2.  Not at all.

3 and 5, stuck to these pretty closely.

4.e.  Read as far as Henry III in Hume.

    a.  Evolution and involution.

    b.  Refraction of light—­Polarisation partly.

    c.  Laws of combination—­must read them over again.

    d.  Nothing.

    f.  Nothing.

I must get on faster than this.  I must adopt a fixed plan of studies, for unless this is done I find time slips away without knowing it—­and let me remember this—­that it is better to read a little and thoroughly, than cram a crude undigested mass into my head, though it be great in quantity.

(This is about the only resolution I have ever stuck to—­1845.)

(Well do I remember how in that little narrow surgery I used to work morning after morning and evening after evening at that insufferably dry and profitless book, Hume’s “History,” how I worked against hope through the series of thefts, robberies, and throat-cutting in those three first volumes, and how at length I gave up the task in utter disgust and despair.

Macintosh’s “History,” on the other hand, I remember reading with great pleasure, and also Guizot’s “Civilisation in Europe,” the scientific theoretical form of the latter especially pleased me, but the want of sufficient knowledge to test his conclusions was a great drawback. 1845.)

[There follow notes of work done in successive weeks—­June 20 to August 9, and September 27 to October 4.  History, German, Mathematics, Physics, Physiology; makes an electro-magnet; reads Guizot’s “History of Civilisation in Europe,” on which he remarks] an excellent work—­very tough reading, though.

[At the beginning of October, under “Miscellaneous,”] Became acquainted with constitution of French Chambre des deputes and their parties.

[It was his practice to note any sayings that struck him:—­]

Truths:  “I hate all people who want to found sects.  It is not error but sects—­it is not error but sectarian error, nay, and even sectarian truth, which causes the unhappiness of mankind.”—­Lessing.

“It is only necessary to grow old to become more indulgent.  I see no fault committed that I have not committed myself...”—­Goethe.

“One solitary philosopher may be great, virtuous, and happy in the midst of poverty, but not a whole nation...”—­Isaac Iselin.

1842.

January 30, Sunday evening.

I have for some time been pondering over a classification of knowledge.  My scheme is to divide all knowledge in the first place into two grand divisions.

1.  Objective—­that for which a man is indebted to the external world; and

2.  Subjective—­that which he has acquired or may acquire by inward contemplation.

Subjective.
/
Metaphysics.
/
Metaphysics proper, Mathematics, Logic, Theology, Morality.

Objective.
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Morality, History, Physiology, Physics.