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There is no pressing necessity to learn; the stock of Classics or

History or Natural Science which was enough for a man at

twenty-five is enough for him at fifty. Neither is it easy to

give a definite answer to any one who asks how he is to improve.

For self-education consists in a thousand things, commonplace in

themselves,-in adding to what we are by nature something of what

we are not; in learning to see ourselves as others see us; in

judging, not by opinion, but by the evidence of facts; in seeking

out the society of superior minds; in a study of lives and

writings of great men; in observation of the world and character;

in receiving kindly the natural influence of different times of

life; in any act or thought which is raised above the practice or

opinions of mankind; in the pursuit of some new or original

enquiry; in any effort of mind which calls forth some latent

power.