Excerpt from Biography of Self-Taught Men: With an Introductory Essay It is very obvious, in the first place, that in the passion for novelty and change, we are to see that we do not give up any thing which is truly valu able. We ought to remain firm on those great principles of politics and education, morals and religion, which have been tried, and have not been found wanting. There is little danger in this country of a too pertinacious attachment to old systems. The hazard is all on the other side. The love of innovation is vastly an overmatch for a blind regard to authority and antiquity. In detaching ourselves from what is absurd and er roneous in former Opinions, we shall, without great circumspection, abandon the true with the false, and shall soon find ourselves on an unknown sea, without any experience from the past, or guide for the future. As an instance in point, I might allude to the excessive simplification in books of education, relieving the student from the necessity of patient attention, and of thorough and discrimi nating habits of thought. 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.