A quarto volume on one theme may
be entirely superficial, while a lecture or review-article on the same
theme may contain the whole gist of the matter. Prolixity is oftener
superficial than brevity. Books are superficial if they relate only
to the outside of a subject,--if they describe only its husk; and the
reverse, if they give its kernel. Many an able review-article contains
the kernel of a whole volume, and if the pleased reader of the
review goes to the book itself, expecting to enjoy that in a degree
proportionate to its size, he will often find he has got nothing but a
dry husk for his pains.
Those who have little time for books, but who wish really to know many
things, can accomplish a great deal by being careful to hunt for meats
rather than for shells and husks; for though the outsides of things make
a great show, and can be displayed by the pedant to great advantage
before those who are superficial as himself, they contain no healthful
nutriment for the mind. Take, for instance, the study of botany. Let
a person master the whole vocabulary of the science, and know the
arrangement of its classifications so well that he can turn at once to
the description of any plant he may find. Let him do this until, like
King Solomon, he knows every plant by name, from the "hyssop on the wall
to the cedar of Lebanon"; but if at the same time he knows nothing
more about them than the name, his knowledge of botany is entirely
superficial, though he may have spent a vast deal of time and labor
in its acquisition.
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