# Phrenotypics; or, The Science of Memory Simplified and Made Easy

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PHRENOTYPICS;
OR
THE SCIENCE OF MEMORY
Simplified and made Easy.
BY F. C. WOOLLACOTT,
WHO, IN CONJUNCTION WITH
Mr. W. J. SMITH,
GIVE ILLUSTRATIVE LECTURES ON THE SUBJECT.
AND TEACH THE SYSTEM EITHER IN CLASSES OR PRIVATELY.
Entered at Stationers' Hall.
Loudon: Published by F. C. WOOLLACOTT, Chesterfield Street, King's Cross, W.C. WHERE ALL INFORMATION WILL BE GIVEN ON APPLICATION
SIXPENCE.
1882.
Printed by I. LAKEMAN, 7. Kenton Street, Russell Square, W.C.
INTRODUCTION.
Everything new which has been introduced to the world has invariably been laughed at, and held up to ridicule by the very men who should have been the foremost in its investigation, to ascertain whether it was really what it professed to be, or simply an hallucination of the brain of its propounder. I know the simplest way to deal with a subject we do not understand is to pooh pooh it, and thus save ourselves the trouble of inquiring into its merits. This is scarcely a fair way of treating any subject, and ought to be universally condemned; and if there be anything good, let us gather up that which is worth anything and reject the rubbish.
The age we live in may truly be termed an age of wonders. There is scarcely a day passes but some new discovery is being made known, and the only thing that appears surprising is that the world has been in existence so many thousand years, and man with his giant intellect has become so little familiar with some of Nature's laws. There are of course some things that will always remain mysteries to us. At the present time we are familiar with Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen. We know that Oxygen and Hydrogen in combination produce water; Oxygen and Nitrogen the air we ​breathe; yet we have not yet discovered of what either of these gases are composed, and therefore speak of them as primitives. Yet it is impossible for any person to place a limit to human intellect,—men are ever searching into the arcana of science, and continually bringing to the surface some hitherto hidden treasure, which leads us to exclaim
"How wondrous are thy works, Parent of all Good."
God has given to every man one or more talents. What use are we making of them? If we are allowing those talents to lie dormant, then we might as well never have had them. Let us not rest till we have discovered what talent God has endowed us with, and having done so, make the best possible use we can of it.
The great difficulty men meet with in studying is the little power they possess of remembering things. Now even Memory itself can be made far more strong and powerful by aids and contrivances, and from a very early period in the history of the world the most learned philosophers resorted to various contrivances to enable them to remember the knowledge they acquired. Without going into all the systems propounded by various men, I will proceed at once to give a short History of Mnemonics.
HISTORY OF MNEMONICS.
Mnemonics is a word derived from Mnemosinee, the Goddess of Memory, of whom we read in heathen mythology. The ancient philosophers set apart one day in the year in' her honour, and presented at her shrine choice and costly bouquets of flowers, and he who presented the most beautiful gift, was supposed to have had conferred upon him the most powerful memory for the year.
Very little is known of ancient Egpytian lore, yet it is certain that at a very early period she reached a high state of perfection in the arts and sciences. But Simonides has the credit of being the discoverer of the Art of Memory. He was a lyric poet of the island of Ceos, one of the Cyclades, who flourished in the 61st olympiad about 535 years before the birth of Christ, and is celebrated by Cicero and Quinctilian. Both these authors relate the following mythological incident on the occasion which suggested the invention. Simonides was engaged by Scopas, a rich Thessalian, to compose a panegyric on him for a certain sum of ​money; and was invited to a festival, given by Scopas to his friends, in order to rehearse it, but was sordidly refused more than half the stipulated compensation, because (puzzled perhaps with the sterility of the principal subject) he had introduced a long episode, amounting to half the poem, in praise of Castor and Pollux. Simonides soon found an avenger of the insult. He was immediately summoned from the company by two young men on horseback, supposed to be Castor and Pollux in disguise, who appeared to protect their favourite poet; and who, as soon as they had saved Simonides, made the roof fall on Scopas and his company, bruising them so to death that not a lineament of them could be known. Simonides by remembering the manner in which they sat at table was able to distinguish them, and to deliver them to their friends for burial. The aid which the recollection of the poet received on this occasion is said to have suggested the idea of an Artificial Memory.
The principle of Simonides' system was the Association and Localisation of Ideas; but am not going to treat upon his method of Association and Localisation, or in fact upon any of the others whose names I may mention as having practised and published various Aids to Memory, as there would be very little to interest or instruct. I shall therefore content myself by merely mentioning their names and the dates they flourished.
There can be but little doubt that Aristotle once published a Mnemonicon. He was engaged by Philip of Macedon as Teacher to his son Alexander the Great, who on the death of his father Philip, had suddenly to take the command of a large army, and lead them forth to battle. There were no maps in his days—no newspapers to give him intelligence of the countries or people he had to fight against. He had to ​get his knowledge as best he could respecting the people he might cope with, and the way he should travel, yet it is said of him he overcame every obstacle, and having conquered the whole world, wept that he had, no more worlds to conquer, and when only 33 years of age died the victim of his passion for strong drink. The following letter is to be found in the archieves of the British Museum:—
This letter no doubt accounts for the suppression of Aristotle's Mnemonicon.
It is said of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, that she spoke the languages of 14 different peoples on the Levant, over whom she had time and talent to govern during the war of a Roman Republic, besides speaking the Latin fluently.
The following are some of the more modern Professors of the Art, who made the Science more widely known by publishing their various plans.
Thomas Bradwardin, Merton College, Oxford, 1325. Baptista Porta, 1500. Gulielmus Gartorali, 1555. Jordano Bruno, 1591. John Baptista Porta, 1602. Adam Bruxio, 1610. John Willis, 1618. John Conrade Dannhawer, 1635. ​Raymond Lully, 1640. Lambert Schenckel, 1643. Henry Herdson, 1651. Jean Belot, 1654. Marius D'Assigny, 1706. Richard Grey, 1730. Soloman Lowe, 1737. B. G. Feyjoo, 1781. M. Gregor Von Feinaigle, 1807. Major Beniowski, 1840.
The system that I am about explaining to the reader is the one introduced into London about 1840 by Major Beniowski, a Polish refugee, under the title of Phrenotypics. He was familiar with and could speak 18 different languages. When he left France for England, he knew not a word of English; but before leaving Boulogne he entered a publisher's shop and purchased a French and English vocabulary, and in the course of his three or four hours' journey from Boulogne to Dover, he committed the whole of it to Memory, so that on entering his hotel for dinner was able to ask for all he wanted in English. This no doubt was a very marvellous feat, but to those who understand his system it is quite comprehensible.
With these introductory remarks I will proceed to explain the Science of Phrenotypics.
PHRENOTYPICS; or ,the SCIENCE OF MEMORY.
Phrenotypics is derived from the Greek words phrenos, the brain, and tupos, a picture, or a picture on the brain.
The System is divided into two parts:
Every subject a student has placed before him to acquire must come under one or other of these heads. It is therefore necessary for him to become familiar with them both, and I shall proceed at once to explain them in such a manner, that any one by careful attention, and following out the rules I lay down, may thoroughly understand them.
I. Association of Ideas,
I mean by Association of Ideas the so connecting of one word with another, that when one word is mentioned the other shall immediately spring up in your mind.
​1st Problem.—The connecting of two familiar notions or Ideas together, such as
| Tree | and | house. |
| Garden | and„ | lady. |
| Church | and„ | carriage. |
| Box | and„ | book. |
| Table | and„ | water. |
| Carpet | and„ | ink. |
| Muslin | and„ | fire. |
| Coals | and„ | ship. |
| Bat | and„ | field. |
| Slipper | and„ | pavement. |
| Cow | and„ | street. |
| Pen | and„ | friend. |
| Country | and„ | donkey. |
| Glass | and„ | woman, &c. |
These columns of words may be carried to an indefinite length, only be careful to write familiar nouns. The following is the plan you must pursue in learning them:—I want to connect Tree and House together in such a way that when tree is mentioned the word house opposite shall immediately spring up before me. I think of a house that I have seen somewhere with a beautiful large tree growing either in front or back of it, and think of no other. The impression is then made, and you go on to the next.
Garden and Lady. Think of some lady (one you know, if possible) that you have seen walking in a garden; or may be you have gone into the garden to pick a flower for a young lady, and you will find those two words inseparably connected together.
Then comes Church and Carriage. May be the person is too ill to walk to church, or too lame, or resides at too great ​a distance to walk, and is therefore obliged to go to church in a carriage; and there is scarcely a Sunday but what you see a carriage standing outside the church waiting to convey home some worshipper.
Then Box and Book. You have got some nice little book (perhaps your Bible) locked up in your box; just think of it for a second, and ask yourself, What is in my box?—the book; and where is the book?—in the box. The connecting of these and similar words together, after a little practice, will not take you many seconds, and you will be perfectly astonished at the number you are able to commit to Memory in five minutes.
2nd Problem.—The connecting of a familiar word with an unfamiliar one. This applies to the study of foreign languages, Chronology, Historical facts, &c., and is just doubly as difficult as Problem 1. With regard to Chronology and History, I shall devote a chapter further on especially to those subjects, and now only show you how to draw familiar notions out of unfamiliar words. Write down
| Water | . . . | . . . | aqua. |
| Good | . . . | . . . | bonus. |
| Man. . . | . . . | . . . | homo. |
| Boy. . . | . . . | . . . | garçon. |
| Father | . . . | . . . | pere. |
| Mother | . . . | . . . | mere. |
I now want to connect water, which is a familiar notion, with its Latin, aqua, which is unfamiliar. I think at once of a piece of water on which I have seen a number of ducks swimming about and quacking, and immediately draw the familiar notion of quack or qua, and on being asked the Latin for water, answer aqua.
So with good and bonus. I draw the more familiar word ​of bones out of bonus, and say bones are good for a variety of things.
Then man and homo. I draw the familiar notion of home out of homo, and may say, Is the good man at home; or, there is no place like home for a man.
Now I want to connect the French word garcon with boy, and draw the word arson as looking and sounding like garçon, and say the boy committed arson; or the familiar word son, and say that boy is my son, or gar-son.
Take another, pere with father. My father is very fond of eating a pear.
Or, mother and mere. Mother is very fond of riding behind the old grey mare.
By such simple associations as these you may commit to Memory in a very short space of time a vocabulary of some hundreds of words. Of course you must not expect to do it so quickly at first as you will after a little practice, and it is absolutely necessary that the first problem must be well practised before you attempt the second one.
Problem 3.—This you will find the most difficult of either of them. It is the connecting of two unfamiliar notions together, and as we should never think of attempting to translate Greek into Latin, if we understand neither, we shall seldom have to resort to this problem except in the study of Chronology, when sometimes the name or the event as well as the date when the event took place, are both unfamiliar.
I will therefore ask you to learn what I call the Phrenotypic Alphabet, which you will find simplifies figures, and brings them within the power of all memories to grapple with, and make subservient to their pleasure.
PHRENOTYPIC ALPHABET.
To assist you in learning this alphabet, I will just give you the reason why certain letters are taken to represent certain figures, and then the use that is to be made of those letters afterwards.
1 is represented by d, t, th. In writing, the t would be made by one stroke, and the d is only the thick sound of t, and a ​foreigner in pronouncing the word the, would call it de; as de man, de house, &c. We therefore take d, t, and th, to represent 1. 2 is represented by n, because the n has 2 curves. 3 is represented by m, because the m has 3 curves. 4 is represented by r, because r is the last letter in the word four. 5 is represented by 1, because it is the numeral that represents 50, but is used to represent 5. 6 is represented by. h, sh, ch, tch, j, and g soft. Now the letter h gives you some idea of the 6 from its shape, and the sh, ch, j, and g soft have all a similarity of sound, and with the tch also represents six, thus giving us nearly all the h's together in the 6th square. 7 is represented by k, and all the letters that have the k sound in them. If you spelt the word queen with a k, the sound would be the same, or the word cat with korg, it would make but little difference, and the x sounds just like ks, and therefore is placed in the 7th locality, and when used always represents 7. 8 is represented by f, and the v and ph having a similar sound are also placed with it, and the w is in reality a double v, or 2 v's placed together. 9 is represented by b, and p having the thin sound of b is chosen as a companion for it; and the figure 9 is just like the b turned upside down. 0 is the last of the numerical figures, and is represented by the last letter of the alphabet, z, also the s and the c soft, because they take the z sound.
​If a Student wants to make any progress in Chronology, History, or chemical tables of equivalents, &c., this Alphabet must be thoroughly committed to memory. You will observe there are no vowels representing figures, but the vowels a, e, i, o, u, and y, may be used indiscriminately in the formation of words, and as they never represent a figure, it will not matter where or how you place them in the spelling of a word.
A good practice for young beginners will be to write down a column of two figures, and then write opposite to them as many words as they can turn them into, viz:
It is only practice that will make you perfect, and the more you practice the sooner you will become perfect.
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND.
Egbert was the first Sovereign of England after the Saxon Heptarchy, and ascended the throne in 827. As I told you in explaining the 3rd Phrenotypic problem, in Chronology you will meet with many names you are not familiar with, as well as the dates, and it will be necessary to make them more familiar before attempting to commit them to memory.
Take Egbert, 827. I take w for 8, n for 2, and ghard for 7, and make wing. Having the word wing how am I to connect it with Egbert? I draw a more familiar notion out of Egbert and make egg bird, and fancy I see the egg bird on the wing.
​Now take the 2nd, Ethelwolf, 838. Take w. for 8, m for 3, and v for the other 8, and form the words we move. Draw the more familiar notion out of Ethelwolf of wolf, and say, especially if we saw one coming, we move out of the way of the wolf.
Now take Ethelbald, 858, and you can make the word fellow out of the date, and bald out of the name, and think of some bald fellow you know very well. Bald will give you Ethelbald, and fellow the date.
Next Ethelbert, 860. Having made watches out of 860, I draw the familiar notion of Albert out of Ethelbert, and think of the Albert chains for protecting our watches.
Ethelred I. As there were two Ethelreds, you would naturally ask the question, Which? 866, and the word gives you the date.
Alfred, 872. You can make the word wagon out of 872, and connect by saying the colour of the wagon is half red.
And thus go on. It will come very easy to you after a little practice. When you come to events that occured in 1000 odd, drop the thousand, and simply take the last three figures, and trust to your natural memory for the 1. For instance: Sweyn, 1014. I make out of 014 star, and just fancy a young swain the star of the company.
Edmund Ironside, 1016. Drop the thousand and turn 016 into a word, s o, t 1, tch 6, stitch. Edmund had a stitch in his ironside.
There are Six Edwards after the Conquest, and to distinguish one from the other, I will draw six squares, and place six ​heads in them, each head representing the date they ascended the throne.
The ist head I take to be the head of a man drinking off a noggin of whiskey, the 2nd a mask, the 3rd a monk's head, the 4th a retched head, the 5th Edward in a boat with his uncle Richard III., 6th, a lark, the head of a lark.
If you can draw the different heads in the various localities, it will make an impression on you that you will never forget.
The word noggin will give you the date 272 when Edward I. ascended the throne; mask, 307, the date Edward II. ascended; monk, 327, Edward III; retched, 461, Edward IV.; row me, 483, two heads rowing in a boat, Edward V. and Richard III.; and the head of a lark, Edward VI.
When we come to the Henry's, as there are 8 of them. we pursue a different plan. Take for instance H for Henry, t for i, and by adding a vowel you can make the word Hat, and out of the date 100 you can make the size, and you can easily imagine giving instructions to your hatter to make your hat—the size. Hen for Henry 2; suppose you keep fowls and one hen is all tail, or tall all. Ham for Henry 3, we always see the ham on a dish. Hare for Henry 4, my pop killed the hare. Hole for Henry 5; fancy yourself rabbit hunting with your dog, and you say to the dog rout'em out of the hole. Hutch for Henry 6, and you chase the rabbit to make him run in the hutch. Hak for Henry 7; suppose two gentlemen are courting ​one lady, and one sends the other a challenge, and tries to hak his rival. And Hive for Henry 8; If a lazy bee gets into the hive the other bees will soon turn it out.
| Hat | . . . | . . . | the size. |
| Hen | . . . | . . . | tail all. |
| Ham | . . . | . . . | on a dish. |
| Hare | . . . | . . . | my pop. |
| Hole | . . . | . . . | rout 'em. |
| Hutch | . . . | . . . | run in. |
| Hak | . . . | . . . | rival. |
| Hive | . . . | . . . | lazy bee. |
The column on the right hand side gives you the date each king ascended the throne.
And go on associating the date with the name of the King, until all the Sovereigns are committed to memory; and you will soon find this is indeed figures made easy.
In events that occured before the birth of Christ it will be necessary to take the 4 figures, as it would be too much to expect a student to remember whether it were 1000, 2000, or 3000 years before the birth of Christ that the event took place, viz:
| The Creation | . . . | 4004 B.C. |
| The Deluge | . . . | 2348 B.C, |
| Call of Abraham | . . . | 1921 B C., &c., &c. |
Take the Creation, 4004; r for 4, s o, s o, r 4, and form the words arise sir. God having created Adam commands him to arise sir.
The Deluge, 2348. Take to represent the figures, n, m, r, w, and form the words no morrow. There would be no morrow to all that were destroyed.
Call of Abraham, 1921; d 1, p 9, n 2, d 1, and form the word depend, which can easily be associated with the faith of Abraham after his call, and made Abraham depend on God after the Almighty's promise to him.
​I now come to the more interesting portion of our study, the second division.
THE LOCALISATION OF IDEAS,
which will enable you to remember anything you have committed to memory, in consecutive order. For this purpose I take a number of rooms I am familiar with, and divide each room into 9 parts. The wall that faces me on entering the room—say the part in which the fire-place is situated—I call the top of the room, and divide it into 3 parts; then I take the centre of the room and divide into 3 parts; then the bottom of the room and divide that into 3 parts; drawing the 9 portions like the following:
and as each room must have some distinctive title, as Parlour, Drawing Room, Kitchen, Bedroom, I will suppose the above room to be the Parlour, and call it Parlour, placing o up in the top corner.
I then look and see what article of furniture or ornament usually stands on the left hand side of the fireplace—it may be a Writing Desk. I therefore take Desk as No. 1 locality.
​For No. 2, Fireplace; or, as fireplace would be always in the and locality, you might take fender, shovel, tongs, rug, chimney glass, clock, or any conspicuous ornament standing on the mantle shelf. You must be careful in all your localities never to have the same object twice over.
On the right hand side of the fireplace would be No. 3. Perhaps a Book case stands there. Then place Book case in No. 3.
For No. 4, which will fall directly under No. 1, may be the Window. Call No. 4, then, the window, or something usually there, such as blind, curtains, flower pots, plants, &c.
No. 5, the centre of the room, you will find a table standing there; say, then, No. 5, Table, or you can take carpet, cloth, inkstand, lamp, chandelier, &c.
No. 6 may be filled with a sofa, or any other article; then take sofa for the 6th locality.
No. 7, directly under No. 4, a chair may be standing there, take chair, then, for No. 7.
No. 8 will fall directly under No. 5; perhaps a sideboard stands there, and call No. 8 Sideboard, or something you usually keep on or in the sideboard.
No. 9 we will suppose the door leading in and out of the room, and say, No. 9, Door. You remark every room has a door, shall I not find it very awkward to find some other distinctive title to give to the locality in which the door is situated? No! for you can take lock, handle, key, finger plate, mat, &c.
Having made my first room, I go on making my second and other rooms until I have made 10, which I call a Phreno​typic House; and when you have become perfectly. familiar with all the localities you may go on making other houses.
For this purpose I should get a sixpenny Copy book, and draw each room out on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th pages, &c., leaving the left hand page for the purpose of writing anything down you may wish.
Your second room may be your Bedroom, or kitchen, and you go on numbering 1-0 or 10, viz:
Although I have mapped out for you two rooms with their localities, and articles in each locality, yet I would rather you should take your own rooms, as you would be far more familiar with the objects standing in them than you can possibly be with these two. These you have to learn; your own you will be perfectly familiar with. For instance, I ask you, What is standing in the middle of your parlour? You would only have to think a moment, your eye wanders there, and you see it clearly.
All your 0's will therefore be title of the room, and every toth word would be associated with Bed room, 11th with ​saucepan, 12th with hat, 13th with couch, &c., that is supposing the rooms I have mapped out were to be your first 2 rooms.
All the 5's will fall in the centre of the room, such as 5, 15, 25, 35, &c., and if you want to know what your 35th word was, you would go immediately to the 5th locality of the 4th room.
All your 7's will be in precisely the same position in each room, viz: 7, 17, 27, 37, &c., and the same with all the other numbers.
Now then for turning it to practical account. I want to commit to memory the heads of a subject I am about to speak upon, or learn off the Sovereigns of England. The first Sovereign being Egbert, I associate
​And thus you go on until each King and Queen is nicely placed away in their separate locality.
With the 6 Edwards you just place away the different heads as you come to them, for instance Edward II. is No. 31, place mask away in locality 31, and monk in 32 locality, &c.
With the 8 Henry's pursue a similar plan. Henry III, 29. Connect ham with your 29th locality, or hive with your 41st locality, and so on.
In a short time you will get all the 57 Kings located. Then by going through your different localities, you will be able to recall each one, or answer to any number. Which is the 37th, or 45th, or 22nd, or go over them backwards as easily as forwards.
If you want to amuse yourself and astonish your friends by committing to memory a long line of figures, no matter how many, 20, 30, or 40, just divide the figures into groups of two, say the first two are 27, make it into the word ink, and place it away in your desk; next two, 91, boot, and place it away in the fire place, and so on. Then run over in your mind the localities, and you will see all the words there.
These localities will last you as long as you live, and are therefore worth a little expenditure of time in becoming familiar with them. If you choose you may have hundreds and thousands of them, and be able to answer to your 427th just as readily as you can to your 24th, or 85th, or 1st.
Another thing you will find; it is this the more you put away in each locality, the more each locality will hold. You can never overburden them.
In committing Poetry to memory you will find it not only very amusing, but remarkably easy. You learn off your ​first verse by your natural memory, and associate the first line or a portion of it with your first locality. Then the second verse, and associate that in the same way with your second locality, and you will soon have 50 or 60 verses committed to memory, and may repeat any verse over at discretion.
On the 30th of June, 1880, Mr. W. J. Smith, one of my Pupils, six weeks after taking his first lesson, and who is now Assistant Teacher with me, repeated over the Contents of the Globe Newspaper at 8 o'clock, a few hours after its publication, before a large audience at Henrietta Street Chapel, Brunswick Square, W.C.
In two or three hours after publication you might commit the whole of the contents of the Globe Newspaper or Pall Mall Gazette to memory, giving a lucid description of every article and advertisement in the paper from the beginning to the end. The author has done it in public upwards of 20 times, and has taught several of his pupils to do the same.
The contents of a book might be committed to memory with just as much ease, and without any danger of its making your head ache.
GEOGRAPHY.
The study of Geography is rendered exceedingly simple. A map is a confused mass of places and intersecting lines without form or shape. But take the outline of the map, and try and draw some familiar notion out of it.
Italy looks like a large Boot. Just fancy a real leg inside the boot, and you will have lots of localities to associate the principal places with.
Take a map of Europe, and with the outline you can fancy you see a man sitting down in an old fashioned arm chair, with his gouty old leg resting on a stool, which would be northwestern part of Africa, the stool being Morocco. Just where the man's nose would be is Norway, a very cold country, which would gnaw away the tip of his nose; and with the side of his face the Baltic Sea, which, as he had no whiskers, would be bald. Denmark where the bow of his Denmark satin stock would be, whilst France would form the French muslin frill to his shirt. His gouty foot Spain, as the gout causes a great deal of pain; and Portugal just over it; and all know that the drinking of port often produces gouty pains, &c.
SUBDIVISION OF LOCALITIES.
A student who wishes to place away a large number of ideas in one locality, or in as small a space as possible, can subdivide his localities in the same manner as he divides his rooms, giving to each portion of the object he divided a distinctive title; for instance, he wishes to divide his desk into nine parts. Just open the desk and divide the top into three parts—
Then the centre into three—
Then the bottom, and divide into three—
Take again, Fireplace, and divide into nine parts: the top into three—
​Centre into three—
Then the bottom into three—
And by pursuing this plan with every locality in each room, his ten rooms instead of containing 99 localities would give him 999. He will find no more difficulty in remembering each sub-division than he did each division of the room.
You will thus perceive that all your fives will fall in the centre of each locality as they do now in the centre of each room; and all the other numbers will always occupy their same respective positions. If the student goes on numbering all his sub-localities in regular order from 1 up to 999 he will find this of very great service to him in the study of Historical Events; as for instance, the Battle of Waterloo, 1815. Instead of turning 815 into a word and associating it with Waterloo, he might connect Waterloo with his 815th locality, and as easily answer from date to fact as from fact to date.
There is no object in my room, let it be ever so small or trivial, but may be sub-divided, and good localities for association made. But this sub-dividing is an advanced portion of the Science, and will only be required by advanced pupils, yet it is so simple and useful that I thought I should like to point it out and explain it for the benefit of all who think proper to apply it.
​In conclusion I would ask you
Do you intend going in for the Civil Service Examination?
Do you intend going in for the Medical Profession, or Chemistry?
Do you intend going in for the Legal Profession?
Do you intend studying Biblical History? or becoming a Public Speaker?
Then learn this System, and you will save 9-10ths of the time you would otherwise have to devote to their acquisition.
I have endeavoured to set the system of Phrenotypics, or Brain Printing, or the Science of Memory, clearly before you. I know of no branch of human study to which it cannot be applied. But in this brief outline I have been only able to give you its application to a few. Yet I think I have shown clearly enough that if you only practice well the rules I have laid down for your guidance, you will be able to gain a vast amount of knowledge in a much shorter space of time than you could without it, and in a far more pleasant manner. I feel there will be many questions a student would like to ask that this book will not answer. I should therefore advise him, if he really desires to thoroughly learn it, to take a course of Lessons, which I shall be happy to give him either at his or her own residence, or at mine, any hour of the day.
INSTANCES OF EXTRAORDINARY POWERS OF NATURAL MEMORY.
Seneca, 65 A.D., possessed an extraordinary memory. He is said to have known the names of all the citizens of Rome, and would repeat them over.
Hortensius, 115 B.C., the celebrated Roman orator, and contemporary of Cicero, was able to repeat a whole oration in the words he had previously conceived it, without committing it to writing. It is said that he once attended the whole day at a public sale, and at the end of it recited, in regular order, the names of all the buyers, the articles sold and their prices, with perfect exactness.
Avicenna, 980, A.D., an Arabian philosopher and physician, possessed a wonderful memory. At ten years of age he had made great progress in the languages, and could repeat the Koran by heart. He read over Aristotle's Metaphysics forty times, and could afterwards repeat them with facility.
Joseph Scaglier, 1484 A.D. It is stated of him that in 21 days he committed to memory the whole of Homer's Iliads and Odysseys.
Bishop Jewel, 1484 A.D., had naturally a very strong memory which he greatly improved by art; so that he could repeat anything that he had written after once reading it.
Lipsius, 1484 A.D., was remarkable for the extent of his memory. He could repeat over the whole history of Tacitus.
Humphrey Burton, 1676 A.D., of Coventry, at the age of 83 could give the sum of any chapter in the New Testament, and of chapters of divers books in the Old Testament, in a Latin distich, with as much readiness as if he had just read them out of a book.
Dr. Wallis, 1684 A.D., gives an account of his performing arithmetical operations in great numbers by night in the dark; and conceives that we can use our memory with greater advantage at this time than we can by day, when our thoughts are diverted by sights and noises.
William Lyon, 1748 A.D., a strolling player, who performed at the theatre at Edinburgh, one evening wagered over a bowl of punch that next morning, at the rehearsal, he would repeat a Daily Advertiser from beginning to end, and accomplished his task without the slightest hesitation, much to the wonder of those who heard him.
Jedediah Buxton, 1751 A.D., was also a wonderful man. He would multiply five or six figures by themselves and give you the answer without placing a single figure on paper. In fact there was scarcely any sum could be given, let it be ever so complicated, that he would not work out in his mind and give you the correct answer. Yet he was no scholar, and hardly able to write his own name.
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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