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A Guide for All Students

reference to some other part of the book where the same matter is dealt with, an indication of some other book or passage bearing on the same subject—these you will probably find sufficient for your purpose. It is a fundamental principle that the marks of importance mean importance to you, and not to people at large; further, that they mean importance to you in connexion with the particular purpose you have before you in reading the book. Thus the marks you put on a book give it an individuality and make it of special value to you. When you want to refer to a passage in a book you have so marked, you have no difficulty in locating it by merely turning over the pages. For the only passages that you have remembered well enough to wish to recall are those that struck you most in your reading, and those will naturally have your "important" mark. You will, of course, realize that if you use marks very freely, you must pay for this by the increased difficulty of locating a passage afterwards. Moderation in marking is highly to be commended.

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