Let the ambitious student make an Abstract of any chapter of John Stuart
Mill's Logic, and then compare his work with the Analysis of this same
chapter by the Rev. A. H. Killick (published by Longmans), and he will
at once see the enormous difference between the essentials and the
non-essentials--the difference between the subject of discussion and the
_explanation_ or _exposition_ of it. The student's abstract, if printed,
would extend over twenty to thirty pages. Mr. Killick's only occupies
two to five pages. But do not reverse the process and read Mr. Killick's
Analysis first and then make your Abstract. The latter, however, is _the
easier_, _the usual_, and _the useless_ method. Let the student continue
this comparison till he attains very nearly the brevity and
discrimination displayed by Mr. Killick. Or, if he prefers History, let
him write a summary of any chapter of Green's "Short History of the
English People," and then compare his digest with Mr. C. W. A. Tait's
Analysis of the same chapter (now bound up with Green's History, as
lately published in England). It would be a capital training for the
student to abstract the whole of Green's work and compare his abridgment
of each chapter with that of Mr. Tait. After considerable practice in
this way in making Abstracts and _comparing his work with that of such
Masterly Abstractors_ as Dr. Killick and Mr. Tait, the student who needs
this training is prepared to make abstracts of his own text-books.
Any other work of which an Abstract is published will serve the student
as well as the above. There were formerly published Abstracts of several
law books. And there may be other works whose abstracts are available to
the ambitious student.
Abstracts would be very amusing if they did not indicate an almost
total failure of educational training in the matter of _thinking for
one's self_. Recently a Pupil brought me a work on Physiology, written
for general readers, and pointing to a paragraph in it that occupied
nearly a whole page, exclaimed, "The only way I can make an abstract of
that paragraph is to _learn it by heart_!" A glance at it showed me that
I could express the gist and pith of it in the following sentence:--"The
pulse beats 81 times per minute when you are standing, 71 times when
sitting, and 66 times when lying down." After a re-perusal of the
paragraph he remarked, "You are right. That is all one cares to remember
in that long passage." To his request for me to memorise the Abstract, I
replied by asking what is the "Best Known" in it. Why, "pulse," of
course. It is merely occupied with the _number of times_ the pulse beats
per minute in different positions of the body. Now correlate (memorising
your correlations as you proceed) "pulse" to "standing," and "standing"
to a word expressing 81 ({f}ee{t}); "sitting" to a word that translates
71 ({c}augh{t}); and "lying down" to a word that spells in figures 66
({j}ud{g}e). The bodily positions being exhaustively enumerated need not
be correlated together. Pulse ... beating ... fighting ... stand-up
fight ... STANDING ... stand ... small table ... table legs ... FEET.
SITTING ... rest ... arrest ... CAUGHT. LYING DOWN ... lies ... perjury
... trial ... JUDGE.
These efforts in abstracting will qualify the young student to
distinguish the main ideas from the subordinate ones, and he will then
know when reading a book what to attend to and what to reject. Try a
short essay first, then a longer one; and at last, when you are familiar
with the method, attack any book, and you will cope with it
successfully. Not much practice in this way will be required to enable
you to know, from a glance at the _table of contents_, just what to
assail and what to disregard. And in all your _first_ attempts in
reading a technical work, make out an Abstract of each chapter in
writing, and then deal only with this Abstract. Whenever the Subject is
not treated in a desultory manner, but with logical precision, you will
soon be able to find Suggestive or Prompting Words in the Sequence of
Ideas and in the successive Links in the Chain of Thought that runs
through the exposition. If there is no such Sequence of Ideas or Chain
of Thought running through it, it may serve as an amusement, but is
little likely to command serious study. _In a short time_ you will be
able, in the language of Dr. Johnson, "to tear out the heart of any
book." Hazlitt said that Coleridge rarely read a book through, "but
would plunge into the marrow of a new volume and feed on all the
nutritious matter with surprising rapidity, grasping the thought of the
author and following out his reasonings to consequences of which he
never dreamt." Such a result is rarely attained even by the ablest of
men--but it is the ultimate goal at which every student should aim--an
aim in which he will be largely assisted by the ART OF ASSIMILATIVE
MEMORY.
There are four methods of learning abstracts: one is by Synthesis; the
other is by the Analytic-Synthetic Method, the third is mostly by
Assimilative Analysis, and the fourth method is by the memory developed
and trained by the System, but which is not consciously used.
(1) It is the novelties of Fact, Opinion, Illustration, &c., set forth
in your Abstract that you correlate together, thus: You correlate the
Title of the First Chapter to the Title of the Book; next, the Titles of
the Chapters to each other; and then you correlate, in each chapter, the
first leading idea or proposition to the title of the chapter, the
second leading idea to the first, &c., &c. In this way you will proceed
until you have absorbed all the _new ideas_, _facts_, _statistics_ or
_illustrations_, or whatever you wish to retain. You can then test
yourself on the work by calling to mind whatever you have thus cemented
together. If this is well done you will never have to do it again.
(2) We have already seen how to apply the Analytic-Synthetic Method in
learning by heart selections in Prose or Poetry, and same method can be
used in memorising an Abstract of such parts of a book as are new to the
reader. This method, too, once used in addition to what has been done by
the pupil, will make a further resort to it unnecessary.
(3) And the same remark applies to the third method.
(4) The fourth method is the pupil's final method.
The foregoing exhaustive methods of dealing with a book are recommended
to those only whose natural memories are not yet made powerfully
retentive by the System as a Memory-TRAINER. If, however, a Pupil
possesses a good natural memory and a mastery of the System as a Device
for memorising, and he has also greatly added to the power of his
Concentration as well as his memory by doing all the exercises, he _will
not use my System, even in the reading of the first book, except now and
then_--certainly _not_ constantly, but _only occasionally_. Although not
necessary in case of memories made strong by the System, yet I do most
earnestly recommend the most gifted and highly endowed to deal with
_one_ book in the above thorough-going manner. As for instance, Herbert
Spencer's little work on Education [four short essays]. Dr. Charles
Mercier, who next to Herbert Spencer is the most original and clear
sighted Psychologist in England, presents, in a work entitled "Sanity
and Insanity," a scarcely equalled example of lucid exposition and
logical development. Whichever one is selected it should be fairly and
honestly handled by my method. The gain to Intellectual Comprehension
from having carefully abstracted one book, and the gain to the memory
from having made and memorised the Abstract, will produce results that
will last through life, and make all subsequent acquisitions more easy
and delightful, and make all further abstracts probably unnecessary.
HOW TO LEARN A LONG SERIES OF UNCONNECTED FACTS IN THE SCIENCES OR
EVENTS IN HISTORY, CHAPTERS IN BOOKS, OR THE CONTENTS OF BOOKS.
1. It is useless for the pupil to attempt to learn the exercise here
given unless he has carefully studied the Building, Ice, Presidential,
and English Sovereign Series. The _meaning_ of In., Ex., and Con. can be
understood in application to the facts of life, the events of History
and the principles and details of the Arts and Sciences, only by a
complete mastery of all that precedes this exercise.
2. Let the pupil learn only _ten_ facts, propositions or statements at
each of the first few sittings, and then, as he adds ten more, let him
recite from memory all that he has previously learned of this exercise.
The _cementing relations_ of In., Ex., and Con., which bind the events
together, must in each case be first found by the student himself, and
afterwards, and not before, let him glance at my analysis which follows
this series.
3. The lawyer, in selecting 100 or 1,000 events of the Victorian Era,
would doubtless make a list interesting to lawyers, the physician would
make one of interest mostly or mainly to doctors, and similarly with
educators, statesmen, editors, &c., &c. But I have selected events with
a view to find the most difficult cases to deal with and with no other
view, and if the pupil masters these, all other work hereafter will be
easy to him.
4. This method can be promptly used, provided the pupil does not attempt
to engorge or cloy his mind by undertaking too much at a time at first.
Practice will soon make longer exercises easy. Each of the following six
Exercises is enough for any one session or sitting.
5. Between a pair of _words_ it may be difficult sometimes to find
either the relation of In., Ex., or Con.; but in the case of sentences,
propositions or descriptions, it is always easy to find one or other of
the cementing relations. Relations which to me are strong, may seem weak
to some pupils. No two persons would find the same relation in some
cases, but, however different the solutions may be, they must always
verify In., Ex., or Con.
6. The Int. Analysis, the Analytic-Synthetic, or the mere Analytic
method, will enable the pupil to memorise the statement or sentence
which describes the fact whenever any aid is necessary.
7. This Method can be readily applied to events in ancient or modern
times, or to an accumulation of facts in the sciences, &c.
8. If we were to express only the year the formula would in most cases
be different. To indicate the month and the day of the month, a
consistent phrase must be used.
ONE HUNDRED EVENTS OF THE VICTORIAN ERA, LEARNED BY ONE CAREFUL READING
OR STUDY.