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Chapter 01 - Auditing and Assurance Services
1-1
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Education.
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CHAPTER 01
Auditing and Assurance Services
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Review
Checkpoints
Multiple
Choice
Exercises, Problems,
and Simulations
1. Define information risk and explain how the
financial statement auditing process helps to
reduce this risk, thereby reducing the cost of
capital for a company.
1, 2, 3 29, 31, 38 57*
2. Define and contrast financial statement
auditing, attestation, and assurance type
services.
4, 5, 6, 7, 8 23, 25, 28, 44,
50
52, 57*
3. Describe and define the assertions that
management makes about the recognition,
measurement, presentation, and disclosure of
the financial statements and explain why
auditors use them as a focal point of the audit.
9, 10, 11 36, 39, 40, 41, 45,
46, 47, 48, 49
54, 55, 59
4. Define professional skepticism and explain its
key characteristics.
12 24, 37 53
5. Describe the organization of public accounting
firms and identify the various services that
they offer.
13, 14 30, 42 56*, 62
6. Describe the audits and auditors in
governmental, internal, and operational
auditing.
15, 16, 17, 18 26, 27, 32, 34, 35 56*, 58

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Education.
7. List and explain the requirements for
becoming a certified public accountant (CPA)
and other certifications available to an
accounting professional.
19, 20, 21, 22 33, 43, 51 60, 61
(*) Item relates to multiple learning objectives

1-3
Education.
SOLUTIONS FOR REVIEW CHECKPOINTS
1.1 Business risk is the risk that an entity will fail to meet its business objectives. When assessing business
risk, a professional must consider all possible threats to an entity’s goals and objectives. Some illustrative
examples include the risk that: 1) its existing customers will start buying products or services from its
primary competitors; 2) its product lines will become obsolete; 3) its taxes will increase; 4) key government
contracts will be lost; 5) key employees will leave the entity; and many other examples exist.
1.2 To help minimize business risk and take advantage of other opportunities presented in today’s competitive
business environment, decision makers such as chief executive officers (CEOs) demand timely, relevant,
and reliable information. There are at least four environmental conditions that increase demand for reliable
information. First, is complexity which implies that events and transactions in today’s global business
environment can be complicated. Most investors do not have the level of expertise needed to properly
account for complex transactions. Second is remoteness which implies that decision makers are often
separated from current and potential business relationships due to distance and time. For example, investors
may not be able to visit distant locations to check up on their investments. Third is time-sensitivity which
implies that in today’s economic environment, investors and other users of financial statements need to
make decisions more rapidly than ever before. As a result, the ability to promptly obtain high-quality
information is essential. Fourth is a consequence which implies that decisions may very well involve
significant investments. As a result, the consequences can be severe if information cannot be obtained
1.3 Of all the different risks discussed in the chapter up to this point, information risk is the one that is most
likely to create the demand for independent and objective assurance services is information risk or the
probability that the information circulated by an entity will be false or misleading. Because the primary
source of information for investors and creditors is the company itself, an incentive exists for that
company’s management to make their business or service appear to be better than it actually may be, to put
their best foot forward. As a result, preparers and issuers of financial information (directors, managers,
accountants, and other people employed in a business) might benefit by giving false, misleading, or overly
optimistic information. This potential conflict of interest between information providers and users which
provides the underlying basis for the demand for reliable information.
1.4 According to the American Accounting Association, “Auditing is a systematic process of objectively
obtaining and evaluating evidence regarding assertions about economic actions and events to ascertain the
degree of correspondence between the assertions and established criteria and communicating the results to
interested users.” In effect, auditors add reliability to the information that is provided to interested users.
Of course, this definition is focused on an external reporting context. Students may also discuss how
governmental and internal auditors operate as well.
In response to “What do auditors do?” students can respond by stating that auditors (1) obtain and evaluate
evidence about assertions made by management about economic actions and events, (2) ascertain the
degree of correspondence between the assertions and the appropriate reporting framework, and (3) issue an
audit report (opinion). Students can also respond more generally by stating that auditors essentially lend
credibility to the financial statements presented by management.
1.5 An attestation engagement is “an engagement in which a practitioner is engaged to issue or does issue a
written communication that expresses a conclusion about the reliability of a written assertion that is the
responsibility of another party”(SSAE 10, AT 101.01). To attest means to lend credibility or to vouch for
the truth or accuracy of the statements that one party makes to another. The attest function is a term often
applied to the activities of independent CPAs when acting as auditors of financial statements.
1.6 An assurance services engagement is any assignment that improves the quality of information, or its
context, for decision makers. Because information (e.g., financial statements) are prepared by managers of
an entity who have authority and responsibility for financial success or failure, an outsider may be skeptical
that the information truly is objective, free from bias, fully informative, and free from material error,
intentional or inadvertent. The services of an independent auditor helps resolve those doubts because the
auditor’s success depends upon his or her independent, objective, and competent assessment of the

1-4
Education.
information (e.g., the conformity of the financial statements with the appropriate reporting framework).
The independent auditor’s role is to lend credibility to the information; hence, the outsider will likely seek
his or her independent opinion about the financial statements.
1.7 An assurance service engagement is one that improves the quality of information, or its context, for
decision makers. Thus, an attestation service engagement is one type of an assurance service. Another
way of thinking about the issue is to remember that the financial statement audit engagement is one type of
an attestation service. Please see exhibit 1.3 in the text which depicts the relationship among assurance,
attestation, and auditing engagements.
1.8 The four major elements of the broad definition of assurance services are
Independence. CPAs want to preserve their reputation and competitive advantage by always preserving
integrity and objectivity when performing assurance services.
Professional services. Virtually all work performed by CPAs is defined as “professional services” as long
as it involves some element of judgment based on education and experience.
Improving the quality of information or its context. The emphasis is on “information,” CPAs’ traditional
area of expertise. CPAs can enhance quality by assuring users about the reliability and relevance of
information, and these two features are closely related to the familiar credibility-lending products of
attestation and audit services. “Context” is relevance in a different light. For assurance services, improving
the context of information refers to improving its usefulness when targeted to particular decision makers in
the surroundings of particular decision problems.
For decision makers. As the “consumers” of assurance services, decision makers are the beneficiaries of the
assurance services. Decision makers may or may not be the “client” that pays the fee and may or may not
be one of the parties to an assertion or other information, but they personify the consumer focus of new and
different professional work.
1.9 Financial accounting refers to the process of recording, classifying, summarizing and reporting about a
company’s assets, liabilities, capital, revenues, and expenses in the financial statements in accordance with
the applicable financial reporting framework (e.g., GAAP). In so doing, the management team is making a
number of assertions about the financial statements. The financial accounting process is the responsibility
of the management team. Financial statement auditing refers to the process whereby professional auditors
gather evidence related to the assertions that management makes in the financial statements, evaluates the
evidence and concludes on the fairness of the financial statements in a report.
They differ because accountants produce the financial statements in accordance with the applicable
financial reporting framework. After this is complete, financial statement auditors then perform procedures
to ascertain whether the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the applicable financial
reporting framework.
1.10 The three major classifications of ASB assertions with several assertions in each classification are:
Transaction Assertions
Occurrence assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that transactions giving rise to assets,
liabilities, sales, and expenses actually occurred. Key questions include “Did the recorded sales
transactions really occur?”
Completeness and cutoff assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that all transactions of the
period are in the financial statements and all transactions that properly belong in the preceding or following
accounting periods are excluded. Completeness also refers to proper inclusion in financial statements of all
assets, liabilities, revenue, expense, and related disclosures. Key questions related to completeness include

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Education.
“Are the financial statements (including footnotes) complete?” and “Were all the transactions recorded in
the right period?”
Accuracy assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that transactions have been recorded at the
correct amount. Key questions include “Were the expenses recorded at the proper dollar amount?”
Classification assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that transactions were posted to the
correct accounts. Key questions include “Was this expense recorded in the appropriate account?”
Balance Assertions
Existence assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that the balance represents assets,
liabilities, sales, and expenses that are real and in existence at the balance sheet date. Key questions
include “Does this number truly represent assets that existed at the balance sheet date?”
Rights and obligations assertion: The objectives related to rights and obligations are to establish with
evidence that assets are owned (or rights such as capitalized leases are shown) and liabilities are owed. Key
questions related to this assertion include “Does the company really own the assets? And “Are related legal
responsibilities identified?”
Completeness assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that all balances of the period are in the
financial statements. Key questions related to completeness include “Are the financial statements
(including footnotes) complete?”
Valuation assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that balances have been valued correctly.
Key questions include “Are the accounts valued correctly?” and “Are expenses allocated to the period(s)
benefited?”
Presentation and Disclosure Assertions
Occurrence assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that transactions giving rise to assets,
liabilities, sales and expenses actually occurred. Key questions include “are we properly presenting and
disclosing transactions that occurred during this period?”
Rights and obligations assertion: The objectives related to establishing with evidence the proper
presentation of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses to which the company has a legal right or a legal
obligation Key questions related to this assertion include: “Has the company properly presented the assets
in its possession? And, “Are related legal responsibilities identified and properly disclosed?”
Completeness assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that all balances of the period are
presented and/or disclosed in the financial statements. Key questions related to completeness include: “Are
the financial statements (including footnotes) complete?”
Accuracy and valuation assertion: The objectives are to establish with evidence that balances presented
and disclosed in the financial statements have been recorded accurately and have been valued correctly.
Key questions include “Are the accounts valued correctly?” and “Are expenses allocated to the period(s)
benefited?”
Classification and understandability assertion: The objective is to establish with evidence that
presentation and disclosures are properly classified on the financial statements and that financial statements
including footnotes are understandable to the financial statement users. Key questions relate to “Is this
account properly presented in the correct financial statement category” And, “are the footnote disclosures
presented to promote an understanding of the nature of the account?”

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Education.
1.11 The ASB set of management financial statement assertions are important to auditors because they are used
when assessing risks by determining the different types of misstatements that could occur for each
assertion. Next, auditors use the assertions to develop audit procedures that are appropriate to mitigate the
risk of material misstatement for each assertion. In essence, the key questions that must be answered about
each of the relevant assertions become the focal points for audit procedures. Audit procedures are the
means to answer the key questions posed by management’s financial statement assertions. In fact, the
procedures are completed to provide the evidence necessary to persuade the auditor that there is no material
misstatement related to each of the relevant assertions identified for an engagement.
The ASB assertions differ from the PCAOB assertions in that they provide greater detail and clarity for
auditors to conceptualize the type of misstatements that may exist in the financial statements. Thus, the
PCAOB assertions are more general than the ASB assertions. Importantly, the PCAOB recognizes that
their assertions are more general and do allow auditors to use the more granular and specific ASB
assertions when completing the audit. As a result, largely all of the firms auditing public companies with
international operations feature the ASB assertions to guide their auditing processes. Importantly, a student
of auditing will note that the ASB assertions are in direct alignment with the PCAOB assertions. This is
illustrated in the text in Exhibit 1.4
1.12 Holding a belief that a potential conflict of interest always exists between the auditor and the management
team causes auditors to always be skeptical when completing the audit. Indeed, even though the vast
majority of audits do not contain fraud, auditors have no choice but to consider the possibility of fraud on
every audit. Stated simply, errors and financial reporting frauds have happened in the past, and users of
financial statements and audit reports expect auditors to detect material misstatements if they exist.
Indeed, auditing firms have long recognized the importance of exercising professional skepticism when
making professional judgments. As a student of auditing, you can definitely expect to encounter difficult
economic transactions as an auditor. When a difficult transaction is encountered, auditors must take the
time to fully understand the economic substance of that transaction and then critically evaluate, with
skepticism, the evidence provided by the client to justify its accounting treatment. There are no shortcuts
allowed. Rather, auditors must always hold a belief that a potential conflict of interest exist between the
auditor and management and they must be unbiased and objective when making their professional
judgments.
1.13 Generally speaking, assurance services involve the lending of credibility to information, whether financial
or nonfinancial. CPAs have assured vote counts (Academy Awards), dollar amounts of prizes that
sweepstakes have claimed to award, accuracy of advertisements, investment performance statistics, and
characteristics claimed for computer software programs. Some specific examples of assurance service
engagements performed on nonfinancial information include
 eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) reporting.
 Enterprise risk management assessment.
 Information risk assessment and assurance.
 Third-party reimbursement maximization.
 Rental property operations review.
 Customer satisfaction surveys.
 Evaluation of investment management policies.
 Fraud and illegal acts prevention and deterrence.
 Internal audit outsourcing.

1-7
Education.
1.14 There are three major areas of public accounting services
 Financial Statement Audit and other types of Assurance services.
 Tax services.
 Consulting and Advisory services.
1.15 Operational auditing is the study of business operations for the purpose of making recommendations about
the economic and efficient use of resources, effective achievement of business objectives, and compliance
with company policies. The AICPA views operational auditing as a type of consulting or advisory service
offered by public accounting firms.
1.16 The GAO is very clear on this point. Specifically, the elements of expanded-scope auditing include (1)
financial and compliance audits, (2) economy and efficiency audits, and (3) program results audits.
1.17 Compliance auditing involves a study of an organization’s policies, procedures, and, ultimately, its
performance in following applicable laws, rules, and regulations. An example would be a school district’s
policies and procedures related to a meal program for its students. In these types of situations, there would
be a demand for a compliance audit which would be designed to insure that the school district complies
with the stated policies and procedures of the program.
1.18 Other kinds of auditors include Internal Revenue Service auditors who are required to audit the taxable
income and deductions taken by taxpayers in tax returns and determine their correspondence with the
standards found in the Internal Revenue Code. They also might have to audit for fraud and tax evasion.
Other examples include state and federal bank examiners who are responsible for auditing banks, savings
and loan associations, and other financial institutions for evidence of solvency and compliance with
banking and other related laws and regulations.
1.19 The purpose of the continuing education requirement is to ensure that CPAs in practice maintain their
expertise at a sufficiently high level in light of evolving business conditions and new regulations. For
CPAs in public practice, 120 hours of continuing education is required every three years with no less than
20 hours in any one year. For CPAs not in public practice, the general requirement is 120 or fewer (90 in
some states) every three years.
1.20 Not everything can be learned in the classroom, and some on-the-job experience is helpful before a person
is able to be held out to the public as a licensed professional. Also, the experience requirement tends to
“weed out” those individuals who are just looking to become certified without ever being involved in actual
accounting work.
1.21 State boards administer the state accountancy laws and are responsible for ensuring that candidates have
passed the CPA examination and satisfied the state requirements for education and experience before being
awarded a CPA certificate. At the same time, new CPAs must pay a fee to obtain a state license to practice.
Thereafter, state boards of accountancy regulate the behavior of CPAs under their jurisdiction (enforcing
state rules of conduct) and supervise the continuing education requirements. As a result, the state boards
play an important role in the CPA certification and licensure process.
1.22 After becoming a CPA licensed in one state, a person can obtain a CPA certificate and license in another
state. The process is known as reciprocity. CPAs can file the proper application with another state board of
accountancy, meet the state’s requirements, and obtain another CPA certificate. Many CPAs hold
certificates and licenses in several states. From a global perspective, individuals must be licensed in each
country. Similar to CPAs in the United States, chartered accountants (CAs) practice in Australia, Canada,
Great Britain, and India.

1-8
Education.
SOLUTIONS FOR MULTIPLE CHOICE-QUESTIONS
1.23 a. Incorrect This is an attestation to the prize promoter’s claims. Because attestation and
audit engagements are subsets of assurance engagements, this is an example of
an assurance engagement. However, each response is an example of an
assurance engagement; thus, the answer is (e).
b. Incorrect This is an audit engagement to give an opinion on financial statements. Because
attestation and audit engagements are subsets of assurance engagements, this is
an example of an assurance engagement. However, each response is an example
of an assurance engagement; thus, the answer is (e).
c. Incorrect This is an assurance engagement on a newspaper’s circulation data. Because
attestation and audit engagements are subsets of assurance engagements, all are
assurance engagements. Thus, the answer is (e).
d. Incorrect This is an assurance engagement on the performance of golf balls. Because
attestation and audit engagements are subsets of assurance engagements, all are
assurance engagements. Thus, the answer is (e).
e. Correct Because attestation and audit engagements are subsets of assurance
engagements, all of the responses are examples of assurance engagements.
1.24 a. Correct The management team is generally trying to put its “best foot forward” when
reporting their financial statement information. The auditor must make sure that
the management team does not violate the accounting rules when doing so. IN
essence, this statement characterizes why professional skepticism is required to
be exercised by auditors.
b. Incorrect “Exclusively in the capacity of an auditor” is not an idea that relates to an
attitude of professional skepticism.
c. Incorrect Professional obligations are not related to an attitude of professional skepticism.
d. Incorrect While it is true that financial statement and financial data are verifiable, this
does not related to the reasons why an auditor needs to begin an audit with an
attitude of professional skepticism.
1.25 a. Incorrect While work on a forecast would potentially be covered by the attestation
standards, the auditors must provide assurance about some type of management
assertion in an attestation engagement.
b. Correct This is the basic definition of an attestation service, as articulated in the book
and the professional standards.
c. Incorrect Since there is no assurance about any management assertion when preparing a
tax return with information that has not been reviewed or audited, this type of
tax work is not considered an attestation service.
d. Incorrect Since there is no assurance about any management assertion when giving expert
testimony about particular facts in an income tax case, this type of work is not
considered an attestation service.
1.26 a. Incorrect The objective of environmental auditing is to help achieve and maintain
compliance with environmental laws and regulations and to help identify and
correct unregulated environmental hazards. This answer is therefore incorrect.
b. Incorrect The objective of financial auditing is to obtain assurance on the conformity of
financial statements with generally accepted accounting principles. This answer
is therefore incorrect.
c. Incorrect The objective of compliance auditing is the entity’s compliance with laws and
regulations. This answer is therefore incorrect.
d. Correct Operational auditing refers to the study of business operations for the purpose of
making recommendations about the economic and efficient use of resources,
effective achievement of business objectives, and compliance with company
policies.

1-9
Education.
1.27 a. Incorrect This is not the primary objective of an operational audit. However, while
completing an operational audit, a professionally skeptical auditor should still be
concerned about compliance with financial accounting standards.
b. Correct This statement exactly characterizes the goal of an operational audit. In
addition, the statement is part of the basic definition of operational auditing.
c. Incorrect An operational audit does not focus on the financial statements of an entity.
d. Incorrect While analytical tools and skills may be used during an operational audit, they
are also a very important aspect of financial auditing.
1.28 a. Correct According to the AICPA definition found in AU 200 (paragraph 11) and in your
book, “the purpose of an audit is to enhance the degree of confidence that
intended users can place in the financial statements. This is achieved by the
expression of an opinion by the auditor on whether the financial statements are
prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with an applicable financial
reporting framework. As a result, this is the correct response.
b. Incorrect The AICPA definition is not limited to the FASB for the appropriate reporting
framework that is used as the benchmark when completing an audit. The
definition is general enough to include other financial reporting frameworks as
well, such as IFRS.
c. Incorrect The AICPA definition does not focus on the SEC as an appropriate reporting
framework to be used as a benchmark when completing an audit. The definition
is focused on the “applicable” financial reporting framework, such as GAAP or
IFRS. The reference to the SEC is wrong.
d. Incorrect This phrase is not referenced in the AICPA definition found in the auditing
standards. This phrase is found in the AAA definition of the audit found in this
book.
1.29 a. Incorrect While complexity is an important condition that increases the demand for
reliable information, the potential conflict of interest between management and
the bank is far and away the biggest factor driving the demand for audited
financial statements.
b. Incorrect While remoteness is an important condition that increases the demand for
reliable information, the potential conflict of interest between management and
the bank is far and away the biggest factor driving the demand for audited
c. Incorrect While the consequences of making a bad decision are an important condition
that increases the demand for reliable information, the potential conflict of
interest between management and the bank is far and away the biggest factor
driving the demand for audited financial statements.
d. Correct The potential conflict of interest between management and the bank is far and
away the biggest factor driving the demand for audited financial statements.
Consider for example a company that was desperate for cash in order to survive.
Would it be possible that the management team would present unreliable
financial statements to the bank in order to get a desperation loan? Because of
this possibility, a financial statement audit is needed to add credibility to the
1.30 a. Incorrect According to Section 201 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, bookkeeping services are
prohibited.
b. Incorrect According to Section 201 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, internal audit services are
prohibited.
c. Incorrect According to Section 201 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, valuation services are
prohibited.
d. Correct Sarbanes-Oxley prohibits the provision of all of the services listed in answers a,
b, and c; therefore, d (all of the above) is the best response.

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Education.
1.31 a. Incorrect Financial statement auditors do not reduce business risk.
b. Correct After completing a financial statement audit, information risk has been reduced
for investors.
c. Incorrect Complexity creates demand for accounting services but is not an objective of the
financial statement audit.
d. Incorrect Auditors do not directly control the timeliness of financial statements.
Management must first provide the information to be audited.
1.32 a. Incorrect A financial statement opinion is the objective of a financial statement audit, not
a compliance audit.
b. Incorrect A basis for a report on internal control is the objective of an internal control
audit under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, not a compliance audit.
c. Incorrect A study of effective and efficient resources is the objective of an operational
audit, not a compliance audit.
d. Correct A compliance audit refers to procedures that are designed to ascertain that the
company’s personnel are following laws, rules, regulations, and policies.
1.33 a. Incorrect While successful completion of the Uniform CPA is necessary to be licensed as
a CPA, a candidate also requires the proper experience and proper education.
Thus, letter (d.) is correct.
b. Incorrect While proper experience is necessary to be licensed as a CPA, a candidate also
requires the successful completion of the Uniform CPA and proper education.
c. Incorrect While proper education is necessary to be licensed as a CPA, a candidate also
requires the successful completion of the Uniform CPA and proper experience.
d. Correct A candidate requires the successful completion of the Uniform CPA, proper
experience and proper education to be licensed as a CPA.
1.34 a. Incorrect The GIAA is not responsible for monitoring the use of public funds by public
officials. This is the responsibility of the GAO.
b. Incorrect The CIA is not responsible for monitoring the use of public funds by public
c. Incorrect The SEC is not responsible for monitoring the use of public funds by public
d. Correct The mission of the U.S. Government Accountability Office is to ensure that
public officials are using public funds efficiently, effectively, and economically.
1.35 a. Incorrect A financial audit is typically not included as part of a performance audit.
b. (&d) Correct The two categories of performance audits are economy and efficiency audits and
program audits.
c. Incorrect A compliance audit is typically not included as part of a performance audit.
d. (&b) Correct The two categories of performance audits are economy and efficiency audits and
program audits.
1.36 a. Incorrect A review of credit ratings of customers would not provide evidence about the
completeness of accounts receivable. Because GAAP requires the accounts
receivable balance to be valued at the amount expected to be collected from
customers, the review of credit ratings relates to valuation.
b. Incorrect A review of credit ratings of customers would not provide evidence about the
existence of accounts receivable. Because GAAP requires the accounts
c. Correct A review of credit ratings of customers’ gives indirect evidence of the
collectability of accounts receivable. Because GAAP requires the accounts

1-11
Education.
d. Incorrect A review of credit ratings of customers would not provide evidence about the
rights of accounts receivable. Because GAAP requires the accounts receivable
balance to be valued at the amount expected to be collected from customers, the
review of credit ratings relates to valuation.
e. Incorrect A review of credit ratings of customers would not provide evidence about the
occurrence of accounts receivable. Because GAAP requires the accounts
1.37 a. Incorrect Rhonda’s representations are not sufficient evidence to support assertions made
in the financial statements.
b. Incorrect Despite Rhonda’s representations, Jones must gather additional evidence to
corroborate Rhonda’s assertions.
c. Incorrect Rhonda’s representations are a form of evidence (albeit weak) that should
neither be disregarded nor blindly regarded without professional skepticism.
d. Correct Rhonda’s assertions are nice. However, to be considered as sufficient to
conclude that all expenses have been recorded, they will need corroboration with
documentary evidence. Thus, this is the correct response.
1.38 a. Incorrect Although there is a high level of risk associated with client acceptance, this
phrase was created by the authors.
b. Correct By definition, information risk is the probability that the information circulated
by a company will be false or misleading.
c. Incorrect Moral hazard is the risk that the existence of a contract will change the behavior
of one or both parties to the contract.
d. Incorrect Business risk is the probability an entity will fail to meet its strategic objectives.
1.39 a. Correct This is clearly a test of the completeness as the assertion always includes any
issues of transaction cutoff, which means that the recording of all revenue,
expense, and other transactions must be included in the proper period in
accordance with GAAP.
b. Incorrect This is not an existence test. This is clearly a test of the completeness as the
assertion always includes any issues of transaction cutoff, which means that the
recording of all revenue, expense, and other transactions must be included in the
proper period in accordance with GAAP.
c. Incorrect This is not a test of valuation. This is clearly a test of the completeness as the
d. Incorrect This is not a test of rights and obligations. This is clearly a test of the
completeness as the assertion always includes any issues of transaction cutoff,
which means that the recording of all revenue, expense, and other transactions
must be included in the proper period in accordance with GAAP.
e. Incorrect This is not an occurrence test. This is clearly a test of the completeness as the
1.40 a. Incorrect This is not a completeness test. This is clearly a test related to rights and
obligations as the question that must be answered with evidence is to establish
that amounts reported as assets of the company represent true assets that it really
does own and that the amounts reported as liabilities truly represent its
obligations. Goods on consignment, by definition, are not owned by the

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Education.
company. Thus, there is a risk that the company is recording assets that they do
not own on their balance sheet.
b. Incorrect This is not an existence test. This is clearly a test related to rights and
c. Incorrect This is not a test of valuation. This is clearly a test related to rights and
d. Correct This is clearly a test related to rights and obligations as the question that must be
answered with evidence is to establish that amounts reported as assets of the
company represent true assets that it really does own and that the amounts
reported as liabilities truly represent its obligations. Goods on consignment, by
definition, are not owned by the company. Thus, there is a risk that the
company is recording assets that they do not own on their balance sheet.
e. Incorrect This is not an occurrence test. This is clearly a test related to rights and
1.41 a. Incorrect This is not a test of completeness. This is a test of existence which is completed
by auditors to answer the question as to whether the transactions recorded as an
asset really represent assets that exist and did add value to the company’s
equipment as compared to routine repair and maintenance expenses under
GAAP. Management’s existence assertion states that the reported assets
actually exist. If an addition to the equipment account cannot be located or
identified as adding value to the equipment balance, it is possible that the
amount should have been classified as repair and maintenance expenses under
GAAP.
b. Correct This is a test of existence. This test is completed by auditors to answer the
question as to whether the transactions recorded as an asset really represent
assets that exist and did add value to the company’s equipment as compared to
routine repair and maintenance expenses under GAAP. Management’s
existence assertion states that the reported assets actually exist. If an addition to
the equipment account cannot be located or identified as adding value to the
equipment balance, it is possible that the amount should have been classified as
repair and maintenance expenses under GAAP.
c. Incorrect This is not a test of valuation. This is a test of existence which is completed by
auditors to answer the question as to whether the transactions recorded as an
GAAP.

1-13
Education.
d. Incorrect This is not a test of rights and obligations. This is a test of existence which is
completed by auditors to answer the question as to whether the transactions
recorded as an asset really represent assets that exist and did add value to the
company’s equipment as compared to routine repair and maintenance expenses
under GAAP. Management’s existence assertion states that the reported assets
GAAP.
e. Incorrect This is not a test of occurrence. This is a test of existence which is completed by
auditors to answer the question as to whether the transactions recorded as an
GAAP.
1.42 a. Incorrect Under Sarbanes-Oxley, public accounting firms are prevented from acting in a
managerial decision-making role for an audit client.
b. Incorrect Under Sarbanes-Oxley, public accounting firms are prevented from auditing the
firm’s own work on an audit client.
c. Incorrect Under Sarbanes-Oxley, public accounting firms may only provide tax consulting
services to an audit client with the audit committee’s approval.
d. Correct Sarbanes-Oxley prevents public accounting firms from serving an audit client in
any of the preceding listed roles. As a result, each of the responses a, b, and c is
incorrect and letter d is the correct response.
1.43 a. Incorrect Substantial equivalency does not refer to the financial statement auditing process.
The term relates to the practice of public accountancy in states other than a CPA’s
state of licensure.
b. Incorrect Substantial equivalency does not refer to consulting services. The term relates to
the practice of public accountancy in states other than a CPA’s state of licensure.
c. Incorrect Substantial equivalency does not refer to other professional organizations. The
term relates to the practice of public accountancy in states other than a CPA’s
state of licensure.
d. Correct Substantial equivalency relates to the practice of public accountancy in states
other than a CPA’s state of licensure. Under the concept of substantial
equivalency, as long as the licensing (home) state requires (1) 150 hours of
education, (2) successful completion of the CPA exam, and (3) one year of
experience, a CPA can practice (either in person or electronically) in another
substantial equivalency state without having to obtain a license in that state.
1.44 a. Correct Auditing is a subset of attestation engagements that focuses on the certification
of financial statements. The subject matter is the set of financial statements
from management and the criteria is GAAP in the United States.
b. Incorrect That is not true. Auditing is one example of an attest engagement. The level of
assurance provided is not lower for an attestation engagement.
c. Incorrect That is not true. The auditor is not allowed to provide management support for
its audit clients. Rather, consulting engagements can focus on providing clients
with advice and decision support.
d. Incorrect The definition provided is the one for assurance engagements, which is quite
broad and includes all engagements that are designed to improve the quality of
information, or its context, for decision makers.

1-14
Education.
1.45 a. Correct Management is more likely to overstate assets and understate liabilities. As a
result, when auditing an asset balance, the most relevant assertions are likely to
be either existence or valuation. In this situation, because of the nature of cash
and the fact that is no foreign currency translation calculation, the existence
assertion is clearly the most important assertion.
b. Incorrect Although rights and obligations is an important assertion, it is not the most
relevant assertion for the cash balance. Since management is more likely to
overstate assets, when auditing an asset balance, the most relevant assertions are
likely to be either existence or valuation. In this situation, because of the nature
of cash and the fact that is no foreign currency translation calculation, the
existence assertion is clearly the most important assertion.
c. Incorrect Although valuation is an important assertion, it is not the most relevant assertion
for the cash balance. In this situation, because of the nature of cash and the fact
that is no foreign currency translation calculation, the existence assertion is
clearly the most important assertion. If however, there was a foreign currency
translation adjustment, valuation of cash would also be relevant.
d. Incorrect Although occurrence is an important assertion, it is not the most relevant
assertion for any balance sheet account. Rather, the occurrence assertion is more
closely related to income statement accounts because the question that needs to
be answered with evidence is whether the transaction really did occur in
accordance with GAAP. In this situation, because of the nature of cash and the
fact that is no foreign currency translation calculation, the existence assertion is
clearly the most important assertion.
1.46 a. Incorrect This evidence would provide evidence about management’s assertion about
rights and obligations and perhaps existence. However, this evidence would not
help to value the investment in accordance with GAAP.
b. Incorrect While this evidence would potentially be helpful to value an investment in
another company, it is not the best answer. If a quote was available from an
independent source, this would be a better form of evidence for valuation.
c. Incorrect This evidence would provide evidence about management’s assertion about
existence and perhaps rights and obligations. However, this evidence would not
help to value the investment in accordance with GAAP.
d. Correct Always remember that management is more likely to overstate assets. As a
result, when auditing an asset balance like investments, a relevant assertion is
likely to be valuation. In this situation, to answer the question of what the
investment should be valued at in the balance sheet, an auditor would first seek
to obtain a market quotation from an independent source like the Wall Street
Journal.
1.47 a. Incorrect This test is not related to presentation and disclosure. A cutoff test is clearly a
test of the completeness assertion as the test is designed to insure that all
transactions that should have been included in accordance with GAAP have
been recorded.
b. Correct A cutoff test is clearly a test of the completeness assertion as the test is designed
to insure that all transactions that should have been included in accordance with
GAAP have been recorded.
c. Incorrect This test is not related to rights and obligations. A cutoff test is clearly a test of
the completeness assertion as the test is designed to insure that all transactions
that should have been included in accordance with GAAP have been recorded.
d. Incorrect This test is not related to existence. A cutoff test is clearly a test of the
completeness assertion as the test is designed to insure that all transactions that
should have been included in accordance with GAAP have been recorded.
1.48 a. Incorrect This test is designed to test the completeness assertion for the inventory account.
It does not provide any evidence related to the rights and obligations assertion.

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Education.
b. Correct This is clearly a test related to rights and obligations as the question that must be
answered with evidence is to establish that the inventory reported as assets really
is owned by the company. Goods on consignment, by definition, are not owned
by the company. Thus, there is a risk that the company is recording assets that
they do not own on their balance sheet.
c. Incorrect This test is designed to test the completeness assertion for sales revenue. It does
not provide evidence related to the rights and obligations assertion for inventory.
d. Incorrect This test is designed to test the presentation and disclosure assertion for
inventory purchase commitments. It does not provide evidence related to the
rights and obligations assertion for inventory.
1.49 a. Incorrect Management is far more likely to understate liabilities than to overstate them.
As a result, when auditing the accrued liabilities account, existence or
occurrence is not as likely to be violated. Rather, the most relevant assertion is
likely to be completeness.
b. Correct Management is more likely to understate liabilities. As a result, when auditing
the accrued liabilities account, the most relevant assertion is likely to be
completeness.
c. Incorrect Management is far more likely to understate liabilities. As a result, when
auditing the accrued liabilities account, the most relevant assertion is likely to be
completeness. Presentation and disclosure may be relevant. However, it is not
as likely to contain a material misstatement as completeness.
d. Incorrect Management is far more likely to understate liabilities than to overstate them.
As a result, when auditing the accrued liabilities account, the most relevant
assertion is likely to be completeness. Valuation may be relevant. However, it is
not as likely to contain a material misstatement as completeness.
1.50 a. Incorrect This is not correct as an auditing engagement refers to an examination of the
financial statements to determine whether the information has been presented in
accordance with GAAP. Also, a consulting engagement is one where the
professional provides advice and decision support.
b. Incorrect This is not correct as a consulting engagement is one where the professional
provides advice and decision support. Also, an assurance engagement can
include many more types of information than just the financial statements.
c. Incorrect This is not correct as an auditing engagement refers to an examination of the
accordance with GAAP. Also, a consulting engagement is one where the
professional provides advice and decision support.
d. Correct This is correct as an auditing engagement refers to an examination of the
accordance with GAAP and an attestation engagement can include a financial
statement audit. In addition, An assurance engagement can apply to all types of
information and a consulting engagement is one where the professional provides
advice and decision support.
1.51 a. Incorrect Credibility is a reason to become certified. Because all three responses are
reasons, (d) is correct.
b. Incorrect Advancement and promotion are reasons to become certified. Because all three
responses are reasons, (d) is correct.
c. Incorrect Monetary reward is a reason to become certified. Because all three responses are
reasons, (d) is correct.
d. Correct Credibility, advancement, and monetary rewards are all reasons to become
certified.
SOLUTIONS FOR EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS

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Education.
1.52 Audit, Attestation, and Assurance Services
Students may encounter some difficulty with this matching question because the Special Committee on
Assurance Services (SCAS) listed many things that heretofore have been considered “attestation services”
(long before assurance services were invented). As a result, we believe that this question is a good vehicle
for discussing the considerable overlap that exists between attestation and assurance services.
 Real estate demand studies: Assurance service
 Ballot for awards show: Assurance service
 Utility rates applications: Assurance service
 Newspaper circulation audits: Assurance service
 Third-party reimbursement maximization: Assurance service
 Annual financial report to stockholders: Audit service
 Rental property operations review: Assurance service
 Examination of financial forecasts and projections: Attestation service
 Customer satisfaction surveys: Assurance service
 Compliance with contractual requirements: Attestation service
 Benchmarking/best practices: Assurance service
 Evaluation of investment management policies: Assurance service
 Information systems security reviews: Assurance service
 Productivity statistics: Assurance service
 Internal audit strategic review: Assurance service
 Financial statements submitted to a bank loan officer: Audit service
1.53 Controller as Auditor
When Hughes Corporation hired the CPA, she or he can no longer be considered independent with respect
to the annual audit and, as a result, can no longer perform an independent audit of the financial statements.
It is true that the in-house CPA can perform all procedural analyses that would be required of an
independent audit; however, it is extremely unlikely that the CPA could inspire the confidence of users of
financial statements outside the company. Because she or he is no longer independent of the company, the
CPA cannot modify the perception of potential conflict of interest that creates demand for the independent
audit. As a matter of ethics rules, this CPA would be prohibited from signing the standard unqualified
attest opinion. Moreover, if Hughes were a public company, under Sarbanes-Oxley, it would be restricted
from hiring one of its auditors into a senior accounting position for a full year under Section 206 of the law.

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Education.
1.54 Management Assertions
PCAOB Assertion Corresponding ASB assertion Nature of assertion
Existence or Occurrence Existence Balance
Occurrence Transactions
Disclosures
Rights and Obligations Rights and Obligations Balances
Disclosures
Completeness Completeness Transactions
Balances
Disclosures
Cutoff Transactions
Valuation and Allocation Accuracy Transactions
Disclosures
Valuation Balances
Disclosures
Presentation and Disclosure Classification Transactions
Disclosures
Understandability Disclosures
1.55 Management Assertions
Existence or Occurrence - Assertions about existence or occurrence address whether assets or liabilities of the
entity exist at a given date and whether recorded transactions have occurred during a given period. For example,
management asserts that Accounts Receivable on the balance sheet represent valid amounts owed to the company
that were likely provided the in exchange for goods or services from the company.
Completeness - Assertions about completeness address whether all transactions and accounts that should be
presented in the financial statements are so included. For example, management asserts that all amounts that should
be recorded and included in the financial statements as accounts receivable actually have been recorded.
Valuation or Allocation - Assertions about valuation or allocation address whether asset, liability, equity, revenue,
and expense components have been included in the financial statements at appropriate amounts. For example,
management asserts that Accounts Receivable are stated at net realizable value.
Rights and Obligations - Assertions about rights and obligations address whether assets are the rights of the entity
and liabilities are the obligations of the entity at a given date. For example, management asserts that the Accounts
Receivable on the balance sheet really are owned by the company. As a result, they have not factored (i.e., sold) any
of the balances that are listed on the balance sheet.

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Education.
Presentation and Disclosure - Assertions about presentation and disclosure address whether particular components
of the financial statements are properly classified, described, and disclosed. For example, management asserts that
the presentation of accounts receivable and the related allowance for doubtful accounts have been presented and are
disclosed in accordance with GAAP.
1.56 Operational Auditing
One possibility is someone from the management advisory services department of a CPA firm. The major
advantage may be total objectivity. The CPA firm has no stake in making a report reflect favorably or
unfavorably on Smalltek (provided there are no prior relations of the CPA firm with Bigdeal managers that
may suggest a bias or with Smalltek). The possible disadvantage is that the CPA firm may not possess the
required expertise in Smalltek’s industry or type of business.
Another possibility is the Bigdeal internal audit department. The major advantage may be that the internal
audit department has a thorough appreciation of Bigdeal’s managerial effectiveness and efficiency
standards and a long-standing familiarity with Bigdeal’s business. The possible disadvantage could be that
the internal auditors may not be independent or objective enough from internal management pressures for
making or breaking the deal for reasons other than Smalltek’s efficiency and effectiveness.
Another possibility is a non-CPA management consulting firm. The major advantage of objectivity would
be similar to the CPA firm, and such firms often have experts in manufacturing, sales, and research and
development management. The major disadvantage could be a lack of appreciation and familiarity with
Bigdeal’s management standards (as possessed by the Bigdeal internal auditors). In addition, such firms
are typically very expensive.
1.57 Auditor as Guarantor. Loot Starkin appears to be uninformed on the following key points:
The auditors did not prepare the Dodge Corporation
financial statement.
Inform your neighbor that Dodge management is
primarily responsible for preparing the financial
statements and deciding upon the appropriate
accounting principles.
An unqualified opinion does not mean that an
investment is safe. Rather, it merely means that the
financial statements are free of material misstatement.
Tell your neighbor that the financial statements
are a historical record of the business’
performance. The value of Loot’s investment
depends on future events, including the many
factors that affect market prices. Thus, the
financial statements are just one piece of
information that should be analyzed. Tell Loot
that the unqualified opinion means only that the
statements conform to the appropriate reporting
framework (e.g., GAAP) and that the financial
statements are free of material misstatement.

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Education.
1.58 Identification of Audits and Auditors
The responses to this matching type of question are ambiguous. The engagement examples are real
examples of external, internal, and governmental audit situations. You might point out to students that the
distinctions among compliance, economy and efficiency, and program results audits are not always clear.
The “solution” is shown in the following matrix form, showing some engagement numbers in two or three
cells. The required schedule follows.
Type of Audit Engagement
Auditor
Financial
Statement Compliance
Economy and
Efficiency
Program
Results
Independent CPA 2, 10
Internal auditor 6, 8 4, 8
Governmental (GAO)
auditor
1, 3 1, 3, 9
IRS auditor 5
Bank examiner 7
Type of Audit Type of Auditor
1. Proprietary school’s training
expenses
Economy and efficiency or
program results
Governmental (GAO)
auditors
2. Advertising agency financial
statements
Financial statement Independent CPAs
3. Dept. of Defense launch
vehicle
Economy and efficiency or
program results
Governmental (GAO)
auditors
4. Municipal services Economy and efficiency Internal auditors
5. Tax shelters Compliance IRS auditors
6. Test pilot reporting Compliance Internal auditors
7. Bank solvency Compliance Bank examiners
8. Materials inspection by
manufacturer
Compliance or Economy and
Efficiency
Internal auditors
9. States’ reporting chemical
use data
Program goal Governmental (GAO)
auditors
10. Sports complex forecast Financial statement Independent CPAs

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Education.
1.59 Financial Assertions and Audit Objectives
By definition, management financial statement assertions give rise to questions that can be answered with
evidence. The objectives for the audit of Spillane’s securities investments at December 31 are to obtain
evidence about the assertions implicit in the financial presentation, specifically:
1. Existence. Obtain evidence that the securities are bona fide and held by Spillane or a responsible
custodian.
Occurrence. Obtain evidence that the loan transaction and securities purchase transactions
actually took place during the year under audit.
2. Completeness. Obtain evidence that all the securities purchase transactions were recorded.
3. Rights. Obtain evidence that Spillane owned the securities.
Obligation. Obtain evidence that $500,000 is the amount actually owed on the loan.
4. Valuation. Obtain evidence of the cost and market value of the securities held at December 31.
Decide whether any write-downs to market are required by the appropriate reporting framework.
5. Presentation and disclosure. Obtain evidence of the committed nature of the assets, which should
mean they should be in a noncurrent classification like the loan. Obtain evidence that restrictions
on the use of the assets are disclosed fully and agree with the loan documents.
1.60 Internet Exercise: Professional Certification
These answers will depend on the student’s state of residence. Many states have recently reduced the
experience requirements by either (1) reducing or eliminating an audit experience requirement and/or (2)
reducing the experience requirement in lieu of additional education. For a quick link to each state, visit the
National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (www.nasba.org).
1.61 Internet Exercise: Professional Certification
The Institute of Internal Auditors does a good job explaining the benefits of becoming a certified internal
auditor. The exam consists of four parts: the Internal Audit Activity’s Role in Governance, Risk, and
Control; Conducting the Internal Audit Engagement; Business Analysis and Information Technology; and
Business Management Skills. You must have at least a bachelor’s degree to sit for this exam.
The Institute of Management Accountants also does a good job of explaining the benefits of the
certification. The parts of the exam include Business Analysis, Management Accounting and Reporting,
Strategic Management, and Business Applications. You must have at least a bachelor’s degree to sit for
this exam.
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners also does a good job of explaining the benefits of the
certification. The areas of study tested on the exam include criminology and ethics, financial transactions,
fraud investigation, and legal elements of fraud. You must have at least a bachelor’s degree to sit for this
exam.
The Information Systems Audit and Control Association website explains the benefits of becoming
certified. You must have at least an associates’ degree to sit for this exam.

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Education.
1.62 Mini-Case: The Market for Audit Services
NOTE TO INSTRUCTOR: For this assignment, question 4 from this Mini-Case is applicable.
4. The impact of a smaller number of major, international accounting firms on public companies
includes:
 The potential for a less competitive market for audit services (from the client’s
standpoint), providing the existing firms with increased levels of pricing power.
 The inability to receive as wide an array of nonaudit services from large accounting
firms. The prohibited services can be found in Section 201 of Sarbanes-Oxley.
 The potential need for public companies to consider smaller audit firms if the smaller
number of major firms cannot absorb the excess capacity created by the demise of one or
more major, international accounting firms.
Some of the negative impacts of a smaller number of major, international accounting firms can be
evidenced by the actions of the other major accounting firms as KPMG resolved its federal
litigation issues. See “No Poaching from KPMG, Say Audit Firms,” www.cfo.com, August 24,
2005 (http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/4315600?), in which the other firms allegedly ordered their
partners to not approach KPMG clients.

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Influence of
language upon
thinking.
Teaching English.
sure of ultimate success. President Barnard says of one of our
largest institutions that half its glory departed when its literary
societies were killed through the influence of the Greek letter
fraternities. A public speaker who is a slave to his manuscript is
deserving of pity. College authorities may well exercise their
ingenuity in finding a substitute for the drill and practice which the
literary societies of by-gone days afforded in learning to think and to
express thought in the face of opposition, criticism, and other
unfavorable conditions.
Thought and language exercise a reciprocal
influence. Thought is stimulated and clarified by
the effort to express it. Often it is shaped by the
limitations of one’s vocabulary and the range of the
words with which one’s hearers or readers are
familiar. The faded metaphors of language betray us into fallacies.
Phrases like the witness of the spirit, total depravity, have led to
extravagant expectations and unwarranted conclusions. People
sometimes have a religious phraseology without a corresponding
religious experience, and hence deceive themselves and others.
Everywhere we see instances that go to show how important it is
that the development of the power to think should keep pace with
the growth of the power to express thought. Very much is said in
these days about the use of good English. As Adam threw the blame
upon Eve, and Eve cast it upon the Serpent, so every one blames
some one else for the poor English used at school and college. In
the end the teachers are usually made to bear most of the blame:
the college professor blames the teachers in the high school; these,
in turn, blame the teachers in the lower grades; and when the
matter is cast up to the primary teacher, she throws the blame upon
the street and the home. A professor in the college department of a
university gave many ludicrous specimens of English in the work
handed to him by students. He was asked of what college class he
had charge, and when he replied the sophomore, a high-school
teacher suggested that the specimens reflected quite as much upon

The committee.
Aim.
Linguistic studies.
the teachers of the freshman class as upon the schools below the
university.
A women’s society in one of our large cities sent
a committee to the superintendent to complain of
the poor English used by the children in the schools. He agreed that
strenuous efforts should be made to provide a remedy. He added, “If
you will take care of the English in the homes and on the streets, I
will get the teachers to look after the English in the schools.” Instead
of throwing blame upon others, it were far more sensible for each
educated person to ask wherein he is to blame for setting others a
bad example and wherein he can help the teachers of English to
accomplish the desired result.
The aim in teaching English is twofold,—first, to
get the student to appreciate good English and
good literature; secondly, to get him to use it in speaking and
writing. The latter end cannot be reached by mere practice in essay-
writing. Ability to think is a condition of ability to express thought.
Too many of the subjects assigned lay stress upon the forms of
speech and not upon the content of language. When pupils think in
words and disconnected phrases rather than sentences, when they
violate the rules for capitals, punctuation, and paragraphs, the
teachers of English may be solely to blame; but, in so far as the use
of good English depends upon good thinking, the blame for the use
of faulty language rests upon all who teach. If the ability to think is
not developed in proportion to the use of language, the school will
produce stylists who exalt the forms of speech above their content,
slaves of beautiful and flowery language who resemble the fops and
dudes of social life. To emancipate from such slavery requires more
than an emancipation proclamation from the president of a college
association.
The labors of the brothers Grim, Max Müller, and
others have reduced the knowledge of language to
a science. Linguistic studies have become as interesting as any
branch of natural science. They shed new light upon the history of

Language
tributary to
thinking.
mankind. In furnishing material for thought, as well
as mental discipline, they are not inferior to any
other study in the curriculum. It would, however,
be a mistake to suppose that philological studies
are superior to other disciplines as means for developing power to
think and power to express thought. The professor of any language
is apt to regard that language as an end, and not as means to an
end. Primarily, language is a medium of communication. It
distinguishes man from the brute creation, and furnishes him the
instruments of thought by which he carries forward processes of
reasoning beyond the reach of the lower animals. At the university
language in general, or any particular language, may be studied as a
specialty, and can thus be made an end in itself as appropriately as
any other subject which is studied for its own sake. In the lower
schools language should always be made tributary to the art of
thinking. It should be employed to embody thought, and to convey
thought, without intruding itself upon our attention as the thing of
chief value. Any phase of linguistic study may be lifted by an
enthusiastic teacher into the chief place in the course of study.
Orthography has sometimes been taught as if it were the chief end
of man to spell correctly. Grammar has been taught as if a faulty
sentence were one of the sins forbidden by the Decalogue, and as if
the fate of the republic depended upon parsing, analysis, and
diagramming. The pronunciation of words may be emphasized until
the lips of teacher and pupil smack of an overdose of dictionary, until
the overdoing of obscure vowels draws attention away from the
thought to the manner of utterance. A sensible man articulates his
words in such a manner as readily to be understood, but never in
such a way as to excite remark or draw the mind of the listener from
the subject-matter of the discourse.
In educational practice, the manner of expressing the thought
should not supplant the more important art of making the pupil
think. Getting and begetting thought are of more consequence than
the expression of thought; in fact, they condition the correct use of
language. All talk about English, or German, or Spanish, or Latin, or

Greek, as if any one of these languages were an end in itself for the
average pupil, is wide of the mark. Correct sentences, beautiful
expressions, and rhetorical phrases can never make a nation great
or perpetuate its free institutions. Flowery language can never save
a dying sinner or console the widow who is following the bier of a
son, her only child and support. Fine words never win a battle by
land or by sea. The most eloquent orations against Philip of
Macedon did not keep him from destroying the liberties of Greece.
Correct and forceful language is a gift to be coveted, a prize worth
striving for; but it should never be made the all-absorbing aim of
education. The teacher of any phase of language must for a time
make his instruction the object of chief concern; but he should never
ignore the fact that language is and ever should be an aid to
thought, a stimulus to thinking, an embodiment of ideas, a medium
of communication, a means to an end.

Thought stimulus.
VIII
THE STIMULUS TO THINKING
Good methods of teaching are important, but they
cannot supply the want of ability in the teacher. The
Socratic method is good; but a Socrates behind the
teacher’s desk to ask questions is better.
Thomas M. Balliet.
Of all forms of friendship in youth, by far the most
effective as a means of education is that species of
enthusiastic veneration which young men of loyal and
well-conditioned minds are apt to contract for men of
intellectual eminence in their own circles. The
educating effect of such an attachment is prodigious;
and happy the youth who forms one. We all know the
advice given to young men to “think for themselves;”
and there is sense and soundness in the advice; but if
I were to select what I account perhaps the most
fortunate thing that can befall a young man during the
early period of his life,—the most fortunate, too, in the
end, for his intellectual independence,—it would be his
being voluntarily subjected for a time to some powerful
intellectual slavery.
David Masson.
VIII
THE STIMULUS TO THINKING

Competition.
Socratic question.
Whilst the distinction between thinking in things and thinking in
symbols should never be ignored or lost sight of by the teacher, it
need not be brought to the attention of the learner,—at least not in
the elementary stages of instruction. It is more profitable for the
learner to be absorbed in gathering the materials of thought and in
learning by practice how the educated man uses the instruments of
thought for drawing correct conclusions by the most effective
methods. If the eye of consciousness is turned inward upon the
mental processes too early, the flow of thought is interrupted and
turned away from its logical trend. The teacher, on the other hand, is
expected to watch the growth of the mind, to awaken its powers,
and to rouse these into vigorous activity. It is essential not merely
that he furnish the pupils with the proper materials and the best
instruments of thought, but it is necessary also to stimulate and
direct their thinking; otherwise that which is given them may
overload the memory, lie undigested in the mind, exhaust the energy
of the intellect in the effort at retention, and ultimately cause mental
dyspepsia.
Men engaged in the struggle for existence or
preferment usually find ample stimulus to their
thinking faculties in the competition which real life
affords. If the merchant does not think accurately
and effectively, the consequences make themselves visible in his
bank-account. The desire for gain is the stimulus to thought in the
commercial world. An appeal to the same motive is often made
through the offer of prizes and fellowships. The competition of
maturer years finds an adumbration in the competition for class-
standing and for superiority in field sports. The teacher who employs
no higher stimulus to thought must be a stranger to the mysteries of
the art which he professes to practise. The best device for
stimulating thought has come down to us hallowed by the ages. It
bears the name of the greatest teacher of ancient Athens. It is the
question as employed in the Socratic method. Not every question is
the Socratic question. A man who has lost his way may ask a
question, but it is for the sake of getting information. The teacher

Substitute
teachers.
The living teacher.
The dead line.
may be striving to fix in the memory the salient points of the lesson:
he asks questions, the answers to which the pupils are expected to
have at their tongue’s or fingers’ end. A question thus used for
purposes of drill is often called a categorical question. It is not the
Socratic question. Yonder sits a boy who for half an hour has been
wrestling with a problem. Unable to find a clue to the solution, he
asks the teacher for help. Instead of telling him directly what he
wishes to know, the Socrates behind the teacher’s desk asks a
question which causes the pupil to put side by side in his mind two
ideas never before linked together in his thought. Upon the learner’s
face is seen an expression as if light had broken in from on high. He
goes back to his seat, and ere five minutes have elapsed he is
rejoicing in the glory of a triumph. The teacher did not do the pupil’s
thinking; he simply asked the Socratic question, which aims to make
the pupil think for himself.
This stimulus to thought is employed by every
master in the art of teaching. The question may be
used to badger and confuse a pupil, especially if
the teacher is not fully acquainted with the ideas and thoughts
already in the learner’s mind. To cause each pupil to place side by
side in his mind ideas and concepts whose relation he had not
before perceived, it is necessary that the teacher be familiar with the
intellectual storehouse of every member of the class. At this point
the substitutes who occasionally supply the places of regular
teachers are at a serious disadvantage. Not knowing what the pupils
have mastered, they must often waste time in finding out where the
new should be linked to the old, and where it is necessary to clarify
and develop ideas with which the members of the class are only
partially familiar. Often these lose interest in the recitation while the
new teacher quizzes them on things that have grown stale by
repetition.
Back of the Socratic method must be a Socrates
to ask the questions. Education results not from
highly differentiated methods, but primarily from
the play of mind upon mind, heart upon heart, will

Knowledge and
teaching power.
The course of
study.
Difficulties.
upon will. In the difficult art of making others think
the most important factor is the teacher himself.
Thinking begets thinking. In this connection one
cannot forbear contrasting the living teacher with
other educational forces. Treatises on education
are in the habit of printing nature with a capital
letter, whilst words like teacher, humanity, unless
they stand at the beginning of the sentence, begin with a small
letter. Are lifeless rocks, dead leaves, stuffed birds, and transfixed
bugs more potent in begetting thought than the teacher himself? If
nature were such a wonderful teacher, then the savage, who is in
daily contact with nature, and who knows little or nothing of the
artificial life of our great cities and great seats of learning, should be
the best thinker. A teacher whose power to stimulate thought is not
superior to dead leaves and bugs and butterflies must have reached
the dead line. Teachers may be divided into two classes,—those who
have ceased to grow and those who are still alive and growing.
Under the tuition of the former the boy soon loses interest in study,
and seldom acquires the power to think. From a dead tree you
cannot propagate life. Ingraft a lifeless teacher upon the school; the
most skilful devices of school management and recitation serve only
to intensify the dull routine, the mechanical iteration and repetition
which Bishop Spalding declares to be the most radical defect in our
systems of education. It takes life to beget life. A growing mind is
required to beget growth in other minds. A good thinker begets
habits of close and careful thinking in those whom he moulds. Some
minds are more gifted in this respect than others. Without doubt the
reader can recall the difference between knowledge and teaching
power which he felt while under several instructors at the same
time. From those gifted with stimulating power he came away with a
mind full of interrogation points, and with the attention riveted upon
problems calling for investigation. Under their tuition the commonest
things acquired new interest and became food for thought. The
thinking seemed to spring out of that upon which the mind was
feeding. Without the stimulating influence which comes from a live
teacher, contact with nature, access to libraries and laboratories,

Conscious and
unconscious
influences.
The heart.
may amount to very little. The chief trouble in our schools is not that
the courses of study are too crowded, but the teachers are too
empty. There is not enough fuel in their minds to keep alive the glow
of thought. A course of study in the hands of a skilful instructor is
like a good bill of fare under the direction of a skilful caterer. The
latter does not expect every guest to eat his way through the entire
bill of fare; he so manages the succession of dishes as to stimulate
the appetite to the end of the feast; he sends the guests away
without the feeling of satiety,—in fact, anxious for the next banquet.
The wise teacher does not expect the pupils to assimilate everything
in the course of study; he aims so to feed and stimulate their minds
that they find genuine pleasure in thinking, and go away from him
with a desire not only for more knowledge, but also for things that
give suitable exercise to the reflective powers. Watch a boy at work
upon a puzzle, and you will be convinced that he finds genuine
delight in thinking that which is difficult. The most popular teachers
are not they who smooth away every difficulty in the pathway of the
student, but they who stimulate his thinking and help him to a sense
of mastery over intellectual difficulties. The quickening, stimulative
influence of the Socratic question lies in its content rather than its
form; and both form and content derive their vivifying power from
the personality of the teacher.
The stimulating influences which go forth from a
live teacher are partly conscious and partly
unconscious. The latter are the more effective.
Minds gifted with quickening power create about
themselves an intellectual atmosphere that is like the invigorating
atmosphere of the mountains or the tonic breezes which blow from
the sea. The woman who touched the hem of the Saviour’s garment
felt at once the vivifying influences which were all the time going
forth from the Great Teacher. Here we stand face to face with the
greatest mystery of the teacher’s art.
Some light is shed upon the mystery by the
intimate relation which exists between the
conscious and the subconscious life of the soul. The ideas upon any

Exhaustive
treatment.
Hope.
subject which the individual cherishes during his conscious
moments, the train of logical thinking which he pursues when the
will gives direction to reflection, the creative effort which he seeks to
put forth in a given direction,—these shape the activities which go
forward in the depths of the soul when perhaps the attention is
directed to the discharge of routine duties. “Out of the heart are the
issues of life.” “Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
From the treasure-house of the heart come welling up thoughts,
ideas, sentiments, and purposes which largely determine the
influence exerted upon others when the individual is not aware of it.
The teacher must make himself what he wishes his pupil to be. If
foot-ball and base-ball and boating form the staple of his thinking,
the centre of his affections, these athletic sports, in ways that are
marvellous and often past finding out, become the objects of
thought in which his students will delight. If the truths and principles
of science absorb his interest and engage the best thought of his
conscious hours, these will determine the moulding influence which
he will unconsciously exert upon others. If he delights in germ-ideas,
in seed-thoughts, these will emanate from him whenever he is
thrown into contact with inquiring minds. Much, of course, is due to
native ability, to inherited qualities. The circle of minds which one
teacher can reach is further limited by the breadth or narrowness of
his views, by the points which he has in common with others, by the
amount of sympathetic interest which he manifests in their progress
and welfare, by the sum total of the characteristics of generic
humanity which he has taken up into himself. In other words, his
stimulating power depends upon the extent to which his inner life is
representative of the best thought and the best traits of the age in
which he lives and of the people to whom he belongs.
A teacher may destroy his power to awaken and
stimulate thought by developing every subject in all
its bearings to its logical or final conclusion. He
should send his classes away from the daily lecture
or recitation to the library or the laboratory, to the
study, the shop, or the field, with the sense of something to be

The field of vision.
achieved, with the feeling that there are fields of research for them
to explore, fields that will amply repay careful study, investigation,
and reflection. There is nothing that tires a boy so soon as the
feeling that there is nothing for him to do, nothing that he can
master, achieve, or conquer on his own account. The normal child is
so constituted that it loves activity, looks into the future, and regards
itself as an important factor in the world’s life. The advance from
childhood to youth is marked by a transition into the period that is
brimful of hope and ambition. The pampered son of a rich man may
feel no longing of this sort; his opportunities for early travel and
premature indulgence in every whim may have brought him to the
point where the whole world seems like a sucked orange for which
one has no further use. Unless the rich father and mother possess
an extraordinary amount of good sense, their children do not have
an even chance with the children of the middle classes whose
outlook upon life supplies abundant motives for study and exertion.
If a boy has not made a mistake in selecting his
parents, if the atmosphere of the home in which
his first six years are spent is normal, he comes to school with a
sense of something to be achieved. Should this feeling be lacking,
the true teacher will aim to beget it by the instruction he gives and
by appeals to the innate desire for knowledge. As the intelligence
dawns, the interrogation points on the boy’s face multiply; his
appetite for knowledge grows by what it feeds on. If the branches of
study do not become more interesting than any occupation by which
the boy can earn coppers, there is something wrong either with the
boy or his teacher, or with both. In the ascent of the hill of science
every step upward widens the horizon, increases the field of vision,
and stimulates to new effort. Every field explored beckons to new
fields of investigation. It is the prerogative of the teacher to point
out what is in store for the aspiring youth. Take, for instance, the
domain of pure mathematics. A pupil had learned in his geometry
that parallel lines never meet. The teacher told him that his
geometrical studies would after a while acquaint him with lines that
are not parallel and yet never meet. No sooner had he met lines of

Master minds.
False stimulants.
Mental lethargy.
this kind, situated in different planes, than his teacher told him of
lines that continually approach but never meet. The appeal to his
curiosity helped to stimulate the desire for knowledge and kept him
thinking earnestly and seriously until he met the asymptote and its
curve. The study of asymptotes soon grew more interesting than
chess or any sports upon the athletic field.
The aim of the teacher should be to make
himself useless. In other words, the school should
aim to lift the pupil to the plane of an independent thinker, capable
of giving conscious direction to his intellectual life and of
concentrating all his powers upon anything that is to be mastered. It
is to be reckoned a piece of good fortune for a bright and talented
youth to fall under the dominating influence of a master mind. In
endeavoring to walk in the footsteps of an intellectual giant, to
comprehend his theories and speculations, and to carry the burden
of his thoughts, unexpected strength and power are developed, and
when the day of emancipation comes—as it always does come in the
case of gifted youth—the learner will find that he has entered a
higher sphere of intellectual activity, and will henceforth rank among
the world’s productive thinkers.
As was said at the beginning of the chapter, the
competition of men in mature life is usually
sufficient to stimulate their thinking. The men
whose duties make a constant drain upon their
productivity need other forms of thought-stimulation. Reference is
not here made to the narcotics, alcoholic stimulants, and other drugs
which brain-workers use in periods of reaction and fatigue: these
stimulate only for a short time, and leave the nervous system and
the brain weaker than before; they shorten life by burning the
candle at both ends; they cannot supply the need of sleep, rest, and
recreation. To take rational exercise, to eat proper food, and to obey
all the laws of health is the sacred duty of every person who teaches
by word of mouth or pen. Every effort should be made to keep
vitality at its maximum. Often the mind resembles the soil which
yields a richer harvest if permitted to lie fallow for a time. If at the

Hinderances.
Our fellow-men.
close of a period of rest or a summer vacation the mind refuses to
work, what shall then be done to stimulate mental activity? Different
men derive stimulus from different sources. One finds help from
taking a pen in hand, another by facing a sea of upturned faces. A
clergyman of considerable repute uses an Indian story to start his
mental machinery. Henry Ward Beecher declared that the greatest
kindness which could be shown him was to oppose his public
utterances. Opposition roused all his powers and helped him to think
vigorously and to the best advantage. Schiller is said to have kept
rotten apples in his desk, because he believed that the odor
stimulated his mind. Some men find help in solitude, from the
singing of birds, from the sound of rustling leaves and falling waters,
from the noise of ocean waves, or from the glimpse of distant waters
or far-off mountains. An eminent theologian is stimulated by the
playing of a piano in the next room. The stimulus from books is
reserved for discussion in a separate chapter on the Right Use of
Books.
As there are helps, so there are hinderances to
good thinking. Petty cares, executive duties, noises
in the same room, or in the next room, or upon the street, are well-
known examples. Their name is legion, and their cost is enormous if
they come from manufacturing establishments near the school. A
word about the extra-mural music which emanates from vile
machinery on the streets is not out of place in this connection. An
English writer asserts that the organ-grinders of London have done
more in the last twenty years to detract from the quality and
quantity of the higher mental work of the nation than any two or
three colleges at Oxford have effected to increase it. A
mathematician estimates the cost of the increased mental labor
these street-musicians have imposed upon him and his clerks at
several thousand pounds’ worth of first-class work, for which the
government actually paid in added length of the time needed for his
calculations.
In matters of this kind every man must be a law
unto himself. Since no two human beings are

Sources of
stimulus.
exactly alike, but each is a new creation fresh from the hands of the
Creator, it follows that each person must study his own peculiarities,
form his own habits of work, and acquire the power to think in the
midst of the circumstances in which he is placed. By resolute effort
the mind can ignore many a hinderance and distraction. The best
stimulus from without comes from our fellow-men. “Our minds need
the stimulus of other minds, as our lungs need oxygen to perform
their functions.” At school the stimulus comes from classmates, from
those in the higher and lower classes, but above all else, from the
best books and the best teachers. In the life beyond the school the
stimulus comes from the daily contact and competition with others,
from conversation and discussions with those who think, from
communion with the best books, with nature, and with nature’s God.
After the powers of the mind have been
awakened and disciplined, stimulus and inspiration
may come from ten thousand sources. Silence and
solitude, city and country, business and pleasure, observation and
travel, observatories and laboratories, libraries and museums, nature
and art, poetry and prose, fiction and history, may each in turn serve
as a spur to creative, inventive, and productive thinking, as an
incentive to original research, fruitful investigation, and profitable
reasoning. Among all the sources of stimulation, the good teacher
and the good book take superlative rank.

IX
THE RIGHT USE OF BOOKS
Even the very greatest of authors are indebted to
miscellaneous reading, often in several different
languages, for the suggestion of their most original
works, and for the light which has kindled many a
shining thought of their own.
Hamerton.
He reads a book most wisely who thinks everything
into a book that it is capable of holding, and it is the
stamp and token of a great book so to incorporate
itself with our own being, so to quicken our insight and
stimulate our thought, as to make us feel as if we
helped to create it while we read. Whatever we can
find in a book that aids us in the conduct of life, or to a
truer interpretation of it, or to a franker reconcilement
with it, we may with a good conscience believe is not
there by accident, but that the author meant we
should find it there.
Lowell.
Much as a man gains from actual conflict with living
minds, he may gain much even of the same kind of
knowledge, though different in detail, from the
accumulated thinking of the past. No living generation
can outweigh all the past. If books without experience
in real life cannot develop a man all round, neither can
life without books do it. There is a certain dignity of
culture which lives only in the atmosphere of libraries.
There is a breadth and a genuineness of self-

A novel.
knowledge which one gets from the silent friendship of
great authors without which the best work that is in a
man cannot come out of him in large professional
successes.
Phelps.
The great secret of reading consists in this,—that it
does not matter so much what we read or how we
read it as what we think and how we think it. Reading
is only the fuel; and, the mind once on fire, any and all
material will feed the flame, provided only it have any
combustible matter in it. And we cannot tell from what
quarter the next material will come. The thought we
need, the facts we are in search of, may make their
appearance in the corner of the newspaper, or in some
forgotten volume long ago consigned to dust and
oblivion. Hawthorne in the parlor of a country inn on a
rainy day could find mental nutriment in an old
directory. That accomplished philologist, the late Lord
Strangford, could find ample amusement for an hour’s
delay at a railway station in tracing out the etymology
of the names in Bradshaw. The mind that is not awake
and alive will find a library a barren wilderness.
Charles F. Richardson.
IX
THE RIGHT USE OF BOOKS
A clergyman who found the reaction from his
pulpit efforts so great that often he could not bring
himself to think vigorously and consecutively before the middle of
the following week was advised by his physician to try the effect of
an Indian tale or an exciting story, and found that a good novel
works like a charm in bringing the mind back to normal action. After

Books.
As stimulus.
Examples.
the interest in the story or novel begins to grow there is danger of
reading too long, of reading until another spell of fatigue and
reaction comes. The book should be laid aside as soon as the first
glow of mental action is felt.
Most thinkers need the stimulating influence of
other minds. These can be found at their best upon
the shelves of a well-selected library. They are ready to help us
whenever we feel ready to give them our attention. Men put the
best part of themselves into their books. The process of writing for
print intensifies mental activity, spurs the intellect to the keenest,
most vigorous effort, and arouses the highest energy of thought and
feeling. Authors that exert a quickening influence upon our thinking
should be kept for use whenever we need a stimulus to rouse the
mind from its lethargy.
Leibnitz got his best ideas while reading books. He had acquired
the habits of a librarian to whom favorite volumes are always
accessible.
A scientist of repute says he gets the necessary
stimulus from Jevons’s treatise on the inductive
sciences. Professor Phelps has collected an instructive list of authors
whose writings have been helpful to other authors of note. He says,
—
“Voltaire used to read Massillon as a stimulus to
production. Bossuet read Homer for the same
purpose. Gray read Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’ as the preliminary to
the use of his pen. The favorites of Milton were Homer and
Euripides. Fénelon resorted to the ancient classics promiscuously.
Pope read Dryden as his habitual aid to composing. Corneille read
Tacitus and Livy. Clarendon did the same. Sir William Jones, on his
passage to India, planned five different volumes, and assigned to
each the author he resolved to read as a guide and awakener to his
own mind for its work. Buffon made the same use of the works of
Sir Isaac Newton. With great variety of tastes successful authors
have generally agreed in availing themselves of this natural and

Great thinkers.
The literature of
knowledge and
the literature of
power.
facile method of educating their minds to the work of original
creation.”[15]
The most valuable function of standard authors
lies in their quickening influence upon the
intellectual life. The effort to appropriate their ideas and to master
their thoughts is the best possible exercise for the understanding. In
thinking their thoughts, weighing their arguments, and following
their train of reasoning the mind gains vigor, strength, and the
capacity for sustained effort. The invigorating atmosphere which a
great thinker creates has a most remarkable tonic effect upon all
who dwell in it. By unconscious absorption they acquire his spirit of
inquiry, his methods of research, his habits of investigation, his way
of attacking and mastering difficulties. While trying to walk in his
footsteps they learn to take giant strides. His idioms, his choice of
words, his favorite phrases and expressions are at their service when
they enter new fields of truth. Both in power and aspiration they
become like him through the mysterious process of mind acting
upon mind, of heart evoking heart, and of will transfusing itself into
will. A great thinker gets his place in the galaxy of shining intellects
through the truths which he communicates; and as truth is the best
food for the soul, so the quest of truth is the best exercise for all its
faculties.
De Quincey, in his essay on Alexander Pope,
draws an important and oft-quoted distinction
between the literature of knowledge and the
literature of power. He says the function of the one
is to teach, of the other to move. The former he likens to a rudder,
the latter to an oar or a sail. To illustrate the difference he asks,
“What do you learn from ‘Paradise Lost’? Nothing at all. What do you
learn from a cookery-book? Something new, something that you did
not know before, in every paragraph. But would you, therefore, put
the wretched cookery-book on a higher level of estimation than the
divine poem? What you owe to Milton is not any knowledge, of
which a million separate items are still but a million of advancing

Lowell.
His advice.
steps on the same earthly level; what you owe is power,—that is,
exercise and expansion to your own latent capacity of sympathy with
the infinite, where every pulse and each separate influx is a step
upward, a step ascending, as upon Jacob’s ladder, from earth to
mysterious altitudes above the earth. All the steps of knowledge,
from first to last, carry you farther on the same plane, but could
never raise you one foot above your ancient level of earth; whereas,
the very first step in power is a flight, is an ascending into another
element where earth is forgotten.”
The value of the literature of power as a means
of imparting power to every soul that lives under
its influence is easily seen and generally acknowledged. But the
literature of knowledge serves the double purpose of furnishing us
material for thought and of acting as a stimulus to thought. On this
point we have the testimony of the wisest who have ventured to
give advice upon the use of books. Lowell says, “It is certainly true
that the material of thought reacts upon the thought itself.
Shakespeare himself would have been commonplace had he been
padlocked in a thinly shaven vocabulary, and Phidias, had he worked
in wax, only a more inspired Mrs. Jarley.”
The advice which Lowell gives concerning a course of reading and
the ends of scholarship to be kept in mind by those who read with a
purpose is too valuable to be omitted in this connection:
“One is sometimes asked by young people to
recommend a course of reading. My advice would
be that they should confine themselves to the supreme books in
whatever literature, or, still better, to choose some one great author
and make themselves thoroughly familiar with him. For, as all roads
lead to Rome, so do they likewise lead away from it, and you will
find that in order to understand perfectly and to weigh exactly any
vital piece of literature you will be gradually and pleasantly
persuaded to excursions and explorations of which you little
dreamed when you began, and will find yourselves scholars before
you are aware. For, remember, there is nothing less profitable than

scholarship for the mere sake of scholarship, nor anything more
wearisome in the attainment. But the moment you have a definite
aim, attention is quickened, the mother of memory, and all that you
acquire groups and arranges itself in an order that is lucid, because
everywhere and always it is in intelligent relation to a central object
of constant and growing interest. This method also forces upon us
the necessity of thinking, which is, after all, the highest result of all
education. For what we want is not learning, but knowledge; that is,
the power to make learning answer its true end as a quickener of
intelligence and a widener of our intellectual sympathies. I do not
mean to say that every one is fitted by nature or inclination for a
definite course of study, or, indeed, for serious study in any sense. I
am quite willing that these should ‘browse in a library,’ as Dr.
Johnson called it, to their heart’s content. It is perhaps the only way
in which time may be profitably wasted. But desultory reading will
not make a ‘full man,’ as Bacon understood it, of one who has not
Johnson’s memory, his power of assimilation, and, above all, his
comprehensive view of the relations of things. ‘Read not,’ says Lord
Bacon, in his ‘Essay of Studies,’ ‘to contradict and confute; not to
believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to
weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be
swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some
books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not
curiously (carefully), and some few to be read wholly and with
diligence and attention. Some books, also, may be read by deputy.’
“This is weighty and well said, and I would call your attention
especially to the wise words with which the passage closes. The best
books are not always those which lend themselves to discussions
and comment, but those (like Montaigne’s ‘Essays’) which discuss
and comment ourselves.”[16]
Professor Phelps, in his lectures to divinity students, gives golden
advice to the class of professional men whose life-work compels
them to draw upon their productive intellect more than any other
class of professional men.

Phelps.
“There is an influence exerted by books upon the
mind which resembles that of diet upon the body.
A studious mind becomes, by a law of its being, like the object which
it studies with enthusiasm. If your favorite authors are superficial,
gaudy, short-lived, you become yourself such in your culture and
your influence. If your favorite authors are of the grand, profound,
enduring order, you become yourself such to the extent of your
innate capacity for such growth. Their thoughts become yours not by
transfer, but by transfusion. Their methods of combining thoughts
become yours; so that on different subjects from theirs you will
compose as they would have done if they had handled those
subjects. Their choice of words, their idioms, their constructions,
their illustrative materials become yours; so that their style and
yours will belong to the same class in expression, and yet your style
will never be merely imitative of theirs.
“It is the prerogative of great authors thus to throw back a charm
over subsequent generations which is often more plastic than the
influence of a parent over a child. Do we not feel the fascination of it
from certain favorite characters in history? Are there not already
certain solar minds in the firmament of your scholarly life whose rays
you feel shooting down into the depths of your being, and
quickening there a vitality which you feel in every original product of
your own mind? Such minds are teaching you the true ends of an
intellectual life. They are unsealing the springs of intellectual activity.
They are attracting your intellectual aspirations. They are like voices
calling to you from the sky.
“Respecting this process of assimilation, it deserves to be
remarked that it is essential to any broad range of originality. Never,
if it is genuine, does it create copyists or mannerists. Imitation is the
work of undeveloped mind. Childish mind imitates. Mind
unawakened to the consciousness of its own powers copies.
Stagnant mind falls into mannerism. On the contrary, a mind
enkindled into aspiration by high ideals is never content with
imitated excellence. Any mind thus awakened must, above all things
else, be itself. It must act itself out, think its own thoughts, speak its

Two ways of
reading.
President Porter.
own vernacular, grow to its own completeness. You can no more
become servile under such a discipline than you can unconsciously
copy another man’s gait in your walk or mask your own countenance
with his.”[17]
“Give to yourself a hearty, affectionate acquaintance with a group
of the ablest minds in Christian literature, and if there is anything in
you kindred to such minds, they will bring it up to the surface of
your own consciousness. You will have a cheering sense of
discovery. Quarries of thought original to you will be opened.
Suddenly, it may be in some choice hour of research, veins will
glisten with a lustre richer than that of silver. You will feel a new
strength for your life’s work, because you will be sensible of new
resources.”[18]
There are two ways of reading books,—one a
help to thinking, the other destructive of ability to
think. If the reader allows the ideas of a book to
pass through his mind as a landscape passes before the eye of a
traveller, ever seeking the excitement of something new and never
stopping to reflect upon the contents of the book so as to weigh its
arguments, to notice its beauties, and to appropriate its truths, the
book will leave him less able to think than before. Passive reading is
permissible when the aim is merely recreation, but he who would
read to gain mental strength must read actively, read books that he
can understand only as the result of effort. President Porter gives
this advice:
“The person, particularly the student, who has
never wrestled manfully and perseveringly with a
difficult book will be good for little in this world of wrestling and
strife. But when you are convinced that a book is above your
attainments, capacity, or age, it is of little use for you, and it is wiser
to let it alone. It is both vexing and unprofitable to stand upon one’s
toes and strain one’s self for hours in efforts to reach the fruit which
you are not tall enough to gather. It is better to leave it till it can be

Reading as a
source of
material.
reached more easily. When the grapes are both ripe and within easy
reach for you, it is safe to conclude that they are not sour.”[19]
There are many phases of the library problem
which do not call for consideration in this
connection, but in addition to their value as a
stimulus to thinking, the function of books in
furnishing proper material for thought and suitable instruments of
thought deserves special consideration on the part of those charged
with the duty of teaching others to think. There was a time when
libraries were managed as if it were the mission of the librarian to
keep the books from being used. The modern librarian seeks to
make the accumulated wisdom of the past accessible to all. He
regards the library as a storehouse of knowledge, from which any
one able to read can get what he needs. Cyclopædias and
dictionaries of reference, card catalogues, and helps like Poole’s
“Index to Periodical Literature” make the best thought of the best
minds in these and other days accessible to the student. He who
wishes to gain a hearing on any theme must know what others have
said upon it. Disraeli has well said that those who do not read largely
will not themselves deserve to be read. The prize debates between
different colleges are teaching students how to utilize books in
getting material for public discussions. Theses for graduation
develop the ability to use books in the right way. And yet, valuable
as books are for furnishing fuel to the mind, they may be used to
destroy what little ability to think a pupil has otherwise developed.
To assign topics for composition which require a culling of facts from
books, and to allow the essays to be written outside of school hours,
expose the pupil to unnecessary temptations. In the public schools
there should be set apart each week several periods of suitable
length, during which the pupil, under the eye of the teacher, writes
out his thoughts. In such exercises the attention should not be
riveted upon capitals, spelling, punctuation, grammatical
construction, and rhetorical devices; the mind should be occupied
solely and intensely with the expression of the thought. Mistakes
should be corrected when the pupil reviews and rewrites his

Enriching one’s
vocabulary.
composition. Books can be used to furnish material for thought; the
elaboration can be helped by oral discussions; the interest thereby
aroused will make each member of the class anxious to express his
thoughts; hesitation in composing and distraction from dread of
mistakes can be overcome by making the class write against time.
Books are helpful in enriching one’s vocabulary.
Treatises on rhetoric teach what words should be
avoided. The student finds more difficulty in getting
enough words to express his thoughts. The study of a good series of
readers is more valuable as a means of acquiring a good vocabulary
than all the rules on purity, propriety, and so forth, which are found
in the text-books on rhetoric. A good series of school readers
employs from five to six thousand words. With these the average
teacher is familiar to the extent of knowing their meaning when he
sees them in sentences. He does not have a sufficient command of a
third of them to use them in writing or speaking. The selections of a
Fifth Reader contain more words than are found in the vocabulary of
any living author. The step from knowing a word when used by
another to the ability to use that word in expressing our own
thoughts has not been taken in the case of the larger proportion of
the words with which we are familiar on the printed page. Most
persons use more words in writing than in oral speech, more words
in public speaking than in ordinary conversation. We unconsciously
absorb many words which we hear others use, but we pick up a far
larger number from those we see in print simply because the printed
page contains a larger variety of words than spoken language. In
this respect there is a vast difference between the oral discourse and
the written manuscript of the same person. The style is different;
the sentences in oral discourse are less involved; the diction is less
complicated; the vocabulary is less copious. Hence the advantage of
the boy who has access to standard authors over the youth who has
access to few books, and these not well selected. Without any effort,
the former gains possession of a vocabulary which makes thinking
easier and richer.

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