Now, those who have thus derived the _full benefit_ of the System, both as a Device for memorising and also as a Memory Trainer, _are the persons who can learn a book in one reading_. "Reading" is used by Coaches in a technical sense; that is, synonymous with "thorough study." By a "single" or "one reading," I mean a single careful perusal _in conformity to the requirements of my System_. I do not mean that they can do this and doze during the process.
I now reproduce most of the plan always adopted in dealing with books whose contents, or the unfamiliar portions of them are to be mastered.
(1) You will not read the book with the _rapidity_ with which some young ladies are said to devour the latest novel. They are often suspected of skipping pages at a time in order to discover the different stages of a plot, until a thoroughly aroused curiosity compels them to hasten at once to the last chapter to fall upon the denouement. This is not the style of perusal I contemplate.
(2) Nor is it to be supposed because you understand the method that it will therefore work itself. It has to be _applied_ carefully and methodically _at least once_. This necessarily demands _time_, especially at first. Those who possess good health and good continuity, and a mastery of the System, accomplish the retention of a work in vastly less time than would be possible for them without the System, and the study is a pleasure instead of a task. On the other hand, those who are in the possession of poor health or of weak concentration, or who are overburdened with business anxieties, domestic cares or competitive worries, would very seldom, if ever, master any book in the ordinary way by _mere repetition_. These persons are extremely unfavourably situated to do justice to the System, and it costs them more time and trouble to master a book than the former class. A student admitted that he had carefully read a manual of English History completely through _sixteen_ times, and then failed in the examination. To have obtained a lasting knowledge of this History by my method would probably have occupied him as long as he was formerly engaged in _two or three_ of the sixteen fruitless perusals of it. There is, however, only one difference between this unfortunate student and the great majority of those who succeed in the examinations through _cramming_. He forgot all his historical knowledge _before_ the examination--they usually forget theirs shortly _after_. In fact, a student or a man in advanced years who has really mastered any book so that he never has to refer to it again is a wonder. Take the memories of members of the learned professions--they are usually only REFERENCE memories. They know where to _find_ the coveted knowledge, but they do not _possess_ it or _retain_ it in their minds. On the other hand, the student who masters a book by my method _really knows_ the contents of it, and he is thus enabled to devote to other purposes _an enormous amount of time in the future_ that other people have to spend in _perpetually refreshing_ their superficial acquirements. Moreover, the average student who has carried out _all_ my instructions can even _now_ learn as much by my Method in any stated time as he could learn without my Method, and _with equal thoroughness_ in many, many times as long a period! And if any one who has been pressed for time, or who has been in a panic about an impending examination, or who has been too much troubled with Discontinuity, too ill in general health, or too idle, to do more than superficially glance at my lessons--if any such person doubts his competency to accomplish as much as the diligent student of average ability has done, then let him turn back and really and truly MASTER my System [for he does not even KNOW what my System is until he has faithfully carried out to the very letter all my instructions, unless he has been a pupil of my oral lectures], and then and not before he will probably find that the achievements of the average diligent student of my System are quite within the easy range and scope of his own powers.