HOW TO SEE AND REMEMBER 



such should chance to be the fact, it is certainly worth 

 while to find it out. And in any event, even if you fail to 

 develop exceptional powers, undoubtedly you may im- 

 prove upon present conditions. 



Demand explicitness of your memory, then. Ex- 

 pect it to record experiences accurately. When you 

 read something worth knowing, stop and fix your mind 

 upon the fact or idea and resolve to remember. Re- 

 peat it to yourself from time to time until it is fixed 

 securely. On recalling what you have read, or inci- 

 dents of your experience, train yourself to make a con- 

 tinuous mental narrative, stating names and facts pre- 

 cisely, without slurring and without exaggeration. It 

 is the method that counts. It does not so much matter 

 what the pabulum upon which your mind feeds, as how 

 it learns to utilise it. The habit of clear- seeing and ac- 

 curate-remembering, once acquired, will lead you to 

 knowledge that is worth acquiring and remembering. 

 And there is pleasure no less than power in knowledge. 



All along do not forget the value of repetition. We 

 hear much of the receptive memory of childhood, but in 

 reality the child learns only by incessant repeating. 

 Were it otherwise the school child would go through its 

 arithmetic, its grammar, its geography, and all the rest 

 in a few weeks; a year or two would suffice for the 

 period of schooling. Yet we all know how many years 

 of painful effort are required for the attainment of even 

 a fair degree of education. 



In point of fact, despite the popular belief to the 

 contrary, most adults could learn more of a given sub- 

 ject in a given time than they ever could have done 

 7 [97] 



