Method by E. GOODRICH.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 27, 1864

Method.

By E. GOODRICH.

MANY a valuable thought and imagery of the mind is lost, both to the thinker and others, for the want of some means whereby our thoughts are copied at the time they occur. Thinking is like picture-taking. There is plenty of light, and any amount of pictures may be obtained; but as light is a living substance, it is necessary to have some apparatus, and to adapt some process by which the light is forced to expire and leave us its dead body to look at.

There are times when the mind is unusually clear and strong, and one single half day of thinking will accomplish more than a week of hard study under other circumstances. Yea, there are times, no doubt, in every religious man's experience, when it seems that an angel of God's presence was standing beside us pouring into our minds a flood of heavenly light and knowledge. But as perhaps we are occupied with labor and unable to secure the picture, sooner or later, like a dissolving view, it passes from our minds, and like a forgotten dream it cannot be called up again. And it is just as reasonable to suppose that a business man can remember every little item of debt and credit and have them properly arranged in his mind for future reference and settlement, as to suppose that a thinking man can retain and satisfactorily arrange every thought and argument that forms itself in his mind on any given subject without the aid of note or memorandum.

One reason for the great lack of clearness in writing and speaking results from a corresponding lack of clearness in thinking. For no man can express in a well-defined manner a thought or view that never had an organized existence in his own mind. The method of memorizing one's thoughts as they occur is the same as that of Book-keeping. As an example, upon the first page of a quire (more or less) of foolscap paper mark the heading of the subject upon which you wish to write or speak, or the one upon which you are actually thinking. Then, upon some designated page of the book, write every satisfactory thought bearing on said question. If you have one thought to-day, write it; if two on the morrow, write them. In this way one has all the advantage that time, place, and circumstances, can give him. He has the chance of reviewing from different points of observation, of revising at his leisure, and of retaining if he wishes, all the vividness of first impressions. One article written in this manner, for clearness of expression, for point and interest, is worth half a dozen written on the impulse of the moment, or in a cold and formal manner. The reader will readily understand that the hints given above are designed principally for beginners.

E. GOODRICH.

Edinboro, Pa.