rinciple or fact is perceived, study this
carefully until it is thoroughly mastered. One who knows how to study
properly will thus pick out the sentence or the paragraph which
contains the key to the {44} subject--the fundamental fact or
principle--and will read and re-read this many times until its full
meaning is clearly grasped. When this is done it is sometimes
remarkable how quickly the rest of the chapter or subject may be
mastered, for it will often be found to consist of discussions or
illustrations, which will be obvious once the fundamentals are clearly
in the mind. The ordinary student, however, does not do this. He does
not see the fundamental principle, and each illustration is like a
separate problem, different from the others, which has to be studied by
itself, and is never fully mastered, because the underlying fundamental
principle is not grasped.

(_b_) BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO STUDY A SUBJECT, THINK IT OVER CAREFULLY AND
FIND OUT WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW OF IT OR WHAT YOU CAN ARRIVE AT BY YOUR
UNAIDED EFFORTS.--Try also to perceive what you expect to get out of
the study of the subject, and how it is related with what you have
already studied, and how it is to find application.[1] The historian,
Edward Gibbon, states in his autobiography that before reading any
book, he made it a rule to reflect {45} upon the subject, arranging and
classifying what he already knew of it.

This method may be followed to different degrees, depending on the
subject. A student beginning the study of a new science which he has
never studied before, can do comparatively little; but at least he can
insist upon getting a clear idea of what the subject or problem is, its
extent, what its objects and methods are, how it is related to other
subjects, what its uses are, and how other studies will find their
application in it.

(_c_) CLASSIFY AND ARRANGE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED.--When you have
finished part of a subject, stop and think over the ground that has
been covered, and arrange the various points made. Draw up a topical
index and compare it with the table of contents. Note the correlation
or interdependence of facts and link them together. By the principle
of association the retention of facts and principles in the memory will
be much facilitated. Note down concisely the steps of an argument in
your own words, and see if the conclusion is justified. Close the book
from time to time and go over in your mind what you