Year: 1878




ed the habit Of learning in early life, never
allow it to fall into disuse, but keep them.
selves till old age fresh and youthful by
new and valuable acquisitions Of knowl-
edge. The brief introduction they get a,
school and college into the world of sci
ence, of art, Of literature, far from satisfy
ing them. is stimulus to them to know
more and more of what may be known
and plunge deeper and deeper into the mys-
teries around us that invite solution
These love learning for its own sake. Ii
may be this love of learning is indigenous
in many of them, but in many instances
the love of learning is stimulated and fost-
cred by wise parents and enthusiastic
teachers, and the soil Of their minds is SO
enriched that it produces growth not ma
tive to it. A gracious work does any
teacher perform who thus transforms a
sterile mind into fruitful one. The no
ton many people have that there comes a
tine when one is too old to enter upon
new acquisitions Of knowledge is very
erroneous one. De Tocqueville, himself a
Jealous student through life, says: There
is no time of life at which one can wholly
cease from action; for effort without ones
self, and still more, effort within, is equally
necessary, if not more SO, when we grow
old, as it is in youth. compare man to a
traveller journeying without ceasing to-
ward a colder and colder region; the high
er he goes the faster he ought to walk y
If the habit of learning is kept up vigorous
there is no difficulty in undertaking tie
conquest of new science or a new Ian
guage. One of the characters in '.Mar-
mone," an old gentleman, remarks: ''Per-
haps am an old fool to attempt a new
and difficult study like this (the English
Ianguage) at any time Of life; but am a
student in other things still, and so why
not in language also? My theory is that
old people cannot generally learn merely
because they have long lost the habit Of
learning; but have been learning all my
life, and have never lost the habit at all; so
I begin boldly But we need not have
recourse to the pages Of fiction for illustra-
ton. Agassiz was a close student to the
last; and our leading scientific and literary
men, hoary though many of them, are
carrying into middle and advanced life the
habits of industry in the acquisition of
knowledge that characterized their earlier
years. "Franklin was fifty years of age
before he fully entered upon the study OF
Natural Philosophy. That he might read
Niebuhr in the original, DR.. Arnold in ad-
vanced age learned German; Robert Hall
was once found lying upon the floor, rack
ed by pain, learning italian in his old age.
to enable him to judge Of the parallel
drawn by Macaulay between Milton and
Dante" All these men had kept up the
habit of learning. In one of the law
schools in New York city is a student
whose son is an influential Senator in the
State Legislature, yet he does not fall
whit behind his class or bate a jot of heart
or hope because there are fewer years be-
fore him than they may reasonably count
upon. In such a world as this, where with
all his efforts to gain even the rudiments
Of any one science, we can know SO little
of what might be known concerning it, il
would seem that the thirst for acquiring
more knowledge couldnever cease to slim
ulate the active mind, and that constantly
renewed activity in exploring the arcana OF
nature and wrestling from it secrets hither
to undivulged should be the rule and mol
the exception with all minds. Yet how
many there are who when they Leave
school and college lay aside all studious
habits, and allow themselves to sink into
routines Of thought and action, or rather
Of no thought and inaction. that effectually
bar all further progress. But it is never
too late to mend, and these sluggish souls
may, II they viii reacquire the habit Of
learning, enjoy the satisfaction that comes
from consciousness Of constant intellect,
nal growth.