MAKING THE MEMORY STRONG

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4289, 23 February 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

MAKING THE MEMORY STRONG

A FEW TIPS AS TO HOW THIS MAY BE DONE. Many people complain of having a poor memory, and yet that faculty can be developed as easily as can the bicycle muscle. Nor is it necessary to go to any piofessor of memory or to master any elaborate system in order to accomplish tin's result. One does .not Lave to go to a gymnasium to strengthen one’s arm or back, chopping wood or rowing a boat will do it. Similarly, memory may bo cultivated by one’s own efforts- ami amid one’s ordinary pursuits.

One man made the Sunday service of his church serve as a memory exercise. After the service he would endeavour to recall the numbers of all hymns sung, Hie chapters and, verses of the lessons, words of anthem, test and points of sermon. . This required the paying of close attention ; ml a. conscious effort, to impress those things upon his mind. By this and other equally simple moans he developed a memory that was absolutely at Ins command.

Famous speakers who have memorised their speeches have adopted various devices to aid , them. The late Mr John Bright fixed in mind the different points in his .speeches by first drawing little figures or pictorial- representations. If part of his speech had to do with a briclgfe, he would make a little sketch of such a structure, or if with Ireland or Scotland, he would sketch' a small map of the country or the district. He could remember these little figures or pictures. When ho rose to his feet he could see them in imagination, and select them one by one as he proceeded from point to point in Ids address, not* having any note or manuscript *by him at nil. That was the method host suited to liimr

Certain people possess what may be railed the bump of location. If they remember a passage in a. book, they can tell you which, side of the page it is on and what part of the page. There are students with that kind of a,'memory who prepare their recitations by taking a largo sheet of paper and writing different parts of the lesson in different places on the paper. They then rely on their sense of location to call to mind whatever they may wish to remember. Again there are people who liave a keen eye for colour. They will make their memoranda on slips of paper of different colours. Then simply calling to mind a particular colour will enable them to remember the memorandum associated with that colour. Of course, all this is, based on' what is known as the faculty of association of ideas. Some people who can remember words and phrases, find difficulty in remembering figures or numbers. In such cases a curious expedient has sometimes been resorted to. A phrase will he devised the inital letters of which suggest the figures sought to be remembered. For example, suppose someone’s street number to bo 182. The suggestive phrase might be, “I Seek Him.” The letter I will suggest the figure 1; the letter S somewhat resembles an 8: and the two perpendicular strokes of the H suggest the Roman numeral 11. ■ A round-about method this may be, hut it has served to fasten figures in the memory of people who had previously found them troublesome.

But perhaps the west wholesome way iir the long run is simply by repetition and effort to fijc the thing in the memory directly without tricks of memory or artificial methods. By memorising one sentence or verse a day from tne best literature, the mind will soon have a fine treasury of beautiful thoughts and an enriched vocabulary.

For quotation purposes it is necessary to remember verbatim, and, though this is the hardest task of memory, it well repays the effort. Once trained, the memory will be able to recall the exact words of conversations, sermons, and passages in books without having made any conscious effort to commit them.

A distinction is sometimes drawn between two kinds of memory. There is what is called a carrying memory, such as is exercised by the conductor on a tram. He remembers the faces on a particular tram, while attending to tickets,. and then straightway forgets, and so on with each tram in his charge. Certain children are said to exercse a carrying memory with their lessons—remembering them just long enough to carry them from the house to the teacher, and forgetting them after recitation. The other kindl of a. memory is the kind that does not forgef.