discussion has shown that expression is a powerful aid in
learning, and is a most important feature of mental life. Cultivate
your powers of expression, for your college education should consist
not only in the development of habits of impression, but also in the
development of habits of expression. Grasp eagerly every opportunity
for the development of skill in clear and forceful expression. Devote
assiduous attention to themes and all written work, and make serious
efforts to speak well. Remember you are forming habits that will
persist throughout your life. Emphasize, therefore, at every step,
methods of expression, for it is this phase of learning in which you
will find greatest growth.

EXERCISE

Exercise I. Give an example from your own experience, showing how
expression (a) stimulates ideas, (b) clarifies ideas.

CHAPTER XI

HOW TO BECOME INTERESTED IN A SUBJECT

"I can't get interested in Mediaeval History." This illustrates a kind
of complaint frequently made by college students. It is our purpose in
this chapter to show the fallacy of this; to prove that interest may be
developed in an "uninteresting" subject; and to show how.

In order to lay a firm foundation for our psychologizing, let us
examine into the nature of interest and see what it really is. It has
been defined as: "the recognition of a thing which has been vitally
connected with experience before--a thing recognized as old"; "impulse
to attend"; "interest naturally arouses tendencies to act"; "the root
idea of the term seems to be that of being engaged, engrossed, or
entirely taken up with some activity because of its recognized worth";
"interest marks the annihilation of the distance between the person and
the materials and results of his action; it is the sign of their
organic union."

In addition to the characteristics just mentioned should be noted the
pleasurableness that usually attends any activity in which we are
"interested." A growing feeling of pleasure is the sign which notifies
us that we are growing interested in a subject. And it is such an aid
in the performance of work that we should seek earnestly to acquire it
in connection with any work we have to do.

The persons who make the complaint at the head of this chapter notice
that they take interest easily in certain things: a Jack London story,
a dish of ice cream, a foot-ball game. And they take interest in them
so spontaneously and effortlessly that they think t