48 Geology as a means of culture — A. Winchell. 
The power of abstraction is another factor in that intellectual 
effectiveness which attaches to the lines of study extolled by the 
same class of writers about culture. Abstraction is the contem- 
plation of one thing apart from all other things. It is simply 
an effort of attention carried to complete success. Attention is 
specially indispensable in the search for relations which are not 
immediately obvious — relations between things inconcrete, or 
abstracted from tangible forms. Evei'y continued process of 
reasoning depends on abstraction. All mathematical relations, 
mental powers and moral qualities are abstract. The power of 
abstraction is a faculty in constant demand, but especially in the 
higher efforts of thought. It is an important power falling 
plainly within the scope of general culture. 
The faculty of deductive reasonitig^ while constantly em- 
ployed in many familiar modes of mental activity, is also one 
especially demanded in many of the higher efforts of intelli- 
gence. It is preeminently the faculty of mathematics; but it 
finds constant exercise in logic, in philosophy, in physics, and 
wherever principles or abstract truths are given, and their con- 
sequences or outcome are demanded. Obviously, mental culture 
must embrace the improvement of this royal power. 
But deductive reasoning implies a power of retention of 
abstract truths or principles. This is often designated the 
philosophic memory. As an accessory and inseparable adjunct 
of ratiocinative processes, this power is indispensable in the 
higher mental activities; and its capability of perfect exercise 
must be one of the conditions of most efficient mental service. 
In other words, complete culture embraces an improved power 
of philosophic or thought memory. 
It will scarcely be doubted that general culture involves the 
quickening of the itnag-inatio?i^ the training of it to moderation 
and consistency, and the employment of it as an adjunct in the 
efforts of memory and deductive reasoning. The picturing 
power of this faculty gives vividness to the reproductions of 
sense-memory, and readiness in the comprehension of descrip- 
tions. It is an invaluable instrument in the attainment of clear 
conceptions of the results unfolded by deductive processes. The 
interpretation of the results reached by mathematical reasoning 
often depends wholly on the illumination of the field of ex- 
