Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-16
sANTI.MNEMONICS.

10 the Art Of Forgetting More Valuable
Than That Of Rememberings-when if
Would bc Useful-worry Would be a
Thing Of tho Pasf-sufferers Might Pass
Their Dismal Hours In Mirth and
Reyelry.
From the London Globe.1
That useful and indispensable machine, the
memory, is noted for the difficulties which it
causes to those who try to manage 1t. 1t in
sists on having its own way as to what it will
forget or remember and there is no knowing
at what moment freak may not seize it, and
make it incurably obstinate. In view OF this,
certain sanguine and enthusiastic persons are
forever trying to invent artificial ways Oh re-
membering things There is an art Of memory
which has its professors and its students, though
whether it confers degrees, and how far 1t has
yet fallen INTO the vice 81 eaamlnaetns; are i
formation.
But why, we may reasonably ask, do the pro-
fessors who offer to teach US to remember ION
payment Of reasonable fee) never turn their
attention to what would be an equally useful
object-the, of forgetting? Many people
would be glad to pay large sum to be
ses Ser S the ff9Gs zee, things ,S s T Kings 70 Of &ng
land-it is this sort Of things to which
the professors of memory help us--is chaste
and noble pleasure, and the pedigrees in the
Bible, recited by aid of memoria teehnica,
may afford refreshment in the intervals of
business. But what, after ALL are these intel
lectual enjoyments compared with the delight
OF forgetting what you do not wish to remem-
BERT 1t is quite true that ordinary forgetful-
ness often involves great Inconvenience. But
the professors of memory do not greatly helpus
to get over these. They do not assist when we
have forgotten the name of a person whom we
tntr0d1lffu1 q n Il
which we are going to call. They cannot re-
mind tie nervous customer Of his own initials,
or bring back to the tipsy wayfarer the reeol-
things may be managed by the simple expedient
OF writing them down; and even the humble
assistance of the knotted pocket-hankerchie
may in small matters supersede the lectures of
the professor
How Hard it is TO Forget.
But the art Of forgetting is far more difficult,
and worthier of the attention of science. To
make list of things to be forgotten. or append
to them in your diary mark to that effect is
of little more value than the rival process of
not putting them down at all. Neither of these
Is found to insure forgetfulness. And though
cudgeling the memory often has the same ef-
feet as cudgeling that serviceable animal so
largely employed by costermongers. and makes
it stop altogether, it cannot be used. IN q re-
verse process, to make it forget at will. 1t
person conld hit upon an antimemoria technica
and enable the human mind to get rid, with
little ordinary care, of its disagreeable recolec-
tions
This might well seem impossible. if it were
not for facts constantly occurring in every
ones experience. Far from this art being i'm
practicable, there appear to be persons who
have have secretly mastered s it and are constantly
but those who practice it conceal its rules, and
do not allow the public to benefit by them.
Though perhaps we cannot expect them to re-
veal the mystery, 1t is an encouragement to the
investigator to know that such there is. II
there were not, how can we account for the
regularity and precision with which some per-
them? It is simply unscientifc to put this
down TO chance; it Is far better to give them
credit for the skill which they undoubtedly
display.
Anti lInemonics Applied to Bills.
Watch one of these artists in contact with
that unostentatious, but yet somehow not
altogether welcome little composition which
occasionally crops up in the letter-box, and is
familiarly called a bill. Everything may seem
to be against his success, and yet a skilled
practitioner may do wonders even with a rather
bill. Memory depends a good deal
ON vivid impressions; and to see distasteful
envelope lurking amid the innocent and pleas
ing objects of the breakfast table, is likely
way to gain vivid impression OF the envelope.
The apparition is hardly less striking when the
enemy enters abruptly on . salver, after
rather irritable ring of the street bell, or when
it is poked into the hand out of doors by an in
sinuating person in shabby clothes But the
true artist can overcome all these OBJ
stacles. In spite of them all. he can, by
the marvellous control of memory which he
possesses, succeed in entirely forgetting
that bill. If he is q genius and has complete
self-confdence, he may even, in spite of the |
awful risk of receiving too deep an impression |
from the process, give the envelope and its |
contents the personal care and attention OF
tearing them UP into small bits over the fire,
and so bestowiDg upon them the final honors
Of cremation and yet come out so triumphantly
successful as to completely forget the circum-
again to this person in regard to their so
highly honored communications, get the
of his own word for the fact that
every trace of it has been obliterated from his
memory. This is surely very important in
stance in favor of the possibility of an art of
forgetting.
The MnsterIy Skill of Some People.
There are other examples of this practice, |
not affecting public business, which are equally
Promises and engagements Of a
private nature, which become onerous to
the person who has made them, are |
often found to have been forgotten, !
when those who have forgotten them are |
persons otherwise of good memory and bust |
ness-like habits. Something of the same sort |
brings on the fate to which borrowed books are |
notoriously liable. Statements, again, indi- |
eating point of view from which the speaker |
has subsequently departed, are found to be |
forgotten with unfailIng accuracy by the |
Science cannot afford to pass over |
these things. At the bottom of them all lies |
the unmistakable quality of mastery skill. |
Such persons can never, perhaps, be got to
and publish the methods by which
such training and control of the recording fac
,Ir;a ftI., rs,.1 houa hnnU 1aho yot-
aimed But their results are an adequate
ground for science to advance from, in the
construction of an art Of forgetting.
II
Your Trouble.
The value of this is so obvious to the least re-
lection, that it is perhaps scarcely necessary to
,nlarge upon 1t. Business people, from Job