Book Description

Excerpt from Geology in Relation to the Studies of the University of Oxford It has always appeared to me that there is a great deal of truth in an epigrammatic sentence which I once heard uttered, - that "a well educated man ought to know something of everything and everything of something." In other words, he ought to have a certain general acquaintance with the principles and outlines of all, or at least of a great many, branches of knowledge, and he ought also to select some one, or at most some few, subjects of study, of which he should endeavour to obtain the entire mastery. Without the former, most of the ideas which circulate in general literature and general conversation, become to him a dead letter, as unsuggestive as the inscriptions of Assyria or Etruria; without the latter, he possesses no detailed or systematic knowledge to exercise his judicial or discursive powers. Both general and particular knowledge are necessary to complete the mental structure; - the man who only knows "something of everything" is superficial, while he who only knows "everything of something" is narrow-minded. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.