with design, and cultivated with art and method, it will be at all times of immediate and ready use to us and others." "Thus useful arms in magazines we place, But to be found, when need require, with ease." When we reflect on the shortness of human life, compared with its legitimate objects, the importance of systematic selection appears in a very forcible point of view: but in the acquisition of knowledge through the medium of books, it is still more manifestly displayed. If a man should calculate on living to the age of sixty years, and should appropriate, with great industry, forty of these years to the study of books, the most that could be accomplished in this time, would be the perusal of about sixteen hundred octavo volumes, of five hundred pages each. What is this number, compared with the millions of volumes out of which he has to select! How important is it, therefore, that the choice should be judicious, and that after it is made, the whole should be studied with method; and how much more necessary is it to those, who instead of forty years' devotion to books, appropriate not more than a fourth part of that period. We are aware that such calculations cannot be made with mathematical accuracy, but an approximation is sufficient for our purpose, which is to illustrate the great importance of method and judicious selection, in the attainment of knowl. edge through the channel of books. It is observed by Dr. Watts, that "the world is full of books, but there are multitudes which are so ill written, they were never worth any man's reading; and there are thousands more which may be good in their kind, yet are worth nothing when the month, or year, or occasion is past for which they were written." "Others," continues the Doctor, "may be valuable in themselves, for some special purpose, or in some peculiar science, but are not fit to be perused by any but those who are engaged in that particular science or business; it is therefore of vast advantage for the improvement of knowledge, and saving of time, for a young man to have the most proper books for his reading recommended by some judicious friend." Martin Luther, who by uniting method with industry, attained an eminence in learning unknown to the age in which he lived, compares indiscriminate and immethodical readers to such as have no fixed habitation, who dwell every where, reside in no place, and cannot be said to belong to any country. He advises students to confine their attention to the most learned, methodical, and well selected authors, and by no means to distract themselves with too great a variety of books. A judicious selection of nutriment is not less requisite to the enlargement and invigoration of the mind than of the body; for, as lord Bacon quaintly observes, "some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in part, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books." But whilst the student is judicious in his selection, there is another consideration no less worthy his attention. Books are not only to be the best on the subject of which they treat, but they are to be read in that progressive succession, and each is to be studied with that method, which the gradual enlargement of the mind on the particular subject requires. It is not only requisite, therefore, that certain books be designated as most worthy perusal, but the order in which they are to be read, and the particular manner in which they are to be studied, should receive an earnest attention. If method in the common concerns of life, and in our studies generally, is of great importance, there surely is no department of knowledge in which it is so imperiously requisite as in the science of jurisprudence. The subject which treats of human conduct, must necessarily be as extensive and various as human action; we consequently find that the Law, in its most extensive signification, has occupied the pen of the learned to a greater extent than perhaps any other sci ́ence. An infinite deal has been written on the rights and obligations of man in all his various relations; and as the one thousandth part cannot and ought not to be read, the selection of such legal matter, as has the stamp of authority, and is most distinguished for its learning, method, and style, cannot but be an undertaking of the first importance. He who aspires to a thorough acquaintance with legal science, should cultivate the most enlarged ideas of its transcendant dignity, its vital importance, its boundless extent, and infinite variety. As it relates to the conduct of man, it is a moral science of great sublimity; as its object is individual and national happiness, it is, of all others, the most important; as it respects the moral actions of man in all his relations, it is infinitely varied; and as it concerns all his rights and obligations, either derived from, or due to his God, his neighbour, his country, or himself, it must necessarily be a science of vast extent. To the elevated and dignified view of this august science, cultivated and fostered, perhaps, from early age, we may attribute the astonishing progress made in it by a few; whilst, on the other hand, those who have attained even a sciolous knowledge, have with much sensibility accorded to it the homage of their profoundest respect, and considered it as, of all others, the most noble and dignified. Those, among the ancients and moderns, who have paid their tribute of respect to this science, appear to have been at a loss to find in the language of eulogy and eloquence, terms sufficiently expressive of their great admiration. Hence the enthusiasm of Hooker vented itself in the following sublime strain. "Of Law no less can be said, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power; both angels and men, and the creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace.”* * Eccle. Pol. Book I. |