of sentences. Learning the desired passages by heart is done
by applying the methods here so profusely illustrated to the successive
sentences of the chapter or selection, until practice and training in
these methods will make their further application unnecessary.

In pursuance of my plan to keep the mind in an ASSIMILATING condition
when trying to learn and to further aid in making the intellect stay and
work with the senses, I proceed to furnish a Training Method for
committing prose and poetry to memory.

_Endless repetition or repeating a sentence to be memorised over and
over again_ is the usual process. After one perusal, however, the mind
in such a case has sated its curiosity in regard to the meaning of the
sentence and each subsequent repetition for the purpose of fixing it in
the memory merely makes an impression upon the eye or ear or both, and
the intellect, being unoccupied, naturally wanders away. Hence, learning
by _rote_ promotes _mind-wandering_: for the Attention always wanders
unless wooed to its work by all-engrossing interest in the subject which
in case of a weak power of Attention is rarely sufficient, or by =the
stimulating character of the process of acquirement= which is made use
of. In the Method about to be given, the intellect is agreeably
occupied, and thereby a Habit of Attention is promoted.

The justification for this Method is found in the Psychological maxim
that the intellect can assimilate a simple idea more easily than a
complex idea, and a few ideas at a time than many ideas.

The process of this New Method of Decomposition and Recomposition is as
follows:--Find the _shortest sentence or phrase that makes sense_ in the
sentence to be memorised. Add to this short sentence or phrase,
_modifiers_ found in the original sentence, always italicising each new
addition--one at a time--until the original sentence is finally
restored. Suppose we wish to memorise Bacon's definition of education:
"_Education is the cultivation of a just and legitimate familiarity
betwixt the mind and things._" Begin with the briefest sentence and then
go on: 1. Education is cultivation. 2. Education is _the_ cultivation
_of a familiarity_. 3. Education is the cultivation of a familiarity
_betwixt the mind and things_. 4. Education is the cultivation of a
_just_ familiarity betwixt the mind and things. 5. Education is the
cultivation of a just _and legitimate_ familiarity betwixt the mind and
things. In th