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INTRODUCTION

We are happy to introduce to the notice of the public a new Commonplace-Book, which the enter-
prising Agents of the Methodist Episcopal Book Concern, with a wise regard to the wants of their
patrons, have provided, to accompany their large and constantly increasing list of interesting and
valuable works.

The plan of the work is simple, and by reason of its simplicity is the better adapted for
general use.

It contains an index, in which, under its appropriate alphabetical head, the topic or subject of each
extract or reference may be entered, together with the page in the book where the same may be
found; and the Commonplace-Book itself is paged and ruled with a wide margin, in which, against
each extract, the subject may be written.

This is the plan, perfectly simple, and yet containing all that is necessary to make the volume what
it professes to be, a Commonplace-Book; which, we are told by the authorities, "denotes among
the learned a register or orderly collection of things which occur worthy to be noted and retained
in the course of a man's reading or study, so disposed, as that among a multiplicity of subjects any
one may be easily found."

Every student has felt the difficulty of retaining in the memory the mass of valuable information
which he has not met with in books, or heard in lectures or conversations. Every one is aware how
large a portion of all the knowledge acquired by these various methods fades from the mind with
the lapse of years. How often we wish to recall some interesting fact, convincing argument, beau-
tiful sentiment, or appropriate illustration, which we have once read or heard, the dim shadow of
which remains in our minds, but which we endeavor in vain to call up with distinctness. And yet,
as the occasions for their use arise, these lost treasures, if available, would often be to us of almost
inestimable value.

Hence the utility of any invention which will enable the student to retain the knowledge once
secured, and to have it ready for use whenever circumstances may require. The advantages of a
Commonplace-Book for this purpose are manifest. It is a kind of storehouse in which to deposit the
most valuable facts, arguments, and illustrations of authors, to be ready at hand when wanted.

But the Commonplace-Book, if freely used in connection with a course of reading or study, is
valuable in other aspects. The practice of making abstracts, or of transcribing the most important
parts of an author, will lead to habits of accuracy and attention in reading, and fix the information
thus acquired more permanently in the mind.

Let the experiment be tried of reading in this method with the Commonplace-Book at hand, and
reading in the ordinary way without transcribing, and you will find that there is a manifest difference.
The works which you have read with pen in hand and your Commonplace-Book by your side will
stand out prominent in your recollection, and their most important thoughts will not only be ready
in your Commonplace-Book for use, but will come up in your memory with a surprising distinctness
which will demonstrate at once the utility of the plan. The celebrated historian, Gibbon, attributed,
it is said, much of the success of his writing to the influence of this practice.