e. If the word is incidental rather than vital to the meaning
of the passage that contains it, and if it gives promise of but rarely
crossing your vision again, you should deign it no more than a civil
glance. Plenty of ways will be left you to expend time wisely in the
service of your vocabulary.

EXERCISE - Analysis

1. Make a list of the words in class two of your own vocabulary, and
similar lists for classes three and four. (To make a list for class one
would be but a waste of time.) Procure if you can for this purpose a
loose-leaf notebook, and in the several lists reserve a full page for each
letter of the alphabet as used initially. Do not scamp the lists, though
their proper preparation consume many days, many weeks. Try to make them
really exhaustive. Their value will be in proportion to their accuracy and
fulness.

2. Con the words in each list carefully and repeatedly. Your task is to
transfer these words into a more intimate list--those in class four into
class three, those in three into two, those in two into one. You are then
to promote again the words in the lower classes, except that (if your
judgment so dictates) you may leave the new class three wholly or
partially intact. To carry out this exercise properly you must keep these
words in mind, make them part and parcel of your daily life. (For a
special device for bringing them under subjection, see the next exercise.)

3. To write a word down helps you to remember it. That is why the normal
way to transfer a word from class four into class two is to put it
temporarily into the intermediary class, three; you first _see_ or
_hear_ the word, next _write_ it, afterwards _speak_ it.
The mere writing down of your lists has probably done much to bring the
words written into the circuit of your memory, where you can more readily
lay hold of them. Also it has fortified your confidence in using them; for
to write a word out, letter by letter, makes you surer that you have its
right form. With many of your words you will likely have no more trouble;
they will be at hand, anxious for employment, and you may use them
according to your need. But some of your words will still stubbornly
withhold themselves from memory. Weed these out from your lists, make a
special list of them, copy it frequently, construct short sentences into
which the troublesome words fit. By dint of writing the words so often you
will soon make them more tractable.

4. Make a fifth list