T H E OLD FRENCH ANATOMIST, M€ry, said of himself and his colleagues that they were like the rag-pickers of Paris, who knew every street and alley, hut had no nation of what went on in the houses. The accumulation of miscellaneous knowledge of useful things, copious, inexact, inapplicable, may, like ragpicking, leave us ignorant of the world in which we live. Let us try to reach the inner life of something, great or small. The truly useful knowledge is mastery. Mastery d w s not come by
listening while somebody explains; i t is the reward of effort. Effort, again, is inspired by interest and sense of duty. Interest alone may tire too quickly; sense of duty alone may grow formal and unintelligent. Mastery comes by attending long t o a particular thing-by inquiring, by looking hard a t things, by handling and doing, by contriving and trying, by forming goad hahits of work, and especially the habit of distinguishing between the things that signify and those that do not.
Professor L.C.Miall
