Observe the manner in which we study a poem. It is first
read and interpreted sentence by sentence, glancing from verse to verse
to get the connections. When the whole piece has been read and
understood in its parts and connections, the suggested lines of thought
are taken up and followed out in their wider applications. Take for
example the "Burial of Moses," and in the proper analysis and study of
the poem, such a process of absorption and reflection is observable.
In tracing the biography of John Quincy Adams or of Alexander Hamilton,
the facts of personal experience and action first absorb the attention
from step to step in the study of his life. But reflection on the
bearings of these personal events, upon contemporaries, and upon public
affairs is noticed all along. The same mental process is observed in
studying a battle in history, a sentence in grammar, a squirrel in
natural history, or a picture in art.
The effect of such mental absorption and reflection is to build up
_concepts_. Series of causally related parts are also formed, but each
series in the end becomes a more complete complex concept; that is, a
representative of many similar series.
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