# Ideatypics; or, an Art of Memory/Chapter 8

GEOGRAPHY.
In the application of the principles to Geography, consider,
II.—General Geography.
II.—Particular Geography.
1. The numberless irregular lines that belong to every chart, in the bearings of the coasts and of the rivers, and in the boundaries of kingdoms, render Geography a very difficult study, though in many respects pleasing.
The recollection of the precise position of places can never be expected while the idea of the kingdom or province in which they are is undefined.
Every thing to be acquired must be brought under some type, the outlines of which are well known; then the memory will be treated with effectually, because the powers of reason will be employed. It should be our object to proceed in such a way that what is wanting to the memory the judgment will supply. Take the globe, and draw a circle round it, and divide it into two hemispheres, because only half of the globe can be seen at once; then we have a Northern and a ​Southern Hemisphere divided by what is called the Equator. The hemisphere is divided across into two parts of 90° each. The circle of the globe is divided into four quarters of 90° each; or, as we shall take it for general Geography, each hemisphere is divided into four quarters containing 9 divisions of 10° each.
In giving a general and relative view of the earth, I must give some form to the hemispheres, or rather to the globe. We will imagine, for the sake of plainness, that each hemisphere is compressed or flattened into a figure of five sides, i. e. four sides and the top, each side containing a quadrant, or 90°. The sides upwards contain only 60°, because the flattened top contains 30° to its centre from each of the four sides. If a large card be used, and the four sides be brought together, it will form a cube without a bottom. The sides, however, need not be brought together, but placed on a table in the centre of a room, as in Fig. 3, Frontispiece; then it resembles the hemisphere of a globe with four equidistant triangular pieces cut out of it. The sides then answer to the four walls of the room where we may delineate particular Geography to correspond with the side of the figure on the table. That figure (call it the Geographicon) may easily contain all that we can possibly need of general Geography, ​associated according to the nature of the subject. Whatever mode we adopt, the lines of Latitude and Longitude cannot be dispensed with. As I have arranged them, each 9 lines, or 90°, has its own character and locality, and does not form part of an unbroken series of 36 lines, or 360°. When we have filled the walls of one room with particular Geography, i. e. Geography more extended and detailed, we can take our figure from the table to another room, and placing it on the table there, in the same relative position, we can make the same use of the walls as before, to particularize another country with which we desire to become familiar. We can easily contrive substitutes for the walls of a room, but the principle employed must be the same.
The Geographicon (vide Frontispiece, Fig. 3.) has from the East, West, North, and South of it nine lines horizontal to the centre, that are meridians of Latitude. We see also from each side nine perpendicular lines tending to the centre,—these are meridians of Longitude. Each place in the five subsquares contains 10 degrees of Latitude and 10° of Longitude.
The globe of the Schools contains many more divisions, that are to be learnt by continued repetition only; hence so few retain that which they have learnt. We have now to fix our meridian ​line so as to draw the whole of the Northern Hemisphere on the figure which is placed on the table. Use Mercator’s projection, and let the meridian of Greenwich be between two sides of the figure, i. e. in one of the openings, to correspond with the left-hand farthest corner of the room, then the 180th degree of the figure will correspond with the nearest right-hand corner of the room.
When the convex figure is ready, with the Northern Hemisphere drawn upon it, turn it inside out, and the lines, &c. will be on the concave part of the figure. It is now to be suspended steadily from the ceiling, or placed on the table like an umbrella, so as to correspond with the sides of each room, as follows:—
1.—On the first side of the figure, with the 1st meridian line corresponding to the 1st meridian line of the room, and the left-hand side of the figure to the left-hand wall of the room, is England, part of France, Portugal, the greater part of Spain, and all that part of Africa which is included in Park’s first journey, the Atlantic Ocean, and part of America, including altogether 90°.
​2—The second side, corresponding to the opposite wall, includes all places 90° East of Greenwich, viz. Europe, great part of Africa, and Asia as far as Calcutta.
3.—The third side of the Geographicon, intended to correspond with the right-hand wall of the room, contains the rest of Asia that belongs to the Northern Hemisphere, and great part of the Pacific Ocean.
4.—The fourth side of the figure corresponding to the side at the entrance of the room, has the Pacific Ocean and the North-Western portion of America.
5.—The fifth side, which corresponds with the ceiling, including 30° each way to the centre, contains the North of Europe, Asia, America, Iceland, etc. etc.
There is no particular size to be given to the Geographicon. If the drawing is allowed to be on the convex surface, greater care must be taken in transferring to the walls, as the sides will not correspond as above.
Particular Geography.
Each place of a subsquare of the figure on the table contains 10° each way, and is imagined to be divided into 4 parts when transferred to the wall. (Vide Frontispiece, Fig. 4.)
​We may transfer from the terrestrial Globe, if we need only particular Geography. Each of the four parts or places just spoken of, we may call by some distinctive name, applicable to the country; as, the field of grain, the field of thistles, or the field of sand, &c. These also we may lightly color, as the subject requires. Each field contains 5° each way. England takes up little more than one of these fields when transferred to the wall, or a sheet of paper placed on that wall. England, Ireland, and Scotland, take up but one of the places of a subsquare of the Geographicon, or 10°. Any number of fields may be drawn on a wall from the corresponding side of the figure, if a very large country is to be delineated. The wall, or paper on the wall, is intended for an enlarged or more minute representation of a country. The use of this arrangement must at once be seen, as I bring before the eyes of my pupils the same country under two aspects—one as part of a collected whole, placed in the centre of the room, and learned first; the other as enlarged and detailed, for correct and extensive information.
In the figure on the table every 10th degree is marked, on the wall every one. This is an original mode of treating Geography. In every other way I have found pupils at a loss to account for the difference which they could perceive between the lines of the Globe and of the Maps.
​In my arrangement, I have introduced no lines besides those which are used in Geography, and which are given to be learnt by other modes, without any assistance of the kind I have afforded.—In looking over the fields, each of which contains5° each way, we can generally find some form which the countries or provinces in that field take. Cheshire resembles a hen sitting on an egg (vide Chamber’s School-room Map). Hereford looks like a snail with its shell. Sometimes parts of provinces will make a figure, and so on. My general mode, however, of presenting Geography is, to draw the exports, produce, or characteristic features, under some form, according to the size of the province, and in relation to the towns, &c. as points on that form or object, and associated with it—to associate physical peculiarities, rivers, mountains, &c. &c. with color—to mark social features with colors also, under proper distinctions—in short, to employ in some way all those faculties that we possess in common, though differing in degrees of power.
The most circuitous course of a river may be ​remembered by assigning to different directions of a line a literal value. The directions of any lines may be treated in this manner. It would be necessary, and at the same time easy, to adopt a scale of measurement to secure the full value of the principle. So diversified is the application of Ideatypics to Geography, that I must leave this subject, or furnish examples that our limits will not allow.
* ↑ Each field must be considered as forming one of four in counting the degrees or places, as they are reckoned 10° upwards and 10° across. (Vide Frontispiece, Fig. 4.)
* ↑ This occurred to me from the values attached to the directions of lines in extended Algebra, by which quantities called impossible, as $-{\sqrt {-1}}$, &c. &c. are made possible.