# Ideatypics; or, an Art of Memory/Chapter 3

ASSOCIATION—PARTICULAR.
Of the five modes of operation, states, or conditions of the faculties—Attention, Perception, Association, Judgment, and Memory,—I shall take Association, and shew my several modes of procedure.
1.—The first great principles, or precepts, are, Attach the known to the known, and pass from the known to the unknown, by something intermediate, so as with the one to think of the other. We shall presently explain this, and give many examples.
Something intermediate was spoken of by Willis, a fellow of Magdalen College, as early as 1661. In his Mnemonica, a very rare book, published in London in the first year of the reign of Charles II. he speaks of linking two ideas—two known ideas—by association; or transferring the action of one idea to the other, which he has appositely illustrated. From this circumstance, then, of calling up one idea whenever another is named, (and this we are enabled to do from transferred action or site) I have adopted the term transfer, as one of general application.
​As an illustration of this: If I want to connect the words washing and clay, I at once imagine the clay to be made into a bowl, and the washing to be done in it; by this means, I have transferred an act that binds the two ideas in such a way, that whenever one is mentioned, the other also comes to mind. It appears to me, that every object is a centre-point to a crowd of objects; that each object is, in fact, a centre to others that serve as centre-points; and that each mind has in it these groupings, as circumstances have more or less presented them.
If I take it as an agreement, that a chair, or any article, has attached to it certain points, and I locate on these points, as I shall by and by shew; not using mere arbitrary places, as some do, producing a uniformity that destroys the object aimed at; but points which belong to the ordinary shape of the article: I can enable any one to employ them to great advantage. In addition to these natural points, there are objects and circumstances, associated with the whole, that may serve a most important end in acquiring knowledge.
Every abstract has its concrete: there is no mental conception that does not attach itself, more or less, in idea to some visible form, which the mind of man naturally and immediately presents. Each individual, therefore, may supply himself ​with associations, more appropriate in his own view than I have given in my examples. This is expected of the reader: my business is to give a proper direction to the mental powers, and leave each one to his own peculiarities.
If a man hear the relation of a naval battle, does he not presently seem to behold the things obvious in such matters? If mention be made of mustering an army, does not the hearer form in his mind the images of the field? The natural action of the mind is clear, and ought to be attended to.
I have been careful to give no precept which nature herself has not dictated, with a view to imprint ideas more deeply in memory. In Chapter IV. I shall give a method of bestowing them methodically in some place, lest they be forgotten, through light apprehension.
A great objection, sometimes raised against an art of Memory, is, that there are two things to be remembered for one. This objection is not worth considering, if by the aid of any art, two things can be better remembered than one. Objections have always been found against every department of knowledge, and its treatment; and such is the imperfection of our powers, that this will probably always be the case: yet much of the objection, says a writer in the London Encyclopædia, made ​to Mnemonics by some of the learned, has been to prevent its becoming a “handle for the vulgar”
In many of my methods of association, however, the objection, that there are two things to be remembered for one, rarely applies; for as in an optic lens, there is a concentration of rays to a central point, so in the typical lens, &c., of which I am about to speak, there is but one prominent point, in which all the information centres, and which is the chief and proper object of memory.
That no one may mistake the purport of these examples and exercises on Association, I would add, there appears to me to be three kinds of Memory—general, particular, and associative.—The first has been possessed in a remarkable degree by many distinguished men. They remembered every thing to which they turned their attention. Others have possessed only a particular memory. Eulur could recollect figures, and work them to an amazing extent in the lecture-room. La Grange, equally eminent as a mathematician, always broke down in his attempts to recollect the figures of a simple process: he generally left his pupils to finish what he began. Some have remembered words; others have retained ideas.—There is another kind of memory, which seems generally predominant in all, yet employed to a great extent ignorantly; I mean the associative ​kind, the powers of which appear to me to be inexhaustible. Cuvier is said to have possessed a general and particular memory of the highest kind; yet he is found to have associated his tables of Natural History, and thus to have raised for himself a lasting monument.
I wish the reader to attach things that he does not know to something that he does; so that when he thinks of one, he shall think of the others.—According to the nature of the ideas in myself and others, and the similarity of our notions, will our mental operations correspond, and the full advantage of my associations be clear to them. Those whose habits of thinking are quite different to mine, may nevertheless find in this Chapter of Association, such helps to what appears to be a constituent part of our nature, that it may set them thinking for themselves.
A Systematic Arrangement of the several Modes of Association included in
1. The connection of the known idea with the known.
2. The connection of the known idea with the unknown.
​1. Associate the known ideas with the known by
| TRANSFER | scriptile |
| TRANSFER | direct |
| TRANSFER | compound (scrtptile and direct) |
in three primary cases, or relations, as follow:—
Case I.—In the Transfer of Ideas known apart, whose archetypes, one or both, are objects of sense.
Case II.—In the Transfer chain of Ideas known apart.
Case III—In the Typical Transfer of Ideas, whose archetypes are known apart, and which are not objects of sense.
In these two Cases, types are used for the Archetypes, consisting of Forms, Letters, Numbers, Sounds, Colors, &c.
EXAMPLES. CASE I.
scriptile.l
Q.—Associate Marble with Gratitude.
An.—On the white surface of the Marble, I write Gratitude in black letters.
direct.....2
Q.—Associate Beauty with Sandy Plain.
An.—There is a positive and negative Association here: for instance, we can say, A Sandy Plain presents no beauty to the eye; or, we can say, An oasis is a spot of beauty in the Sandy Plain.
compound.3
Q.—Associate Cæsar and his expression, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” with Tree.
An.—Let Cæsar be carving the words, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” on a Tree.
EXAMPLES. Case II.
1 Q.—From an old MS. associate the following:— “man, horse, stone, pig, tree.”
An.—“Let the Man be on horseback, the Horse champing a Stone, which sends forth sparks that burn the Pig, and cause him to run so as to overturn the Tree.”
In this way we may emulate the Mnemonical feats of old, and repeat 2,000 words, like Seneca, on once reading them.
2 Q.—Associate rye, winchelsea, hastings, penhurst, lewes, seaford, brighton, horsham, arundel, petersfield, trotton, petworth, bognor.
An.—Amongst the rye I dropped a winch, and hasting to find it, I lose my pen. The sea in front, by its brightness, startles a horse, which runs round the field into a peat bog.
I left out the word trotton, to shew my mode of combining the scriptile and the direct transfer. To introduce this, suppose the horse to have a horse-cloth, and written on the corner the word trotton. Carry the actions and the objects in your eye, and you may read off words so as to remember them. I have taken one of the most difficult associations, and preserved the order of the words, as given us by Chambers (except in one instance), to shew its application in that particular way when needed.
3 Q.—Associate class, order, genus, species.
An.—As I only want to know the order of these words, I associate the initial letters, and make the word cogs.
EXAMPLES. Case III.
1 Q.—Associate justice with wisdom.
An.—I place an owl for wisdom, on the shoulders of justice, as she is generally represented with scales.
2 Q.—Associate thought with infinity.
An.—flash of light (thought) reveals to me an interminable ocean (infinity).
3 Q.—Associate doctrine with exertion.
An.—I think of an exertion made to propagate a doctrine.
The last examples, in connection with Locality, apply especially to the association of Sermons, Speeches, Poetry, Prose, &c. &c.
We see there are many ways of associating, one of which will always present itself to the mind. As this is one of the finest exercises in which a pupil can be employed for the production of original thought, and the improvement of the judgment, I shall give exercises which may afterwards be extended.
EXERCISES. Cases I. II. III.
Q.—How would you associate —
1. Grass and wealth?
2. The pride, passion, caution, and simplicity of Henry II.?
3. The profligacy, haughtiness, and tyranny of William Rufus?
4. Portreeve or bailiff and the title of mayor?
5. The crime, subsequent distress, and final destruction of King John?
6. Propugn and to defend?
7. Categories, substance, quality, quantity, relation, action, passion, when, where, position, habit?
8. Synod and Church Assembly?
9. Economy and management?
10. Domesday-book and surname?
11. The abrogation of the Game and Forest Laws by Stephen, and the latter’s physical and mental capacity for government?
12. Geoffrey of Monmouth and William of Malmsbury, contemporaries?
13. Unlimited ambition and a vindictive spirit?
14. The progress of literature and home improvement in Henry II.’s reign?
15. How would you associate with Henry VIII. the bishoprics he erected, viz. Westminster, Peterborough, Bristol, Oxford, Chester, and Gloucester?
16. How would you associate Henry VIII.’s six wives in their order and the particular deaths they died?
​2. The connection of the known idea with the unknown.
The mind passes from the known to the unknown by
| TRANSFER | scriptile |
| TRANSFER | direct |
| TRANSFER | compound |
| TRANSFER | phonetic |
| TRANSFER | local |
in five primary cases, or relations, as follow:—
| Case I. | typical | lens ot link and chain |
| Case„ II. | phonetic | lens ot link and chain |
| Case„ III. | literal | lens ot link and chain |
| Case„ IV. | symbolic | lens ot link and chain |
| Case„ V. | chromatic | lens ot link and chain |
The term lens refers to the focus (vide frontispiece, Fig. 1.) as it were presented to the mind in each division, where there is concentred many unconnected parts of knowledge. The term link applies similarly; several of these form a chain.— The five divisions I shall explain severally, and illustrate by examples, so that the mind will readily fall in with each operation, and employ it with the utmost advantage.
If I do not make these distinctions, which are really easy in practice, and instead of them merely speak of Transfer in association, leaving the pupil to apply the principles as he pleases, it will induce perplexity in his mind, because he will be ignorant of any link or chain to be used: all he has to do now is, to select, as he may need, one of the modes detailed, or modify several, as it best suits his peculiar turn of mind.
Suppose there is in the mind the idea of an Archetype; then, to this known Archetype or its substitute, a type, there is a transfer to be made of matters of study, known or unknown, so that they can always be referred to. The Archetypes are brought together sensibly in the types or typical lens, (I use this term for popular purposes,) so that they can be made objects of sight, ​if you please, as well as objects of imagination. As in the real lens there is a concentration of light, which goes to the formation of perfect images, so in the typical lens there is perfect distinctness, besides the concentration of knowledge, and the gathering together of points of information, that students know not where to find systematically, but which are brought forward frequently after a sort of blind search in the understanding.
A simple illustration, applicable to all the cases, is given in the Frontispiece (vide Fig. 1). Suppose archetypes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. to be different in their nature, or to be things, &c. out of ourselves that produce ideas in ourselves. These are supposed to be brought, under some form, to a central type, marked t, (which I have called a lens or link,) so as to be received in a concentrated form there, along with the known idea, which is represented by a line darker than the rest. By this contrivance, fifty or a hundred accessions may be made to one idea, and so connected that, instead of fifty or a hundred unconnected ideas being received into the mind as at ideas 1, 2, 3, 4, &c., they are all received through the medium of one known idea, which is represented by the dark line passing directly to the eye.
This concentration of knowledge is a distinguishing original feature in this system. We may ​express what we have said above in other words. The ideas in the mind are brought together as it were to a focus in mental perception as the mind looks on the Literal or Typical Lens, &c., and, through the associated forms in it, to the Archetype which are the originals, the things to be remembered.
EXAMPLES to Case I.
It is sometimes advantageous, as I said before, to put a subject in more than one case; as Chronology, for instance, in Case I. and II. &c., Typical and Phonetic, besides using localities. The last we need not yet speak about.
2 Q.—How will you associate the following Chronological Table?
| Dr. Doddridge died | 1751 |
| Antiquarian Society incorporated | 1751 |
| Lord Eldon born | 1751 |
| Chatterton the Poet born | 1752 |
| Earthquake at Adrianople | 1752 |
| New Style introduced into England Sept. 3rd | 1752 |
| Marriage Act passed | 1753 |
| Bishop Berkely died | 1753 |
| Mansion House built (cost £42,000.) | 1753 |
| Society of Arts instituted | 1753 |
| British Museum established | 1753 |
| Earthquake at Cairo & Constantinople | 1754 |
| Fielding died | 1754 |
| Earthquake at Lisbon | 1755 |
| Mrs. Siddons born | 1755 |
| Montesquieu died | 1755 |
| Minorca surrendered to the French | 1756 ​ |
| Collins the Poet died | 1756 |
| Calcutta taken by the Nabob of Bengal | 1756 |
| Oswego taken by the French | 1756 |
| George Vertue the Engraver died | 1756 |
| Battle of Prague | 1757 |
| Battle„ of„ Plaissy | 1757 |
| Admiral Byng shot | 1757 |
| Battle of Breslau | 1757 |
| Siege of Olmutz | 1758 |
| Goree taken by Commodore Keppel | 1758 |
| Allan Ramsay died | 1758 |
| Horatio Lord Nelson born | 1758 |
| Battle of Minden | 1759 |
| Wolfe killed | 1759 |
| Earthquake at Balbec | 1759 |
| Professor Porson born | 1759 |
| Handel died | 1759 |
| Admiral Hawke defeats the French fleet | 1759 |
2 An.—This is not a difficult task, although so many facts are purposely inserted in the same year. I should first select one room. This is enough for 100 years, as we are told further on in this work; or I should take a certain figure, a square, for instance, for one century, with 9 points in it. A sheet of paper may then contain the events of 100 years, and be hung up in some conspicuous place.
In the fifth or central point of this square, or any other figure that may be used, I place the events of the 55th year just in the same way as I should place the 65th year on the 6th point of the figure, or the events of the 75th ​year on the 7th point of the same figure. Then, round about each of these central points, or the objects placed there, I associate all the events of the 9 years that belong to each point.—The tens are associated together in some external part, or figure, or on the ceiling if a room be used, as will be shewn in the Chapter on Locality. The years one to nine are managed in the same way, so as to form one comprehensive whole of each century.
I then suppose the fifth point, that is, the place for the 55th year, as well as the others for the 75th, 85th, &c., to be surrounded by points, 1, 2, 3, 4—6, 7, 8, 9, as here shewn in the small points surrounding the larger.
Those of the fifth point answer to the several years 51, 52, 53, 54. The centre is 55. Then 56, 57, 58, 59.—Now proceeding to associate with types of forms and sounds, I give for the 55th year’s facts the following:—The earth quakes under the lisping child that sits on the mountain. I make a sketch of this in the centre.
In some of the more admired modes of remembering Chronology, we find a phrase used for one fact, and the initial letters of some of the words of the phrase give the date. In such instances, however, the advantage of having a phrase somewhat in keeping with the subject, is not to be considered, while the difficult task remains of remembering the order of many ​words. For a thousand facts, there would be required, at least, four thousand words. In what I propose, there is a ready and instant reference to a fact that locality alone secures; besides this, there is wanted generally but one word for each fact, many contemporaneous facts also may be put together, and the words which are the types of facts, taken in any order, with the same result. I want the reader to bring the objects before his mind; by this means he will always come at the words. This is the secret. He need not take the words as I have associated them, nor try to remember them, but take the words earth quakes, lisping, child, sits on, mountain, for the facts in the year 55; or take nearer types of the archetypes, and associate as he pleases, find the place for them, and delineate them there. Any rude sketch of his own will serve.
Whenever an object is inanimate and without action, it refers to death. Whenever an object is in action, or has with it some explanatory word, as above, in the phrase, the “child that sits,” it refers to a birth, as indicated by the word child. Although the sound of some of the words I have used is not quite like those words that are to be recalled, vet it will be found, by experience, to be quite enough on almost every occasion, from the circumstance of their being associated together. The rest follow in order, and their application will at once be seen by reference to the Chronological Table.
51. (1st place)—A sapling elder-tree, near it an antiquarian reading Doddridge.
52. (2nd place)—A new stile, upon it one with chattering teeth, trembling at the dry and quaking earth.
​53. (3rd place)—A marriage in a mansion that contains a museum with artists working old burnt clay.
54. (4th place)—With care and by constant upturning of the earth, the barren field becomes fruitful.
56. (6th place)—The French do as we do, for I calculate it is only the minority whose virtuous deeds add dignity to their calling.
57. (7th place)—He prefers being shot in the battle’s press, than placidly to perish by the plague.
58. (8th place)—He bought a ram’s head of almost full size, for a new nail and a couple of cowries.
59. (9th place)—His poor son found mint and bulbous roots, a slaughtered wolf, and a French hawk, near an ant-hill.
When quick at putting the figures in their proper places, one can almost read off Chronology so as to remember it. I need not remember the order of the words: every end is answered in calling to mind the objects, the qualities, the actions, and the places. I can readily recall several facts from sometimes one object associated with the central point.
Thus may the numerous facts of 100 years be brought round ten central objects, which are placed in certain relative positions, either in a room or on some object, and thus can we recall to mind every fact with its date.
​3 Q.—Suppose I have other facts to add to those already given, for instance, Guadaloupe surrendered to the British, 1759; the Battle of Bergen, also in the same year: How would you introduce these?
3 An.—I should make of the words Guadaloupe and Bergen, Gaudy bird; because in 1759, we have French hawk, with which it can be readily associated, and the mind receives an impression that is not soon lost. If one of these facts be recalled, it is hardly possible for us not to think of the others.
EXERCISES. Case I.
1 Q.—The word education, with its initial sound and four consonants, gives Edward IV. With this and a symbol, the printing press, (because printing was introduced by Caxton,) associate all the events of this king’s reign.
2.—Give me the objects made by the sounds contained in the words de foe, atterbury, goldsmith, and cowper; the first two dying, the last two born, in 1731.
3.—By what type would you represent the three degrees of comparison, the positive, the comparative, and the superlative?
4.—Aleph א is like a leaf in form and sound. Find the similitudes of the next six Hebrew letters; and if no direct type is found, how would you proceed?
5.—The figure in b. 1, prop. 27 of Euclid, is like a wedge or pile with a cane [for No. 27, vide Chap, on Number] across it. Find the nearest types of the next five figures of the same book.
​6.—Give me the types and the associations for remembering the measure of a Sapphic verse.
7.—Give me the associations for the Glvconian metre.
8.—Associate a few genders by considering their relations to things masculine and feminine.
e. g. Grain, a French noun for corn, is mas; and it may be remembered from the circumstance of men being principally engaged in gathering it in.
EXAMPLES. Case II.
As we have in Case I. necessarily introduced some examples of Case II., I shall here give examples of committing to memory the Vocabularies of Language.
My mode of proceeding in this respect is the same as Herdson’s and Watson’s, and is so much like that which is said by some to be recently discovered, that, through a desire of avoiding collision or controversy with the author of any system, I am induced to give, verbatim, Herdson’s method of acquiring unknown words, which bears date 1661.
“ LECTIO III. “ OF UNKNOWN WORDS.
Unknown words are remembered four ways:
“1. By the harmonie of words, which various words have one with another; as the English word Riche, brings into my mind the Hebrew word lliachf etc.
​“2. From the sound or echo, as England, Isleland, Presbyterie, Presbyter, etc.
“3. From the beginning of words, as, for back, backwards.
“4. By way of Division, as, for Parrat, a pare, and a rat.”
EXAMPLES.
1 Q.—The Greek word endecketai, means it is possible. How would you associate the word and its meaning so that you might always think of one in connection with the other?
An.—I should select the nearest sound of endeclcetai, as, for instance, on deck a tie, This I should repeat in connection with it is possible, till a connecting idea arose, as that of a marriage on deck being possible, and so on. Very little practice will give power to do this, in quicker time than I have taken to describe the way.
2 Q.—Associate the following rule of Latin Syntax:—“Satago, I am busy about a thing; misereor and miseresco, I pity, require a genitive case.”
2 An.—I could use Case III. with more advantage in this instance; but as I have to illustrate Case II. I should repeat as follows:—There sat with his gold, busy, a miser, in misery o’erwhelmed, moving the pity of the gentle. Here the object and the action can be retained with ease; from these we pass to the abstract rule, which, in its usual form, would require much repetition before it could be remembered.
3 Q.—Commit to memory these Latin, Greek, and French words:—
LATIN. :
| Pănax . . . . . . | The herb all-heal. |
| Cŭtis . . . . . . | Skin. |
| Aeus . . . . . . . | Chaff. |
| Climax . . . . . | Ladder. |
| Pilus . . . . . . . | Hair. |
| Pontus . . . . . | Sea. |
| GREEK. ||
| raon . . . . . . . . | Easy. |
| edos . . . . . . . . | A Statue. |
| keiro . . . . . . . . | To crop, shear. |
| poleisthai . . . . | To be sold. |
| apantao . . . . . | I meet. |
| katalambano . | I take hold of with the hand. |
| FRENCH. ||
| Moutonner | To curl, to frizzle, to foam. |
| Courir | To run. |
| Avoir | To have. |
| Envoyer | To send. |
| Soleil | The Sun. |
| Bas | Stockings. |
3 An.—Latin.
| climax | . . . | A ladder, for climbing. |
| panax | | For some, the derivative Panacea, &c., will suffice; for others, a Pan, to hold the herb all-heal. |
| cutis | | Some will remember it by the derivative cuticle, &c. ; others will remember that a cut is soon made in the shin. |
| A word can generally be found that leads to the quantity. |||
| acute | | Acus, with reference to pain from being pierced with a piece of chaff, a needle, or a prickly fish. |
| pilus | . . . | Hence pile, a hairy surface, nap, &c. |
| pontus | . . . | Something more than a pond—the sea. |
Greek.—A ray of light on a book, makes it easy to read Head of a horse on a statue. Crop, or shave, with care. A pole hoist high, to give notice of something to be sold. A panting at a meeting. Catch a lamb by taking hold of it with the hand.
​French.—From mutton we pass to sheep, from this to their curled and frizzled wool, and the appearance of foam which their white backs at a distance present. A courier runs. Have war. This contains the sound and the meaning. Sent and on the way. The Sun is the sole source of light. Some stockings come from the sheep that baa.
EXERCISES. Case II.
| 1 | Vervex-ecis | a wedder sheep. |
| | Foenisex-ēcis | a mower of hay. |
| | Resex-ēcis | a vine branch cut off. |
| 2 | Calix-icis | a cup. |
| | Calyx-ўcis | the bud of a flower. |
| | Coccyx-ygis | a cuckoo. |
| | Fornix-īcis | a vault. |
| | Oryx-ўgis | a wild goat. |
| | Phoenix-īcis | a bird so called. |
| | Tradux-ūcis | a graff or offset of a vine. |
| 3 | Fornax-ācis | a furnace. |
| | Pānax-ācis | the herb all-heal. |
| | Climax-ācis | a ladder. |
| | Forfex-īcis | a pair of scissors. |
| | Hālex-ēcis | a herring. |
| | Smilax-ācis | the herb ropeweed. |
| | Carex-īcis | a sedge. |
| | Supellex, | household furniture. |
| | Supellectilis, | household furniture. |
| 4 | Calx-cis | the heel. |
| | Cortex-īcis | the bark of a tree. |
| | Hystrix-īcis | a porcupine. |
| | Imbrex-īcis | a gutter or roof tile. |
| | Lynx-cis | an ounce, a beast of quick sight. |
| | Limax-acis | a snail. |
| | Obex-īcis | a bolt or bar. |
| | Serdix-īcis | a partridge. |
| | Pūmex-icis | a pumice stone. |
| | Rumex-īcis | sorrel. |
| | Sandix-īcis | a purple color. |
| | Silex-īcis | a flint. |
| | Varix-īcis | a swollen vein. |
| 5 | Aquilex-ĕgis | a well-maker. |
| | Conjūnx-ŭgis | a husband or wife. |
| | Frux, Frugis | corn. |
| | Grex, Gregis | a flock. |
| | Lex, Legis | a law. |
| | Phalanx-ngis | a phalanx. |
| | Renex-ĭgis | a rower. |
| | Rex, Regis | a king. |
| | Nix, Nivis | snow. |
| | Nox, Noctis | night. |
| | Sēnex, Senis | old. |
French. :
| Frapper, | to strike. |
| Fremir, | to shudder. |
| Echapper | to escape. |
| Dire, | to say, to tell. |
| Débuter, | to begin, start with. |
| Crever, | to put out, &c. |
| Vert, | green. |
| Toujours, | always. |
| A l’entour, | roundabout. |
| Derrière, | behind. |
EXAMPLE. Case III.
1 Q.—How would you associate in the Literal Lens, the Syntax of the genitive from Philip Buttmann’s larger Greek Grammar?
1 An.—Take any letter of the word genitive, T for instance, because it seems to be most suited to the subject; then, 1. The fundamental idea of the genitive is that of derivation, shewn by the three arms of the T that proceed from a point. 2. Place a miniature man at the top of the T, and suppose him to be waiting to free, keep off, cause to desist, or deviate a cricket-ball—for with these verbs the genitive is employed in Greek. 3. A column is chosen for the upright part of the T, except a part or portion of the top; to shew that expressions, denoting selection or choice, exception, and in general portion or part of a whole require the genitive.
Note.—In Grammar every rectangular figure, divided into nine parts, presents us with a point for each part of speech, thus:—
| Ar. | Noun | Adj. |
| Pro. | Verb | Adv. |
| Prep. | Couj. | Interj. |
•aaa.— — —•aaa.— — —• :
| •aaa.— — —•aaa.— — —• |||
4. To denote, therefore, that the genitive is required in the separation or the distinguishing of an object by adjectives and pronouns, set one man on the adjective corner, and another, of a very different appearance, on a seat projecting from the pronoun point of the column.
5. The high position of the man refers us to the superlative, requiring a genitive.
6. Part of a clock placed under the feet of the man in the adverb place, shews us that adverbs of time; and adverbs of place, considered as parts of a more extensive time or place, require the genitive; ex.gr. Tris tes emeras—three times a day.—Use Case II. sometimes for the recollection of these examples.
7. The man in the adjective point has lost part of his leg, to shew that expressions, with a limitation to a part or portion, require the genitive; ex.gr. I have broken my leg (leg is in the genitive).
8. He is eating meat, drinking water, and enjoying the air there, to shew us that such expressions require a genitive whenever the thing enjoyed is mentioned.
9. He has on his head a garland of hyacinths, to denote that the material or stuff of which something consists, requires a genitive.
​10. The man might determine to be seated on the column for years, if it stood. So circumstances or peculiarities on which things are as it were dependent, require the genitive; ex. gr. A column of many years’ (standing).
11. He is drawing up something from the centre point of the column, the verb place, to shew that adjectives derived from verbs have the object of the verb in the genitive; ex. gr. epistemon tinos—experienced in a thing—from epistathai.
This is the substance of two pages and a half of the Grammar, and is quite enough for our present purpose—quite enough to convince any one that we can make grammatical abstractions as things that can be laid hold of sensibly, and detailed like the events or circumstances of an ordinary narrative. On all subjects any association of the student, or direction of his thoughts from the “abstract to the concrete,” will give him the advantage of the principle. His own associations will always be found of most advantage to himself. To say that he cannot associate, is to say, in other words, that he is dead to all the events around him: he remembers the transactions of yesterday chiefly by association.
EXERCISES. Case III.
1 Q.—About the word aves, with an axe on one side and a palm on the other, associate all that pertains to the portion of Natural History included in the class aves.
Note.—The four letters and the two objects, one on each side of aves, stand for the orders, i. e. an object or letter is a point of association for the Families, etc. in each order, a is the letter about which the four families in order ii. are associated, viz. the Dentiostres, Fissirostres, Conirostres, and Tenuirostres. The initial letters are d, f, c, t, which may be remembered in their order by the word defect or dovecot, the a presenting the appearance of one.
2.—Associate the Syntax of Latin nouns with the initial letters of the words Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Vocative, Ablative.
The Cases IV. and V. are not illustrated in this place, because the less distinct types are found in connection with the more distinct types, and are used in the same way; and colors are used in connection with Geography, &c., which is separately explained.
EXERCISES on the FIVE CASES.
1 Q.—In acquiring a knowledge of the parts of speech, under what form would you consider them?
2.—Associate the objects which belong to the types of sound drawn from the following names of the Socratic school:—Xenophon, Æschines, Cimon, Aristippus, Phædo, Euclid, Plato, Antisthenes, Critias, and Alcibiades.
​3.—Any (Enneandria) flowering rush by the waters is beautiful. After this pattern, associate the following:—
| 7. Heptandria | . . | seven stamens | . . | Horse chesnut. |
| 3. Triandria | . . . | three stamens | . . | Crocus. |
| 2. Diandria | . . . | two stamens | . . . | Speedwell. |
4.—The fairies have fun (fungi) on their roomy (mushrooms) domes (referring to the form).—After this pattern, associate the remaining four orders of the twenty-fourth class Cryptogamia.
5.—Associate these places in Ancient Geography:—Cythnos, Syros, Delos, Myconos, Potamos, and Miletus. These are all nearly in the same latitude.
6.—Typify and associate that rule of Mensuration which shews us how to find the area of a quadrilateral figure that is included in a circle, or that has its opposite angles together equal to 180°. This rule may be remembered by the association of three or four of the simplest types.
INTERMEDIATE IDEAS.
In the association of objects, or the recollection of ideas or words, the pupil will often find intermediate ideas useful as a connecting medium.
EXAMPLES.
1 Q.—Associate song and tree.
1 An.—Let a bird give a song from the tree. Bird is a connecting intermediate idea, the link that holds together song and tree.
2 Q.—How would you associate flag. . . . .fawn?
2 An.—Let the flag flap in the wind, and make a noise, ​startling the fawn. Noise is an intermediate idea.
TRANSPOSITION OF LETTERS.
Images are varied by the transposition of letters. This the pupil will often find very useful: e. g. If I would remember fenestra, a window, no idea is immediately presented on reading forwards; but on reading it backwards, I find artsen, which at once presents to me a strong associative link, by my imagining an artizan at work at some highly-finished window. The modes of associating are numerous. It suffices that I have presented many compendious ways of arriving at the certain knowledge of very many things which could never be retained with certainty before.—Exercise, of course, is needed in these things as in every thing else. As for the sluggish and idle, they must sleep on, for to them every kind of exertion is alike displeasing.
LITERAL AND NUMERAL SYMBOLS.
The following will be of service in associating. Some of them were employed in the “Ars Reminiscendi” of John Baptist Porta, 1602; and some by Herdson, University of Cambridge, 1651.—
​0. .Globe. . . . . . . . . .Orange. . . . .Ball. 1. .Knife. . . . . . . . . .Candle. . . . .Fish. . . .Staff. . . .Dart. 2. .Knife.... . . . . . . . .Swan. . . . . .Duck. . .Goose. .Serpent. 3. .Bow. . . . . . . . . . .Triangle. . .Trident, any thing with 3 legs. 4. .Chopper. . . . . . . .Quadrangle.Die, &c. 5. .Foot. . . . . . . . . . .Glove. . . . . .Sickle. .Pincers, &c. 6. .Tobacco pipe. 7. .Carpenter’s iron Square. . . . .Razor. 8. .Spectacles. . . . . .Seacrab. . . .Twin apples. 9. .Crosier. . .. . . . .Burning-glass. .Riding-stick.
These symbols are used on account of some resemblance they have to the figures associated with them. Porta made up two alphabets also: one consisted of different positions of the human body; the other, of objects similar in form to the letters.
Herdson, speaking of what he calls mental “Short-hand,” says, “Now the ideas of this alphabet be these, and such like as your fancy pleaseth to make choice of: A, a pair of compasses; b, a lute; B, a bow bent, with an arrow in it; C, a horn, &c.; and so in like manner take instruments, or any ideas, for the rest of the letters, which be like the letters.”
This appears to me to be the best method we can adopt for learning foreign alphabets, unless we employ the principle of Proximity, of which some old authors speak. Resemblances were sought after in the old systems, and the practice is continued, because it is found to be a natural procedure. The old principle of Proximity was ex​hibited by Willis as early as 1661. The conjoining of two ideas in one he effected by the direct imaginary contact of things, so that the proximity was complete. But, what is of more consequence, he says, “All characters, single letters, naked numbers, descriptions and citations, are to be always disposed in repositories by a scriptile idea;” that is, one thing is to be written upon another when “no visible thing doth presently occur,” and you cannot “conjoin the two ideas in one.” He speaks further of the principle in his direction to diminish as much as possible the time between receiving an impression, or idea, and its explanation, or consideration; because, in proportion to the increasing interval of time between an impress on the mind and the understanding of it, or the associating of it, is there a decreasing power of recollection. He says, “Things charged on memory by day are to be deposited at least before sleep.” A teacher, therefore, whenever he awakens attention, should carefully explain; and an individual studying, should follow up his lessons as quickly as possible, without injury to his physical powers.
In William Fulwood’s “Castel of Memorie,” printed at London, by Rouland Hall, dwellynge in Gutter Lane, at the signe of the Egle and the ​Keye, 1562, we have this notice of the association of ideas:—“We should represent thynges compound with the scimilitude of simple thynges, as, for example, He that will remember this sentence, Cicero contended with Hortensius, shall imagine the pease called cicer, which complayneth of the bareness of the garden; for so doth cicer resemble Cicero, and the garden, called hortus, doth represent Hortensius, and the complaynte, the contention, &c.”
By this we see that the peculiar association of ideas presented is not at all a recent discovery. We may represent it thus:—
Revocation.
Certain rules need not be given for the recovery of ideas, except that ideas are often recovered by discussing a few questions in the mind concerning subject, quantity, site, attributes, motion, &c. If you cannot remember by any of these means, be no longer solicitous about it—it will come to hand beyond expectation when something near it is sought after, unless you have too lightly apprehended it.
* ↑ Archetype is the original of a copy. Every idea in the first instance, is the perception of something without us. Every thing external, that impresses the perceptive faculties, is an Archetype.
* ↑ Watson’s, in the British Museum.
* ↑ Watson gives three ways quite different.
* ↑ An earlier edition of this extremely rare work is noticed in the Censura Literaria, vol. vii., p. 209. In this edition there is a cut of the printer’s sign, with the motto “Post tenebras lux.”