Star.
London, England, 1829-07-27 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, JULY 27, 1829.

LITERATURE.

••••..111.m.....

WS have already thentieried the tamale addition Made
to tier tuitional literaturn, by the publication—by lard
ktwo— of the life of his great relative, Jona Locaz..
The following observations upon STUDY show how
&Bey, and with what. &severe vie* td inility—WidwArt
Ar ebb at des:etudes or ofaritnent, which he regarded as
' all waste—the eminent philosopher thchight,
STUDY.
1677, Mimi doh. The end of stud, is i the end
thermiledis freed* or esmaiesiesturi. This mii • is Moil
moaly joined eritituß improvements of knowledge ; but whim we
study only for dist end, is is to be comidered rather as diversko
than biSehlies, tai io is to be riansied among our recreations.
fie tittiit of itineleige or ;Mugs knowable is so vast, our &t-
-rellis bete iii ihkh, and die entrance by' Which the kttoirlidge of
things gas into air underetandlieg as nand*, that the time sit
whole life would be found to. tilert without the beeeentry above -
'wee for childhood and Alain (which are not capable .of much
hisproreineot), for the raresimek of our bodies arid unavoidable
avocadons, and in moat for the annuity, eniployinein of
their callings, which If dm/ neglect they cannot eat nor live. I say
that the whole time at oar kb. Without those necessary deface-
time. is DIX enough to acquaint as with all these things. I will out
say which we ire capab of knowing, but which it week) not
be only coniettlint but yeti advantageous to- km*. He that will
coosider host many &Mitt and Mediae* We remained ht the
minds of the most knowing meta after long nod stodkius inietry;
how much in those several provinces of knowledge they have sur-
veyed, they save left undiscovered ; Istiw many other provinces of
the " moduli intelligibills," as I may call it, they Meer once tra-
velled n, will easily consent to the ttisprnpeetlenateness of our time
and strength to this greatness of business, of knowledge taken in its
lull latitude, and which, ii it be nut our main business here, yet it
is so -necessary to it, and ao interwoven with it, that we can make
little further prairie ht doing, than We do in knove'ing,—at gnat to
little purpose; acting without understanding being usually at bin
but lost labour.

It therefore mach behoves us to improve the best we can our
time and talent in this respect' and since we have a long journey to
go, and the days are but shun, to take the straightest and
most direct road we can. To this purpose, it mat not perhaps be
amiss to decline wine things that are hkely to bewilder us, or at
least he out of our way—Firm, as all that mese of words and
phrases which have been invented and employed oily to instruct
arid amuse people in the in fit disputing, and will be found. per-
, haps, when looked into, to have httle'ur Ito meaislog ; and with
slib kind of stut the logics, ghydts, ethks,meraghysics, mid divi-
! nay of the schools are thought by same to be too mirth Meld.—
Ilia I am sure, that where we leave dtstinctioas without finding
!a difference in things; where we make variety of phrases, or think
We furnish ourselves' Whir arguments Without a progress in the teat
knowledge of things, we °My 111 f of beads With empty Wands,
1 which however thought to belong to learning and knowledge, will '
no mere improve our understandings and strengthen our reason,
than the noise of a jack will bit our bellies or strengthen der
bodies: and the art to truce With those which we called subtktic4
is oi np more use OAR It would be to be dateroos in tying and .
&tailing liqUi.gin cobwcha.. Words are of no grabs* nor We, but
as they are''
Ray
.4111,s .4. things; when they for gashing they
are less dim; ciifberls for instead.of augmenting the value of those
they are joined with, they lessen it, and mate It nothing; and
! where they have not a clear distinct signification, they are like uti-
usual or W-made Agoras that confound our meaning.
ad. An aim or desire to tuber what but been other men's *pi-
' aloes. Truth needs no recommendation, and irrm ti ant mended
by it b • Sod to our inquiry abet knowkdge, it Mt limit concerns us
what ether men hive thought, as tr doef one who is to go from
Oalord to London, to know what Scholars walk quiedy on foot, In.
lulling the way and surveying the country as they went, who rude
post after their guide without minding the Way he went, Who were
carried along muffled up in a coach with their company. or where
one (factor lon or Went Out of his Way, or Whore another sestet is
the mire. If a traveller gate I kroistledge alibi right Way, It It
no matter whether he knows the infinite windings, actinism and
etirOingi airbag others have been misled; the knowledge of the right
secures kiln from the wrung, and that is his great huskies.; and so
lagethinks it ib it our tillgrhitage through this World ; men's fancies
`here been infinite even of the letrried ; End the history of them
godless : and stone Not knowing whither they would go, blot kept
•
doing, Usual they have only moved ; others have follbwed only
rids oithi tnaYttlatiMik, tioogh they meant right, which is an et.
'rant, Which with the *West kids us through strange masa. Ike-
' rest has bliuded some and prejudiced others, Who hive per marched
,cunhtleutly on; and however out of the way, they have thought
'themselves most in the right. Ido not say this to undervalue the
;fight sfre teethe triiiiti others, or to think there are not those who
Mast triunghtily in Mir endeavisfirs sleet knowledge ; perhaps with-
isciots we should be at ignoratit as the Indiana, volute minds are
'as ill clad utterer bodies; hut I think it Man idle sod ueekss thing
to make it one's hushing to study what have been' other nun's +to-
iidereii: in tiling, where Westin only is to be judge, on purpose to
be fin Dished wt.h them, and to he to cite them on all occasion!.

,sever it be esteemed a great [Art of learahts, yet to' a man
that cvnidden how hula time he has, and hovi moth work to 06;
how many things be is to learn, bow many doubts to clear in reh-
eat, he* rules fa establish to hinisrif its morality, how muck
rattle to be take* with hiltiskff to master his unruly disirei and
ho* to provide hitntelf against a thoutiend eaere and a&
ottani* that will happen, and an infinite deal more in both in his:
sancta' and ?articular calling ; I say to a man*ko consider. this
wen, it "Sill uht snit'smuch his business to acquaint Itimielf Je
sigitidly with am rad*" cimoilks of iii4o tiiir at; to be found in
book" lies' upon :oblong of moment. I deny nits hitt the kntrWa
log of these opinions in all their variety. eontraJietion, and carry:
'agancy, may, serve to instruct u. In the vanity and ignorance of
minkitioteind bitch and caution us upon that cikisiders-
nun - btiti due teems' Mot reasatenatigli to Mk to engage piiip:Oely,
In this Allay, and in n* inqkdriei atter mote vie
shall meet with **ugh of this medley to aciptaintis with the Waal-
st.:e• of man'. utidtiratandirig.

Puitip tot language. a polished style. or exact criticism hi
foreign latigu..ges—thui I Minh Greek and Latin en.ty be called,
is wed as french and' to spend- time's- time in these
alai perhaps serve- to set one oft in-the ivoila. and give eta' the re.
put.tion ut a scholar. But if Ott be all, methinks it it Isbourint
fur so outside ; it Is at best but a handsome dress Of truth or
falsehood that one busies cine'sself about, ani makes abut tho.e
liY nut' Matt dlie hi this stay r.Tufr allatiblosihbf4 gentitimen,
than as wise or useful men.

There are *swan), ediandges. of SpeltMC ghee Men' tangusg,
Well, and Mint a master in it; that let a-nrasi's eidthig be whit it
will, it cannot but be worth our talking some pains in it ; but er is
by no means to base the first a in our studies ; hut be that
makes good language strimeMlent to a yowl life and An instrument
of iirtue, is doubly enabled to do good to others.
Wien I sirt:ak laying out of our dine and study on
eftlienlite. I Ai* Sid a airy dint.: to now ai great musters Its
Punta auJ Herodutuedihrradius% sint 1 'Mitt aluFayaltj
nada mood ro except all study of hingtsgerf and entkel leatting.
that m ty aid
.0 in undemanding the *rip west tie they bents mi
Jteniil Ouittlaitsreol froth as immediately comingitrom the Moo-
eem ut tintll; wlfikEtisrr disin gait II': to uihrer.iatid their true sensV,
duth well deserve our pins and study.
Mb** and histdriVeir fir as anti are designed only to
*mesh us with story and talk. For the worries' of Mekehilar End
Orsar. nu farther hap therinstruct u. ip this art of living. welt;
And soittish US tabieistatiOns of wisdom an prudence, are not
um jot is pteferiex of 'taint Frond, or the Green
Wise %were. 1 itnritie deny hilt htite6; lot steiy StstiFifl, All fiery
instructive ut human' life ; but if it be only Mr thrf repteAtion'id
being An Mauritian, it is A very empty thing ;, and he that can telt
all the particulars of Windom, end Pikeareh, Curtin' anti Livy,
with tut making any mhasr use pt Orin, dlaY bf t ignorant nw.
iimideethlsitt hi; pains had& May hi.
head with eillislAfir tali. C i which is wOrss, the greilie:t art
Jot ibirurif WADY dale nit hi is Mkiitaii wit aftat ifite
letatk'ulif til>6 HOMO:, tiytakntf ne not
•titiff eiffiriork ..141 iii anipi tit tog tai lly iur oak re Aiwa
.AkebAntitX .11110.14/; *id NAV? AI
tN• unituitti at Batt' gists Wit

because they each of them caused the deaths of several 100,000
step, and the ruin of a much greater number. overeat a great
part of the earth, and killed the inhabitants to possess them.
Gates of their countries—we are apt to make butchery and replete
the chief marks and very mace of human greatness. And if
civil history be a great dealer of it, and to many reader tbus
melees, curious and difficult inquirinp in antiquity are much more
so ; and the exact dimensions of the Colossus or aim of the
Capitol, the ceremonies of the Greek and Roman marriages, or
who it was that fret coined money ; these, I confese, set a man
well off in tlsi world. especially amongst the learned, but set him
eery little on in his own way.
44. Nice questions and remote useless speculations, as where
the earthly Paradise was—or what fruit It was that was forbidden—
*ewe Lazarues soul was *last his body laY drad—and what kind
Of bodies we shall have at the reartection i ke.dix. These Mop
deli regulated, will est of at ma a great deal of buslnees from one
who is setting out into a course of study ; net that all Meer are to
be emoted utterly useless, and lest time cast away on them. The
four last may be each of them the full and lendable employment of
Sacral persons who may with great advantage make language'.
history. or antiquity. their study. For as for word. without mean-
ing. which is the first bead I mentioned. I cannot imagine them
any way worth bearing or reading, much less studying ; but there is
such an harmony in all sorts of truth and knowledge. they do ail
support and give light so to one another, that one annoy deny,' but
languages and criticisms. history and atiquitles, strange opinions mid
odd specuktioes, serve often to clear and confirm very material and
useful doctrines. My meaning therefore is, not that they are not
to be looked into by a nudism man at any time ; all that I contend
is, that they are not to be made our chief aim. nor Orst businei..
and that they are always to be handled with some caution : for
since having but a little doe, We have need of much care in the
husbanding of it. These pans of knowledge might not to have
either the first or greatest pan of our studies. and we have the more
need of this conduct. because they are much in vogue amnia men
of letters, and carry with them a great tinnier of learning, and so
area glittering temptation in a studious man's way, and such as is
very likely to mislead him.
lint if it were fit for me to marshal the parts of knowledge, and
allot to any one its place and precedency, thereby to direct one's
studies. I Avoid think it were natural to let them in the order.

1. Heavers being our /NM hidden sod interest, the knowledge
which may direct us thither is certainly so too, so that this is with-
out peradventure the study that ought to take the art' and eitierest
place in our thoughts ; but wherein it coosists, its parts, method,
and applicatioa, will deserve a chapter by 'twit.
S. The nest thing to happiness is the other world, is
itig:
prosperous passage through this, which requires a discreet
and management of ourselves iu the several occerrences et qur
Ili*. The study of prudence then seems to me to deseisti ths
second place in our thoughts and studies. A mats may be, reberkl
a good man, (which lives in truth and sincerity of heart towards
Goo,) with a small portion of prudence, but he will !Weer be dant
happy in himself, nue useful to others without : these two are every
mates business.
•g. It those who are left by their predecessors with a plentiful frig
tune are excused from having a particular calling, ill order to their
subsistence in this life, it is yet certain that, by the law el GOD. they
'ire under an obligation of doing something ; *hick, having been
judiciously treated by an able pen, I shall not meddle with, but pas/.
to those who have made letters their business; and in these I think'
it is incumbent to nuts the proper badness of their calling did
t third place in their study.
This seder being laid, it will be easy for every ens to determine
with hitnielf what tongues and histories are to be studied by Id*
and bow far in subserviency to his general or particular calling.
thee happiness being thus parcelled out, and being in every pet
of it very large, it is certain we should set ourselves on work With.. I
out ceasing, did nor both the parte we are made tp of bid us bell
Our bodies and our minds are neither of them capable of continual!
study ; and if We take nut a just measure of our strength in endea-
vouring to do a great deal, we shall do nothing at all.
The knowledge we acquire iu this world lam apt to think ex-
tends not beyond the Imits of this life. The beatific video of the
other life needs not the help of this dim:twilight; but be that as it
will, I am sure the principal end why we are to get knowledge Isere
is to make use of it fur the benefit of ourselves and others in this
world ; but if by gaining it we destroy out health, we labour for a
'thing that will be useless is our hands ; and if by harrassing our
bodies (though with a design to render ourselves more useful) vie
deprive ourselves of the abilities aid opportunities of doing that
,good We might have doh, with a meaner taleut.*bich Goo thringht
isulkient for us by having deniu us the strength to improie is to
that pitch which men of stronger constitutions can attain to, we rob
Goa of so much service, and our nelglibout of all that help. *bleb,
In a state of health; with moderate knowledge. we might have been
•eble to perform. He that sinks his vessel by overloading it, though
it be with gold aid diver and precious stoats, Will give his owner
but an ill "Levant of his voyrge.