on his study during working hours
by pinning ten lines from Virgil on
his plough, -- a method of refresh-
ment much superior to that which
Homer furnished the ploughman in
the well-known passage in the de-
scription of the shield. These are
extreme cases, but they are capital
illustrations of the immense power of
enrichment which is inherent in frag-
ments of time pieced together by in-
telligent purpose and persistent habit.

This faculty of draining all the
rivulets of knowledge by the way
was strikingly developed by a man
of surpassing eloquence and tireless
activity. He was never a methodical
student in the sense of following
rigidly a single line of study, but
he habitually fed himself with any
kind of knowledge which was at
hand. If books were at his elbow,

[[27]]

p026 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p027w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p028

v?