these two, any or all of the other factors receive attention, depends
upon the individual teacher; as a rule they are sadly neglected, or
omitted outright from consideration.

This being true, it is uncommon for students to carry their study
through the three or four stages necessary in the proper assimilation
of knowledge (see p. 203), because these stages are accomplished only
by doing the work involved in these several factors. Very little
knowledge, for instance, is carried over into habit, the fourth stage.
The four fundamental operations in arithmetic and a few facts in
composition and grammar are shining exceptions. Very few teachers have
ever even asked themselves what portions of their different subjects
of instruction should result in habits; whatever habits become
actually established, therefore, are a matter of accident rather than
of intelligent planning by teachers. Every student reaches the third
stage of assimilation with some of his knowledge; that is, he
overhauls it until it is translated into his own experience. But what
a small proportion of all that he learns becomes welded to him, by the
warmth of his feeling for it, so that he forgets where it was obtained
and feels it to be his own! Almost any college student can name whole
courses that he pursued, to which he never warmed up appreciably.

How small this amount is, is suggested by the small quantity that is
carried even through the second stage, where the pupil or student
boldly subordinates both author and teacher to himself and asks what
profit he is getting; where he casts aside as non-essential much of
what is presented, and centers his attention on what seems of real
value to him, to weigh and perhaps reorganize it. Many a student never
consciously reaches this stage, and might be afraid to let his teacher
know the fact if he did. Certainly many a teacher would regard any