Self-development : an address to students / by George Ross.

  • Ross, George, 1814-1863.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Self-development : an address to students / by George Ross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    now, and nature inexbaustible. The most trivial atom has a meaning and evidences a law: it is an essential part of a great whole, and mirrors trutli as clearly as if it were a univorso. A single beam teaches the qualities of light as well as an entire sun. Books, however, must not be despised: they have their good uses. They correct private judgment, fill up the gaps in our personal acquisitions, and uidicate new courses of observation. If they are suffered to aid, and do not warp the judgment, they are of immense utility. A man, through them, takes his predecessors into counsel: he sits on equal terms with Hunter and Harvey, and Newton and Galen and Plato, and argues the matter without restraint. He does not veil his eyes in shame before the great philosopher; but reading hard and critically, seems to say, Soul for soul, mine is as good as thine, what hast thou to say about this tliat I cannot under- stand? The modest man becomes defiant in his closet, and in silence vindicates the equal divinity of his nature. Go to, I wUl wrestle with thee, is the thought working within him. Books are the granaries of wisdom, into which each man throws his sheaf of thoughts; in due season the seed is winnowed and re-sown to produce a firesh crop, which is being eternally garnered and renewed. But this storehouse is common property, and every man is welcome to as m\ich as he can carry away. Now, a young man reads a book, either to learn facts or principles. The young medical student must be content to read for the first two or three years simply to acquire facts; his memory is the faculty he will be chiefly required to exercise. This may be a dry, revolting duty; but it is a good regimen. He must, however, also investigate principles to qualify himself in a respectable manner for his vocation. In the latter case the course of study should always originate in his own thought; the question should be suggested within ; he may then go out for an answer. Thus the reader preserves and strengthens the fi-eshness of his intellect. The student should always have some question to solve while he is reading ; for to read without an aim is mere frivoUty and loss of time. What is read makes little impression, and is soon forgotten. A man who lounges through his studies may possibly pluck a pretty flower, and catch a fine view now and then of the glorious world he moves in; but beyond that he acquires nothing cither permanent or profitable. It is a very pleasant way of passing time, fit for spinsters and fine gentlemen, but derogatory to the true student. Never be afraid of a difficulty; and never read cKcept to grapple with one. Do you want to grow strong? Then you must measure yourseU with the men of renown, and wrestle with all your might. A tlu-ow upon your back will do you good. Your pidsc should beat high, as if you were in a battle, and you had the sound of the trumpet in your oar. If a man simply raise