Understanding.  After reading comes understanding.  To illustrate this, poetry again might be cited, for any one can read poetry, though many declare they cannot understand it.  The simplest looking prose may be obscure to the mind which is slow in comprehending.  When we read we get general ideas, cursory impressions; we catch the drift of the author’s meaning.  Reading for material must be more thorough than that.  It must not merely believe it understands; it must preclude the slightest possibility of misunderstanding.

A reader who finds in a printed speech approval of a system of representation but a condemnation of a system of representatives must grasp at once, or must work out for himself, the difference between these two:  the first meaning a relationship only, the second meaning men serving as delegates.  When he meets an unusual word like mandatory, he must not be content to guess at its significance by linking it with command and mandate, for as used in international affairs it means something quite definite.  To secure this complete understanding of all his reading he will consult consistently every book of reference.  He should read with a good dictionary at his elbow, and an atlas and an encyclopedia within easy reach.  If he is able to talk over with others what he reads, explaining to them what is not clear, he will have an excellent method of testing his own understanding.  The old-fashioned practice of “saying lessons over” at home contributed to this growth of a pupil’s understanding.

Selecting.  Third, the reader for material must know how to select.  As he usually reads to secure information or arguments for a certain definite purpose, he will save time by knowing quickly what not to read.  All that engages his attention without directly contributing to his aim is wasting time and energy.  He must learn how to use books.  If he cannot handle alphabetized collections quickly he is wasting time.  If he does not know how material is arranged he will waste both time and energy.  He must know books.

Every printed production worthy of being called a book should have an index.  Is the index the same as the table of contents?  The table of contents is printed at the beginning of the volume.  It is a synopsis, by chapter headings or more detailed topics, of the plan of the book.  It gives a general outline of the contents of the book.  You are interested in public speaking.  You wonder whether a book contains a chapter on debating.  Does this one?  You notice that a speaker used a series of jerky gesticulations.  You wonder whether this book contains a chapter upon gestures.  Does it?

The table of contents is valuable for the purposes just indicated.  It appears always at the beginning of a work.  If the work fills more than one volume, the table of contents is sometimes given for all of them in the first; sometimes it is divided among the volumes; sometimes both arrangements are combined.