n on the memory. This is done by the
exercise of recalling without the book; an advantage that we do not
possess in listening to a lecture, until the whole is finished, when we
have too much to recall. To hurry from book to book is to gain
stimulation at the cost of acquisition.

I have alluded to the case of an engrossing subject, which starves all
accompanying studies. There are but two ways of obviating the evil, if
it be an evil; which it indeed becomes, when the alternative demands
also are legitimate. The one is peremptorily to limit the time given to
it daily, so as to rescue some portion of the strength for other topics.
The other is to intermit it wholly for a certain period, and let other
subjects have their swing. In advancing life, and when our studious
leisure is only what is left from professional occupation, two different
studies can hardly go on together. The alternative of a single study
needs to be purely recreative.

One other point may be noted under this head. In the application to a
book of importance and difficulty, there are two ways of going to work:
to move on slowly, and master as we go; or to move on quickly to the
end, and begin again. There is most to be said for the first method,
although distinguished men have worked upon the other. The freshness of
the matter is taken off by a single reading; the re-reading is so much
flatter in point of interest. Moreover, there is a great satisfaction in
making our footing sure at each step, as well as in finishing the task
when the first perusal is completed. We cannot well dispense with
re-reading, but it need not extend to the whole; marked passages should
show where the comprehension and mastery are still lagging.

* * * * *

[DESULTORY READING.]

IV. Another topic is Desultory Reading. This is the whole of the reading
of the unstudious mass; it is but a part of the reading of the true
student. It may mean, for one thing, jumping from book to book, perhaps
reading no one through, except for pure amusement. It may also include
the reading of periodicals, where no one subject is treated at any
length. As a general rule, such reading does not give us new
foundations, or constitute the point of departure of a fresh department
of knowledge; yet the amount of labour and thought bestowed upon
articles in periodicals, may render them efficacious in adding to a
previous stock of materials, or in correcting imperfect views