Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-01-08
TRAINING THE MEMORY.
THE FACULTY FOR PRESERVING
DATES, NAMES AND EVENTS.

THE FACULTY FOR PRESERVING
DATES, NAMES AND EVENTS.
Useful Practice for Whist Players-Con-
slant PerusaI Of Slowly Enlarged List
of Dates-Weak Points Should be Trained
Separately.
In order to attain the highest form OF
memory it is necessary to cultivate the
faculty of imagination, or the power OF hold
ing up to the mind past sensations or i'm
pressions as if they were again actually pres
ent We can retain the impression OF an
object in the mind for some time after the
object itself has passed away, by allowing
the mind to dwell upon it, and we can after
wards readily recall it. Lay an object, say
your watch, on the table, and look at it in
tently for few seconds; you will find on
shutting your eyes that you still retain
more or less distinct image Of it. Even after
considerable time you may recall the image
Of the watch and the exact spot where it
lay. SO if in place Of one object, two or
three are placed on the table, after conteH'
plating them q short while their images may
be reproduced in the brain and afterwards
recalled with great distinctness.
TO REMEMBER CARDS.
In this way one may soon learn to remem-
Der all the cards that have been played in a
game of whist, which mere playing for life
time NAV fail to teach him. Let him begin
by throwing down four cards, one by one,
upon the table, Observing each by itself and
the order in which it is laid down, as well as
the whole together, till he feels that he has
learned them Let him then take them up
and after time replace them as they were
before from memory, and this till he feels
that he has thoroughly mastered them. For
q second lesson let him take four cards and
treat them in this way, and then other four;
and let him proceed in this way, always in
creasing the number till he can take in the
whole pack, and tell Of each card when and
where it was thrown down. That mere play
ing may never teach man this Is owing TO
the attention being taken up with the play
and not sufficiently directed to this operation.
Attention is the remedy for weak mem
ory and the tonic for one that requires i'm
provement. First impressions made upon
the mind must be strong and complete to be
lasting The usual image carried to the
mind must be as complete almost as the orig
inal object itself, and to obtain a perfect
image undivided attention must be given to
the subject One thing at time, and that
thing thoroughly William 7. Harris in
dorses this precept, and he adds a personal
"Reminiscences to illustrate his point that the
true method Of cultivating and Strengthening
defective memory is to practice 1t on the
kind of items it easily forgets.
The writer, when in his 18th year, was en-
barressed by the feebleness of his memory
for dates lie commenced learning list Of
the dates of accession Of English kings
William tho Conqueror in 1066, William
Rufus in 1857, etc.-three or four dates the
first day; two new ones added the second
day: one new one added the third day; there
after less often. Constant review by and by
made the entire list familiar. 1t had to be
learned anew O year after, and once again
after some years Of neglect. But the memory
for dates grew steadily, and, without con-
scious effort, dates and numbers soon came
to be seized with frmer grasp than before.
This kind Of memory still increases with the
writer from year to year, and, although 1t is
not by any means a phenomenal memory, it
is very serviceable. A similar cultivation of
the special memory for proper names (which
in the writer's case had become very weak
and threatened to go altogether) has proved
serviceable
EXAMPLES FOR PRACTICE.
The special kind of memory that is weak
should be cultivated by itself and not at
tached to some other form Of memory. The
smile of magnet is TO the point here. Load
it today with iron filings, and tomorrow it
will support a few more. The memory, if
only strong enough to retain a single item
with effort, will grow stronger by the effort,
and will soon retain two items, and finally
others in vast numbers and without effort.
By this method we avoid fantastic associa-
lions and correct the weak faculty itself, in
stead of fastening its work on another
faculty. Let the exercise be q list of dates
valuable to retain for themselves. Or, if it
is names that one wishes to remember, select
a list of important persons that furnish CEN
tiers Of historical information; such, for in
stance as the names of the Roman emperors,
the English and French kings, the heroes Of
Plutarch's histories, or of typical PERSONAL
ties, such as the characters in ShakeSpeare's
dramas or in Homer's "Iliad"-itemS of
world historical Importance. A list Of 100
proper names, learned in their orders as
kings Of France and of England, and the en-
perors Of Rome, will furnish central nuclei to
historic material, and the memorizing Of
such list, or, indeed, list half as large,
will so discipline the memory for names as to
permanently remove all embarrassment from
this source. 1t is not the length Of the list SO
much as the thoroughness with which it is
learned that develops the memory. 1t is not
well to go beyond 100 items, for the reason
that such mechanical memory should not be
made too strong.-David Kay's work on
Memory"