(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.