Systematic Memory/Introductory

Complaints are continually heard about bad memories. Some have the misfortune of having been born with shocking bad memories; while others have, in their early years, been gifted with wonderfully good memories, but, by some mysterious process, have gradually lost the power of retaining even the most recent facts. Some, again, have the rare faculty of at once, and without the slightest difficulty, committing to memory any and everything they please, but, unfortunately, in a very few days all is entirely forgotten: others, on the contrary, have very great difficulty in fixing anything in their minds, but when once a thing is fixed, it is fixed for ever.

The truth is, that most persons do not know how to employ their memories. The instrument may be tolerably good; the skill to use it aright is too frequently wanting.

The system set forth in the following pages is intended to make bad memories good, and good memories better. It is known by several names; such as, mnemonics, mnemotechny, phrenotypics, artificial memory, etc. I would call it simply the art of memory, or Systematic Memory.

​Most people, when they wish to fix anything on their minds, employ, consciously or unconsciously, a sort of artificial memory. When the rustic maiden ties a knot in her handkerchief, for the purpose of reminding her of some errand, she is, although unaware of the fact, making use of this science of mnemotechny.

The question is often asked,—Is not the machinery of this artificial system as difficult to acquire, to carry about, and to apply, as it would be to fix in the memory by sheer force of repetition and application the facts to be remembered? By no means. The difference is the same as between pockets and hands. It is far easier to carry fifty different articles in half a dozen pockets than in two hands; and there is much less risk of letting them drop.

The man who employs no system of memory, holds facts in his head in a state of confusion, and does not know where to find them when he wants them. The mnemotechnist puts each in its place, labels it, and knows where to lay his hands on it when wanted.

Systematic Memory is an art, the use of which is exceedingly improving to the mind. It gives a sense of power. It enables a man to feel that he can store ideas and facts, and have them at call when he wants them again. It is, indeed, a most valuable possession. It greatly develops the power of concentrating the thoughts. It helps a man to think systematically, as well as to remember systematically. It improves the imagination; ​and, by enabling him to keep more facts and opinions before the mind, strengthens the judgment. If a person has to make a speech, he is not under the necessity of driving it into his head for a week before, and of going upon the platform in fear and trembling, lest, after all, he should forget it. On the contrary, having stowed away each thought into its proper pigeon-hole, so to speak, he feels perfectly at ease, and consequently delivers his speech with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his audience.

Give any man, who possesses no system of memory, a hundred words unconnected with one another, or as many astronomical numbers, or latitudes, or dates, and ask him to commit them to memory. He will find it a long and disagree-able task; and, after all, unless his memory is exceptionally good, he will feel painfully uncertain whether he can remember the whole of them or not. Give them to a mnemotechnist, and he will grapple with them like a strong man rejoicing in his strength. To him the work is easy, pleasant, and certain of being accomplished.

The object of education is twofold,—to store the mind, and to train it. The art of memory will greatly aid in both. No one can question its power of storing the mind with facts, who has witnessed the feats of memory achieved by mere youths, after but a few hours' practice. No one, who has himself acquired the art, can doubt its power to train the mind, to educate it in the best sense of the term. For mere mechanical repe​tition it substitutes thought and imagination; it transforms a painful task into a positive pleasure.

It is a mistake to suppose, as many do, that a system of memory is only useful for dates. It can be applied to the remembering of anything; though, inasmuch as dates and numbers are more difficult than anything else to remember, the triumphs of the art in that direction appear the most remarkable.

The author's own memory is by no means of the best; in fact it is naturally what might be considered rather a bad memory; yet by means of his system he can do what he is convinced not one in twenty thousand can do without it. And any one who will take the little trouble required to master the following pages, will find no difficulty in doing likewise.

Let the reader, however, be cautioned against entertaining the idea that a good memory can be created by this or any other system. That is an impossibility. The design of this method is, not to confer a new faculty, but to teach how to employ with skill the capacity of the memory we possess, and to contrive such helps as greatly to assist its natural powers. As the invention of the telescope did not make any alteration in the eye itself, but only brought objects nearer to the organ of vision; so the design of this book is not directly to make the memory better, but to supply a method by means of which things may more readily be committed to memory, with the certainty of being easily and surely recalled.