HOW TO SEE AND REMEMBER 



with determination and continue the effort. He may 

 need to read it ten, twenty, a hundred times, but in the 

 end he accomplishes the same result as Macaulay. 

 The only difference is a matter of time. Webster scans 

 a page and grasps its meaning at a glance ; the plodder 

 creeps alone the lines; but each has the same idea at 

 last. 



There are obvious advantages with the ready learner, 

 when one reflects that life is so short and that there 

 is so much to learn. 



But the plodder should not think that life is short. 

 He should say rather, "Life is long, and there is time 

 for everything." He should know that Macaulay or 

 Webster can not keep up indefinitely those rapid, vivid 

 perceptions. The brain tires in proportion to what it 

 does, rather than in proportion to the time in which it 

 does it. The receptive mind does its work quickly and 

 must rest soon. The non-receptive mind works slowly 

 but can work long. The race is not always to the swift. 

 While the receptive mind is resting the other may pass 

 on, tortoise-like, to the goal. 



But to accomplish this result requires rightly directed 

 effort. It is desirable that the mind not specially en- 

 dowed should be cultivated to its limits in all directions. 

 A moment's reflection shows how far short of this most 

 minds remain. Most eyes literally see as through a 

 glass, darkly. The average person going into the fields 

 will not see or hear one bird where the ornithologist 

 would see and hear scores; will scarcely observe a flower 

 or insect, where the botanist or entomologist would find 

 countless specimens. I have seen three orioles' nests 



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