# Ideatypics; or, an Art of Memory/Chapter 2

ASSOCIATION.
My object throughout this Work is, to assist the enquirer in directing the faculties of his mind, and to aid him in search of that way of regulating them which is most according to nature—most easily deduced from first principles, and which leads to the best condition of the mental powers. I propose, however, to give a few general remarks, before proceeding to particular Association.
Every individual has a different mental portraiture—if I may use the term,—a differently modified observing power, or perceptive condition of mind; and this gives rise to the various associated forms or notions, which are known to exist in us all. We possess the same primitive powers of mind, but in different degrees; hence different treatment is needed, and different modes of educational process should be employed to draw out the one talent, and regulate the multiplying power of the five. I have, therefore, endeavoured to adopt general principles with a diversified application; because we have general associations, as those in connection with the color of the sky, etc.; while ​particular associations, as those of heat and cold, etc., will have most to do with our own particular ways of thinking, constitution of mind, and temperament.
Let the letters i, c, f, s, l, e, in all parts of the figure (vide Pl. 1) be used for the words Individuality, Colour, Form, Size, Locality, and Eventuality. Let the different circles represent different degrees of mental power, in which there is denoted the tendency of one mind to observe in the order of i, c, f, s, and so on in other minds in encreased degree, as represented in the succeeding circles. Let the different squares also represent different degrees of differently-modified powers, in which there is also denoted a tendency to observe in the contrary order of the letters i, s, f, c; i, l, s, f, c, etc. As there are different degrees of activity in the faculties also, denoted by some letters being before others, in a circle or square,—that which denotes the most active, coming first, we see the difficulty of representing anything abstract, though apprehended by ourselves, that shall sufficiently strike many minds, or even arrest their attention, unless presented under some tangible form, by which one mind shall draw forth the less active or less prominent faculties of other minds. For instance:—the color of that building is a striking point of representation, to which we have sup​posed the more or less active faculties of each to be drawn, as represented by the lines from c to the building. You may draw the lines to any other letter, and pursue the same mode of representation, with reference to form, Sec. The Color, Form, &c., of this building, may be a medium through which much information may be imparted with certainty; because it brings the same faculty in each first into play, and we are not involved in the absurdity of expecting a pupil to think well about, or understand that which he has had but little tendency to observe, either from little exercise, or small powers of observation. Our way, then, of proceeding with a pupil is manifest: we must place him in a way to receive the simple ideas that are requisite. The business of the Educator is, to furnish a type, involving the elements of his own ideal abstractions, or associated forms, or notions, that he may wish to communicate. It must be a type, almost or really tangible—the representation of his own compound idea; under cover of which, he shall best communicate knowledge, and fix it in the memory of another. All the powers will be employed under such an arrangement, and there will be a passing from that which is indefinite and indeterminate, and open at every point to error, to that which is definite and determinate, and certainly known. It will occur ​to most of us, that the notions of men will be more or less definable—more or less approaching to the perfect notion, or its sign—more or less comprehending the requisite number of simple ideas, as the individual has more or less travelled or observed and thought of things, or been instructed in the right use of his observing faculties, so as to enable him to discourse of form without the existence. This being so, it will be found that we shall make most advances with those who possess the greater number of right notions of things. I have not forgotten those whose knowledge of this Art is to be derived from this book alone. I have reserved the next Chapter for Particular Association.
The use of similitudes or types, every society indirectly acknowledges. The business of life is comparison, and some of man’s mightiest movements have hinged upon feelings arising out of it. The aspirant after glory sets up his pattern; the shadowy phantom of his mind is embodied, and moves before him as something almost tangible. The poet, that revels in all that is bright, shadowy, and indefinable, brings within the range of our mental vision enduring forms, enshrouded in what had before spurned the shadow of an outline—even all the bright fancies that move out of his glowing conceptions of nature. Thought loves the companionship of kindred thought; and though ​ages intervene, each searches out his own, and clings to it as retained in some type that any other dress of language would for ever hide from our understandings.
Among the different causes that have promoted the civilization of man, there is none, perhaps, so fruitful as the invention of the alphabet, or ideatyped sounds. It would be interesting to trace the progress of language in connection with the march of mind; but it is foreign to our subject. Oral language, no doubt, originated in an attempt to produce a type of sounds, recalling absent objects and the things connected with them. Sounds afford a vast number of symbols. In common life, there is a transfer of sound from particular objects to the expression of abstract qualities, governed by certain principles of association. The reader will, no doubt, perceive that I am drawing principles that are afterwards applied, either in a direct or reverse form, from practices that have been, in part, sanctioned by long usage, yet employed without system. Though less convenient and less valuable than oral language when once invented, a more direct and simple language was first used—more easily contrived, and better understood, viz. the language of pictorial symbols, bound dies, and has no perpetuity; and tradition is only the echo of the voice of the past. A pic​ture on the sea-sand would outlive the sound of the human voice; and more favorable circumstances would preserve a picture for ages, when tradition herself had died away. To represent visible actions and visible objects, would be an easy affair; and signs for abstract qualities might be obtained, as in sounds, upon the principle of association—turning to account the already existing language of sound, rather than form a new series of associations. With this idea, I have avoided much that is arbitrary in Mnemonics, with great advantage. Ideatypics is an archway over Lethe’s stream: one butment is the language of sounds, the other is the language of pictorial symbols; both stand out of the stream; neither, of itself, gives a way over.
Nothing can so well convey an idea of an ox, as the picture of the animal, or, to save time, its head. A lion, or part of one, might refer to abstract qualities, as in the case of Richard I. the lion-hearted. This kind of symbol, however, must be subject to regulation, so as to preclude that unassociated individuality of objects, and comparative difficulty of reference to them, which we might find in attempting to remember the Hieroglyphic Bible, which was devised to aid the memory of the young. In the first Alphabets, the most sober-minded can see certain resemblances ​to things. Aleph means an ox. Elephas of the Latin, Greek, and English, seems to be derived from this Hebrew name; but original sense is often lost in the secondary. Aleph was used in Syria in connection with the elephant, and came to the western nation so. What is remarkable, the Romans called the elephant the Bos Lucas—the Lucanian ox,—as if referring to the source whence derived.
We have stated, the most simple way of representing the ox, would be by a picture of its head and horns; and, it appears we have it in fair proportions in the Phœnecian character. The ox’ head, two horns, and ears are seen when the figure is turned.
Taurus, the bull, has for its sign in the Zodiac, a similar figure. We might extend the subject to a consideration of Egyptian Hieroglyphics, but it is more convenient now to pass to the consideration of Particular Association.