Systematic Memory/Chapter 4

As previously stated, figures are more difficult to remember than words, and, consequently, the process employed is a little more complicated; but a short practice will render the one process as easy as the other.

Suppose you wanted to remember the number of a certain house, say 361, Oxford Street. By consulting the mnemonic alphabet, you will be enabled to translate 361 into the letters m, b or p, and l. By supplying vowels you can form these letters into several words, such as mobile, maple, ample, employ; or you can form them into two or more words, as my ball, my bill, my bull, may-pole; he may blow, &c. You have, therefore, plenty of scope and choice in making your picture, but you should endeavour to select the most striking word or phrase, which will always answer your purpose best.

It is curious to notice how appropriate many of these figures, fixed upon at random, often prove in word-making. One would imagine that they were selected on purpose to be translated into a particular word or phrase. And I may mention here, lest any might be of a different ​opinion, that all the words, figures, dates, &c., I have used in my illustrations throughout these pages, have been uniformly fixed upon without any regard to their appropriateness for picturing, or word-making. Though they should happen to be peculiarly appropriate, I had no knowledge of the fact at the time of my selecting them. Out of the many words given above, I would fix upon may-pole as the best suited for your purpose. If you can remember may-pole you will have no difficulty in translating it into 361. But suppose you were to forget them both, of course that would be labour in vain. To prevent any possibility of this, associate may-pole with your memory-peg sea. Make a picture of it. There it is. A may-pole planted in the middle of the sea, and a bevy of wavy-haired mermaids romping round about it. You cannot forget this. Only think of sea, which you can do at will, and you infallibly think of may-pole, which, being translated, is 361, the number of the house you want to remember.

You can translate 486 into roach-pie; 4279 into round hook; 9460 into crabs; 1865 into leech beef; 1866 into I lodge a baby; 467 into rabbit; 29 into no go; 7827 into touch not; 79 into duck; 648 into brush; 910 into glass; 4756 into right of a heap; 769 into tobacco; 6945 into pack her off; 2452 into a new roof on; 7452 into drive on; 94617 into Garibaldi; 29642 no cab hire now; 76032 into a tipsy man; 94742 into gridiron; 19070 into locusts; 7471 into head or tail. And so on.

You would do well to practise assiduously the ​translation of figures into words, as well as of words into figures, before going farther. This exercise is very important. (See p. 21).

The natural arrangement of figures is in groups of threes, and this arrangement greatly assists in committing them to memory. Let us take a list of sixty figures, as follows, and see if we cannot recollect them all consecutively, in a very short time:—

As they now stand, it seems a most formidable undertaking to attempt to commit this long array of figures to memory; but by the application of our system, the task becomes mere child's play; and would be so even if the list were twice as long.

First, arrange the figures into groups of three figures each, of which you will thus have twenty. Apply your memory-pegs to each group in its order. Then translate the figures into letters, and of these letters form the most appropriate words you can for picture-making. (Page 33.) Tack them on to your pegs, and you have got the whole series by heart, without the possibility of mistake.

To be more explicit: your first group, 156, can be translated into low fop, which you can easily tack on to your memory-peg law. Your second group, 876, can be rendered into shut up, and be aptly associated with Noah, and so on with the ​whole twenty groups. I cannot enforce upon you too often the importance of making your picture as vivid as possible. Let it be observed that the more easy and natural the connection between your peg and the words you have formed, the more apt you are to make a hasty and uncertain picture, and therefore to forget it. The sixth group, where the figures are rendered into a bee flying, is a case in point, as also the fourteenth and eighteenth groups. When you have all the pictures distinct in your mind, you have only to think of your pegs, and they will immediately suggest the other half of the picture, which you will find no difficulty in translating into figures. You will thus be able to repeat the whole list backwards and forwards, or to name any particular group, just as easily as if they were so many words instead of figures.

The phrases into which I have rendered the list, as given below, may not be, by any means, the best into which it could be rendered. They are those that first occurred to me; and the student may improve upon them, if he chooses.

It will be perceived that, in order to remember these figures thoroughly, from beginning to end, the pupil has only to think of the pegs in their order, when the whole of the groups will be at once suggested.

If you wanted to know which is the 12th group, think of your 12th peg, lawn, and it will immediately call up the rest of the picture, namely, maggot, which, being translated, means 397. Suppose you wished to ascertain the middle figure of the 17th group. Your 17th peg is lad, which brings to your recollection the whole picture, namely, that the lad was crying. Crying = 949. The figure 4 is, therefore, the middle figure of the 17th group, or the 50th figure in the list.

​This process appears at first rather difficult, but in reality it is quite easy. Get your pegs well off by heart, and word-making, as well as picture-making, will, after a little practice, become easy and pleasant.

In much the same manner as the above, you can remember statistics, astronomical calculations, logarithms, etc.

The number of females in Great Britian and Ireland, according to the census of 1851, amounted to a lazy match by sour Joe; males, a lost mauve cloak; thereby making a total of Nelly Lee in a long boat. The total income of the United Kingdom for 1856 is, in pounds, almost equal to tame a rough wife, or miss.

Suppose that logarithm 314 = 6815942, then according to the foregoing rule, a miller = a bushel of corn.