ign of the copyist. It is to produce a
_replica_ of an original upon paper. He cannot do this without a certain
amount of attention to the original; enough at least to enable him to
put down the exact words in the copy; and, by such attention, he is so
far impressed with the matter, that a certain portion may remain in the
memory. If, however, instead of the paper, he could write directly on
the brain, he would be aiming straight at his object. Now, experience
shows that the making of a copy of any document is compatible with a
very small amount of attention to the purport. The extreme case is the
copying clerk. He can literally reproduce an original, with entire
forgetfulness of what it is about. If his eye takes a faithful note of
the sequence of words, he may entirely neglect the meaning. In point of
fact, he constantly does so. He remembers nobody's secrets; and he
cannot be counted on to check blunders that make nonsense of his text.
Probably no one could go on copying for eight hours a day unless the
strain of attention to the originals were at a minimum. I conceive,
therefore, that copying habits arising from a certain amount of
experience at the vocation, would be utterly fatal to the employment of
the exercise as a means of study. It may be valuable to such as have
seldom used their pen except in original composition. Very probably, in
school lessons, to write an exercise two or three times may be a help to
the usual routine of saying off the book. I have heard experienced
teachers testify to the good effects of the practice. Yet very little
would turn the attention the wrong way. Even the requirement of neatness
on the part of the master, or the pupil's own liking for it, would abate
the desired impression. The multiplied copying set as punishment might
stamp a thing on the memory through disgust; it might also engender the
mechanical routine of the copyist. In short, to sit down and copy a long
work is about the last thing that I should dream of, as a means of
study. To copy Thucydides eight times, as the tradition respecting
Demosthenes goes, would be about the same as copying Gibbon three times:
and who would undertake that?

[COMMITTING TO MEMORY WORD FOR WORD.]

2. Committing to memory _verbatim_, or nearly so. This too belongs to
the same tradition regarding Demosthenes, and is probably as inaccurate
as the other. Certainly the eight copyings would not suffice for having
the whole by heart. Excepting a