t mean such books as Bradshaw's Guide, the London Post-Office
Directory, or any other mere collection of names, addresses, statistics,
&c., which one may have occasion to _consult_, but which it would be the
mere bravado of Memory to learn by heart--though even this is possible
enough to the master of my System. What is one's object in reading a
book? Simply to retain the IDEAS in it that are NEW and USEFUL to him,
as well as the NEW USES that are therein set forth of _old_ and
_familiar_ ideas. If the reader is already partly acquainted with a
book, there will be fewer new ideas in it than in one with which he is
unacquainted. Now, what do I mean by Learning either of these books in
one reading? I mean exactly what I say. All that you desire to remember
shall be retained--all the leading or subordinate ideas, propositions,
illustrations, facts, &c., &c.

There are only two ways of learning a book in this thorough manner:

(1) _The first_ is the traditional method of learning by _rote_ or
endless repetition. A celebrated Coach in Anatomy says that no one can
learn Anatomy until he has learned and _forgotten_ it from three to
seven times! In learning any book in this way, each sentence would be
repeated over and over again, and then reviewed and _re_learnt and
forgotten and learned again! And then at last the Pupil if he possesses
a first-rate _cramming_ memory might answer questions on it. In learning
a book by _rote_, the number of times that each sentence and section is
repeated, if actually written out and printed, would doubtless cover
5,000 to 50,000 or more pages!--and even then the Pupil passes his
examination, if he really does "pass," partly by luck and partly by
merit; all his life he is constantly referring to it, and repeating it,
and studying it, over and over again--showing really that he possesses
little more than a Reference Memory in regard to it! But let us be
candid and confess the truth; tens of thousands every year and during
successive years try the various professions--law, medicine, divinity,
or sciences, history, &c., &c., and utterly fail to "pass," even
respectably, because they lack the extraordinary sensuous MEMORY
necessary to acquire knowledge by _rote_.

It is only the exceptionally powerful natural memories that win at
exacting examinations by _rote_--even then their learning is soon
forgotten, unless it is _perpetually renewed_.

(2) The other mode of learning any book in the thoroug