I will add one remark of his own knowledge acquired from
books, which appears to me both just and valuable. The prejudice
against such knowledge, he said, and the custom of opposing it to
that which is learnt by practice, originated in those times when
books were almost confined to theology, and to logical and
metaphysical subtleties; but that at present there is scarcely any
practical knowledge which is not to be found in books. The press is
the means by which intelligent men now converse with each other, and
persons of all classes and all pursuits convey each the contribution
of his individual experience. It was, therefore, he said, as absurd
to hold book-knowledge at present in contempt, as it would be for a
man to avail himself only of his own eyes and ears, and to aim at
nothing which could not be performed exclusively by his own arms.
The use and necessity of personal experience consisted in the power
of choosing and applying what had been read, and of discriminating by
the light of analogy the practicable from the impracticable, and
probability from mere plausibility.
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