605. The student should read his author with the most sus-
tained attention, in order to discover the meaning of every sen-
tence. If the book is well written, it will endure and repay his
close attention: the text ought to be fairly intelligible, even
without illustrative examples. Often, far too often, a reader
hurries over the text without any sincere and vigorous effort to
understand it; and rushes to some example to clear up what
ought not to have been obscure, if it had been adequately con-
sidered. The habit of scrupulously investigating the text seems
to me important on several grounds. The close scrutiny of lan-
guage is a very valuable exercise both for studious and practical
life. In the higher departments of mathematics the habit is
indispensable: in the long investigations which occur there it
would be impossible to interpose illustrative examples at every
stage, the student must therefore encounter and master, sen-
tence by sentence, an extensive and complicated argument.

TODHUNTER, ISAAC.

Source: Memorabilia mathematica; or, The philomath's quotation-book - Moritz, Robert Édouard, 1868-1940