Alexander Bain - Practical Essays
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Alexander Bain >> Practical Essays
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* * * * *
There are easier modes of abstracting, such as serve many useful
purposes, although not sufficient for the mastery of a leading
Text-book, or even of a second or third in a new subject. We may pencil
on the margin, or underscore, all the leading propositions, and the
typical examples. In a well-composed scientific manual, the proceeding
is too obvious to be impressive. Very often, however, the main points
are not given in the most methodical way, but have to be searched out
by carefully scanning each paragraph. This is an exercise that both
instructs and impresses us; it is the kind of change that calls our
faculties into play, and gives us a better hold of an author, without
superseding him.
A Table of Contents carefully examined is favourable to a comprehensive
view of the whole; and, this attained, the details are remembered in the
best possible way, that is, by taking their place in the scheme. Any
other form of recollection is of the desultory kind.
* * * * *
[LOCKE'S RECOMMENDATIONS.]
4. Let us next glance at Locke's method of reading, which is unique and
original, like the man himself. It is given with much iteration in his
Conduct of the Understanding, but comes in substance to this:--
We are to fix in the mind the author's ideas, stripped of his words; to
distinguish between such ideas as are pertinent to the subject, and such
as are not; to keep the precise question steadily before our minds; to
appreciate the bearing of the arguments; and, finally, to see what the
question bottoms upon, or what are the fundamental verities or
assumptions underneath.
All this is very thorough in its way; but, in the first place, it
applies chiefly to argumentative works, and, in the second place, it is
entirely beyond the powers of ordinary students. Such an examination of
an author as Locke contemplates is not seen many times in a generation.
His own controversies give but indifferent examples of it; several of
Bentham's works and a few of John Mill's polemical articles also give an
idea of thorough handling; but it is not so properly a studious effort,
as the consummated product of a highly logical discipline, and is within
the reach of only a small elect number.
Locke would have been more intelligible, if, instead of telling us to
strip an author's meaning of the words, he had impressed strongly the
necessity of _defining all leading terms_; and of making sure that each
was always used in the same meaning. While, in order to veracious
conclusions, it is necessary that every matter of fact should be truly
given, it is equally necessary that the language should be free from
ambiguity. If an author uses the word "law," at one time as an
enactment: by some authority, and at another time, as a sequence in the
order of nature, he is sure to land us in fallacy and confusion, as
Butler did in explaining the Divine government. The remedy is, not to
perform the operation of separating the meaning entirely from the
language, but to vary the language, so as to substitute terms that have
no ambiguity. "Law" is equivocal; "social enactment," and "order of
nature," are both unequivocal; and when one is chosen, and adhered to,
the confusion is at an end.
The mere art of study is no preparation for such a task. It demands a
very advanced condition of knowledge on the particular subject, as well
as a logical habit of mind, however acquired; and to include it in a
practical essay on the Conduct of the Understanding is to overstep the
limits of the subject.
* * * * *
As our present head represents the very pith and marrow of the art of
study, we may dwell a little longer on the process of changing the form
of an author, whether by condensing, expanding, varying the expression,
altering the order, selecting, and rejecting,--or by any other known
device. Worst of all is change for the mere sake of change; it is simply
better than literal copying. But, to rise above it, needs a sense of
FORM already attained. According as this sense is developed, the
exercise of altering or amending is more and more profitable.
Consequently, there should be an express application of the mind to the
attainment of form; and particular works pre-eminent for that quality
should be sought out and read. "Form" is doubtless a wide word, and
comprises both the logical or pervading method of a work, and the
expression or dress throughout. Method by itself can be soonest acquired
because it turns on a small number of points; language is a multifarious
acquirement, and can hardly be forced, although it will come eventually
by due application.
[EXAMPLE FROM PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.]
To show what is meant by learning Form, with a view to the more
effectual study of subject-matter, I will take the example of a work on
the Practice of Medicine; in which the idea is to describe Diseases
_seriatim_, with their treatment or cures. At the present day, this
subject possesses method or form: there is a systematic classification
of diseased processes and diseases; also, a regular plan of setting
forth the specific marks of each disease, its diagnosis, and, finally,
its remedies. There are more and less perfect models of the methodical
element; while there are differences among authors in the fulness of the
detailed information. There is, besides, a Logic of Medicine,
representing the absolute form, in a kind of logical synopsis, by which
it is more easily comprehended in the first instance: not to mention the
general body of the Logic of the Inductive Sciences, of which medicine
is one. Now, undoubtedly, the best work to begin with--the
Text-book-in-chief--would be one where Form is in its highest
perfection; the amount of matter being of less consequence. In a subject
of great complication, and vast detail, the student cannot too soon get
possession of the best method or form of arrangement. When a work of
this character is before him, he is to read and re-read it, till the
form becomes strongly apparent; he is to compare one part with another,
to see how the author adheres to his own pervading method; he should, if
possible, make a synopsis of the plan in itself, disentangling it from
the applications, for greater clearness. The scheme of a medical work,
for example, comprises the Classification of Diseases, the parting off
of Diseased Processes---Fever, Inflammation, &c.--from Diseases properly
so called; the modes of defining Disease; the separation of defining
marks, from predications, and so on: all involved in a strict Logic of
Disease. Armed with these logical or methodical preliminaries, the
student next attacks one of the extended treatises on the Practice of
Medicine. He is now prepared to work the process of abstracting to the
utmost advantage, both for clearness of understanding, and for
impressing the memory. As in such a vast subject, no one author is
deemed adequate to a full exposition, and as, moreover, a great portion
of the information occurs, apart from systems, in detached memoirs or
monographs,--the only mode of unifying and holding together the
aggregate, is to reduce all the statements to a common form and order,
by help of the pre-acquired plan. The progress of study may amend the
plan, as well as add to the particular information; but absolute
perfection in the scheme is not so essential as strict adherence to it
through all the details. To work without a plan at all, is not merely to
tax the memory beyond its powers, but probably also to misconceive and
jumble the facts.
* * * * *
To enhance the illustration of the two main heads of the Art of Study,
I will so far deviate from the idea of the essay, as to take up a special
branch of education, which, more than any other, has been reduced to
form and rule, I mean the great accomplishment of Oratory, or the Art of
Persuasion. The practical Science of Rhetoric, cultivated both by
ancients and by moderns, has especially occupied itself with directions
for acquiring this great engine of influencing mankind.
It was emphatically averred by the ancient teachers of the Oratorical
art, that it must be grounded on a wide basis of general information.
I do not here discuss the exact scope of this preparatory study, as my
purpose is to narrow the illustration to what is special to the faculty
of persuasion. I must even omit all those points relating to delivery or
elocution, on which so much depends; and also the consideration of how
to attain readiness or fluency in spoken address, except in so far as
that follows from abundant oratorical resources. We thus sink the
difference between spoken oratory, and persuasion through the press.
Even as thus limited, oratory is still too wide for a pointed
illustration: and, so, I propose farther to confine my references to the
department of Political Oratory; coupling with that, however, the
Forensic branch--which has much in common with the other, and has given
birth to some of our most splendid examples of the art of persuasion.
While declining to enter on the wide field of the general education of
the orator, I may not improperly advert to the more immediate
preparation for the political orator, by a familiar acquaintance with
History and Political Philosophy, howsoever obtained. Then, on the other
hand, the course here to be chalked out assumes a considerable
proficiency in language or expression. The special education will
incidentally improve both these accomplishments, but must not be relied
on for creating them, or for causing a marked advance in either. The
effect to be looked for is rather to give them direction for the special
end.
[EXAMPLE FROM THE ART OF ORATORY.]
These things premised, the line of proceeding manifestly is to study the
choicest examples of the oratorical art, according to the methods
already laid down, with due adaptation to the peculiarities of the case.
Now, we have not, as in a Science, two or three systematic works, one of
which is to be chosen as a chief, to be followed by a reference more or
less to the others. Our material is a long series of detached orations;
from these we must make a selection at starting, and such selection,
which may comprise ten or twenty or more, will have to be treated with
the intense single-minded devotion that we hitherto limited to a single
work. Repeated perusal, with a process of abstracting to be described
presently, must be bestowed upon the chosen examples, before embarking,
as will be necessary, upon the wide field of miscellaneous oratory.
No doubt, an oratorical education could be grounded in a general and
equal study of the orators at large, taking the ancients either first or
last, according to fancy. Probably the greater number of students have
fallen into this apparently obvious course. Our present contention is,
that it is better to make a thorough study of a proper selection of the
greatest speeches, together with the most persuasive unspoken
compositions. This, however, is not all. We are following the wisdom of
the ancients, in insisting on the farther expedient of proceeding to the
study of the great examples by the aid of an oratorical scheme. At a
very early stage of Oratory in Greece, its methods began to be studied,
and, in the education of the orator, these methods were made to
accompany the study of exemplary speeches.
The principles of Rhetoric at large, and of the Persuasive art in
particular, have been elaborated by successive stages, and are now in a
tolerable state of advancement. The learner will choose the scheme that
is judged best, and will endeavour to master it provisionally, before
entering on the oratorical models; holding it open to amendment from
time to time, as his education goes on. The scheme and the examples
mutually act and re-act: the better the scheme, the more rapidly will
the examples fructify; and the scheme will, in its turn, profit by the
mastery of the details.
[NECESSITY OF AN ORATORICAL ANALYSIS.]
One great use of an oratorical analysis, as supplied by the teachers of
Rhetoric, is to part off the different merits of a perfect oration; and
to show which are to be extracted from the various exemplary orators.
One man excels in forcible arguments, another in the lucid array of
facts; one is impressive and impassioned, another is quiet but
circumspect. Now, the benefit of studying on principle, instead of
working at random, is, that we concentrate attention on each one's
strong points, and disregard the rest. But it needs a preparatory
analysis, in order to make the discrimination. All that the uninstructed
reader or hearer of a great oration knows is, that the oration is great:
this may be enough for the persons to be moved; it is insufficient for
an oratorical disciple.
In the hazardous task of pursuing the illustration by naming the
examples of oratory most suitable to commence with, I shall pass over
living men, and choose from the past orators of our own country. Without
discussing minutely the respective merits of individuals, I am safe in
selecting, as in every way suitable for our purpose, Burke, Fox,
Erskine, Canning, Brougham, and Macaulay. Burke's Speeches on America;
Fox on the Westminster Scrutiny; Erskine on Stockdale, and on Hardy,
Tooke, &c.; Canning on the Slave Trade; Brougham, Lyndhurst, and Denman
in the Queen's Trial; Macaulay on the Reform Bill,--would comprise, in a
moderate compass, a considerable range of oratorical excellence. I doubt
if any member of the list would be more suitable for a beginning than
Macaulay's Reform Speeches. These are no mere displays of a brilliant
imagination: they are known to have influenced thousands of minds
otherwise averse to political change. The reader finds in them an
immense repository of historical facts as well as of doctrines; but
facts and doctrines, by themselves, do not make oratory. It is the use
made of these, that gives us the instruction we are now in quest of. In
a first or second reading, however, matter and form equally captivate
the mind. It would be impossible, at that early stage, to make an
abstract such as would separate the oratorical from the non-oratorical
merits. Only when, by help of our scheme, we have made a critical
distinction between the two kinds of excellence, are we able to arrive
at an approach to a pure oratorical lesson; and, for a long time, we
shall fail to make the desired isolation. We have to learn not to expect
too much from any one speech: to pass over in Macaulay, what is more
conspicuously shown, say in Fox, or in Erskine. If our political and
historical education has made some progress, the mere thoughts and facts
do not detain us; their employment for the end of persuasion is what we
have to take account of.
[COMPREHENSIVE PRINCIPLE OF ORATORY.]
It is impossible here to indicate, except in a very general way, the
successive steps of the operation. The one summary consideration in the
Rhetoric of Oratory, from which flows the entire array of details, is
the regard to the dispositions and state of mind of the audience; the
presenting of topics and considerations that chime in with these
dispositions, and the avoiding of everything that would conflict with
them. To grasp this comprehensive view, and to follow it out in some of
the chief circumstantials of persuasive address--the leading forms of
argument, and the appeals to the more prominent feelings,--would soon
provide a touchstone to a great oration, and lead us to distinguish the
materials of oratory from the use made of them.
Take the circumstance of _negative tact_; by which is meant the careful
avoidance of whatever might grate on the minds of those addressed.
Forensic oratory in general, and the oratory of Parliamentary leaders in
particular, will show this in perfection; and, for a first study of it,
there is probably nothing to surpass the Erskine Speeches above cited.
It could, however, be found in Macaulay; although in a different
proportion to the other merits.
The Macaulay Speeches have the abundance of matter, and the powers of
style, that minister to oratory, although not constituting its
distinctive feature. In these speeches, we may note how he guages the
minds of the men of rank and property, in and out of Parliament, who
constituted the opposition to Reform; how tenderly he deals with their
prejudices and class interests; how he shapes and adduces his arguments
so as to gain those very feelings to the side he advocates; how he
brings his accumulated store of historical illustrations to his aid,
under the guidance of both the positive and the negative tact of the
orator; saying everything to gain, and nothing to alienate the
dispositions that he has carefully measured.
After Erskine and Macaulay have yielded their first contribution to the
oratorical student, he could turn with profit to Burke, who has the
materials of oratory in the same high order as Macaulay, but who in the
employment of them so often miscarries--sometimes partially, at other
times wholly. It then becomes an exercise to distinguish his successes
from his failures; to resolve these into their elementary merits and
defects, according to the oratorical scheme. The close study of one or
two orations is still the preferable course; and the most profitable
transition from the Burke sample is to the selected speech or speeches
of some other orator as Canning or Brougham. All the time, the pupil
must be enlarging and improving his analytic scheme, which is the means
of keeping his mind to the point in hand, amid the distraction of the
orator's gorgeous material.
The subsequent stages of oratorical study are much plainer than the
commencement. A time comes when the pupil will roam freely over the
great field of oratory, modern and ancient, knowing more and more
exactly what to appropriate and what to neglect. He will be quite aware
of the necessity of rivalling the great masters in resources of
knowledge on the one hand, and of style on the other; but he will look
for these elsewhere, as well as in the professed orators.
[EXAMPLES OF PERSUASIVE ART.]
Moreover, as the persuasive art is exemplified in men that have never
been public speakers, the oratorical pupil will make a selection from
the most influential of this class. He will find, for example, in the
argumentative treatises of Johnson, in the Letters of Junius, in the
writings of Godwin, in Sydney Smith, in Bentham, in Cobbett, in Robert
Hall, in Fonblanque, in J.S. Mill, in Whately, and a host besides, the
exemplification of oratorical merits, together with materials that are
of value. It is understood, however, that the search for materials and
the acquisition of oratorical form, are not made to advantage on the
same lines, and, for this and other reasons, should not go together.
The extreme test of the principle of concentration as against equal
application, is the acquirement of Style, or the extending of our
resources of diction and expression in all its particulars. Being a
matter of endless minute details, we may feel ourselves at a loss to
compass it by the intensive study of a narrow and select example. Still,
with due allowance for the speciality of the case, the principle will
still be found applicable. We should, however, carry along with us, the
maxim exemplified under oratory, of separating in our study, as far as
may be, the style from the matter. We begin by choosing a treatise of
some great master. We may then operate either (1) by simple reading and
re-reading, or (2) by committing portions to memory _verbatim_, or (3),
best of all, by making some changes according to an already acquired
ideal of good composition. This too shows the great importance of
attaining as early as possible some regulating principles of goodness of
style: the action and reaction of these, on the most exemplary authors,
constitute our progress in the art, and, in the quickest way, store the
memory with the resources of good expression.
* * * * *
[ECONOMICS OF BOOK READING.]
III. The head just now finished includes really by far the greatest
portion of the economy of study. There are various other devices of
importance in their way, but much less liable to error in practice. Of
these, a leading place may be assigned to the best modes of Distributing
the Attention in reading. Such questions as the following present
themselves for consideration to the earnest student. How many distinct
studies can be carried on together? What interval should be allowed in
passing from one to another? How much time should be given to the art of
reading, and how much to subsequent meditating or ruminating on what has
been read? These points are all susceptible of being determined, within
moderate limits of error. As to the first, the remark was made by
Quintilian, that, in youth, we can most easily pass from one study to
another. The reason of this, however, is, that youth does not take very
seriously to any study. When a special study becomes engrossing, the
alternatives must rather be recreative than acquisitive; not much
progress being made in what is slighted, or left over to the exhaustion
caused by attention to the favourite topic. A more precise answer can be
made to the second and third queries, namely, as to an interval for
recall and meditation, after putting down a book, and before turning the
attention into other channels. There is a very clear principle of
economy here. We should save as far as possible the fatigue of the
reading process, or make a given amount of attention to the printed page
yield the greatest impression on the memory. This is done by the
exercise of recalling without the book; an advantage that we do not
possess in listening to a lecture, until the whole is finished, when we
have too much to recall. To hurry from book to book is to gain
stimulation at the cost of acquisition.
I have alluded to the case of an engrossing subject, which starves all
accompanying studies. There are but two ways of obviating the evil, if
it be an evil; which it indeed becomes, when the alternative demands
also are legitimate. The one is peremptorily to limit the time given to
it daily, so as to rescue some portion of the strength for other topics.
The other is to intermit it wholly for a certain period, and let other
subjects have their swing. In advancing life, and when our studious
leisure is only what is left from professional occupation, two different
studies can hardly go on together. The alternative of a single study
needs to be purely recreative.
One other point may be noted under this head. In the application to a
book of importance and difficulty, there are two ways of going to work:
to move on slowly, and master as we go; or to move on quickly to the
end, and begin again. There is most to be said for the first method,
although distinguished men have worked upon the other. The freshness of
the matter is taken off by a single reading; the re-reading is so much
flatter in point of interest. Moreover, there is a great satisfaction in
making our footing sure at each step, as well as in finishing the task
when the first perusal is completed. We cannot well dispense with
re-reading, but it need not extend to the whole; marked passages should
show where the comprehension and mastery are still lagging.
* * * * *
[DESULTORY READING.]
IV. Another topic is Desultory Reading. This is the whole of the reading
of the unstudious mass; it is but a part of the reading of the true
student. It may mean, for one thing, jumping from book to book, perhaps
reading no one through, except for pure amusement. It may also include
the reading of periodicals, where no one subject is treated at any
length. As a general rule, such reading does not give us new
foundations, or constitute the point of departure of a fresh department
of knowledge; yet the amount of labour and thought bestowed upon
articles in periodicals, may render them efficacious in adding to a
previous stock of materials, or in correcting imperfect views. The truth
is, that to the studious man, the desultory is not desultory. The only
difference with him is that he has two _attitudes_ that he may
assume--the severe and the easy-going; the one is most associated with
systematic works on leading subjects; the other with short essays,
periodicals, newspapers, and conversation. In this last attitude, which
is reserved for hours of relaxation, he skips matters of difficulty, and
absorbs scattered and interesting particulars without expressly aiming
at the solution of problems or the discussion of abstract principles.
There is no reason why an essay in a periodical, a pamphlet, or a speech
in Parliament, may not take a first place in anyone's education. All the
labour and resource that go to form a work of magnitude may be
concentrated in any one of these. Still, they are presented in the form
that we are accustomed to associate with our desultory work, and our
times of relaxation; and so, they seldom produce in the minds of readers
the effect that they are capable of producing. The thorough student will
not fail to extract materials from one and all of them, but even he will
scarcely choose from such sources the text for the commencement of a new
study.
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