moment. There are, too, in some of your books, passages from noble
authors, which furnish food and nourishment to the soul, and which the
mind craves in the very form and lineaments of their birth--passages
which are like nuggets of virgin gold, or coins from the mint of some
great sovereign in the realms of thought. They form a part of your
wealth, and you want them, neither clipped, nor defaced, nor alloyed,
but with every word and point exactly as it came from the hand of the
master. These precious gems of thought, the garnered wealth of the ages,
will not be neglected by any one who is wise. Treasure up in your
intellectual storehouse as many of them as you can possibly compass,
only with this proviso, be careful to select for this purpose the very
best out of the great abundance that is before you, and make thorough
work in what you do attempt to commit to memory. The act of memorizing
will at once strengthen the faculty of memory itself, and will enrich
you otherwise. By all means, therefore, learn by heart the leading
definitions and rules of your text-books, and choice passages from all
famous authors. But do not attempt in this way to commit to memory, or
to recite verbatim, the pages of your history, geography, rhetoric, and
so forth. Such a practice would be a most unwise waste of your time, and
would cause a weakening, rather than a strengthening, of your faculties.

Let me tell you exactly what I mean by reciting. Your teacher goes to
the board and, chalk in hand, explains to the class some point which
they seem not to have apprehended. That is my idea of reciting. First
get thorough possession of the thoughts or facts of the lesson, and
then, imagining the class and the teacher to be ignorant of the subject,
explain it to them, just as you will expect to do when the time comes
that you will have a class of your own to instruct. It will aid you in
preparing thus to recite a lesson, if in your rooms you will go over it
aloud to each other, you and your room-mate, taking alternate portions.
Such a method of preparation will doubtless require some time. But one
lesson so prepared will be worth more to you than a whole week of study
conducted in the ordinary manner. Remember, that in a Normal School your
object is, not merely to get knowledge, but to learn how to communicate
what you have learned. First then go over a topic till you are sure you
understand it. Then go over it again and again until you can recit