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Memory, How to Develop, Train and Use It - William Atkinson · Non-Fiction Library

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Speaker 1: Memory its importance. It needs very little argument to convince
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Speaker 1: the average thinking person of the great importance of memory,
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Speaker 1: although even then very few begin to realize just how
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Speaker 1: important is the function of the mind that has to
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Speaker 1: do with the retention of mental impressions. The first thought
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Speaker 1: of the average person when he is asked to consider
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Speaker 1: the importance of memory is its use in the affairs
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Speaker 1: of everyday life along developed and cultivated lines, as contrasted
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Speaker 1: with the lesser degrees of its development. In short, one
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Speaker 1: generally thinks of memory in its phase of a good memory,
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Speaker 1: as contrasted with the opposite phase of a poor memory.
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Speaker 1: But there is a much broader and fuller meaning of
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Speaker 1: the term than that of even this important phase. It
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Speaker 1: is true that the success of the individual in his
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Speaker 1: everyday business, profession, trade, or other occupation depends very materially
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Speaker 1: upon the possession of a good memory. His value in
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Speaker 1: any walk in life depends to a great extent upon
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Speaker 1: the degree of memory he may have developed. His memory
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Speaker 1: of faces, names, facts, events, circumstances, and other things concerning
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Speaker 1: his everyday work is the measure of his ability to
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Speaker 1: accomplish his task, and in the social intercourse of men
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Speaker 1: and women, The possession of a retentive memory, well stocked
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Speaker 1: with available facts, renders its possessor a desirable member of society,
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Speaker 1: and in the higher activities of thought, the memory comes
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Speaker 1: as an invaluable aid to the individual in marshaling the
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Speaker 1: bits and sections of knowledge he may have acquired, and
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Speaker 1: passing them in review before his cognitive faculties. Thus does
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Speaker 1: the soul review its mental possession. As Alexander Smith has said,
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Speaker 1: a man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else
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Speaker 1: is he rich. In nothing else is he poor. Richter
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Speaker 1: has said memory is the only paradise from which we
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Speaker 1: cannot be driven away. Grant but memory to us, and
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Speaker 1: we can lose nothing by death. Lactantius says, memory tempers prosperity,
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Speaker 1: mitigates adversity, controls youth, and delights old age. But even
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Speaker 1: the above phases of memory represent but a small segment
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Speaker 1: of its complete circle. Memory is more than a good memory.
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Speaker 1: It is the means whereby we perform the largest share
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Speaker 1: of our mental work. As Bacon has said, all knowledge
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Speaker 1: is but remembrance and Emerson, memory is a primary and
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Speaker 1: fundamental faculty without which none other can work. The cement,
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Speaker 1: the bitumen, the matrix in which the other faculties are embedded.
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Speaker 1: Without it, all life and thought were an unrelated succession.
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Speaker 1: And Burke there is no faculty of the mind which
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Speaker 1: can bring its energy into effect unless the memory be
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Speaker 1: stored with ideas for it to look upon. And Bazile.
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Speaker 1: Memory is the cabinet of imagination, the treasury of reason,
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Speaker 1: the registry of conscience, and the council chamber of thought.
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Speaker 1: Kant pronounced memory to be the most wonderful of the faculties.
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Speaker 1: K one of the best authorities on the subject, has
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Speaker 1: said regarding it, unless the mind possessed the power of
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Speaker 1: treasuring up and recalling its past experiences, no knowledge of
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Speaker 1: any kind could be aired. If every sensation, thought, or
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Speaker 1: emotion passed entirely from the mind the moment it ceased
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Speaker 1: to be present, then it would be as if it
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Speaker 1: had not been, and it could not be recognized or
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Speaker 1: named should it happen to return. Such an one would
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Speaker 1: be not only without knowledge, without experience gathered from the past,
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Speaker 1: but without purpose, aim, or plan regarding the future, for
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Speaker 1: these imply knowledge and require memory. Even voluntary motion or
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Speaker 1: motion for a purpose could have no existence without memory,
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Speaker 1: For memory is involved in every purpose. Not only the
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Speaker 1: learning of the scholar, but the inspiration of the poet,
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Speaker 1: the genius of the painter, the heroism of the warrior,
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Speaker 1: all depend upon memory. Nay, even consciousness itself could have
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Speaker 1: no existence without memory, For every act of consciousness involves
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Speaker 1: a change from a past state to a present, and
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Speaker 1: did the past state vanish the moment it was passed,
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Speaker 1: there could be no consciousness of change. Memory therefore must
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Speaker 1: be said to be involved in all conscious existence, a
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Speaker 1: property of every conscious being. In the building of character
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Speaker 1: and individuality, the memory plays an important part, for upon
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Speaker 1: the strength of the impressions received and the firmness with
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Speaker 1: which they are retained, depends the fiber of character and individuality.
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Speaker 1: Our experiences are indeed the stepping stones to greater attainments,
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Speaker 1: and at the same time our guides and protectors from danger.
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Speaker 1: If the memory serves us well in this respect, we
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Speaker 1: are saved the pain of repeating the mistakes of the past,
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Speaker 1: and may also profit by remm membering and thus avoiding
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Speaker 1: the mistakes of others. As Beattie says, when memory is
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Speaker 1: preternaturally defective, experience and knowledge will be deficient in proportion
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Speaker 1: and imprudent conduct and absurd opinion are the necessary consequence,
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Speaker 1: Bain says, a character retaining a feeble hold of bitter
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Speaker 1: experience or genuine delight, and unable to revive afterwards the
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Speaker 1: impression of the time is, in reality the victim of
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Speaker 1: an intellectual weakness under the guise of a moral weakness.
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Speaker 1: To have constantly before us an estimate of the things
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Speaker 1: that affect us, true to the reality, is one precious
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Speaker 1: condition for having our will always stimulated with an accurate
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Speaker 1: reference to our happiness. The thoroughly educated man in this
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Speaker 1: respect is that he can carry with him at all
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Speaker 1: times the exact estimate of what he has enjoyed or
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Speaker 1: suffered from every object that has ever affected him, and
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Speaker 1: in case of encounter, can present to the enemy as
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Speaker 1: strong affront as if he were under the genuine impression.
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Speaker 1: A full and accurate memory, for pleasure or for pain
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Speaker 1: is the intellectual basis both of prudence as regard self
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Speaker 1: and sympathy as regards others. So we see that the
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Speaker 1: cultivation of the memory is far more than the cultivation
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Speaker 1: and development of a single mental faculty. It is the
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Speaker 1: cultivation and development of our entire mental being. The development
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Speaker 1: of ourselves. To many persons, the words memory, recollection and
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Speaker 1: remembrance have the same meaning, but there is a great
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Speaker 1: difference in the exact shade of meaning of each term.
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Speaker 1: The student of this book should make the distinction between
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Speaker 1: the terms, for by so doing he will be better
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Speaker 1: able to grasp the various points of advice and instruction
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Speaker 1: herein given. Let us examine these terms. Locke, in his
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Speaker 1: celebrated work The Essay concerning Human Understanding, has clearly stated
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Speaker 1: the difference between the meaning of these several terms. He says,
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Speaker 1: memory is the power to revive again in our minds
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Speaker 1: those ideas which, after imprinting, have disappeared or have been
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Speaker 1: laid aside, out of sight. When an idea again recurs
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Speaker 1: without the operation of the like object on the external sensory,
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Speaker 1: it is remembrance. If it be sought after by the mind,
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Speaker 1: and with pain and endeavor, found and brought again into view,
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Speaker 1: it is recollection. Fuller says, commenting on this, memory is
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Speaker 1: the power of reproducing in the mind former impressions or percepts.
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Speaker 1: Remembrance and recollection are the exercise of that power, the
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Speaker 1: former being involuntary or spontaneous. The latter volitional. We remember
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Speaker 1: because we cannot help it, but we recollect only through
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Speaker 1: positive effort. The act of remembering, taken by itself, is involuntary.
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Speaker 1: In other words, when the mind remembers without having tried
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Speaker 1: to remember, it acts spontaneously. Thus it may be said,
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Speaker 1: in the narrow contrasted sense of the two terms, that
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Speaker 1: we remember by chance, but recollect by intention, And if
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Speaker 1: the endeavor be successful, that which is reproduced becomes, by
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Speaker 1: the very effort to bring it forth, more firmly entrenched
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Speaker 1: in the mind than ever. But the new psycho pology
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Speaker 1: makes a little different distinction from that of Locke as
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Speaker 1: given above. It uses the word memory not only in
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Speaker 1: his sense of the power to retrieve, etc. But also
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Speaker 1: in the sense of the activities of the mind, which
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Speaker 1: tend to receive and store away the various impressions of
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Speaker 1: the senses and the ideas conceived by the mind, to
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Speaker 1: the end that they may be reproduced voluntarily or involuntarily. Thereafter,
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Speaker 1: the distinction between remembrance and recollection as made by Locke
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Speaker 1: is adopted as correct by the new psychology. It has
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Speaker 1: long been recognized that the memory, in all of its
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Speaker 1: phases is capable of development culture, training, and guidance through
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Speaker 1: intelligent exercise. Like any other faculty of the mind or
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Speaker 1: physical part muscle or limb, it may be improved and strengthened.
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Speaker 1: But until recent years, the entire efforts of these memory
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Speaker 1: developers were directed to the strengthening of that phase of
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Speaker 1: the memory known as recollection, which you will remember Locke
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Speaker 1: defined as an idea or impression sought after by the mind,
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Speaker 1: and with pain and endeavor, found and brought again into view.
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Speaker 1: The new psychology goes much further than this. While pointing
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Speaker 1: out the most improved and scientific methods for recollecting the
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Speaker 1: impressions and ideas of the memory, it also instructs the
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Speaker 1: student and the use of the proper methods, whereby the
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Speaker 1: memory may be stored with clear and distinct impressions which
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Speaker 1: will thereafter flow naturally and involuntarily into the field of
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Speaker 1: consciousness when the mind is thinking upon the associated subject
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Speaker 1: or line of thought, and which may also be recollected
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Speaker 1: by a voluntary effort with far less expenditure of energy
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Speaker 1: than under the old methods and systems. You will see
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Speaker 1: this idea carried out in detail as we progress with
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Speaker 1: the various stages of the subject in this work you
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Speaker 1: will see that the first thing to do is to
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Speaker 1: find something to remember, then to impress that thing clearly
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Speaker 1: and distinctly upon the receptive tablets of the memory. Then
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Speaker 1: to exercise the remembrance in the direction of bringing out
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Speaker 1: the stored away facts of the memory. Then to acquire
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Speaker 1: the scientific methods of recollecting special items of memory that
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Speaker 1: may be necessary at some special time. This is the
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Speaker 1: natural method in memory cultivation, as opposed to the artificial
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Speaker 1: systems that you will find mentioned in another chapter. It
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Speaker 1: is not only development of the memory, but also development
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Speaker 1: of the mind itself in several of its regions and
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Speaker 1: phases of activity. It is not merely a method of recollecting,
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Speaker 1: but also a method of correct seeing, thinking, and remembering.
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Speaker 1: This method recognizes the truth of the verse of the
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Speaker 1: poet Pope who said, remembrance and reflection, how allied what
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Speaker 1: thin partition sense from thought divide cultivation of the memory.
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Speaker 1: This book is written with the fundamental intention and idea
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Speaker 1: of pointing out a rational and workable method whereby the
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Speaker 1: memory may be developed, trained, and cultivated. Many persons seem
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Speaker 1: to be under the impression that memories are bestowed by
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Speaker 1: nature in a fixed degree or possibilities, and that little
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Speaker 1: more can be done for them. In short, that memories
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Speaker 1: are born not mad. But the fallacy of any such
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Speaker 1: idea is demonstrated by the investigations and experiments of all
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Speaker 1: the leading authorities, as well as by the results obtained
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Speaker 1: by persons who have developed and cultivated their own memories
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Speaker 1: by individual effort without the assistance of an instructor. But
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Speaker 1: all such improvement to be real must be along certain
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Speaker 1: natural lines and in accordance with the well established laws
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Speaker 1: of psychology, instead of along artificial lines and in defiance
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Speaker 1: of psychological principles. Cultivation of the memory is a far
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Speaker 1: different thing from trick memory or feats of mental ledger.
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Speaker 2: Domain.
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Speaker 1: If the term is permissible, Kay says that the memory
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Speaker 1: is capable of indefinite improvement, there can be no manner
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Speaker 1: of doubt. But with regard to the means by which
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Speaker 1: this improvement is to be effected, mankind are still greatly
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Speaker 1: in ignorance. Doctor Noah Porter says the natural as opposed
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Speaker 1: to the artificial memory, depends on the relations of sense
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Speaker 1: and the relations of thought. The spontaneous memory of the
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Speaker 1: eye and the ear availing itself of the obvious conjunctions
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Speaker 1: of objects which are furnished by space and time, and
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Speaker 1: the rational memory of those higher combinations which the rational
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Speaker 1: faculties superinduce upon those lower. The artificial memory proposes to
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Speaker 1: substitute for the natural and necessary relations under which all
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Speaker 1: objects must present and arrange themselves, an entirely new set
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Speaker 1: of relations that are purely arbitrary and mechanical, which excite
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Speaker 1: little or no other interest than that they are to
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Speaker 1: aid us in remembering. It follows that if the mind
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Speaker 1: tests itself to the special effort of considering odds under
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Speaker 1: these artificial relations, it will give less attention to those
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Speaker 1: which have a direct and legitimate interest for itself. Grandville says,
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Speaker 1: the defects of most methods which have been devised and
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Speaker 1: employed for improving the memory lies in the fact that,
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Speaker 1: while they serve to impress particular subjects in the mind,
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Speaker 1: they do not render the memory as a whole, ready
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Speaker 1: or attentive. Fuller says, surely an art of memory may
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Speaker 1: be made more destructive to natural memory than spectacles are
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Speaker 1: to eyes. These opinions of the best authorities might be
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Speaker 1: multiplied indefinitely. The consensus of the best opinion is decidedly
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Speaker 1: against the artificial systems, and in favor of the natural ones.
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Speaker 1: Natural systems of memory culture are based upon the fundamental
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Speaker 1: conception so well expressed by health Vacius several centuries ago,
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Speaker 1: when he said, the extent of the memory depends first
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Speaker 1: on the daily use we make, of it, secondly upon
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Speaker 1: the attention with which we consider the objects we would
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Speaker 1: impress upon it, and thirdly upon the order in which
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Speaker 1: we range our ideas. This, then, is the list of
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Speaker 1: the three essentials in the cultivation of the memory. One
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Speaker 1: use and exercise, review and practice, two attention and interest,
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Speaker 1: and three intelligent association. You will find that in the
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Speaker 1: several chapters of this book dealing with the various phases
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Speaker 1: of memory, we urge, first, last, and all the time
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Speaker 1: the importance of the use and employment of the memory
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Speaker 1: in the way of employment, exercise, practice, and review work.
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Speaker 1: Like any other mental faculty or physical function, the memory
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Speaker 1: will tend to atrophy by disuse and increase, strengthen and
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Speaker 1: develop by rational exercise and employment within the bounds of moderation.
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Speaker 1: You develop a muscle by exercise. You train any special
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Speaker 1: faculty of the mind in the same way, and you
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Speaker 1: must pursue the same method in the case of the memory,
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Speaker 1: if you would develop it. Nature's laws are constant and
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Speaker 1: bear a close analogy to each other. You will also
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Speaker 1: notice the great stress that we lay upon the use
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Speaker 1: of the faculty of attention accompanied by interest. By attention,
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Speaker 1: you acquire the impressions that you file away in your
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Speaker 1: mental record file of memory, and the degree of attention
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Speaker 1: regulates the depth, clearness, and strength of the impression. Without
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Speaker 1: a good record, you cannot expect to obtain a good
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Speaker 1: rep production of it. A poor phonographic record results in
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Speaker 1: a poor reproduction, and the rule applies in the case
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Speaker 1: of the memory as well. You will also notice that
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Speaker 1: we explain the laws of association and the principles which
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Speaker 1: govern the subject, as well as the methods whereby the
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Speaker 1: proper associations may be made. Every association that you weld
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Speaker 1: to an idea or an impression serves as a cross
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Speaker 1: reference in the index, whereby the thing is found by
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Speaker 1: remembrance or recollection when it is needed. We call your
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Speaker 1: attention to the fact that one's entire education depends for
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Speaker 1: its efficiency upon this law of association. It is a
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Speaker 1: most important feature in the rational cultivation of the memory,
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Speaker 1: while at the same time being the bane of the
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Speaker 1: artificial systems. Natural associations educate, while artificial one tend to
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Speaker 1: weaken the powers of the mind if carried to any
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Speaker 1: great length. There is no royal road to memory. The
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Speaker 1: cultivation of the memory depends upon the practice along certain
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Speaker 1: scientific lines according to well established psychological laws. Those who
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Speaker 1: hope for a sure short cut will be disappointed, for
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Speaker 1: none such exists. As Hallick says, the student ought not
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Speaker 1: to be disappointed to find that memory is no exception
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Speaker 1: to the rule of improvement by proper, methodical and long
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Speaker 1: continued exercise. There is no royal road, no shortcut to
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Speaker 1: the improvement of either mind or muscle. But the student
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Speaker 1: who follows the rules which psychology is laid down may
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Speaker 1: know that he is walking in the shortest path and
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Speaker 1: not wandering aimlessly about. Using these rules, he will advance
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Speaker 1: much faster than those without chart, compass, or pilot. He
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Speaker 1: will find menomics of extremely limited use. Improvement comes by
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Speaker 1: orderly steps, Methods that dazzle at first sight never give
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Speaker 1: solid results. The student is urged to pay attention to
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Speaker 1: what we have to say in other chapters of the book.
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Speaker 1: Upon the subjects of attention and association. It is not
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Speaker 1: necessary to state here the particulars that we mention there.
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Speaker 1: The cultivation of the attention is a prerequisite for good memory,
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Speaker 1: and deficiency in this respect means deficiency not only in
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Speaker 1: the field of memory, but also in the general field
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Speaker 1: of mental work. In all branches of the new psychology,
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Speaker 1: there is found a constant repetition of the injunction to
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Speaker 1: cultivate the faculty of attention and concentration has as haziness
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Speaker 1: of perception lies at the root of many a bad memory.
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Speaker 1: If perception is definite, the first step has been taken
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Speaker 1: toward ensuring a good memory. If the first impression is vivid,
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Speaker 1: its effect upon the brain cells is more lasting. All
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Speaker 1: persons ought to practice their visualizing power. This will react
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Speaker 1: upon perception and make it more definite. Visualizing will also
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Speaker 1: form a brain habit of remembering things pictorially, and hence
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Speaker 1: more exactly. The subject of association must also receive its
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Speaker 1: proper share of attention, for it is by means of
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Speaker 1: association that the stored away records of the memory may
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Speaker 1: be recovered or recollected. As Blackie says, nothing helps the
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Speaker 1: mind so much as order and classification. Classes are few
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Speaker 1: individuals men. To know the class well is to know
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Speaker 1: what is most essential in the character of the individual
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Speaker 1: and what burdens the memory least to retain. And, as
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Speaker 1: Hallick says regarding the subject of association by relation, whenever
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Speaker 1: we can discover any relation between facts, it is far
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Speaker 1: easier to remember them. The intelligent law of memory may
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Speaker 1: be summed up in these words. Endeavor to link, by
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Speaker 1: some thought relation, each new mental acquisition to an old one,
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Speaker 1: bind new facts to other facts by relations of similarity,
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Speaker 1: cause and effect, whole and part, or by any logical relation.
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Speaker 1: And we shall find that when an idea occurs to us,
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Speaker 1: a host of related ideas will flow into the mind.
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Speaker 1: If we wish to prepare a speech or write an
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Speaker 1: article on any subject, pertinent illustrations will suggest themselves. The
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Speaker 1: person whose memory is merely contiguous will wonder how we
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Speaker 1: think of them. In your study for the Cultivation of
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Speaker 1: the memory, along the lines laid down in this book,
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Speaker 1: you have read the first chapter thereof and have informed
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Speaker 1: yourself thoroughly regarding the importance of the memory to the
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Speaker 1: individual and what a large part it plays in the
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Speaker 1: entire work of the mind. Now carefully read the third
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Speaker 1: chapter and acquaint yourself with the possibilities in the direction
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Speaker 1: of cultivating the memory to a high degree, as evidenced
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Speaker 1: by the instances related of the extreme cases of development
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Speaker 1: noted therein. Then study the chapter on memory systems and
24:49
Speaker 1: realize that the only true method is the natural method,
24:53
Speaker 1: which requires work, patience, and practice. Then make up your
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Speaker 1: mind that you will follow this plan as far as
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Speaker 1: it will take you. Then acquaint yourself with the secret
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Speaker 1: of memory, the subconscious region of the mind, in which
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Speaker 1: the records of memory are kept stored away and indexed,
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Speaker 1: and in which the little mental office boys are busily
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Speaker 1: at work. This will give you the key to the method.
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Speaker 1: Then take up the two chapters on attention and association respectively,
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Speaker 1: and acquaint yourself with these important principles. Then study the
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Speaker 1: chapter on the phases of memory and take mental stock
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Speaker 1: of yourself, determining in which phase of memory you are
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Speaker 1: strongest and in which you need development. Then read the
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Speaker 1: two chapters on training the eye and ear respectively. You
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Speaker 1: need this instruction, Then read over the several chapters on
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Speaker 1: the training of the special phases of the memory, whether
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Speaker 1: you need them or not. They find something of importance
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Speaker 1: in them. Then read the concluding chapter, which gives you
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Speaker 1: some general advice and parting instruction. Then return to the
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Speaker 1: chapters dealing with the particular phases of memory in which
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Speaker 1: you have decided to develop yourself, studying the details of
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Speaker 1: the instruction carefully until you know every point of it. Then,
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Speaker 1: most important of all, get to work. The rest is
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Speaker 1: a matter of practice, practice, practice, and rehearsal. Go back
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Speaker 1: to the chapters from time to time and refresh your
26:39
Speaker 1: mind regarding the details. Reread each chapter at intervals. Make
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Speaker 1: the book your own in every sense of the word,
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Speaker 1: by absorbing its contents. Celebrated cases of memory. In order
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Speaker 1: that the student may appreciate the marvelous extent of development
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Speaker 1: possible to the memory, we have thought it advisable to
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Speaker 1: mention a number of celebrated cases, past and present. In
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Speaker 1: so doing, we have no desire to hold up these
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Speaker 1: cases as worthy of imitation, for they are exceptional and
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Speaker 1: not necessary in everyday life. We mention them merely to
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Speaker 1: show to what wonderful extent development along these lines is possible.
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Speaker 1: In India, in the past, the sacred books were committed
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Speaker 1: to memory and handed down from teacher to student for ages,
27:36
Speaker 1: and even today it is no uncommon thing for the
27:39
Speaker 1: student to be able to repeat word for word some
27:43
Speaker 1: voluminous religious work equal in extent to the New Testament.
27:48
Speaker 1: Max Muller states that the entire text and glossary of
27:52
Speaker 1: Panini's Sanskrit grammar, equal in extent to the entire Bible,
27:57
Speaker 1: were handed down orally for several centuries before being committed
28:01
Speaker 1: to writing. There are Brahmins today who have committed to
28:06
Speaker 1: memory and who can repeat at will the entire collection
28:10
Speaker 1: of religious poems known as the Mahabarata, consisting of over
28:15
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand slocas or verses. Leland states that the
28:21
Speaker 1: Slavonian minstrels of the present day have by heart, with
28:25
Speaker 1: remarkable accuracy, immensely long epic poems. I have found the
28:31
Speaker 1: same among Algonquin Indians, whose sagas or mythic legends are interminable,
28:37
Speaker 1: and yet are committed word by word accurately. I have
28:42
Speaker 1: heard in England of a lady ninety years of age
28:46
Speaker 1: whose memory was miraculous, and of which extraordinary instances are
28:51
Speaker 1: narrated by her friends. She attributed it to the fact
28:55
Speaker 1: that when young she had been made to learn a
28:58
Speaker 1: verse from the Bible every day, and then constantly review it.
29:04
Speaker 1: As her memory improved, she learned more, the result being
29:08
Speaker 1: that in the end she could repeat from memory any
29:11
Speaker 1: verse or chapter called for in the whole scripture. It
29:15
Speaker 1: is related that mithridates, the ancient warrior king, knew the
29:19
Speaker 1: name of every soldier in his great army and conversed
29:23
Speaker 1: fluently in twenty two dialects. Pliny relates that Carmides could
29:29
Speaker 1: repeat the contents of every book in his large library. Hortensius,
29:35
Speaker 1: the Roman orator, had a remarkable memory, which enabled him
29:39
Speaker 1: to retain and recollect the exact words of his opponent's
29:43
Speaker 1: argument without making a single notation on a wager. He
29:48
Speaker 1: attended a great auction sale which lasted over an entire day,
29:52
Speaker 1: and then called off in their proper order every object sold,
29:57
Speaker 1: the name of its purchaser and the price theref Seneca
30:02
Speaker 1: is said to have acquired the ability to memorize several
30:05
Speaker 1: thousand proper names, and to repeat them in the order
30:09
Speaker 1: in which they had been given him, and also to
30:12
Speaker 1: reverse the order and call off the list backward. He
30:16
Speaker 1: also accomplished the feat of listening to several hundred persons,
30:20
Speaker 1: each of whom gave him a verse, memorizing the same
30:24
Speaker 1: as they proceeded, and then repeating them word for word
30:28
Speaker 1: in the exact order of their delivery, and then reversing
30:32
Speaker 1: the process with complete success. Eusebius stated that only the
30:38
Speaker 1: memory of Esdras saved the Hebrew Scriptures to the world,
30:43
Speaker 1: for when the Kaldians destroyed the manuscripts, Esdras was able
30:47
Speaker 1: to repeat them word by word to the scribes, who
30:51
Speaker 1: then reproduced them. The Mohammedan scholars are able to repeat
30:56
Speaker 1: the entire text of the Koran Letter perfect Scallager committed
31:02
Speaker 1: the entire text of the Iliad and the Odyssey in
31:05
Speaker 1: three weeks. Ben Johnson is said to have been able
31:09
Speaker 1: to repeat all of his own works from memory with
31:12
Speaker 1: the greatest ads. Bulwark could repeat the Odes of Horace
31:17
Speaker 1: from memory. Pascal could repeat the entire Bible from beginning
31:22
Speaker 1: to end, as well as being able to recall any
31:25
Speaker 1: given paragraph, verse, line, or chapter. Lander is said to
31:31
Speaker 1: have read a book but once, when he would dispose
31:34
Speaker 1: of it, having impressed it upon his memory, to be
31:38
Speaker 1: recalled years after if necessary. Byron could recite all of
31:43
Speaker 1: his own poems. Buffin could repeat his works from beginning
31:48
Speaker 1: to end. Bryant possessed the same ability to repeat his
31:53
Speaker 1: own works. Bishop Sanderson could repeat the greater part of
31:58
Speaker 1: Juvenile and Persius, all of Tully, and all of Horace. Fedisova,
32:04
Speaker 1: a Russian peasant could repeat over twenty five thousand poems,
32:09
Speaker 1: folk songs, legends, fairy tales, war stories, etc. When she
32:14
Speaker 1: was over seventy years of age. The celebrated blind alec
32:20
Speaker 1: An aged Scottish beggar could repeat any verse in the
32:24
Speaker 1: Bible called for, as well as the entire text of
32:27
Speaker 1: all the chapters and books. The newspapers a few years
32:32
Speaker 1: ago contained the accounts of a man named Clark, who
32:36
Speaker 1: lived in New York City. He is said to have
32:39
Speaker 1: been able to give the exact presidential vote in each
32:42
Speaker 1: state of the Union since the first election. He could
32:46
Speaker 1: give the population in every town of any size in
32:49
Speaker 1: the world, either present or in the past, providing there
32:53
Speaker 1: was a record of the same. He could quote from
32:56
Speaker 1: Shakespeare for hours at a time, beginning at any given
33:00
Speaker 1: point in any play. He could recite the entire text
33:05
Speaker 1: of the Iliad in the original Greek. The historical case
33:10
Speaker 1: of the unnamed Dutchman is known to all students of memory.
33:15
Speaker 1: This man is said to have been able to take
33:17
Speaker 1: up a fresh newspaper, to read it all through, including
33:21
Speaker 1: the advertisements, and then to repeat its contents word for word,
33:26
Speaker 1: from beginning to end. On one occasion, he is said
33:30
Speaker 1: to have heaped wonder upon wonder by repeating the contents
33:34
Speaker 1: of the paper backward, beginning with the last word and
33:38
Speaker 1: ending with the first lion. The English actor is said
33:43
Speaker 1: to have duplicated this feat using a large London paper
33:48
Speaker 1: and including the market quotations, reports of the debates in Parliament,
33:53
Speaker 1: the railroad timetables, and the advertisements. A London waiter is
33:59
Speaker 1: said to have performed a similar feat on a wager,
34:03
Speaker 1: he memorizing and correctly repeating the contents of an eight
34:07
Speaker 1: page paper. One of the most remarkable instances of extraordinary
34:12
Speaker 1: memory known to history is that of the child Christian Miniken,
34:18
Speaker 1: when less than four years of age, he could repeat
34:21
Speaker 1: the entire Bible, two hundred hymns, five thousand Latin words,
34:27
Speaker 1: and much ecclesiastical history, theory, dogmas, arguments, and an encyclopedic
34:34
Speaker 1: quantity of theological literature. He is said to have practically
34:39
Speaker 1: retained every word that was read to him, his case
34:43
Speaker 1: was abnormal, and he died at an early age. John
34:48
Speaker 1: Stuart Mill is said to have acquired a fair knowledge
34:51
Speaker 1: of Greek at the age of three years, and to
34:54
Speaker 1: have memorized Hume, Gibbon and other historians at the age
34:58
Speaker 1: of eight. Shortly after he mastered and memorized Herodotus, Xenophon,
35:06
Speaker 1: some of Socrates, and six of Plato's dialogues. Richard Porson
35:13
Speaker 1: is said to have memorized the entire text of Homer, Horace, Cicero, Virgil, Livy, Shakespeare, Milton,
35:22
Speaker 1: and Gibbon. He is said to have been able to
35:25
Speaker 1: memorize any ordinary novel at one careful reading, and to
35:29
Speaker 1: have several times performed the feat of memorizing the entire
35:33
Speaker 1: contents of some English monthly review. De Rassi was able
35:39
Speaker 1: to perform the feat of repeating a hundred lines from
35:42
Speaker 1: any of the four great Italian poets, provided he was
35:46
Speaker 1: given a line at random from their works, his hundred
35:50
Speaker 1: lines following immediately after the given line. Of course, this
35:55
Speaker 1: feat required the memorizing of the entire works of those
35:59
Speaker 1: poets and the ability to take up the repetition from
36:02
Speaker 1: any given point, the latter feature being as remarkable as
36:06
Speaker 1: the former. There have been cases of printers being able
36:11
Speaker 1: to repeat word for word books of which they had
36:15
Speaker 1: set the type. Professor Lawson was able to teach his
36:19
Speaker 1: classes of the Scriptures without referring to the book. He
36:24
Speaker 1: claimed that if the entire stock of Bibles were to
36:27
Speaker 1: be destroyed, he could restore the book and tire from
36:30
Speaker 1: his memory. Reverend Thomas Fuller is said to have been
36:35
Speaker 1: able to walk down a long London street, reading the
36:38
Speaker 1: names of the signs on both sides, then recalling them
36:42
Speaker 1: in the order in which they had been seen, and
36:45
Speaker 1: then by reversing the order. There are many cases on
36:49
Speaker 1: record of persons who memorize the words of every known
36:53
Speaker 1: tongue of civilization, as well as a great number of dialects,
36:58
Speaker 1: languages and tongues of set savage races. Bassuet had memorized
37:03
Speaker 1: the entire Bible, and Homer, Horace and Virgil Beside. Neibour,
37:10
Speaker 1: the historian was once employed in a government office, the
37:15
Speaker 1: records of which were destroyed. He thereupon restored the entire
37:20
Speaker 1: contents of the book of Records which he had written,
37:23
Speaker 1: all from his memory. Asa Gray knew the names of
37:27
Speaker 1: ten thousand plants, Milton had a vocabulary of twenty thousand words,
37:34
Speaker 1: and Shakespeare one of twenty five thousand. Cuvier and Agasy
37:39
Speaker 1: are said to have memorized lists of several thousand species
37:44
Speaker 1: and varieties of animals. Mayobichi, the librarian of Florence, is
37:50
Speaker 1: said to have known the location of every volume in
37:53
Speaker 1: the large library of which he was in charge, and
37:57
Speaker 1: the complete list of works along certain lines in all
38:01
Speaker 1: the other great libraries. He once claimed that he was
38:05
Speaker 1: able to repeat titles of over a half million of
38:08
Speaker 1: books in many languages and upon many subjects. In nearly
38:14
Speaker 1: every walk of life are to be found persons with
38:17
Speaker 1: memories wonderfully developed along the lines of their particular occupation.
38:22
Speaker 1: Librarians possess this faculty to an unusual degree. Skilled workers
38:28
Speaker 1: in the finer lines of manufacture also manifest a wonderful
38:32
Speaker 1: memory for the tiny parts of the manufactured article, etc.
38:38
Speaker 1: Bank officers have a wonderful memory for names and faces.
38:42
Speaker 1: Some lawyers are able to recall cases quoted in the
38:46
Speaker 1: authorities years after they have read them. Perhaps the most common,
38:51
Speaker 1: and yet the most remarkable instances of memorizing in one's
38:56
Speaker 1: daily work is to be found in the cases of
38:58
Speaker 1: the theatrical. In some cases, members of stock company must
39:04
Speaker 1: not only be able to repeat the lines of the
39:06
Speaker 1: play they are engaged in acting at the time, but
39:10
Speaker 1: also the one that they are rehearsing for the following week,
39:14
Speaker 1: and possibly the one for the second week. And in
39:18
Speaker 1: repertoire companies, the actors are required to be letter perfect
39:22
Speaker 1: in a dozen or more plays. Surely a wonderful feat,
39:27
Speaker 1: and yet one so common that no notice is given
39:30
Speaker 1: to it. In some of the celebrated cases, the degree
39:35
Speaker 1: of recollection manifested is undoubtedly abnormal, But in the majority
39:40
Speaker 1: of the cases it may be seen that the result
39:43
Speaker 1: has been obtained only by the use of natural methods
39:47
Speaker 1: and persistent exercise. That wonderful memories may be acquired by
39:53
Speaker 1: anyone who will devote to the task. Patience, time, and
39:56
Speaker 1: work is a fact generally acknowledged by all all students
40:00
Speaker 1: of the subject. It is not a gift, but something
40:04
Speaker 1: to be won by effort and work along scientific lines
40:09
Speaker 1: memory systems. The subject of memory development is not a
40:15
Speaker 1: new one by any means. For two thousand years at least,
40:20
Speaker 1: there has been much thought devoted to the subject, many
40:24
Speaker 1: books written thereupon, and many methods or systems invented, the
40:30
Speaker 1: purpose of which has been the artificial training of the memory.
40:34
Speaker 1: Instead of endeavoring to develop the memory by scientific training
40:39
Speaker 1: and rational practice and exercise along natural lines, there seems
40:45
Speaker 1: to have always been an idea that one could improve
40:47
Speaker 1: on nature's methods, and that a plan might be devised.
40:51
Speaker 1: By the use of some trick, the memory might be
40:54
Speaker 1: taught to give up her hidden treasures. The law of
40:58
Speaker 1: association has been used used in the majority of these systems,
41:02
Speaker 1: often to a ridiculous degree. Fanciful systems have been built up,
41:08
Speaker 1: all artificial in their character and nature, the use of
41:12
Speaker 1: which to any great extent is calculated to result in
41:16
Speaker 1: a decrease of the natural powers of remembrance and recollection.
41:20
Speaker 1: Just as in the case of natural aids to the
41:23
Speaker 1: physical system, there is always found a decrease in the
41:27
Speaker 1: natural powers. Nature prefers to do her own work unaided.
41:33
Speaker 1: She may be trained, led, directed, and harnessed, but she
41:38
Speaker 1: insists upon doing the work herself or dropping the task.
41:44
Speaker 1: The principle of association is an important one and forms
41:48
Speaker 1: a part of natural memory training and should be so used.
41:53
Speaker 1: But when pressed into service in many of the artificial systems.
41:57
Speaker 1: The result is the erection of a common, perplex and
42:00
Speaker 1: unnatural mental mechanism, which is no more an improvement upon
42:05
Speaker 1: the natural methods than a wooden leg is an improvement
42:08
Speaker 1: upon the original limb. There are many points in some
42:13
Speaker 1: of these systems which may be employed to advantage in
42:16
Speaker 1: natural memory training by divorcing them from their fantastic rules
42:21
Speaker 1: and complex arrangement. We ask you to run over the
42:26
Speaker 1: list of the principal systems with us that you may
42:29
Speaker 1: discard the useless material by recognizing it as such, and
42:34
Speaker 1: cull the valuable for your own use. The ancient Greeks
42:38
Speaker 1: were fond of memory systems. Simonides, the Greek poet who
42:44
Speaker 1: lived about five hundred BC, was one of the early authorities,
42:48
Speaker 1: and his work has influenced nearly all of the many
42:52
Speaker 1: memory systems that have sprung up since that time. There
42:56
Speaker 1: is a romantic story connected with the foundation of his system.
43:00
Speaker 1: It is related that the poet was present at a
43:03
Speaker 1: large banquet attended by some of the principal men of
43:06
Speaker 1: the place. He was called out by a message from
43:10
Speaker 1: home and left before the close of the meal. Shortly
43:14
Speaker 1: after he left, the ceiling of the banquet hall fell
43:18
Speaker 1: upon the guests, killing all present in the room and
43:21
Speaker 1: mutilating their bodies so terribly that their friends were unable
43:26
Speaker 1: to recognize them. Somemonides, having a well developed memory for
43:31
Speaker 1: places and position, was able to recall the exact order
43:35
Speaker 1: in which each guest had been seated, and therefore was
43:39
Speaker 1: able to aid in the identification of the remains. This
43:43
Speaker 1: occurrence impressed him so forcibly that he devised a system
43:47
Speaker 1: of memory based upon the idea of position, which attained
43:51
Speaker 1: great popularity in Greece, and the leading writers of the
43:55
Speaker 1: day highly recommended it. The system of Somonides was based
44:00
Speaker 1: upon the idea of position. It was known as the
44:04
Speaker 1: topical system. His students were taught to picture in the
44:09
Speaker 1: mind a large building divided into sections and then into rooms, halls,
44:14
Speaker 1: et cetera. The thing to be remembered was visualized as
44:19
Speaker 1: occupying some certain space or place in that building, the
44:23
Speaker 1: grouping being made according to association and resemblance. When one
44:29
Speaker 1: wished to recall the things to consciousness, all that was
44:32
Speaker 1: necessary was to visualize the mental building and then take
44:36
Speaker 1: an imaginary trip from room to room, calling off the
44:40
Speaker 1: various things as they had been placed. The Greeks thought
44:45
Speaker 1: very highly of this plan, and many variations of it
44:48
Speaker 1: were employed. Cicero said, by those who would improve the memory,
44:54
Speaker 1: certain places must be fixed upon and of those things
44:58
Speaker 1: which they desired. To keep memory, symbols must be conceived
45:02
Speaker 1: in the mind and ranged as it were in those places.
45:08
Speaker 1: Thus the order of places would preserve the order of things,
45:12
Speaker 1: and the symbols of the things would denote the things themselves,
45:16
Speaker 1: so that we should use the places as wax and tablets,
45:19
Speaker 1: and the symbols as letters. Quintillion advises students to fix
45:26
Speaker 1: in their minds places of the greatest possible extent, diversified
45:30
Speaker 1: by considerable variety, such as a large house, for example,
45:35
Speaker 1: divided into many apartments. Whatever is remarkable in it is
45:40
Speaker 1: carefully impressed on the mind, so that the thought may
45:44
Speaker 1: run over every part of it without hesitation or delay.
45:48
Speaker 1: Places we must have either fancied or selected, and images
45:53
Speaker 1: or symbols which we may invent at pleasure. These symbols
45:58
Speaker 1: are marks by which we may distinguished the particulars which
46:01
Speaker 1: we have to get by heart. Many modern systems have
46:06
Speaker 1: been erected upon the foundation of semendies, and in some
46:10
Speaker 1: of which cases students have been charged high prices for
46:13
Speaker 1: the secret. The following outline given by K gives the
46:19
Speaker 1: secret of many a high priced system of this class.
46:23
Speaker 1: Select a number of rooms, and divide the walls and
46:27
Speaker 1: floor of each in imagination into nine equal parts or squares,
46:33
Speaker 1: three in a row. On the front wall that opposite
46:37
Speaker 1: the entrance of the first room are the units. On
46:42
Speaker 1: the right hand wall the tens, on the left hand
46:46
Speaker 1: the twenties, on the fourth wall the thirties, and on
46:50
Speaker 1: the floor the forties. Numbers ten, twenty, thirty, and forty
46:57
Speaker 1: each find a place on the roof above their respective way,
47:01
Speaker 1: while fifty occupies the center of the room. One room
47:05
Speaker 1: will thus furnish fifty places and ten rooms as many
47:10
Speaker 1: as five hundred. Having fixed these clearly in the mind,
47:15
Speaker 1: so as to be able readily and at once to
47:17
Speaker 1: tell exactly the position of each place or number, it
47:21
Speaker 1: is then necessary to associate with each of them some
47:25
Speaker 1: familiar object or symbol, so that the object being suggested
47:29
Speaker 1: its place may be instantly remembered, or when the place
47:34
Speaker 1: be before the mind, its object may immediately spring up.
47:39
Speaker 1: When this has been done thoroughly, the objects can be
47:42
Speaker 1: run over in any order from beginning to end, or
47:46
Speaker 1: from end to beginning, or the place of any particular
47:49
Speaker 1: one can at once be given. All that is further
47:54
Speaker 1: necessary is to associate the ideas we wish to remember
47:58
Speaker 1: with the objects in the various place places, by which
48:01
Speaker 1: means they are easily remembered and can be gone over
48:05
Speaker 1: in any order. In this way one may learn to
48:10
Speaker 1: repeat several hundred disconnected words or ideas in any order
48:15
Speaker 1: after hearing them only once. We do not consider it
48:20
Speaker 1: necessary to argue in detail the fact that this system
48:23
Speaker 1: is artificial and cumbersome to a great degree. While the
48:28
Speaker 1: idea of position may be employed to some advantage in
48:32
Speaker 1: grouping together in the memory several associated facts, ideas, or words,
48:38
Speaker 1: still the idea of employing a process such as the
48:42
Speaker 1: above in the ordinary affairs of life is ridiculous, and
48:47
Speaker 1: any system based upon it has a value only as
48:50
Speaker 1: a curiosity or a mental acrobatic feat. Akin to the
48:56
Speaker 1: above is the idea underlying many other systems and secret methods,
49:01
Speaker 1: the idea of contiguity, in which words are strung together
49:05
Speaker 1: by fanciful connecting links. Finegeld describes this underlying idea or
49:12
Speaker 1: principle as follows, the recollection of them is assisted by
49:17
Speaker 1: associating some idea of relation between the two, and as
49:22
Speaker 1: we find by experience that whatever is ludicrous is calculated
49:27
Speaker 1: to make a strong impression on the mind. The more
49:30
Speaker 1: ridiculous the association is, the better. The systems founded upon
49:36
Speaker 1: this idea may be employed to repeat a long string
49:40
Speaker 1: of disconnected words and similar things, but have but little
49:45
Speaker 1: practical value, notwithstanding the high prices charged for them. They
49:50
Speaker 1: serve merely as curiosities or methods of performing tricks to
49:56
Speaker 1: amuse one's friends. Doctor Cathay, a German teacher about the
50:02
Speaker 1: middle of the nineteenth century, founded this last school of
50:06
Speaker 1: memory training, his ideas serving as the foundation for many
50:10
Speaker 1: teachers of high priced systems or secret methods since that time.
50:16
Speaker 1: The above description of finegel gives the key to the
50:20
Speaker 1: principle employed. The working of the principle is accomplished by
50:25
Speaker 1: the employment of intermediates or correlatives as they are called.
50:30
Speaker 1: For instance, the word chimney and leaf would be connected
50:35
Speaker 1: as follows chimney smoke, wood, tree leaf. Then there are
50:43
Speaker 1: systems or methods based on the old principle of the
50:46
Speaker 1: figure alphabet, in which one is taught to remember dates
50:50
Speaker 1: by associating them with letters or words. For instance, one
50:56
Speaker 1: of the teachers of this class of systems wished his
50:59
Speaker 1: pupils to re remember the year fourteen eighty by the
51:02
Speaker 1: word b I, G R A T. The capitals representing
51:10
Speaker 1: the figures in the date comment is unnecessary. The student
51:16
Speaker 1: will find that nearly all the systems or secret methods
51:20
Speaker 1: that are being offered for sale and courses, often at
51:24
Speaker 1: a very high price, are merely variations, improvements upon, or
51:30
Speaker 1: combinations of the three forms of artificial methods named above.
51:36
Speaker 1: New changes are constantly being worked on these old plans,
51:40
Speaker 1: new tunes played on the same old instruments, new chimes
51:45
Speaker 1: sounded from the same old bells, and the result is
51:50
Speaker 1: ever the same in these cases disappointment and disgust. There
51:56
Speaker 1: are a few natural systems on the market, nearly which
52:00
Speaker 1: contain information and instructions that make them worth the price
52:04
Speaker 1: at which they are sold. As for the others, will
52:09
Speaker 1: judge for yourself after purchasing them, if you so desire.
52:14
Speaker 1: Regarding these artificial and fanciful systems, Kay says, all such
52:20
Speaker 1: systems for the improvement of the memory belong to what
52:23
Speaker 1: we have considered the first or lowest form of it.
52:27
Speaker 1: They are for the most part based on light or
52:30
Speaker 1: foolish associations, which have little foundation in nature, and are
52:35
Speaker 1: hents of little practical utility, and they do not tend
52:40
Speaker 1: to improve or strengthen the memory as a whole. Bacon
52:45
Speaker 1: says that these systems are barren and useless, adding for
52:50
Speaker 1: immediately to repeat a multitude of names or words once
52:54
Speaker 1: repeated before, I esteem no more than rope dancing, antiq
52:59
Speaker 1: postures and feats of activity. And indeed they are nearly
53:04
Speaker 1: the same things, the one being the abuse of the bodily,
53:09
Speaker 1: as the other of the mental powers. And though they
53:12
Speaker 1: may cause admiration, they cannot be highly esteemed. And as
53:18
Speaker 1: another authority has said, the systems of mnemonics as taught
53:23
Speaker 1: are no better than crutches, useful to those who cannot walk,
53:28
Speaker 1: but impediments and hindrances to those who have the use
53:31
Speaker 1: of their limbs, and who only require to exercise them
53:35
Speaker 1: properly in order to have the full use of them.
53:39
Speaker 1: In this work, there shall be no attempt to teach
53:42
Speaker 1: any of these trick systems that the student may perform
53:45
Speaker 1: for the amusement of his friends. Instead, there is only
53:50
Speaker 1: the desire to aid in developing the power to receive impressions,
53:55
Speaker 1: to register them upon the memory, and readily to reproduce them,
54:00
Speaker 1: will naturally and easily the lines of natural mental action
54:06
Speaker 1: will be followed throughout. The idea of this work is
54:11
Speaker 1: not to teach how one may perform feats of memory,
54:14
Speaker 1: but instead to instruct in the intelligent and practical use
54:19
Speaker 1: of the memory in the affairs of everyday life and work.
54:24
Speaker 1: The subconscious record file. The old writers on the subject
54:29
Speaker 1: were wont to consider the memory as a separate faculty
54:33
Speaker 1: of the mind, but this idea disappeared before the advancing
54:37
Speaker 1: tide of knowledge, which resulted in the acceptance of the
54:40
Speaker 1: conception now known as the new psychology. This new conception
54:46
Speaker 1: recognizes the existence of a vast out of consciousness region
54:51
Speaker 1: of the mind, one phase of which is known as
54:54
Speaker 1: the subconscious mind or the subconscious field of mental activities.
55:00
Speaker 1: In this field of mentation, the activities of memory have
55:04
Speaker 1: their seat. A careful consideration of the subject brings the
55:09
Speaker 1: certainty that the entire work of the memory is performed
55:13
Speaker 1: in this subconscious region of the mind. Only when the
55:17
Speaker 1: subconscious record is represented to the conscious field and recollection
55:22
Speaker 1: or remembrance results, does the memorized idea or impression emerge
55:27
Speaker 1: from the subconscious region. An understanding of this fact simplifies
55:33
Speaker 1: the entire subject of the memory and enables us to
55:37
Speaker 1: perfect plans and methods, whereby the memory may be developed, improved,
55:42
Speaker 1: and trained by means of the direction of the subconscious activities,
55:47
Speaker 1: by the use of the conscious faculties and the will.
55:51
Speaker 1: Hearing says memory is a faculty not only of our
55:55
Speaker 1: conscious states, but also, and much more so, of our
56:00
Speaker 1: unconscious ones. Kay says it is impossible to understand the
56:06
Speaker 1: true nature of memory or how to train it aright,
56:10
Speaker 1: unless we have a clear conception of the fact that
56:13
Speaker 1: there is much in the mind of which we are unconscious.
56:16
Speaker 1: The highest form of memory, as of all mental powers,
56:21
Speaker 1: is the unconscious, when what we wish to recall comes
56:24
Speaker 1: to us spontaneously, without any conscious thought or search for it. Frequently,
56:31
Speaker 1: when we wish to recall something that has previously been
56:34
Speaker 1: in the mind, we are unable to do so by
56:37
Speaker 1: any conscious effort of the will, But we turn the
56:41
Speaker 1: attention to something else, and after a time the desired
56:46
Speaker 1: information comes up spontaneously. When we are not consciously thinking
56:50
Speaker 1: of it. Carpenter says, there is the working of a
56:55
Speaker 1: mechanism beneath the consciousness, which, when once set going, runs
57:00
Speaker 1: on of itself, and which is more likely to evolve
57:04
Speaker 1: the desired result when the conscious activity of the mind
57:07
Speaker 1: is exerted in a direction altogether different. This subconscious region
57:13
Speaker 1: of the mind is the great record file of everything
57:16
Speaker 1: we have ever experienced, thought, or known. Everything is recorded there.
57:23
Speaker 1: The best authorities now generally agree that there is no
57:27
Speaker 1: such thing as an absolute forgetting of even the most
57:30
Speaker 1: minute impression. Notwithstanding the fact that we may be unable
57:35
Speaker 1: to recollect or remember it owing to its faintness or
57:40
Speaker 1: lack of associated indexing, it is held that everything is
57:45
Speaker 1: to be found in that subconscious index file, if we
57:48
Speaker 1: can only manage to find its place. Kay says, in
57:54
Speaker 1: like manner, we believe that every impression or thought that
57:58
Speaker 1: has once before consciousness remains ever afterward impressed upon the mind.
58:04
Speaker 1: It may never again come up before consciousness, but it
58:08
Speaker 1: will doubtless remain in that vast ultra conscious region of
58:12
Speaker 1: the mind, unconsciously molding and fashioning our subsequent thoughts and actions.
58:19
Speaker 1: It is only a small part of what exists in
58:21
Speaker 1: the mind that we are conscious of. There is always
58:25
Speaker 1: much that is known to be in the mind that
58:28
Speaker 1: exists in it unconsciously and must be stored away somewhere.
58:34
Speaker 1: We may be able to recall it into consciousness when
58:36
Speaker 1: we wish to do so, but at other times the
58:40
Speaker 1: mind is unconscious of its existence. Further, everyone's experience must
58:46
Speaker 1: tell him that there is much in his mind that
58:48
Speaker 1: he cannot always recall when he may wish to do so,
58:52
Speaker 1: much that he can recover only after a labored search,
58:56
Speaker 1: or that he may search for in vain at the time,
58:59
Speaker 1: but would which may occur to him afterwards, when perhaps
59:02
Speaker 1: he is not thinking about it again, Much that we
59:07
Speaker 1: probably would never be able to recall, or that would
59:10
Speaker 1: not recur to us under ordinary circumstances, we may remember
59:15
Speaker 1: to have had in the mind when it is mentioned
59:17
Speaker 1: to us by others. In such a case, there must
59:21
Speaker 1: still have remained some trace or scintilla of it in
59:24
Speaker 1: the mind before we could recognize it as having been
59:28
Speaker 1: there before. Morrell says, we have every reason to believe
59:33
Speaker 1: that mental power, when once called forth, follows the analogy
59:38
Speaker 1: of everything we see in the material universe, in the
59:41
Speaker 1: fact of its perpetuity. Every single effort of mind is
59:46
Speaker 1: a creation which can never go back again into nonentity.
59:50
Speaker 1: It may slumber in the depths of forgetfulness, as light
59:54
Speaker 1: and heat slumber in the coal seems, but there it
59:57
Speaker 1: is ready at the bidding of some appropriate stimulus, to
1:00:01
Speaker 1: come again out of the darkness into the light of consciousness.
1:00:06
Speaker 1: Beatty says, that which has been long forgotten, nay, that
1:00:11
Speaker 1: which we have often in vain endeavored to recollect, will
1:00:14
Speaker 1: sometimes without an effort of ours, occur to us on
1:00:18
Speaker 1: a sudden and if I may so speak of its
1:00:22
Speaker 1: own accord, Hamilton says, the mind frequently contains whole systems
1:00:29
Speaker 1: of knowledge, which, though in our normal state they may
1:00:33
Speaker 1: have faded into absolute oblivion, may in certain abnormal states,
1:00:38
Speaker 1: as madness, delirium, somnabulism, catalepsy, et cetera flash out into
1:00:45
Speaker 1: luminous consciousness. For example, there are cases in which the
1:00:49
Speaker 1: extinct memory of whole languages were suddenly restored. Lecky says,
1:00:56
Speaker 1: it is now fully established that a multitude of events
1:00:59
Speaker 1: which so completely forgotten that no effort of the will
1:01:03
Speaker 1: can retrieve them, and that the statement of them calls
1:01:06
Speaker 1: up no reminiscences may nevertheless be so to speak, embedded
1:01:12
Speaker 1: in the memory, and may be reproduced with intense vividness
1:01:16
Speaker 1: under certain physical conditions. In proof of the above, the
1:01:21
Speaker 1: authorities give many instances recorded in scientific annals. Coleridge relates
1:01:28
Speaker 1: the well known case of the old woman who could
1:01:30
Speaker 1: neither read nor write, who, when in the delirium of fever,
1:01:35
Speaker 1: incessantly recited, in very pompous tones, long passages from the Latin,
1:01:41
Speaker 1: Greek and Hebrew, with a distinct enunciation and precise rendition.
1:01:47
Speaker 1: Notes of her ravings were taken down by shorthand and
1:01:51
Speaker 1: caused much wonderment, until it was afterwards found that in
1:01:55
Speaker 1: her youth she had been employed as a servant in
1:01:58
Speaker 1: the house of a clergyman, who who was in the
1:02:00
Speaker 1: habit of walking up and down in his study, reading
1:02:03
Speaker 1: aloud from his favorite classical and religious writers. In his
1:02:08
Speaker 1: books were found marked passages corresponding to the notes taken
1:02:13
Speaker 1: from the girl's ravings. Her subconscious memory had stored up
1:02:18
Speaker 1: the sounds of these passages heard in her early youth,
1:02:22
Speaker 1: but of which she had no recollection in her normal state. Beaufort,
1:02:27
Speaker 1: describing his sensations just before being rescued from drowning, says,
1:02:33
Speaker 1: every incident of my former life seemed to glance across
1:02:37
Speaker 1: my recollection in a retrograde procession, not in mere outline,
1:02:42
Speaker 1: but in a picture filled with every minute and collateral feature,
1:02:46
Speaker 1: thus forming a panoramic view of my whole existence. Kay
1:02:52
Speaker 1: truly observes. By adopting the opinion that every thought or
1:02:57
Speaker 1: impression that had once been consciously before them mind is
1:03:01
Speaker 1: ever afterwards retained, we obtain light on many obscure mental phenomena,
1:03:07
Speaker 1: and especially do we draw from it the conclusion of
1:03:10
Speaker 1: the perfectibility of the memory to an almost unlimited extent.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: We cannot doubt that could we penetrate to the lowest
1:03:19
Speaker 1: depths of our mental nature, we should there find traces
1:03:23
Speaker 1: of every impression we have received, every thought we have entertained,
1:03:28
Speaker 1: and every act we have done through our past life,
1:03:32
Speaker 1: each one making its influence felt in the way of
1:03:35
Speaker 1: building up our present knowledge or in guiding our everyday actions.
1:03:41
Speaker 1: And if they persist in the mind, might it not
1:03:44
Speaker 1: be possible to recall most, if not all, of them
1:03:47
Speaker 1: into consciousness when we wish to do so. If our
1:03:51
Speaker 1: memories or powers of recollection were what they should be,
1:03:56
Speaker 1: as we have said, this great subconscious region of the mind,
1:04:00
Speaker 1: and this memory region, may be thought of as a
1:04:03
Speaker 1: great record file, with an intricate system of indexes and
1:04:08
Speaker 1: office boys, whose business it is to file away the records,
1:04:12
Speaker 1: to index them, and to find them when needed. The
1:04:18
Speaker 1: records record only what we have impressed upon them by
1:04:21
Speaker 1: the attention, the degree of depth and clearness depending entirely
1:04:26
Speaker 1: upon the degree of attention which we bestowed upon the
1:04:29
Speaker 1: original impression. We can never expect to have the office
1:04:34
Speaker 1: boys of the memory bring up anything that they have
1:04:37
Speaker 1: not been given to file away. The indexing and cross
1:04:42
Speaker 1: references are supplied by the association existing between the various impressions.
1:04:48
Speaker 1: The more cross references or associations that are connected with
1:04:53
Speaker 1: an idea, thought, or impression that is filed away in
1:04:57
Speaker 1: the memory, the greater the chances of it being found
1:05:00
Speaker 1: readily when wanted. These two features of attention and association,
1:05:06
Speaker 1: and the parts they play in the phenomena of memory,
1:05:10
Speaker 1: are mentioned in detail in other chapters of this book.
1:05:14
Speaker 1: These little office boys of the memory are an industrious
1:05:18
Speaker 1: and willing lot of little chaps, but like all boys,
1:05:22
Speaker 1: they do their best work when kept in practice. Idleness
1:05:27
Speaker 1: and lack of exercise cause them to become slothful and careless,
1:05:32
Speaker 1: and forgetful of the records under their charge. A little
1:05:36
Speaker 1: fresh exercise and work soon take the cobwebs out of
1:05:40
Speaker 1: the brains, and they spring eagerly to their tasks. They
1:05:45
Speaker 1: become familiar with their work when exercised properly, and soon
1:05:50
Speaker 1: become very expert. They have a tendency to remember on
1:05:55
Speaker 1: their own part, and when a certain record is called for,
1:05:59
Speaker 1: often they grow accustomed to its place and can find
1:06:02
Speaker 1: it without referring to the indexes at all. But their
1:06:06
Speaker 1: trouble comes from faint and almost illegible records caused by
1:06:11
Speaker 1: poor attention. These they can scarcely decipher when they do
1:06:16
Speaker 1: succeed in finding them. Lack of proper indexing by associations
1:06:22
Speaker 1: causes them much worry and extra work, and sometimes they
1:06:26
Speaker 1: are unable to find the records at all from this neglect. Often, however,
1:06:33
Speaker 1: after they have told you that they cannot find a thing,
1:06:36
Speaker 1: and you have left the place in disgust, they will
1:06:39
Speaker 1: continue their search, and hours afterward will surprise you by
1:06:44
Speaker 1: handing you the desired idea or impression which they had
1:06:48
Speaker 1: found carelessly indexed or improperly filed away in these chapters.
1:06:55
Speaker 1: You will be helped if you will carry in your
1:06:57
Speaker 1: mind these little office boys of them memory, record file,
1:07:01
Speaker 1: and the hard work they have to do for you,
1:07:04
Speaker 1: much of which is made doubly burdensome by your own
1:07:07
Speaker 1: neglect and carelessness. Treat these little fellows right, and they
1:07:12
Speaker 1: will work overtime for you willingly and joyfully. But they
1:07:17
Speaker 1: need your assistance and encouragement and an occasional word of
1:07:22
Speaker 1: praise and commendation. Attention, as we have seen in the
1:07:29
Speaker 1: preceding chapters, Before one can expect to recall or remember
1:07:33
Speaker 1: a thing, that thing must have been impressed upon the
1:07:37
Speaker 1: records of his subconsciousness distinctly and clearly. And the main
1:07:42
Speaker 1: factor of the recording of impressions is that quality of
1:07:46
Speaker 1: the mind that we call attention. All the leading authorities
1:07:51
Speaker 1: on the subject of memory recognize and teach the value
1:07:55
Speaker 1: of attention in the cultivation and development of the memory.
1:08:00
Speaker 1: Up says memory the daughter of attention, is the teeming
1:08:05
Speaker 1: mother of wisdom. Lowell says, attention is the stuff that
1:08:10
Speaker 1: memory is made of, and memory is accumulated genius. Hall says,
1:08:17
Speaker 1: in the power of fixing the attention lies the most
1:08:21
Speaker 1: precious of the intellectual habits. Locke says, when the ideas
1:08:27
Speaker 1: that offer themselves are taken notice of, and as it were,
1:08:32
Speaker 1: registered in the memory, it is attention. Stuart says the
1:08:37
Speaker 1: permanence of the impression which anything leaves in the memory
1:08:41
Speaker 1: is proportionate to the degree of attention which was originally
1:08:45
Speaker 1: given to it. Thompson says, the experience is most permanently
1:08:51
Speaker 1: impressed upon consciousness are those upon which the greatest amount
1:08:55
Speaker 1: of attention has been fixed. Beatty says, the force wherewith
1:09:02
Speaker 1: anything strikes the mind is generally in proportion to the
1:09:06
Speaker 1: degree of attention bestowed upon it. The great art of
1:09:10
Speaker 1: memory is attention. Inattentive people have always bad memories. Kay
1:09:16
Speaker 1: says it is generally held by philosophers that without some
1:09:21
Speaker 1: degree of attention, no impression of any duration could be
1:09:25
Speaker 1: made on the mind or laid up in the memory.
1:09:29
Speaker 1: Hamilton says it is a law of the mind that
1:09:33
Speaker 1: the intensity of the present consciousness determines the vivacity of
1:09:38
Speaker 1: the future memory. Memory and consciousness are thus in the
1:09:42
Speaker 1: direct ratio of each other, vivid consciousness, long memory, faint consciousness,
1:09:49
Speaker 1: short memory, no consciousness no memory. An act of attention,
1:09:56
Speaker 1: that is, an act of concentration, seems thus necessary to
1:10:00
Speaker 1: every exertion of consciousness, as a certain contraction of the
1:10:05
Speaker 1: pupil is requisite to every exertion of vision. Attention, then,
1:10:10
Speaker 1: is to consciousness what the contraction of the pupil is
1:10:14
Speaker 1: to cite, or to the eye of the mind, what
1:10:17
Speaker 1: the microscope or telescope is to the bodily eye. It
1:10:22
Speaker 1: constitutes the better half of all intellectual power. We have
1:10:27
Speaker 1: quoted from the above authorities at considerable length for the
1:10:31
Speaker 1: purpose of impressing upon your mind the importance of this
1:10:34
Speaker 1: subject of attention. The subconscious regions of the mind are
1:10:40
Speaker 1: the great storehouses of the mental records of impressions from
1:10:44
Speaker 1: within and without, its great system of filing, recording, and indexing.
1:10:50
Speaker 1: These records constitute that which we call memory. But before
1:10:55
Speaker 1: any of this work is possible, impressions must first have
1:10:59
Speaker 1: been received. And, as you may see from the quotations
1:11:03
Speaker 1: just given, these impressions depend upon the power of attention
1:11:08
Speaker 1: given to the things making the impressions. If there has
1:11:12
Speaker 1: been given great attention, there will be clear and deep impressions.
1:11:17
Speaker 1: If there has been given but average attention, there will
1:11:21
Speaker 1: be but average impressions. If there has been given but
1:11:25
Speaker 1: faint attention, there will be but faint impressions. If there
1:11:29
Speaker 1: has been given no attention, there will be no records.
1:11:34
Speaker 1: One of the most common causes of poor attention is
1:11:38
Speaker 1: to be found in the lack of interest. We are
1:11:41
Speaker 1: apt to remember the things in which we have been
1:11:43
Speaker 1: most interested, because in that outpouring of interest there has
1:11:48
Speaker 1: been a high degree of attention manifested. A man may
1:11:53
Speaker 1: have a very poor memory for many things, but when
1:11:56
Speaker 1: it comes to the things in which his interest is involved,
1:12:00
Speaker 1: he often remembers the most minute details. What is called
1:12:05
Speaker 1: involuntary attention is that form of attention that follows upon interest, curiosity,
1:12:12
Speaker 1: or desire, no special effort of the will being required
1:12:16
Speaker 1: in it. What is called voluntary attention is that form
1:12:21
Speaker 1: of attention that is bestowed upon objects not necessarily interesting, curious,
1:12:27
Speaker 1: or attractive. This requires the application of the will and
1:12:32
Speaker 1: is a mark of a developed character. Every person has
1:12:37
Speaker 1: more or less involuntary attention, while but few possess developed
1:12:42
Speaker 1: voluntary attention. The former is instinctive, the latter comes only
1:12:48
Speaker 1: by practice and training. But there is this important point
1:12:53
Speaker 1: to be remembered. That interest may be developed by voluntary
1:12:57
Speaker 1: attention bestowed and held upon an object. Things that are
1:13:03
Speaker 1: originally lacking in sufficient interest to attract the involuntary attention
1:13:08
Speaker 1: may develop a secondary interest if the voluntary attention be
1:13:12
Speaker 1: placed upon and held upon them. As Halleck says on
1:13:17
Speaker 1: this point, when it is said that attention will not
1:13:21
Speaker 1: take a firm hold on an uninteresting thing, we must
1:13:25
Speaker 1: not forget that anyone not shallow and fickle can soon
1:13:29
Speaker 1: discover something interesting in most objects. Here cultivated minds show
1:13:35
Speaker 1: their special superiority, for the attention which they are able
1:13:39
Speaker 1: to give generally ends in finding a pearl in the
1:13:43
Speaker 1: most uninteresting looking oyster. When an object necessarily loses interest
1:13:49
Speaker 1: from one point of view, such minds discover in it
1:13:53
Speaker 1: new attributes. The essence of genius is to present an
1:13:58
Speaker 1: old thing in new ways, whether it be some force
1:14:01
Speaker 1: in nature or some aspect of humanity. It is very
1:14:06
Speaker 1: difficult to teach another person how to cultivate the attention.
1:14:11
Speaker 1: This because the whole thing consists so largely in the
1:14:15
Speaker 1: use of the will and by faithful practice and persistent application.
1:14:21
Speaker 1: The first requisite is the determination to use the will.
1:14:27
Speaker 1: You must argue it out with yourself until you become
1:14:30
Speaker 1: convinced that it is necessary and desirable for you to
1:14:34
Speaker 1: acquire the art of voluntary attention. You must convince yourself
1:14:39
Speaker 1: beyond reasonable doubt. This is the first step, and one
1:14:43
Speaker 1: more difficult than it would seem at first sight. The
1:14:48
Speaker 1: principal difficulty in it lies in the fact that to
1:14:51
Speaker 1: do the thing you must do some active, earnest thinking,
1:14:55
Speaker 1: and the majority of people are too lazy to indulge
1:14:59
Speaker 1: in such mental health effort. Having mastered this first step,
1:15:03
Speaker 1: you must induce a strong, burning desire to acquire the
1:15:08
Speaker 1: art of voluntary attention. You must learn to want it hard.
1:15:13
Speaker 1: In this way, you induce a condition of interest and
1:15:17
Speaker 1: attractiveness where it was previously lacking. Third, and last, you
1:15:23
Speaker 1: must hold your will firmly and persistently to the task
1:15:27
Speaker 1: and practice faithfully. Begin by turning your attention upon some
1:15:33
Speaker 1: uninteresting thing and studying its detail until you are able
1:15:38
Speaker 1: to describe them. This will prove very tiresome at first,
1:15:43
Speaker 1: but you must stick to it. Do not practice too
1:15:47
Speaker 1: long at a time at first, take a rest and
1:15:50
Speaker 1: try it again later. You will soon find that it
1:15:54
Speaker 1: comes easier, and that a new interest is beginning. To
1:15:58
Speaker 1: manifest itself in the task. Examine this book as practice.
1:16:03
Speaker 1: Learn how many pages there are in it, how many chapters,
1:16:08
Speaker 1: how many pages in each chapter, the details of type, printing,
1:16:13
Speaker 1: and binding, all the little things about it, so that
1:16:17
Speaker 1: you could give another person a full account of the
1:16:19
Speaker 1: minor details of the book. This may seem uninteresting, and
1:16:25
Speaker 1: so it will be at first, but a little practice
1:16:28
Speaker 1: will create a new interest in the petty details, and
1:16:32
Speaker 1: you will be surprised at the number of little things
1:16:35
Speaker 1: that you will notice. This plan, practiced on many things
1:16:40
Speaker 1: in spare hours, will develop the power of voluntary attention
1:16:45
Speaker 1: and perception in anyone, no matter how deficient he may
1:16:49
Speaker 1: have been in these things. If you can get someone
1:16:53
Speaker 1: else to join in the game task with you, and
1:16:57
Speaker 1: then each endeavor to excel the other in fi finding details,
1:17:01
Speaker 1: the task will be much easier and better work will
1:17:05
Speaker 1: be accomplished. Begin to take notice of things about you,
1:17:09
Speaker 1: the places you visit, the things in the rooms, et cetera.
1:17:14
Speaker 1: In this way you will start the habit of noticing things,
1:17:18
Speaker 1: which is the first requisite for memory development. Halleck gives
1:17:24
Speaker 1: the following excellent advice on this subject. To look at
1:17:28
Speaker 1: a thing intelligently is the most difficult of all arts.
1:17:33
Speaker 1: The first rule for the cultivation of accurate perception is
1:17:38
Speaker 1: do not try to perceive the whole of a complex
1:17:41
Speaker 1: object at once. Take the human face as an example.
1:17:46
Speaker 1: A man holding an important position to which he has
1:17:49
Speaker 1: been elected offended many people because he could not remember
1:17:53
Speaker 1: faces and hence fail to recognize individuals the second time
1:17:58
Speaker 1: he met them. His trouble was in looking at the
1:18:02
Speaker 1: countenance as a whole. When he changed his method of
1:18:06
Speaker 1: observation and noticed carefully the nose, mouth, eyes, chin, and
1:18:12
Speaker 1: color of hair, he at once began to find recognition easier.
1:18:18
Speaker 1: He was no longer in difficulty of mistaking A for B,
1:18:23
Speaker 1: since he remembered that the shape of B's nose was
1:18:26
Speaker 1: different or the color of his hair at least three
1:18:30
Speaker 1: shades lighter. This example shows that another rule can be formulated.
1:18:36
Speaker 1: Pay careful attention to details. We are perhaps asked to
1:18:41
Speaker 1: give a minute description of the exterior of a somewhat
1:18:45
Speaker 1: noted suburban house that we have lately seen. We reply
1:18:50
Speaker 1: in general terms, giving the size and color of the house.
1:18:55
Speaker 1: Perhaps we also have an idea of part of the
1:18:58
Speaker 1: material used in the exterior construction. We are asked to
1:19:03
Speaker 1: be exact about the shape of the door, porch, roof, chimneys,
1:19:08
Speaker 1: and windows, whether the windows are plane or circular, whether
1:19:13
Speaker 1: they have cornices, or whether the trimmings around them are
1:19:17
Speaker 1: of the same material as the rest of the house.
1:19:21
Speaker 1: A friend who will be unable to see the house
1:19:25
Speaker 1: wishes to know definitely about the angles of the roof
1:19:28
Speaker 1: and the way the windows are arranged with reference to them.
1:19:33
Speaker 1: Unless we can answer these questions exactly, we merely tantalize
1:19:38
Speaker 1: our friends by telling them we have seen the house.
1:19:42
Speaker 1: To see an object merely as an undiscriminated mass of
1:19:46
Speaker 1: something in a certain place is to do no more
1:19:49
Speaker 1: than a donkey accomplishes as he trots along. There are
1:19:54
Speaker 1: three general rules that may be given in this matter
1:19:57
Speaker 1: of bestowing the voluntary attention in the direction of actually
1:20:01
Speaker 1: seeing things instead of merely looking at them. The first
1:20:06
Speaker 1: is make yourself take an interest in the thing. The second,
1:20:12
Speaker 1: see it as if you were taking note of it
1:20:15
Speaker 1: in order to repeat its details to a friend. This
1:20:19
Speaker 1: will force you to take notice. The third, give to
1:20:24
Speaker 1: your subconscious a mental command to take note of what
1:20:27
Speaker 1: you are looking at. Say to it here you take
1:20:31
Speaker 1: note of this and remember it for me. This last
1:20:36
Speaker 1: consists of a peculiar knack that can be attained by
1:20:40
Speaker 1: a little practice. It will come to you suddenly after
1:20:43
Speaker 1: a few trials. Regarding this third rule, whereby the subconscious
1:20:49
Speaker 1: is made to work for you, Charles Leland has the
1:20:53
Speaker 1: following to say, although he uses it to illustrate another point.
1:20:59
Speaker 1: As I underst stand it, it is a kind of
1:21:02
Speaker 1: impulse or projection of will into the coming work. I
1:21:07
Speaker 1: may here illustrate this with a curious fact in physics,
1:21:12
Speaker 1: if the reader wished to ring a doorbell so as
1:21:15
Speaker 1: to produce as much sound as possible, he would probably
1:21:19
Speaker 1: pull it as far back as he could and then
1:21:22
Speaker 1: let it go. But if he would, in letting it go,
1:21:27
Speaker 1: simply give it a tap with his forefinger, he would
1:21:30
Speaker 1: actually redouble the sound. Or to shoot an arrow as
1:21:35
Speaker 1: far as possible, it is not enough to merely draw
1:21:39
Speaker 1: the bow to its utmost span or tension. If just
1:21:43
Speaker 1: as it goes, you will give the bow a quick push,
1:21:47
Speaker 1: Though the effort be trifling, the arrow will fly almost
1:21:51
Speaker 1: as far again as it would have done without it.
1:21:55
Speaker 1: Or if, as is well known, in wielding a very
1:21:58
Speaker 1: sharp saber, we may make the draw cut. That is,
1:22:02
Speaker 1: if to blow or chop as with an axe, we
1:22:06
Speaker 1: also add a certain slight pull. Simultaneously, we can cut
1:22:11
Speaker 1: through a silk, handkerchief or a sheep. Forethought command to
1:22:17
Speaker 1: the subconsciousness is the tap on the bell, the push
1:22:21
Speaker 1: on the bow, the draw on the saber. It is
1:22:25
Speaker 1: the deliberate but yet rapid action of the mind when,
1:22:29
Speaker 1: before dismissing thought, we bid the mind to consequently respond.
1:22:35
Speaker 1: It is more than merely thinking what we are to do.
1:22:39
Speaker 1: It is the bidding or ordering the self to fulfill
1:22:42
Speaker 1: a task before willing it. Remember first, last, and always
1:22:49
Speaker 1: that before you can remember or recollect, you must first perceive.
1:22:55
Speaker 1: And that perception is possible only through attention and responds
1:23:00
Speaker 1: in degree to the latter. Therefore, it has truly been
1:23:04
Speaker 1: said that the great art of memory is attention association.
1:23:13
Speaker 1: In the preceding chapters, we have seen that in order
1:23:16
Speaker 1: that a thing may be remembered, it must be impressed
1:23:20
Speaker 1: clearly upon the mind in the first place, and that
1:23:23
Speaker 1: in order to obtain a clear impression, there must be
1:23:26
Speaker 1: a manifestation of attention. So much for the recording of
1:23:31
Speaker 1: the impressions. But when we come to recalling, recollecting, or
1:23:36
Speaker 1: remembering the impressions, we are brought face to face with
1:23:40
Speaker 1: another important law of memory, the law of association. Association
1:23:47
Speaker 1: plays a part analogous to the indexing and cross indexing
1:23:51
Speaker 1: of a book, a library, or another system, in which
1:23:54
Speaker 1: the aim is to readily find something that has been
1:23:57
Speaker 1: filed away or contained in some way in a collection
1:24:01
Speaker 1: of similar things. As Kay says, in order that what
1:24:06
Speaker 1: is in the memory may be recalled or brought again
1:24:10
Speaker 1: before consciousness, it is necessary that it be regarded in
1:24:14
Speaker 1: connection or in association with one or more other things
1:24:19
Speaker 1: or ideas. And as a rule, the greater the number
1:24:22
Speaker 1: of other things with which it is associated, the greater
1:24:26
Speaker 1: the likelihood of its recall. The two processes are involved
1:24:31
Speaker 1: in every act of memory. We must first impress, and
1:24:36
Speaker 1: then we must associate. Without a clear impression being formed,
1:24:42
Speaker 1: that which is recalled will be indistinct and inaccurate, And
1:24:47
Speaker 1: unless it is associated with something else in the mind,
1:24:51
Speaker 1: it cannot be recalled. If we may suppose an idea
1:24:55
Speaker 1: existing in the mind by itself unconnected with any other idea,
1:25:00
Speaker 1: its recall would be impossible. All the best authorities recognize
1:25:06
Speaker 1: and teach the importance of this law of association in
1:25:09
Speaker 1: connection with the memory Abercrombie says, next to the effect
1:25:15
Speaker 1: of attention is the remarkable influence produced upon memory by association.
1:25:21
Speaker 1: Carpenter says, the recording power of memory mainly depends upon
1:25:27
Speaker 1: the degree of attention we give to the idea to
1:25:29
Speaker 1: be remembered. The reproducing power, again, altogether depends upon the
1:25:35
Speaker 1: nature of the associations by which the new idea has
1:25:39
Speaker 1: been linked onto other ideas which have been previously recorded.
1:25:45
Speaker 1: Ribo says, the most fundamental law which regulates psychological phenomena
1:25:52
Speaker 1: is the law of association. In its comprehensive character, it
1:25:57
Speaker 1: is comparable to the law of attract in the physical world.
1:26:03
Speaker 1: Mill says, that which the law of gravitation is to astronomy,
1:26:09
Speaker 1: that which the elementary properties of the tissues are to physiology,
1:26:14
Speaker 1: the law of association of ideas is to psychology. Stuart says,
1:26:21
Speaker 1: the connection between memory and the association of ideas is
1:26:25
Speaker 1: so striking that it has been supposed by some that
1:26:29
Speaker 1: the whole of the phenomena might be resolved into this principle.
1:26:34
Speaker 1: The association of ideas connects our various thoughts with each other,
1:26:38
Speaker 1: so as to present them to the mind in a
1:26:41
Speaker 1: certain order. But it presupposes the existence of those thoughts
1:26:46
Speaker 1: in the mind. In other words, it presupposes a faculty
1:26:50
Speaker 1: of retaining the knowledge which we acquire. On the other hand,
1:26:55
Speaker 1: it is evident that without the associating principle, the power
1:26:59
Speaker 1: of retaining our thoughts and of recognizing them when they
1:27:03
Speaker 1: occur to us would have been of little use, for
1:27:07
Speaker 1: the most important articles of our knowledge might have remained
1:27:10
Speaker 1: latent in the mind even when those occasions presented themselves
1:27:14
Speaker 1: to which they were immediately applicable. Association of ideas depends
1:27:21
Speaker 1: upon two principles, known respectively as one the law of contiguity,
1:27:28
Speaker 1: and two the law of similarity. Association by contiguity is
1:27:34
Speaker 1: that form of association by which an idea is linked, connected,
1:27:39
Speaker 1: or associated with the sensation, thought, or idea immediately preceding
1:27:45
Speaker 1: it and that which directly follows it. Each idea or
1:27:50
Speaker 1: thought is a link in a great chain of thought,
1:27:53
Speaker 1: being connected with the preceding link and the succeeding link.
1:27:58
Speaker 1: Association by similarity is that form of association by which
1:28:03
Speaker 1: an idea, thought, or sensation is linked, connected, or associated
1:28:08
Speaker 1: with ideas, thoughts, or sensations of a similar kind which
1:28:14
Speaker 1: have occurred previously or subsequently. The first form of association
1:28:19
Speaker 1: is the relation of sequence, the second the relation of kind.
1:28:25
Speaker 1: Association by contiguity is the great law of thought as
1:28:30
Speaker 1: well as of memory. As k says, the great law
1:28:35
Speaker 1: of mental association is that of contiguity, by means of
1:28:39
Speaker 1: which sensations and ideas that have been in the mind
1:28:43
Speaker 1: together or in close succession tend to unite together or
1:28:48
Speaker 1: cohere in such a way that the one can afterward
1:28:52
Speaker 1: recall the other. The connection that naturally subsists between a
1:28:57
Speaker 1: sensation or idea in the mind and that which immediately
1:29:01
Speaker 1: preceded or followed it is of the strongest and most
1:29:05
Speaker 1: intimate nature. The two, strictly speaking, are but one, forming
1:29:11
Speaker 1: one complete thought. As Taine says, to speak correctly, there
1:29:18
Speaker 1: is no isolated or separate sensation. A sensation is a
1:29:23
Speaker 1: state which begins as a continuation of preceding ones, and
1:29:28
Speaker 1: ends by losing itself in those following it. It is
1:29:32
Speaker 1: by an arbitrary severing, and for the convenience of language,
1:29:36
Speaker 1: that we set it apart. As we do. Its beginning
1:29:40
Speaker 1: is the end of another, and its ending the beginning
1:29:43
Speaker 1: of another. As Ribo says, when we read or hear
1:29:49
Speaker 1: a sentence, for example, at the commencement of the fifth word,
1:29:53
Speaker 1: something of the fourth word still remains. Association by contiguity
1:29:59
Speaker 1: may be so separated into two subclasses, contiguity in time
1:30:05
Speaker 1: and contiguity in space. In contiguity in time, there is
1:30:10
Speaker 1: manifested the tendency of the memory to recall the impressions
1:30:15
Speaker 1: in the same order in which they were received, the
1:30:19
Speaker 1: first impression suggesting the second, and that the third, and
1:30:23
Speaker 1: so on. In this way, the child learns to repeat
1:30:28
Speaker 1: the alphabet and the adult the succeeding lines of a poem.
1:30:33
Speaker 1: As Priestley says, in a poem, the end of each
1:30:37
Speaker 1: preceding word being connected with the beginning of the succeeding one,
1:30:41
Speaker 1: we can easily repeat them in that order, but we
1:30:45
Speaker 1: are not able to repeat them backwards till they have
1:30:48
Speaker 1: been frequently named in that order. Memory of words or
1:30:54
Speaker 1: groups of words depends upon this form of contiguous association.
1:31:00
Speaker 1: Some persons are able to repeat long poems from beginning
1:31:04
Speaker 1: to end with perfect ease, but are unable to repeat
1:31:08
Speaker 1: any particular sentence or verse without working down to it
1:31:12
Speaker 1: from the beginning. Contiguity in space is manifested in forms
1:31:18
Speaker 1: of recollection or remembrance by position. Thus, by remembering the
1:31:24
Speaker 1: things connected with the position of a particular thing, we
1:31:28
Speaker 1: are enabled to recall the thing itself, As we have
1:31:32
Speaker 1: seen in a preceding chapter. Some forms of memory systems
1:31:37
Speaker 1: have been based on this law. If you will recall
1:31:41
Speaker 1: some house or room in which you have been, you
1:31:44
Speaker 1: will find that you will remember one object after another
1:31:48
Speaker 1: in the order of the relative positions or contiguity in
1:31:52
Speaker 1: space or position. Beginning with the front hall. You may
1:31:58
Speaker 1: travel in memory from from one room to another, recalling
1:32:02
Speaker 1: each with the objects it contains, according to the degree
1:32:06
Speaker 1: of attention you bestowed upon them. Originally, Ka says of
1:32:11
Speaker 1: association by contiguity. It is on this principle of contiguity
1:32:17
Speaker 1: that mnemonical systems are constructed, as when what we wish
1:32:21
Speaker 1: to remember is associated in the mind with a certain
1:32:24
Speaker 1: object or locality, the ideas associated will at once come up,
1:32:31
Speaker 1: or when each word or idea is associated with the
1:32:35
Speaker 1: one immediately preceding it, so that when the one is recalled,
1:32:40
Speaker 1: the other comes up along with it. And thus long
1:32:43
Speaker 1: lists of names or long passages of books can be
1:32:47
Speaker 1: readily learnt by heart. From the foregoing, it will be
1:32:53
Speaker 1: seen that it is of great importance that we correlate
1:32:56
Speaker 1: our impressions with those preceding and following. The more closely
1:33:01
Speaker 1: knitted together our impressions are, the more closely will they cohere,
1:33:07
Speaker 1: and the greater will be the facility of remembering or
1:33:10
Speaker 1: recollecting them. We should endeavor to form our impressions of
1:33:14
Speaker 1: things so that they will be associated with other impressions
1:33:18
Speaker 1: in time and space. Every other thing that is associated
1:33:23
Speaker 1: in the mind with a given thing serves as a
1:33:26
Speaker 1: loose end of memory, which, if once grasped and followed up,
1:33:32
Speaker 1: will lead us to the thing we desire to recall
1:33:34
Speaker 1: to mind. Association by similarity is the linking together of
1:33:41
Speaker 1: impressions of a similar kind, irrespective of time and place.
1:33:47
Speaker 1: Carpenter expresses it as follows. The law of similarity expresses
1:33:52
Speaker 1: the general fact that any present state of consciousness tends
1:33:57
Speaker 1: to revive previous states which are soimilar to it. Rational
1:34:02
Speaker 1: or philosophical association is when a fact or statement on
1:34:06
Speaker 1: which the attention is fixed is associated with some fact
1:34:11
Speaker 1: previously known to which it has a relation, or with
1:34:16
Speaker 1: some object which it is calculated to illustrate, and as
1:34:21
Speaker 1: Kay says, the similars may be widely apart in space
1:34:26
Speaker 1: or in time, but they are brought together and associated
1:34:30
Speaker 1: through their resemblance to each other. Thus, a circumstance of
1:34:35
Speaker 1: today may recall circumstances of a similar nature that occurred,
1:34:40
Speaker 1: perhaps at very different times, and they will become associated
1:34:45
Speaker 1: together in the mind, so that afterwards, the presence of
1:34:48
Speaker 1: one will tend to recall the others Abercrombie says of
1:34:54
Speaker 1: this phase of association, the habit of correct association, that is,
1:35:00
Speaker 1: connecting facts in the mind according to their true relations
1:35:05
Speaker 1: and to the manner in which they tend to illustrate
1:35:08
Speaker 1: each other, is one of the principal means of improving
1:35:11
Speaker 1: the memory, particularly that kind of memory which is an
1:35:15
Speaker 1: essential quality of a cultivated mind, namely, that which is
1:35:20
Speaker 1: founded not upon incidental connections, but on true and important relations.
1:35:27
Speaker 1: As Beattie says, the more relations or likenesses that we
1:35:32
Speaker 1: find or can establish between objects, the more easily will
1:35:37
Speaker 1: the view of one lead us to recollect the rest. And,
1:35:42
Speaker 1: as k says, in order to fix a thing in
1:35:46
Speaker 1: the memory, we must associate it with something in the mind. Already,
1:35:51
Speaker 1: and the more closely that which we wish to remember
1:35:55
Speaker 1: resembles that with which it is associated, the better it
1:35:59
Speaker 1: is fixed in the mesas, and the more readily it
1:36:02
Speaker 1: is recalled. If the two strongly resemble each other, or
1:36:07
Speaker 1: are not to be distinguished from each other, then the
1:36:11
Speaker 1: association is of the strongest kind. The memory is able
1:36:16
Speaker 1: to retain and replace a vastly greater number of ideas
1:36:21
Speaker 1: if they are associated or arranged in some principle of similarity.
1:36:26
Speaker 1: Then if they are presented merely as isolated facts. It
1:36:31
Speaker 1: is not by the multitude of ideas, but the want
1:36:35
Speaker 1: of arrangement among them, that the memory is burdened and
1:36:38
Speaker 1: its powers weakened. As Arnot says, the ignorant man may
1:36:45
Speaker 1: be said to have charged his hundred hooks of knowledge
1:36:48
Speaker 1: to use a rude simile with single objects, while the
1:36:53
Speaker 1: informed man makes each hook support a long chain to
1:36:57
Speaker 1: which thousands of kindred and useful things are attached. We
1:37:03
Speaker 1: ask each student of this book to acquaint himself with
1:37:06
Speaker 1: the general idea of the working features of the law
1:37:10
Speaker 1: of association, as given in this chapter, for the reason
1:37:14
Speaker 1: that much of the instruction to be given under the
1:37:17
Speaker 1: head of the several phases and classes of memory is
1:37:21
Speaker 1: based upon an application of the law of association in
1:37:26
Speaker 1: connection with the law of attention. These fundamental principles should
1:37:31
Speaker 1: be clearly grasped before one proceeds to the details of
1:37:35
Speaker 1: practice and exercise. One should know not only how to
1:37:41
Speaker 1: use the mind and memory in certain ways, but also
1:37:45
Speaker 1: why it is to be used in that particular way.
1:37:49
Speaker 1: By understanding the reason of it, one is better able
1:37:53
Speaker 1: to follow out the directions phases of memory. The first
1:38:00
Speaker 1: things apt to be noticed by the student of memory
1:38:03
Speaker 1: is the fact that there are several different phases of
1:38:06
Speaker 1: the manifestation of memory. That is to say, that there
1:38:10
Speaker 1: are several general classes into which the phenomena of memory
1:38:14
Speaker 1: may be grouped. And accordingly we find some persons quite
1:38:19
Speaker 1: highly developed in certain phases of memory, and quite deficient
1:38:23
Speaker 1: in others. If there were but one phase or class
1:38:27
Speaker 1: of memory, then a person who had developed his memory
1:38:31
Speaker 1: along any particular line would have at the same time
1:38:35
Speaker 1: developed it equally along all the other lines. But this
1:38:39
Speaker 1: is far from being the true state of affairs. We
1:38:43
Speaker 1: find men who are quite proficient in recalling the impression
1:38:47
Speaker 1: of faces, while they find it very difficult to recall
1:38:50
Speaker 1: the names of the persons whose faces they remember. Others
1:38:55
Speaker 1: can remember faces and not names. Others have an excellent
1:38:59
Speaker 1: recolle co election of localities, while others are constantly losing themselves.
1:39:05
Speaker 1: Others remember dates, prices, numbers, and figures generally, while deficient
1:39:12
Speaker 1: in other forms of recollection. Others remember tales, incidents, anecdotes,
1:39:18
Speaker 1: et cetera, while forgetting other things and so on, each
1:39:22
Speaker 1: person being apt to possess a memory good in some
1:39:26
Speaker 1: phases while deficient in others. The phases of memory may
1:39:31
Speaker 1: be divided into two general classes, namely, one memory of
1:39:36
Speaker 1: sense impressions and two memory of ideas. This classification is
1:39:43
Speaker 1: somewhat arbitrary for the reason that sense impressions develop into
1:39:48
Speaker 1: ideas and ideas are composed to a considerable extent of
1:39:52
Speaker 1: sense impressions, But in a general way, the classification serves
1:39:57
Speaker 1: its purpose, which is the grouping together of certain phases
1:40:01
Speaker 1: of the phenomena of memory. Memory of sense impressions, of course,
1:40:06
Speaker 1: includes the impressions received from all of the five senses sight, hearing, taste, touch,
1:40:14
Speaker 1: and smell. But when we come down to a practical
1:40:18
Speaker 1: examination of sense impressions retained in the memory, we find
1:40:22
Speaker 1: that the majority of such impressions are those obtained through
1:40:25
Speaker 1: the two respective senses of sight and hearing. The impressions
1:40:31
Speaker 1: received from the sense of taste, touch, and smell, respectively,
1:40:35
Speaker 1: are comparatively small, except in the cases of certain experts
1:40:40
Speaker 1: and special lines, whose occupation consists in acquiring a very
1:40:45
Speaker 1: delicate sense of taste, smell or touch, and correspondingly a
1:40:50
Speaker 1: fine sense of memory. Along these particular lines, for instance,
1:40:56
Speaker 1: the wine taster and tea tasters, who are able to
1:40:59
Speaker 1: distinct which between the various grades of merchandise handled by them,
1:41:03
Speaker 1: have developed not only very fine senses of taste and smell,
1:41:08
Speaker 1: but also a remarkable memory of the impressions previously received,
1:41:13
Speaker 1: the power of discrimination depending as much upon the memory
1:41:17
Speaker 1: as upon the special sense. In the same way, the
1:41:21
Speaker 1: skilled surgeon, as well as the skilled mechanic, acquires a
1:41:25
Speaker 1: fine sense of touch and a correspondingly highly developed memory
1:41:30
Speaker 1: of touch impressions. But as we have said, the greater
1:41:35
Speaker 1: part of the sense impressions stored away in our memories
1:41:38
Speaker 1: are those previously received through the sense of sight and hearing, respectively.
1:41:44
Speaker 1: The majority of sense impressions stored away in the memory
1:41:49
Speaker 1: have been received more or less involuntarily, that is, with
1:41:53
Speaker 1: the application of but a slight degree of attention. They
1:41:57
Speaker 1: are more or less indistinct and hazy, and are recalled
1:42:02
Speaker 1: with difficulty. The remembrance of them generally coming about without
1:42:06
Speaker 1: conscious effort according to the law of association. That is,
1:42:12
Speaker 1: they come principally when we are thinking about something else
1:42:15
Speaker 1: upon which we have given thought and attention, and with
1:42:18
Speaker 1: which they have been associated. There is quite a difference
1:42:22
Speaker 1: between the remembrance of sense impressions received in this way
1:42:26
Speaker 1: and those which we record by the bestowal of attention, interest,
1:42:31
Speaker 1: and concentration. The sense impressions of sight are by far
1:42:36
Speaker 1: the most numerous in our subconscious storehouse. We are constantly
1:42:41
Speaker 1: exercising our sense of sight and receiving thousands of different
1:42:46
Speaker 1: site impressions every hour. But the majority of these impressions
1:42:50
Speaker 1: are but faintly recorded upon the memory, because we give
1:42:54
Speaker 1: to them but little attention or interest. But it is
1:42:58
Speaker 1: astonishing at times times when we find that when we
1:43:02
Speaker 1: recall some important event or incident, we also recall many
1:43:07
Speaker 1: faint sight impressions of which we did not dream we
1:43:10
Speaker 1: had any record. To realize the important part played by
1:43:14
Speaker 1: sight impressions in the phenomena of memory. Recall some particular
1:43:19
Speaker 1: time or event in your life, and see how many
1:43:22
Speaker 1: more things that you saw are remembered compared with a
1:43:26
Speaker 1: number of things that you heard or tasted, or felt
1:43:30
Speaker 1: or smelled. Second in number, however, are the impressions received
1:43:36
Speaker 1: through the sense of hearing, and consequently the memory stores
1:43:41
Speaker 1: away a great number of sound impressions. In some cases,
1:43:46
Speaker 1: the impressions of sight and sound are joined together, as
1:43:50
Speaker 1: for instance, in the case of words, in which not
1:43:53
Speaker 1: only the sound, but the shape of the letters composing
1:43:56
Speaker 1: the word, or rather the word shape itself, are stored
1:44:00
Speaker 1: away together, and consequently are far more readily remembered or
1:44:05
Speaker 1: recollected than things of which but one sense impression is recorded.
1:44:10
Speaker 1: Teachers of memory use this fact as a means of
1:44:13
Speaker 1: helping their students to memorize words by speaking them aloud
1:44:18
Speaker 1: and then writing them down. Many persons memorize names in
1:44:23
Speaker 1: this way, the impression of the written word being added
1:44:26
Speaker 1: to the impression of the sound, thus doubling the record.
1:44:32
Speaker 1: The more impressions that you can make regarding a thing,
1:44:35
Speaker 1: the greater are the chances of your easily recollecting it. Likewise,
1:44:40
Speaker 1: it is very important to attach an impression of a
1:44:43
Speaker 1: weaker sense to that of a stronger one, in order
1:44:46
Speaker 1: that the former may be memorized. For instance, if you
1:44:51
Speaker 1: have a good eye memory and a poor ear memory,
1:44:55
Speaker 1: it is well to attach your sound impressions to the
1:44:58
Speaker 1: sight impressions. And if you have a poor eye memory
1:45:02
Speaker 1: and a good ear memory, it is important to attach
1:45:05
Speaker 1: your sight impressions to your sound impressions. In this way
1:45:11
Speaker 1: you take advantage of the law of association of which
1:45:14
Speaker 1: we have told you. Under the subclass of sight impressions
1:45:19
Speaker 1: are found the smaller divisions of memory, known as memory
1:45:23
Speaker 1: of locality, memory of figures, memory of form, memory of color,
1:45:29
Speaker 1: and memory of written or printed words. Under the subclass
1:45:34
Speaker 1: of sound impressions are found the smaller divisions of memory
1:45:39
Speaker 1: known as memory of spoken words, memory of names, memory
1:45:44
Speaker 1: of stories, memory of music, et cetera. We shall pay
1:45:49
Speaker 1: special attention to these forms of memory in succeeding chapters.
1:45:54
Speaker 1: The second general class of memory, memory of ideas, includes
1:45:59
Speaker 1: the memory of facts, events, thoughts, lines of reasoning, et cetera,
1:46:05
Speaker 1: and is regarded as higher in the scale than the
1:46:08
Speaker 1: memory of sense impressions, although not more necessary nor useful
1:46:13
Speaker 1: to the average person. This form of memory, of course,
1:46:17
Speaker 1: accompanies the higher lines of intellectual effort and activities, and
1:46:22
Speaker 1: constitutes a large part of what is known as true education,
1:46:27
Speaker 1: that is, education which teaches one to think instead of
1:46:31
Speaker 1: to merely memorize certain things taught in books or lectures.
1:46:36
Speaker 1: The well rounded man mentally is he who has developed
1:46:40
Speaker 1: his memory on all sides, rather than the one who
1:46:43
Speaker 1: has developed but one special phase of the faculty. It
1:46:48
Speaker 1: is true that a man's interest and occupation certainly tend
1:46:51
Speaker 1: to develop his memory according to his daily needs and requirements.
1:46:56
Speaker 1: But it is well that he should give to the
1:46:58
Speaker 1: other parts of his memory feeling some exercise, in order
1:47:02
Speaker 1: that he may not grow one sided. As Hallick has said,
1:47:07
Speaker 1: many persons think that memory is mainly due to sight,
1:47:11
Speaker 1: But we have as many different kinds of memory as
1:47:14
Speaker 1: we have senses. To sight, the watermelon is a long,
1:47:19
Speaker 1: greenish body, but this is its least important quality. Sight
1:47:24
Speaker 1: alone gives the poorest idea of the watermelon. We approach
1:47:29
Speaker 1: the vine where the fruit is growing, and in order
1:47:32
Speaker 1: to decide whether it is ripe, we tap the rind
1:47:36
Speaker 1: and judge by the sound. We must remember that a
1:47:40
Speaker 1: ripe watermelon has a certain resonance. By passing our hands
1:47:45
Speaker 1: over the melon, we learn that it has certain touch characteristics.
1:47:50
Speaker 1: We cut it open and learn the qualities of taste
1:47:53
Speaker 1: and smell. All this knowledge afforded by the different senses
1:47:58
Speaker 1: must enter into a perfected memory image. Hence we see
1:48:02
Speaker 1: that many complex processes go to form an idea of
1:48:06
Speaker 1: a thing. Napoleon was not content with only hearing a name.
1:48:11
Speaker 1: He wrote it down, and having satisfied his eye memory
1:48:16
Speaker 1: as well as his ear memory, he threw the paper away.
1:48:21
Speaker 1: In this book we shall point out the methods and
1:48:23
Speaker 1: processes calculated to round out the memory of the student.
1:48:28
Speaker 1: As a rule, his strong phases of memory need but
1:48:31
Speaker 1: little attention, although even in these a little scientific knowledge
1:48:36
Speaker 1: will be of use. But in the weaker phases, those
1:48:41
Speaker 1: phases in which his memory is poor, he should exert
1:48:45
Speaker 1: a new energy and activity to the end that these
1:48:48
Speaker 1: weaker regions of the memory may be cultivated and fertilized
1:48:52
Speaker 1: and well stored with the seed impressions which will bear
1:48:56
Speaker 1: a good crop in time. There is no phase, field,
1:49:01
Speaker 1: or class of memory that is not capable of being
1:49:04
Speaker 1: highly developed by intelligent application. It requires practice, exercise and work,
1:49:12
Speaker 1: but the reward is great. Many a man is handicapped
1:49:16
Speaker 1: by being deficient in certain phases of memory, while proficient
1:49:21
Speaker 1: in others. The remedy is in his own hands, and
1:49:25
Speaker 1: we feel that in this book we have given to
1:49:28
Speaker 1: each the means whereby he may acquire a good memory
1:49:32
Speaker 1: along any or all lines. Training the eye. Before the
1:49:39
Speaker 1: memory can be stored with sight impressions. Before the mind
1:49:43
Speaker 1: can recollect or remember such impressions, the eye must be
1:49:47
Speaker 1: used under the direction of the attention. We think that
1:49:51
Speaker 1: we see things when we look at them, but in
1:49:54
Speaker 1: reality we see but few things in the sense of
1:49:58
Speaker 1: registering clear and distinct minay impressions of them upon the
1:50:01
Speaker 1: tablets of the subconscious mind. We look at them rather
1:50:06
Speaker 1: than see them. Hallick says, regarding this sight without seeing idea,
1:50:14
Speaker 1: a body may be imaged on the retina without ensuring perception.
1:50:18
Speaker 1: There must be an effort to concentrate the attention upon
1:50:22
Speaker 1: the many things which the world presents to our senses.
1:50:26
Speaker 1: A man once said to the pupils of a large school,
1:50:30
Speaker 1: all of whom had seen cows, I should like to
1:50:33
Speaker 1: find out how many of you know whether a cow's
1:50:36
Speaker 1: ears are above, below, behind, or in front of her horns.
1:50:42
Speaker 1: I want only those pupils to raise their hands who
1:50:45
Speaker 1: are sure about the position, and who will promise to
1:50:49
Speaker 1: give a dollar to charity if they answer wrong. Only
1:50:53
Speaker 1: two hands were raised. Their owners had drawn cows, and
1:50:58
Speaker 1: in order to do that, had been forced to concentrate
1:51:02
Speaker 1: their attention upon the animals. Fifteen pupils were sure that
1:51:06
Speaker 1: they had seen cats climb trees and descend them. There
1:51:11
Speaker 1: was unanimity of opinion that the cats went up heads first.
1:51:16
Speaker 1: When asked whether the cats came down head or tail first,
1:51:20
Speaker 1: the majority were sure that the cats descended, as they
1:51:23
Speaker 1: were never known to do. Any One who had ever
1:51:27
Speaker 1: noticed the shape of the claws of any beast of
1:51:30
Speaker 1: prey could have answered the question without seeing an actual descent.
1:51:36
Speaker 1: Farmers boys who have often seen cows and horses lie
1:51:39
Speaker 1: down and rise, are seldom sure whether the animals rise
1:51:44
Speaker 1: with their fore or hind feet first, or whether the
1:51:47
Speaker 1: habit of the horse agrees with that of the cow
1:51:51
Speaker 1: in this respect. The elm tree has about its leaf
1:51:55
Speaker 1: a peculiarity which all ought to notice the first time
1:51:59
Speaker 1: they see it, And yet only about five percent of
1:52:02
Speaker 1: a certain school could incorporate in a drawing this peculiarity,
1:52:07
Speaker 1: although it is so easily outlined on paper. Perception to
1:52:12
Speaker 1: achieve satisfactory results must summon the will to its aid
1:52:17
Speaker 1: to concentrate the attention. Only the smallest part of what
1:52:21
Speaker 1: falls upon our senses at any time is actually perceived.
1:52:27
Speaker 1: The way to train the mind to receive clear sight impressions,
1:52:31
Speaker 1: and therefore to retain them in the memory, is simply
1:52:35
Speaker 1: to concentrate the will and attention upon objects of sight,
1:52:39
Speaker 1: endeavoring to see them plainly and distinctly, and then to
1:52:43
Speaker 1: practice recalling the details of the object some time afterward.
1:52:49
Speaker 1: It is astonishing how rapidly one may improve in this
1:52:52
Speaker 1: respect by a little practice, and it is amazing how
1:52:56
Speaker 1: great a degree of proficiency in this practice may attain
1:53:00
Speaker 1: in a short time. You have doubtless heard the story
1:53:05
Speaker 1: of Houdin, the French conjurer, who cultivated his memory of
1:53:09
Speaker 1: sight impressions by following a simple plan. He started into
1:53:15
Speaker 1: practice by observing the number of small object in the
1:53:18
Speaker 1: Paris shop windows he could see and remember in one
1:53:22
Speaker 1: quick glance as he rapidly walked past the window. He
1:53:27
Speaker 1: followed the plan of noting down on paper the things
1:53:30
Speaker 1: that he saw and remembered. At first he could remember
1:53:34
Speaker 1: but two or three articles in the window. Then he
1:53:38
Speaker 1: began to see and remember more, and so on each day,
1:53:42
Speaker 1: adding to his power of perception and memory, until finally
1:53:47
Speaker 1: he was able to see and remember nearly every small
1:53:50
Speaker 1: article in a large shop window, after bestowing but one
1:53:54
Speaker 1: glance upon it. Others have found this plan an excellent one,
1:54:00
Speaker 1: and have developed their power of perception greatly, and at
1:54:04
Speaker 1: the same time cultivated an amazingly retentive memory of objects
1:54:09
Speaker 1: thus seen. It is all a matter of use and practice.
1:54:14
Speaker 1: The experiment of Houdin may be varied infinitely with excellent results.
1:54:21
Speaker 1: The Hindus train their children along these lines by playing
1:54:25
Speaker 1: the site game with them. This game is played by
1:54:29
Speaker 1: exposing to the site of the children a number of
1:54:32
Speaker 1: small objects at which they gaze intently, and which are
1:54:37
Speaker 1: then withdrawn from their sight. The children then endeavor to
1:54:42
Speaker 1: excel each other in writing down the names of the
1:54:44
Speaker 1: objects which they have seen. The number of objects is
1:54:49
Speaker 1: small to begin with, but is increased each day until
1:54:53
Speaker 1: an astonishing number are perceived and remembered. Rudyard Kipling, in
1:54:59
Speaker 1: his Great book Kim gives an instance of this game
1:55:04
Speaker 1: played by Kim and a trained native youth, Lurgan Sahib
1:55:09
Speaker 1: exposes to the side of the two boys a tray
1:55:13
Speaker 1: filled with jewels and gems, allowing them to gaze upon
1:55:17
Speaker 1: it a few moments before it is withdrawn from sight.
1:55:21
Speaker 1: Then the competition begins as follows. There are under that
1:55:26
Speaker 1: paper five blue stones, one big, one smaller, and three small,
1:55:33
Speaker 1: said Kim, in all haste. There are four green stones,
1:55:37
Speaker 1: and one with a hole in it. There is one
1:55:40
Speaker 1: yellowstone that I can see through, and one like a
1:55:44
Speaker 1: pipe stem. There are two red stones. And give me time.
1:55:51
Speaker 1: But Kim had reached the limit of his powers. Then
1:55:55
Speaker 1: came the turn of the native boy. Here, my count,
1:56:00
Speaker 1: cried the native child. First are two flawed sapphires, one
1:56:05
Speaker 1: of two rutties and one of four. As I should judge,
1:56:10
Speaker 1: the four rutti sapphire is chipped at the edge. There
1:56:14
Speaker 1: is one turkestan turquoise plain with green veins, and there
1:56:19
Speaker 1: are two inscribed, one with the name of God in gilt,
1:56:24
Speaker 1: and the other being cracked across. For it came out
1:56:27
Speaker 1: of an old ring I cannot read. We have now
1:56:32
Speaker 1: the five blue stones, four flamed emeralds there are, but
1:56:37
Speaker 1: one is drilled in two places, and one is a
1:56:40
Speaker 1: little carvin their weight, said Lergan sahib impassively, three five,
1:56:49
Speaker 1: five and four ruttis, as I judge it, there is
1:56:54
Speaker 1: one piece of old greenish amber and a cheap cut
1:56:58
Speaker 1: topez from Europe. There is one ruby of Burma one
1:57:03
Speaker 1: of two ruttees without a flaw, and there is a
1:57:07
Speaker 1: balas ruby flawed of two ruttis. There is a carved
1:57:12
Speaker 1: ivory from China representing a rat sucking an egg. And
1:57:17
Speaker 1: there is last aha, a ball of crystal as big
1:57:22
Speaker 1: as a bean, set in gold leaf. Kim is mortified
1:57:26
Speaker 1: at this bad beating and asks the secret. The answer
1:57:31
Speaker 1: is by doing it many times over till it is
1:57:35
Speaker 1: done perfectly, for it is worth doing. Many teachers have
1:57:40
Speaker 1: followed plans similar to that just related. A number of
1:57:44
Speaker 1: small articles are exposed, and the pupils are trained to
1:57:49
Speaker 1: see and remember them, the process being gradually made more
1:57:53
Speaker 1: and more difficult. A well known American teacher was in
1:57:58
Speaker 1: the habit of rapidly made making a number of dots
1:58:01
Speaker 1: on the blackboard and then erasing them before the pupils
1:58:05
Speaker 1: could count them. In the ordinary way. The children then
1:58:09
Speaker 1: endeavored to count their mental impressions, and before long they
1:58:13
Speaker 1: could correctly name the number up to ten or more
1:58:17
Speaker 1: with ease. They said they could see six or c ten,
1:58:23
Speaker 1: as the case may be, automatically and apparently without the
1:58:27
Speaker 1: labor of consciously counting them. It is related in works
1:58:32
Speaker 1: dealing with the detection of crime that in the celebrated
1:58:36
Speaker 1: thieves schools in Europe, the young thieves are trained in
1:58:40
Speaker 1: a similar way the old scoundrels acting as teachers, exposing
1:58:44
Speaker 1: a number of small articles to the young ones and
1:58:48
Speaker 1: requiring them to repeat exactly what they had seen. Then
1:58:52
Speaker 1: follows a higher course in which the young thieves are
1:58:56
Speaker 1: required to memorize the objects in a room, the plan
1:58:59
Speaker 1: of houses, etc. They are sent forth to spy out
1:59:04
Speaker 1: the land for future robberies, in the guise of beggars
1:59:09
Speaker 1: soliciting alms, and thus getting a rapid peep into houses, offices,
1:59:14
Speaker 1: and stores. It is said that in a single glance
1:59:19
Speaker 1: they will perceive the location of all of the doors, windows, locks, bolts,
1:59:23
Speaker 1: et cetera. Many nations have boys games in which the
1:59:28
Speaker 1: youngsters are required to see and remember after taking a peep.
1:59:33
Speaker 1: The Italians have a game called morro, in which one
1:59:37
Speaker 1: boy throws out a number of fingers which must be
1:59:41
Speaker 1: instantly named by the other boy, a failure resulting in
1:59:45
Speaker 1: a forfeit. The Chinese youths have a similar game, while
1:59:50
Speaker 1: the Japanese boys reduce this to a science. A well
1:59:55
Speaker 1: trained Japanese youth will be able to remember the entire
1:59:58
Speaker 1: contents of a room after one keen glance around it.
2:00:03
Speaker 1: Many of the Orientals have developed this faculty to a
2:00:07
Speaker 1: degree almost beyond belief, But the principle is the same
2:00:12
Speaker 1: in all cases, the gradual practice and exercise beginning with
2:00:17
Speaker 1: a small number of simple things, and then increasing the
2:00:21
Speaker 1: number and complexity of the objects. The faculty is not
2:00:26
Speaker 1: so rare as one might imagine at first thought. Take
2:00:30
Speaker 1: a man in a small business and let him enter
2:00:33
Speaker 1: the store of a competitor, and see how many things
2:00:36
Speaker 1: he will observe and remember after a few minutes in
2:00:39
Speaker 1: the place. Let an actor visit a play in another theater,
2:00:45
Speaker 1: and see how many details of the performance he will
2:00:48
Speaker 1: notice and remember. Let some women pay a visit to
2:00:52
Speaker 1: a new neighbor, and then see how many things about
2:00:55
Speaker 1: that house they will have seen and remembered to be
2:00:59
Speaker 1: retailed to their confidential friends afterward. It is the old
2:01:04
Speaker 1: story of attention following the interest, and memory following the attention.
2:01:11
Speaker 1: An expert whist player will see and remember every card
2:01:15
Speaker 1: played in the game and just who played it. A
2:01:19
Speaker 1: chess or checker player will see and remember the previous
2:01:23
Speaker 1: moves in the game if he be expert and can
2:01:27
Speaker 1: relate them afterward. A woman will go shopping and will
2:01:31
Speaker 1: see and remember thousands of things that a man would
2:01:35
Speaker 1: never have seen, much less remembered. As Houdine said, thus,
2:01:41
Speaker 1: for instance, I can safely assert that a lady seeing
2:01:45
Speaker 1: another pass at full speed in a carriage, will have
2:01:49
Speaker 1: had time to analyze her toilet from her bonnet to
2:01:52
Speaker 1: her shoes, and be able to describe not only the
2:01:56
Speaker 1: fashion and quality of the stuffs, but also say if
2:02:00
Speaker 1: the lace be real or only machine made. I have
2:02:04
Speaker 1: known ladies to do this, But remember this, for it
2:02:09
Speaker 1: is important. Whatever can be done in this direction by
2:02:13
Speaker 1: means of attention inspired by interest may be duplicated by
2:02:18
Speaker 1: attention directed by will. In other words, the desire to
2:02:23
Speaker 1: accomplish the task adds and creates an artificial interest just
2:02:29
Speaker 1: as effective as the natural feeling. And as you progress,
2:02:34
Speaker 1: the interest in the game task will add new interest,
2:02:38
Speaker 1: and you will be able to duplicate any of the
2:02:40
Speaker 1: feats mentioned above. It is all a matter of attention,
2:02:45
Speaker 1: interest natural or induced, and practice. Begin with a set
2:02:51
Speaker 1: of dominoes if you like, and try to remember the
2:02:55
Speaker 1: spots on one of them rapidly glanced at, then two,
2:02:59
Speaker 1: three free. By increasing the number gradually, you will attain
2:03:05
Speaker 1: a power of perception and a memory of sight impressions
2:03:09
Speaker 1: that will appear almost marvelous. And not only will you
2:03:13
Speaker 1: begin to remember dominoes, but you will also be able
2:03:17
Speaker 1: to perceive and remember thousands of little details of interest
2:03:21
Speaker 1: in everything that have heretofore escaped your notice. The principle
2:03:27
Speaker 1: is very simple, but the results that may be obtained
2:03:31
Speaker 1: by practice are wonderful. The trouble with most of you
2:03:35
Speaker 1: is that you have been looking without seeing, gazing but
2:03:39
Speaker 1: not observing the objects around you have been out of
2:03:44
Speaker 1: your mental focus. If you will but change your mental
2:03:48
Speaker 1: focus by means of will and attention, you will be
2:03:52
Speaker 1: able to cure yourself of the careless methods of seeing
2:03:55
Speaker 1: and observing that have been hindrances to your success. You
2:04:00
Speaker 1: have been blaming it on your memory but the fault
2:04:03
Speaker 1: is with your perception. How can the memory remember when
2:04:08
Speaker 1: it is not given anything in the way of clear impressions.
2:04:12
Speaker 1: You have been like young infants in this matter. Now
2:04:16
Speaker 1: it is time for you to begin to sit up
2:04:18
Speaker 1: and take notice, no matter how old you may be.
2:04:23
Speaker 1: The whole thing in a nutshell is this. In order
2:04:27
Speaker 1: to remember the things that pass before your sight, you
2:04:31
Speaker 1: must begin to see with your mind instead of with
2:04:35
Speaker 1: your retina. Let the impression get beyond your retina and
2:04:39
Speaker 1: into your mind. If you will do this, you will
2:04:43
Speaker 1: find that memory will do the rest. Training the ear,
2:04:50
Speaker 1: the sense of hearing is one of the highest of
2:04:52
Speaker 1: the senses or channels whereby we receive impressions from the
2:04:57
Speaker 1: outside world. In fact, it ranks almost as high as
2:05:02
Speaker 1: the sense of sight. In the senses of taste, touch,
2:05:06
Speaker 1: and smell, there is a direct contact between the sensitive
2:05:10
Speaker 1: recipient nerve substance and the particles of the object sensed,
2:05:14
Speaker 1: while in the sense of sight and the sense of hearing,
2:05:18
Speaker 1: the impression is received through the medium of waves in
2:05:21
Speaker 1: the ether in the case of sight, or waves in
2:05:24
Speaker 1: the air in the sense of hearing. Moreover, in taste, smell,
2:05:29
Speaker 1: and touch, the objects sensed are brought into direct contact
2:05:34
Speaker 1: with the terminal nerve apparatus. While in seeing and hearing,
2:05:38
Speaker 1: the nerves terminate in peculiar and delicate sacs, which contain
2:05:43
Speaker 1: a fluidic substance through which the impression is conveyed to
2:05:47
Speaker 1: the nerve. Proper loss of this fluidic substance destroys the
2:05:52
Speaker 1: faculty to receive impressions, and deafness or blindness ensues. As
2:05:59
Speaker 1: Foster says, waves of sound falling upon the auditory nerve
2:06:03
Speaker 1: itself produces no effect whatever It is. Only when by
2:06:08
Speaker 1: the medium of the endolymph, they are brought to bear
2:06:11
Speaker 1: on the delicate and peculiar epithelium cells which constitute the
2:06:16
Speaker 1: peripheral terminations of the nerve, that sensations of sound arise.
2:06:22
Speaker 1: Just as it is true that it is the mind
2:06:25
Speaker 1: and not the eye that really sees, so it is
2:06:28
Speaker 1: true that it is the mind and not the ear
2:06:31
Speaker 1: that really hears. Many sounds reach the ear that are
2:06:36
Speaker 1: not registered by the mind. We pass along a crowded street,
2:06:41
Speaker 1: the waves of many sounds reaching the nerves of the ear,
2:06:45
Speaker 1: and yet the mind accepts the sounds of but few things,
2:06:49
Speaker 1: particularly when the novelty of the sounds has passed away.
2:06:53
Speaker 1: It is a matter of interest and attention in this
2:06:56
Speaker 1: case as well as in the case of hearing. As
2:07:00
Speaker 1: Halleck says, if we sit by an open window in
2:07:03
Speaker 1: the country on a summer day, we may have many
2:07:06
Speaker 1: stimuli knocking at the gate of attention, the ticking of
2:07:09
Speaker 1: a clock, the sound of the wind, the cackling of fowl,
2:07:14
Speaker 1: the quacking of ducks, the barking of dogs, the lowing
2:07:19
Speaker 1: of cows, the cries of children at play, the rustling
2:07:23
Speaker 1: of leaves, the songs of birds, the rumbling of wagons,
2:07:27
Speaker 1: et cetera. If attention is centered upon any one of these,
2:07:32
Speaker 1: that for the time being acquires the importance of a
2:07:36
Speaker 1: king upon the throne of our mental world. Many persons
2:07:40
Speaker 1: complain of not being able to remember sounds or things
2:07:44
Speaker 1: reaching the mind through the sense of hearing, and attribute
2:07:47
Speaker 1: the trouble to some defect in the organs of hearing.
2:07:51
Speaker 1: But in so doing they overlook the real cause of
2:07:54
Speaker 1: the trouble, For it is a scientific fact that many
2:07:58
Speaker 1: of such persons are found to have hearing apparatus perfectly
2:08:02
Speaker 1: developed and in the best working order. Their trouble arising
2:08:06
Speaker 1: from a lack of training of the mental faculty of hearing.
2:08:11
Speaker 1: In other words, the trouble is in their mind, instead
2:08:14
Speaker 1: of in the organs of hearing. To acquire the faculty
2:08:19
Speaker 1: of correct hearing and correct memory of things heard, the
2:08:23
Speaker 1: mental faculty of hearing must be exercised, trained, and developed.
2:08:29
Speaker 1: Given a number of people whose hearing apparatus are equally perfect,
2:08:33
Speaker 1: we will find that some hear much better than others,
2:08:37
Speaker 1: and some hear certain things better than they do certain
2:08:41
Speaker 1: other things, and that there is a great difference in
2:08:44
Speaker 1: the grades and degrees of memory of things heard. As
2:08:48
Speaker 1: Kay says, great differences exist among individuals with regard to
2:08:53
Speaker 1: the acuteness of this sense hearing, and some possess it
2:08:57
Speaker 1: in greater perfection in certain directions than in other's. One
2:09:02
Speaker 1: whose hearing is good for sound in general may yet
2:09:06
Speaker 1: have but little ear for musical notes, And on the
2:09:10
Speaker 1: other hand, one with a good ear for music may
2:09:13
Speaker 1: yet be deficient as regards hearing in general. The secret
2:09:18
Speaker 1: of this is to be found in the degree of
2:09:21
Speaker 1: interest and attention bestowed upon the particular thing giving forth
2:09:25
Speaker 1: the sound. It is a fact that the mind will
2:09:29
Speaker 1: hear the faintest sounds from things in which is centered
2:09:32
Speaker 1: interest and attention, while at the same time ignoring things
2:09:37
Speaker 1: in which there is no interest and to which the
2:09:39
Speaker 1: attention is not turned. A sleeping mother will awaken at
2:09:44
Speaker 1: the slightest whimper from her babe, while the rumbling of
2:09:47
Speaker 1: a heavy wagon on the street, or even the discharge
2:09:51
Speaker 1: of a gun in the neighborhood may not be noticed
2:09:54
Speaker 1: by her. An engineer will detect the slightest difference in
2:09:58
Speaker 1: the whirr or of his engine, while failing to notice
2:10:03
Speaker 1: a very loud noise outside. A musician will note the
2:10:07
Speaker 1: slightest discord occurring in a concert in which there are
2:10:10
Speaker 1: a great number of instruments being played, and in which
2:10:14
Speaker 1: there is a great volume of sound reaching the ear,
2:10:18
Speaker 1: while other sounds may be unheard by him. The man
2:10:22
Speaker 1: who taps the wheels of your railroad car is able
2:10:26
Speaker 1: to detect the slightest difference in tone, and is thus
2:10:29
Speaker 1: informed that there is a crack or flaw in the wheel.
2:10:34
Speaker 1: One who handles large quantities of coin will have his
2:10:38
Speaker 1: attention drawn to the slightest difference in the ring of
2:10:41
Speaker 1: a piece of gold or silver that informs him that
2:10:45
Speaker 1: there is something wrong with the coin. A train engineer
2:10:49
Speaker 1: will distinguish the strange whirr of something wrong with the
2:10:52
Speaker 1: train behind him, amidst all the thundering rattle and roar
2:10:56
Speaker 1: in which it has merged. The foreman in a machine shop,
2:11:01
Speaker 1: in the same manner, detects the little strange noise that
2:11:04
Speaker 1: informs him that something is a miss, and he rings
2:11:08
Speaker 1: off the power at once. Telegraphers are able to detect
2:11:13
Speaker 1: the almost imperceptible differences in the sound of their instruments
2:11:17
Speaker 1: that informs them that a new operator is on the wire,
2:11:21
Speaker 1: or just who is sending the message, and in some
2:11:24
Speaker 1: cases the mood or temper of the person transmitting it.
2:11:29
Speaker 1: Trainmen and steamboat men recognize the differences between every engine
2:11:34
Speaker 1: or boat in their line or river, as the case
2:11:36
Speaker 1: may be. A skilled physician will detect the faint sounds
2:11:40
Speaker 1: denoting a respiratory trouble or a heart murmur in the patients.
2:11:46
Speaker 1: And yet these very people who are able to detect
2:11:49
Speaker 1: the faint differences in sound above mentioned are often known
2:11:53
Speaker 1: as poor hearers in other things, why simply because they
2:11:59
Speaker 1: hear only that in which they are interested and to
2:12:02
Speaker 1: which their attention has been directed, that is, the whole secret,
2:12:07
Speaker 1: and in it is also to be found the secret
2:12:10
Speaker 1: of training of the ear perception. It is all a
2:12:14
Speaker 1: matter of interest and attention. The details depend upon these principles.
2:12:20
Speaker 1: In view of the facts just stated, it will be
2:12:23
Speaker 1: seen that the remedy for poor hearing and poor memory
2:12:27
Speaker 1: of things heard is to be found in the use
2:12:30
Speaker 1: of the will in the direction of voluntary attention and interest.
2:12:35
Speaker 1: So true is this that some authorities go so far
2:12:38
Speaker 1: as to claim that many cases of supposed slight deafness
2:12:42
Speaker 1: are really but the result of lack of attention and
2:12:45
Speaker 1: concentration on the part of the person so troubled. Kay
2:12:50
Speaker 1: says what is commonly called deafness is not infrequently to
2:12:55
Speaker 1: be attributed to this cause. The sounds being heard but
2:12:59
Speaker 1: not be being interpreted or recognized. Sounds may be distinctly
2:13:04
Speaker 1: heard when the attention is directed toward them, that in
2:13:08
Speaker 1: ordinary circumstances would be imperceptible, and people often fail to
2:13:13
Speaker 1: hear what is said to them because they are not
2:13:16
Speaker 1: paying attention. Harvey says that one half of the deafness
2:13:21
Speaker 1: that exists is the result of inattention. Cannot be doubted.
2:13:27
Speaker 1: There are but few persons who have not had the
2:13:30
Speaker 1: experience of listening to some bore whose words were distinctly heard,
2:13:35
Speaker 1: but the meaning of which was entirely lost because of
2:13:38
Speaker 1: inattention and lack of interest. Kerk's sums the matter up
2:13:44
Speaker 1: in these words. In hearing, we must distinguish two different points,
2:13:50
Speaker 1: the audible sensation as it is developed without any intellectual interference,
2:13:56
Speaker 1: and the conception which we form in consequence of them sensation.
2:14:02
Speaker 1: The reason that many persons do not remember things that
2:14:05
Speaker 1: they have heard is simply because they have not listened properly.
2:14:11
Speaker 1: Poor listening is far more common than one would suppose
2:14:14
Speaker 1: at first. A little self examination will reveal to you
2:14:19
Speaker 1: the fact that you have fallen into the bad habit
2:14:22
Speaker 1: of inattention. One cannot listen to everything, of course it
2:14:28
Speaker 1: would not be advisable, but one should acquire the habit
2:14:31
Speaker 1: of either really listening or else refusing to listen at all.
2:14:37
Speaker 1: The compromise of careless listening brings about deplorable results, and
2:14:43
Speaker 1: is really the version why so many people can't remember
2:14:46
Speaker 1: what they have heard. It is all a matter of habit.
2:14:51
Speaker 1: Persons who have poor memories of ear impressions should begin
2:14:56
Speaker 1: to listen in earnest in order to reacqui whire their
2:15:00
Speaker 1: lost habit of proper listening, they must exercise voluntary attention
2:15:05
Speaker 1: and develop interest. The following suggestions may be useful in
2:15:10
Speaker 1: that direction. Try to memorize words that are spoken to
2:15:15
Speaker 1: you in conversation a few sentences, or even one at
2:15:19
Speaker 1: a time. You will find that the effort made to
2:15:23
Speaker 1: fasten the sentence on your memory will result in a
2:15:26
Speaker 1: concentration of the attention on the words of the speaker.
2:15:31
Speaker 1: Do the same thing when you are listening to a preacher, actor,
2:15:35
Speaker 1: or a lecturer. Pick out the first sentence for memorizing,
2:15:39
Speaker 1: and make up your mind that your memory will be
2:15:42
Speaker 1: as wax to receive the impression and as steel to
2:15:46
Speaker 1: retain it. Listen to the stray scraps of conversation that
2:15:51
Speaker 1: come to your ears while walking on the street, and
2:15:54
Speaker 1: endeavor to memorize a sentence or two as if you
2:15:58
Speaker 1: were to repeat it later in the day. Study the
2:16:01
Speaker 1: various tones, expressions, and inflections in the voices of persons
2:16:06
Speaker 1: speaking to you. You will find this most interesting and helpful.
2:16:12
Speaker 1: You will be surprised at the details that such analysis
2:16:15
Speaker 1: will reveal. Listen to the footsteps of different persons and
2:16:20
Speaker 1: endeavor to distinguish between them. Each has its peculiarities. Get
2:16:27
Speaker 1: someone to read a line or two of poetry or
2:16:29
Speaker 1: prose to you, and then endeavor to remember it. A
2:16:33
Speaker 1: little practice of this kind will greatly develop the power
2:16:37
Speaker 1: of voluntary attention to sounds and spoken words. But, above
2:16:42
Speaker 1: everything else, practice repeating the words and sounds that you
2:16:47
Speaker 1: have memorized so far as possible. For by so doing
2:16:52
Speaker 1: you will get the mind into the habit of taking
2:16:54
Speaker 1: an interest in sound impressions. In this way, you not
2:16:59
Speaker 1: only prove the sense of hearing, but also the faculty
2:17:03
Speaker 1: of remembering. If you will analyze and boil down the
2:17:08
Speaker 1: above remarks and directions, you will find that the gist
2:17:12
Speaker 1: of the whole matter is that one should actually use, employ,
2:17:16
Speaker 1: and exercise the mental faculty of hearing actively and intelligently.
2:17:23
Speaker 1: Nature has a way of putting to sleep or atrophying
2:17:27
Speaker 1: any faculty that is not used or exercised, and also
2:17:32
Speaker 1: of encouraging, developing, and strengthening any faculty that is properly
2:17:37
Speaker 1: employed and exercised. In this you have the secret use it.
2:17:44
Speaker 1: If you will listen well, you will hear well and
2:17:47
Speaker 1: remember well that which you have heard. How to remember names.
2:17:54
Speaker 1: The phase of memory connected with the remembrance or recollection
2:17:57
Speaker 1: of names probably is of greater interest to the majority
2:18:01
Speaker 1: of persons than are any of the associated phases of
2:18:04
Speaker 1: the subject. On all hands are to be found people
2:18:08
Speaker 1: who are embarrassed by their failure to recall the name
2:18:11
Speaker 1: of someone whom they feel they know, but whose name
2:18:15
Speaker 1: has escaped them. This failure to remember the names of
2:18:19
Speaker 1: persons undoubtedly interferes with the business and professional success of
2:18:24
Speaker 1: many persons, and on the other hand, the ability to
2:18:28
Speaker 1: recall names readily has aided many persons in the struggle
2:18:31
Speaker 1: for success. It would seem that there are a greater
2:18:36
Speaker 1: number of persons deficient in this phase of memory than
2:18:39
Speaker 1: in any other. As Holbrook has said, the memory of
2:18:43
Speaker 1: names is a subject with which most persons must have
2:18:47
Speaker 1: a more than passing interest. The number of persons who
2:18:51
Speaker 1: never or rarely forget a name is exceedingly small. The
2:18:56
Speaker 1: number of those who have a poor memory for them
2:18:58
Speaker 1: is very large. The reason for this is partly a
2:19:03
Speaker 1: defect of mental development and partly a matter of habit.
2:19:08
Speaker 1: In either case, it may be overcome by effort. I
2:19:12
Speaker 1: have satisfied myself by experience and observation that a memory
2:19:17
Speaker 1: for names may be increased not only two, but a hundredfold.
2:19:24
Speaker 1: You will find that the majority of successful men have
2:19:27
Speaker 1: been able to recall the faces and names of those
2:19:30
Speaker 1: with whom they came in contact, and it is an
2:19:33
Speaker 1: interesting subject for speculation as to just how much of
2:19:37
Speaker 1: their success was due to this faculty. Socrates is said
2:19:42
Speaker 1: to have easily remembered the names of all of his students,
2:19:46
Speaker 1: and his classes numbered thousands in the course of a year.
2:19:51
Speaker 1: Xenophon is said to have known the name of every
2:19:53
Speaker 1: one of his soldiers, which faculty was shared by Washington
2:19:58
Speaker 1: and Napoleon. Also, Trajan is said to have known the
2:20:02
Speaker 1: names of all of the praetorian guards, numbering about twelve thousand.
2:20:08
Speaker 1: Pericles knew the face and name of every one of
2:20:11
Speaker 1: the citizens of Athens. Sinius is said to have known
2:20:15
Speaker 1: the names of all of the citizens of Rome. Femistocles
2:20:20
Speaker 1: knew the names of twenty thousand Athenians. Lucius Sippio could
2:20:25
Speaker 1: call by name every citizen of Rome. John Wesley could
2:20:30
Speaker 1: recall the names of thousands of persons whom he had
2:20:33
Speaker 1: met in his travels. Henry clay was specially developed in
2:20:38
Speaker 1: this phase of memory, and there was a tradition among
2:20:41
Speaker 1: his followers that he remembered every one whom he met.
2:20:46
Speaker 1: Blaine had a similar reputation. There have been many theories
2:20:51
Speaker 1: advanced and explanations offered to account for the fact that
2:20:55
Speaker 1: the recollection of names is far more difficult than any
2:20:59
Speaker 1: other form of the activities of the memory. We shall
2:21:03
Speaker 1: not take up your time in going over these theories,
2:21:06
Speaker 1: but shall proceed upon the theory now generally accepted by
2:21:10
Speaker 1: the best authorities, that is that the difficulty in the
2:21:15
Speaker 1: recollection of names is caused by the fact that names
2:21:18
Speaker 1: in themselves are uninteresting, and therefore do not attract or
2:21:23
Speaker 1: hold the attention as do other objects presented to the mind.
2:21:29
Speaker 1: There is, of course, to be remembered the fact that
2:21:32
Speaker 1: sound impressions are apt to be more difficult of recollection
2:21:35
Speaker 1: than cite impressions, But the lack of interesting qualities and
2:21:39
Speaker 1: names is believed to be the principal obstacle and difficulty.
2:21:44
Speaker 1: Fuller says of this matter, a proper noun or name,
2:21:49
Speaker 1: when considered independently of accidental features of coincidence with something
2:21:54
Speaker 1: that is familiar, doesn't mean anything. For this reason, a
2:21:59
Speaker 1: mental picture of it is not easily formed, which accounts
2:22:04
Speaker 1: for the fact that the primitive tedious way of rote
2:22:07
Speaker 1: or repetition is that ordinarily employed to impress a proper
2:22:11
Speaker 1: noun on the memory. While a common noun being represented
2:22:16
Speaker 1: by some object having shape or appearance in the physical
2:22:20
Speaker 1: or mental perception, can thus be seen or imagined. In
2:22:25
Speaker 1: other words, a mental image of it can be formed
2:22:29
Speaker 1: and the name identified afterwards through associating it with this
2:22:34
Speaker 1: mental image. We think that the case is fully stated
2:22:38
Speaker 1: in this quotation. But in spite of this difficulty, persons
2:22:43
Speaker 1: have and can greatly improve their memory of names. Many
2:22:48
Speaker 1: who were originally very deficient in this respect have not
2:22:51
Speaker 1: only improved the faculty far beyond its former condition, but
2:22:56
Speaker 1: have also developed exceptional ability in this special phase of memory,
2:23:01
Speaker 1: so that they became noted for their unfailing recollection of
2:23:04
Speaker 1: the names of those with whom they came in contact.
2:23:08
Speaker 1: Perhaps the best way to impress upon you the various
2:23:12
Speaker 1: methods that may be used for this purpose would be
2:23:15
Speaker 1: to relate to you the actual experience of a gentleman
2:23:18
Speaker 1: employed in a bank in one of the large cities
2:23:21
Speaker 1: of this country, who made a close study of the
2:23:24
Speaker 1: subject and developed himself far beyond the ordinary, starting with
2:23:29
Speaker 1: a remarkably poor memory for names. He is now known
2:23:33
Speaker 1: to his associates as the man who never forgets a name.
2:23:38
Speaker 1: This gentleman first took a number of courses in secret
2:23:42
Speaker 1: methods of developing the memory, but after thus spending much money,
2:23:47
Speaker 1: he expressed his disgust with the whole idea of artificial
2:23:51
Speaker 1: memory training. He then started in to study the subject
2:23:55
Speaker 1: from the point of view of the new psychology, putting
2:23:58
Speaker 1: into effect all of the tested principles and improving upon
2:24:02
Speaker 1: some of their details. We have had a number of
2:24:06
Speaker 1: conversations with this gentleman and have found that his experience
2:24:11
Speaker 1: confirms many of our own ideas and theories, and the
2:24:15
Speaker 1: fact that he has demonstrated the correctness of the principles
2:24:18
Speaker 1: to such a remarkable degree renders his case one worthy
2:24:23
Speaker 1: of being stated in the direction of affording a guide
2:24:26
Speaker 1: and method for others who wish to develop their memory
2:24:30
Speaker 1: of names. The gentleman, whom we shall call mister X,
2:24:35
Speaker 1: decided that the first thing for him to do was
2:24:38
Speaker 1: to develop his faculty of receiving clear and distinct sound impressions.
2:24:44
Speaker 1: In doing this, he followed the plan outlined by us
2:24:48
Speaker 1: in our chapter on training the ear. He persevered and
2:24:53
Speaker 1: practiced along these lines until his hearing became very acute.
2:25:00
Speaker 1: He made a study of voices until he could classify
2:25:03
Speaker 1: them and analyze their characteristics. Then he found that he
2:25:07
Speaker 1: could hear names in a manner before impossible to him.
2:25:12
Speaker 1: That is, instead of merely catching a vague sound of
2:25:16
Speaker 1: a name, he would hear it so clearly and distinctly
2:25:20
Speaker 1: that a firm registration would be obtained on the records
2:25:23
Speaker 1: of his memory. For the first time in his life,
2:25:27
Speaker 1: names began to mean something to him. He paid attention
2:25:32
Speaker 1: to every name he heard, just as he did to
2:25:35
Speaker 1: every note he handled. He would repeat a name to
2:25:39
Speaker 1: himself after hearing it, and would thus strengthen the impression.
2:25:45
Speaker 1: If he came across an unusual name, he would write
2:25:48
Speaker 1: it down several times at the first opportunity, thus obtaining
2:25:53
Speaker 1: the benefit of a double sense impression, adding eye impression
2:25:58
Speaker 1: or ear impression. All this, of course, aroused his interest
2:26:03
Speaker 1: in the subject of names in general, which led him
2:26:06
Speaker 1: to the next step in his progress. Mister X then
2:26:11
Speaker 1: began to study names, their origin, their peculiarities, their differences,
2:26:17
Speaker 1: points of resemblances, et cetera. He made a hobby of
2:26:22
Speaker 1: names and evinced all the joy of a collector when
2:26:25
Speaker 1: he was able to stick the pins of attention through
2:26:27
Speaker 1: the specimen of a new and unfamiliar speecies of name.
2:26:32
Speaker 1: He began to collect names just as others collect beetles, stamps, coins,
2:26:38
Speaker 1: et cetera, and took quite a pride in his collection
2:26:42
Speaker 1: and in his knowledge of the subject. He read books
2:26:46
Speaker 1: on names from the libraries, giving their origin, et cetera.
2:26:52
Speaker 1: He had the dickens delight in queer names, and would
2:26:56
Speaker 1: amuse his friends by relating the funny names he had
2:26:59
Speaker 1: seen on signs and otherwise. He took a small city
2:27:04
Speaker 1: directory home with him and would run over the pages
2:27:07
Speaker 1: in the evening, looking up new names and classifying old
2:27:12
Speaker 1: ones into groups. He found that some names were derived
2:27:16
Speaker 1: from animals, and put these into a class by themselves
2:27:21
Speaker 1: the lions, wolfs, foxes, lambs, hares, et cetera. Others were
2:27:28
Speaker 1: put into color group blacks, greens, whites, grays, blues, et cetera.
2:27:35
Speaker 1: Others belonged to the bird family crows, hawks, birds, drakes, cranes, doves, jays,
2:27:44
Speaker 1: et cetera. Others belonged to trades, millers, smiths, coopers, malsters, carpenters, bakers, painters,
2:27:54
Speaker 1: et cetera. Others were trees, chestnuts, oakleys, walnuts, cherries, pines, etc.
2:28:05
Speaker 1: Then there were hills and dales, fields and mountains, lanes
2:28:10
Speaker 1: and brooks. Some were strong, others were gay, Others were savage,
2:28:17
Speaker 1: others noble, and so on. It would take a whole
2:28:22
Speaker 1: book to tell you what the man found out about names.
2:28:26
Speaker 1: He came near becoming a crank on the subject, but
2:28:30
Speaker 1: his hobby began to manifest excellent results. For his interest
2:28:35
Speaker 1: had been awakened to an unusual degree, and he was
2:28:39
Speaker 1: becoming very proficient in his recollection of names, for they
2:28:43
Speaker 1: now meant something to him. He easily recalled all the
2:28:47
Speaker 1: regular customers at his bank, quite a number, by the way,
2:28:51
Speaker 1: for the bank was a large one, and many occasional
2:28:55
Speaker 1: depositors were delighted to have themselves called by name by
2:28:59
Speaker 1: our friends. And occasionally he would meet with a name
2:29:03
Speaker 1: that balked him, in which case he would repeat it
2:29:06
Speaker 1: over to himself and write it a number of times
2:29:10
Speaker 1: until he had mastered it. After that it never escaped him.
2:29:16
Speaker 1: Mister X would always repeat a name when it was spoken,
2:29:20
Speaker 1: and would at the same time look intently at the
2:29:23
Speaker 1: person bearing it, thus seeming to fix the two together
2:29:27
Speaker 1: in his mind. At the same time, when he wanted them,
2:29:31
Speaker 1: they would be found in each other's company. He also
2:29:35
Speaker 1: acquired the habit of visualizing the name, that is, he
2:29:40
Speaker 1: would see its letters in his mind's eye as a picture.
2:29:45
Speaker 1: This he regarded as a most important point, and we
2:29:49
Speaker 1: thoroughly agree with him. He used the law of association
2:29:53
Speaker 1: in the direction of associating a new man with a
2:29:57
Speaker 1: well remembered man of the same name. A new mister
2:30:02
Speaker 1: Schmitzenberger would be associated with an old customer of the
2:30:06
Speaker 1: same name. When he would see the new man, he
2:30:10
Speaker 1: would think of the old one, and the name would
2:30:13
Speaker 1: flash into his mind. To sum up the whole method, however,
2:30:19
Speaker 1: it may be said that the gist of the thing
2:30:21
Speaker 1: was in taking an interest in names in general. In
2:30:25
Speaker 1: this way, an uninteresting subject was made interesting, and a
2:30:30
Speaker 1: man always has a good memory for the things in
2:30:32
Speaker 1: which he is interested. The case of mister X is
2:30:37
Speaker 1: an extreme one, and the results obtained were beyond the ordinary.
2:30:42
Speaker 1: But if you will take a leaf from his book,
2:30:45
Speaker 1: you may obtain the same results. In the degree that
2:30:48
Speaker 1: you work for it. Make a study of names, start
2:30:52
Speaker 1: a collection, and you will have no trouble in developing
2:30:55
Speaker 1: a memory for them. This is the whole thing, in
2:30:59
Speaker 1: a nutshell, how to remember faces. The memory of faces
2:31:06
Speaker 1: is closely connected with the memory of names, and yet
2:31:10
Speaker 1: the two are not always associated, for there are many
2:31:14
Speaker 1: people who easily remember faces and yet forget names, and
2:31:18
Speaker 1: vice versa. In some ways, however, the memory of faces
2:31:24
Speaker 1: is a necessary precedent for the recollection of the names
2:31:27
Speaker 1: of people, for unless we recall the face, we are
2:31:32
Speaker 1: unable to make the necessary association with the name of
2:31:35
Speaker 1: the person. We have given a number of instances of
2:31:39
Speaker 1: face memory in our chapter on name memory, in which
2:31:43
Speaker 1: are given instances of the wonderful memory of celebrated individuals
2:31:48
Speaker 1: who acquired a knowledge and memory of the thousands of
2:31:51
Speaker 1: citizens of a town or city, or the soldiers of
2:31:55
Speaker 1: an army. In this chapter, however, we shall pay attention
2:32:00
Speaker 1: and only to the subject of the recollection of the
2:32:02
Speaker 1: features of persons, irrespective of their names. This faculty is
2:32:08
Speaker 1: possessed by all persons, but in varying degrees. Those in
2:32:13
Speaker 1: whom it is well developed seem to recognize the faces
2:32:16
Speaker 1: of persons whom they have met years before, and to
2:32:20
Speaker 1: associate them with their circumstances in which they last met them.
2:32:24
Speaker 1: Even where the name escapes the memory. Others seem to
2:32:28
Speaker 1: forget a face the moment it passes from view, and
2:32:32
Speaker 1: fail to recognize the same persons whom they met only
2:32:35
Speaker 1: a few hours before, much to their mortification and chagrin. Detectives,
2:32:42
Speaker 1: newspaper reporters, and others who come in contact with many
2:32:46
Speaker 1: people usually have this faculty largely developed, for it becomes
2:32:51
Speaker 1: a necessity of their work, and their interest and attention
2:32:55
Speaker 1: is rendered active thereby. Public men often have this faculty
2:33:00
Speaker 1: largely developed by reason of the necessities of their life.
2:33:05
Speaker 1: It is said that James G. Blaine never forgot the
2:33:09
Speaker 1: face of anyone whom he had met and conversed with
2:33:12
Speaker 1: a few moments. This faculty rendered him very popular in
2:33:16
Speaker 1: political life. In this respect, he resembled Henry Clay, who
2:33:22
Speaker 1: was noted for his memory of faces. It is related
2:33:26
Speaker 1: of Clay that he once paid a visit of a
2:33:28
Speaker 1: few hours to a small town in Mississippi on an
2:33:32
Speaker 1: electioneering tour. Amidst the throng surrounding him was an old
2:33:37
Speaker 1: man with one eye missing. The old fellow pressed forward,
2:33:42
Speaker 1: crying out that he was sure that Henry Clay would
2:33:45
Speaker 1: remember him. Clay took a sharp look at him and said,
2:33:50
Speaker 1: I met you in Kentucky many years ago. Did I not, Yes,
2:33:55
Speaker 1: replied the man. Did you lose your eye since? Then,
2:33:59
Speaker 1: asked Clay. Yes, several years after, replied the old man.
2:34:06
Speaker 1: Turn your face sideways so that I can see your profile,
2:34:09
Speaker 1: said Clay. The man did so. Then Clay smiled triumphantly,
2:34:16
Speaker 1: saying I've got you now. Weren't you on that jury
2:34:20
Speaker 1: in the Innis case at Frankfort that I tried in
2:34:23
Speaker 1: the United States court over twenty years ago? Yes, sir, ree,
2:34:29
Speaker 1: said the man. I knowed that you know me, and
2:34:32
Speaker 1: I told him you would. And the crowd gave a whoop,
2:34:36
Speaker 1: and Clay knew that he was safe in that town
2:34:39
Speaker 1: and county. Vidoc, the celebrated French detective is said to
2:34:45
Speaker 1: have never forgotten the face of a criminal whom he
2:34:48
Speaker 1: had once seen. A celebrated instance of this power on
2:34:52
Speaker 1: his part is that of the case of de la Franche,
2:34:56
Speaker 1: the forger who escaped from prison and dwelt in foreign
2:35:00
Speaker 1: lands for over twenty years. After that time, he returned
2:35:05
Speaker 1: to Paris, feeling secure from detection, having become bald, losing
2:35:10
Speaker 1: an eye, and having his nose badly mutilated. Moreover, he
2:35:16
Speaker 1: disguised himself and wore a beard in order to still
2:35:20
Speaker 1: further evade detection. One day, Vidoc met him on the
2:35:25
Speaker 1: street and recognized him at once his arrest and return
2:35:29
Speaker 1: to prison following. Instances of this kind could be multiplied indefinitely,
2:35:36
Speaker 1: but the student will have had a sufficient acquaintance with
2:35:39
Speaker 1: persons who possess this faculty developed to a large degree,
2:35:44
Speaker 1: so that further illustration is scarcely necessary. The way to
2:35:49
Speaker 1: develop this phase of memory is akin to that urged
2:35:53
Speaker 1: in the development of other phases. The cultivation of interest
2:35:57
Speaker 1: and the bestowal of attention. Faces as a whole are
2:36:02
Speaker 1: not apt to prove interesting. It is only by analyzing
2:36:07
Speaker 1: and classifying them that the study begins to grow of
2:36:10
Speaker 1: interest to us. The study of a good elementary work
2:36:14
Speaker 1: on physiognomy is recommended to those wishing to develop the
2:36:18
Speaker 1: faculty of remembering faces, For in such a work, the
2:36:22
Speaker 1: student is led to notice the different kinds of noses, ears, eyes, chins, foreheads,
2:36:29
Speaker 1: et cetera. Such notice and recognition, tending to induce an
2:36:34
Speaker 1: interest in the subject of features. A rudimentary course of
2:36:39
Speaker 1: study in drawing faces, particularly in profile, will also tend
2:36:44
Speaker 1: to make one take notice and will awaken interest. If
2:36:49
Speaker 1: you are required to draw a nose, particularly from memory,
2:36:53
Speaker 1: you will be apt to give it your interested attention.
2:36:57
Speaker 1: The matter of interest is vital. If you were shown
2:37:01
Speaker 1: a man and told that the next time you met
2:37:03
Speaker 1: and recognized him, he would hand you over five hundred dollars,
2:37:08
Speaker 1: you would be very apt to study his face carefully
2:37:11
Speaker 1: and to recognize him later on, Whereas the same man,
2:37:16
Speaker 1: if introduced casually as a mister Jones, would arouse no
2:37:20
Speaker 1: interest and the chances of recognition would be slim. Halleck says,
2:37:27
Speaker 1: every time we enter a street car, we see different
2:37:31
Speaker 1: types of people, and there is a great deal to
2:37:33
Speaker 1: be noticed about each type. Every human countenance shows its
2:37:38
Speaker 1: past history to one who knows how to look. Successful
2:37:42
Speaker 1: gamblers often become so expert in noticing the slightest change
2:37:47
Speaker 1: of an opponent's facial expression that they will estimate the
2:37:51
Speaker 1: strength of his hand by the involuntary signs which appear
2:37:55
Speaker 1: in the face and which are frequently checked the instant
2:37:58
Speaker 1: they appear. Of all classes. Perhaps artists are more apt
2:38:04
Speaker 1: to form a clear cut image of the features of
2:38:06
Speaker 1: persons whom they meet, particularly if they are portrait painters.
2:38:12
Speaker 1: There are instances of celebrated portrait painters who were able
2:38:16
Speaker 1: to execute a good portrait after having once carefully studied
2:38:20
Speaker 1: the face of the sitter, their memory enabling them to
2:38:24
Speaker 1: visualize the features at will. Some celebrated teachers of drawing
2:38:30
Speaker 1: have instructed their scholars to take a sharp, hasty glance
2:38:34
Speaker 1: at a nose, an eye, an ear, or chin, and
2:38:38
Speaker 1: then to so clearly visualize it that they could draw
2:38:42
Speaker 1: it perfectly. It is all a matter of interest, attention,
2:38:47
Speaker 1: and practice. Sir Francis Galton cites the instance of a
2:38:52
Speaker 1: French teacher who trained his pupils so thoroughly in this
2:38:56
Speaker 1: direction that after a few months practice, they had no
2:39:00
Speaker 1: difficulty in summoning images at will, in holding them steady,
2:39:05
Speaker 1: and in drawing them correctly. He says of the faculty
2:39:10
Speaker 1: of visualization thus used, a faculty that is of importance
2:39:15
Speaker 1: in all technical and artistic occupations, that gives accuracy to
2:39:20
Speaker 1: our perceptions and justice to our generalizations, is starved by
2:39:25
Speaker 1: lazy disuse, instead of being cultivated judiciously in such a
2:39:29
Speaker 1: way as will on the whole bring the best return.
2:39:34
Speaker 1: I believe that a serious study of the best means
2:39:37
Speaker 1: of developing and utilizing this faculty, without prejudice to the
2:39:42
Speaker 1: practice of abstract thought and symbols, is one of the
2:39:45
Speaker 1: many pressing desiderata in the yet unformed science of education.
2:39:52
Speaker 1: Fuller relates the method of a celebrated painter, which method
2:39:56
Speaker 1: has been since taught by many teachers of both drawing
2:39:59
Speaker 1: and memory. He relates it as follows. The celebrated painter
2:40:06
Speaker 1: Leonardo da Vinci invented a most ingenious method for identifying faces,
2:40:12
Speaker 1: and by it is said to have been able to
2:40:15
Speaker 1: reproduce from memory any face that he had once carefully scrutinized.
2:40:21
Speaker 1: He drew all the possible forms of the nose, mouth, chin, eyes, ears,
2:40:27
Speaker 1: and forehead, numbered them one, two, three, four, et cetera,
2:40:32
Speaker 1: and committed them thoroughly to memory. Then, whenever he saw
2:40:37
Speaker 1: a face that he wished to draw or paint from memory,
2:40:41
Speaker 1: he noted in his mind that it was chin four eyes,
2:40:45
Speaker 1: two nose, five ears, six, or whatever the combinations might be.
2:40:52
Speaker 1: And by retaining the analysis in his memory, he could
2:40:56
Speaker 1: reconstruct the face at any time. We could scarcely ask
2:41:02
Speaker 1: the student to attempt so complicated a system, and yet
2:41:05
Speaker 1: a modification of it would prove useful. That is, if
2:41:10
Speaker 1: you would begin to form a classification of several kind
2:41:13
Speaker 1: of noses, say about seven the well known Roman, Jewish, Grecian,
2:41:20
Speaker 1: giving you the general classes in connection with straight, crooked,
2:41:25
Speaker 1: pug and all the other varieties, you would soon recognize
2:41:29
Speaker 1: noses when you saw them, and the same with mouths.
2:41:34
Speaker 1: A few classes being found to cover the majority of cases.
2:41:38
Speaker 1: But of all the features, the eye is the most
2:41:42
Speaker 1: expressive and the one most easily remembered when clearly noticed.
2:41:49
Speaker 1: Detectives rely much upon the expression of the eye. If
2:41:54
Speaker 1: you ever fully catch the expression of a person's eye,
2:41:58
Speaker 1: you will be very apt to recognize it. Thereafter. Therefore,
2:42:02
Speaker 1: concentrate on eyes in studying faces. A good plan in
2:42:08
Speaker 1: developing this faculty is to visualize the faces of persons
2:42:12
Speaker 1: you have met during the day. In the evening, try
2:42:16
Speaker 1: to develop the faculty of visualizing the features of those
2:42:20
Speaker 1: whom you know. This will start you off right. Draw
2:42:24
Speaker 1: them in your mind, see them with your mind's eye,
2:42:28
Speaker 1: until you can visualize the features of very old friends.
2:42:33
Speaker 1: Then do the same with acquaintances, and so on, until
2:42:37
Speaker 1: you are able to visualize the features of everyone you know.
2:42:42
Speaker 1: Then start on to add to your list by recalling
2:42:46
Speaker 1: in the imagination the features of strangers whom you meet.
2:42:51
Speaker 1: By a little practice of this kind, you will develop
2:42:55
Speaker 1: a great interest in faces, and your memory of them,
2:42:59
Speaker 1: and the power to recall them will increase rapidly. The
2:43:03
Speaker 1: secret is to study faces, to be interested in them.
2:43:09
Speaker 1: In this way you add zest to the task and
2:43:12
Speaker 1: make a pleasure of a drudgery. The study of photographs
2:43:17
Speaker 1: is also a great aid in this work, but study
2:43:20
Speaker 1: them in detail, not as a whole. If you can
2:43:24
Speaker 1: arouse sufficient interest in features and faces, you will have
2:43:29
Speaker 1: no trouble in remembering and recalling them. The two things
2:43:33
Speaker 1: go together. How to remember places. There is a great
2:43:40
Speaker 1: difference in the various degrees of development of the sense
2:43:43
Speaker 1: of locality in different persons. But these differences may be
2:43:48
Speaker 1: traced directly to the degree of memory of that particular
2:43:52
Speaker 1: phase or faculty of the mind, which in turn depends
2:43:55
Speaker 1: upon the degree of attention, interest, and use which has
2:43:59
Speaker 1: been upon the faculty in question. The authorities on phrenology
2:44:05
Speaker 1: define the faculty of locality as follows. Cognizance of place,
2:44:11
Speaker 1: recollection of the looks of places, roads, sceneries, and the
2:44:16
Speaker 1: location of objects where on a page ideas are to
2:44:20
Speaker 1: be found and positioned. Generally, the geographical faculty the desire
2:44:26
Speaker 1: to see places and have the ability to find them.
2:44:30
Speaker 1: Persons in whom this faculty is developed to the highest
2:44:34
Speaker 1: degree seem to have an almost intuitive idea of direction,
2:44:38
Speaker 1: place and position. They never get lost or mixed up
2:44:43
Speaker 1: regarding direction or place. They remember the places they visit
2:44:48
Speaker 1: and their relation and space to each other. Their minds
2:44:52
Speaker 1: are like maps upon which are engraved the various roads, streets,
2:44:57
Speaker 1: and objects of sight in every direc When these people
2:45:02
Speaker 1: think of China, Labrador, Terra del Fuego, Norway, Cape of
2:45:08
Speaker 1: Good Hope, Tibet, or any other place, they seem to
2:45:13
Speaker 1: think of it in this direction or that direction, rather
2:45:17
Speaker 1: than as a vague place situated in a vague direction.
2:45:22
Speaker 1: Their minds think north, south, east, or west, as the
2:45:27
Speaker 1: case may be, when they consider a given place shading
2:45:32
Speaker 1: down by degrees. We find people at the other pole
2:45:35
Speaker 1: of the faculty who seem to find it impossible to
2:45:39
Speaker 1: remember any direction or locality or relation in space. Such
2:45:45
Speaker 1: people are constantly losing themselves in their own towns, and
2:45:49
Speaker 1: fear to trust themselves in a strange place. They have
2:45:53
Speaker 1: no sense of direction or place, and fail to recognize
2:45:57
Speaker 1: a street or scene which they have visited, reat not
2:46:01
Speaker 1: to speak of those which they traveled over in time past.
2:46:05
Speaker 1: Between these two polls or degrees, there is a vast difference,
2:46:11
Speaker 1: and it is difficult to realize that it is all
2:46:13
Speaker 1: a matter of use, interest, and attention that it is.
2:46:18
Speaker 1: But this may be proven by anyone who will take
2:46:21
Speaker 1: the trouble and pains to develop the faculty and memory
2:46:25
Speaker 1: of locality within his mind. Many have done this, and
2:46:31
Speaker 1: anyone else may do likewise, if the proper methods be employed.
2:46:37
Speaker 1: The secret of the development of the faculty and memory
2:46:40
Speaker 1: of place and locality is akin to that mentioned in
2:46:44
Speaker 1: the preceding chapter, in connection with the development of the
2:46:47
Speaker 1: memory for names. The first thing necessary is to develop
2:46:53
Speaker 1: an interest in the subject. One should begin to take
2:46:57
Speaker 1: notice of the direction of the streets or roads or
2:47:00
Speaker 1: over which he travels, the landmarks, the turns of the road,
2:47:05
Speaker 1: the natural objects along the way. He should study maps
2:47:10
Speaker 1: until he awakens a new interest in them, just as
2:47:14
Speaker 1: did the man who used the directory. In order to
2:47:16
Speaker 1: take an interest in names, he should procure a small
2:47:20
Speaker 1: geography and study direction, distances, location, shape and form of countries,
2:47:27
Speaker 1: et cetera, not as a mere mechanical thing, but as
2:47:31
Speaker 1: a live subject of interest. If there were a large
2:47:36
Speaker 1: sum of money awaiting your coming in certain sections of
2:47:39
Speaker 1: the globe, you would manifest a decided interest in the direction, locality,
2:47:45
Speaker 1: and position of those places and the best way to
2:47:48
Speaker 1: reach them. Before long you would be a veritable reference
2:47:53
Speaker 1: book regarding those special places. Or if your sweetheart were
2:47:57
Speaker 1: waiting for you in some such place, you would do likewise.
2:48:02
Speaker 1: The whole thing lies in the degree of want to
2:48:05
Speaker 1: regarding the matter. Desire awakens interest. Interests employ attention, and
2:48:13
Speaker 1: attention brings use development and memory. Therefore, you must first
2:48:19
Speaker 1: want to develop the faculty of locality and want to
2:48:23
Speaker 1: hard enough. The rest is a mere matter of detail.
2:48:29
Speaker 1: One of the first things to do after arousing an
2:48:32
Speaker 1: interest is to carefully note the landmarks and relative positions
2:48:37
Speaker 1: of the streets or roads over which you travel. So
2:48:41
Speaker 1: many people travel along a new street or road in
2:48:45
Speaker 1: an absent minded manner, taking no notice of the lay
2:48:48
Speaker 1: of the land as they proceed. This is fatal to
2:48:52
Speaker 1: place memory. You must take notice of the thoroughfares and
2:48:56
Speaker 1: the things along the way. Pause at the crossroads or
2:49:01
Speaker 1: the street corners, and note the landmarks and the general
2:49:06
Speaker 1: directions and relative positions until they are finally imprinted on
2:49:11
Speaker 1: your mind. Begin to see how many things you can
2:49:15
Speaker 1: remember regarding even a little exercise walk, and when you
2:49:19
Speaker 1: have returned home, go over the trip in your mind
2:49:23
Speaker 1: and see how much of the direction and how many
2:49:26
Speaker 1: of the landmarks you are able to remember. Take out
2:49:30
Speaker 1: your pencil and endeavor to make a map of your route,
2:49:34
Speaker 1: giving the general directions and noting the street names and
2:49:39
Speaker 1: principal objects of interest. Fix the idea of north in
2:49:44
Speaker 1: your mind when starting, and keep your bearings by it
2:49:48
Speaker 1: during your whole trip and in your map making. You'll
2:49:52
Speaker 1: be surprised how much interest you will soon develop in
2:49:55
Speaker 1: this map making. It will get to be quite a game,
2:50:00
Speaker 1: and you will experience pleasure in your increasing proficiency in it.
2:50:05
Speaker 1: When you go out for a walk, go in a
2:50:08
Speaker 1: roundabout way, taking as many turns and twists as possible
2:50:13
Speaker 1: in order to exercise your faculty of locality and direction.
2:50:18
Speaker 1: But always note carefully direction and general course, so that
2:50:22
Speaker 1: you may reproduce it correctly on your map when you return.
2:50:27
Speaker 1: If you have a city map, compare it with your
2:50:30
Speaker 1: own little map, and also retrace your route in imagination
2:50:35
Speaker 1: on the map. With a city map or road map,
2:50:40
Speaker 1: you may get lots of amusement by re traveling the
2:50:43
Speaker 1: route of your little journeys. Always note the names of
2:50:48
Speaker 1: the various streets over which you travel, as well as
2:50:51
Speaker 1: those which you cross during your walk. Note them down
2:50:56
Speaker 1: upon your map, and you will find that you will
2:50:58
Speaker 1: develop a rapidly improving memory in this direction because you
2:51:03
Speaker 1: have awakened interest and bestowed attention. Take a pride in
2:51:08
Speaker 1: your map making. If you have a companion, endeavor to
2:51:13
Speaker 1: beat each other at this game, both traveling over the
2:51:16
Speaker 1: same route together and then seeing which one can remember
2:51:20
Speaker 1: the greatest number of details of the journey. Akin to this,
2:51:25
Speaker 1: and supplementary to it, is the plan of selecting a
2:51:28
Speaker 1: route to be traveled on your city map, endeavoring to
2:51:32
Speaker 1: fix in your mind the general directions, names of streets, turns, return, journey, etc.
2:51:40
Speaker 1: Before you start. Begin by mapping out a short trip
2:51:44
Speaker 1: in this way, and then increase it every day. After
2:51:49
Speaker 1: mapping out a trip, lay aside your map and travel
2:51:53
Speaker 1: it in person. If you like, take along the map
2:51:57
Speaker 1: and puzzle out variations from time to time. Get the
2:52:02
Speaker 1: map habit in every possible variation and form, but do
2:52:07
Speaker 1: not depend upon the map exclusively, but instead endeavor to
2:52:12
Speaker 1: correlate the printed map with the mental map that you
2:52:15
Speaker 1: are building in your brain. If you are about to
2:52:19
Speaker 1: take a journey to a strange place, study your maps
2:52:23
Speaker 1: carefully before you go, and exercise your memory in reproducing
2:52:27
Speaker 1: them with a pencil. Then, as you travel along, compare
2:52:33
Speaker 1: places with your map, and you will find that you
2:52:36
Speaker 1: will take an entirely new interest in the trip. It
2:52:40
Speaker 1: will begin by meaning something to you. If about to
2:52:44
Speaker 1: visit a strange city, procure a map of it before starting,
2:52:48
Speaker 1: and begin by noting the cardinal points of the compass.
2:52:52
Speaker 1: Study the map, the directions of the principal streets, and
2:52:56
Speaker 1: the relative positions of the principal points of interest buildings,
2:53:00
Speaker 1: et cetera. In this way, you not only develop your
2:53:05
Speaker 1: memory of places and render yourself proof against being lost,
2:53:11
Speaker 1: but you also provide a source of new and great
2:53:13
Speaker 1: interest in your visit. The above suggestions are capable of
2:53:19
Speaker 1: the greatest expansion and variation on the part of anyone
2:53:23
Speaker 1: who practices them. The whole thing depends upon the taking
2:53:27
Speaker 1: notice and using the attention, and those things, in turn
2:53:33
Speaker 1: depend upon the taking of interest in the subject. If
2:53:37
Speaker 1: anyone will wake up and take interest in the subject
2:53:40
Speaker 1: of locality and direction, he may develop himself along the
2:53:45
Speaker 1: lines of place memory to an almost incredible degree in
2:53:49
Speaker 1: a comparatively short time. At that There is no other
2:53:54
Speaker 1: phase of memory that so quickly responds to use and
2:53:57
Speaker 1: exercise as this one. We have in mind a lady
2:54:02
Speaker 1: who was notoriously deficient in the memory of place, and
2:54:06
Speaker 1: was sure to lose herself a few blocks from her
2:54:09
Speaker 1: stopping place. Wherever she might be, she seemed absolutely devoid
2:54:15
Speaker 1: of the sense of direction or locality, and often lost
2:54:19
Speaker 1: herself in the hotel corridors, notwithstanding the fact that she
2:54:23
Speaker 1: traveled all over the world with her husband for years.
2:54:29
Speaker 1: The trouble undoubtedly arose from the fact that she depended
2:54:33
Speaker 1: altogether upon her husband as a pilot, the couple being inseparable. Well,
2:54:40
Speaker 1: the husband died and the lady lost her pilot. Instead
2:54:45
Speaker 1: of giving up in despair, she began to rise to
2:54:49
Speaker 1: the occasion, having no pilot, she had to pilot herself,
2:54:54
Speaker 1: and she was forced to wake up and notice. She
2:54:58
Speaker 1: was compelled to travel for a couple of years in
2:55:01
Speaker 1: order to close up certain business matters of her husband's,
2:55:05
Speaker 1: For she was a good businesswoman in spite of her
2:55:08
Speaker 1: lack of development along this one line, and in order
2:55:12
Speaker 1: to get around safely, she was forced to take an
2:55:15
Speaker 1: interest in where she was going. Before the two years
2:55:19
Speaker 1: travels were over, she was as good a traveler as
2:55:23
Speaker 1: her husband had ever been, and was frequently called upon
2:55:27
Speaker 1: as a guide by others in whose company she chanced
2:55:30
Speaker 1: to be. She explained it by saying, why, I don't
2:55:35
Speaker 1: know just how I did it. I just had to
2:55:38
Speaker 1: that's all. I just did it, another example of a
2:55:43
Speaker 1: woman's because you see, what this good lady just did
2:55:48
Speaker 1: was accomplished by an instinctive following of the plan which
2:55:52
Speaker 1: we have suggested to you. She just had to use
2:55:57
Speaker 1: maps and to take notice. That is the whole story.
2:56:02
Speaker 1: So true are the principles underlying this method of developing
2:56:06
Speaker 1: the place memory, that one deficient in it, providing he
2:56:10
Speaker 1: will arouse intense interest and will stick to it, may
2:56:14
Speaker 1: develop the faculty to such an extent that he may
2:56:18
Speaker 1: almost rival a cat which always came back, or the
2:56:22
Speaker 1: dog which you couldn't lose. The Indians, Arabs, Gypsies, and
2:56:29
Speaker 1: other people of the plain, forest, desert and mountains have
2:56:34
Speaker 1: this faculty so highly developed that it seems almost like
2:56:38
Speaker 1: an extra sense. It is all this matter of taking notice,
2:56:44
Speaker 1: sharpened by continuous need, use and exercise to a high degree.
2:56:52
Speaker 1: The mind will respond to the need if the person,
2:56:55
Speaker 1: like the lady, just has to the laws of attention
2:57:00
Speaker 1: and association will work. Wonders when actively called into play
2:57:04
Speaker 1: by interest or need, followed by exercise and use. There
2:57:11
Speaker 1: is no magic in the process. Just want to and
2:57:15
Speaker 1: keep at it, that's all. Do you want to hard enough?
2:57:20
Speaker 1: Have you the determination to keep at it? How to
2:57:24
Speaker 1: remember numbers? The faculty of number, that is, the faculty
2:57:30
Speaker 1: of knowing, recognizing, and remembering figures in the abstract and
2:57:35
Speaker 1: in their relation to each other, differs very materially among
2:57:39
Speaker 1: different individuals. To some figures and numbers are apprehended and
2:57:45
Speaker 1: remembered with ease, while to others they possess no interest, attraction,
2:57:51
Speaker 1: or affinity, and consequently are not apt to be remembered.
2:57:56
Speaker 1: It is generally admitted by the best authorities that the
2:58:00
Speaker 1: memorizing of dates, figures, numbers, etc. Is the most difficult
2:58:05
Speaker 1: of any of the phases of memory, but all agree
2:58:08
Speaker 1: that the faculty may be developed by practice and interest.
2:58:13
Speaker 1: There have been instances of persons having this faculty of
2:58:17
Speaker 1: the mind developed to a degree almost incredible, and other
2:58:21
Speaker 1: instances of persons having started with an aversion to figures
2:58:25
Speaker 1: and then developing an interest which resulted in their acquiring
2:58:29
Speaker 1: a remarkable degree of proficiency. Along these lines, many of
2:58:34
Speaker 1: the celebrated mathematicians and astronomers developed wonderful memories for figures.
2:58:41
Speaker 1: Herschel is said to have been able to remember all
2:58:44
Speaker 1: the details of intricate calculations in his astronomical computations, even
2:58:49
Speaker 1: to the figures of the fractions. It is said that
2:58:53
Speaker 1: he was able to perform the most intricate calculations mentally
2:58:57
Speaker 1: without the use of pen or pencil, and then dictated
2:59:01
Speaker 1: to his assistant the entire details of the process, including
2:59:05
Speaker 1: the final results. Tycho Bras, the astronomer, also possessed a
2:59:12
Speaker 1: similar memory. It is said that he rebelled at being
2:59:15
Speaker 1: compelled to refer to the printed tables of square roots
2:59:19
Speaker 1: and cube roots, and set to work to memorize the
2:59:22
Speaker 1: entire set of tables, which almost incredible task be accomplished
2:59:27
Speaker 1: in a half day. This required the memorizing of over
2:59:32
Speaker 1: seventy five thousand figures and the relations to each other.
2:59:37
Speaker 1: Euler the mathematician became blind in his old age, and
2:59:42
Speaker 1: being unable to refer to his tables, memorized them. It
2:59:46
Speaker 1: is said that he was able to repeat from recollection
2:59:49
Speaker 1: the first six powers of all the numbers from one
2:59:53
Speaker 1: to one hundred. Wallace the mathematician was a prodigy in
2:59:58
Speaker 1: this respect. He is reported to have been able to
3:00:01
Speaker 1: mentally extract the square root of a number to forty
3:00:05
Speaker 1: decimal places, and on one occasion mentally extracted the cube
3:00:10
Speaker 1: roote of a number consisting of thirty figures. Days is
3:00:15
Speaker 1: said to have mentally multiplied two numbers of one hundred
3:00:18
Speaker 1: figures each. A youth named Mongiemel was able to perform
3:00:24
Speaker 1: the most remarkable feats in mental arithmetic. The reports showed
3:00:29
Speaker 1: that upon a celebrated test before members of the French
3:00:32
Speaker 1: Academy of Sciences, he was able to extract the cube
3:00:36
Speaker 1: route of three million, seven hundred ninety six thousand, four
3:00:40
Speaker 1: hundred and sixteen in thirty seconds, and the tenth route
3:00:45
Speaker 1: of two hundred eighty two million, four hundred seventy five thousand,
3:00:50
Speaker 1: two hundred eighty nine in three minutes. He also immediately
3:00:55
Speaker 1: solved the following question put to him by Arago. What
3:01:00
Speaker 1: number has the following proportion that if five times the
3:01:05
Speaker 1: number be subtracted from the cube plus five times the
3:01:09
Speaker 1: square of the number, and nine times the square of
3:01:12
Speaker 1: the number be subtracted from that result, the remainder will
3:01:17
Speaker 1: be zero. The answer five was given immediately without putting
3:01:23
Speaker 1: down a figure on paper or board. It is related
3:01:28
Speaker 1: that a cashier of a Chicago bank was able to
3:01:31
Speaker 1: mentally restore the accounts of the bank which had been
3:01:35
Speaker 1: destroyed in the great fire in that city, and his account,
3:01:38
Speaker 1: which was accepted by the bank and the depositors, was
3:01:42
Speaker 1: found to agree perfectly with the other memoranda. In the case,
3:01:46
Speaker 1: the work performed by him being solely the work of
3:01:49
Speaker 1: his memory. Bidder was able to tell instantly the number
3:01:54
Speaker 1: of farthings in the sum of eight hundred and sixty
3:01:58
Speaker 1: eight pounds forty two shillings one hundred and twenty one pence.
3:02:03
Speaker 1: Buxton mentally calculated the number of cubicle eighths of an
3:02:07
Speaker 1: inch there were in a quadrangular mass twenty three million,
3:02:12
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty five thousand, seven hundred and eighty
3:02:15
Speaker 1: nine yards long, two million, six hundred and forty two thousand,
3:02:20
Speaker 1: seven hundred and thirty two yards wide, and fifty four thousand,
3:02:25
Speaker 1: nine hundred and sixty five yards in thickness. He also
3:02:29
Speaker 1: figured out mentally the dimensions of an irregular estate of
3:02:34
Speaker 1: about one thousand acres, giving the contents in acres and perches,
3:02:39
Speaker 1: then reducing them to square inches, and then reducing them
3:02:43
Speaker 1: to square hair breadths, estimating two thousand, three hundred and
3:02:48
Speaker 1: four to the square inch forty eight to each side.
3:02:53
Speaker 1: The mathematical prodigy zero Coalburn was perhaps the most remarkable
3:02:59
Speaker 1: of any of these remins re markable people. When a
3:03:02
Speaker 1: mere child, he began to develop the most amazing qualities
3:03:06
Speaker 1: of mind regarding figures. He was able to instantly make
3:03:11
Speaker 1: the mental calculation of the exact number of seconds or
3:03:14
Speaker 1: minutes there was in a given time. On one occasion,
3:03:19
Speaker 1: he calculated the number of minutes and seconds contained in
3:03:23
Speaker 1: forty eight years. The answer twenty five million, two hundred
3:03:28
Speaker 1: and twenty eight thousand, eight hundred minutes and one billion,
3:03:33
Speaker 1: five hundred and thirteen million, seven hundred and twenty eight
3:03:37
Speaker 1: thousand seconds being given almost instantaneously. He could instantly multiply
3:03:44
Speaker 1: any number of one to three figures by another number
3:03:48
Speaker 1: consisting of the same number of figures, the factors of
3:03:52
Speaker 1: any number consisting of six or seven figures, the square
3:03:56
Speaker 1: and ce brutes, and the prime numbers of any numbers
3:04:00
Speaker 1: given him. He mentally raised the number eight progressively to
3:04:06
Speaker 1: its sixteenth power, the result being two hundred eighty one trillion,
3:04:12
Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy four billion, nine hundred and seventy
3:04:16
Speaker 1: six million, seven hundred and ten thousand, six hundred and
3:04:20
Speaker 1: fifty six, and gave the square root of one hundred
3:04:25
Speaker 1: six thousand, nine hundred twenty nine, which was five. He
3:04:30
Speaker 1: mentally extracted the qube root of two hundred and sixty
3:04:34
Speaker 1: eight million, three hundred and thirty six thousand, one hundred
3:04:38
Speaker 1: and twenty five, and the squares of two hundred and
3:04:41
Speaker 1: forty four million, nine hundred ninety nine thousand, seven hundred
3:04:46
Speaker 1: and fifty five and one billion, two hundred and twenty
3:04:50
Speaker 1: four million, nine hundred ninety eight thousand, seven hundred and
3:04:55
Speaker 1: fifty five In five seconds, he calculated the q root
3:05:00
Speaker 1: of four hundred and thirteen billion, nine hundred ninety three million,
3:05:06
Speaker 1: three hundred and forty eight thousand, six hundred and seventy seven.
3:05:10
Speaker 1: He found the factors of four billion, two hundred ninety
3:05:14
Speaker 1: four million, nine hundred and sixty seven thousand, two hundred
3:05:19
Speaker 1: ninety seven, which had previously been considered to be a
3:05:23
Speaker 1: prime number. He mentally calculated the square of nine hundred
3:05:28
Speaker 1: ninety nine thousand, nine hundred ninety nine, which is nine
3:05:33
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety nine billion, nine hundred ninety eight million
3:05:37
Speaker 1: and one, and then multiplied that number by forty nine,
3:05:42
Speaker 1: and the product by the same number, and the whole
3:05:45
Speaker 1: by twenty five, the latter as extra measure. The great
3:05:51
Speaker 1: difficulty in remembering numbers to the majority of persons is
3:05:56
Speaker 1: the fact that numbers do not mean anything to them.
3:05:59
Speaker 1: That is, the numbers are thought of only in their
3:06:02
Speaker 1: abstract phase and nature, and are consequently far more difficult
3:06:07
Speaker 1: to remember than are the impressions received from the senses
3:06:11
Speaker 1: of sight or sound. The remedy, however, becomes apparent when
3:06:16
Speaker 1: we recognize the source of the difficulty. The remedy is
3:06:21
Speaker 1: make the number the subject of sound and sight impressions.
3:06:26
Speaker 1: Attach the abstract idea of the numbers to the sense
3:06:30
Speaker 1: of impressions of sight or sound, or both, according to
3:06:34
Speaker 1: which are the best developed. In your particular case, it
3:06:38
Speaker 1: may be difficult for you to remember eighteen forty eight
3:06:42
Speaker 1: as an abstract thing, but comparatively easy for you to
3:06:46
Speaker 1: remember the sound of eighteen forty eight or the shape
3:06:51
Speaker 1: and appearance of eighteen forty eight. If you will repeat
3:06:56
Speaker 1: a number to yourself so that you grasp the sound
3:06:59
Speaker 1: impress of it, or else visualize it so that you
3:07:03
Speaker 1: can remember having seen it, then you will be far
3:07:06
Speaker 1: more apt to remember it than if you merely think
3:07:08
Speaker 1: of it without reference to sound or form. You may
3:07:13
Speaker 1: forget that the number of a certain store or house
3:07:16
Speaker 1: is thirty nine forty eight, but you may easily remember
3:07:20
Speaker 1: the sound of the spoken words thirty nine forty eight,
3:07:25
Speaker 1: or the form of thirty nine forty eight as it
3:07:28
Speaker 1: appeared to your sight on the door of the place.
3:07:31
Speaker 1: In the latter case, you associate the number with the door,
3:07:36
Speaker 1: and when you visualize the door, you visualize the number K.
3:07:41
Speaker 1: Speaking of visualization, or the reproduction of mental images of
3:07:46
Speaker 1: things to be remembered, says those who have been distinguished
3:07:50
Speaker 1: for their power to carry out long and intricate processes
3:07:54
Speaker 1: of mental calculation, owe it to the same cause as
3:08:00
Speaker 1: children accustomed to calculate in their heads write mentally with
3:08:05
Speaker 1: chalk on an imaginary board the figures in question than
3:08:10
Speaker 1: all their partial operations, than the final sum, so that
3:08:15
Speaker 1: they see internally the different lines of white figures with
3:08:18
Speaker 1: which they are concerned. Young Colburn, who had never been
3:08:23
Speaker 1: at school and did not know how to read or write,
3:08:27
Speaker 1: said that when making his calculations, he saw them clearly
3:08:31
Speaker 1: before him. Another said that he saw the numbers he
3:08:35
Speaker 1: was working with as if they had been written on
3:08:38
Speaker 1: a slate. Bidder says, if I perform a sum mentally,
3:08:44
Speaker 1: it always proceeds in a visible form in my mind. Indeed,
3:08:49
Speaker 1: I can conceive of no other way possible of doing
3:08:52
Speaker 1: mental arithmetic. We have known office boys who could never
3:08:56
Speaker 1: remember the number of an address until it were distinctly
3:09:00
Speaker 1: repeated to them several times. Then they memorize the sound
3:09:05
Speaker 1: and never forgot it. Others forget the sounds or fail
3:09:10
Speaker 1: to register them in the mind, but after once seeing
3:09:13
Speaker 1: the number on the door of an office or store,
3:09:17
Speaker 1: could repeat it at a moment's notice saying that they
3:09:20
Speaker 1: mentally could see the figures on the door. You will find,
3:09:25
Speaker 1: by a little questioning, that the majority of people remember
3:09:28
Speaker 1: figures or numbers in this way, and that very few
3:09:32
Speaker 1: can remember them as abstract things. For that matter, it
3:09:36
Speaker 1: is difficult for the majority of persons to even think
3:09:39
Speaker 1: of a number Abstractly, try it yourself and ascertain whether
3:09:45
Speaker 1: you do not remember the number as either a sound
3:09:48
Speaker 1: of words, or else as the mental image or visualization
3:09:52
Speaker 1: of the form of the figures, And by the way,
3:09:57
Speaker 1: whichever it happens to be sight or sound, that particular
3:10:01
Speaker 1: kind of remembrance is your best way of remembering numbers,
3:10:06
Speaker 1: and consequently gives you the lines upon which you should
3:10:09
Speaker 1: proceed to develop this phase of memory. The law of
3:10:14
Speaker 1: association may be used advantageously in memorizing numbers. For instance,
3:10:20
Speaker 1: we know of a person who remembered the number one
3:10:23
Speaker 1: hundred eighty six thousand, the number of miles per second
3:10:27
Speaker 1: traveled by lightwaves in the ether, by associating it with
3:10:31
Speaker 1: the number of his father's former place of business, one
3:10:35
Speaker 1: eighty six. Another remembered his telephone number one eight seven
3:10:41
Speaker 1: six by recalling the date of the declaration of independence,
3:10:46
Speaker 1: another the number of states in the Union by associating
3:10:50
Speaker 1: it with the last two figures of the number of
3:10:53
Speaker 1: his place of business. But by far the better way
3:10:57
Speaker 1: to memorize dates, special numbers connected with events, et cetera,
3:11:02
Speaker 1: is to visualize the picture of the event with the
3:11:05
Speaker 1: picture of the date or number, thus combining the two
3:11:09
Speaker 1: things into a mental picture, the association of which will
3:11:13
Speaker 1: be preserved when the picture is recalled. Verse of doggerel,
3:11:19
Speaker 1: such as in fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed
3:11:23
Speaker 1: the ocean blue, or in eighteen hundred and sixty one
3:11:28
Speaker 1: our country civil war begun, et cetera, have their places
3:11:33
Speaker 1: and uses, but it is far better to cultivate the
3:11:36
Speaker 1: sight or sound of a number than to depend upon
3:11:40
Speaker 1: cumbersome associative methods based on artificial links and pegs. Finally,
3:11:47
Speaker 1: as we have said in the preceding chapters, before one
3:11:50
Speaker 1: can develop a good memory of a subject, he must
3:11:54
Speaker 1: first cultivate an interest in that subject. Therefore, if you
3:11:58
Speaker 1: will keep your interest in figures alive by working out
3:12:02
Speaker 1: a few problems in mathematics once in a while, you
3:12:06
Speaker 1: will find that figures will begin to have a new
3:12:08
Speaker 1: interest for you. A little elementary arithmetic used with interest
3:12:14
Speaker 1: will do more to start you on the road to
3:12:17
Speaker 1: how to remember numbers than a dozen textbooks on the subject.
3:12:22
Speaker 1: In memory, the three rules are interest, attention, and exercise,
3:12:28
Speaker 1: and the last is the most important, for without it
3:12:32
Speaker 1: the others fail. You will be surprised to see how
3:12:37
Speaker 1: many interesting things there are in figures. As you proceed
3:12:41
Speaker 1: the task of going over the elementary arithmetic will not
3:12:44
Speaker 1: be nearly so dry as when you were a child.
3:12:49
Speaker 1: You will uncover all sorts of queer things in relation
3:12:52
Speaker 1: to numbers. Just as a sample, let us call your
3:12:56
Speaker 1: attention to a few. Take the figure one and place
3:13:01
Speaker 1: behind it a number of knots.
3:13:04
Speaker 2: Thus one zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero
3:13:09
Speaker 2: zero zero zero zero as many knots or ciphers as
3:13:14
Speaker 2: you wish. Then divide the number by the figure seven.
3:13:20
Speaker 2: You will find that the result is always this one
3:13:23
Speaker 2: forty two, eight fifty seven, then another one forty two,
3:13:28
Speaker 2: eight fifty seven, and so on to infinity. If you
3:13:32
Speaker 2: wish to carry the calculation that far, these six figures
3:13:37
Speaker 2: will be repeated.
3:13:38
Speaker 1: Over and over again. Then multiply this one, four, two, eight,
3:13:44
Speaker 1: five seven by the figure seven, and your product will
3:13:48
Speaker 1: be all nines. Then take any number and set it down,
3:13:54
Speaker 1: placing beneath it a reversal of itself, and subtract the
3:13:58
Speaker 1: latter from the former. Thus one one, seven, seven, six,
3:14:03
Speaker 1: one nine oh nine minus nine zero nine one six,
3:14:09
Speaker 1: seven seven one equals two six, eight, four, five, one
3:14:15
Speaker 1: three eight, and you will find that the result will
3:14:19
Speaker 1: always reduce to nine and is always a multiple of nine.
3:14:24
Speaker 1: Take any number composed of two or more figures and
3:14:28
Speaker 1: subtract from it the added sum of its separate figures,
3:14:32
Speaker 1: and the result is always a multiple of nine. Thus
3:14:36
Speaker 1: one eighty four minus one plus eight plus four equals
3:14:42
Speaker 1: thirteen equals one seventy one divided by nine equals nineteen.
3:14:50
Speaker 1: We mention these familiar examples merely to remind you that
3:14:54
Speaker 1: there is much more of interest in mere figures than
3:14:57
Speaker 1: many would suppose. If you can arouse your interest in them,
3:15:02
Speaker 1: then you will be well started on the road to
3:15:04
Speaker 1: the memorizing of numbers. Let figures and numbers mean something
3:15:09
Speaker 1: to you, and the rest will be merely a matter
3:15:12
Speaker 1: of detail. How to remember music, Like all of the
3:15:19
Speaker 1: other faculties of the mind, that of music or tune
3:15:23
Speaker 1: is manifested in varying degrees by different individuals. To some,
3:15:29
Speaker 1: music seems to be almost instinctively grasped, while to others
3:15:33
Speaker 1: it is acquired only by great effort and much labor.
3:15:38
Speaker 1: To some, harmony is natural and in harmony a matter
3:15:42
Speaker 1: of repulsion, while others fail to recognize the difference between
3:15:47
Speaker 1: the two. Except in extreme cases. Some seem to be
3:15:51
Speaker 1: the very soul of music, while others have no conception
3:15:55
Speaker 1: of what the soul of music may be. Then there
3:15:59
Speaker 1: is manifest test the different phases of the knowledge of music.
3:16:03
Speaker 1: Some play correctly by ear, but are clumsy and inefficient
3:16:07
Speaker 1: when it comes to playing by note. Others play very
3:16:12
Speaker 1: correctly in a mechanical manner, but fail to retain the
3:16:15
Speaker 1: memory of music which they have heard. It is indeed
3:16:19
Speaker 1: a good musician who combines within himself or herself both
3:16:24
Speaker 1: of the two last mentioned faculties, the ear perception of
3:16:28
Speaker 1: music and the ability to execute correctly from notes. There
3:16:33
Speaker 1: are many cases of record in which extraordinary powers of
3:16:36
Speaker 1: memory of music have been manifested. Fuller relates the following
3:16:41
Speaker 1: instances of this particular phase of memory. Carolyn, the greatest
3:16:46
Speaker 1: of Irish bards, once met a noted musician and challenged
3:16:51
Speaker 1: him to a test of their respective musical abilities. The
3:16:55
Speaker 1: DeFi was accepted, and Carolyn's rival played on his vile
3:17:00
Speaker 1: in one of Vivaldi's most difficult concertos. On the conclusion
3:17:05
Speaker 1: of the performance, Carolin, who had never heard the piece before,
3:17:10
Speaker 1: took his harp and played the concerto through from beginning
3:17:14
Speaker 1: to end without making a single error. His rival thereupon
3:17:19
Speaker 1: yielded the palm, thoroughly satisfied of Caroline's superiority. As well
3:17:25
Speaker 1: he might be. Beethoven could retain in his memory any
3:17:30
Speaker 1: musical composition, however complex, that he had listened to, and
3:17:35
Speaker 1: could reproduce most of it. He could play from memory
3:17:39
Speaker 1: every one of the compositions in Bach's well tempered Clavichord,
3:17:44
Speaker 1: there being forty eight preludes and the same number of figures, which,
3:17:49
Speaker 1: in intricacy of movement and difficulty of execution, are almost unexampled,
3:17:55
Speaker 1: as each of these compositions is written in the most
3:17:58
Speaker 1: abstruse style of counterpoint. Mozart, at four years of age,
3:18:05
Speaker 1: could remember note for note elaborate solos and concertos which
3:18:09
Speaker 1: he had heard. He could learn a minuet in half
3:18:13
Speaker 1: an hour and even composed short pieces at that early age.
3:18:18
Speaker 1: At six, he was able to compose without the aid
3:18:21
Speaker 1: of an instrument, and continued to advance rapidly in musical
3:18:25
Speaker 1: memory and knowledge. When fourteen years old, he went to Rome.
3:18:31
Speaker 1: In Holy Week at the Sistine Chapel, was performed each
3:18:35
Speaker 1: day Allegre's Miserare, the score of which Mozart wished to obtain,
3:18:42
Speaker 1: but he learned that no copies were allowed to be made.
3:18:46
Speaker 1: He listened attentively to the performance, at the conclusion of
3:18:50
Speaker 1: which he wrote the whole score from memory without an error.
3:18:55
Speaker 1: Another time, Mozart was engaged to contribute an original composition
3:19:00
Speaker 1: to be formed by a noted violinist and himself at
3:19:03
Speaker 1: Vienna before the Emperor Joseph. On arriving at the appointed place,
3:19:09
Speaker 1: Mozart discovered that he had forgotten to bring his part.
3:19:14
Speaker 1: Nothing dismayed, he placed a blank sheet of paper before
3:19:18
Speaker 1: him and played his part through from memory without a mistake.
3:19:24
Speaker 1: When the opera of Don Giovanni was first performed, there
3:19:28
Speaker 1: was no time to copy the score for the harpsichord,
3:19:32
Speaker 1: but Mozart was equal to the occasion. He conducted the
3:19:36
Speaker 1: entire opera and played the harpsichord accompaniment to the songs
3:19:40
Speaker 1: and choruses without a note before him. There are many
3:19:45
Speaker 1: well attested instances of Mendelssohn's remarkable musical memory. He once
3:19:51
Speaker 1: gave a grand concert in London, at which his overture
3:19:55
Speaker 1: to Midsummer Night's Dream was produced. There was only one
3:20:00
Speaker 1: copy of the full score, which was taken charge of
3:20:04
Speaker 1: by the organist of Saint Paul's Cathedral, who unfortunately left
3:20:08
Speaker 1: it in a Hackney coach, whereupon Mendelssohn wrote out another
3:20:13
Speaker 1: score from memory without an error. At another time, when
3:20:18
Speaker 1: about to direct a public performance of Bach's Passion Music,
3:20:23
Speaker 1: he found, on mounting the conductor's platform that instead of
3:20:27
Speaker 1: the score of the work to be performed, that of
3:20:30
Speaker 1: another composition had been brought by mistake. Without hesitation, Mendelssohn
3:20:36
Speaker 1: successfully conducted this complicated work from memory, automatically turning over
3:20:42
Speaker 1: leaf after leaf of the score before him as the
3:20:45
Speaker 1: performance progressed, so that no feeling of uneasiness might enter
3:20:50
Speaker 1: the minds of the orchestra and singers. Gotschalk, it is said,
3:20:55
Speaker 1: could play for memory several thousand compositions, including many of
3:21:01
Speaker 1: the works of Bach. The noted conductor Vanessi rarely has
3:21:07
Speaker 1: the score before him in conducting an opera. Knowing every
3:21:10
Speaker 1: note of many operas from memory, it will be seen
3:21:15
Speaker 1: that two phases of memory must enter into the memory
3:21:18
Speaker 1: of music, the memory of tune and the memory of
3:21:22
Speaker 1: the notes. The memory of tune, of course, falls into
3:21:27
Speaker 1: the class of ear impressions, and what has been said
3:21:30
Speaker 1: regarding them is also applicable to this case. The memory
3:21:35
Speaker 1: of notes falls into the classification of eye impressions, and
3:21:40
Speaker 1: the rules of this class of memory applies in this case.
3:21:45
Speaker 1: As to the cultivation of the memory of tune, the
3:21:48
Speaker 1: principal advice to be given is that the student take
3:21:52
Speaker 1: an active interest in all that pertains to the sound
3:21:55
Speaker 1: of music, and also takes every opportunity for listening to
3:21:59
Speaker 1: goodness music and endeavoring to reproduce it in the imagination
3:22:04
Speaker 1: or memory. Endeavor to enter into the spirit of the
3:22:08
Speaker 1: music until it becomes a part of yourself. Rest not
3:22:13
Speaker 1: content with merely hearing it, but lend yourself to a
3:22:16
Speaker 1: feeling of its meaning. The more the music means to you,
3:22:22
Speaker 1: the more easily you will remember it. The plan followed
3:22:26
Speaker 1: by many students, particularly those of vocal music is to
3:22:31
Speaker 1: have a few bars of a piece played over to
3:22:33
Speaker 1: them several times until they are able to hum it correctly.
3:22:38
Speaker 1: Then a few more are added, and then a few more,
3:22:42
Speaker 1: and so on. Each edition must be reviewed in connection
3:22:46
Speaker 1: with that which was learned before, so that the chain
3:22:50
Speaker 1: of association may be kept unbroken. The principle is the
3:22:55
Speaker 1: same as the child learning his ABC, he remembers B
3:23:00
Speaker 1: because it follows a. By this constant edition of just
3:23:05
Speaker 1: a little bit more, accompanied by frequent reviews, long and
3:23:09
Speaker 1: difficult pieces may be memorized. The memory of notes may
3:23:15
Speaker 1: be developed by the method above named the method of
3:23:19
Speaker 1: learning a few bars well, and then adding a few more,
3:23:23
Speaker 1: and frequently reviewing as far as you have learned, forging
3:23:28
Speaker 1: the lengths of association as you go along by frequent practice,
3:23:33
Speaker 1: the method being entirely that of eye impression, and subject
3:23:37
Speaker 1: to its rules. You must observe the idea of visualization,
3:23:43
Speaker 1: that is, learning each bar until you can see it
3:23:46
Speaker 1: in your mind's eye as you proceed. But in this,
3:23:51
Speaker 1: as in many other I impressions, you will find that
3:23:55
Speaker 1: you will be greatly aided by your memory of the
3:23:57
Speaker 1: sound of the notes, in addition to their appearance try
3:24:02
Speaker 1: to associate the two as much as possible, so that
3:24:05
Speaker 1: when you see a note, you will hear the sound
3:24:08
Speaker 1: of it, and when you hear a note sounded, you
3:24:12
Speaker 1: will see it as it appears on the score. This
3:24:16
Speaker 1: combining of the impressions of both side and sound will
3:24:20
Speaker 1: give you the benefit of the double sense impression, which
3:24:24
Speaker 1: results in doubling your memory efficiency. In addition to visualizing
3:24:29
Speaker 1: the notes themselves, the student should add the appearance of
3:24:33
Speaker 1: the various symbols denoting the key, the time, the movement, expression,
3:24:39
Speaker 1: et cetera, so that he may hum the air from
3:24:42
Speaker 1: the visualized notes with expression and with correct interpretation. Changes
3:24:49
Speaker 1: of key, time, or movement should be carefully noted in
3:24:53
Speaker 1: the memorization of the notes. Memorize the feeling of that
3:24:57
Speaker 1: particular portion of the score, that you may not only
3:25:01
Speaker 1: see and hear it, but also feel that which you
3:25:04
Speaker 1: are recalling. We would advise the student to practice memorizing
3:25:10
Speaker 1: simple songs at first for various reasons. One of these
3:25:15
Speaker 1: reasons is that these songs lend themselves readily to memorizing,
3:25:20
Speaker 1: and the chain of easy association is usually maintained throughout
3:25:25
Speaker 1: in this phase of memory. As in all others. We
3:25:29
Speaker 1: add the advice to take interest, bestow attention, and practice
3:25:35
Speaker 1: and exercise as often as possible. You may have tired
3:25:40
Speaker 1: of these words, but they constitute the main principles of
3:25:44
Speaker 1: the development of a retentive memory. Things must be impressed
3:25:49
Speaker 1: upon the memory before they may be recalled. This should
3:25:54
Speaker 1: be remembered in every consideration of the subject. How to
3:25:58
Speaker 1: remember occurrence, The phase of memory which manifests in the
3:26:04
Speaker 1: recording of and recollection of the occurrences and details of
3:26:09
Speaker 1: one's everyday life, is far more important than would appear
3:26:13
Speaker 1: at first thought. The average person is under the impression
3:26:17
Speaker 1: that he remembers very well the occurrences of his everyday business, professional,
3:26:23
Speaker 1: or social life, and is apt to be surprised to
3:26:26
Speaker 1: have it suggested to him that he really remembers but
3:26:29
Speaker 1: very little of what happens to him during his waking hours.
3:26:34
Speaker 1: In order to prove how very little of this kind
3:26:37
Speaker 1: is really remembered, let each student lay down this book
3:26:41
Speaker 1: at this place, and, then, quieting his mind, let him
3:26:45
Speaker 1: endeavor to recall the incidents of the same day of
3:26:49
Speaker 1: the preceding week. He will be surprised to see how
3:26:53
Speaker 1: very little of what happened on that day he is
3:26:55
Speaker 1: really capable of recollecting, then let him try the same
3:27:00
Speaker 1: experiment with the occurrences of yesterday. This result will also
3:27:05
Speaker 1: excite surprise. It is true that if he is reminded
3:27:10
Speaker 1: of some particular occurrence, he will recall it more or
3:27:13
Speaker 1: less distinctly, but beyond that he will remember nothing. Let
3:27:19
Speaker 1: him imagine himself called upon to testify in court regarding
3:27:23
Speaker 1: the happenings of the previous day or the day of
3:27:27
Speaker 1: the week before, and he will realize his position. The
3:27:32
Speaker 1: reason for his failure to easily remember the events referred
3:27:36
Speaker 1: to is to be found in the fact that he
3:27:38
Speaker 1: made no effort at the time to impress these happenings
3:27:42
Speaker 1: upon his subconscious mentality. He allowed them to pass from
3:27:47
Speaker 1: his attention like the proverbial water from the duck's back.
3:27:52
Speaker 1: He did not wish to be bothered with the recollection
3:27:54
Speaker 1: of trifles, and in endeavoring to escape from them, he
3:27:58
Speaker 1: made the mistake of fail failing to store them away.
3:28:02
Speaker 1: There is a vast difference between dwelling on the past
3:28:06
Speaker 1: and storing away past records for possible future reference. To
3:28:11
Speaker 1: allow the records of each day to be destroyed is
3:28:15
Speaker 1: like tearing up the important business papers in an office
3:28:19
Speaker 1: in order to avoid giving them a little space in
3:28:22
Speaker 1: the files. It is not advisable to expend much mental
3:28:27
Speaker 1: effort in fastening each important detail of the day upon
3:28:30
Speaker 1: the mind as it occurs. But there is an easier
3:28:34
Speaker 1: way that will accomplish the purpose, if one will but
3:28:37
Speaker 1: take a little trouble In that direction. We refer to
3:28:41
Speaker 1: the practice of reviewing the occurrences of each day after
3:28:46
Speaker 1: the active work of the day is over. If you
3:28:49
Speaker 1: will give to the occurrences of each day a mental
3:28:52
Speaker 1: review in the evening, you will find that the act
3:28:56
Speaker 1: of reviewing will employ the attention to such an extent
3:29:00
Speaker 1: as to register the happenings in such a manner that
3:29:03
Speaker 1: they will be available if ever needed thereafter. It is
3:29:07
Speaker 1: akin to the filing of the business papers of the
3:29:10
Speaker 1: day for possible future reference. Besides this advantage, these reviews
3:29:17
Speaker 1: will serve you well as a reminder of many little
3:29:20
Speaker 1: things of immediate importance which have escaped your recollection by
3:29:24
Speaker 1: reason of something that followed them. In the field of attention.
3:29:28
Speaker 1: You will find that a little practice will enable you
3:29:31
Speaker 1: to review the events of the day in a very
3:29:34
Speaker 1: short space of time. With a surprising degree of accuracy
3:29:38
Speaker 1: of detail. It seems that the mind will readily respond
3:29:43
Speaker 1: to this demand upon it. The process appears to be
3:29:47
Speaker 1: akin to a mental digestion, or rather a mental rumination,
3:29:53
Speaker 1: similar to that of the cow when it choos the
3:29:56
Speaker 1: cud that it has previously gathered. The thing is largely
3:30:01
Speaker 1: a knack, easily acquired by a little practice. It will
3:30:05
Speaker 1: pay you for the little trouble and time that you
3:30:08
Speaker 1: expend upon it. As we have said, not only do
3:30:13
Speaker 1: you gain the advantage of storing away these records of
3:30:16
Speaker 1: the day for future use, but you also have your
3:30:20
Speaker 1: attention called to many important details that have escaped you,
3:30:24
Speaker 1: and you will find that many ideas of importance will
3:30:27
Speaker 1: come to you in your moments of leisure rumination. Let
3:30:32
Speaker 1: this work be done in the evening when you feel
3:30:35
Speaker 1: at ease, but do not do it after you retire.
3:30:39
Speaker 1: The bed is made for sleep, not for thinking. You
3:30:44
Speaker 1: will find that the subconsciousness will awaken to the fact
3:30:47
Speaker 1: that it will be called upon later for the records
3:30:50
Speaker 1: of the day, and will accordingly take notice of what happens.
3:30:55
Speaker 1: In a far more diligent and faithful manner. Consciousness responds
3:31:01
Speaker 1: to a call made upon it in an astonishing manner.
3:31:04
Speaker 1: When it once understands just what is required of it,
3:31:09
Speaker 1: you will see that much of the virtue of the
3:31:11
Speaker 1: plan recommended consists in the fact that in the review
3:31:16
Speaker 1: there is an employment of the attention in a manner
3:31:18
Speaker 1: impossible during the haste and rush of the day's work.
3:31:23
Speaker 1: The faint impressions are brought out for examination, and the
3:31:27
Speaker 1: attention of the examination and review greatly deepen the impression
3:31:32
Speaker 1: in each case, so that it may be reproduced thereafter
3:31:38
Speaker 1: in a sentence. It is the deepening of the faint
3:31:41
Speaker 1: impressions of the day. Thurlow Weed, a well known politician
3:31:48
Speaker 1: of the last century, testifies to the efficacy of the
3:31:51
Speaker 1: above mentioned method in his memoirs. His plan was slightly
3:31:58
Speaker 1: different from that mentioned by us, but you will at
3:32:01
Speaker 1: once see that it involves the same principles, the same psychology.
3:32:07
Speaker 1: Mister Weed says, some of my friends used to think
3:32:11
Speaker 1: that I was cut out for a politician, But I
3:32:14
Speaker 1: saw at once a fatal weakness. My memory was a sieve.
3:32:20
Speaker 1: I could remember nothing, dates, names, appointments, faces. Everything escaped me.
3:32:28
Speaker 1: I said to my wife Catherine, I shall never make
3:32:32
Speaker 1: a successful politician. For I cannot remember, and that is
3:32:36
Speaker 1: a prime necessity of politicians. A politician who sees a
3:32:41
Speaker 1: man once should remember him forever. My wife told me
3:32:46
Speaker 1: that I must train my memory. So when I came
3:32:50
Speaker 1: home that night, I sat down alone and spent fifteen
3:32:55
Speaker 1: minutes trying silently to recall with accuracy the principal events
3:33:00
Speaker 1: of the day. I could remember, but little at first.
3:33:05
Speaker 1: Now I remember that I could not then recall what
3:33:08
Speaker 1: I had for breakfast. After a few days practice, I
3:33:13
Speaker 1: found I could recall more. Events came back to me
3:33:17
Speaker 1: more minutely, more accurately, and more vividly than at first.
3:33:23
Speaker 1: After a fortnight or so of this, Catherine said, why
3:33:27
Speaker 1: don't you relate to me the events of the day
3:33:30
Speaker 1: instead of recalling them to yourself. It would be interesting,
3:33:34
Speaker 1: and my interest in it would be a stimulus to you.
3:33:38
Speaker 1: Having great respect for my wife's opinion, I began a
3:33:42
Speaker 1: habit of oral confession, as it were, which was continued
3:33:47
Speaker 1: for almost fifty years. Every night, the last thing before retiring,
3:33:54
Speaker 1: I told her everything I could remember that had happened
3:33:57
Speaker 1: to me or about me during the day. I generally
3:34:02
Speaker 1: recalled the very dishes I had for breakfast, dinner and tea,
3:34:07
Speaker 1: the people I had seen and what they had said,
3:34:10
Speaker 1: the editorials I had written for my paper, giving her
3:34:14
Speaker 1: a brief abstract of them. I mentioned all the letters
3:34:18
Speaker 1: I had seen and received, and the very language used
3:34:23
Speaker 1: as nearly as possible when I had walked or ridden.
3:34:27
Speaker 1: I told her everything that had come within my observation.
3:34:32
Speaker 1: I found that I could say my lesson better and
3:34:35
Speaker 1: better every year, and instead of the practice growing irksome,
3:34:40
Speaker 1: it became a pleasure to go over again the events
3:34:43
Speaker 1: of the day. I am indebted to this discipline for
3:34:48
Speaker 1: a memory of unusual tenacity, and I recommend the practice
3:34:52
Speaker 1: to all who wished to store up facts or expect
3:34:56
Speaker 1: to have much to do with influencing men. The careful student,
3:35:01
Speaker 1: after reading these words of thurlow Weed, will see that
3:35:05
Speaker 1: in them he has not only given a method of
3:35:08
Speaker 1: recalling the particular class of occurrences mentioned in this lesson,
3:35:13
Speaker 1: but has also pointed out a way whereby the entire
3:35:16
Speaker 1: field of memory may be trained and developed. The habit
3:35:21
Speaker 1: of reviewing and telling the things that one perceives, does,
3:35:25
Speaker 1: and thinks during the day naturally sharpens the powers of
3:35:29
Speaker 1: future observation. Attention, and perception. If you are witnessing a
3:35:35
Speaker 1: thing which you know that you will be called upon
3:35:38
Speaker 1: to describe to another person, you will instinctively apply your
3:35:42
Speaker 1: attention to it. The knowledge that you will be called
3:35:46
Speaker 1: upon for a description of a thing will give the
3:35:49
Speaker 1: zest of interest or necessity to it which may be lacking. Otherwise,
3:35:55
Speaker 1: if you will sense things with the knowledge that you
3:35:58
Speaker 1: will be called upon to tell of them later on,
3:36:01
Speaker 1: you will give the interest and attention that go to
3:36:03
Speaker 1: make sharp, clear and deep impressions on the memory. In
3:36:09
Speaker 1: this case, the seeing and hearing has a meaning to
3:36:13
Speaker 1: you and a purpose. In addition to this, the work
3:36:17
Speaker 1: of review establishes a desirable habit of mind. If you
3:36:22
Speaker 1: don't care to relate the occurrences to another person, learn
3:36:26
Speaker 1: to tell them to yourself in the evening play the
3:36:30
Speaker 1: part yourself. There is a valuable secret of memory embedded
3:36:35
Speaker 1: in this chapter, if you are wise enough to apply it,
3:36:40
Speaker 1: how to remember facts. In speaking of this phase of memory,
3:36:46
Speaker 1: we use the word fact in the sense of an
3:36:49
Speaker 1: ascertained item of knowledge, rather than in the sense of
3:36:53
Speaker 1: a happening, etc. In this sense, the memory of facts
3:36:59
Speaker 1: is the ability to store away and recollect items of
3:37:03
Speaker 1: knowledge bearing upon some particular thing under consideration. If we
3:37:09
Speaker 1: are considering the subject of horse, the facts that we
3:37:13
Speaker 1: wish to remember are the various items of information and
3:37:17
Speaker 1: knowledge regarding the horse that we have acquired during our experience,
3:37:22
Speaker 1: facts that we have seen, heard, or read regarding the
3:37:27
Speaker 1: animal in question, and to that which concerns it. We
3:37:31
Speaker 1: are continually acquiring items of information regarding all kinds of subjects,
3:37:37
Speaker 1: and yet when we wish to collect them, we often
3:37:40
Speaker 1: find the task rather difficult, even though the original impressions
3:37:44
Speaker 1: were quite clear. The difficulty is largely due to the
3:37:49
Speaker 1: fact that the various facts are associated in our minds
3:37:53
Speaker 1: only by contiguity in time or place, or both, the
3:37:58
Speaker 1: associations of relation being lacking. In other words, we have
3:38:03
Speaker 1: not properly classified and indexed our bits of information, and
3:38:08
Speaker 1: do not know where to begin to search for them.
3:38:11
Speaker 1: It is like the confusion of the businessman who kept
3:38:15
Speaker 1: all his papers in a barrel without index or order.
3:38:20
Speaker 1: He knew that they were all there, but he had
3:38:23
Speaker 1: hard work to find any one of them when it
3:38:25
Speaker 1: was required. Or we are like the compositor whose type
3:38:30
Speaker 1: has become pied and then thrown into a big box
3:38:35
Speaker 1: when he attempts to set up a book page, he
3:38:38
Speaker 1: will find it very difficult, if not impossible, whereas if
3:38:42
Speaker 1: each letter were in its proper box, he would set
3:38:46
Speaker 1: up the page in a short time. This matter of
3:38:50
Speaker 1: association by relation is one of the most important things
3:38:54
Speaker 1: in the whole subject of thought, and the degree of
3:38:57
Speaker 1: correct and deficient thinking depends materially upon it. It does
3:39:03
Speaker 1: not suffice us to merely know a thing. We must
3:39:07
Speaker 1: know where to find it when we want it. As
3:39:10
Speaker 1: old Judge Sharswood of Pennsylvania once said, it is not
3:39:15
Speaker 1: so much to know the law as to know where
3:39:18
Speaker 1: to find it. Kay says over the associations formed by
3:39:24
Speaker 1: contiguity in time or space, we have but little control.
3:39:29
Speaker 1: They are, in a manner accidental, depending upon the order
3:39:33
Speaker 1: in which the objects present themselves to the mind. On
3:39:37
Speaker 1: the other hand, association by similarity is largely put in
3:39:42
Speaker 1: our own power, for we, in a measure, select those
3:39:47
Speaker 1: objects that are to be associated and bring them together
3:39:51
Speaker 1: in the mind. We must be careful, however, only to
3:39:56
Speaker 1: associate together such things as we wish to be associated together,
3:40:00
Speaker 1: and to recall each other. And the associations we form
3:40:05
Speaker 1: should be based on fundamental and essential, and not upon
3:40:09
Speaker 1: mere superficial or casual resemblances. When things are associated by
3:40:15
Speaker 1: their accidental and not by their essential qualities, by their
3:40:20
Speaker 1: superficial and not by their fundamental relations, they will not
3:40:25
Speaker 1: be available when wanted and will be of little real use.
3:40:30
Speaker 1: When we associate what is new with what most nearly
3:40:34
Speaker 1: resembles it in the mind already we give it its
3:40:37
Speaker 1: proper place in our fabric of thought by means of association.
3:40:43
Speaker 1: By similarity, we tie up our ideas, as it were,
3:40:47
Speaker 1: in separate bundles. And it is of the utmost importance
3:40:51
Speaker 1: that all the ideas that most nearly resemble each other
3:40:55
Speaker 1: be in one bundle. The best way to acquire correct
3:40:59
Speaker 1: as associations, and many of them, for a separate fact
3:41:04
Speaker 1: that you wish to store away so that it may
3:41:07
Speaker 1: be recollected when needed some useful bit of information or
3:41:11
Speaker 1: interesting bit of knowledge that may come in handy later on,
3:41:16
Speaker 1: is to analyze it and its relations. This may be
3:41:20
Speaker 1: done by asking yourself questions about it, each thing that
3:41:25
Speaker 1: you associated with in your answers being just one additional
3:41:29
Speaker 1: cross index, whereby you may find it readily when you
3:41:33
Speaker 1: want it. As Kay says, the principle of asking questions
3:41:39
Speaker 1: and obtaining answers to them may be said to characterize
3:41:43
Speaker 1: all intellectual effort. This is the method by which Socrates
3:41:47
Speaker 1: and Plato drew out the knowledge of their pupils, filling
3:41:51
Speaker 1: in the gaps and attaching new facts to those already known.
3:41:56
Speaker 1: When you wish to so consider a fact, ask yourself
3:42:00
Speaker 1: the following questions about it. One where did it come
3:42:05
Speaker 1: from or originate? Two? What caused it? Three? What history
3:42:12
Speaker 1: or record has it? Four? What are its attributes, qualities,
3:42:17
Speaker 1: and characteristics? Five? What things can I most readily associate
3:42:23
Speaker 1: with it? What is it like? Six? What is it
3:42:28
Speaker 1: good for? How may it be used? What can I
3:42:32
Speaker 1: do with it? Seven? What does it prove? What can
3:42:36
Speaker 1: be deduced from it? Eight? What are its natural results?
3:42:42
Speaker 1: What happens because of it? Nine? What is its future?
3:42:47
Speaker 1: And its natural or probable end or finish? Ten? What
3:42:53
Speaker 1: do I think of it on the whole? What are
3:42:56
Speaker 1: my general impressions regarding it? Eleven? What do I know
3:43:01
Speaker 1: about it in the way of general information? Twelve? What
3:43:07
Speaker 1: have I heard about it? And from whom? And when?
3:43:11
Speaker 1: If you will take the trouble to put any fact
3:43:14
Speaker 1: through the above rigid examination, you will not only attach
3:43:18
Speaker 1: it to hundreds of convenient and familiar other facts so
3:43:22
Speaker 1: that you will remember it readily upon occasion, but you
3:43:26
Speaker 1: will also create a new subject of general information in
3:43:29
Speaker 1: your mind, of which this particular fact will be the
3:43:33
Speaker 1: central thought. Similar systems of analysis have been published and
3:43:38
Speaker 1: sold by various teachers at high prices, and many men
3:43:43
Speaker 1: have considered that the results justified the expenditure. So do
3:43:47
Speaker 1: not pass it by lightly. The more other facts that
3:43:52
Speaker 1: you manage to associate with any one fact, the more
3:43:55
Speaker 1: pegs will you have to hang your facts upon. The
3:43:59
Speaker 1: more loose ends will you have whereby to pull that
3:44:02
Speaker 1: fact into the field of consciousness. The more cross indexes
3:44:07
Speaker 1: will you have whereby you may run down the fact
3:44:10
Speaker 1: when you need it. The more associations you attached to
3:44:14
Speaker 1: a fact, the more meaning does that fact have for you,
3:44:19
Speaker 1: and the more interest will be created regarding it in
3:44:22
Speaker 1: your mind. Moreover, by so doing, you make very probable
3:44:27
Speaker 1: the automatic or involuntary recollection of that fact when you
3:44:32
Speaker 1: are thinking of some of its associated subjects. That is,
3:44:38
Speaker 1: it will come into your mind naturally in connection with
3:44:41
Speaker 1: something else in a that reminds me fashion and the
3:44:47
Speaker 1: oftener that you are involuntarily reminded of it. The clearer
3:44:51
Speaker 1: and deeper does its impression become in the records of
3:44:55
Speaker 1: your memory. The oftener you use a fact, the easier
3:45:00
Speaker 1: or does it become to recall it when needed. The
3:45:03
Speaker 1: favorite pen of a man is always at his hand
3:45:07
Speaker 1: in a remembered position, while the less used eraser or
3:45:12
Speaker 1: similar thing has to be searched for, often without success.
3:45:17
Speaker 1: And the more associations that you bestow upon a fact,
3:45:21
Speaker 1: the oftener it is likely to be used. Another point
3:45:26
Speaker 1: to be remembered is that the future association of a
3:45:29
Speaker 1: fact depends very much upon your system of filing away facts.
3:45:35
Speaker 1: If you will think of this when endeavoring to store
3:45:38
Speaker 1: away a fact for future reference, you will be very
3:45:42
Speaker 1: apt to find the best mental pigeonhole for it. File
3:45:47
Speaker 1: it away with the thing it most resembles, or to
3:45:50
Speaker 1: which it has the most familiar relationship. The child does
3:45:55
Speaker 1: this involuntarily. It is nature's own way. For instance, the
3:46:01
Speaker 1: child sees a zebra, it files away that animal as
3:46:05
Speaker 1: a donkey with stripes, a giraffe as a long necked horse,
3:46:12
Speaker 1: a camel as a horse with long crooked legs, long
3:46:16
Speaker 1: neck and humps. On its back. The child always attaches
3:46:21
Speaker 1: its new knowledge or fact onto some familiar fact or
3:46:26
Speaker 1: bit of knowledge. Sometimes the result is startling, but the
3:46:31
Speaker 1: child remembers by means of it. Nevertheless, the grown up
3:46:35
Speaker 1: children will do well to build similar connecting links of
3:46:39
Speaker 1: memory attach the new things to some old familiar thing.
3:46:45
Speaker 1: It is easy when you once have the neck of it.
3:46:48
Speaker 1: The table of questions, given a little farther back, will
3:46:52
Speaker 1: bring to mind many connecting links. Use them. If you
3:46:57
Speaker 1: need any proof of the importance of association by relation
3:47:02
Speaker 1: and of the laws governing its action, you have but
3:47:05
Speaker 1: to recall the ordinary train of thought or train of
3:47:09
Speaker 1: images in the mind of which we become conscious when
3:47:13
Speaker 1: we are daydreaming or indulging in reverie, or even in
3:47:18
Speaker 1: general thought. Regarding any subject. You will see that every
3:47:23
Speaker 1: mental image or idea or recollection is associated with and
3:47:28
Speaker 1: connected to the preceding thought and the one following it.
3:47:34
Speaker 1: It is a chain that is endless until something breaks
3:47:38
Speaker 1: into the subject from outside. A fact flashes into your mind,
3:47:44
Speaker 1: apparently from space, and without any reference to anything else.
3:47:49
Speaker 1: In such cases you will find that it occurs either
3:47:53
Speaker 1: because you would previously set your subconscious mentality at work
3:47:57
Speaker 1: upon some problem or bit of recollection, and the flash
3:48:02
Speaker 1: was the belated and delayed result, or else that the
3:48:06
Speaker 1: fact came into your mind because of its association with
3:48:10
Speaker 1: some other fact, which in turn came from a precedent one.
3:48:14
Speaker 1: And so on. You hear a distant railroad whistle, and
3:48:19
Speaker 1: you think of a train, then of a journey, then
3:48:23
Speaker 1: of some distant place, then of someone in that place,
3:48:27
Speaker 1: Then of some event in the life of that person,
3:48:31
Speaker 1: Then of a similar event in the life of another person,
3:48:35
Speaker 1: then of that other person, Then of his or her brother,
3:48:40
Speaker 1: then of that brother's last business venture, then of that business,
3:48:46
Speaker 1: then of some other business resembling it, Then of some
3:48:50
Speaker 1: people in that other business, Then of their dealings with
3:48:54
Speaker 1: a man you know, then of the fact that another
3:48:58
Speaker 1: man of a similar name to the last test man
3:49:00
Speaker 1: owes you some money, then of your determination to get
3:49:05
Speaker 1: that money. Then you make a memorandum to place the
3:49:09
Speaker 1: claim in the hands of a lawyer to see whether
3:49:12
Speaker 1: it cannot be collected. Now, although the man was execution
3:49:16
Speaker 1: proof last year from distant locomotive whistle to the possible
3:49:21
Speaker 1: collection of the account, and yet the links forgotten, the
3:49:27
Speaker 1: man will say that he just happened to think of
3:49:30
Speaker 1: the debtor, or that it somehow flashed right into my mind,
3:49:34
Speaker 1: et cetera. But it was nothing but the law of association.
3:49:39
Speaker 1: That's all. Moreover, you will now find that whenever you
3:49:44
Speaker 1: hear mentioned the term association of mental ideas, etc. You
3:49:50
Speaker 1: will remember the above illustration, or part of it. We
3:49:54
Speaker 1: have forged a new link in the chain of association
3:49:57
Speaker 1: for you, and years from now it will appear in
3:50:00
Speaker 1: your thoughts how to remember words, et cetera. In a
3:50:07
Speaker 1: preceding chapter, we gave a number of instances of persons
3:50:11
Speaker 1: who had highly developed their memory of words, sentences, etc.
3:50:17
Speaker 1: History is full of instances of this kind. The moderns
3:50:21
Speaker 1: fall far behind the ancients in this respect, probably because
3:50:25
Speaker 1: there does not exist the present necessity for the feats
3:50:28
Speaker 1: of memory which were once accepted as commonplace and not
3:50:33
Speaker 1: out of the ordinary. Among ancient people, when printing was
3:50:38
Speaker 1: unknown and manuscripts scarce and valuable, it was the common
3:50:43
Speaker 1: custom of the people to learn by heart the various
3:50:46
Speaker 1: sacred teachings of their respective religions. The sacred books of
3:50:50
Speaker 1: the Hindus were transmitted in this way, and it was
3:50:54
Speaker 1: a common thing among the Hebrews to be able to
3:50:56
Speaker 1: recite the books of Moses and the prophets entirely from memory.
3:51:02
Speaker 1: Even to this day, the faithful Mohammedans are taught to
3:51:05
Speaker 1: commit the entire Koran to memory, and investigation reveals always
3:51:11
Speaker 1: that there has been used the identical process of committing
3:51:15
Speaker 1: these sacred books to memory and recalling them at will,
3:51:19
Speaker 1: the natural method instead of an artificial one. And therefore
3:51:23
Speaker 1: we shall devote this chapter solely to this method, whereby
3:51:27
Speaker 1: poems or prose may be committed to memory and recalled readily.
3:51:33
Speaker 1: This natural method of memorizing words, sentences, or verses is
3:51:38
Speaker 1: no royal road. It is a system which must be
3:51:42
Speaker 1: mastered by steady work and faithful review. One must start
3:51:47
Speaker 1: at the beginning and work his way up. But the
3:51:50
Speaker 1: result of such work will astonish anyone not familiar with it.
3:51:55
Speaker 1: It is the very same method that the Hindus, Hebrews, Mohammedans, Norsemen,
3:52:01
Speaker 1: and the rest of the races memorized their thousands of
3:52:04
Speaker 1: verses and hundreds of chapters of the sacred books of
3:52:07
Speaker 1: their people. It is the method of the successful actor
3:52:12
Speaker 1: and the popular elocutionist. Not to mention those speakers who
3:52:16
Speaker 1: carefully commit to memory their impromptu addresses and extemporaneous speeches.
3:52:22
Speaker 1: This natural system of memorizing is based upon the principle
3:52:26
Speaker 1: which has already been alluded to in this book, and
3:52:29
Speaker 1: by which every child learns its alphabet and its multiplication table,
3:52:34
Speaker 1: as well as the little piece that it recites for
3:52:37
Speaker 1: the entertainment of its fond parents and the bored friends
3:52:40
Speaker 1: of the family. That principle consists of the learning of
3:52:45
Speaker 1: one line at a time and reviewing that line, then
3:52:49
Speaker 1: learning a second line and reviewing that, and then reviewing
3:52:54
Speaker 1: the two lines together, and so on, each edition being
3:52:58
Speaker 1: reviewed in connection with those that went before. The child
3:53:02
Speaker 1: that learns the sound of A, then it learns B.
3:53:06
Speaker 1: Then it associates the sound of A B in its
3:53:10
Speaker 1: first review, the C is added, and the review runs A, B, C,
3:53:17
Speaker 1: and so on until Z is reached and the child
3:53:21
Speaker 1: is able to review the entire list from A to
3:53:24
Speaker 1: Z inclusive. The multiplication table begins with it twice one
3:53:30
Speaker 1: is two, then twice two is four, and so on,
3:53:34
Speaker 1: a little at a time until the twos are finished
3:53:38
Speaker 1: and the threes begun. This process is kept up by
3:53:42
Speaker 1: constant addition and constant review until twelve twelves finishes up
3:53:48
Speaker 1: the list, and the child is able to repeat the
3:53:51
Speaker 1: tables from first to last from memory. But there is
3:53:55
Speaker 1: more to it in the case of the child than
3:53:58
Speaker 1: merely learning to repeat the opt alphabet or the multiplication table.
3:54:03
Speaker 1: There is also the strengthening of the memory as a
3:54:05
Speaker 1: result of its exercise and use. Memory, like every faculty
3:54:11
Speaker 1: of the mind or every muscle of the body, improves
3:54:15
Speaker 1: and develops by intelligent and reasonable use and exercise. Not
3:54:21
Speaker 1: only does this exercise and use develop the memory along
3:54:25
Speaker 1: the particular line of the faculty used, but also along
3:54:29
Speaker 1: every line and faculty. This is so because the exercise
3:54:34
Speaker 1: develops the power of concentration and the use of the
3:54:38
Speaker 1: voluntary attention. We suggest that the student who wishes to
3:54:43
Speaker 1: acquire a good memory for words, sentences, et cetera, begin
3:54:47
Speaker 1: at once selecting some favorite poem for the purpose of
3:54:51
Speaker 1: the demonstration. Then let him memorize one verse of not
3:54:55
Speaker 1: only four to six lines to begin with. Let him
3:55:00
Speaker 1: learn this verse perfectly, line by line, until he is
3:55:04
Speaker 1: able to repeat it without a mistake. Let him be
3:55:07
Speaker 1: sure to be letter perfect in that verse, so perfect
3:55:11
Speaker 1: that he will see even the capital letters and the
3:55:15
Speaker 1: punctuation marks when he recites it. Then let him stop
3:55:19
Speaker 1: for the day. The next day, let him repeat the
3:55:23
Speaker 1: verse learned the day before, and then let him memorize
3:55:27
Speaker 1: a second verse in the same way and just as perfectly.
3:55:32
Speaker 1: Then let him review the first and second verses together.
3:55:36
Speaker 1: This edition of the second verse to the first verse
3:55:39
Speaker 1: serves to weld the two together by association, and each
3:55:44
Speaker 1: review of them together serves to add a little bit
3:55:46
Speaker 1: to the weld, until they become joined in the mind
3:55:50
Speaker 1: as our A. B. C. The third day, let him
3:55:55
Speaker 1: learn a third verse in the same way, and then
3:55:58
Speaker 1: review the three. Continue this for say a month, adding
3:56:02
Speaker 1: a new verse each day and adding to it the
3:56:05
Speaker 1: verses preceding it, but constantly review them from beginning to end.
3:56:11
Speaker 1: He cannot review them too often. He will be able
3:56:15
Speaker 1: to have them flow along like the letters of the alphabet,
3:56:18
Speaker 1: from A to Z. If he reviews properly and often enough. Then,
3:56:24
Speaker 1: if he can spare the time, let him begin the
3:56:27
Speaker 1: second month by learning two verses each day and adding
3:56:31
Speaker 1: to those that precede them with constant and faithful reviews.
3:56:37
Speaker 1: He will find that he can memorize two verses in
3:56:40
Speaker 1: the second month as easily as he did the one
3:56:43
Speaker 1: verse in the first month. His memory has been trained
3:56:47
Speaker 1: to this extent, and so he may proceed from month
3:56:50
Speaker 1: to month adding an extra verse to his daily task
3:56:54
Speaker 1: until he is unable to spare the time for all
3:56:57
Speaker 1: the work, or until he feels satisfied with what he
3:57:00
Speaker 1: has accomplished. Let him use moderation and not try to
3:57:05
Speaker 1: become a phenomenon. Let him avoid overstraining after he has
3:57:11
Speaker 1: memorized the entire poem. Let him start with a new one,
3:57:15
Speaker 1: but not forget to revive the old one at frequent intervals.
3:57:20
Speaker 1: If he finds it impossible to add the necessary number
3:57:23
Speaker 1: of new verses by reasons of other occupation, etc. Let
3:57:28
Speaker 1: him not fail to keep up his review work. The
3:57:32
Speaker 1: exercise and review is more important than mere addition of
3:57:35
Speaker 1: so many new verses. Let him vary the verses or
3:57:40
Speaker 1: poems with prose selections. He will find the verses of
3:57:45
Speaker 1: the Bible very well adapted for such exercise, as they
3:57:49
Speaker 1: lend themselves easily to registration in the memory. Shakespeare may
3:57:54
Speaker 1: be used to advantage in this work. The Rubayat of
3:57:58
Speaker 1: Omar Khayam or The Lady of the Lake by Scott
3:58:02
Speaker 1: or the song Celestial or Light of Asia, both by
3:58:06
Speaker 1: Edwin Arnold, will be found to be well adapted to
3:58:10
Speaker 1: this system of memorizing, the verses of each being apt
3:58:13
Speaker 1: to stick in the memory, and each poem being sufficiently
3:58:18
Speaker 1: long to satisfy the requirements of even the most ambitious student.
3:58:24
Speaker 1: To look at the complete poem any of those mentioned,
3:58:28
Speaker 1: it would seem almost impossible that one would ever be
3:58:31
Speaker 1: able to memorize and recite it from beginning to end
3:58:34
Speaker 1: letter perfect. But on the principle of the continual dripping
3:58:38
Speaker 1: of water wearing away the stone or the snowball increasing
3:58:43
Speaker 1: at each roll, this practice of a little being associated
3:58:47
Speaker 1: to what he already has will soon allow him to
3:58:51
Speaker 1: accumulate a wonderfully large store of memorized verses, poems, recitations, etc.
3:58:59
Speaker 1: It is an actual demonstration of the catchy words of
3:59:02
Speaker 1: the popular song, which informs one that every little bit
3:59:07
Speaker 1: added to what you've got makes just a little bit more.
3:59:12
Speaker 1: After he has acquired quite a large assortment of memorized selections,
3:59:17
Speaker 1: he will find it impossible to review them all at
3:59:19
Speaker 1: one time, but he should be sure to review them
3:59:23
Speaker 1: all at intervals, no matter how many days may elapse
3:59:27
Speaker 1: between each review. The student who has familiarized himself with
3:59:32
Speaker 1: the principles upon which memory depends, as given in the
3:59:36
Speaker 1: preceding chapters, will at once see that the three principles
3:59:40
Speaker 1: of attention, association, and repetition are employed in the natural method. Herein,
3:59:47
Speaker 1: recommended attention must be given in order to memorize each
3:59:52
Speaker 1: verse in the first place, association is employed in the
3:59:56
Speaker 1: relationship created between the old verses and the new one ones,
4:00:00
Speaker 1: and repetition is employed by the frequent reviewing, which serves
4:00:05
Speaker 1: to deepen the memory impression each time the poem is repeated. Moreover,
4:00:11
Speaker 1: the principle of interest is invoked in the gradual progress
4:00:15
Speaker 1: made and the accomplishment of what at first seemed to
4:00:18
Speaker 1: be an impossible task. The game element is thus supplied,
4:00:23
Speaker 1: which serves as an incentive. These combined principles render this
4:00:28
Speaker 1: method an ideal one, and it is not to be
4:00:31
Speaker 1: wondered that the race has so recognized it from the
4:00:34
Speaker 1: earliest times. How to remember books, plays, tales, et cetera.
4:00:43
Speaker 1: In the preceding chapters, we have given you suggestions for
4:00:46
Speaker 1: the development of the principal forms of memory, But there
4:00:50
Speaker 1: are still other phases or forms of memory which while
4:00:54
Speaker 1: coming under the general classification, may be still considered as
4:00:58
Speaker 1: worthy of special cancer conation. For instance, there may be
4:01:03
Speaker 1: suggestions given regarding the memorization of the contents of the
4:01:06
Speaker 1: books you read, the stories you hear, etc. And so
4:01:11
Speaker 1: we have thought it advisable to devote one chapter to
4:01:14
Speaker 1: a consideration of these various phases of memory that have
4:01:18
Speaker 1: been left out of the other chapters. Many of us
4:01:22
Speaker 1: fail to remember the important things in the books we read,
4:01:26
Speaker 1: and are often mortified by our ignorance regarding the contents
4:01:30
Speaker 1: of the works of leading authors, or of popular novels, which,
4:01:34
Speaker 1: although we have read, we have failed to impress upon
4:01:37
Speaker 1: the records of our memory. Of course, we must begin
4:01:42
Speaker 1: by reminding you of the ever present necessity of interest
4:01:45
Speaker 1: and attention. We cannot escape from these principles of the memory.
4:01:50
Speaker 1: The trouble with the majority of people is that they
4:01:54
Speaker 1: read books to kill time as a sort of mental
4:01:57
Speaker 1: narcotic or anesthetic, instead of for the purpose of obtaining
4:02:02
Speaker 1: something of interest from them. By this course, we not
4:02:06
Speaker 1: only lose all that may be of importance or value
4:02:10
Speaker 1: in the book, but also acquire the habit of careless
4:02:13
Speaker 1: reading and inattention. The prevalence of the habit of reading
4:02:18
Speaker 1: many newspapers and trashy novels is responsible for the apparent
4:02:23
Speaker 1: inability of many persons to intelligently absorb and remember the
4:02:27
Speaker 1: contents of a book worthwhile when they do happen to
4:02:31
Speaker 1: take up such a one. But still, even the most
4:02:35
Speaker 1: careless reader may improve himself and cure the habit of
4:02:39
Speaker 1: inattention and careless reading. NOA porter says, we have not
4:02:46
Speaker 1: read an author till we have seen his object, whatever
4:02:49
Speaker 1: it may be, as he saw it. Also read with attention.
4:02:55
Speaker 1: This is the rule that takes precedence of all others.
4:02:59
Speaker 1: It stands instead of a score of minor directions. Indeed,
4:03:04
Speaker 1: it comprehends them all, and is the golden rule. The
4:03:09
Speaker 1: page should be read as if it were never to
4:03:11
Speaker 1: be seen a second time. The mental eye should be
4:03:15
Speaker 1: fixed as if there were no other object to think of.
4:03:19
Speaker 1: The memory should grasp the facts like a vice. The
4:03:23
Speaker 1: impressions should be distinctly and sharply received. It is not necessary,
4:03:29
Speaker 1: nor is it advisable, to attempt to memorize the text
4:03:33
Speaker 1: of a book, accepting perhaps a few passages that may
4:03:37
Speaker 1: seem worthy to be treasured. Up word for word. The
4:03:42
Speaker 1: principal thing to be remembered about a book is its meaning.
4:03:46
Speaker 1: What it is about, then may follow the general outline
4:03:50
Speaker 1: and the details of the story, essay, treatise, or whatever
4:03:54
Speaker 1: it may be. The question that should be asked oneself
4:03:59
Speaker 1: after the book bok is completed, or after the completion
4:04:02
Speaker 1: of some particular part of the book, is what was
4:04:06
Speaker 1: the writer's idea? What did he wish to say? Get
4:04:11
Speaker 1: the idea of the writer. By taking this mental attitude,
4:04:16
Speaker 1: you practically place yourself in the place of the writer,
4:04:19
Speaker 1: and thus take part in the idea of the book.
4:04:23
Speaker 1: You thus view it from the inside rather than from
4:04:26
Speaker 1: the outside. You place yourself at the center of the
4:04:30
Speaker 1: thing instead of upon its circumference. If the book be
4:04:35
Speaker 1: a history, biography, autobiography, narrative, or story of fact or fiction,
4:04:42
Speaker 1: you will find it of value to visualize its occurrences
4:04:46
Speaker 1: as the story unfolds. That is, endeavor to form at
4:04:51
Speaker 1: least a faint mental picture of the events related, so
4:04:55
Speaker 1: that you can see them in your mind's eye or imagination.
4:05:00
Speaker 1: Use your imagination in connection with the mechanical reading. In
4:05:04
Speaker 1: this way, you build up a series of mental pictures
4:05:08
Speaker 1: which will be impressed upon your mind and which will
4:05:11
Speaker 1: be remembered, just as are the scenes of a play
4:05:14
Speaker 1: that you have witnessed or an actual event that you
4:05:17
Speaker 1: have seen, only less distinct. Of course, particularly you should
4:05:23
Speaker 1: endeavor to form a clear mental picture of each character,
4:05:27
Speaker 1: until each one is endowed with at least a semblance
4:05:30
Speaker 1: of reality to you. By doing this, you will impart
4:05:35
Speaker 1: a naturalness to the events of the story, and you
4:05:38
Speaker 1: will obtain a new pleasure from your reading. Of course,
4:05:42
Speaker 1: this plan will make you read more slowly, and many
4:05:45
Speaker 1: trashy tales will cease to interest you, for they do
4:05:49
Speaker 1: not contain the real elements of interest. But this is
4:05:52
Speaker 1: no loss, but is a decided gain for you. At
4:05:57
Speaker 1: the end of each reading, take the time to mentally
4:06:01
Speaker 1: review the progress of the story. Let the characters and
4:06:04
Speaker 1: scenes pass before your mental vision as in a moving picture,
4:06:10
Speaker 1: and when the book is finally completed, review it as
4:06:13
Speaker 1: a whole. By following this course, you will not only
4:06:18
Speaker 1: acquire the habit of easily remembering the tales and books
4:06:21
Speaker 1: that you have read, but will also obtain much pleasure
4:06:25
Speaker 1: by re reading favorite stories in your imagination years after.
4:06:30
Speaker 1: You will find that your favorite characters will take on
4:06:33
Speaker 1: a new reality for you, and will become as old
4:06:37
Speaker 1: friends in whose company you may enjoy yourself at any time,
4:06:41
Speaker 1: and whom you may dismiss when they tire you without offense.
4:06:46
Speaker 1: In the case of scientific treatises, essays, etc. You may
4:06:51
Speaker 1: follow a similar plan by dividing the work into small
4:06:54
Speaker 1: sections and mentally reviewing the thought, not the words, of
4:06:59
Speaker 1: each set until you make it your own, And then,
4:07:03
Speaker 1: by adding new sections to your review, you may gradually
4:07:07
Speaker 1: absorb and master the entire work. All this requires time, work,
4:07:13
Speaker 1: and patience, but you will be repaid for your expenditure.
4:07:18
Speaker 1: You will find that this plan will soon render you
4:07:21
Speaker 1: impatient at books of little consequence, and will drive you
4:07:25
Speaker 1: to the best books on any given subject. You will
4:07:29
Speaker 1: begin to begrudge your time and attention and hesitate about
4:07:33
Speaker 1: bestowing them upon any but the very best books. But
4:07:38
Speaker 1: in this you gain. In order to fully acquaint yourself
4:07:43
Speaker 1: with a book before reading it, you should familiarize yourself
4:07:47
Speaker 1: with its general character. To do this, you should pay
4:07:51
Speaker 1: attention to the full title and the subtitle, if there
4:07:55
Speaker 1: be any, the name of the author, and the list
4:07:58
Speaker 1: of other books that he has written, if they are
4:08:01
Speaker 1: noted on the title page or the one preceding it.
4:08:05
Speaker 1: According to the usual custom, you should read the preface
4:08:09
Speaker 1: and study carefully the table of contents that you may
4:08:13
Speaker 1: know the field or general subject covered by the book,
4:08:17
Speaker 1: and other words. Endeavor to get the general outline of
4:08:20
Speaker 1: the book into which you may afterwards fill in the details.
4:08:25
Speaker 1: In reading a book of serious import you should make
4:08:29
Speaker 1: it a point to fully grasp the meaning of each
4:08:31
Speaker 1: paragraph before passing on to the next one. Let nothing
4:08:36
Speaker 1: pass you that you do not understand, at least in
4:08:40
Speaker 1: a general way. Consult the dictionary for words not familiar
4:08:45
Speaker 1: to you, so that you may grasp the full idea
4:08:48
Speaker 1: intended to be expressed. At the end of each chapter, section,
4:08:53
Speaker 1: and part, you should review that which you have read
4:08:56
Speaker 1: until you are able to form a mental picture of
4:08:59
Speaker 1: the general ideas contained therein. To those who wish to
4:09:04
Speaker 1: remember the dramatic productions that they have attended, we would
4:09:08
Speaker 1: say that the principles above mentioned may be applied to
4:09:11
Speaker 1: this form of memory as well as to the memory
4:09:14
Speaker 1: of books. By taking an interest in each character as
4:09:19
Speaker 1: it appears, by studying carefully each action and scene, and
4:09:24
Speaker 1: then reviewing each act in the intervals between the acts
4:09:29
Speaker 1: and by finally reviewing the entire play after your return home,
4:09:34
Speaker 1: you will fasten the whole play as a complete mental
4:09:37
Speaker 1: picture on the records of your memory. If you have
4:09:41
Speaker 1: acquainted yourself with what we have just said regarding the
4:09:45
Speaker 1: recollection of the contents of books, you will be able
4:09:48
Speaker 1: to modify and adapt them to the purpose of recollecting
4:09:52
Speaker 1: plays and dramatic productions. You will find that the oftener
4:09:57
Speaker 1: you review a play, the more clearly you will remember it.
4:10:02
Speaker 1: Many little details, overlooked at first will come into the
4:10:05
Speaker 1: field of consciousness and fit into their proper places. Sermons, lectures,
4:10:12
Speaker 1: and other discourses may be remembered by bestowing interest and
4:10:16
Speaker 1: attention upon them, and by attempting to grasp each general
4:10:21
Speaker 1: idea advanced, and by noting the passage from one general
4:10:25
Speaker 1: idea to another. If you will practice this a few times,
4:10:30
Speaker 1: you will find that when you come to review the discourse,
4:10:33
Speaker 1: and this you should always do. It is the natural
4:10:37
Speaker 1: way of developing memory, the little details will come up
4:10:41
Speaker 1: and fit into their proper places. In this form of memory.
4:10:46
Speaker 1: The important thing is to train the memory by exercise
4:10:50
Speaker 1: and review. You will find that at each review of
4:10:54
Speaker 1: a discourse you will have made progress. By practice and
4:10:59
Speaker 1: exercise size the subconscious mentality will do better work and
4:11:04
Speaker 1: will show that it is rising to its new responsibilities.
4:11:09
Speaker 1: You have allowed it to sleep during the many discourses
4:11:12
Speaker 1: to which you have listened, and it must be taught
4:11:15
Speaker 1: new habits. Let it know that it is expected to
4:11:19
Speaker 1: retain that which it hears, and then exercise it frequently
4:11:24
Speaker 1: by reviews of discourses, and you will be surprised at
4:11:27
Speaker 1: the degree of the work it will perform for you.
4:11:31
Speaker 1: Not only will you remember better, but you will hear
4:11:34
Speaker 1: better and more intelligently. The subconsciousness, knowing that it will
4:11:40
Speaker 1: be called upon later on to recollect what is being said,
4:11:44
Speaker 1: will urge you to bestow the attention necessary to supply
4:11:47
Speaker 1: it with the proper material. To those who have had
4:11:52
Speaker 1: trouble in remembering discourses, we urge that they should begin
4:11:56
Speaker 1: to attend lectures and other forms of discourse with the
4:12:00
Speaker 1: distinct purpose of developing that form of memory. Give to
4:12:05
Speaker 1: the subconscious mentality the positive command that it shall attend
4:12:09
Speaker 1: to what is being said and shall record the same
4:12:13
Speaker 1: in such a way that when you review the discourse afterward,
4:12:16
Speaker 1: you will be presented with a good synopsis or syllabus.
4:12:20
Speaker 1: Of it. You should avoid any attempt to memorize the
4:12:24
Speaker 1: words of the discourse, your purpose being to absorb and
4:12:29
Speaker 1: record the ideas and general thoughts expressed, interest, attention, practice, review.
4:12:38
Speaker 1: These are the important points in memory to remember stories, anecdotes, fables,
4:12:45
Speaker 1: et cetera. The principles given above are to be employed.
4:12:50
Speaker 1: The main thing in memorizing an anecdote is to be
4:12:54
Speaker 1: able to catch the fundamental idea underlining it and the
4:12:58
Speaker 1: epigrammatic sentence or central phrase which forms the point of
4:13:02
Speaker 1: the story. Be sure that you catch these perfectly, and
4:13:07
Speaker 1: then commit the point to memory. If necessary, make a
4:13:12
Speaker 1: memorandum of the point until you have opportunity to review
4:13:16
Speaker 1: the story in your mind, then carefully review it mentally,
4:13:21
Speaker 1: letting the mental image of the idea pass before you
4:13:25
Speaker 1: in review, and then repeating it to yourself in your
4:13:29
Speaker 1: own words. By rehearsing and reviewing the story, you make
4:13:35
Speaker 1: it your own and will be able to relate it afterward,
4:13:38
Speaker 1: just as you would something that you had actually experienced.
4:13:43
Speaker 1: So true is this principle that, when carried too far,
4:13:47
Speaker 1: it endows the story with a false sense of actuality.
4:13:52
Speaker 1: Who has not known men who told a story so
4:13:55
Speaker 1: often that they came actually to believe it themselves. Do
4:13:59
Speaker 1: not carry the principle to this extreme, but use it
4:14:03
Speaker 1: in moderation. The trouble with many men is that they
4:14:08
Speaker 1: attempt to repeat a tale long after they have heard it,
4:14:11
Speaker 1: without reviewing or rehearsing in the meantime. Consequently, they omit
4:14:17
Speaker 1: many important points because they have failed to impress the
4:14:21
Speaker 1: story as a whole upon the memory. In order to
4:14:25
Speaker 1: know an anecdote properly, one should be able to see
4:14:29
Speaker 1: its characters and incidents, just as he does when he
4:14:33
Speaker 1: sees an illustrated joke in a comic paper. If you
4:14:37
Speaker 1: can make a mental picture of an anecdote, you will
4:14:40
Speaker 1: be apt to remember it with ease. The noted storytellers
4:14:46
Speaker 1: review and rehearse their jokes, and have been known to
4:14:49
Speaker 1: try them on their unsuspecting friends in order to get
4:14:52
Speaker 1: the benefit of practice before relating them in public. This
4:14:57
Speaker 1: practice has been called by flippant people trying it on
4:15:01
Speaker 1: the dog, but it has its good points and advantages.
4:15:07
Speaker 1: It at least saves one the mortification of being compelled
4:15:11
Speaker 1: to finish up a long drawn out tale by well,
4:15:18
Speaker 1: I'm afraid I've forgotten just how that story ended, but
4:15:21
Speaker 1: it was a good one. General instructions. In this chapter,
4:15:28
Speaker 1: we shall call your attention to certain of the general
4:15:31
Speaker 1: principles already mentioned in the preceding chapters, for the purpose
4:15:35
Speaker 1: of further impressing them upon your mind, and in order
4:15:39
Speaker 1: that you may be able to think of and to
4:15:41
Speaker 1: consider them independent of the details of the special phases
4:15:45
Speaker 1: of memory. This chapter may be considered in the nature
4:15:49
Speaker 1: of a general review of certain fundamental principles mentioned in
4:15:53
Speaker 1: the body of the work. Point one, give to the
4:15:58
Speaker 1: things that you wish to memorize as great a degree
4:16:01
Speaker 1: of concentrated attention as possible. We have explained the reason
4:16:06
Speaker 1: for this advice in many places in the book. The
4:16:10
Speaker 1: degree of concentrated attention bestowed upon the object under consideration
4:16:15
Speaker 1: determines the strength, clearness, and depth of the impression received
4:16:20
Speaker 1: and stored away in the subconsciousness. The character of these
4:16:24
Speaker 1: stored away impressions determines the degree of ease in remembrance
4:16:28
Speaker 1: and recollection. Point two. In considering an object to be memorized,
4:16:35
Speaker 1: endeavor to obtain the impressions through as many faculties and
4:16:39
Speaker 1: senses as possible. The reason for this advice should be
4:16:44
Speaker 1: apparent to you if you have carefully read the preceding chapters.
4:16:48
Speaker 1: An impression received through both sound and sight is doubly
4:16:53
Speaker 1: as strong as one received through but one of these channels.
4:16:58
Speaker 1: You may remember a name or word either by having
4:17:01
Speaker 1: seen it in writing or print, or else by reason
4:17:05
Speaker 1: of having heard it. But if you have both seen
4:17:08
Speaker 1: and heard it, you have a double impression and possessed
4:17:11
Speaker 1: two possible ways of reviving the impression. You are able
4:17:16
Speaker 1: to remember an orange by reason of having seen it,
4:17:19
Speaker 1: smelt it, felt it, and tasted it, and having heard
4:17:23
Speaker 1: its name pronounced. Endeavor to know a thing from as
4:17:28
Speaker 1: many sense impressions as possible, Use the eye to assist
4:17:32
Speaker 1: ear impressions, and the ear to assist in eye impressions.
4:17:37
Speaker 1: See the thing from as many angles as possible. Zero
4:17:42
Speaker 1: point three sense impressions may be strengthened by exercising the
4:17:47
Speaker 1: particular faculty through which the weak impressions are received. You
4:17:52
Speaker 1: will find that either your eye memory is better than
4:17:55
Speaker 1: your ear memory, or vice versa. The remedy lies in
4:17:59
Speaker 1: ex exercising the weaker faculty so as to bring it
4:18:03
Speaker 1: up to the standard of the stronger. The chapters of
4:18:07
Speaker 1: eye and ear training will help you along these lines.
4:18:11
Speaker 1: The same rule applies to the several phases of memory.
4:18:15
Speaker 1: Develop the weak ones, and the strong ones will take
4:18:18
Speaker 1: care of themselves. The only way to develop a sense
4:18:22
Speaker 1: or faculty is to intelligently train, exercise and use it.
4:18:29
Speaker 1: Use exercise and practice will work miracles in this direction.
4:18:35
Speaker 1: Point four. Make your first impression strong and firm enough
4:18:40
Speaker 1: to serve as a basis for subsequent ones. Get into
4:18:44
Speaker 1: the habit of fixing a clear, strong impression of a
4:18:47
Speaker 1: thing to be considered from the first. Otherwise you are
4:18:51
Speaker 1: trying to build up a large structure upon a poor foundation.
4:18:56
Speaker 1: Each time you revive an impression, you deepen it. But
4:19:00
Speaker 1: if you have only a dim impression to begin with,
4:19:03
Speaker 1: the deepened impressions will not include details omitted in the
4:19:07
Speaker 1: first one. It is like taking a good sharp negative
4:19:11
Speaker 1: of a picture that you intend to enlarge afterward. The
4:19:16
Speaker 1: details lacking in the small picture will not appear in
4:19:20
Speaker 1: the enlargement, but those that do appear in the small
4:19:23
Speaker 1: one will be enlarged with the picture. Point five. Revive
4:19:30
Speaker 1: your impressions frequently, and thus deepen them. You will know
4:19:35
Speaker 1: more of a picture by seeing in a few minutes
4:19:37
Speaker 1: every day for a week than you would by spending
4:19:40
Speaker 1: several hours before it at one time. So it is
4:19:45
Speaker 1: with the memory. By recalling an impression a number of times,
4:19:50
Speaker 1: you fix it indelibly in your mind in such a
4:19:53
Speaker 1: way that it may be readily found when needed. Such
4:19:57
Speaker 1: impressions are like favorite tools, which you need every little while.
4:20:01
Speaker 1: They are not apt to be mislaid, as are those
4:20:04
Speaker 1: which are but seldom used. Use your imagination in going
4:20:09
Speaker 1: over a thing that you wish to remember. If you
4:20:12
Speaker 1: are studying a thing, you will find that this going
4:20:15
Speaker 1: over in your imagination will help you materially in disclosing
4:20:20
Speaker 1: the things that you have not remembered about it. By
4:20:23
Speaker 1: thus recognizing your weak points of memory, you may be
4:20:27
Speaker 1: able to pick up the missing details when you study
4:20:30
Speaker 1: the object itself the next time. Zero point six. Use
4:20:36
Speaker 1: your memory and place confidence in it. One of the
4:20:41
Speaker 1: important things in the cultivation of the memory is the
4:20:44
Speaker 1: actual use of it. Begin to trust it a little,
4:20:48
Speaker 1: and then more, and then still more, and it will
4:20:52
Speaker 1: rise to the occasion the man who has to tie
4:20:56
Speaker 1: a string around his finger in order to remember certain
4:20:59
Speaker 1: things soon begins to cease to use his memory, and
4:21:03
Speaker 1: in the end forgets to remember the string or what
4:21:07
Speaker 1: it is for. There are many details, of course, with
4:21:11
Speaker 1: which it is folly to charge the memory, but one
4:21:15
Speaker 1: should never allow his memory to fall into disuse. If
4:21:19
Speaker 1: you are in an occupation in which the work is
4:21:22
Speaker 1: done by mechanical helps, then you should exercise the memory
4:21:26
Speaker 1: by learning verses or other things in order to keep
4:21:30
Speaker 1: it in active practice. Do not allow your memory to atrophy.
4:21:37
Speaker 1: Zero point seven. Establish as many associations for an impression
4:21:42
Speaker 1: as possible. If you have studied the preceding chapters, you
4:21:47
Speaker 1: will recognize the value of this point. Association is memory's
4:21:51
Speaker 1: method of indexing and cross indexing. Each association renders it
4:21:57
Speaker 1: easier to remember or recollect the thing. Each association gives
4:22:03
Speaker 1: you another string to your mental bow. Endeavor to associate
4:22:08
Speaker 1: a new bit of knowledge with something already known by
4:22:12
Speaker 1: and familiar to you. In this way to avoid the
4:22:17
Speaker 1: danger of having the thing isolated and alone in your
4:22:20
Speaker 1: mind without a label or index, number and name. Connect
4:22:25
Speaker 1: your object or thought to be remembered with other objects
4:22:29
Speaker 1: or thoughts by the association of contiguity in space and time,
4:22:34
Speaker 1: and by relationship of kind, resemblance, or oppositeness. Sometimes the
4:22:40
Speaker 1: latter is very useful, as in the case of the
4:22:43
Speaker 1: man who said that Smith reminds me so much of Brown,
4:22:48
Speaker 1: he's so different. You will often be able to remember
4:22:52
Speaker 1: a thing by remembering something else that happened at the
4:22:55
Speaker 1: same place or about the same time. These things give
4:23:00
Speaker 1: you the loose ends of recollection, whereby you may unwind
4:23:04
Speaker 1: the ball of memory. In the same way, one is
4:23:08
Speaker 1: often able to recollect names by slowly running over the
4:23:12
Speaker 1: alphabet with a pencil until the site of the capital
4:23:16
Speaker 1: first letter of the name brings the memory of those
4:23:19
Speaker 1: following it. This, however, only when the name has previously
4:23:24
Speaker 1: been memorized by sight. In the same way, the first
4:23:29
Speaker 1: few notes of a musical selection will enable you to
4:23:32
Speaker 1: remember the whole air, or the first words of a
4:23:35
Speaker 1: sentence the entire speech or selection following it. In trying
4:23:41
Speaker 1: to remember a thing which has escaped you, you will
4:23:45
Speaker 1: find it helpful to think of something associated with that thing,
4:23:48
Speaker 1: even remotely. A little practice will enable you to recollect
4:23:53
Speaker 1: the thing along the lines of the faintest association or clue.
4:23:58
Speaker 1: Some men are adept memory detectives following this plan. The
4:24:04
Speaker 1: loose end in memory is all the expert requires. Any
4:24:09
Speaker 1: associations furnish these loose ends. An interesting and important fact
4:24:15
Speaker 1: to remember in this connection is that if you have
4:24:18
Speaker 1: some one thing that tends to escape your memory, you
4:24:21
Speaker 1: may counteract the trouble by noting the associated things that
4:24:25
Speaker 1: have previously served to bring it into mind with you.
4:24:29
Speaker 1: The associated thing, once noted, may thereafter be used as
4:24:34
Speaker 1: a loose end with which to unwind the elusive fact
4:24:37
Speaker 1: or impression. This idea of association is quite fascinating when
4:24:43
Speaker 1: you begin to employ it in your memory exercises and work,
4:24:48
Speaker 1: and you will find many little methods of using it.
4:24:51
Speaker 1: But always use natural association and avoid the temptation of
4:24:57
Speaker 1: endeavoring to tie your memory up with the red d
4:25:00
Speaker 1: tape of the artificial systems. Point eight group your impressions.
4:25:08
Speaker 1: This is but a form of association, but is very important.
4:25:13
Speaker 1: If you can arrange your bits of knowledge and fact
4:25:16
Speaker 1: into logical groups, you will always be master of your subject.
4:25:21
Speaker 1: By associating your knowledge with other knowledge along the same
4:25:24
Speaker 1: general lines, both by resemblances and by opposites, you will
4:25:29
Speaker 1: be able to find what you need just when you
4:25:32
Speaker 1: need it. Napoleon Bonaparte had a mind trained along these lines.
4:25:38
Speaker 1: He said that his memory was like a large case
4:25:41
Speaker 1: of small drawers and pigeonholes in which he filed his
4:25:46
Speaker 1: information according to its kind. In order to do this,
4:25:51
Speaker 1: he used the methods mentioned in this book of comparing
4:25:54
Speaker 1: the new thing with the old ones, and then deciding
4:25:58
Speaker 1: into which group it naturally fits. This is largely a
4:26:02
Speaker 1: matter of practice and knack, but it may be acquired
4:26:06
Speaker 1: by a little thought and care aided by practice, and
4:26:10
Speaker 1: it will repay one well for the trouble in acquiring it.
4:26:15
Speaker 1: The following table will be found useful in classifying objects ideas, facts, etc.
4:26:22
Speaker 1: So as to correlate and associate them with other facts
4:26:25
Speaker 1: of a like kind. The table is to be used
4:26:29
Speaker 1: in the line of questions addressed to oneself regarding the
4:26:32
Speaker 1: thing under consideration. It somewhat resembles the table of questions
4:26:38
Speaker 1: given in chapter seventeen of this book, but has the
4:26:42
Speaker 1: advantage of brevity. Memorize this table and use it. You
4:26:47
Speaker 1: will be delighted at the results. After you have caught
4:26:50
Speaker 1: the knack of applying it. Query table, ask yourself the
4:26:56
Speaker 1: following questions regarding the thing under consideration. It will draw
4:27:02
Speaker 1: out many bits of information and associated knowledge in your mind.
4:27:08
Speaker 1: One what, two? Whence? Three? Where? Four? When? Five? How? Six? Why? Seven? Whither?
4:27:25
Speaker 1: While the above seven queries are given you as a
4:27:28
Speaker 1: means of acquiring clear impressions and associations, they will also
4:27:32
Speaker 1: serve as a magic key to knowledge if you use
4:27:36
Speaker 1: them intelligently. If you can answer these questions regarding anything,
4:27:41
Speaker 1: you will know a great deal about that particular thing.
4:27:45
Speaker 1: And after you have answered them fully, there will be
4:27:48
Speaker 1: but little unexpressed knowledge regarding that thing left in your memory.
4:27:54
Speaker 1: Try them on one thing. You cannot understand them otherwise
4:27:58
Speaker 1: unless you have a very good imagination.