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Show 32 THE SCHOOLMASTl;H. there the lesson of the schoolmaster ends ; and if the scholar be still backward, "lay on the birch." In getting any thing, all that we need to know is where it is to be got, and how it is to be got. The "how" is always "how it was got before;" and the "'~'here" is also "where it was got before," if the store then be not exhausted, or in the possession of another. But knowledge is inexhaustible; and nobody can make a property of it any more thai~ of the light of the sun. No man, be his power what 1t may, can make an exclusive property of that. Men may be deprived of it by shutting them up in dunge_ons; and it is the same with knowledcre. You can hmder from it only those whom you have the power a~d the means of shutting up; and then the knowledge IS not one jot more your property than it was before. The way and the means by which we got the knowledge which we do possess, are therefore the way and the means, and the only way and the only means by which we can get more ; and if we ude them rightly and diligently, the getting is a matter, not of doubt, but of absolute certainty. Let us consider those means: Do we gain knowledge of a subject by thinking about it 1 'Ve do not. By thinking, we may arrange our knowledge, put it into new shapes, and make it the means of letting us see what further knowledge we want, and what service that future knowledge is to be to us, just in the same manner that a tradesman, by examining his stock, can so arrange his goods, as that he can at once put his hand upon what he wants, and also know what additions it is most necessary and proper to make; but ju"t as a tradesman cannot, by any examinations and arrangements add one tittle to the quantity of his goods, so neither can we, l>y any thinking in which we may engage, add any thing new to the stock of our know ledge. By thinking, we can arrange what we do know, so that we can more readily usc it, ~lll(l we make room for other know- SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE. ledge ; but, we cannot think ourselves into an acquaint- 1ance wtth even the simplest thina- that we do not know by some other means. It is the b~lief that we can· that thou~ht will do what tl~oug~t never did, can do, or was mtended to do,-whiCh lies as a stumblincr-block in our path, and hinders us from knowing ~ crreat many things that would be very useful as w~h as very pleasant to us. Then, how do we come by our knowledge 1 A simple. case ~ill show that better than many words about It: It 1s a lovely summer mornincr the sun shines brightly, the air is perfumed by th~ scent of t~1e roses ; a.nd the songs of the birds are very delightful mus1c. Be it so. How do we know that the sun shines? "yY e see it with our eyes." Very true : we see the light, and we see the sun · and as we never see that kind of light without se~incr the sun,. and neve_r see the sun without seeing thatkind of hght, we 111 our thoughts associate the two toge~ her, and can no more help saying that the sun shmes than we can doubt that we see it. But how do we know as regards the perfume of the roses 1 "We smell it:" and as we have never ~een the flowers which we call roses without smell. mg what we call the perfume of roses ; and never unless we be able to account for it in some othe; way (as by the exposure of rose-water or oil of roses to the atmosphere), smell that perfume except where roses were near us, whether within our sight or not we h~ve learned by the judgment of our minds t~ assocmte ~he smell. with the flowers ; and can no more refram from thmking it the smell of roses than we can from perceiving the perfume. ' In the case of the songs of the birds, there is another organ affected, but the process is the same · t~e e~r never hears such sounds unless there ar~ ?uds m ~he case, or some substitute for birds, which ts explamable in some other way; and, therefore, |