148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



covers most of the page, leave the next page blank. If, in your hurry, 

 you have written too much on a page, or have mixed two subjects in one 

 note, take early opportunity to separate item from item, placing each on 

 a page by itself. In making these adjustments and transfers, use 

 scissors, write as little as possible, and make no fuss or parade of nicety. 

 The entire operation of writing and registering notes — we can not too 

 much emphasize this — should be as simple, informal and rapid as pos- 

 sible, lest the labor of it and the time consumed by it should disgust you 

 with the plan. 



Some day, after your notes have become a little voluminous, it will 

 interest you to glance them over. You will be surprised at their rich- 

 ness, and nearly every item will appeal to you with greater zest than 

 when you placed it there. Each that was more or less original at first 

 will now sweep your thought further on, while nearly every mere reg- 

 istry of some one else's idea will now compel your mind to bring up ideas 

 out of its own depths. Before you are aware you will whip out your 

 fountain pen and begin to make additions. Your thought treasures will 

 swell as you count the precious metal they contain ; and this result will 

 recur each time you take account of stock. You will often need to insert 

 new pages. Just pin them in or paste them slightly at the edge, ma- 

 king the mechanical exertion of the process from first to last as simple 

 and little tiresome as can be. 



Later, you will some time be called on for an essay or a paper on 

 some topic of which you are known to be fond. Turning through your 

 notes you will find most that you wish to say all ready to your hand, 

 needing only that you detach the proper leaves, bring them together in 

 order, slightly amplified, it may be, and write neat bridges between 

 them. Spurts of fresh and original cogitation will almost inevitably 

 accompany this recension process, and these, of course, will not be re- 

 jected. 



