Edgeworth, Maria

Practical Education

London

Joseph Johnson

1798

"In making observations upon subjects which are new to us, we must be content to use our memory unassisted at first by our reason; we must treasure up the ore and rubbish together, because we cannot immediately distinguish them from each other."

In making observations upon subjects which are new to us, we must be content to use our memory unassisted at first by our reason; we must treasure up the ore and rubbish together, because we cannot immediately distinguish them from each other. But the sooner we can separate them the better. In the beginning of all experimental sciences, a number of useless particulars are recorded, because they are not known to be useless; when from comparing these a few general principles are discovered, the memory is immediately relieved, the judgment and inventive faculty have power and liberty to work, and then a rapid progress and great discoveries are made. It is the misfortune, of those who first cultivate new sciences, that their memory is overloaded; but if those who succeed to them submit to the same senseless drudgery, it is not their misfortune, but their fault. Let us look over the history of those who have made discoveries and inventions, we shall perceive, that it has been by rejecting useless ideas that they have first cleared their way to truth. Dr. Priestley’s Histories of Vision and of Electricity are as useful when we consider them as histories of the human mind, as when we read them as histories of science. Dr. P. has published a catalogue of books, from which he gathered his materials. The pains, he tells us, that it cost him to compress and abridge the accounts which ingenious men have given of their own experiments, teach us how much our progress in real knowledge depends upon rejecting all that is superfluous. When Simonides offered to teach Themistocles the art of memory, Themistocles answered, ‘Rather teach me the art of forgetting; for I find that I remember much that I had better forget, and forget’ (consequently) ‘some things which I wish to remember.' (Vol. II, pp. 568-9)

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Contributed by PC Fleming

1 entry in ESTC (1798).

Edgeworth, Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Practical Education; by Maria Edgeworth, Author of Letters for Literary Ladies, and the Parent’s Assistant; and by Richard Lovell Edgeworth, F.R.S. and M.R.I.A., 2 vols. (London: Printed for Joseph Johnson, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1798). <Link to ESTC><Vol I, Link to ECCO><Vol II, Link to ECCO>

Thomas Beddoes contributed to chapter 1. Chapters 13-18 by R. L. Edgeworth; the rest by Maria Edgeworth. Based on the Edgeworths' own experiences, and a work by Richard Lovell and Honora Edgeworth, privately printed in 1780. Maria began this work at least as early as 1796.

Bibliographical description and metaphors contributed by PC Fleming. See also Richard Lovell and Honora Edgeworth's Practical Education: or, The History of Harry and Lucy. (Lichfield: Printed by J. Jackson. And sold by J. Johnson, London, 1780). <Link to ESTC>

07/01/2010