8. What two distinct purposes does my system serve?

ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS COMPARED.

It is sometimes asked, cannot "Analysis" cement together unconnected
"Extremes"? This question implies a contradiction of terms. I reply,
"Yes, by _accident_, and by accident only."

Analysis is _declaratory_--Synthesis is _constructive_. Analysis
_discovers_ and _describes_ the relations actually existing--Synthesis
applies connecting intermediates where no relations previously existed,
and then Analysis characterizes the relations introduced by the
cementing intermediates.

Even in the First Exercises the Series are Synthetic. Every pair of
words of which such Series consists exemplifies the relations either of
Inclusion, Exclusion, or Concurrence. I used to call that Lesson
Recollective Analysis, because in it the pupil is engaged in
familiarising himself with those Laws of Assimilation, and in
_discovering_ and _declaring_ the character of the relations between the
words of such Synthetic Series. He commits to memory such a series by
_thinking_ of the relations between the words. A minor object is to
memorise the Series--but a greater and higher object never lost sight of
in these Lessons is to train the Memory and Attention. And let the pupil
clearly notice _how_ this training comes about. Merely running over a
Series--two words at a time--without discriminating the _kind_ and
_quality_ of the relations between the words--hoping that the mind
unpractised in the Laws of Assimilation will intuitively feel those
relations, constitutes no training of the Memory. Such reading neither
strengthens the old power nor develops any new power. It is a blind act
of unconscious absorption, however little be absorbed. But if the mind
_acts_ in such cases and _tries to find_ and _characterise_ the
relations, then the appreciation of the relations of In., Ex., and Con.,
is quickened and invigorated and becomes in time so intensified that
those relations are thereafter almost automatically felt, and the
impression they make on the Memory, henceforth, is the most vivid
possible.

1. To whom only does this result come?
2. What question is frequently asked?
3. What is the reply?
4. Is analysis declaratory?
5. If so, why?
6. Is Synthesis constructive?
7. If so, explain why?
8. Why is the first lesson called Rec. Analysis?

Every Correlation is a Synthetic Series. It can be and should _always_
be analyzed, but Analy