But it will not do for you to come until the Doctor goes
home. I want you to write and tell me if you have any taste for any
particular profession, and if you have been making good use of your
spare time, in reading useful works. You should remember never to
waste a minute; always be doing something. Try and find out what
things you have most taste for, as they are what you should study
most; but get a general knowledge of all the sciences. Whatever
else you learn, don't forget mathematics and the sciences more
immediately deduced from them, (at the head of which stands
astronomy,) if you have any love of truth--and if you have not, you
have none of your mother's blood in you. Mathematics are the
foundation of all truth as regards practical science in this world;
they are the only things that can be demonstrably proved; no one
can dispute them. In geology, chemistry, and even in astronomy,
there is more or less of mere matter of opinion. For instance, in
astronomy we do not know for certain what the sun or stars are made
of, or what the spots are on the sun, and a few details of that
kind; but the main mathematical principles cannot be disputed.
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