Now to apply the rule to another case.  Suppose you wish to gather together all the information that you possess relating to a certain subject.  In the first place it is certain that you know a very great deal more about any subject than you think you do.  Stored away in the various recesses of the mind, or memory if you prefer that term, are stray bits of information and knowledge concerning almost any subject.  But these bits of information are not associated with each other.  You have never attempted to think attentively upon the particular question before you, and the facts are not correlated in the mind.  It is just as if you had so many hundred pounds of anything scattered throughout the space of a large warehouse, a tiny bit here, and a tiny bit there, mixed up with thousands of other things.

You may prove this by sitting down some time and letting your thoughts run along the line of some particular subject, and you will find emerging into the field of consciousness all sorts of information that you had apparently forgotten, and each fitting itself into its proper place.  Every person has had experiences of this kind.  But the work of gathering together the scattered scraps of knowledge is more or less tedious for the conscious mind, and the sub-conscious mind will do the work equally well with the wear and tear on the attention.  In fact, it is the sub-conscious mind that always does the work, even when you think it is the conscious mind.  All the conscious mind does is to hold the attention firmly upon the object before it, and then let the sub-consciousness pass the material before it.  But this holding the attention is tiresome work, and it is not necessary for it to expend its energies upon the details of the task, for the work may be done in an easier and simpler way.

The best way is to follow a plan similar to the one mentioned a few pages back.  That is, to fix the interested attention firmly upon the question before you, until you manage to get a clear, vivid impression of just what you want answered.  Then pass the whole matter into the sub-conscious mind with the command “Attend to this,” and then leave it.  Throw the whole matter off of your mind, and let the sub-conscious work go on.  If possible let the matter run along until the next morning and then take it up for consideration, when, if you have proceeded properly you will find the matter worked out, arranged in logical sequence, so that your conscious attention will be able to clearly review the string of facts, examples, illustrations, experiences, etc., relating to the matter in question.