HOW TO READ.

Enter into what you read. No book can thrill and move one unless he
gives himself up to it. Lack of fixed attention is the cause of the
half-informed mind, the faulty reason, and the ever-failing memory.
The cause of this lack of attention may be an historical allusion of
which one is ignorant, or a new word that he fails to look up, or an
overtaxed mind, or unfavorable surroundings. Whatever may be this
hindrance it must be removed or overcome before one can enter into
what he reads. A thought is of no value until it registers itself and
takes a room in the mind. This is why we are told on every hand,
that a few books well read are worth more than many books poorly
read. The secret of Abraham Lincoln's power as a public speaker
lay in his clear reasoning, simple statement, and apt illustration. This
secret was secured by Lincoln through his habit of mastering whatever
he heard in conversation or reading. "When a mere child," says
Lincoln, "I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way
I could not understand. I don't think I ever got angry at anything else
in my life. But that always disturbed my temper, and has ever since.
I can remember going to my little bedroom, after hearing the neighbors
talk of an evening with my father, and spending no small part of the
night walking up and down, trying to make out what was the exact
meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. I could not sleep,
though I often tried to, when I got on such a hunt after an idea, until
I had caught it, and when I thought I had got it, I was not satisfied
until I had repeated it over and over; until I had put it in language
plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend. This
was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck by me; for I am never