4
undertake to make extracts, and to copy what is really valuable. I have seen
multitudes of such books commenced, but have seen but very few which
were not abandoned at an early hour. 
Every one is aware that we frequently want the thoughts, or the materials
of thought with which we have met in books which we have read, but which,
though now sought after in every corner of the memory, are not to be found. 
Their faint impressions are seen, dim, like the ghosts of Ossian, but too distant
and too undefined, to be of any use. Nor can we recollect the books in
which we met them. We frequently too, wish to recall a fact, or a striking
passage, or a valuable discussion, but the memory is tasked in vain. Few
are aware, unless they have bestowed particular thought on the subject, how
much of all our valuable reading is lost, because we retain only faint impres-
sions of it, and have no method of recalling it. 
Let a young man when he begins life, be in the habit of making an Index
to all that he reads which is truly valuable, (and he ought to read nothing
else,) and at the age of thirty-five or forty, he has something of his own, and
which no price could purchase. Many would think hundreds of dollars well
spent, could they purchase what they have thrown away; and what each one
might most easily save for himself; and to aid in saving which, this Book is
prepared. 
One of the most distinguished and accomplished scholars of whom this or
any other country can boast,* makes the following remarks ; �Old-fashioned
economists will tell you never to pass an old nail, or an old horse-shoe, or
buckle, or even a pin, without taking it up; because although you may not
want it now, you will find a use for it some time or other. I say the same
thing to you with regard to knowledge. However useless it may appear to
you, at the moment, seize upon all that is fairly within your reach. For
there is not a fact, within the whole circle of human observation, nor even a
fugitive anecdote that you read in a newspaper, or hear in conversation, that
will not come in play, some time or other: and occasions will arise when
they will, involuntarily, present their dim shadows in the train of your thinking
* William Wirt,