Make 20 of your own Correlations between faces and names (or between
words and meanings), using some of the extremes given by me, and, as
other extremes (words, &c., of your own selection, or) names and faces
of your own acquaintances.
_Peculiarity._ _Correlation._ _Proper Names._
Cross-eyed Cross-bow ... bowman Mr. Archer
Wavy hair dancing wave ... Morris dance Mr. Morrison
Black eyes white ... snow ... pure as snow Mr. Virtue
Retreating chin retiring ... home-bird Mr. Holmes
High instep high boots ... mud ... peat Mr. Peat
Crooked legs broken legs ... crushed Mr. Crushton
Apprehension suspension ... gallows Mr. Galloway
Sombre sad ... mourning ... hat-band Mr. Hatton
Music stave ... bar Mr. Barcroft
Violinist violin ... high note ... whistle Mr. Birtwistle
Painter paint ... colored cards ... whist Mr. Hoyle
Plumber plum-pudding ... victuals Mr. Whittles
Joiner wood ... ash Mr. Ashworth
1. Is it ever possible to remember two extremes without thinking of
the intermediates?
2. In what cases?
3. What did Dr. Johnson sometimes do when introduced to a stranger?
4. What sometimes occurs with people who have adopted the
Johnsonian Method?
5. Why is this?
6. As Max Mueller names mental acts in this order: Sensation,
Perception, Conception, Naming, and Memory, would he hold that
failure to remember names implies weakness of naming power? No!
Remembering a name is an act wholly unlike imposing a name in
the first instance. Such failure arises from weakness of the
auditory function, or of the perception of individual
peculiarities or failure of the sight-image to become cemented
to the sound image.
=A CONTRAST.=--When unconnected ideas have to be united in the memory so
that hereafter one will recall the other, the teachers of other Memory
Systems say: "What can I invent to tie them together--what story can I
contrive--what foreign extraneous matter can I introduce--what mental
picture can I imagine, no matter how unnatural or false the
juxtaposition may be, or what argument or comparison can I originate--no
matter how far-fetched and fanciful it may be, to help hold these
'Extremes' together?" They do not reflect that all these mnemonical
outside and imported schemes must _also_ be remembered, and that being
in the form of sentences expressing loose relation of mere physical
juxtapositions or the complex relations invented by constructive
imagination or subtle intellect, they are, to most, more difficult to
recollect than the extremes would be without these ponderous aids.
Hence, in their professed attempt to aid the memory, they really impose
a _new_ and _additional burden_ upon it.
1. Are you required to make any original correlations?
2. How many?
3. Between what extremes?
4. Do you find it difficult?
5. Have you any evidence given here that others have experienced
any difficulty in making them?
6. Did they finally succeed?
7. What question is frequently asked by other memory teachers?
On the other hand, I simply ask the memory what it _already knows_ about
the "Extremes." The first intermediate of a correlation is _directly_
connected through In., Ex., or Con., with the first "Extreme," and the
last intermediate with the last "Extreme," and the intervening
intermediate (if there be one) with the other two, and thus, the
_intermediates being already in the memory_, and not the result of
invention or ingenuity, my Method of Correlation is purely and solely a
MEMORY process. In this way, I use the MEMORY TO HELP THE MEMORY, I use
the _reviving_ power of the memory to make a vivid FIRST IMPRESSION
between two hitherto unconnected "Extremes." I add nothing to the
"Extremes," import nothing from abroad in regard to them, invent
nothing. I simply _arouse_, _re-waken_ to consciousness, _what is
already stored away_ in the memory in regard to those "Extremes," and,
by reciting the Correlation a few times forwards and backwards, cement
the "Extremes" themselves so vividly together, that henceforth one
"Extreme" revives the other "Extreme" without the recall of the
intermediates.
And in the chapter on Recollective Analysis, and also in the previous
part of this chapter, I have given the attentive student such a
familiarity with the Memory Laws of In., Ex., and Con., that he can make
Correlations as easily as he breathes.
When learning prose or poetry by means of endless repetitions to
acquire, and endless views to retain, the mind soon wanders, and thus
discontinuity is promoted; but, in reciting a Correlation forwards _and
backwards_ from memory, the mind cannot wander, and thus the continuity
is greatly strengthened. Again, memory is improved by exercise, and
_improved in the highest degree_ by _making_ and _memorising_
correlations, because in _making_ them the _reviving_ power of the
memory is exercised in conformity to Memory's own laws; and in
_memorising_ the Correlations both stages of memory are most vividly
impressed. Thus, making and memorising the Correlations TRAINS both
Memory and Continuity. And if to this training process there be added
the habit of Assimilation which the use of the Analytic-Synthetic and
Interrogative Analysis Methods of learning Prose and Poetry by heart
imparts, as well as my other training methods, then the NEW memory thus
acquired _will not demand the further use of the System any more than
the adult swimmer will need the plank by which as a boy he learned to
swim_.
1. What new burden do they impose on the memory?
2. What do I require from my pupils?
3. To what is the first intermediate connected?
4. Through what?
5. How do I deal with the other intermediates?
6. What is a memory process?
7. Is the memory used to help the memory in any way?
8. Do I add anything to the extremes?
9. Is memory improved by exercise?
10. When is the System laid aside?