have learned.

The importance of systematic classification is very great. The minds
of many students are {46} 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_.

{47}

IV

MENTAL INITIATIVE

It will become evident from the foregoing that a fourth essential for
proper study is mental initiative. The student must have a definite
purpose, and must do what is the proper thing without it being
suggested to him. He must not simply do as he is told. If he have not
initiative and cannot develop it, he will probably never study
intelligently, nor gain a thorough understanding of what he reads, but
will merely memorize.

Memory is a most important faculty; it is not, however, a _substitute_
for thought, but should be based upon it. Thinking is essential in
order to decide what to memorize. Memory, however, is often made the
sole factor in study. Fundamental principles should frequently be
memorized, so that by numberless repetitions they may be permanently
impressed upon the consciousness, and can be repeated verbatim as a
guide in any concrete case where they are to be applied.

Some suggestions may be useful as to the use and cultivation of mental
initiative.

{48}

(_a_) CULTIVATE AN INTEREST IN WHAT YOU ARE STUDYING, AND SOME IDEA OF
WHAT IT LEADS TO.--Without interest your study will be perfunctory and
of little use to you. Make yourself believe that for you, at that
time, it is the most important thing in the world. It is of course
true that in most schools students are required to study definite
subjects according to a curriculum arranged by the faculty. In some of
these subjects a student may take little interest; indeed they may be
so foreign to his natural tastes that he is not able to cultivate any
interest in them. In such a case his study of them will