One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed Part 16

"Statue of Justice--_image of law_."

The process is simplicity itself. The thing you wish to recall, and that you fear to forget, is the weight; consequently you cement your chain of suggestion to the idea which is most prominent to your mental question. What do you weigh with? Scales. What does the mental picture of scales suggest? The statue of Justice, blindfolded and weighing out award and punishment to man. Finally, what is this statue of Justice but the image of law? And the words "image of law," translated back from the significant letters _m_, _g_ soft, _f_ and _l_, give you 3--6--8--5, the number of pounds in $1,000,000 in gold. You bind together in your mind each separate step in the journey, the one suggests the other, and you will find a year from now that the fact will be as fresh in your memory as it is to-day. You cannot lose it. It is chained to you by an unbreakable mnemonic tie. Mark, that it is not claimed that "weight" will of itself suggest "scales" and "scales"

"statue of Justice," etc., but that, once having pa.s.sed your attention up and down the ladder of ideas, your mental tendency will be to take the same route, and get to the same goal again and again. Indeed, beginning with the weight of $1,000,000, "image of law" will turn up in your mind without your consciousness of any intermediate station on the way, after some iteration and reiteration of the original chain.

Again, so as to fasten the process in the reader's mind even more firmly, suppose that it were desired to fix the date of the battle of Hastings (A.D. 1066) in the memory; 1066 may be represented by the words "the wise judge" (_th_ equals 1, _s_ equals 0, _j_ equals 6, _dg_ equals 6; the others are non-significants); a chain might be made thus:

Battle of Hastings--arbitrament of war.

Arbitrament of war--arbitration.

Arbitration--judgment.

Judgment--the wise judge.

Make mental pictures, connect ideas, repeat words and sounds, go about it in any way you please, so that you will form a mental habit of connecting the "battle of Hastings" with the idea of "arbitrament of war," and so on for the other links in the chain, and the work is done.

Loisette makes the beginning of his system unnecessarily difficult, to say nothing of his illogical arrangement in the grammar of the art of memory, which he makes the first of his lessons. He a.n.a.lyzes suggestion thus:

1. Inclusion. 2. Exclusion. 3. Concurrence.

All of which looks very scientific and orderly, but is really misleading and badly named. The truth is that one idea will suggest another.

1. By likeness or opposition of meaning, as "house" suggests "room" or "door," etc., or "white" suggests "blacks," "cruel," "kind," etc.

2. By likeness of sound, as "harrow" and "barrow;" "Henry" and "Hennepin."

3. By mental juxtaposition, a peculiarity different in each person and depending upon each one's own experiences. Thus "St. Charles" suggests "railway bridge" to me, because I was vividly impressed by the breaking of the Wabash bridge at that point. "Stable" and "broken leg" come near each other in my experience, so do "cow" and "shot-gun" and "licking."

Out of these three sorts of suggestions it is possible to get from any one fact to any other in a chain certain and safe, along which the mind may be depended upon afterward always to follow.

The chain is, of course, by no means all. Its making and its binding must be accompanied by a vivid, methodically directed attention, which turns all the mental light gettable in a focus upon the subject pa.s.sing across the mind's screen. Before Loisette was thought of this was known. In the old times in England, in order to impress upon the minds of the rising generation the parish boundaries in the rural districts, the boys were taken to each of the landmarks in succession, the position and bearings of each pointed out carefully, and, in order to deepen the impression, the young people were then and there vigorously thrashed, a mechanical method of attracting the attention which was said never to have failed. This system has had its supporters in many of the old-fas.h.i.+oned schools, and there are men who will read these lines who can recall, with an itching sense of vivid expression, the 144 lickings which were said to go with the multiplication table.

In default of a thras.h.i.+ng, however, the student must cultivate as best he can an intense fixity of perception upon every fact or word or date that he wishes to make permanently his own. It is easy. It is a matter of habit. If you will you can photograph an idea upon your cerebral gelatine so that neither years nor events will blot it out or overlay it. You must be clearly and distinctly aware of the thing you are putting into your mental treasure-house, and drastically certain of the cord by which you have tied it to some other thing of which you are sure. Unless it is worth your while to do this, you might as well abandon any hopes of mnemonic improvement, which will not come without the hardest kind of hard work, although it is work that will grow constantly easier with practice and reiteration.

You need, then:

1. Methodic suggestion.

2. Methodic attention.

3. Methodic reiteration.

And this is all there is to Loisette, and a great deal it is. Two of them will not do without the third. You do not know how many steps there are from your hall-door to your bed-room, though you have attended to and often reiterated the journey. But if there are twenty of them, and you have once bound the word "nice," or "nose," or "news,"

or "hyenas," to the fact of the stairway, you could never forget it.

The Professor makes a point, and very wisely, of the importance of working through some established chain, so that the whole may be carried away in the mind--not alone for the value of the facts so bound together, but for the mental discipline so afforded.

Here, then, is the "President Series," which contains the name and the date of inauguration of each President from Was.h.i.+ngton to Cleveland.

The manner in which it is to be mastered is this: Beginning at the top, try to find in your mind some connection between each word and the one following it. See how you can at some future time make one suggest the next, either by suggestion of sound or sense, or by mental juxtaposition. When you have found this dwell on it attentively for a moment or two. Pa.s.s it backward and forward before you, and then go on to the next step.

The chain runs thus, the names of the Presidents being in small caps, the date word in italics:

President Chosen as the first word as the one most apt to occur to the mind of any one wis.h.i.+ng to repeat the names of the Presidents.

Dentist Presi_dent_ and _dent_ist.

Draw What does a dentist do?

_To give up_ When something is drawn from one it is given up.

This is a date phrase meaning 1789.

Self-sacrifice There is an a.s.sociation of thought between giving and self-sacrifice.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON a.s.sociate the quality of self-sacrifice with Was.h.i.+ngton's character.

Morning wash _Wash_ington and _wash_.

Dew Early witness and dew.

Flower beds Dew and flowers.

_Took a bouquet_ Flowers and bouquet. Date phrase (1707.) Garden Bouquet and garden.

Eden The first garden.

Adam Juxtaposition of thought.

ADAMS Suggestion by sound.

Fall Juxtaposition by thought.

Failure Fall and failure.

_Deficit_ Upon a failure there is usually a deficit. Date word (1801.) Debt The consequence of a deficit.

Bonds Debt and bonds.

Confederate bonds Suggestion by meaning.

Jefferson Davis Juxtaposition of thought.

JEFFERSON.

Now, follow out the rest for yourself, taking about ten at a time, and binding those you do last to those you have done before each time, before attacking the next bunch.

1 | 2 | 3 ----------------------+--------------------+------------------ JEFFERSON | _the fraud_ | _the heavy sh.e.l.l_ Judge Jeffreys | painted clay | mollusk b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.size | baked clay | unfamiliar word bereavement | tiles | dictionary _too heavy a sob_ | TYLER | Johnson's parental grief | Wat Tyler | JOHNSON mad son | poll tax | son MADISON | compulsory | bad son Madeira | _free will_ | dishonest boy first-rate wine | free offering | _thievish boy_ frustrating | burnt offering | take _defeating_ | poker | give feet | POLK | GRANT toe the line | end of dance | award row | termination "ly" | school premium MUNROE | _adverb_ | examination row | part of speech | cramming boat | part of a man | _f.a.gging_ steamer | TAYLOR | laborer _the funnel_ | measurer | hay field windpipe | theodolite | HAYES throat | _Theophilus_ | hazy quinzy | fill us | clear QUINZY ADAMS | FILLMORE | _vivid_ quince | more fuel | brightly lighted fine fruit | _the flame_ | camp fire _the fine boy_ | flambeau | war field sailor boy | bow | GARFIELD sailor | arrow | Guiteau jack tar | PIERCE | murderer JACKSON | hurt | prisoner stone wall | _feeling_ | prison fare indomitable | wound | _half fed_ _tough make_ | soldier | well fed oaken furniture | cannon | well read bureau | BUCHANAN | author VAN BUREN | rebuke | ARTHUR rent | official censure | round table side-splitting | _to officiate_ | tea table _divert_ | wedding | tea cup annoy | linked | _half full_ harra.s.sing | LINCOLN | divide HARRISON | link | cleave Old Harry | stroll | CLEVELAND the tempter | sea sh.o.r.e | ----------------------+--------------------+------------------

It will be noted that some of the date words, as "free will," only give three figures of the date, 845; but it is to be supposed that if the student knows that many figures in the date of Polk's inauguration he can guess the other one.

The curious thing about this system will now become apparent. If the reader has learned the series so that he can say it down from first President to Cleveland, he can with no effort, and without any further preparation, say it _backward_, from Cleveland up to the commencement.

There could be no better proof that this is the natural mnemonic system. It proves itself by its works.

-------------------+------------------+------------- | 0--hoes | -------------------+------------------+------------- 1--wheat |34--mare |67--jockey 2--hen |35--mill |68--shave 3--home |36--image |69--s.h.i.+p 4--hair |37--mug |70--eggs 5--oil |38--m.u.f.f |71--gate 6--shoe |39--mob |72--gun 7--hook |40--race |73--comb 8--off |41--hart |74--hawker 9--bee |42--horn |75--coal 10--daisy |43--army |76--cage 11--tooth |44--warrior |77--cake 12--dine |45--royal |78--coffee 13--time |46--arch |79--cube 14--tower |47--rock |80--vase 15--dell |48--wharf |81--feet 16--ditch |49--rope |82--vein 17--duck |50--wheels |83--fame 18--dove |51--lad |84--fire 19--tabby |52--lion |85--vial 20--hyenas |53--lamb |86--fish 21--hand |54--lair |87--fig 22--nun |55--lily |88--fife 23--name |56--lodge |89--fib 24--owner |57--lake |90--pies 25--nail |58--leaf |91--putty 26--hinge |59--elbow |92--pane 27--ink |60--chess |93--bomb 28--knife |61--cheat |94--bier 29--k.n.o.b |62--chain |95--bell 30--muse |63--sham |96--peach 31--mayday |64--chair |97--book 32--hymen |65--jail |98--beef 33--mama |66--judge |99--pope |------------------| | 100--diocese | -------------------+------------------+-----------

The series should be repeated backward and forward every day for a month, and should be supplemented by a series of the reader's own making, and by this one, which gives the numbers from 0 to 100, and which must be chained together before they can be learned.

By the use of this table, which should be committed as thoroughly as the President series, so that it can be repeated backwards and forwards, any date, figure or number can be at once constructed, and bound by the usual chain to the fact which you wish it to accompany.

When the student wishes to go farther and attack larger problems than the simple binding of two facts together, there is little in Loisette's system that is new, although there is much that is good. If it is a book that is to be learned, as one would prepare for an examination, each chapter is to be considered separately. Of each a _precis_ is to be written in which the writer must exercise all of his ingenuity to reduce the matter in hand to its final skeleton of fact. This he is to commit to memory both by the use of the chain and the old system of interrogation. Suppose after much labor through a wide s.p.a.ce of language one boils a chapter to an event down to the final irreducible sediment: "Magna Charta was exacted by the barons from King John at Runnymede."

You must now turn this statement this way and that way, asking yourself about it every possible and impossible question, gravely considering the answers, and, if you find any part of it especially difficult to remember, chaining it to the question which will bring it out. Thus, "What was exacted by the barons from King John at Runnymede?" "Magna Charta." "By whom was Magna Charta exacted from King John at Runnymede?"

"By the barons." "From whom was," etc., etc.? "King John." "From what king," etc., etc.? "King John." "Where was Magna Charta," etc., etc.? "At Runnymede."

And so on and so on, as long as your ingenuity can suggest questions to ask, or points of view from which to consider the statement. Your mind will be finally saturated with the information and prepared to spill it out at the first squeeze of the examiner. This, however, is not new. It was taught in the schools hundreds of years before Loisette was born.

Old newspaper men will recall in connection with it Horace Greeley's statement that the test of a news item was the clear and satisfactory manner in which a report answered the interrogatories, "What?" "When?"

"Where?" "Who?" "Why?"

In the same way Loisette advises the learning of poetry, _e.g._,