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Now take up your plece and commit to memory, by natural repetition, one line: once reading with attention will be sufficient. As soon as you have done this, mark well the leading idea contained in that line, and then place that idea, with the first two or three words, in the subdivision to which that line belongs: Proceed in this way with all the lines in the piece, and by this means you will commit to memory hundreds of lines in an incredibly short space of time.
27th. Scripture.—Learn chapters in the Bible just in the same way as you would pieces of poetry, taking for each verse one subdivision.
28th. Prose.—This may be learned in the same way as poetry, by taking a subdivision for each period. But for general purposes I consider this as altogether unnecessary, for this reason: authors of books seem to be generally impressed with the notion that the value of their productions is in proportion to their bulk, and not to the number of ideas which are conveyed; and hence they endeavour to stretch out their works to the greatest possible extent. They use many words, while the number of ideas is comparatively very small. What I would have you to do, therefore, is to pick out only the ideas or notions which are contained in the book you are reading; these only are valuable, and you can easily retain these by using one subdivision for each idea. I have found great benefit from reading a work a paragraph at a time, more especially when the subject upon which the book treats is altogether new to me. Having read one paragraph, and attentively noticed the ideas contained therein, I lay the book aside for a short time, and then think over these ideas when opportunity presents itself. By this means, when I come to the end of the book, I know that I have got all that is worth knowing in the book fixed upon my brain; the information is my own, and though a greater effort has been exerted on my part than is usually exerted by others, yet I have this satisfaction, that, while they have only picked up an idea here and there, I have got all the ideas the book affords, and therefore am well rewarded. A few hints on reading books you will find further on.
The last applications of this system which we shall notice are,—
