How To Read A Book- A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading - Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren [42]
EIGHTH: The remaining amendments up to the present day.
Those are the major divisions. Now let us outline one of them, the Second, comprising the Constitution's first Article. Like most of the other Articles, it is divided into Sections. Here is a suggested outline.
II, 1 : Section 1, establishing legislative powers in a Congress of the United States, divided into two bodies, a Senate and a House of Representatives;
II, 2: Sections 2 and 3, respectively describing the composition of the House and Senate and stating the qualifications of members. In addition, it is stated that the House has the sole power of impeachment, while the Senate has the sole power of trying impeachments;
II, 3: Sections 4 and 5, having to do with the election of members of both branches of Congress and with the internal organization and affairs of each;
II, 4: Section 6, stating the perquisites and emoluments of members of both branches, and stating one limitation on civil employment of members;
II, 5: Section 7, defining the relationship between the legislative and executive departments of the government and describing the President's veto power; 88 HOW TO READ A BOOK
II, 6: Section 8, stating the powers of Congress; II, 7: Section 9, stating some limitations on the powers outlined in Section 8;
II, 8: Section 10, stating limitations on the powers of the states and the extent to which they must give over certain powers to the Congress.
We could then proceed to make a similar outline of all the other major divisions, and, after completing that, return to outline the Sections in tum. Some of these, for example Section 8 in Article I, would require the identification of many different topics and subtopics.
Of course, this is only one way of doing the job. There are many others. The first three Articles could be grouped together in one major division, for instance; or instead of two divisions with respect to the amendments, more major divisions could be introduced, grouping the amendments according to the problems they dealt with. We suggest that. you try your hand at making your own division of the Constitution into its main parts. Go even further than we did, and try to state the parts of the parts as well. You may have read the Constitution many times, but if you have not applied this rule before, you will find that it reve.als much in the document that you never saw.
Here is one more example, again very brief. We have already stated the unity of Aristotle's Ethics. Now let us attempt a first approximation of its structure. The whole is divided into the following main parts: A first, treating of happiness as the end of life, and discussing it in relation to all other practicable goods; a second, treating of the nature of voluntary action, and its relation to the formation of good and bad habits; a third, discussing the various virtues and vices, both moral and intellectual; a fourth, dealing with moral states that are neither virtuous nor vicious; a fifth, treating of friendship; and a sixth and last, discussing pleasure, and completing the account of human happiness begun in the first.
These divisions obviously do not correspond to the ten X-Raying a Book 89
books of the Ethics. Thus, the first part is accomplished in the first book; the second part runs through Book II and the first half of Book Ill; the third part extends from the rest of Book III through the end of Book VI; the discussion of pleasure occurs at the end of Book VII and again at the beginning of Book X.
We mention this to show you that you need not follow the apparent structure of a book as indicated by its chapter divisions. That structure may, of course, be better than the outline you develop, but it may also be worse; in any event, the point is to make your own outline. The author made his in order to write a good book. You must make yours in order to read it well. If he were a perfect writer and you a perfect reader, it would follow that the