Memoirs of Jonathan Edwards in Vol I of the Works - II - Chapter 2

Required reading
Memoirs of Jonathan Edwards in Volume I of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 2.

My summary
Today we are taught about Edwards' early education.

We learn that he was initially schooled at home and are given samples of his letter writing from those times.

Then Edwards moved to Yale College where 'he was distinguished for his uniform sobriety and correctness of his behaviour, for diligent application to his studies, and for rapid and thorough attainments in learning'.

What grabbed me
I enjoyed hearing about Edwards' study habits: 'The habits of study, which Edwards formed in very early youth, were not only strict and severe, and this in every branch of literature, but in one respect peculiar. Even while a boy, he began to study with his pen in his hand; not for the purpose of copying off the thoughts of others, but for the purpose of writing down, and preserving, the thought suggested to his own mind, from the course of study which he was pursuing. This most useful practice he commenced in several branches of study very early; and he steadily pursued it in all his studies through life. His pen appears to have been in a sense always in his hand. From this practice steadily persevered in, he derived the very great advantages of thinking continually during each period of study; of thinking accurately; of thinking connectedly; of thinking habitually at all times; of banishing from his mind every subject, which was not worthy of continued and systematic thought; of pursuing each given subject of thought as far as he was able, at the happy moment when it opened spontaneously on his mind; of pursuing every such subject afterwards, in regular sequence, starting anew from the point where he had previously left off, when again it opened upon him in some new and interesting light; of preserving his best thoughts, associations, and images, and then arranging them under their proper heads, ready for subsequent use; of regularly strengthening the faculty of thinking and reasoning, by constant and powerful exercise; and above all, of gradually moulding himself into a thinking being—a being, who instead of regarding thinking and reasoning as labour, could find no high enjoyment but in intense, systematic, and certain thought. In this view of the subject, when we remember how few students comparatively, from want of this mental discipline, think at all; how few of those who think at all, think habitually; how few of those who think habitually, think to purpose; and how few of those who think to purpose, attain to the fulness of the measure of the stature, to which, as thinking beings, they might have attained; it will not I think be doubted, that the practice in question was the principal means of the ultimate development of his mental superiority.'

Keep your pen in hand!

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 3.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.