> [!cite] > Ahern, John. ‘How to Make a Commonplace Book’. *Circe Institute*, 21 July 2023, https://circeinstitute.org/blog/how-to-make-a-commonplace-book/. --- > It’s not a coincidence that almost all ancient, Medieval and early modern students, when they started a new commonplace book, always began by copying Seneca’s quotation down first. Here it is:  > > > We should follow…the examples of the bees, who flit about and cull the flowers that are suitable for producing honey, and then arrange and assort in their cells all that they have brought in…. We also, I say, ought to copy these bees, and sift whatever we have gathered from a varied course of reading, for such things are better preserved if they are kept separate; then…we should so blend these several flavors into one delicious compound that, even though it betrays its origins, yet it nevertheless is clearly a different thing from whence it came. > > There’s no beehive without the cells, and there’s no commonplace book with headings. [[Ahern, ‘How to Make a Commonplace Book’, 2023|(Ahern 2023, n.p.)]] ^947b0f