The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1869-11-12

t had it's effect at last, and he is no
9 fast rising from afllpcnce to poverty
] Reading and Analysis.
by JOSEPH ALDEN, LII. D. ..
Ono rca son why some men lcarl
more than others, is. that they attend
to what they see and hear The mar
who means to make the most Of him
self, attends to whatever is going or
around him. If something is said il
his hearing, he attends to it, and de-
cides whether it is worth remember.
ing or not, and acts accordingly.-
/ When he takes up q newspaper, or a
book, he exercises similar attention
and discrimination. . Ii. a.. .-...
Power to fix ones attention in
reading 4 book in our own language
is far more important than power to
road book in dead language. This
power Of attention in reading, every
ohc should acquire. 1t is within the
reach Of every one. a,e-s--~~~
1t is not difficult for. one to fix his
attention upon an interesting narra-
tive, bnt when he takes up book Of
reasoning, his thoughts quickly wan
der. His eyes follow the successive
lines on the pa psge,-perhaps he ut
tcrs the words aloud but his
thoughts are far away from the sub
iect. Ifwhcn he reaches the bottom
Of the page, he were requested to
stop reading, and state the thoughts
contained in the page just read, he
would be cntirel y unable to do so.
The process Of reading has been with
him little more than mechanical
exercise.
A student in college began to sus-
pect that something more than Greek
and mathematics would be necessary
to enable him to do the work Of his
chosen profession. Though his
teachers gave him 10 hint to that cf-
feet, he came to the conclusion that
the power Of seizing and retaining
train Of thought brought to view by
the printed page, or by the hearing
of the ear, would de needed. He set
himself to acquire that power. lie
selected work Of connected thought,
and resolved to read and to. analyze
it. He began to read it with fixed
attention. But his attention would
not stay fixed. He had goac over
but q small portion offs page, when
he found his thoughts wandering.-
He could n, t tell what he had been
reading about. % @., " -..''=
He began the page again with re-
ncwed effort. He kept his attention
fixed for time on what he was read
ing, but soon found himself thinking
Of something else. lie then began
again but with not much better sue
cess. Hc resolved t.. keep on be;:in-
ming, till he could keep his attention
6xed on tho thought from the begin
ming to the end of the page. After
thirteen failures, he succeeded in
keeping bis attention fixed till lie
reached the bottom of the page and
turned over the leaf. He kept on
trying, till he could keep bis attcn-.
tion fixed frcm the beginning to tie
end of chapter. lie studied the
whole book after that manner, and in
so doing, acquired more mental disci-
pline than he had acquired by sever
al years of study -~:s. ...
This means Of acquiring power
over the attention is, to some extent,
within the reach Of every one. III
one has but little time to read, let |
him select book worthy of being
read in this manner, and he will re-
ceive more profit from reading it,
than he will get from the inattentive
pcrusal of score Of volumes. Dali
ly, regular, vigorous efforts at fixing |
the attention, although they may be |
brief, will he followed by valuable re-
suits.
There is another exercise closely
allied to this and moro valuable
This, also, is within the reach of !
those who are without advantag gcs Of
academic instruction. The exercise
is that of analyzing book or dis
course. by this is meant the process
of making mentally, condensed out
line Of the train of thought, and ut
tering it aloud. One can never be
sure shat he has a thought till he
has given expression to it. In order
to this process, the attention mnst,
Of course, be fixed on the thoughts
of the author: their connections and
relations must be noted pnd remem-
bercd.. Tho thoughts should be re-
mcmbered by their relations and not
by the place they may occupy on the
page. In the work Of committing 20
mcaory tho successive thoughts.
tbcy should be separated, as far as
possible, from the language Of the
Anthor. State Grst what is the Oh
jcet Of the essay. or the book to be
analyzed, then what tho author says
|tirst. and what next, noticing rs has
been said above, the relations Of
each thought to the preceding one,
and SO on to the end.
To,prcvcnt this exercise from de-
generating into an exercise Of verbal
memory, state the relations Of the
different thoughts to ono another
without stating what those thoughts
are. sB.s
i Take for example Fosters Essay
on Decision Of character. The fol-
lowing is,an analysis Of the first page
or two made in the manner suggest
cd above. lie first makes an intro
ductory remark and announces his