Books and Culture

Book Excerpt: e rivulets of knowledge by the way wasstrikingly developed by a man of surpassing eloquence and tirelessactivity. He was never a methodical student in the sense of followingrigidly a single line of study, but he habitually fed himself with anykind of knowledge which was at hand. If books were at his elbow, heread them; if pictures, engravings, gems were within reach, he studiedthem; if nature was within walking distance, he watched nature; if menwere about him, he learned the secrets of their temperaments, tastes, and skills; if he were on shipboard, he knew the dialect of the vesselin the briefest possible time; if he travelled by stage, he sat withthe driver and learned all about the route, the country, the people, and the art of his companion; if he had a spare hour in a village inwhich there was a manufactory, he went through it with keen eyes andlearned the mechanical processes used in it. "Shall I tell you thesecret of the true scholar?" says Emerson. "It is this: every man Imeet is my mastRead Mo