The Improvement of the Mind – Quick Summary

1-Sentence Description ofThe Improvement of the Mindby Issac Watts

An early text about how to learn, and it was recommended by Faraday, who claimed that it had provided him with the framework and tools he needed for his eventual discoveries.

Endow your mind with sound reasoning and good judgment. Think about the bad decisions you could have avoided, how many sorrows you could have escaped, and how much guilt and misery you could have prevented, if you had taken the time, from an early age, to improve your judgment about people, times, and things.

Consider the weaknesses and mistakes of human nature, which arise from the marriage of a soul to an animal body. Think about the depth and difficulty of many truths, and the tempting, flattering impressions of falsehood. An infinite number of things can go wrong. Be greedy in your reading of authors who discuss the prejudices and errors of the human being, and to make sure that you are always watchful, so that you avoid these errors yourself.

Get to know your own ignorance. Understand how limited your present knowledge. Use this to spur you on to work hard to make yourself less ignorant. Take a wide survey of the vast number of regions of learning. Think of the numberless questions you can ask, and how few of them have approached any subject with any certainty. Think about the puzzling questions concerning vacuums and atoms, the nature of the infinite, and problems in geometry. This will teach you what a vain thing it is to believe that you everything. Read the knowledge that the dead have left behind, and that the living possess – meet learned persons and strive to become more knowledgeable than they are.

Study without prayer is atheism, as well as that prayer without study is presumption.

The eyes of a man with jaundice make yellow observations on everything: and the soul tinctured with any passion or prejudice, diffuses a false colour over the real appearance of things.

Review the instances of your own misconduct in life ; think seriously with yourselves how many follies and sorrows you had escaped, and how much guilt and misery you had prevented, if from your early years you had but taken due paius to judge aright concerning persons, times, and things. This will awaken you with lively vigour to address yourselves to the work of improving your reasoning powers, and seizing very opportunity and advantage for that end.

Isaac Watts had a strong and focused insight. I was amazed to discover that he is the writer of “Joy To The World” (1719), the most celebrated hymn of churches and lovers of Christmas.

The table of contents alone are enough to make your head hurt. But if you get through that there are some valuable lessons laid out in the book to make it worth a read if you have the time. It is written in a very old style (obviously) and makes you think outside the box. I would recommend it not as a full read-through book but as something to reference chapter by chapter depending on what your needs/desires are for self enhancement.

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