"_In_ the world or _out_ of the world sagacity may find materials upon which to work, and it will depend on the acuteness of that sagacity to arrive at eminence in the knowledge of man.--Where this is furnished, I should believe retirement, I do not mean solitude, to be more favorable to sound discrimination than a busy scene, because more likely to secure against precipitancy of judgment. On the whole, we may see, and hear, a great deal too much with our _outward_ senses. The principal defect of the present day is want of reflection. The provision, the apparatus for conveying instruction to the mind is superb, but exactly in proportion to these "tricking facilities" is the deficiency of original thinking. When books were few, and purchased with difficulty, they were intensely studied. The mind was forced to be in some sort its own library. The treasures of learning were committed to memory, and the intellect traded upon its internal resources; the capital was frequently turned, and mental riches crowned exertion; but the multiplication of _means_ often retards the _end_, and the understanding is encumbered with help." "But pray, sir, if we gain more in expansion than we lose in depth, is not the balance on our side? Now that the press is teeming with instruction brought down to the level of _all_ capacities, are we not advancing by rapid strides to a full developement of the reasoning faculty, and approaching that happy termination of ignorance so devoutly to be wished for?" "I do not agree with you, Howard. If you desire my opinion, it must be given in the negative. I am an old-fashioned fellow, and many of my notions are desperately heretical in these days of display. I cannot help prefering substance to shadows, and depth to surface. I love real improvements, not mere changes. In some instances we _are_ improving. The exact sciences are making progress, and so are those arts which depend upon the application of their principles. Chemistry, mechanics, &c. advance, and there is a disposition to reward the talent that is exhibited in forwarding them to perfection; but I maintain that the system of school and collegiate education for our youth requires reform. The best part of life, as regards some of our mental powers, is frittered away in learning badly two dead languages, to the neglect of better things at school; and at the Universities much might be done to effect a better order of things than prevails in any of them. Then, with respect to the prevailing taste in literature, it is too much devoted to _stimulus_. We have too many new books, and too many young authors. Some expatiating in the labyrinths of moral paradox--others in the wild regions of uncontrolled imagination; and so on. Whatever is _new_, is devoured with avidity, and so great is the quantity, so pulp-like the quality, of this literary pabulum, that the digestive organs are destroyed, and the mind is seldom exercised for itself."