The Habit of Retentive Reading by Thomas Babington Macaulay

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 21, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 40.

The Habit of Retentive Reading

By Thomas Babington Macaulay

WHEN a boy I began to read very earnestly, but at the foot of every page I read, I stopped and obliged myself to give an account of what I had read on that page. At first I had to read it three or four times before I got my mind firmly fixed. But I compelled myself to comply with the plan, until now, after I have read a book through once, I can almost recite it from beginning to the end. It is a very simple habit to form early in life, and is valuable as a means of making our reading serve the best purpose.—Macaulay.