Thus the larger thoughts, instead of being the sum of the details, are
an outgrowth from them, an interpretation of them; they are separate
and new ideas conceived through insight into the relations that the
individual statements bear to one another.

_The proper unit of progress in study_

From the foregoing we see that some facts are very large, while others
are of little importance, and that any one statement, taken
separately, lacks significance.

The field of thought, therefore, instead of being pictured as a plain,
is to be conceived as a very irregular surface, with elevations of
various heights scattered over it. And just as hills and mountains
rest upon and are approached by the lower land about them, so the
larger thoughts are supported and approached by the details that
relate to them.

A general of an army, desiring to get possession of a disputed region,
does not plan to take and hold the lower land without the higher
points, nor the higher points without the lower land. On the contrary,
each vantage point with its approaches constitutes, in his mind, one
division of the field, one strategic section, which is to be seized
and held. And these divisions or units all taken together constitute
the region.

So any portion of knowledge that is to be acquired should be divided
into suitable units of attack; one large thought together with its
supporting details should constitute one section, another large