Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

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sively from another. This is undoubtedly owing, in part, to the
effect which the ardor of discovery has, in rousing the activity
of the mind, and in fixing its attention; but I apprehend it is
chiefly to be ascribed to this, that when we follow out a train
of thinking of our own, our ideas are arranged in that order
which is most agreeable to our prevailing habits of association.
The only method of putting our acquired knowledge on a level,
in this respect, with our original speculations, is, after making
ourselves acquainted with our author's ideas, to study the subject over again in our own way; to pause, from time to time,
in the course of our reading, in order to consider what we have
gained; to recollect what the propositions are, which the author
wishes to establish, and to examine the different proofs which
he employs to support them. In making such an experiment,
we commonly find, that the different steps of the process arrange
themselves in our mIinds, in a manner different from that in
which the author has stated them; and that, while his argument seems, in some places, obscure, from its conciseness, it is
tedious in others, from being unnecessarily expanded. When
we have reduced the reasoning to that form which appears to
ourselves to be the most natural and satisfactory, we may conclude with certainty, not that this form is better in itself than
another, but that it is the best adapted to our Memory. Such
reasonings, therefore, as we have occasion frequently to apply,
either in the business of life, or in the course of our studies, it
is of importance to us to commit to writing, in a language and
in an order of our own; and if, at any time, we find it necessary
to refresh our recollection on the subject, to have recourse to
our own composition, in preference to that of any other author.@
t [It is a little remarkable that Stewart, in this ingenious disquisition
upon the advantages of the practice of writing out our thoughts, should
have overlooked that upon which Lord Bacon lays especial stress, when
he says, "R eading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." In no other way, are we so sure of obtaining precision
and exactness in our knowledge and in our trains of reasoning and
speculation, as by writing out our thoughts and recollections as fast as
they occur to us, whether we afterwards carefully examine the manuscript