Systematic Memory/Chapter 5

In committing dates to memory, there is an additional element brought into action. We have not merely to remember certain figures, we have certain facts besides, to connect with these figures. From this, it would at first sight appear that committing dates to memory must be a more difficult undertaking than what we have been considering in the previous chapter. On the contrary, however, dates are more easily remembered than ordinary figures unconnected with any event.

The most apparently unimportant hint is often the means of calling up whole scenes, and of bringing to the recollection a series of facts. In trying to bring to mind some line of poetry you may have forgotten, the first word, the first syllable, nay, even the first letter, is frequently sufficient for the purpose. This principle is largely employed in the remembering of dates. Write down the first letter of the name of the event to be remembered; in some instances you will have to write the whole syllable or more. Make of this letter, or syllable, a word or phrase that will suggest the name of the event, and at the same time bear a natural relation to another word or phrase formed by translating the date you want to fix in your mind.

​Suppose you wanted to remember the date of the battle of Bannockburn—1314. You might do ít in this way: Take the first two syllables, Bannock, which, in Scotland, means a cake; then take the figures 314, which can be translated into m, l, r—miller. You will, therefore, have no difficulty in associating bannock with miller. It will be perceived that in modern chronology there is no necessity for taking notice of the thousand, for you will easily remember that without any system. Then again, the battle of the Boyne—1690—might be remembered by changing Boyne into boiled, and translating 690 into pigs—boiled pigs. The battle of Hastings—1066—Haste sip up.

Suppose you have a series of dates to learn in a given order. In that case you must connect them with your pegs, taking care to make the relationship between the pegs, the event, and the date, as close and natural as possible, so that the connection may be easily retained.

Where a number of different individuals bear the same name—the "four Georges" for instance—and you want to fix a date to some particular one of them, of course it is important that you should be able to indicate which is meant. This is done by forming the name into a word the last consonant sound of which will express the number. James VI. (of Scotland) might be expressed by Jacob. He ascended the throne of England in 1603. The figures 603 can be translated into besom. Jacob a besom, therefore, may mean James VI. ascended the throne of England in 1603.

​In order that I may make my meaning perfectly clear, I subjoin a list of the Kings and Queens of England, from William the Conqueror to the present time, with the dates of their ascension to the throne, rendered into this system.

It is presumed that you will find no difficulty in understanding the above list. Take Henry VIII. for example. He ascended the throne in 1509. Your peg is noose. Now you have to make out of Henry VIII. some word that will suggest the name, as well as distinguish which of the Henrys is meant. Of course the word must begin with h, and the last consonant in it must be that letter of the alphabet which represents the figure 8. The word huge will answer the purpose. You have now the figures 509 to translate into some word or phrase which can easily be connected with huge, and both must be such as can be readily associated with your memory-peg noose. Vase hook will do—huge vase hook. This you can associate with noose. You can imagine a vase, with a string or noose round its neck, suspended from a large hook in the ceiling. Noose, which you can remember at pleasure, will now suggest to your mind a huge vase hook. Huge you can interpret into Henry VIII., and vase hook into 509, which, with the thousand added to it, will give 1509.

If you examine the above list, you will observe that between some of the phrases and the pegs the connection is very natural, such as between Noah and wine shade; between knife and a Chili bowie ​knife; between Nile and ebb ford, etc. Between others, again, the connection is very remote; still, upon the plan laid down in page 27, you will have no difficulty in attaching the phrases to the pegs by arbitrary means.

The most troublesome thing in committing dates to memory is making out the tables. They require care, and sometimes a little ingenuity; but practice will wonderfully facilitate this. Where it is possible, always indicate the event in full by the first word.

Some difficulty may occasionally be found in word-making, where two figures of the same kind come together, such as in the date of the ascension of Richard II., 1377. You have here the letters m, b or p, and b or p a second time. You know that double letters are reckoned as single, but you must not, therefore, suppose that repeated figures are to be reckoned as though single. Map represents the figures 37, and mapp represents no more. In order to make 377 of it, you must add another syllable, or, in other words, introduce a vowel between the two p 's. My pipe or my baby would therefore represent 377.