(d) DO NOT TAKE UP A STUDY LIGHTLY, BUT WHEN TAKEN UP DO NOT ABANDON IT WITHOUT GOOD CAUSE.—At the beginning of your study try to get a definite idea before your mind what you want to get out of your study, and keep this point before your mind as you progress in the subject.
(e) CULTIVATE THE POWER OF JUDICIOUS SKIPPING.—You can do this if you study with a sense of mastery and a clear idea of what you want to get. It is not necessary to read every word in the book. Sometimes paragraphs, pages and perhaps chapters may be skipped. This, however, should not lead you into the habit of careless or superficial reading.
(f) BE SYSTEMATIC.—Have set times for your study of each subject, a regular program of work. Gain the habit of being able to start at once on your work without frittering away your time and thinking about beginning. Apply yourself steadily and persistently and do not let your work consist of a series of spasmodic efforts. By systematically doing one thing at a time and passing from study to study, you can finally, after a period of continuous application, dependent upon your powers, alternate with a period of relaxation or amusement. Your period of continuous study should not be so short as to prevent continuous effort, nor so long as to over-fatigue your mind. Some students are restless, spasmodic, and while they seem to be continually employed, they achieve nothing. Others by a steady, continuous pull, achieve much.
(g) CULTIVATE THE POWER, BY HABITUAL PRACTICE, OF FIXING YOUR MIND INTENSELY UPON ONE THING FOR A CONSIDERABLE TIME.—If you can acquire this, it will be most valuable to you. It has been said that the difference between clever and ordinary men is often mainly a difference in the power of directing and controlling the mind through the attention. Some minds go wool gathering or day dreaming, and flit from one thing to another in a desultory manner. Others go straight toward the object in view.
(h) REMEMBER TO APPLY WHAT YOU ARE STUDYING.—Study from things, by experiment, in the field, rather than entirely by books. In this way, what you learn will be real to you. Book knowledge is of very little value in itself.
(i) BE INTERESTED THOROUGHLY IN WHAT YOU ARE DOING.—Indifference is a fatal enemy to good work. Every subject has its difficulties and you must not be discouraged by them. If you can learn how to overcome difficulties, you will find that doing so affords the keenest intellectual pleasure, and that each difficulty overcome by your own unaided efforts will make you much stronger in attacking the next one.
(j) READ THE IMPORTANT THINGS AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL YOU KNOW YOUR BOOK THOROUGHLY.—As Herbert Spencer says, it is much better to know a few books thoroughly than to know many superficially. The same philosopher once said that if he had read as many books as certain other persons had read he would know as little as they did. Remember the old Latin proverb, "Multum legere non multa." [Read much but not many books.] If you learn your small book thoroughly and then take a larger one, you will be surprised to find how much of the latter you already know. You can then direct your attention to the new material and to relating it with the old.
(k) MAKE A LIST OF REFERENCES AS YOU PROCEED.—Summarize what you learn and construct an index. Learn where to go to find what you do not know. You cannot learn everything even about one subject, and the next best thing to knowing it is to know where to find it or how to work it out yourself.
(l) REVIEW YOUR WORK FREQUENTLY.—Review is not re-studying, but is going quickly over the main points, looking at them all in their proper perspective. This will be assisted if you make summaries; writing out a statement of a thing helps you to understand it clearly and to fix it in the memory. As Landon says: "The practice of reviewing keeps the mind in touch with the main lines of the subject; secures freshness and exactness of knowledge; shows what has been imperfectly learned, and gives an opportunity for remedying the trouble; strengthens the recollection and accustoms the mind to recover and give up its stores; saves waste of energy and the formation of bad mental habits; and thus leads to complete assimilation of the subject."
(m) SET SPECIAL TIMES FOR YOUR RECREATIVE STUDY.—Cultivate some hobby as a relief from your concentrated study of books. Music, some games of cards, chess, billiards, or other relaxations, are admirable means of recuperation. When you indulge in recreation or recreative reading, do not let the mind worry about problems of your previous studies. Make your recreative reading in itself have some aim. Do not allow yourself to develop in a one-sided manner, but have interests outside of your main study.