al
reading.

(_f_) BE SYSTEMATIC.--Have set times for your study of each subject, a
regular program of work. Gain the habit of being able to start at once
on your work without frittering away your time and thinking about
beginning. Apply yourself steadily and persistently and do not let
your work consist of a series of spasmodic efforts. By systematically
doing one thing at a time and passing from study to study, you can
finally, after a period of continuous application, dependent upon your
powers, alternate with a period of relaxation or amusement. Your
period of continuous study should not be so short as to prevent
continuous effort, nor so long as to over-fatigue your mind. Some
students are restless, spasmodic, and while they seem to be continually
employed, they achieve nothing. Others by a steady, continuous pull,
achieve much.

(_g_) CULTIVATE THE POWER, BY HABITUAL PRACTICE, OF FIXING YOUR MIND
INTENSELY UPON ONE THING FOR A CONSIDERABLE TIME.--If you can acquire
this, it will be most valuable to you. It has been said that the
difference between clever and ordinary men is often mainly {58} a
difference in the power of directing and controlling the mind through
the attention. Some minds go wool gathering or day dreaming, and flit
from one thing to another in a desultory manner. Others go straight
toward the object in view.

(_h_) REMEMBER TO APPLY WHAT YOU ARE STUDYING.--Study from things, by
experiment, in the field, rather than entirely by books. In this way,
what you learn will be real to you. Book knowledge is of very little
value in itself.

(_i_) BE INTERESTED THOROUGHLY IN WHAT YOU ARE DOING.--Indifference is
a fatal enemy to good work. Every subject has its difficulties and you
must not be discouraged by them. If you can learn how to overcome
difficulties, you will find that doing so affords the keenest
intellectual pleasure, and that each difficulty overcome by your own
unaided efforts will make you much stronger in attacking the next one.

(_j_) READ THE IMPORTANT THINGS AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL YOU KNOW YOUR
BOOK THOROUGHLY.--As Herbert Spencer says, it is much better to know a
few books thoroughly than to know many superficially. The same
philosopher once said that if he had read as many books as certain
other persons had read he would know {59} as little as they did.
Remember the old Latin proverb, "Multum legere non multa." [Read much
but not many books.] If you learn y