The New Aid to Memory/Preface

The Memory is the foundation and storehouse of all knowledge. Such, however, is the multitude of objects which the varying panorama of existence presents to us, and such the crowd of ideas excited in our minds by those objects, that the strongest memory cannot preserve a clear arrangement and recollection of its stores, but by far the greater part of them falls first into confusion, and then into oblivion.

To provide a remedy for this evil has naturally been the study of all highly civilized ages. It was soon observed that recollection was greatly assisted by a rational, or even a casual, connexion of ideas. We say casual, as well as rational—because a casual connexion is often sufficient—nay, sometimes stronger than any rational connexion. From see​ing a garment we think of its owner—thence of his habitation—thence of timber and woods—thence of ships, sea-fights, admirals, etc.^[1] But a casual connexion is sometimes formed between ideas seemingly the most incongruous; and as the mind is forcibly struck on such occasions with the very incongruity itself, the impression made is so much the deeper and more durable. Of the truth of this, the experience of almost every one can supply numberless instances.

On the principles suggested by such observations, the Greeks and Romans, who carried such investigations to an extent scarcely reached by any modern nation, seem to have formed their systems of artificial memory. The practice of their orators, as every school-boy knows, was to fix in the mind a series of substantial objects naturally connected, such as the houses in a street, and the apartments in a house; and by per​severing habit, so to associate them together in the memory, that when the first place occurred to them, the ideas of the others followed in a regular and certain succession, as the first bar of any once well-known melody generally suggests all the others with admirable facility. With each of those places the orator connected in his mind a part of the discourse, by always thinking upon the two together; and thus, whenever his memory was at fault, he had but to recur to the substantial associated idea, and with it any part of the longest oration was instantly brought to his recollection.

This system of artificial memory is supposed to have given rise to various expressions still preserved;—such as "common places"—" in the first place"—"in the second place," etc. It is alluded to both by Cicero and Quintilian, but not so fully described by either as to make it clearly intelligible to a modern reader; and so far as we know, no modern ​orator has been able, or has attempted, to reduce it into practice. Quintilian himself speaks of it as a laborious acquirement; but it seems to have been founded on just principles, and they who had mastered it by a resolute perseverance, found in it, no doubt, a very powerful auxiliary to memory.

Another instance, in which similar principles have been reduced into practice with more decided and intelligible effect, is to be found in the artificial classification made by the ancients, of the starry hosts that spangle the firmament. When any one unskilled in astronomy surveys on a clear winter's evening, the apparently numberless

he will be inclined to fancy that any attempt to arrange and recollect them, so that the place occupied by any particular star or planet might be instantly pointed out without difficulty, must be utterly ​fruitless. Such an attempt, however, was long since made with perfect success, by a system of artificial memory, founded upon just principles. The ancient astronomers made a fanciful distribution of the starry spheres into the forms of various animals and things, and called the number of stars included within the outlines of each figure a constellation; on which they bestowed the name of the creature or thing of which it was symbolical.

The principles on which the present system of aiding the memory is founded, can be easily and most satisfactorily explained. In investigating the principles on which the most perfect system of artificial memory must be based, the question which naturally first suggests itself is, what are the objects and ideas which the memory most readily seizes and most tenaciously retains? If such objects and ideas can be ascertained, it seems to follow as a matter of course, that they present the proper materials for ​a system of artificial memory, provided they are such as can be reduced into a simple and intelligible system. If means can be found to connect the principal occurrences and dates of history inseparably with such "objects and ideas," those means must form the best system of artificial memory. We venture to assert, that such "objects and ideas" can be discovered, and that by means of "association" they can be inseparably connected with historical dates and events; and that these assertions can be established on no less an authority than that of Mr. Locke, and by the concurrent testimony of all persons in all ages, who have bestowed on such inquiries particular attention. The words of Mr. Locke are nearly as follow:—"Those ideas which are most frequently restamped by a recurrence of the objects or actions that produced them, fix themselves best in the memory, and remain there clearest and longest, and those there​fore which are of the original qualities of bodies, viz. solidity, extension, figure, motion, and rest, are seldom quite lost, whilst the mind retains any ideas at all."^[2]

Again, with respect to "association of ideas." "Ideas which are in themselves not at all akin, come to be so united in some men's minds that it is very hard to separate them. They always keep in company; and the one no sooner at any time comes into the understanding, but its associate appears with it; and if they are more than two which are thus united, the whole gang always inseparably shew themselves together. This strong combination of ideas not allied by nature, the mind makes in itself either voluntarily or by chance."^[3]

The symbols adopted in the present system are such as seem to possess in the highest degree the characteristics specified by Mr. Locke, as requisite to fix ​them most easily and indelibly on the memory. They have been selected and modified also with a view of making them such as, when once connected with other ideas by association, are the most difficult to be afterwards again severed.

Other systems, it must be admitted, have been numerous, yet short-lived; and the reason we venture to give is, that, although in some measure efficacious and beneficial, they were intricate and perplexing, through systematizing and attempting too much; and thereby confusing what otherwise a gentle and easy suggestion to the memory would have made clear and agreeable.

This system, therefore, professes to pursue the natural suggestions of the mind, impressing the memory with dates and facts from symbols and pictorial representations, that have a direct allusion to what we would remember: and it avoids the devices, or vices, of the topical system, that divides and subdi​vides buildings into rooms, walls, stripes, mosaic floors, etc., for the purpose of arranging matter in the repositories of the memory; by which means the repositories become as difficult to discover and remember as their contents. Our system, so far as it relates to places or divisions, merely marks out each Plate in ten spaces, and places therein symbols and pictorial representations, by which the dates or facts may at once be fixed on, or called to the memory: and so easy and pleasant is the method adopted, that a child of ordinary capacity, and able to read only, may make himself acquainted, in a very short time, with all the matter suggested through the medium of the Plates in the present work. This will be acquired too, not as a task, or through the influence of persuasion, threats, or fears, but as an amusing and attractive occupation. And with respect to grown individuals, we venture to say that the dates of the whole number ​of important events and eras of Roman History, as detailed in the following pages, may be readily acquired, and permanently fixed in the memory, in the space of a few hours.

The author has only to add, that should his anticipations of the utility and popularity of this little work be realized, it is his intention to apply the system, in a similar manner, to various other branches of historical knowledge.