When a person has any real taste for the sciences, the first thing
he perceives in the pursuit of them is that connection by which they
mutually attract, assist, and enlighten each other, and that it is
impossible to attain one without the assistance of the rest. Though
the human understanding cannot grasp all, and one must ever be
regarded as the principal object, yet if the rest are totally
neglected, the favorite study is generally obscure. I was convinced
that my resolution to improve was good and useful in itself, but
that it was necessary I should change my method; I, therefore, had
recourse to the encyclopaedia. I began by a distribution of the
general mass of human knowledge into its various branches, but soon
discovered that I must pursue a contrary course, that I must take each
separately, and trace it to that point where it united with the
rest; thus I returned to the general synthetical method, but
returned thither with a conviction that I was going right.
Meditation supplied the want of knowledge, and a very natural
reflection gave strength to my resolutions, which was, that whether
I lived or died, I had no time to lose; for having learned but
little before the age of five-and-twenty, and then resolving to
learn everything, was engaging to employ the future time profitably. I
was ignorant at what point accident or death might put a period to
my endeavors, and resolved at all events to acquire with the utmost
expedition some idea of every species of knowledge, as well to try
my natural disposition as to judge for myself what most deserved
cultivation.
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