Part 3
“Such men are like certain animals, who will feed only where there is little provender, and that got at with difficulty through the bars of a rack, but refuse to touch it where there is an abundance before them[2].”
From this it appears to be essential to success that a young man should study to acquire confidence in his own powers. This is a condition of mind entirely different from conceit; it exhibits itself in no vain boasting, but essentially consists in a secret resolution to make great efforts by persevering industry, to gain the object of his ambition.
We believe that young men would entertain these notions oftener, if they were not deterred by an erroneous fancy of what belongs to genius. They think that such exertions as we recommend belong only to a plodding fellow, whilst the man of genius does every thing by a sudden act which costs him nothing.
This is an unhappy mistake. All our eminent men have been distinguished by fixing upon some great object, and possessing themselves with such a lively conception of it that it has led them on through years of toil.
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Footnote 2:
Sir J. Reynolds’ Works, vol. ii. p. 80.
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HOW TO UNDERSTAND GEOGRAPHY.
Every one says that geography is one of the most useful things that can be learnt; yet nothing is learnt so ill, because nothing is taught so ill. Look into any of the elementary books of geography, and read what is said about England. First, we are told that it is divided into forty counties; then, perhaps, follows an account of the several law circuits; and then, after some short notices about religion, government, produce, and manufactures, there are given lists of the chief towns, mountains, rivers, and lakes. But all these things are given without any connexion with each other, and it is a mere matter of memory to recollect what is no more than a string of names. And if a man does recollect them, still he is not much the wiser for them; he has got no clear and instructive notions about the country, but has merely learnt his map, and knows where to find certain names and lines upon it.
If we wish to know geography really, we must set about it in a very different manner. Take one of the skeleton maps published by the Useful Knowledge Society; there is not a single name upon them, nothing is given but the hills and the rivers. These are the true alphabet of geography. The hills are the bones of a country, and determine its form, just as the bones of an animal do. For according to the direction of the hills must be the course of the rivers: if the hills come very near the sea, it makes the rivers very short and their course very rapid; if they are a long way from the sea, it makes the rivers long and gentle. But rivers of this latter sort are generally navigable, and become so large near the sea as to be capable of receiving ships of large size. Here then towns will be built, and these towns will become rich and populous, and so will acquire political importance. Again, on the nature of the hills depend the mineral riches of a country; if they are composed of granite or slate, they may contain gold, silver, tin, and copper; if they are composed of the limestone of Derbyshire or Durham, they are very likely to have lead mines; if of the sand or gritstone of Northumberland, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, it is probable that there will be coal at no great distance. On the contrary, if they are made up of the yellow limestone of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and Northamptonshire, or of chalk like the hills in Wiltshire, Berkshire, and Hampshire, or of clay like those about London, it is quite certain that they will contain neither coal, nor lead, nor any valuable mineral whatsoever. But on the mineral wealth of a country, and particularly on its having coal or not having it, depends the nature of the employment of its inhabitants. Manufactories are sure to follow coal mines; whereas, in all those districts of England where there is no coal, that is, in all the counties to the south-east of a line drawn from the Wash in Lincolnshire to Plymouth, there are, generally speaking, no manufactories; but the great bulk of the people are employed in agriculture.
Thus then on the direction and composition of the hills of a country depend, first of all, the size and character of its rivers. On the character of its rivers depend the situation and importance of its towns, and its greater or less facilities for internal communication and foreign trade. And again, on the composition of the hills depend the employment of the people, their numbers on a given space, and in a great degree their state of morals, intelligence, and political independence. And here we have a reason for things, and see them connected with one another in a manner at once easier to remember, and much more satisfactory to understand when we do remember it. Some instances of this, given in detail, may appear in one of our future numbers.
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_The Flower Garden_ (June).--It will now be time for you to take up those bulbs, of which the leaves are nearly decayed. I can fix no particular day for this operation; because, as the bulbs flower at different seasons, so the leaves will decay in like manner; but the general rule is, to take them up carefully as soon as the leaves have turned yellow, and to lay them under a south wall to dry and ripen; taking care to cover them with fine, dry, sandy earth, in layers, so that they may not touch each other. When the leaves are quite decayed, the bulbs must be removed, and spread again to dry under shelter of a green-house, or in a room; and, finally, after cleaning them from the dirt, take off their old coats, or skins, and put them away in bags, or drawers, in a cool dry place, till they are wanted for replanting in the autumn. I must here explain why bulbs are taken up every year: the great object is in this, as in all other operations of gardening, to imitate Nature; to make the existence of foreign plants as near as it can be to what they enjoy in their native place. Tulips, hyacinths, and most of those bulbs which are taken up, come from countries where the whole summer is dry, and in winter the ground is covered with snow; the spring rains alone call them into life and flower. Travellers describe whole regions in Persia as being covered in the spring with enamelled carpets of scilla (hyacinths), tulips, and other bulbous plants: long drought succeeds the rains of spring, the leaves die away, and the plant rests again under the dry earth till the following spring. As in our country they can have no dry earth naturally to rest in during the summer, the best imitation of it is to take up the bulb, which would otherwise be rotted by the summer rains, or caused to grow in the autumn; in which latter case, the plant would not flower in the spring, as the flower-stalks would be killed by the wet and cold of winter, before it came to the surface.
⁂ From ‘The Garden,’ a very agreeable and instructive book for children, forming one of the volumes of a series called ‘The Little Library.’
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“_A little Learning is a dangerous Thing._”--Then make it greater. No learning at all is surely the most dangerous thing in the world; and it is fortunate that, in this country at least, it is a danger which cannot possibly exist. After all, learning is acquired knowledge, and nothing else. A man who can read his Bible has a little learning; a man who can only plough or dig, has less; a man who can only break stones on the road, less still, but he has some. The savages in one of the islands in the South Sea, stood with great reverence round a sailor who had lighted a fire to boil some water in a saucepan, but as soon as the water began to boil, they ran away in an agony of terror. Compared with the savages, there is no boy in Europe, of the age of ten years, who may not be called learned. He has acquired a certain quantity of practical knowledge in physics; and, as this knowledge is more than instinct, it is learning; learning which differs in degree only from that which enables a chemist to separate the simple metals from soda or potash.
The geographer Malte Brun remarks, that in many cities of the United States, that which is called a mob scarcely exists. Now it will be found that in these Cities education has been unstintedly bestowed upon all classes, down to the very lowest.
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LONDON:--CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST.
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Transcriber’s Notes
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Itemized changes from the original text:
• p. 106: Added faint or unprinted dash to “one-third” in phrase “were not one-half, sometimes even not one-third, of their present weight.” • p. 107: Replaced “o” with “of” in phrase “a series of articles which we shall occasionally publish.” • p. 109: Supplied missing “l” in “principal” in phrase “the principal port of Honduras.” • p. 109: Replaced “Charter house” with “Charterhouse” in phrase “John Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse.”