roof upon the walls, and, in short, all the parts, from the largest to the smallest, must be connected and fitted together, so that they form a single house.
35. Imitation.—From this it follows:
(i) That the studies of a lifetime should be so arranged that they form an encyclopædic whole, in which all the parts spring from a common source and each is in its right place.
(ii) That everything taught should be supported by good reasons, so that no easy entrance may be given either for doubt or for forgetfulness.
Indeed these reasons are the nails, the clasps, and the clamps that hold an object fast in the memory and prevent it from fading away.
36. Now, to strengthen all information by giving reasons is equivalent to explaining things by their causes. That is to say, not only the nature of each object is pointed out but also the reason why it cannot be otherwise. For knowledge is nothing but the acquaintance with an object that we gain by mastering its causes. For instance, if the question arose whether it would be more correct to say totus populus or cunctus populus, and the teacher were merely to say “cunctus populus is the right phrase,” but omitted to give any reason, the pupil would soon forget it. If, on the other hand, he were to say “Cunctus is a contraction for conjunctus,28 and therefore totus should be used when the object denoted is homogeneous, cunctus when the conception is collective, as here,” it is scarcely conceivable that the pupil could forget it, unless his intelligence were very limited. Again, if the grammatical question were to arise why we say mea refert, tua refert, but ejus refert; that is to say, why we use the ablative (as it is supposed to be) in the first and second persons, but the genitive in the third person; if I were to answer, that refert is a contraction for res fert, and that the phrases are therefore mea res fert, tua res fert, ejus res fert (or in their contracted form mea refert, tua refert, ejus refert), and that therefore mea and tua are not the ablative but the nominative, would not the pupil be stimulated to further efforts?
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