News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-01-25
THE ART OF REMEMBERING.
Hints for the Benefit of Those who are
Troubled with FOrgetfnlness,

The account of the marvellous perform
ances by jacques Inaudi suggests a few
remarks upon the cultivation of the
memory-the faculty of all others most
capable of Improvement.
The science of mnemOnics is as old as
the Egyptians, but Cicero tells us that it
was first reduced to a system by the
poet Simonides Of Cos about 500 B. c..
The story is that he was called from a
banquet Just before the roof fell in and
crushed the remaining guests beyond
recognition.
Sinonides identified the bodies by re-
membering their places at table, and
this suggested to him the association of
thoughts and words and things with
places, images, and signs. Petrus Ra-
vennus in 1491, John Romberch de
Krypse in 1898, Guliemo Grataroi in
1862, Narafortius in 1904, Lambert
Schenkel in 1909, and John Wallis III
1913, all published plans, more OF less
complicated, and more or less useless,
for assisting the memory.
The lLcnoyj0 Technic0 of Richard
Grey, first published in 1730, appears to
be the first system Of much practical
value. Consonants represent figures,
and are formed into words by connecting
them with vowels.
[ remember at school forming the ini-
tiaIs of certain historiaI persons and
events into words, and have never for
gotten history thus learned. For ex-
ample, four of MarlborOugh's battles, i'll
the order in which they were fought,
form the word BrOD1-Blenheim, Ra-
miles, Oudenorde, and NaIplaquet. The
system of Fainaigle, who lectured at the
beginning of this century, is very COM
plicated, andreQuires, one would imagine,
more labor for its mastery than would
suffice to impress the matters with which
it deals at first hand upon the memory.
DR.. Stokes, who is now teaching in Lon
don, is said to possess a simple and more
practically useful system than any which
has gone before.
[ believe, however, that the true
method of Strengthening the memory is
to cultivate habit of close and careful
attention.
What is read, heard, or seen should not
be dismissed instantaneOusIy, but should
be, as it were, revolved in the mind for
moment This may at first prove little
irksome, and may give a certain appear
ance of sluggish apprehension, but it
Will not long be 50, and the gain will be
found incaIculable.
Robert Houdin, the great French con-
irlrer and mechanician, gives an interest
ing account Of the origin Of the ''second
sight, which he invented, and which
was brought to such pitch of perfection
by the late Prof Heller He says that
as he and his son walked along the
streets they would look at windows
crowded with toys or jeweHy. Then
they would each write down rs many
articles as they could recolIect having
seen, and, going back, would verify their
lists.
Very soon, he says, his son could with
one comprehensive glance take in every
article in a large, weIl-furnished window
Houdin then conceived the idea of the
second sight, prepared an elaborate sys-
tenn of mnemOnics, and made his fortune
Miss Heller's exploits in the same line
are almost incredible.
1t is needless to insist upon the ex-
treme value of a good and trustworthy
T,aIoorv PaEtv aOOOvancpS MS we'll rs
serious Inconvenience are the result of
forgetfulness, and most forgetfulness is
the result not of any organic defect or
morbid condition, but Of simple heed
Iessness, and the habit Of ''letting things
in at one ear and out at the other"