Oct. 5, 1904.]

Noah Porter expresses himself even more pointedly in these words:--

In reading we do well to propose to ourselves definite ends and
purposes. The distinct consciousness of some object at present before
us, imparts a manifold greater interest to the contents of any volume.
It imparts to the reader an appropriative power, a force of affinity,
by which he insensibly and unconsciously attracts to himself all that
has a near or even a remote relation to the end for which he reads.
Anyone is conscious of this who reads a story with the purpose of
repeating it to an absent friend; or an essay or a report, with the
design of using the facts or arguments in a debate; or a poem, with
the design of reviving its imagery and reciting its finest passages.
Indeed, one never learns to read effectively until he learns to read
in such a spirit--not always, indeed, for a definite end, yet always
with a mind attent to appropriate and retain and turn to the uses of
culture, if not to a more direct application. The private history of
every self-made man, from Franklin onwards, attests that they all were
uniformly, not only earnest but select, in their reading, and that
they selected their books with distinct reference to the purposes for
which they used them. Indeed, the reason why self-trained men so often
surpass men who are trained by others in the effectiveness and success
of their reading, is that they know for what they read and study, and
have definite aims and wishes in all their dealings with books.
[Footnote: Noah Porter, Books and Reading, pp. 41-42.]

_Examples of specific purposes_

It is evident from the above that the practice of setting up specific