The incipient steps in this direction were the natural ones of a thought ful reader, such as turned-down leaves and marginal notes, until a curiosity to compare the refined thought of one favorite author or classic authority with that of another upon the same theme led to a series of pencilled extracts upon various cardinal subjects. Mental research was thus gradually stimulated to collect from the Shores of literature such golden sands as, from their brilliancy and Suggestiveness, dazzled both the sense and the im agination.