There are only two ways of learning a book in this thorough manner:
(1) _The first_ is the traditional method of learning by _rote_ or endless repetition. A celebrated Coach in Anatomy says that no one can learn Anatomy until he has learned and _forgotten_ it from three to seven times! In learning any book in this way, each sentence would be repeated over and over again, and then reviewed and _re_learnt and forgotten and learned again! And then at last the Pupil if he possesses a first-rate _cramming_ memory might answer questions on it. In learning a book by _rote_, the number of times that each sentence and section is repeated, if actually written out and printed, would doubtless cover 5,000 to 50,000 or more pages!--and even then the Pupil passes his examination, if he really does "pass," partly by luck and partly by merit; all his life he is constantly referring to it, and repeating it, and studying it, over and over again--showing really that he possesses little more than a Reference Memory in regard to it! But let us be candid and confess the truth; tens of thousands every year and during successive years try the various professions--law, medicine, divinity, or sciences, history, &c., &c., and utterly fail to "pass," even respectably, because they lack the extraordinary sensuous MEMORY necessary to acquire knowledge by _rote_.
It is only the exceptionally powerful natural memories that win at exacting examinations by _rote_--even then their learning is soon forgotten, unless it is _perpetually renewed_.
(2) The other mode of learning any book in the thorough manner I have indicated, whether it be a book in which the reader finds but _few_ novel ideas or where they are _all new_, as in a scientific or technical work, is by my Method. In fact, I believe no one can learn any book so thoroughly by _rote_, even if he possesses a marvellous Natural Memory and if he peruse it ever so many times, as my Pupils can by my method in a single perusal. Let the reader note that my System has two important aspects--(1) It is a Device or Method of memorising or learning any facts whatever--prose, poetry, dates, data, formulæ and facts and principles of the sciences, &c., &c., &c., or anything whatsoever to be remembered. (2) There is another equally, if not _more_ important aspect of it, namely, as a _Trainer or Strengthener of the Natural Memory_ to any extent the pupil wishes to carry it. And the Natural Memory is so strengthened by the use of the System, that as a Device, the System is no longer required. You then remember from your new Memory-power without taking any pains to remember, and I am happy to add that the diligent student can derive the full benefit of the System as a Memory Trainer by learning the lessons in the way I point out.