On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the
mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of
colors, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of
harmony, connection and meaning.
Reading is thinking with some one else's head instead of one's own. To
think with one's own head is always to aim at developing a coherent
whole--a system, even though it be not a strictly complete one; and
nothing hinders this so much as too strong a current of others'
thoughts, such as comes of continual reading. These thoughts,
springing every one of them from different minds, belonging to
different systems, and tinged with different colors, never of
themselves flow together into an intellectual whole; they never form a
unity of knowledge, or insight, or conviction; but, rather, fill
the head with a Babylonian confusion of tongues. The mind that is
over-loaded with alien thought is thus deprived of all clear insight,
and is well-nigh disorganized. This is a state of things observable
in many men of learning; and it makes them inferior in sound sense,
correct judgment and practical tact, to many illiterate persons,
who, after obtaining a little knowledge from without, by means of
experience, intercourse with others, and a small amount of reading,
have always subordinated it to, and embodied it with, their own
thought.
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