his cursory examinations to stumble over 
a few sterling passages. No! if we wish to profit 
by our reading, we must read consecutively and by 
system, with due care and thought, always remem¬ 
bering the injunction of Lord Bacon, “ not to believe 
and take for granted, but to weigh and consider.” It 
should be borne in mind that knowledge is not 
gained by the quantity we read, but by the quantity 
we digest and remember. It is with the mind as 
with the body. The body is not sustained by the 
quantity of food we take, but by that which we ' 
assimilate. Therefore I s&y it is far better to read 
one page, or one book, carefully and well, than a 1 
hundred in a desultory and unprofitable manner. 
But I desire here to distinguish between reading 
and study. Study is something more than the; 
^reflection on the brain of a succession of verbal ideas. 
It is that condensation of aggregate faculty, that 
power of abstract thought, that concentration of 
judgment and purpose, which carries the student, as 
it were, out of himself, and grapples successfully 
with the subject he aspires to conquer. This, I 
think, is study as distinguished from mere reading; i 
and I would commend the inference to the earnest 
■consideration of those who aspire to fame and dis- j 
tinction in the character of authors. There are so ! 
many questionable works constantly issuing from 
the press in conjunction with those of areally elevat¬ 
ing character, that it requires considerable discrimi- ! 
nation to choose between them. And this would 
.seem to obtain in whatever department of literature 
we roam, though it must be said that works of fiction 
are especially open to the charge. A good book is a 
real friend, whilst a worthless one is a real enemy. 
Wordsworth has thus sung the praise of books :— 
“ Books, we know, 
Are a substantial world both pure and good, 
Round which, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, 
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.” 
I have nothing to say against works of fiction, 
provided they are really good; on the contrary, to 
those who cannot concentrate their attention on 
deeper themes they form a pleasing, and occasion¬ 
ally an instructive pastime. But works of fiction 
must always occupy a subordinate position on the 
shelves of the student. I do not mean the sham 
student, but he who loves knowledge for its own 
sake. He, indeed, is constantly reminded that he 
must not only read, but study, —that he must still 
go on, though the page were never so dry and weari¬ 
some. Happily, however, the struggle is progres¬ 
sive ; for even while the oil flickers in the lamp, 
even while he stretches every thought and purpose 
toward victory, the clouds gradually disperse, the 
morning breaks upon him, and the glorious rays of 
an intellectual luminary brighten his onward 
course! 
If I were asked to name the order of importance 
of the various branches of knowledge, I would de¬ 
cidedly rank science and pliilosopliy before ordinary 
literature, and ordinary literature before those pro¬ 
ductions of which the element of imagination forms 
so large a component/ 1 ' These, again, would pre¬ 
cede that numerous class of works the perusal of 
which is so apt to inspire us with erroneous impres¬ 
sions both of men and things, and thus to sow in the 
mind the seeds of disappointment and regret. The 
languages are good exercise, and form ample ground 
for systematic reading; but to those who are just 
commencing life I would recommend as well the 
study of appropriately-written physiology and moral 
philosophy.! There are few studies more important 
than these; and yet, practically, there are few which 
are more generally neglected. The former teaches 
us the adoption of principles and practices having 
special reference to the laws of health, and the latter 
the regulationjof faculty, sentiment, and propensity, 
and the application of those high moral and psychi¬ 
cal influences which govern our whole being and 
make us what we are. In other words, the one has 
reference to our physical well-being, and the other 
* “The first subject of study,” said Viscount Palmerston, 
speaking of the sciences, in his address as Lord Rector of 
the University of Glasgow in 1863, “would naturally be 
that which is commonly comprised in the single term chemis¬ 
try,—the operations of nature in all those elements in which 
we live and deal,—a knowledge of which is useful to every 
man in his individual condition, and on the study of which 
depends the industry, wealth and prosperity of nations. It 
is not to be expected that those who are destined for the 
church or the bar, or other such professions, should become 
skilful as analytical chemists; but they should be acquainted 
with the general principles by which substances act on each 
other, ana this knowledge will be found useful in every posi¬ 
tion in life. Now, they concern the peasant in his cottage, 
the workman in liis convenient dwelling, as much as they 
concern the great manufacturer in the arrangement of his 
business, because health and life are essentially connected 
with the practice, and the experience, and the counsel of the 
chemist.” 
f “ Philosophy means literally the love of wisdom. It is 
the love of a hidden treasure; therefore it comes to mean a 
search after wisdom.”— Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, 
by Professor Maurice. 
