4th. Antiquity and history, as far as they are designed only to fur- nish us with story and talk. For the stories of Alexander and Caesar, no / Of Study. 195 farther than they instruct us in the art of living well, and furnish us with observations of wisdom and prudence, are not one jot to be preferred to the history of Robin Hood, or the Seven Wise Masters. I do not deny but history is veiy useful, and very instructive of human life; but if it be studied only for the reputation of being an historian, it is a very empty thing; and he that can tell all the particulars of Herodotus and Plutarch, Curtius and Livy, without making any other use of them, may be an ignorant man with a good memory, and with all his pains hatli only filled his head with Christmas tales. And which is worse, the greatest part of history being made up of wars and conquests, and their style, especially the Romans^, speaking of valour as the chief if not the only virtue, we are in danger to be misled by the general current and business of history, and looking on Alexander and Caesar, and such like heroes, as the highest instances of human greatness, because they each of .them caused the death of several 100,000 men, and the ruin of a much freater number, overran a great part of the earth, and killed the inha- itants to possess themselves of their countries — we are apt to make butchery and rapine the chief marks and very essence of human greatness. And if civil history be a great dealer of it, and to many readers thus useless, curious and difficult inquirings in antiquity are much more so; and the exact dimensions of the Colossus, or figure of the Capitol, the ceremonies of the Greek and Roman marriages, or who it was that first coined money; these, I confess, set a man well off in the world, espAially amongst the learned, but set him very little on in his way.
5th. Nice questions and remote useless speculations, as where the earthly Paradise was — or what fruit it was that was forbidden — where Lazarus's soul was whilst his body lay dead — ^and what kind of bodies we shall have at the Resurrection? &c. &c.
These things well-regulated will cut off at once a great deal of business from one who is setting out into a course of study; not that all these are to be counted utterly useless, and lost time cast away on them. The four last may be each of them the full' and laudable employment of several persons who may with great advantage make languages, history, or antiquity, their study. For as for words without meaning, which is the first head I mentioned, I cannot imagine them any way worth hearing or reading, much less studying; but there is such an harmony in all sorts of truth and knowledge, they do all support and give light so to one another, that one cannot deny, but languages and criticisms, history and antiquity, strange opinions and odd speculations, 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 studious man at any time; all that I contend is, that they are not to be made our chief aim, nor first business, and that they are always to be handled with some caution: for since having but a little time we have need of much care in the husbanding of it, these parts of knowledge ought not to have either the first or greatest part of our studies: and we have the more need of this caution, because they are much in vogue amongst men of letters, and carry with them a great exterior of learning, and so are a glittering temptation in a studious man's way, and such as is very likely to mislead him.
\ 196 Appendix B.
But 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 should think it were natural to set them in this order.
I. Heaven being our great business and interest, the knowledge which may direct us thither is certainly so too, so that this is without peradventure the study that ought to take the first and chiefest place in our thoughts; but wherein it consists, its parts, method, and application, will deserve a chapter by itself.
1. The next thing to happiness in the other world, is a quiet pros- perous passage through this, which requires a discreet conduct and management of ourselves in the several occurrences of our lives. The study of prudence then seems to me to deserve the second place in our thoughts and studies. A man may be, perhaps, a good man (which lives in truth and sincerity of heart towards God,) with a small portion of prudence, but he will never be very happy in himself, nor usefiil to others without: these two are every man^s business.
3. If those who are left by their predecessors with a plentiful for- tune are excused from having a particular calling, in order to their sub- sistence in this life, it is yet certain that, by the law of God, they are under an obligation of doing something; wnich, having been judiciously treated bv an able pen, I shall not meddle with; but pass to those who have made letters their business; and in these I think it is incimibent to make the proper business of their calling the third place in their study.
This order being laid, it will be easy for every one to determine with himself what tongues and histories are to be studied by him, and how far in subserviency to his general or particular calling.
Our happiness being thus parcelled out, and being in every part of it very large, it is certain we should set ourselves on work without ceasing, did not both the parts we are made up of bid us hold. Our bodies and our minds are neither of them capable of continual study, and if we take not a just measure of our strength, in endeavouring to do a great deal we shall do nothing at all.
The knowledge we acquire in this world I am apt to think extends not beyond the limits of this life. The beatific vision 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 here, is to make use of it for the benefit of ourselves and others in this world; but if by gaining it we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands, and if by harassing our bodies (though with a design to render •ourselves more useful) we deprive ourselves of the abilities and opportu- nities of doing that good we might have done with a meaner talent, which God thought sufficient for us by having denied us the strength to improve it to that pitch which men of stronger constitutions can attain to, we rob God of so much service, and our neighbour of all that help, which, in a state of health, with moderate knowledge, we might have been able to perform. He that sinks his vessel by overloading it, though it be with gold and silver and precious stones, will give his owner but an ill account of his voyage.
It being past doubt then, that allowance is to be made for the Of Study. 197 temper and strength of oar bodies, and that our health is to regulate the measure of our studies, the great secret is to find out the proportion; the difficulty whereof lies in this, that it must not only be varied according to the constitution and strength of every individual man, but it must also change with the temper, vigour, and circumstances and health of every particular inair, in the different varieties of health, or indisposition of body, which every thing our bodies have any commerce with is able to alter; so that it is as hard to say how many hours a day a man shall study constantly, as to say how much meat he shall eat every day, wherein his own prudence, governed by the present circu^istances, can only judge...The regular proceeding of our watch not being the fit measure of time, but the secret motions of a much more curious engine, our bodies being to limit out the portion of time in this occasion — however, it may be so contrived that all the time may not be lost; for the conver- sation of an ingenious friend upon what one hath read in the morning, or any other profitable subject, may perhaps let into the mind as much improvement of knowledge, thougii with less prejudice to the health, as settled solemn poring over books, which we generally call study; which, though a necessary part, yet I am sure is not the only, and perhaps not the best way, of improving the understanding.
a. Great care is to be taken that our studies encroach not upon our sleep: this I am sure, sleep is the great balsam of life and restorative of nature, and studious sedentary men have more need of it than the ac- tive and laborious, because those men's business and their bodily labours, though they waste their spirits, help transpiration, and carry away their excrements, which are the foundation of diseases; whereas the studious sedentary man, employing his spirits within, equally or more wastes them than the other, but without the benefit of transpiration, allowing the matter of disease insensibly to accumulate. We are to lay by our books and meditations wlien we find either our heads or stomachs indis- posed upon any occasion; study at such time doing great harm to the body, and very little good to the mind.
I St. As the body, so the mind also, gives laws to our studies; I mean to the duration and continuance of them; let it be never so capacious, never so active, it is not capable of constant labour nor total rest. The labour of the mind is study, or intention of thought; and when we find it is weary, either in pursuing other men's thoughts as in reading, or tumbling or tossing its own as in meditation, it is time to give on and let it recover itself. Sometimes meditation gives a refresh- ment to the weariness of reading, and vice versd; sometimes the change of ground, t. e. going from one subject or science to another, rouses the mind, and fills it with fresh vigour; oftentimes discourse enlivens it when it flags, and puts an end to the weariness without stopping it one jot, but rather forwarding it in its journey; and sometimes it is so tired, that nothing but a perfect relaxation will serve the turn. All these are to be made use of according as every one finds most successful in himself to the best husbandry of his time and thought.
and. The mind has sympathies and antipathies as well as the body; it has a natural preference often of one study before another. It would be well if one had a perfect command of them, and sometimes one is to try 19^ Appendix B.
for the masterjr, to bring the mind into order and a pliant obedience; but generally it is better to follow the bent and tendency of the mind itself, so long as it keeps within the bounds of our proper business, wherein there is generally latitude enough. By this means, we shall go not only a great deal faster, and hold out a great deal longer, but the discovery we shall make will be a great deal clearer, and make deeper impressions in our minds. The inclination of the mind is as the palate to the stomach; that seldom digests well in the stomach, or adds much strength to the body, that nauseates the palate, and is not recommended by it.
There is a kind of restiveness in almost every one*s mind; some- times, without perceiving the cause, it will boggle and stand still, and one cannot get it a step forward; and at another time it will press forward, and there is no holding it in. It is always good to take it when it is willing, and keep on whilst it goes at ease, though it be to the breadi of some of the other rules concerning the body. But one must take care of trespassing on that side too often, for one that takes pleasure in study, flatters himself that a little now, and a little to-morrow, does no harm, that he feels no ill effects of an hour's sitting up— insensibly undenhines his health, and when the disease breaks out, it is seldom charged to these past miscarriages that laid in the provision for it.
The subject being chosen, the body and mind being both in a temper fit for study, what remains but that a man betake himself to it? These certainly are good preparatories, yet if there be not something else done^ perhaps we shall not make all the profit we might.
ist. It is a duty we owe to God as the Fountain and Author of all truth, who is Truth itself, and it is a duty also we owe our ownselves, if we will deal candidly and sincerely with our own souls, to have oar minds constantly disposed to entertain and receive truth wheresoever we meet with it, or under whatsoever appearance of plain or ordinary, strange, new, or perhaps displeasing, it may come in our way. Truth is the proper object, the proper riches and fiimiture of the mind, and according as his stock of this is, so is the difference and value of one man above another. He that fills his head with vain notions and £Use opinions, may have his mind perhaps puffed up and seemingly much enlarged, but in truth it is narrow and empty; for all that it compre- hends, all that it contains, amounts to nothing, or less than nothing; for falsehood is below ignorance, and a lie worse than nothing.
Our first and great duty then is, to bring to our studies and to our inquiries after knowledge a mind covetous of truth; that seeks after nothing else, and after that impartially, and embraces it, how poor, how contemptible, how unfashionable soever it may seem. This is that which all studious men profess to do, and yet it is that where I think very many miscarry. Who is there almost that has not opinions planted in him by education time out of mind, which by that means come to be as the municipal laws of the country, which must not be questioned, but are then looked on with reverence as the standards of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, when perhaps these so sacred opinions were but the oracles of the nursery, or the traditional grave talk of those who pretend to inform our childhood, who received them Of Study. 199 from hand to hand without ever examining them? This is the fate of our tender age, which being thus seasoned early, it grows by continuation of time, as it were, into the very constitution of the mind, which afterwards very difficultly receives a different tincture. When we are grown up, we find the world divided into bahds and companies; not only as congregated under several politics and governments, but united only upon account of opinions, and in that respect, combined strictly one with another, and distinguished from others, especially in matters of religion. If birth or chance have not thrown a man young into any of these, which yet seldom fails to happen, choice, when he is grown up, certainly puts him into some or other of them; often out of an opinion that that party is in the right, uid sometimes because he finds it is not safe to stand alone, and therefore thinks it convenient to herd somewhere. Now in every one of these parties of men there are a certain number of opinions which are received and owned as the doc- trines and tenets of that society, with the profession and practice whereof all who are of their communion ought to give up themselves, or else they will be scarce looked on as of that society, or at best, be thought but lukewarm brothers, or in danger to apostatize.
It is plain, in the great difference and contrariety of opinions that are amongst these several parties, that there is much falsehood and abund- ance of mistakes in most of them. Cunning in some, and ignorance in others, first made them keep them up; and yet how seldom is it that implicit faith, fear of losing credit with the party or interest (for all these operate in their turns), suffers any one to question the tenet of his party; but altogether in a bundle he receives, embraces, and without examining, he professes, and sticks to them, and measures all other opinions by them. Worldly interest also insinuates into several men's minds divers opinions, which suiting with their temporal advantage, are kindly received, and in time so riveted there, that it is not easy to remove them. By these, and perhaps other means, opinions come to be settled and fixed in men's minds, which, whether true or false, there they remain in reputation as substantial material truths, and so are seldom questioned or examined by those who entertain them; and if they happen to be false, as in most men the greatest part must necessarily be, they put a man quite out of the way in the whole course of his studies; and though in his reading and inquiries he flatters himself that his design is to inform his understanding in the real knowledge of truth, yet in effect it tends and reaches to nothing but the confirming of his already received opinions, the things he meets with in other men's writings and discoveries being received or neglected as they hold proportion with those anticipa- tions which before had taken possession of his mind.
1. This grand miscarriage in our study draws after it another of less consequence, which yet is very natural for bookish men to run into, and that is the reading of authors very intently and diligently to mind the arguments pro and con they use, and endeavour to lodge them safe in their memory, to serve them upon occasion. This, when it succeeds to the purpose designed (which it only does in very good memories, and, indeed, is rather the business of the memory than judgment).
200 Appendix B.
sets a man off before the world as a very knowing learned man, but upon trial will not be found to be so; indeed, it may make a man a ready talker and disputant, but not an able man. It teaches a man to be a fencer; but in the irreconcileable war between truth and falsehood, it seldom or never enables him to choose the right side, or to defend it well, being got of it He that desires to be knowing indeed, that covets rather the possession of truth than the show of learning, that designs to improve himself in the solid substantial knowledge of things, ought, I think, to take another course; u e. to endeavour to get a clear and true notion of things as they are in themselves. This' being fixed in the mind well (without trusting to or troubling the memory, which often fails us), always naturally sug- gests arguments upon all occasions, either to defend the truth or con- found error. This seems to me to be that which makes some men's discourses to be so clear, evident, and demonstrative, even in a few words; for it is but laying before us the true nature of any thing we would discourse of, and our faculty of reasoning is so natural to us, that the clear inferences do, as it were, make themselves: we have, as it were, an instinctive knowledge of the truth, which is always most acceptable to the mind, and the mind embraces it in its native and naked beauty. This way also of knowledge, as it is in less danger to be lost, because it burdens not the memory, but is placed in the judg- ment; so it makes a man talk always coherently and confidently to himself on which side soever he is attacked, or with whatever aiguments the same truth, by its natural light and contrariety to falsehood, still shows, without much ado, or any great and long deduction of words, the weakness and absurdity of the opposition: whereas the topical man, with his great stock of borrowed and collected arguments, will be found often to contradict himself: for the arguments of divers men being often founded upon different notions, and deduced from contrary principles, though they may be all directed to the support or confutation of some one opinion, do, notwithstanding, often really clash one with another.
3. Another thing, which is of great use for the clear conception of truth, is, if we can bring ourselves to it, to think upon things ab- stracted and separate from words. Words, without doubt, are the great and almost only way of conveyance of one man's thoughts to another man's understanding; but when a man thinks, reasons, and discourses within himself, I see not what need he has of them. I am sure it is better to lay them aside, and have an immediate converse with the ideas of the things; for words are, in their own nature, so doubtful and obscure, their signification, for the most part, so uncertain and undetermined, which men even designedly have in their use of them increased, that if in our meditations our thoughts busy themselves about words, and stick at the names of things, it is odds but they are misled or confounded. This, perhaps, at first sight may seem but an useless nicety, and in the practice, perhaps, it will be found more difficult than one would imagine; but yet upon trial I dare say any one's experience will tell him it was worth while to endeavour it. He that would call to mind his absent friend, or preserve his memory, does it best and most effectually by reviving in his mind the idea of him, and contemplating Of Study. 20I that; and it is but a very faint imperfect way of thinking of one's friend barely to remember his name, and think upon the sound he is usually called by.
4. It is of great use in the pursuit of knowledge not to be too con- fident, nor too distrustful of our own judgment, nor to believe we can comprehend all things nor nothing. He that distrusts his own judgment in every thing, and thinks his understanding not to be relied on in the search of truth, cuts off his own legs that he may be carried up and down by others, and makes himself a ridiculous dependant upon the knowledge of others, which can possibly be of no use to him: for I can no more know any thing by another man's understanding, than I can see by another man's eyes. So much I know, so much truth I have got; so far I am in the right, as I do really know myself; whatever other men have it is in their possession, it belongs not to me, nor can be com- municated to me but by making me alike knowing; it is a treasure that cannot be lent or made over. On the other side, he that thinks his understanding capable of all things, mounts upon wings of his own fancy, though indeed Nature never meant him any, and so venturing into the vast expanse of incomprehensible verities, only makes good the fable of Icarus, and loses himself in the abyss. We are here in the state of mediocrity; finite creatures, furnished with powers and faculties very well fitted to some purposes, but very disproportionate to the vast and unlimited extent of things.
5. It would, therefore, be of great service to us to know how far our faculties can reach, that so we might not go about to fathom where our line is too short; to know what things are the proper objects of our inquiries and understanding, and where it is we ought to stop, and launch out no farther for fear of losing ourselves or our labour. This, perliaps, is an inquiry of as much difficulty as any we shall find in our way of knowledge, and fit to be resolved by a man when he is come to the end of his study, and not to be proposed to one at his setting out; it being properly the result to be expected after a long and duigent research to determine what is knowable and what not, and not a question to be resolved by the guesses of one who has scarce yet acquainted him- self with obvious truths. I shall therefore, at present, suspend the thoughts I have had upon this subject, which ought maturely to be considered of, always remembering that things infinite are too large for our capacity; we can have no comprehensive knowledge of them, and our thoughts are at a loss and confounded when they pry too curiously into them. The essences also of substantial beings are beyond our ken; the manner also how Nature, in this great machine of the world, pro- duces the several phenomena, and continues the species of things in a successive generation, &c., is what I think also lies out of the reach of our understanding. That which seems to me to be suited to the end of man, and lie level to his understanding, is the improvement of natural experiments for the conveniences of this life, and the way of ordering himself so as to attain happiness in the other — i.e. moral philosophy, which, in my sense, comprehends religion too, or a man's whole duty.
6th. For the shortening of our pains, and keeping us from incurable doubt and perplexity of mind, and an endless inquiry after greater 203 Appendix B.
certainty than is to be had, it would be yeiy convenient in the aeveral points that are to be knovoi and studied, to consider what proofs the matter in hand is capable of, and not to expect other kind of evidence than the nature of the thing will bear.
7th. A great help to the memory, and means to avoid confusioo in our thoughts, is to draw out and have frequently before us a scheme of those sciences we employ our studies in, a map, as it were, of the mundus inttUigibilis. This, perhaps, will be best done by every one himself for his own use, as best agreeable to his own notion, though the nearer it comes to the nature and order of things it is stfll the better. However, it cannot be decent for me to Uiink my crude draught fit to regulate another's thoughts by, especially when, perhaps, our studies lie different ways; though I cannot but confess to have received this benefit by it, that though I have changed often the subject I have been studjring, read books by patches and accidentally, as they have come in my way, and observed no method nor order in my studies, yet making now and then some little reflection upon the order of things as they are, or at least I have fancied them to have [been] in themselves, I have avoided confusion in my thoughts: the scheme I had made serving like a regular chest of drawers, to lodge those things orderly, and in the proper places, which came to hand confusedly, and without any method at all.
8th. It will be no hinderance at all to our study if we sometimes study ourselves, Le. own abilities and defects. There are peculiar endowments and natural fitnesses, as well as defects and weaxnesses, almost in every man's mind; when we have considered and made ourselves acquainted with them, we shall not only be the better enabled to find out remedies for the infirmities, but we shall know the better how to turn ourselves to those things which we are best fitted to deal with, and so to apply ourselves in the course of our studies, as we may be able to make the greatest advantage. He that has a bittle and wedges put into his hand, may easily conclude he is ordered to cleave knotty pieces, and a plane and carving tools, to design handsome figures.
I will only say this one thing concerning books, that however it has got the name, yet converse with books is not, in my opinion, the principal part of study; there are two others that ought to be joined with It, each whereof contributes their share to our improvement in knowledge; and those are meditation and discourse. Reading, me- thinks, is but collecting the rough materials, amongst which a great deal must be laid aside as useless. Meditation is, as it were, choosing and fitting the materials, framing the timbers, squaring and laying the stones, and raising the building; and discourse with a friend (for wrangling in a dispute is of litUe use,) is, as it were, surveying the structure, walking in the rooms, and observing the symmetry and agreement of the parts, taking notice of the solidity or defects of the works, and the best way to find out and correct what is amiss; besides Of Study. 203 that it helps often to discover truths, and fix the.,;o^ oar minds as much as either of the other two.
It is time to make an end of this long and overgrown discourse. I shall only add one word, and then conclude; and that is, that whereas in the banning I cut off history from our study, as a useless part, as certainly it is where it is read only as a tale that is told; here, on the other side, I recommend it to one who hath well settled in his mind the principles of morality, and knows how to make a judgment on the actions of men as one of the most useful studies he can apply himself to. There he shall see a picture of the wo^d and the nature of man- kind, and so learn to think of men as they are. There he shall see the rise of opinions, and find from what slight, and sometimes shameful occasions, some of them have taken their rise, which yet afterwards have had great authority, and passed almost for sacred in the world, and borne down all before them. There also one may learn great and useful instructions of prudence, and be warned against the cheats and rogueries of the world, with many more advantages which I shall not here enumerate.
NOTES.
The notes followed by the initials "J. F, P." are by Dr J. F. Payne.
§ I, p. I, 1. 17. ^* Nine parts of ten are what they are..,hy their education^* Locke says also in § 33, p. 20, 1. 35, '* that the difference to be found in the manners and abilities of men is owing more to their educa- tion than to anything else. ** He is taken to task by Hallam (IM, of Europe) for exaggeration in these assertions. We must remember how- ever that Locke here uses ''education*' in a wide sense, and includes all influences from without. He has elsewhere pointed out the differ- ence it will make to a child whether you brinp; him up to be a plough- man or a courtier — a difference in manners and abilities producible even in the same individual, though we now attribute much influence to hereditVi which in Lockers day was not thought of. Locke expresses himself carelessly; but he does not ignore, as Hallam would make him, the differences due to hatural disposition. " C^^ hft5t stampf»^ r^rfa\n characters upoja men's miods which like their shapes may pe rhaps be a little mended but can hardly be totally altered and transfomied jnto tih e contraiy.'' {Supra^ § 66^ p. 40, 1. 6,) Hallam says almost ITi<b BSlliie - {!iing: "In human beings there are intrinsic dissimilitudes which no education can essentially overcome" {Lit. of Europe^ Pt. iv. c. iv. § 56); and in saying it he supposes he is refuting Locke.