III
THE THIRD ESSENTIAL FOR A PROPER METHOD OF STUDY IS SYSTEM
(a) DISCOVER THE FUNDAMENTAL IDEA OF THE SUBJECT.—Strip off the detail and get down to the root of the thing. See the really important point. Then, after this has been clearly perceived and mastered, arrange the details in their proper relations to the fundamentals. The subject will thus have a skeleton, and upon this the details will be placed. A subject of study thus viewed may be compared to the human body, with its bony skeleton or framework, and all the various organs and parts supported by it; or to a tree, with its trunk, branches and leaves. Thus to consider the relative importance of facts, to sift out the essential ones, will train the power of mental discrimination and cultivate the judgment.
When this is done, subsequent facts relating to the subject can be correlated with what is already known, and will in this way be easily retained by the memory. Remember and observe Jacotot's maxim, "Learn something accurately, and refer the rest to that." Unessential facts, or those of secondary importance, may be passed over in the first reading, and left for a second or later reading, for a proper method of study always involves re-reading, perhaps many times.
You cannot possibly know everything even of a single subject, hence the importance of knowing the fundamental things about it and knowing them thoroughly. Even if you gain but an elementary knowledge of a subject, that knowledge may be thorough and should include fundamentals. Thorough elementary knowledge must not be confused with a smattering. The latter is worse than useless, and is marked by vagueness, uncertainty, and failure to grasp fundamentals. But elementary knowledge, if clear and definite as far as it goes, is valuable, and the first step toward more complete knowledge. Many students deceive themselves and others into thinking that they know something of a subject, because they have looked into it, while their knowledge may be entirely superficial and valueless.
When the fundamental principle or fact is perceived, study this carefully until it is thoroughly mastered. One who knows how to study properly will thus pick out the sentence or the paragraph which contains the key to the subject—the fundamental fact or principle—and will read and re-read this many times until its full meaning is clearly grasped. When this is done it is sometimes remarkable how quickly the rest of the chapter or subject may be mastered, for it will often be found to consist of discussions or illustrations, which will be obvious once the fundamentals are clearly in the mind. The ordinary student, however, does not do this. He does not see the fundamental principle, and each illustration is like a separate problem, different from the others, which has to be studied by itself, and is never fully mastered, because the underlying fundamental principle is not grasped.
(b) BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO STUDY A SUBJECT, THINK IT OVER CAREFULLY AND FIND OUT WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW OF IT OR WHAT YOU CAN ARRIVE AT BY YOUR UNAIDED EFFORTS.—Try also to perceive what you expect to get out of the study of the subject, and how it is related with what you have already studied, and how it is to find application.[[1]] The historian, Edward Gibbon, states in his autobiography that before reading any book, he made it a rule to reflect upon the subject, arranging and classifying what he already knew of it.
This method may be followed to different degrees, depending on the subject. A student beginning the study of a new science which he has never studied before, can do comparatively little; but at least he can insist upon getting a clear idea of what the subject or problem is, its extent, what its objects and methods are, how it is related to other subjects, what its uses are, and how other studies will find their application in it.
(c) CLASSIFY AND ARRANGE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED.—When you have finished part of a subject, stop and think over the ground that has been covered, and arrange the various points made. Draw up a topical index and compare it with the table of contents. Note the correlation or interdependence of facts and link them together. By the principle of association the retention of facts and principles in the memory will be much facilitated. Note down concisely the steps of an argument in your own words, and see if the conclusion is justified. Close the book from time to time and go over in your mind what you have learned.
The importance of systematic classification is very great. The minds of many students are like a library without arrangement or catalogue; the books may be there, but cannot be found when wanted, and so are valueless for use.[[2]]
[[1]] "We must keep carefully that rule of Aristotle which teaches that the best way to learn anything well which has to be done after it is learned, is always to be a-doing while we are a-learning."—Richard Mulcaster.
[[2]] "There's a vast difference between having a carload of miscellaneous facts sloshing around loose in your head and getting all mixed up in transit, and carrying the same assortment properly boxed and crated for convenient handling and immediate delivery."—Lorimer: Letters from a Self-made Merchant to his Son at College.