Improvement of the Mind Author:Isaac Watts Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: follow, Bene orasse est lene studuisse. Praying is the best studying. To conclude, let industry and devotion join together, and you need not doubt the happy s... more »uccess, Prov. ii. 2. " In- " cline thine ear to wisdom, apply thine heart to under- " standing: cry after knowledge, and lift up thy voice ; lf seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden " treasures: then shall thou understand the fear of the " Lord, andc. which is the beginning of wisdom. It is the " Lord who gives wisdom even to the simple, and out of f his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." CHAP. II. Observation, Reading, Instruction by Lectures, Coniersationt and Study compared. JL Here are five eminent means or methods whereby the mind is improved in the knowledge of things, and these are observation, reading, instruction by lectures, conversation, and meditation ; which last, in a most peculiar manner, is called study. Let us survey the general definitions or descriptions of them all. I, Observation is the notice that we take of all occurrences in human life, whether they are sensible or intellectual, whether relating to persons or things, to ourselves or others. It is this that furnishes us, even from our infancy, with a rich variety of ideas and propositions, words and phrases : it is by this we know that fire will burn, that the sun gives light, that a horse eats grass, that an acorn produces an oak, that man is a being capable of reasoning and discourse; that our judgement is weak, that our mistakes are many, that our sorrows are great, that our bodies die and are carried to the grave, and that one generation sue- ceeds.ceeds another. All those things which we see, which wfe hear or feel, which we perceive by sense or consciousness, or which we know iu a direct manner, with sca...« less