Speaker 1: How to remember words, et cetera. In a preceding chapter,
we gave a number of instances of persons who had
highly developed their memory of words, sentences, et cetera. History
is full of instances of this kind. The moderns fall
far behind the ancients in this respect, probably because there
does not exist the present necessity for the feats of memory,
which were once accepted as commonplace and not out of
the ordinary. Among ancient people, when printing was unknown and
manuscripts scarce and valuable, it was the common custom of
the people to learn by heart the various sacred teachings
of their respective religions. The sacred books of the Hindus
were transmitted in this way, and it was a common
thing among the Hebrews to be able to recite the
books of Moses and the Prophets entirely from memory. Even
to this day, the faithful Mohammedans are taught to commit
the entire Koran to memory, and investigation reveals always that
there has been used the identical process of committing these
sacred books to memory and recalling them at will, the
natural method instead of an artificial one. And therefore we
shall devote this chapter solely to this method, whereby poems
or prose may be committed to memory and recalled readily.
This natural method of memorizing words, sentences, or verses is
no royal road. It is a system which must be
mastered by steady work and faithful review. One must start
at the beginning and work his way up. But the
result of such work will astonish anyone not familiar with it.
It is the very same method that the Hindus, Hebrews, Mohammedans, Norsemen,
and the rest of the races memorized their thousands of
verses and hundreds of chapters of the sacred books of
their people. It is the method of the successful actor
and the popular elocutionist not to mention those speakers who
carefully commit to memory their impromptu addresses and extemporaneous speeches.
This natural system of memorizing is based upon the principle
which has already been alluded to in this book, and
by which every child learns its alphabet and its multiplication table,
as well as the little piece that it recites for
the entertainment of its fond parents and the bored friends
of the family. That principle consists of the learning of
one line at a time, and reviewing that line, then
learning a second line and reviewing that, and then reviewing
the two lines together, and so on, each edition being
reviewed in connection with those that went before. The child
that learns the sound of A, then it learns B,
then it associates the sound of A B in its
first review, the C is added, and the review runs A, B, C,
and so on until Z is reached and the child
is able to review the entire list from A to
Z inclusive. The multiplication table begins with it twice one
is two, then twice two is four, and so on,
a little at a time until the twos are finished
and the threes begun. This process is kept up by
constant addition and constant review until twelve twelves finishes up
the list and the child is able to repeat the
tables from first to last from memory. But there is
more to it in the case of the child than
merely learning to repeat the alphabet or the multiplication table.
There is also the strengthening of the memory as a
result of its exercise and use. Memory, like every faculty
of the mind or every muscle of the body, improves
and develops by intelligent and reasonable use and exercise. Not
only does this exercise and use develop the memory along
the particular line of the faculty used, but also along
every line and faculty. This is so because the exercise
develops the power of concentration and the use of the
voluntary attention. We suggest that the student who wishes to
acquire a good memory for words, sentences, et cetera, begin
at once selecting some favorite poem for the purpose of
the demonstration. Then let him memorize one verse of not
only four to six lines to begin with. Let him
learn this verse perfectly, line by line, until he is
able to repeat it without a mistake. Let him be
sure to be letter perfect in that verse, so perfect
that he will see even the capital letters and the
punctuation marks when he recites it. Then let him stop
for the day. The next day, let him repeat the
verse learned the day before, and then let him memorize
a second verse in the same way and just as perfectly.
Then let him review the first and second verses together.
This edition of the second verse to the first verse
serves to weld the two together by association, and each
review of them together serves to add a little bit
to the weld until they become joined in the mind
as our A, B. C. The third day, let him
learn a third verse in the same way, and then
review the three. Continue this for say a month, adding
new verse each day and adding to it the verses
preceding it, but constantly review them from beginning to end.
He cannot review them too often. He will be able
to have them flow along like the letters of the alphabet,
from A to Z. If he reviews properly and often enough.
Then if he can spare the time, let him begin
the second month by learning two verses each day and
adding to those that precede them with constant and faithful reviews.
He will find that he can memorize two verses in
the second month as easily as he did the one
verse in the first month. His memory has been trained
to this extent, and so he may proceed from month
to month adding an extra verse to his daily task
until he is unable to spare the time for all
the work, or until he feels satisfied with what he
has accomplished. Let him use moderation and not try to
become a phenomenon. Let him avoid overstraining. After he has
memorized the entire poem. Let him start with a new one,
but not forget to revive the old one at frequent intervals.
If he finds it impossible to add the necessary number
of new verses by reasons of other occupation, et cetera,
let him not fail to keep up his review work.
The exercise and review is more important than mere addition
of so many new verses. Let him vary the verses
or poems with prose selections. He will find the verses
of the Bible very well adapted for such exercise, as
they lend themselves easily to registration in the memory. Shakespeare
may be used to advantage in this work. The Rubayat
of Omar Khayam, or The Lady of the Lake by
Scott Or or the Song Celestial or Light of Asia,
both by Edwin Arnold, will be found to be well
adapted to this system of memorizing, the verses of each
being apt to stick in the memory, and each poem
being sufficiently long to satisfy the requirements of even the
most ambitious student. To look at the complete poem any
of those mentioned, it would seem almost impossible that one
would ever be able to memorize and recite it. From
beginning to end letter perfect. But on the principle of
the continual dripping of water wearing away the stone or
the snowball increasing at each roll. This practice of a
little being associated to what he already has will soon
allow him to accumulate a wonderfully large store of memorized verses, poems, recitations, etc.
It is an actual demonstration of the catchy words of
the popular song, which informs one that every little bit
added to what you've got makes just a little bit more.
After he has acquired quite a large assortment of memorized selections,
he will find it impossible to review them all at
one time, but he should be sure to review them
all at intervals, no matter how many days may elapse
between each review. The student who has familiarized himself with
the principles upon which memory depends, as given in the
preceding chapters, will at once see that the three principles
of attention, association, and repetition are employed in the natural method. Herein,
recommended attention must be given in order to memorize each verse.
In the first place, association is employed in the relationship
created between the old verses and the new ones, and
Repetition is employed by the frequent reviewing, which serves to
deepen the memory impression each time the poem is repeated. Moreover,
the principle of interest is invoked in the gradual progress
made and the accomplishment of what at first seemed to
be an impossible task. The game element is thus supplied,
which serves as an incentive. These combined principles render this
method an ideal one, and it is not to be
wondered that the race has so recognized it from the
earliest times.