Naturally in modern educational practice it is not always possible to have miniature waterfalls and river bottoms at hand, still it is possible to follow this principle.  When, in studying Mediaeval History, you read a description of the guilds, do not regard them as distant, cold, inert institutions devoid of significance in your life.  Rather, think of them in terms of things you already know:  modern Labor Unions, technical schools, in so far as the comparison holds good.  Then trace their industrial descendants down to the present time.  By thus thinking about the guilds, hitherto distant and uninteresting, you will begin to see them suffused with meaning, alight with significance, a real part of yourself.  In short, you will have achieved interest.

There is still another psychological law of interest:  In order to develop interest in a subject, exert activity toward it.  We see the force of this law when we observe a man in the process of developing an interest in golf.  At the start he may have no interest in it whatever; he may even deride it.  Yielding to the importunities of his friends, however, he takes his stick in hand and samples the game.  Then he begins to relent; admits that perhaps there may be something interesting about the game after all.  As he practises with greater frequency he begins to develop a warmer and still warmer interest until finally he thinks of little else; neglecting social and professional obligations and boring his friends ad nauseum with recitals of golfing incidents.  The methods by which the new-fledged golfer develops an interest in golf will apply with equal effectiveness in the case of a student.  In trying to become interested in Mediaeval History, keep actively engaged in it.  Read book after book dealing with the subject.  Apply it to your studies in Political Economy, English, and American History.  Choose sub-topics in Mediaeval History as the subjects for themes in English composition courses.  Try to help some other student in the class.  Take part in class discussions and talk informally with the instructor outside of the classroom.  Use your ingenuity to devise methods of keeping active toward the subject.  Presently you will discover that the subject no longer appears cold and forbidding; but that it glows warm with virility; that it has become interesting.

It will readily be noticed that the two laws of interest here set forth are closely interrelated.  One can hardly seek information about a subject without exerting activity toward it; conversely, one cannot maintain activity on behalf of a subject without at the same time acquiring information about it.  These two easily-remembered and easily-applied rules of study will go far toward solving some of the most trying conditions of student life.  Memorize them, apply them, and you will find yourself in possession of a power which will stay with you long after you quit college walls; one which you may apply with profit in many different situations of life.