ROUSE THE MIND TO ACTIVITY. 37 



ening the exercise of attention; if, indeed, they are not 

 in many cases essentially subsidiary to correct remem- 

 brance. Old ideas are revivified and made permanent 

 by attentive periodical renovations of the impressions 

 which time is always wearing away, and which newly- 

 acquired facts or images are incessantly tending to 

 obliterate. 



Next in value to attention is association, a principle 

 which necessarily holds an important place, and to which 

 all scientific classifications are subservient ; of which, 

 in truth, they constitute a part. Almost every kind of 

 association, natural or philosophical, local or incidental, 

 arbitrary or fictitious, including under certain precau- 

 tions a scheme of "artificial memory," has its use; 

 and ought therefore to be cultivated with assiduity, 

 discrimination, and care. This law of association, while 

 it is peculiarly important with regard to memory and 

 recollection, is also of high utility in suggesting both 

 retrospective and prospective relations, as well as in 

 serving to convince the student that while he prizes 

 every accession to his stock of knowledge for its own 

 sake, he may also regard it as a legitimate instrument 

 for the acquisition of farther knowledge. 



VI. Let not your mind become the mere passive 

 receptacle of truth and science ; but rouse it habitually 

 to a state of active inquiry, constantly and sedulously 

 engaged in searching out knowledge, and in ascertaining 

 the meanings of terms and phrases, and the reasons of 

 things. Connect with this mental activity, a love of 

 truth, skill in disentangling and separating it from all 

 its counterfeits, such a firm control over the imagina- 

 tion as may check its excursions into the regions of 

 error, or its adoption of any principle or sentiment 



