Rational Memory Training

Front matter

RATIONAL

MEMORY TRAINING

A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON

Introduction

INTRODUCTION.

From the earliest times philosophers and educators have been impressed with the importance and value of a retentive and responsive memory. Since the time of Simonides numerous systems of Memory Training have been presented to the public. Most of these have been based on purely artificial associations of ideas and have proved valueless so far as any real development of memory is concerned. In many cases, it is to be feared, by diverting attention from the only rational method of Memory Training, viz.:—daily exercise of the memory under the right physical and psychical conditions—they have proved injurious mental crutches. What the authors of some of these much-vaunted systems have lacked in knowledge of Memory itself, and of the physical and mental conditions that modify its operations, they have made up in loud assertions of important "discoveries" and large promises of wonderful results to those who purchase their mental nostrums.

The association of ideas, under one name or another, is the principle underlying all these memory systems, and this was fully expounded by Aristotle. The "discoveries" amount to but little more than the finding of new names for old principles, and the erection of new and often fantastic structures on an old foundation.

In one respect we have in this day a decided advantage over the early philosophers who wrote upon the subject. The progress of physiological research has shown us to-day the intimate relations between all mental operations and certain modifications of the brain and nerves, and thus the physical conditions upon which the retentive and reproductive powers of the mind depend, are now much better known than in the earlier times.

In the following articles no attempt is made to develop a system Of Memory Training. The value and importance of good memory is set forth, some account of phenomenal memories is given and some of the physiological conditions of memory stated. The aim has been to discover, as far as possible, the laws that govern the reproduction of ideas, and especial emphasis has been placed upon attention, arrangement and natural association of ideas as aids to recollection. The importance of daily exercise of the memory, as the rational method of strengthening it, is urged upon the student.

The value of mnemonics in memorizing certain subjects is admitted, but the power of these mnemonic systems to strengthen the memory is denied. Hints and helps are given as to the best methods of memorizing word lists, figures, prose and poetic literature and new languages—the substance of talks given to my classes in Alma College.

The aim has been, in short, to start the student intelligently along the path of rational memory training fully impressed with the thought that books, teachers and memory systems can do but little for him; in fact, can only teach him to help himself, but that persistent and regular use of his memory, under right conditions, will increase his two talents to four.

Chapter 1

CHAPTER I.

“He that shortens the road to knowledge lengthens life.”

—Lacon.

MEMORY is one of the richest gifts of the great Creator to mankind. Kant pronounces it the most wonderful of the faculties. Without it, man becomes an imbecile, life is robbed of many of its richest joys, and improvement and progress are impossible. With it, we live over again the joys and sorrows, successes and defeats of the past, and these remembered experiences become guide-boards or gleaming danger-signals for future conduct. Memory thus retains for us the seeds of wisdom gathered by life’s wayside. He who forgets profits little by his past life. Like the sieve he receives much and retains nothing.

To those who live in accordance with wisdom and virtue, memory becomes a fruitful source of delight as life advances. It recalls the joyous intercourse of past days, the innocent pleasures of childhood, the performance of virtuous deeds, and the reception of acts of kindness from others—making the past life one long gallery of pleasant pictures.

It is true it recalls the sorrowful experiences of life also, but these have lost their bitterness, and to every cloud in Memory's horizon there is the silver lining of succeeding joy. Often in the midst of present sorrow, memory flashes the golden rays of the delightful experience of past days upon us. Who, in the midst of trouble, has not received at least temporary relief by viewing the pictures memory has presented to the mind—bright hours, when happiness reigned in heart and home; fair days, when love was his companion; glad moments, when life was rich with joy?

To those whose lives violate the laws of morality and virtue, memory must become a source of suffering. And no suffering in the short span of our mortal lives, is more acute than the memory of our own acts which have violated conscience and the laws of God. If the functions of memory continue in the life to come—and without memory there can be no conscious identity—it seems inevitable that it shall become a source of joy to the virtuous and a fountain of bitter waters to the wicked.

As a general rule the remembrance of past pleasures is pleasant, and, as has been said, “he who imparts an hour's real enjoyment to another, increases the sum of his happiness while the memory of it lasts." Sidney Smith declares: "If you make children happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it."

Metaphysicians have given a great variety of definitions to the memory. Dr. Reid in his work on "The Human Mind," reviews not only the theories of the ancient Platonists and Peripatetics, but also the more modern theories of Locke, Hume, and other philosophers, and after exposing their fallacies, sums up in these words: "Thus, where philosophers have piled one supposition on another, as the giants piled the mountains in order to scale the heavens, it is all to no purpose—memory remains unaccountable, and we know as little how we remember things past as how we are conscious of those present."

Cicero likens the memory to a treasury, in which is stored up acquired knowledge to be used when occasion demands. Plato likens it to a tablet on which acquired knowledge is engraved. Locke says: "Memory is the power to revive again in our minds those ideas which, after imprinting, have disappeared, or have been laid aside out of sight." Addison says of memory: "It is like those repositories of animals that are filled with stores of food, on which they may ruminate when their present pasture fails." Dr. Walsh says: "Memory hath no special part of the brain devoted to its own service, but uses all those parts which subserve our sensations, as well as our thinking powers." Glanvill says: "Things are reserved in the memory by some corporeal exuviæ and material images which, having impinged on the common sense, rebound thence into some vacant cells of the brain." Gassendi compares memory to linen or paper folded up, containing carefully within its folds the truths which are wrapped up for future use.

Memory is defined as the power or capacity of having what was once present to the senses or the understanding suggested again to the mind, accompanied by a distinct consciousness of its past existence. When we come in a subsequent chapter to discuss the laws which govern memory we shall see, that in place of a single function of the mind, memory really includes several mental activities and these require separate education and training if we would have a strong and serviceable memory.

Plutarch calls memory "the larder of the soul from which it takes its food and sustenance." John Locke styles it "the storehouse of our ideas," and Robert Hall, "the master of the rolls of the soul," while Seneca declares "a man without memory is a madman or an idiot." Lord Tennyson, in one of his beautiful odes thus glorifies memory:

"Thou who stealest fire From the fountains of the past To glorify the present; O haste! Visit my low desire. Strengthen well Endeavor that I I faint in this obscurity. Thou dewy dawn of memory."

Among the Greeks, memory was a goddess to be revered and worshipped, under the name Mnemosyne. She was represented as the daughter of heaven and earth, and the mother of the nine Muses who presided over literature, music and art. In this they recognized the fact that for all progress in knowledge and art mankind was indebted to memory.

Dr. Watts, speaking of memory, in his work "On the Improvement of the Mind," observes: "All the other relations of the mind borrow from hence their beauty and perfection, for other capacities of the soul are almost useless without this. To what purpose are all our labors in wisdom and knowledge, if we want memory to preserve and use what we have acquired? What signify all other intellectual or spiritual improvements, if they are lost as soon as they are obtained? It is memory alone that enriches the mind by preserving what our labor and industry daily collect… Without memory, the soul would be but a poor, destitute, naked being, with an everlasting blank spread over it, except the fleeting ideas of the present moment."

Like all other powers of the human mind the memory is capable of vast improvement. Its capacity is, in truth, unlimited.

By rational methods, it may be strengthened and rendered more serviceable to its possessor, and by lack of attention to the laws which govern this faculty, as well as by irrational methods of memory training, it may be weakened and rendered comparatively useless. While everyone admits the value of a strong and active memory, it is doubtless a fact that the best period of life for memory culture is allowed to pass without any systematic efforts at strengthening this important faculty. Parents and teachers, by a little daily attention to rational memory training, could confer untold advantages on the youth committed to their care.

So far from giving proper attention to this subject, the methods adopted in many schools directly tend to the injury of this faculty. We need hardly refer to the cramming process which overburdens the memory, the "learning by rote," which often developes sensational to the neglect of intellectual memory and the failure of teachers to instruct their pupils in the important work of systematic arrangement of the facts acquired.

It is of the highest importance that the general principles upon which memory works should be well understood by parents and teachers, and that the youth who are

committed to their care should be taught to observe carefully whatever they would memorize, thoroughly understand every lesson, arrange methodically their knowledge, and frequently reproduce the same. All rational memory training must rest upon these four principles.

Is Memory Eternal?

Sir William Hamilton and some other philosophical writers are of the opinion that what has once been apprehended by the mind is never utterly lost. Not that we all fully remember everything that we once knew so as to be able to recall at will our previously acquired knowledge, but that it still somewhere remains engraven upon the tablets of the brain. On the contrary, Locke says: "Ideas quickly fade after vanishing quite out of the understanding, leaving no more footsteps or remaining characters of themselves than shadows do in flying over a field of corn." The opinion of Thackeray is different. He says: "It is an old saying that we forget nothing, as people in a fever suddenly begin to talk the language of their infancy; we are struck by memory sometimes, and old affections rush back on us as vivid as in the time when they were our daily talk; when their presence gladdened our eyes; when, with passionate tears and grief, we flung ourselves upon their hopeless corpses.' Parting is death—at least as far as life is concerned. Passion comes to an end: it is carried off in a coffin, or weeping in a post-chaise; it drops out of life one way or the other, and the earth-clods close over it and we see it no more. But it has been part of our souls and is eternal."

Hail! Memory, hail! in thy exhaustless mine, From age to age unnumbered treasures shine! Thought and her shadowy brood, thy call obey, And place and time are subject to thy sway.

Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; Awake but one, and lo! what myriads arise, Each stamps his image as the other flies!

Sweet Memory! wafted by thy gentle gale Oft up the stream of Time I've turned my sail! To view the fairy haunts of long-lost hours, Blest with far greener shade, far fairer flowers.

—Rogers.

Chapter 2

CHAPTER II.

THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF A GOOD MEMORY.

"A well-cultivated memory means an intelligent manhood and an active old age. He who remembers most, thinks most, for he has the most to think with."

—Chas. G. Leland.

Few people are as deeply impressed as they should be, with the practical value of a good memory. Most persons look upon it as a desirable possession, but esteem it rather a luxury than a necessity. The fact is, a strong and active memory is one of the most powerful factors of success in life. In business, in society, in professional life, in literary pursuits, a good memory is in constant requisition, and contributes very largely to success.

An active and retentive memory adds very largely to the enjoyment of life. It makes its possessor a better and more instructive conversationalist, more successful in all pursuits that involve intercourse with one's fellowmen, and, if the lessons of the past are improved upon, wiser and nobler in character.

A good memory saves its owner from a multi- tude of annoying and troublesome experiences that fall to the lot of forgetful people. Not long since a minister, an acquaintance of the writer, had two engagements to preach, one on a certain Sunday in E——, and one on the following Sunday in G——. Trusting to his memory, which was a treacherous one, he found, on arriving late Saturday evening in G——, that his appointment was at E——. Sitting down, he telegraphed his wife, a very sensible and matter-of-fact lady: "Am in G——, should be in E——; what shall I do?" To which, as fast as the electric current would carry it, she sent the following sensible reply: "Go to bed."

Now, as the above is only a fair illustration of a multitude of annoying experiences and disadvantages, which are constantly befalling persons of bad memory, it may be worth while to analyze the incident, and classify the results that sprang from it.

The first result, then, was the disappointment of his audience, to which we must add his own and that of his good wife. The second result was undoubtedly a feeling of mortification over a failure, from which the exercise of an active memory would have saved him. The third result was financial loss, telegrams, railroad fare and incidentals. The fourth result was loss of time—the trip having to be repeated at a later date. Here then, we have a summary—disappointment, mortification, financial loss, and loss of time, all directly traceable to a single lapse of memory, and from all of which a trusty memory would have saved him.

A good memory then is strongly to be desired, that it may save us from adding needlessly to life's disappointments. Throughout life's career many engagements must be met, many duties discharged, many labors transacted, the proper performance of which requires an alert memory, one that answers instantly and correctly the demands of the hour. If our memories respond to the occasion, and act the part of faithful monitors, life proceeds with satisfaction and success. If, on the other hand, memory, like banks which refuse to pay on demand and require thirty days' notice, fails to present to the consciousness at the right time and place the ideas appropriate to the occasion, the result is disappointment of ourselves and others.

A second reason why all, especially young people, should desire and seek after a good memory, is that they may escape those constant mortifications which come to those who are troubled with lapse of memory.

Can anything be more perplexing to the individual who desires the good opinion of his friends, and to appear to good advantage in society, than those failures of memory to recall the name and address of parties to whom he has been introduced? Or, should the name be recalled, how annoying to have forgotten the address, or the place where the acquaintanceship was formed. Doubtless this single prank of bad memory produces as many petty annoyances as any other one cause. On the other hand, how smooth is the course to popularity and favor of the individual who remembers promptly

names, faces, the whims and prejudices, the likes and dislikes of those he meets, as well as the right thing to do and the right thing to say to each. Oftentimes, a person whose memory fails to recall the name and locality of a friend whom he had met, will seek to disguise the fact, and strive to attain by subterfuge what an active memory should have furnished on the spot.

A man who was thus attempting to find out the name of a friend whom he had met, said to him: "I believe I have forgotten how to spell your name." The friend, a very irascible man who at once perceived the trick, shouted in thunder tones, "J - O - N - E - S."

It is needless to enlarge upon this point as the mind of every reader will recall illustrations of a similar character, from his own experiences or that of his friends.

Another strong reason for desiring an active memory is found in the fact that it saves its possessor from financial losses which always result from deficient memory. A good memory is equivalent to a good investment yielding its owner certain cash dividends. If the testimonies of business men who are victims of bad memory were collected, it would be found there is a large annual loss to be credited to this cause alone. In the neglect to meet engagements promptly, to attend to certain details of business where delay means loss, to take advantage of opportunities at the favorable moment, all of which result largely from deficient memory power, business men lose large sums annually. How many men from lack of proper thought, resulting from sluggish memory, have to take two journeys where one should have been sufficient, to write two letters or send two telegrams, or two express parcels, where one should have answered, and, in numberless other ways are often put to loss.

A good memory is a great time saver. Not only does it save the time and vexation so many experience in "cudgelling their brains" for facts and ideas which should be ever at hand, but it enables its owner to perform nearly all the activities of life more expeditiously, accurately and successfully. It saves needless effort. It economizes human energy. By saving from needless disappointment, vexation and effort, it, in effect, lengthens life.

A good memory is a necessary handmaid to a sound intelligence. It furnishes the reflective powers with the materials of knowledge. Bias declares: "Memory is the mother of wisdom; for what is wisdom without memory, but a babe that is strangled in its birth."

Todd, in the Student's Manual, says: "He who has a memory that can seize with an iron grasp and retain what he reads (the ideas, simply, without the language), and judgment to compare and balance, will scarcely fail of being distinguished."

Many are afraid of strengthening the memory, lest it should destroy their inducement and power to originate ideas—lest their light should be altogether borrowed light. The danger does not seem to me to be very great, especially since I have noticed that those who are so fearful of employing this faculty are by no means to be envied for their originality.

Students at school or college are often deeply impressed with the value of a good memory, as every step of their progress from the lowest forms to the highest classes, is determined by the correctness and alertness of their memories.

It is to be regretted that teachers do not take advantage of this impression, and adopt systematic efforts to strengthen, in a rational and safe way, the retentive and recollective powers of their students. It see strange, too, that those who have been deeply impressed by the examinations of their college course with the practical value of a good memory, should not discover on leaving school that all life is an examination, and that a good memory is as necessary to pass with "honors" this examination as it is to the college boy going up for his "final."

All persons are ready to admit the great value of good judgment, and by some, the memory and judgment have been looked upon, as, in a measure, antagonistic, so that the same person is not supposed to have a good judgment and a great memory. And yet it has been said by others that "soundness of judgment, without a fair development of memory, is impossible." Wayland declares: "The mistake on this subject has probably arisen from two misconceptions. In the first place, a cultivated and disciplined memory has been confounded with a miscellaneous and unclassified collection of facts. In the second place, the abuse of memory has been confounded with the use of it. Dugald Stewart, in his "Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind," says, "It is commonly supposed that genius is seldom united with a very tenacious memory. So far, however, as my observation has reached, I can scarcely recollect one person who possesses the former qualities, without a more than ordinary share of the latter." There can be no doubt that a retentive and active memory is one of the first requisites to clear and correct judgment. The great men of all ages, in arms, in art, in letters, have been, almost without exception, men of more than average power of memory.

Sir Francis Bacon had a great memory. He rarely had need to refer to a book once read. Peter Boener says: "He only ordered his chaplain or me to look in such an author for a certain place." Ben Johnson, Descartes, Leibnitz, Pascal, the Scaligers, Grotius, Euler, Niebuhr, Mackintosh, Dugald Stewart, Hamilton and Dean Mansel, all men remarkable in the domain of speculative thought, had uncommonly fine memories.

An equally notable list of famous men of action—of famous men of intellect in any domain of life—could be readily made. Great orators and writers are far more indebted to their power to retain and reproduce freely upon occasion what they have once learned, than to their originality and clearness of apprehension."

In all the higher productions of human genius, in poetry, the fine arts and philosophy, memory is of untold advantage. Dr. Thomas Brown declares: "The richer the memory, and consequently the greater the number of images that may arise to the poet, and of powers and effects that may arise to the philosopher, the more copi- ous in both cases will be the suggestions of analogy which constitute poetic invention or philosophic discovery, and the more copious the suggestions of analogy may be, the richer and more diversified, it is evident, must be the inventive power of the mind." Prof. Scott declares that "if we examine the endowment of men of genius and those famed for intellectual exertions, we shall find that a retentive and capacious memory formed the basis upon which their fame was reared."

For practical purposes, our knowledge and past experience are valuable to us just in proportion as memory retains them and furnishes us with them on demand. He who knows a great many things and has had very valuable experience, is practically in the position of the man who knows little and has had but little experience, unless his memory serves him promptly and well. The maxim of the old scholars was that so often repeated by Casauban—Tantum quisque scit quantum memoria tenet: Every man knows just what he remembers.

In 1555, Gulielmus Gratarolus published a work on the art of memory, and in 1562 William Fulwood published an edition of it "Englyshed," under the title of "The Castel of Memorie." In the dedication and preface, Fulwood drops into poetry. We quote one stanza:

"For what helps it good bookes to read or noble stories large: Except a perfecte memorie do take thereof the charge? What profit's it most worthie things to see or else to heare, If that same thing comes in at one and out of the other eare?"

Chapter 3

CHAPTER III.

PHENOMENAL MEMORIES.

"The importance of cultivating a faculty that plays such an essential part in our mental progress can scarcely be exaggerated."

—Dr. Watts. Nature shows her accustomed partiality in the bestowal of the powers of memory. Some few have really great memories, others feeble memories, while most men have good native powers in this regard. But, as is the case of the talents, five gained other five, and two, other two, when employed, and the one talent hid, remained one talent, so the native powers of memory may, by exercise and training, be increased even many fold. The main differences between men, so far as the practical value of memory is concerned, depends much more on the way in which they have developed their memories, than upon the greatness of their natural powers.

In this chapter, we direct attention to certain persons of ancient and others of modern times, who were doubtless endowed with more than average powers of memory, and whose training had fortunately been favorable to its higher development. It may be that none of our readers will ever possess similar powers to those about to be recounted, yet the recital may serve to show the truth of a statement already made: that there is really no limit to the development of memory. If this be true, it should encourage everyone, however moderate his native powers of memory, to persist in regular and systematic efforts for the strengthening of this faculty.

Lord Macaulay had a phenomenally powerful memory. When only three or four years of age he took in whole pages of what he read. His mind at that time would seem to have mechanically retained the form of what he read. His maid said he "talked printed words." Once, when a child, when making an afternoon call with his father, he picked up Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel," for the first time. While his seniors were conversing he quietly devoured the treasure.

When they returned home the boy went to his mother, who, at the time was confined to her bed, and, seating himself beside her, repeated what he had read by the canto, until she was tired. In after life, one day at a board meeting at the British Museum, Macaulay wrote down from memory, in three parallel columns on each side of four pages of foolscap, a complete list of the Cambridge senior wranglers with dates and Colleges attached, for the 100 years during which a record of the names had been kept in the university calendar. Many other examples of this kind, showing Macaulay's wonderful memory, might be presented; he once said, if all existing copies of "Paradise Lost" and "Pilgrim's Progress" were destroyed, he could restore them from memory.

Magliabechi, court librarian at Florence, was the literary prodigy of his times. He had crammed into his head the contents of an immense library. He could, upon demand, not only supply any quotation desired, but was also able to give page and paragraph. He at last became regardless of all social and sanitary rules and almost rotted amid a confused heap of books.

Jedediah Buxton, who died in 1774, possessed a remarkable memory. Although a schoolmaster, he was so illiterate he could scarcely scrawl his own name. On one occasion he mentioned the quantity of ale he had drunk since he was twelve years old, and the names of the gentlemen who had given it to him. The whole amounted, he said, to five thousand one hundred and sixteen pints, or "wints," as he termed them, because, like the toper Bassus, he emptied his jug at one draught. Although he had received very little instruction in arithmetic, and had never been assisted in his youth beyond learning the multiplication table, yet, without the aid of pen or pencil, he could multiply five or six figures by so many, and in a much shorter time than it could be done by the most expert arithmetician. The product of the sum, which in his memory he had worked out, he would repeat, if it were required, a month afterward. He could, moreover, leave off the operation, and, without the slightest error, resume it at the end of a week or a month, or even after several months.

Dr. Abernethy had a singularly retentive memory. One day he invited a company of friends to do honor to his wife's birthday, when one of the guests of a poetical turn of mind, composed some verses complimentary to Mrs. Abernethy. The doctor listened attentively to the reading of them, and then exclaimed, "Come, that is a good joke, to attempt to pass off those verses as your own composition, I know them by heart." All were mute with astonishment, while Dr. Abernethy recited the verses without a single error. The "poet" was completely amazed, mystified and angry. The amused host explained his power of memory, and offered to repeat any piece of the same length that any of the company would recite.

There are recorded accounts of persons both in ancient and in modern times possessed of powers of memory so stupendous as almost to stagger belief. As in the case of Goldsmith's schoolmaster, we wonder that "one small head" could carry all they knew. Such were the memories of Theodectes and Hortensius and Cineas, of whom Cicero speaks. The latter being sent on an embassy to Rome, was able, the day after his arrival, to address all the senators and knights by name. Hortensius, after coming out of the sale room, was able to repeat the auction list backward.