them into the most systematic relations with each other will be the one with the best memory.

"The art of remembering is the art of thinking. Our conscious effort to remember a fact should not be directed at impressing and retaining it, but at connecting it with something already known. The connecting is the thinking, and if we attend clearly to the connection, the connected thing will certainly be likely to remain within call." (William James.)

These lessons contain no magic power. One reading of them will not give you a perfect memory. They show you how you can improve your memory provided you put the principles into practice: do this, and as surely as effect follows cause, your memory will be improved.

HOW TO STUDY EFFECTIVELY

In order to study or do any other form of mental work effectively, you must be in good physical condition. It is true that the mind has a certain influence over the body, but in accordance with the law of action and reaction, it is equally true that the body has an influence on the mind.

Look first, therefore, to your health. If you have physical defects such as decaying teeth, defective eyesight, obstructed nasal breathing, or any other trouble which interferes with clear mental action, have it attended to by a competent physician. Adopt rational and normal ways of eating, sleeping, working, playing, and resting. In seeking guidance on these things, beware of the diet cranks, food faddists and extremists of all kinds. Their number is legion. Pin your faith to those who are accepted as leaders by the majority of rational men; whose teachings are based on real science and not on pseudo-science. "How to Live," by Fisher and Fisk, and "Personal Hygiene," by Pyle, are two books either of which is a safe guide to the hygiene of mind and body.

The whole man, however, is more than mind and body. He is also spirit, and spirit must not be ignored. If you have been ignoring spirit, you should by all means read "In

Tune with the Infinite," by Trine, and "The Life of Reality," by Randall.

In order to study effectively, you must provide certain external conditions which are favorable to this work. A quiet place, a temperature of 68° to 70° F. with sufficient moisture in the air, good light, a comfortable chair, a desk or table of suitable height-all these things contribute to effective study. When you begin a period of study, take on the attitude of attention, and concentrate your mind on your work.

Study with the intent to learn and to remember permanently. It has been found that the intent which accompanies the learning process affects the length of time of retention. It is well known that material crammed before an examination is forgotten soon afterward. There are two reasons for this: first, the facts are taken into the mind accompanied by the feeling that if they are retained until the examination is over, that is sufficient; and second, permanent memory depends on the laws of association, and when facts are crammed rapidly, there is not sufficient time to form associations.

Don't study under the delusion that you are doing it for the teacher. You are doing it for your own advancement. Have a motive, or several motives. These may be a recognition of the future value of the subject, a desire to excel or to win approval; it may even be a desire to get your money's worth out

of what you are paying for. The stronger the incentive, the better work you will do.

Before beginning to study advance work, review the previous lesson. When studying new material, put the most time and thought to the points you find hardest to grasp. All mental impressions fade with time: in view of this fact, the learning of important parts of your lessons must be carried beyond the point necessary for immediate recall. If you have difficulty in accurately recalling a fact or a group of facts immediately after you have been studying them, you may be sure that you have not learned them well enough to recall them at some time in the future. Things that are important and that you want to be sure of retaining for future use you should learn so well that on trying to recall them immediately afterward you can do so easily, accurately, and without hesitancy.

Keeping in mind the principle that newly learned facts are retained best when no new mental activity follows the period of acquisition, take periods of rest at intervals, especially after learning something the future value of which you recognize.

Think over your study work. Talk about it. If you think you might bore your friends or members of your family by telling what you learn to them, tell it to an imaginary listener, in the quiet of your room with the door closed. Draw pictures or diagrams of anything that can be thus represented. Work

out for yourself specific examples of all general rules and principles. When the subjectmatter of your study is complex, make a written outline of it. Learn definitions thoroughly, and be sure that you understand them. Avoid an attitude of mere acquisition: think of your brain not as a receptacle into which something is poured, but as an interlacing of multitudinous fibers, with infinite possibilities of interconnection which no one ever exhausts. Seek other relations between facts than those given in the books you study.

The runner, nearing the point at which it seems that he can run no longer, gets a "second wind," and is able to finish the race. Similarly the brain worker, if mental application be pushed past the first feeling of fatigue, gets a mental second wind: he taps new levels of energy which enable him to continue study with renewed vigor. This does not mean that rest is never needed, but it does mean that one need not stop work at the first feeling of fatigue.

Finally, and perhaps most important of all, make practical application of your knowledge as soon as possible, and as often as possible. Using or expressing knowledge fixes it in the mind and gives a feeling of mastery which contributes to the self-confidence that plays such a large part in success..

UNIV. OF