AN ABRIDGMENT, &c. THE HIS is an excellent tract on the neceffity of taking notes in writing, in order to profit by what we read; and the manner of doing it is prescribed. The memory is unfaithful, and the best memory cannot retain all. Auguftiu complained of the many things he had fuffered himfelf to lofe, and was obliged to feek after them again. Much time is loft in this way. Inftances are given of learned men endued with great memory, who yet all affifted themselves by making collections-ergo notandum et excerpendum, Pliny Secundus, the secretary of nature, attained to prodigious erudition by this method, which he obferved constantly; info, much that his nephew tells us, he never read any thing without making extracts. While he was lying in the sunshine; at sup, per; after fupper; while he was bathing; while he was dreffing, liber legebatur, adnotabatur. Even while he was on a journey, an amanuenfis was with him; who wrote in gloves if the weather was cold while his nephew was walking out for the air, he used that memorable expreffion, poteras has horas non perdere—Ọ temporis parfimoniam, quàm ignota es et rara!-Omnium rerum jactura reparabilis, præter quam temporis, Extracts are neceffary, even to a poet, who works from his imagination. We fee an example of this in Herman Hugo, whofe Pia Defideria are an ingenious contexture of the Scriptures and the Fathers together; out of which, when he had collected, he made this excellent ufe. Extracts are the life and foul of biftory and no history can be compofed without previous notation, Even orators must read, and note, and transfer the excellencies of others into their own page. Which of them all did ever arrive at the fummit of learning, without conftant applica tion to notes and extracts? Ariftotle exceeded all that went before him; but not without the making of infinite collections from the books they had left behind them. Among great divines, examples are given of Augustin, Ferom, Cyprian, and Bernard; and after every one, Drexelius preffes the inference, that nothing great ever was, or ever will be done, without iudustrious notation. At laft he adds an example from his own experience, and protests, that he would not part with his notes for any price but that of heaven itself. In difplaying the profit of it, he observes, 1. That whatever fubject was propofed, he could tell all the authors that had written upon it; even though the fubject were minute and out of the way. A friend wanted to borrow his book but most authors are of ufe only to thofe that have read them. He reckons a man nothing, if he could not talk an hour upon a fubject. 2. In preaching: If the Scriptures were duly read and extracted, a man's ftore would never be exhaufted. 3. For inftructing any perfon who comes to confult or afk. Particulars of time and place can rarely be recollected without notes. 4. A man may subsist upon his own stock, in case of sickness, or under any hindrance, or in time of age, when he must write, but cannot read. It is miferable to be running to the baker, when we fhould be going to dinner: think of the ant and the bee. The author declares of himfelf, with advantage and fatisfaction he ufed the fruits of thirty years labour, and that, if his life were to laft ever fo long, his fund would never be out. He was a great example of his own doctrine. 5. In all kinds of peaking and writing, he found himself in readiness: and could engage to write two books in a year on different fubjects out of his excerpta. There is little difficulty in building, when all the neceffary materials are ready at hand. 6. It is of excellent ufe in converfation; keeps it from flagging, and places us above the neceffity of vain repetitions, fuch as women and ignorant perfons fall into for want of matter. After the doctrine has been confirmed by teftimonies and examples, the author confiders the reafons. 1. It is observed, thať the attention is fixed better by writing and noting, than by repeated readings. Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus reports, that Demofthenes transcribed Thucydides eight times. Jerom wrote over many volumes. 2. The matter is deeper impreffed upon the mind. In reading, the eye wanders, and the judgment is efs exact. Money is not examined merely by looking at it: we 1 rub it, and weigh it, and found it, to diftinguish between the precious and the vile, and by a fimilar method we muft diftinguith truth from error, and one ftyle from another. 3. What is written is not forgotten-litera fcripta manet-as it was faid in a for-. mer chapter. 4. How many volumes for the benefit of the public have been fent abroad from the mere induftry of collecting! Antiquæ lectiones, Florigelia, Hora fubfeciva, Mufarum horti, &c. &c. And if we find the collections of others so serviceable, how much more fo will our own be? When we ourselves are the collectors, our own ufes and purpofes are provided for; and we may derive more ufe from one page of this fort, than from a hundred by another perfon, who works according to his own views, not according to yours; as every scholar will discover, who has any exercife in this way: he takes only what suits him; turning and twifting every ftream into his own channel.. (This teaches how we are expofed when another perfon picks out an history for us.) 5. The ant collects in fummer for her food in winter. This is beautifully defcribed and applied―itionibus ac reditionibus eandem viam relegit millies, fatigari nefcia-bruma injurias non metuit, infœcundum hiemem non ægre tolerat, &c. The happy induftry of the bee is defcribed with the fame poetical elegance→ Omnes apicula flores delibant, et velut judicio excerpunt—violarum fuaves divitias-nec extrahunt nifi quod melioris fucci est; venenum quod in flere deterius, araneis relinquunt. Hac apum fedulitas, et in excerpenda fludium, mellis et cera thefauris orbem opulentat. Let us be as wife as they in our ftudies: let us take the best authors, and out of them the best things: otherwife, like fummer flies, we have neither honey nor wax; our converfation and writings are poor and empty. 6. Notes form an epitome, and contain the effence of a library, and will fupply the place of it: they will travel with us, where books are difficult to be met with. Take what you want out of the book you are reading, and it is done for ever you need never turn it over any more. Incredible how ufeful a volume may be compiled in how hort a time! Your own papers will always be found your beft library. Obje&ions answered.-1. I have no defign to write volumes like Origen. A. But the fmalleft thing cannot be well done without it-hence we have fo many jejune compofitions--and when any public exercife comes in courfe, not having dug, we are forced to beg and borrow.-2. Another objection that perfons who write, neglect the use of memory, and fo lofe it. A. This |