670 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
but we are compelled to proceed. To derive real good from 
lectures, the mind should be kept in an unperturbed state, so 
that the information communicated may be duly impressed 
upon it and' retained. The boisterous mirth, which is so 
common among students, both before and after the lecture, 
should never be indulged in. Notes, also, should be taken 
of the more important facts, by which the memory will 
become assisted, and at the same time strengthened ; and at 
the close of the day, in the quiet of retirement, these may be 
transferred in an extended form to a book kept for the pur- 
pose ; and this being carefully indexed, a volume will be 
obtained of no little worth, to which in afterlife reference 
may perhaps be made with advantage. I fear this is not 
very generally adopted. Most students content themselves 
with simply attending the lectures. This ought to be done, 
and the other not left undone. 
So with reading, which is an indispensable auxiliary to 
study. How few really read as they ought. The book is in 
the hand and the eye runs over its pages, but where are 
the thoughts? Where the reflection? It is not enough that 
certain hours in the day be set apart for reading, the intel- 
lectual powers must be called into requisition, so that what 
is read may be understood and remembered. It is alone by 
thinking that knowledge becomes, as it were, a part and 
parcel of the mind. Let this be made habitual with you, 
remembering that an hour’s reading with reflection is better 
than a week’s without it. Here again your note-book should 
be by your side, to pen down from time to time the impres- 
sions the mind receives. Let this be done in as concise a 
manner as possible. You will thus epitomize the work, and 
insensibly become possessed of its truths. It has been well 
said that, in these days of mind-progress, the ignorant man 
is nobody, and his place nowhere ; while the opposite 
obtains with the educated man, be his station in life what 
it may. 
Again, let a consciousness both of the necessity of your 
becoming acquainted with what you read, and your ability to 
comprehend it, be always dominant in the mind, so that 
having resolved to acquire mental profit, you may thus 
ensure its possession. Confidence here is not misplaced ; 
Tis not presumption I am advocating, but self-energy. “ Self- 
energy is the true life of man : the mind must, by its own 
independent exertions, seek, and, so far as its native powers 
will enable it, arrive at the modes, causes and tendencies of 
those propositions which it receives as truths, or substantially 
it believes nothing.” But should doubts arise in the mind. 
