READING AS AN INTELLECTUAL PROCESS. 215 



Asking questions is not necessarily a good thing. There must be 

 reflection and an active use of the senses accompanying every inquiry 

 of any value to the querist. And so it is in looking for definitions. 

 To do this impulsively, and to be satisfied with synonyms, is not 

 effective work. The element of thought and of association is wanting. 

 Meanings thus acquired do not become a permanent acquisition : 

 whereas thorough eflbrt seldom allows the necessity of referring to a 

 definition a second time. 



The power to read well is also in proportion to the development 

 of the power of association. This is a faculty in which we differ very 

 greatly, and yet it is largely a matter of education. To one person a 

 statement in physics will stand unsupported, until common lacts are 

 brought to his notice, while to another instances in support will flock 

 unbidden from the household or the wayside. To some minds, pas- 

 sages in one author will spontaneously suggest passages in another; 

 while other minds will fail to perceive the relation until accident or 

 design brings it directly to their notice. It is true that memory is a 

 large factor in this matter ; but, independent of this, there is a readi- 

 ness of association which m;iy be acquired, and which is very essen- 

 tial. It is a quickness to levy on our own observation and experience 

 when another's ideas are presented. Bacon advises, "Read to weigh 

 and consider." When we do this, association is the most jirominent 

 faculty at work. In fact, according to our strength in this faculty we 

 will weigh and consldei\ An author's sentiment will be flanked, as it 

 were, on both sides, by phenomena from our experience to support or 

 attack him. The degree of this faculty distinguishes the strong from 

 the weak ; the .teacher from the learner; culture from crudeness. It 

 means digestion, assimilation. It is in this faculty that genuine learn- 

 ing differs from mere memorizing ; thorough acquisition from cram- 

 ming. It vivifies knowledge; it is almost wisdom. This faculty is 

 quite subject to cultivation, and no acquisition will so well repay the 

 labor expended upon it. The attention is not given to it in our educa- 

 tion which should be. To childhood and youth the different subjects of 

 study stand as unrelated wholes. There is no interchange of thoughts 

 and associations between difterent branches. An idea occurring in 

 one subject does not bring up a closely-related idea in another subject. 

 Pupils are not taught nor led to connect their knowledges. It is so by 

 the force of circumstances. Every class-room has its own presiding 

 genius which fellowships with no other. Every specialist tends to 

 reproduce himself. Furthermore, there is a feeble association be- 

 tween what is learned from books and what is learned from practice. 

 Life in the school-room and life out of it are separate existences. In 

 the popular notion, book-learning is a sort of mystery, a peculiar power 

 quite distinct from the common-sense and common experience of every- 

 day life. The " connection of the physical sciences " has become a 

 familiar idea. When shall we realize that there is a connection be^ 



