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Page 50
Every one of Coleridge's writings should be carefully perused more than
once, more than twice; in fact, they cannot be read too often; and the
only danger of such continued study would be, that in the enjoyment of
finding every important subject so beautifully thought out for you,
natural indolence might deter you from the comparatively laborious
exercise of thinking them out for yourself. The three volumes of his
"Friend," his "Church and State," his "Lay Sermons," and "Statesman's
Manual," will each of them furnish you with most important present
information and with inexhaustible materials for future thought.
Reid's "Inquiry into the Human Mind," and Dugald Stewart's "Philosophy
of the Mind," are also books that you must carefully study. Brown's
"Lectures on Philosophy" are feelingly and gracefully written; but
unless you find a peculiar charm and interest in the style, there will
not be sufficient compensation for the sacrifice of time so voluminous a
work would involve. Those early chapters which give an account of the
leading systems of Philosophy, and some very ingenious chapters on
Memory, are perhaps as much of the book as will be necessary for you to
study carefully.
The works of the German philosopher Kant will, some time hence, serve as
a useful exercise of thought; and you will find it interesting as well
as useful to trace the resemblances and differences between the great
English and the great German philosophers, Kant and Coleridge. Locke's
small work on Education contains many valuable suggestions, and Watts on
the Mind is also well worthy your attention. It is quite necessary that
Watts' Logic should form a part of your studies; it is written
professedly for women, and with ingenious simplicity. A knowledge of the
forms of Logic is useful even to women, for the purpose of sharpening
and disciplining the reasoning powers.
Do not be startled when I further recommend to you Blackstone's
"Commentaries" and Burlamaqui's "Treatise on Natural Law." These are
books which, besides affording admirable opportunities for the exercise
of both concentrated and comprehensive thought, will fill your mind with
valuable ideas, and furnish it with very important information. Finally,
I recommend to your unceasing and most respectful study the works of
that "Prince of modern philosophers," Lord Bacon. In his great mind were
united the characteristics of the two ancient, but nevertheless
universal, schools of philosophy, the Aristotelic and the Platonic. It
is, I believe, the only instance known of such a difficult combination.
His "Essays," his "Advancement of Learning," his "Wisdom of the
Ancients," you might understand and profit by, even now. Through all the
course of an education, which I hope will only end with your life, you
cannot do better than to keep him as your constant companion and
intellectual guide.
The foregoing list of works seems almost too voluminous for any woman to
make herself mistress of; but you may trust to one who has had extensive
experience for herself and others, that the principle of "Nulla dies
sine line�" is as useful in the case of reading as in that of painting:
the smallest quantity of work daily performed will accomplish in a
year's time that which at the beginning of the year would have seemed to
the inexperienced a hopeless task.
As yet, I have only spoken of philosophy; there is, however, another
branch of knowledge, viz. science, which also requires great
concentration of thought, and which ought to receive some degree of
attention, or you will appear, and, what would be still worse, feel,
very stupid and ignorant with respect to many of the practical details
of ordinary life. You are continually hearing of the powers of the
lever, the screw, the wedge, of the laws of motion, &c. &c., and they
are often brought forward as illustrations even on simply literary
subjects. An acquaintance with these matters is also necessary to enter
with any degree of interest into the wonderful exhibitions of mechanical
powers which are among the prominent objects of attention in the present
day. You cannot even make intelligent inquiries, and betray a graceful,
because unwilling ignorance, without some degree of general knowledge of
science.
Among the numerous elementary works which make the task of
self-instruction pleasant and easy, none can excel, if any have
equalled, the "Scientific Dialogues" of Joyce. In these six little
volumes, you will find a compendium of all preliminary knowledge; even
these, however, easy as they are, require to be carefully studied. The
comparison of the text with the plates, the testing for yourself the
truth of each experiment, (I do not mean that you should practically
test it, except in a few easy cases, for your mind has not a sufficient
taste for science to compensate for the trouble,) will furnish you with
very important lessons in the art of fixing your attention.
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