Assimilative Memory

Part 1

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+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE | | | | In this plain text version, small capitals have been | | rendered as ALL CAPS, bold using =equals signs= and italics | | usually using underscores. However, the original used | | italics to highlight certain letters within words where | | these were intended to help with remembering numbers and | | dates according to the "Analytic substitution" memory | | method. For legibility, these have been rendered using | | {c}u{rl}y {br}ac{k}e{ts}. | | | | Some of the numbered lists were originally wrapped together | | as a paragraph; for legibility some of these have been | | changed to separate lines. This applies particularly to the | | lists of questions: these blocks were originally placed like | | footnotes at the bottom of pages, but here have been moved | | to an appropriate break in the main text. | | | | Some obvious printer errors have been corrected, full | | details of which can be found in the HTML version of this | | eBook. The inconsistent hyphenation of several words, and | | inconsistent use of -ise and -ize spellings, has been left | | as in the original. | | | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

(MARCUS DWIGHT LARROWE)]

ASSIMILATIVE MEMORY

HOW TO ATTEND AND NEVER FORGET

PROF. A. LOISETTE

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON 1899

COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY IDA M. LARROWE-LOISETTE

All Rights Reserved

ENTERED AT STATIONER'S HALL, 1896. All Rights Reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

PREFACE.

Prof. A. Loisette wishes to call the attention of those who are now for the first time becoming acquainted with his System of Memory Training, that he was the first teacher of a Memory System to announce and to insist that Memory is not a separate faculty whose office it is to carry the recollective burdens of the other faculties--but that Memory is a Physiological and Psychological property of each mental act, and that such act retains the traces and history of its own action, and that there are as many memories as there are kinds of mental action, and that, therefore, Memory is always concrete, although, for convenience sake, we do speak of it in the abstract, and that consequently all Memory improvement means improvement of the Action or Manner of action of the Mental powers, and that what he imparts is the right way to USE the Intellect and Attention--and that hence his System does make and must make better observers, clearer and more consecutive thinkers, and sounder reasoners as well as surer rememberers; that in short the fundamental principle of his System is Learn by Thinking, and that his achievements as a mind-trainer are completed when he has helped the student of his System to acquire the Habit of Attention and the Habit of Thinking on that to which he is attending on all occasions, which two Habits combined constitute the Habit of Assimilation, and that when this Habit of Assimilation is thus established in the pupil's mind, the System as such is no longer consciously used.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

1--FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF ASSIMILATIVE MEMORY. 1

2--BRAIN TONIC; or, The stimulating Power of the Method. 6

3--Educating the Intellect to stay with the senses of Sight and Hearing; or, Cure of Mind Wandering. 15

4--Learning any Series of Proper Names--American Presidents. 25

5--The Unique Case of the English Sovereigns--How to learn their Succession quickly. 31

6--NUMERIC THINKING; or, Learning the longest sets of figures almost instantly. 38

7--DECOMPOSITION OR RECOMPOSITION, AND INTELLECTUAL INQUISITION; or, How to learn Prose and Poetry by heart, with numerous examples, including Poe's Bells. 47

8--ANALYTIC SUBSTITUTIONS; or, A Quick Training in Dates, etc., Dates of the Accession of American Presidents and of the English Kings, Specific Gravities, Rivers, Mountains, Latitudes and Longitudes, etc. 66

9--THOUGHTIVE UNIFICATIONS; or, How to never forget Proper Names, Series of Facts, Faces, Errands, Conversations, Speeches or Lectures, Languages, Foreign Vocabularies, Music, Mathematics, etc., Speaking without notes, Anatomy, and all other Memory wants. 109

10--ACME OF ACQUISITION; or, Learning unconnected facts, rules and principles in the Arts, Sciences, Histories, etc., etc., chapters in books, or books themselves, in one reading or study. 149

11--Learning one hundred facts in the Victorian Era, with dates of year, month, and day of each in one thoughtive perusal. 159

ASSIMILATIVE MEMORY.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.

Part 2

What is the basic principle of my system? It is, Learn by Thinking. What is Attention? It is the will directing the activity of the intellect into some particular channel and keeping it there. It is the opposite of mind-wandering. What is thinking? It consists in finding relations between the objects of thought with an immediate awareness of those relations.

What is the Sensuous memory? It is association through the eye or ear of a succession of sights or sounds without any reflection or consideration of the units of the succession, or what they stand for, or represent. It is learning by rote--mere repetition--mere brainless or thoughtless repetition--a mode of learning that is not lasting--and always causes or promotes mind-wandering.

What is Assimilative memory? It is the habit of so receiving and absorbing impressions or ideas that they or their representatives shall be ready for revival or recall whenever wanted. It is learning through relations--by thinking--from grasping the ideas or thoughts--the meaning and the comprehension of the subject matter. This mode of learning promotes attention and prevents mind-wandering.

What are the two stages of the Memory? Let me illustrate: Last week, month, or year you saw a military procession pass along the streets. Note how your mind was affected. Into your eyes went impressions as to the number composing the procession, their style of costume or dress, the orderliness or otherwise of their march, the shape and form of the musical instruments in the hands of the band, and the appearance of the officer in charge on horseback. Into your ears went impressions of the sound of the tramp and tread of the soldiers, the tune played by the band, and any commands uttered by the officer. These impressions commingling in your brain made up your experience of the passing of the procession--your first and only experience of it at that time. I call this the First Stage of the Memory--the stage of the First Impression, which is always the precursor of the Second Stage.

What is the Second Stage of the Memory? This moment you recall what? Not the procession itself; for it is no longer in existence. You saw and heard it then, but you do not see or hear it now. You only recall the impression left upon your mind by the procession. A ray of Consciousness is passed over that impression and you re-read it, you re-awaken the record. This is the Second Stage of the Memory--the revival of the previous experience--the recall to consciousness of the First Impression. The First Impression with no power to revive it afterward, gives no memory. However great the power of Revival, there is no memory unless there was a First Impression. There are three conditions of memory--(1) Impression. (2) Its Preservation. (3) Its Revival. We are mainly concerned here with the Impression and its Revival.

There are (five) kinds of memories rising from the natural aptitudes of different individuals--(1) First Impressions are apt to be feeble and the power to revive them weak--a poor memory. (2) First Impressions are usually weak but the power to revive them is strong--still a poor memory. (3) First Impressions are usually vivid but the power to revive them is weak--a poor memory. (4) First Impressions on all subjects are strong and the power to revive them is strong--a first-class memory. (5) First Impressions in some particulars are very strong and the reviving power in regard to them is very strong--a good memory for these particulars, or a memory good for mathematics, or music, or faces, or reciting, or languages, &c., but usually weak in most other respects.

SINCE WE ARE TO LEARN BY THINKING WE MUST AT THE OUTSET LEARN THE DEFINITION OF THE THREE LAWS OF THINKING.

THREE LAWS OF MEMORY OR OF THINKING.

The first and principal thing the pupil requires to do in this lesson after learning the definition of the following Three Laws--is to be able to clearly understand the examples under each Law, and whether they verify or illustrate that Law.

I. INCLUSION indicates that there is an overlapping of meaning between two words, or that there is a prominent idea or sound that belongs to both alike, or that a similar fact or property belongs to two events or things as, to enumerate a few classes:--

WHOLE AND PART.--(Earth, Poles.) (Ship, Rudder.) (Forest, Trees.) (Air, Oxygen.) (House, Parlor.) (Clock, Pendulum.) (Knife, Blade.) (India, Punjab.) (14, 7.) (24, 12.)

GENUS AND SPECIES.--(Animal, Man.) (Plant, Thyme.) (Fish, Salmon.) (Tree, Oak.) (Game, Pheasant.) (Dog, Retriever.) (Universal Evolution, Natural Selection.) (Silver Lining, Relief of Lucknow.) (Empress Queen, Victoria.) (Money, Cash.)

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