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Memory, How to Develop, Train and Use It · Memory, How to Develop, Train and Use It

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