Thomas William Rhys Davids

“ It saved a teacher or scholar who wanted to find the doctrine on any one subject from the trouble of repeating over, or getting some one else to repeat over for him, the whole of the Dialogues or the Anguttara. To us, now, the Saṃyutta seems full of repetitions; and we are apt to forget that they are there for a very good reason.
During the time when the canon was being completed there was great activity in learning, repeating to oneself, rehearsing in company and discussing these three collections. But there was also considerable activity in a more literary direction. ”

“ All the Logia (usually of the master himself, but also of his principal disciples) on any one point, or in a few cases as addressed to one set of people, are here brought together. That was, of course, a very convenient arrangement then. ”

“ The third, called the Anguttara (Progressive Addition) , rearranges the doctrinal matter contained in the Dialogues in groups of ethical concepts, beginning with the units, then giving the pairs, then the groups of three, four, five, &c., up to ten. In the Dialogues the arrangement in such numbered groups is frequent. In an age when books, in our modern sense, were unknown, it was a practical necessity to invent and use aids to memory. ”