their knowledge, and whither it would take them. I have sometimes
tried that way of studying, and guiding attention; I have never done
so without advantage, and I commend it to you." Says Gibbon [Footnote:
Dr. Smith's Gibbon, p. 64.], "After glancing my eye over the design
and order of a new book, I suspended the perusal until I had finished
the task of self-examination; till I had resolved, in a solitary walk,
all that I knew or believed or had thought on the subject of the whole
work or of some particular chapter; I was then qualified to discern
how much the author added to my original stock; and, if I was
sometimes satisfied with the agreement, I was sometimes armed by the
opposition of our ideas."

President James Angell emphasizes a similar thought in the following
words:--

I would like to recommend to my young friends who desire to profit by
the use of this library, the habit of reading with some system, and of
making brief notes upon the contents of the books they read. If, for
instance, you are studying the history of some period, ascertain what
works you need to study, and find such parts of them as concern your
theme. Do not feel obliged to read the whole of a large treatise, but
select such chapters as touch on the subject in hand and omit the rest
for the time.

Young students often get swamped and lose their way in the Serbonian
bogs of learning, when they need to explore only a simple and plain
pathway to a specific destination. Have a purpose and a plan, and
adhere to it in spite of alluring temptations to turn aside into
attractive fields that are remote from your subject.[Footnote: Address
at Dedication of Ryerson Public Library Building, Grand Rapids, Mich.,