MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING BY ERNEST E. WOOD FORMER PRINCIPAL OF THE D. G.

SIND NA
TIONAL COLLEGE, HYDERABAD, SIND THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE, LTD., 68 Grea
t Russell Street, W.C.1 ADYAR - MADRAS - INDIA WHEATON - ILL. - U.S.A.

First Edition Second Edition Reprinted . Revised Reprint Reprinted . Reprinted .

Reprinted . . . . . . . . 1936 1939 1945 1947 1956 1961 1974 7229 5126 4 PRINTE
D IN GREAT BRITAIN BY FLETCHER AND SON LTD, NORWICH

CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE V SECTION I THE MIND AND ITS MANAGEMENT CHAP. I. THE MAGIC
BOX II. THE ROADS O F THOUGHT III. CONCENTRATION OF MIND . . IV. AI DS TO CONCE
NTRATION . . . . . . . . . 3 6 .11 16 SECTION II IMAGINATION AND ITS USES V. VI.
VII. VIII. IX. X. MENTAL IMAGES FAMILIARIZATION FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS FAMILI
ARIZATION OF WORDS . . . . . . . . . . 23 29 - 3 9 - 5 0 - 5 7 65 PROJECTION OF
THE MEMORY . SIMPLIFICATION AND SYMBOLIZATION SECTION III THE ART OF THINKING XI
. MODES OF COMPARISON XII. A LOGICAL SERIES. XIV. . . . . . . . . . . . XIII. FO
OTSTEPS OF THOUGHT. THE POWER OF A MOOD . XV. EXPANSION OF IDEAS 73 8l 89 94 1 0
0

viii CONTENTS SECTION IV A BAG OF TRICKS PAGE XVI. NUMBER ARGUMENTS A N D DIAGRA
MS XVII. NUMBER-WORDS XVIII. PLACING THE MEMOR Y . . . . X I X . MEMORY-MEN OF I
NDIA . . . 105 111 120 128 SECTION V THE MIND AT WORK XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. READ
ING AND STUDY WRITING AND SPEECH-MAKING MORE CONCENTRA TION MEDITATION . . 137 .
148 151 158 SECTION VI SOME PARTING ADVICE XXIV. USES OF THE WILL XXV. BODILY A
IDS INDEX 171 l80 187

MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING CHAPTER I THE MAGIC BOX IMAGINE yourself to be standing
with a party of friends in some Or iental market-place, or in a palace garden.
Enter, a conjurer with a magic box. The strange man spreads a square of cloth up
on the ground, then reverently place s upon it a coloured box of basket-work, pe
rhaps eight inches square. He gazes a t it steadily, mutters a little, removes t
he lid, and takes out of it, one by on e, with exquisite care, nine more boxes,
which seem to be of the same size as th e original one, but are of different col
ours. You think that the trick is now fi nished. But no; he opens one of the new
boxes and takes out nine more; he opens the other eight and takes nine more out
of eachall with Oriental deliberation. An d still he has not done; he begins to
open up what we may call the third generat ion of boxes, until before long the g
round is strewn with piles of them as far a s he can reach. The nine boxes of th
e first generation and the eighty-one boxes of the second generation have disapp
eared from sight beneath the heaps. You begi n to think that this conjurer is pe
rhaps able to go on for ever and then you call a halt, and open your purse right
liberally. I am taking this imaginary conjuri ng entertainment as a simile to sh
ow what happens in our own minds. Something in us which is able to observe what
goes on in the mind is the spectator. The fiel d of imagination in the mind itse
lf may be compared to the spread cloth. Each id ea that rises in the 3

4 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING mind is like a magic box. Something else in us which
is able to direct the ideas in the mind is the conjurer. Really the spectator an
d the conjurer are one "som ething" which we are, but I will not now attempt to
define that something becaus e our present object is not to penetrate the deep m
ysteries of psychology, but t o see what we can do to make ourselves better conj
urers, able to produce our box es quickly more boxes, better boxes, boxes which a
re exactly of the kind needed f or the business of thinking which at any given t
ime we may wish to do. Although all minds work under the same laws, they do so i
n different degrees of power and plenty. Some work quickly, others slowly; some
have much to offer, others littl e. Several students may be called upon to write
an essay on the subject of cats. Some of them will find their thoughts coming p
lentifully forward from the reces ses of the mind, while others will sit chewing
the ends of their pens for a long time before their thoughts begin to flow. Som
e minds are brighter than others, and you want yours to be bright and strong. Yo
u want to think of many ideas and to think them well. You want to think all roun
d any subject of your consideratio n, not only on one side of it, as prejudiced
or timid thinkers do. While you are making the mind bright, however, care must b
e taken to avoid the danger that be sets brilliant minds everywhere. The quick t
hinker who is about to write upon so me social subject, such as that of prison r
eform or education, will find thought s rapidly rising in his mind, and very oft
en he will be carried away by some of the first that come, and he will follow th
em up and write brilliantly along the lines of thought to which they lead. But p
robably he will miss something of grea t importance to the understanding of the
matter, because he has left the central subject of thought before he has conside
red it from every point of view. As an example of this, a chess player, captivat
ed by some

THE MAGIC BOX 5 daring plan of his own, will sometimes forget to look to his def
ences, and will find himself the subject of sudden disaster. Sometimes a duller
mind, or at any rate a slower one, will be more balanced and will at last come n
earer to the tru th. So, while you do want a quick mind, not one that is hard to
warm up like a c heap motor-car engine on a cold winter's morning, you do not w
ant one that will start with a leap and run away with you, but one that will dwe
ll long enough on a chosen subject to see it from every point of view, before it
begins the varied explorations of thought in connexion with it that it should m
ake upon different lines. If I follow up the analogy of an engine, we require th
ree things for the good working of our mental machinery cleaning, lubrication, an
d control.

CHAPTER II THE ROADS OF THOUGHT Control of the subject-matter and the direction
of movement of our thought is of ten called concentration. Let us try a prelimin
ary experiment to see exactly wha t this means. Sit down in some quiet place by
yourself, and set before the mind an idea of some common object. Watch it carefu
lly and you will soon find that it contains many other ideas, which can be taken
out and made to stand around itor perhaps you will find that they leap out incon
tinently and begin to play about. Let us suppose that I think of a silver coin.
What do I find on looking into thi s box? I see an Indian rupee, a British shill
ing, an American "quarter." I see c oins round and square, fluted and filleted,
small and large, thick and thin. I s ee a silver mine in Bolivia and a shop in S
hanghai where I changed some silver d ollars. I see the mint in Bombay (which I
once visited) where coins of India are made; I see the strips of metal going thr
ough the machines, the discs punched o ut, the holes remaining. Enough, I must c
all a halt, lest this fascinating conju rer go on for ever. That he could not do
, however, but if I permit him he will o pen many thousands of boxes before he e
xhausts his powers. He will soon come to the end of the possibilities of the fir
st box, but then he can open the others w hich he has taken from it. It is the p
eculiarity to some mindsof the wandering an d unsteady kindto open another box bef
ore they have taken everything out of the f irst. That is not concentration, but
mind-wandering. Concentration on an idea me ans that you will completely empty
one box before you turn away from 6

THE ROADS OF THOUGHT 7 it to open another. The value of such practice is that it
brightens up the mind and makes it bring forth ideas on a chosen subject quickl
y and in abundance. The re is a reason why a given box should become exhausted.
It is that the ideas whi ch come out of it do not do so at random but according
to definite laws; they ar e chained to it, as it were, and only certain kinds ca
n come out of a certain ki nd of box. Suppose, for example, someone mentions the
word "elephant" in your he aring. You may think of particular parts of the anim
al, such as its large ears o r its peculiar trunk. You may think of its intellig
ence and its philosophical te mperament, or of particular elephants that you hav
e seen or read about. You may think of similar animals, such as the hippopotamus
or the rhinoceros, or of the countries from which elephants come. But there are
certain things you are not li kely to think of, such as a house-fly, or a paper
knife, or a motor-boat. There a re certain definite laws which hold ideas togeth
er in the mind, just as gravitat ion, magnetism, cohesion and similar laws hold
together material objects in the physical world. For the purpose of this prelim
nary experiment I will give a lis t of the four main Roads of Thought. Notice, f
irst, that among your thoughts abo ut an elephant there will be images of things
that resemble it very closely, tha t is, of other animals, such as a cow, a hor
se, or a camel. The first law, of at traction between ideas is to be seen in thi
s. "Ideas of similar things cling clo sely together, and easily suggest one anot
her. We will call this first principle the law of Class. It includes the relatio
ns between an object and the class to which it belongs, and also that between ob
jects of the same class. The second is the law of Parts. When you think of an el
ephant you will probably form special mental pictures of

8 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING its trunk, or ears, or feet, or when you think of its
ears you may also think of other parts of it, such as the eyes. The third law m
ay be called Quality. It ex presses the relation between an object and its quali
ty, and also between objects having the same quality. Thus one may think of the
cat as an artist, of the moo n as spherical, etc., or if one thinks of the moon,
one may also think of a larg e silver coin, because they have the quality of wh
ite, disc-like appearance in c ommon. The fourth law involves no such observatio
n of the resemblances and diffe rences of things, or an object and the class to
which it belongs, or a whole and its parts, or an object and its prominent quali
ties. It is concerned with strik ing and familiar experiences of our own, and ha
s more to do with imagination tha n logical observation. If 1 have seen or thoug
ht of two things strongly or frequ ently together, the force of their joint impa
ct on my consciousness will tend to give them permanent association in my mind.
I therefore entitle the fourth prin ciple the law of Proximity. " Thus, for exam
ple, if I think of a pen I shall probably think also of an inkpot, not of a tin
of axle-grease. If I think of a bed I shall think of sleep, not of dancing. If I
think of Brazil, I shall think of coffee and the marvellous river Amazon, not o
f rice and the Himalaya mountains. Each one of us has an independe nt fund of ex
perience made up of memories of such relationships seen, or heard o f, or though
t about, either vividly or repeatedly. Within this law comes also fa miliar sequ
ence, or contiguous succession, often popularly called cause and effe ct, as in
exercise and health, over-eating and indigestion, war and poverty. It is proximi
ty in time. In connexion with Road I, I must mention a case which is o ften misu
nderstoodnamely contrast. If two things contrast they must belong to the same cla
ss. You cannot

THE ROADS OF THOUGHT 9 contrast a cow with blotting paper, or a walking stick wi
th the square root of t wo. But you can contrast an elephant and a mouse, blotti
ng paper and glazed pape r, the sun and the moon, and other such pairs. So contr
asts belong to Road I. Th e four Roads of Thought mentioned above are given in a
general way for our prese nt purpose. For greater precision of statement the fo
ur laws must be subdivided; I will do this in a later chapter. I wish the studen
t particularly to notice th at some ideas arise through the mind's capacity for
comparison, that is through a logical faculty, while others arise simply in imag
ination, without any reason other than that they have been impressed upon it at
some previous time. Comparis on covers the first three laws, imagination the fou
rth only. To convince the stu dent that these mental bonds between ideas really
exist, let me ask him to try a nother small preliminary experiment, this time no
t upon his own mind, but upon t hat of a friend. Repeat to your friend two or th
ree times slowly the following l ist of sixteen words. Ask him to pay particular
attention to them, in order Moon, dairy, head, paper, roof, milk, fame, eyes, wh
ite, reading, shed, glory, cat, t op, sun, book. You will find that he is not ab
le to repeat them to you from memo ry. Then take the following series and read t
hem to him equally carefully. Cat, milk, dairy, shed, roof, top, head, eyes, rea
ding, book, paper, white, moon, sun , glory, fame. Now ask your friend to repeat
the list, and you will find that he has a most agreeable feeling of surprise at
the ease with which he can perform this little feat. Now the question is: why i
n the first place was he not able to recall the series of ideas, while in the se
cond case he could easily remember t hem, the words being exactly the same in

10 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING both the sets ? The reason is that in the second ser
ies the ideas are in rationa l order, that is, each idea is connected with that
which preceded it by one of t he four Roads of Thought which I have mentioned. I
n the first series they were n ot so connected. I must remark that the deliberat
e use of these Roads of Thought involves nothing forced or unnatural. It is usua
l for our attention to go along them, as I have already indicated. For instance,
I knew a lady in New York name d Mrs. Welton. One day when I was thinking of he
r, I found myself humming the tu ne of "Annie Laurie." Somewhat surprised, I ask
ed myself why, and brought to lig ht the first line of the song, which goes: "Ma
xwellton's braes are bonny. . . ."

CHAPTER III CONCENTRATION OF MIND years ago I invented another simple experiment
to help some of my students to ga in that control of mind which is called conce
ntration. This has proved itself, I think, to be the very best means to that end
. Let me ask the reader or student now to try this experiment for himself in the
following form Select a quiet place , where you can be undisturbed for about fif
teen minutes. Sit down quietly and t urn your thought to some simple and agreeab
le subject, such as a coin, a cup of tea, or a flower. Try to keep this object b
efore the mind's eye. After a few min utes, if not sooner, you will, as it were,
suddenly awake to the realization tha t you are thinking about something quite
different. The reasons for this are two : the mind is restless, and it responds
very readily to every slight disturbance from outside or in the body, so that it
leaves the subject of concentration and gives its attention to something else.
Now, the way which is usually recommende d for the gaining of greater concentrat
ion of mind, so that one can keep one's a ttention on one thing for a considerab
le time, is to sit down and repeatedly for ce the mind back to the original subj
ect whenever it wanders away. That is not, however, the best way to attain conce
ntration, but is, in fact, harmful rather t han beneficial to the mind. The prop
er way is to decide upon the thing on which your attention is to be fixed, and t
hen think about everything else you can with out actually losing sight of it. Th
is will form a habit of recall in the mind it self, so that its tendency will be
to return to the chosen object whenever it is for a moment diverted. MANY

12 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING Still, it will be best of all if, in trying to think
of other things while you k eep the chosen object in the centre of your field o
f attention, you do so with t he help of the four Roads of Thought, in the follo
wing manner Suppose you decide to concentrate upon a cow. You must think of every
thing else that you can withou t losing sight of the cow. That is, you must thin
k of everything that you can th at is connected with the idea of a cow by any of
the four lines of thought which have been already explained. So, close your eye
s and imagine a cow, and say: "L aw I Class," and think: "A cow is an animal, a q
uadruped, a mammal"there may be ot her classes as well"and other members of its cl
asses are sheep, horse, dog, cat " and so on, until you have brought out all the
thoughts you can from within your own mind in this connexion. Do not be satisfie
d until you have brought out every possible thought. We know things by comparing
them with others, by noting, howe ver briefly, their resemblances and differenc
es. When we define a thing we menti on its class, and then the characters in whi
ch it differs from other members of the same class. Thus a chair is a table with
a difference, and a table is a chai r with a difference; both are articles of f
urniture; both are supports. The more things we compare a given object with in t
his way the better we know it; so, wh en you have worked through this exercise w
ith the first law and looked at all th e other creatures for a moment each witho
ut losing sight of the cow, you have ma de brief comparisons which have improved
your observation of the cow. You will t hen know what a cow is as you never did
before. Then go on to the second Road of Thoughtthat of Partsand think distinctly
of the parts of the cowits eyes, nose, ea rs, knees, hoofs, and the rest, and it
s inner parts as well if you are at all ac quainted with animal anatomy and phys
iology.

CONCENTRATION OF MIND 13 Thirdly comes the law of Quality. You think of the phys
ical qualities of the cowi ts size, weight, colour, form, motion, habitsand also o
f its mental and emotional qualities, as far as those can be discerned. And you
think of other objects hav ing the same prominent qualities. Lastly comes the fo
urth division, that of Prox imity, in which you will review "Cows I have known,"
experiences you have had wi th cows which may have impressed themselves particu
larly on your imagination. In this class also will come things commonly connecte
d with cows, such as milk, bu tter, cheese, farms, meadows, and even knife handl
es made of horn and bone, and shoes made of leather. Then you will have brought
forth every thought of which y ou are capable which is directly connected in you
r own mind with the idea of a c ow. And this should not have been done in any ca
reless or desultory fashion; you should be able to feel at the end of the exerci
se that you have thoroughly sear ched for every possible idea on each line, whil
e all the time the cow stood ther e and attention was not taken away from it. A
hundred times the mind will have b een tempted to follow up some interesting tho
ught with reference to the ideas wh ich you have been bringing out, but every ti
me it has been turned back to the ce ntral object, the cow. If this practice is
thoroughly carried out it produces a habit of recall which replaces the old habi
t of wandering, so that it becomes th e inclination of the mind to return to the
central thought, and you acquire the power to keep your attention upon one thin
g for a long time. You will soon find that this practice has not only given you
power of concentration, but has brough t benefit to the mind in a variety of oth
er ways as well. You will have trained it to some extent in correct and consecut
ive thinking, and in observation, and y ou will have organized some

14 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING of that accumulation of knowledge which perhaps you
have for years been pitching pell-mell into the mind, as most people do. This ex
ercise, practised for a litt le time every day for a few weeks, exactly accordin
g to instructions, will tidy or clean up the mind, and also lubricate it, so as
to make it far brighter than it was before, and give it strength and quality evi
dent not only at the time of exercise, but at all times, whatever may be the bus
iness of thought on which you are engaged during the day. One of the most fruitf
ul results will be found in t he development of keen observation. Most people's
ideas about anything are excee dingly imperfect. In their mental pictures of thi
ngs some points are clear, othe rs are vague, and others lacking altogether, to
such an extent that sometimes a fragment of a thing stands in the mind as a kind
of symbol for the whole. A gent leman was once asked about a lady whom he had k
nown very well for many years. Th e question was as to whether her hair was fair
or dark, and he could not say. In thinking of her his mind had pictured certain
parts only, or certain part vague ly and others clearly. Perhaps he knew the sh
ape of her nose, her general build and the carriage of her body; but his mental
picture certainly had no colour in the hair. The same truth may be brought out b
y the familiar question about the f igures on the dial of your friend's watch, o
r about the shape and colour of its hands. One day I tested a friend with this q
uestion: "Can you tell me whether th e numerals on your watch are the old-fashio
ned Roman ones which are so much used , or the common or Arabic numerals which h
ave come into vogue more recently ?" " Why!" he replied, without hesitation. "Th
ey are the Roman numerals, of course." Then he took out his watch, not to confir
m his statement, but just in an automat ic sort of way, as people do when

CONCENTRATION OF MIND 15 thinking of such a thing, and as he glanced at it a loo

k of astonishment spread over his face. "By Jove," he exclaimed, "they are the A
rabic figures. And do you know, I have been using this watch for seven years, an
d I have never noticed th at before !" He thought he knew his watch, but he was
thinking of part of it, an d the part was standing in his mind for the whole. Th
en I put another question t o him: "I suppose you know how to walk, and how to r
un ?" "Yes," said he, "I cer tainly do." "And you can imagine yourself doing tho
se things ?" "Yes." "Well, th en," said I, "please tell me what is the differenc
e between running and walking. " He puzzled over this question for a long time,
for he saw that it was not mere ly a difference of speed. He walked up and down
the room, and then ran round it, observing himself closely. At last he sat down,
laughing, and said: " I have it . When you walk you always have at least one fo
ot on the ground, but when you ru n both feet are in the air at the same time."
His answer was right, but he had n ever known it before. Life is full of inaccur
acies due to defective observation, like that of the schoolboy who, confronted w
ith a question about the Vatican, w rote: "The Vatican is a place with no air in
it, where the Pope lives."

CHAPTER IV AIDS TO CONCENTRATION LET me now give some hints which will make a gr
eat improvement in the practice o f concentration. Many people fail in concentra
tion because they make the mistake of trying to grasp the mental image firmly. D
o not do that. Place the chosen id ea before your attention and look at it calml
y, as you would look at your watch to see the time. Such gentle looking reveals
the details of a thing quite as wel l as any intense effort could possibly doperh
aps even better. Try it now, for fiv e minutes, for when once you have realized
how to look a thing over and see it c ompletelyin whole and in part, without star
ing, peering, frowning, holding the br eath, clenching the fists, or any such ac
tion, you can apply your power to the m ental practice of concentration. Pick up
any common objecta watch, a pen, a book, a leaf, a fruit, and look at it calmly
for five minutes. Observe every detail t hat you can about it, as to the colour,
weight, size, texture, form, composition , construction, ornamentation, and the
rest, without any tension whatever. Atten tion without tension is what you want
. After you have felt how to do this, you w ill understand how concentration can
be carried on in perfect quietude. If you w anted to hold out a small object at
arm's length for as long a time as possible, you would hold it with a minimum o
f energy, letting it rest in the hand, not gr ipping it tightly. Do not imagine
that the idea that you have chosen for your co ncentration has some life and wil
l of its own, and that it wants to jump about o r to run away from you. It is no
t the object that is fickle, but the mind. Trust the object to remain where you
have put it, before the mind's eye, and 16

AIDS TO CONCENTRATION 17 keep your attention poised upon it. No grasping is nece
ssary; indeed, that tends to destroy the concentration. People usually employ th
eir mental energy only in the service of the body, and in thinking in connexion
with it. They find that t he mental flow is unobstructed and that thinking is ea
sy when there is a physica l object to hold the attention, as, for example, in r
eading a book. Argumentatio n is easy when each step is fixed in print or writin
g, or the thought is stimula ted by conversation. Similarly, a game of chess is
easy to play when we see the board; but to play it blindfold is a more difficult
matter. The habit of thinkin g only in association with bodily activity and sti
mulus is generally so great th at a special effort of thought is usually accompa
nied by wrinkling of the brows, tightening of the lips, and various muscular, ne
rvous and functional disorders. The dyspepsia of scientific men and philosophers
is almost proverbial. A child when learning anything displays the most astonish
ing contortions. When trying to write it often follows the movements of its hand
s with its tongue, grasps its p encil very tightly, twists its feet round the le
gs of its chair, and so makes it self tired in a very short time. All such thing
s must be stopped in the practice of concentration. A high degree of mental effo
rt is positively injurious to the body unless this stoppage is at least partiall
y accomplished. Muscular and nerv ous tension have nothing to do with concentrat
ion, and success in the exercise i s not to be measured by any bodily sensation
or feeling whatever. Some people th ink that they are concentrating when they fe
el a tightness between and behind th e eyebrows; but they are only producing hea
daches and other troubles for themsel ves by encouraging the feeling. It is almo
st a proverb in India that the sage or great thinker has a smooth brow. To screw
the face out of shape, and cover the forehead with lines, is usually a sign tha
t the man is

l8 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING trying to think beyond his strength, or when he is n
ot accustomed to it. Attenti on without tension is what is required. Concentrati
on must be practised always w ithout the slightest strain. Control of mind is no
t brought about by fervid effo rt of any kind, any more than a handful of water
can be held by a violent grasp, but it is brought about by constant, quiet, calm
practice and avoidance of all agitation and excitement. Constant, quiet, calm p
ractice means regular periodica l practice continued for sufficient time to be e
ffective. The results of this pr actice are cumulative. Little appears at the be
ginning, but much later on. The t ime given at any one sitting need not be great
, for the quality of the work is m ore important than the quantity. Little and f
requently is better than much and r arely. The sittings may be once or twice a d
ay, or even three times if they are short. Once, done well, will bring about rap
id progress; three times, done indif ferently, will not. Sometimes the people wh
o have the most time to spare succeed the least, because they feel that they hav
e plenty of time and therefore they a re not compelled to do their very best imm
ediately; but the man who has only a s hort time available for his practice feel
s the need of doing it to perfection. T he exercise should be done at least once
every day, and always before relaxation and pleasure, not afterwards. It should
be done as early in the day as is pract icable, not postponed until easier and
more pleasurable duties have been fulfill ed. Some strictness of rule is necessa
ry, and this is best imposed by ourselves upon ourselves. Confidence in oneself
is also a great help to success in concent ration, especially when it is allied
to some knowledge of the way in which thoug hts work, and of the fact that they
often exist even when they are out of sight. Just as the working of the hands an
d feet and eyes, and every other part of the physical body, depends upon inner o
rgans of the body

AIDS TO CONCENTRATION 19 upon whose functioning we may completely rely, so do al

l the activities of thoug ht that are visible to our consciousness depend upon u
nseen mental workings whic h are utterly dependable. Every part of the mind's ac
tivity is improved by confi dence. A good memory, for example, rests almost enti
rely upon it; the least unce rtainty can shake it very much indeed. I remember a
s a small boy having been sen t by my mother, on some emergency occasion, to pur
chase some little thing from a small country grocery about half a mile away from
our house. She gave me a coin and told me the name of the article which she wan
ted. I had no confidence in th e tailor's art, and certainly would not trust tha
t coin to my pocket. I could no t believe, in such an important matter, that the
object would still be in the po cket at the end of the journey, so I held the c
oin very tightly in my hand so as to feel it all the time. 1 also went along the
road repeating the name of the a rticle, feeling that if it slipped out of my c
onsciousness for a moment it would be entirely lost. I had less confidence in th
e pockets of my mind than the litt le which I had in those made by my tailor. Ye
t despite my efforts, or more proba bly on account of them, on entering the litt
le shop and seeing the big shopman l ooming up above me in a great mass, I did h
ave a paralytic moment in which I cou ld not remember what it was that I had to
get. This is not an uncommon thing, ev en among adults. I have known many studen
ts who seriously jeopardized their succ ess in examinations by exactly the same
sort of anxiety. But if one wants to rem ember it is best to make the fact or id
ea quite clear mentally, then look at it with calm concentration for a few secon
ds, and then let it sink out of sight int o the depths of the mind, without fear
of losing it. You may then be quite sure that you can recall it with perfect ea
se when you wish to do so. This confidence , together with the method of calm lo
oking,

20 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING will bring about a mood of concentration which can b
e likened to that which you gain when you learn to swim. It may be that one has
entered the water many times , that one has grasped it fiercely with the hands a
nd sometimes also with the mo uth, only to sink again and again; but there comes
an unexpected moment when you suddenly find yourself at home in the water. Then
ceforward, whenever you are ab out to enter the water you almost unconsciously p
ut on a kind of mood for swimmi ng, and that acts upon the body so as to give it
the right poise and whatever el se may be required for swimming and floating. S
o in the matter of concentration a day will come, if it has not already done so,
when you will find that you have acquired the mood of it, and after that you ca
n dwell on a chosen object of tho ught for as long as you please.

NOTES

CHAPTER V MENTAL IMAGES is that operation of the mind which makes mental images
or pictures. Sometimes t hese are called also "thoughts," or again, "ideas." But
thought is, properly und erstood, a process, that is, a movement of the mind. T
hought is dynamic, but a t hought or idea is static, like a picture. In order th
at the process of thinking may take place, there must be thoughts or ideas or me
ntal images for it to work with, and it is at its best when these are clear and
strong. So we take up as th e second part of our study the means by which our im
agination may be improved. W e are all apt to live in a colourless mental world,
in which we allow words to r eplace ideas. This must be remedied if our minds a
re to work really well and giv e us a colourful existence. But first let us exam
ine our thinking. In it our att ention moves on from one thought to anotheror rat
her from one group of thoughts t o another group of thoughts, since most of our
images are complex. The dynamic t hinking makes use of the static thoughts, just
as in walking there are spots of firm ground on which the feet alternately come
to rest. You cannot walk in mid-a ir. In both cases the dynamic needs the stati
c. In walking you put a foot down a nd rest it on the ground. Then you swing you
r body along, with that foot as a po int of application for the forces of the bo
dy against the earth. At the end of t he movement you bring down the other foot
to a new spot on the ground. In the ne xt movement you relieve the first foot an
d poise the body on the other as a new pivot, and so on. Thus transition and poi
se" alternate in walking, and they do t he same in thought. Suppose I think: "Th
e cat chases the mouse, and the IMAGINATION 23

24 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING mouse is fond of cheese, and cheese is obtained from
the dairy, and the dairy st ands among the trees." There is no connexion betwee
n the cat and the trees, but I have moved in thought from the cat to the trees b
y the stepping stones of mous e, cheese and dairy. Now that we see clearly the d
istinction between ideas and t hinking, let us turn, in this second part of our
study, to the business of devel oping the power of imagination. We shall begin o
ur course by a series of exercis es intended to train the mind to form, with eas
e and rapidity, full and vivid me ntal pictures, or idea-images. When a concrete
object is known, it is reproduced within the mind, which is the instrument of k
nowledge; and the more nearly the image approximates to the object, the truer is
the knowledge that it presents. I n practice, such an image is generally rather
vague and often somewhat distorted . For our purpose we will divide idea-images
into four varieties; simple concret e, complex concrete, simple abstract, and c
omplex abstract. Simple concrete idea s are mental reproductions of the ordinary
small objects of life, such as an ora nge, a pen, a cow, a book, a hat, a chair
, and all the simple sensations of soun d, form, colour, weight, temperature, ta
ste, smell, and feeling. Complex concret e ideas are largely multiples of simple
ones, or associations of a variety of th em such as a town, a family, a garden,
ants, sand, provisions, furniture, clothi ng, Australasia. Simple abstract idea
s are those which belong to a variety of co ncrete ideas, but do not denote any
one of them in particular, such as colour, w eight, mass, temperature, health, p
osition, magnitude, number. Complex abstract ideas are combinations of simple on
es, such as majesty, splendour, benevolence, fate. The difference between simple
and complex ideas is one of degree, not of k ind. What is simple to one person
may

MENTAL IMAGES 25 appear complex to another. A man with a strong imagination is a

ble to grip a com plex idea as easily as another may hold a simpler one. A good
exercise in this c onnexion is to practise reproducing simple concrete objects i
n the mind. This sh ould be done with each sense in turn. If a student has been
observing flowers, f or example, he should practise until he can, in imagination
, seem to see and sme ll a flower with his eyes closed and the object absent, or
at least until he has an idea of the flower sufficiently real and complete to c
arry with it the consc iousness of its odour as well as its colour and form. He
may close his eyes, fix his attention on the olfactory organ, and reproduce the
odour of the flower by an effort of will. Simply to name an object and remember
it by its name does not develop the faculty of imagination. I will now give a fe
w specific exercises al ong these lines EXERCISE 1. Obtain a number of prints or
drawings of simple geome trical figures. Take one of thesesay a fivepointed starlo
ok at it carefully, close the eyes, and imagine its form and size. When the imag
e is clear, proportionate and steady in the imagination, look at the drawing aga
in and note any differenc es between it and the original. Once more close the ey
es and make the image, and repeat the process until you are satisfied that you c
an imagine the form accura tely and strongly. Repeat the practice with other for
ms, gradually increasing in complexity. EXERCISE 2. Repeat the foregoing practic
e, but use simple objects, such as a coin, a key, or a pen. Try to imagine them
also from both sides at onc e. EXERCISE 3. Obtain a number of coloured surfaces;
the covers of books will do . Observe a colour attentively; then try to imagine
it. Repeat the process with different colours and shades. EXERCISE 4. Listen in
tently to a particular sound. Reproduce it within the mind. Repeat the experimen
t with

26 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING different sounds and notes, until you can call them
up faithfully in imagination . Try to hear them in your ears. EXERCISE 5. Touch
various objects, rough, smoot h, metallic, etc., with the hands, forehead, cheek
and other parts of the body. Observe the sensations carefully and reproduce the
m exactly. Repeat this with ho t and cold things, and also with the sensations o
f weight derived from objects h eld in the hands. EXERCISE 6. Close your eyes an
d imagine yourself to be in a sm all theatre, sitting in the auditorium and faci
ng the proscenium, which should b e like a room, barely furnished with perhaps a
clock and a picture on the wall, and a table in the centre. Now select some sim
ple and familiar object, such as a vase of flowers. Picture it in imagination as
standing on the table. Note parti cularly its size, shape, and colour. Then ima
gine that you are moving forward, w alking to the proscenium, mounting the steps
, approaching the table, feeling the surface of the vase, lifting it, smelling t
he flowers, listening to the ticking of the clock, etc. Get every possible sensa
tion out of the process, and try not to think in words, nor to name the things o
r the sensations. Each thing is a bu ndle of sensations, and imagination will en
able the mind to realize it as such. It may be necessary for some students at fi
rst to prompt their thought by words. In this case, questions about the objects
may be asked, in words, but should be answered in images. Each point should be d
ealt with deliberately, without hurry , but not lazily, and quite decisively. Th
e thought should not be lumpy ore but pure metal, clean-cut to shape. A table of
questions may be drawn up by the expe rimenter somewhat on the following plan:
As regards sight, what is the outline, form, shape, colour, size, quantity, posi
tion, and motion of the object ? As reg ards sound, is it soft or loud, high or
low in pitch, and what is its timbre? As regards feeling, is it rough, smooth, h
ard, soft, hot, cold, heavy,

MENTAL IMAGES 27 light? As regards taste and smell, is it salty, sweet, sour, pu
ngent, acid? And finally, among these qualities of the object, which are the mos
t prominent ? The value of the proscenium is that it enables you to get the obje
ct by itself, iso lated from many other things, and the simple pretext of steppi
ng into the prosce nium is a wonderful aid to the concentration necessary for su
ccessful imaginatio n. After this practice has been followed it will be found to
be an easy matter, when reading or thinking about things, or learning them, to
tick them off mental ly by definite images, or, in other words, to arrest the at
tention upon each thi ng in turn and only one at a time. If you are reading a st
ory, you should seem t o see the lady or gentleman emerge from the door, walk do
wn the steps, cross the pavement, enter the motor car, etc., as in a moving pict
ure. The process may se em to be a slow one when a description of it is read, bu
t it becomes quite rapid after a little practice. It will always help in the pra
ctice of concentration o r imagination if you take care to make your mental imag
es natural and to put the m in natural situations. Do not take an object such as
a statuette and imagine i t as poised in the air before you. In that position t
here will be a subconscious tendency for you to feel the necessity of holding it
in place. Rather imagine t hat it is standing on a table in front of you, and t
hat the table is in its natu ral position in the room (as in the experiment with
flowers in a vase on the tab le in the proscenium already mentioned). Launch yo
urself gently into your concen tration by first imagining all the portion of the
room which would be normally w ithin range of your vision in front of you; then
pay less attention to the outer most things and close in upon the table bearing
the statuette. Finally close in still more until only the little image on the t
able is left and you have forgott en the rest of the room. Even then, if the oth
er things should come back into yo ur

28 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING thought do not be troubled about them. You cannot cu
t off an image in your imagi nation as with a knife. There will always be a frin
ge of other things around it, but they will be faint and out of focus. Just as w
hen you focus your eye on a p hysical object the other things in the room are vi
sible in a vague way, so when you focus your mental eye upon the statuette other
pictures may arise in its vic inity. But as long as the statuette occupies the
centre of your attention and en joys the full focus of your mental vision, you n
eed not trouble about the other thoughts that come in. With regard to them you w
ill do best to employ the simple formula: " I don't care." If you permit yoursel
f to be troubled by them, they w ill displace the statuette in the centre of the
stage, because you will give att ention to them; but if you see them casually,
and without moving your eyes from the statuette say: " Oh, are you there ? All r
ight, stay there if you like, go i f you like; I don't care," they will quietly
disappear when you are not looking. Do not try to watch their departure. You can
not have the satisfaction of seeing them go, any more than you can have the plea
sure of watching yourself go to sle ep. But why should you want it ? Make your o
bject of imagination fully natural b y investing it with all its usual qualities
. If it is a solid thing, make it sol id in your imagination, not flat like a pi
cture. If it is coloured, let the colo ur shine. Be sensible of its weight as yo
u would if you were actually looking at a physical object. Things that are natur
ally still should appear positively sti ll in your image, and moving things defi
nitely movingsuch as trees whose leaves a nd branches may be shaking and rustling
in the wind, or as fishes swimming, or b irds flying, or persons walking and ta
lking, or a river running along with pleas ant tinkling sounds and glancing ligh
ts.

CHAPTER VI FAMILIARIZATION So far we have contented ourselves with simple exerci

ses of the imagination. Let us now see what part imagination plays and can play
in the grasping and remembe ring of ideas which are new to us. Suppose that we h
ave to learn the letters of a foreign alphabet, the appearances and names of pla
nts, minerals or persons, th e outlines or forms of countries, or other such thi
ngs, which are new to us. It is exceedingly difficult to remember these unfamili
ar things, unless we first ma ke them familiar with the aid of imagination. In t
his part of my subject I will follow the excellent teaching of a certain Major B
eniowski, who expounded the ar t of familiarization a century ago. He pointed ou
t that to himself the notion "t able" was very familiar, meaning that it had bee
n well or frequently impressed u pon his mind and he knew a great many propertie
s and circumstances relating to a table. The notion "elephant," he said, was les
s familiar. He indicated the fami liarity of different things in six degrees, ac
cording to the following symbols The idea or mental image is represented by the c
ircle, and its degree of familia rity, which will, of course, vary with differen
t persons, according to their var ious experience, is indicated by the number of
radiating lines Major Beniowski p roceeded to give examples from his own mind,
conveying the idea of the comparati ve degree of 29

30 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING his familiarity with table, ink, lion, zodiac, eleph
ant, and chicholo as follows Table: .Zodiac: Ink: Elephant: Lion: Chicholo: The d
iagram indicated that a table was to him an object of the highest familiari ty,
ink an object of less familiarity, and so on through the examples of a lion, the
zodiac and an elephant, to a chicholo, which was an object of the greatest unfa
miliarity. Though we may note these degrees of familiarity, for practical pu rpo
ses of learning and remembering it will be sufficient to employ two. Our aim in
learning something and our first step in remembering itwill be to convert a int o
a . I n practice we generally find that two things have to be remembered toget h
er. There is no adding of something to nothing in the mind; the newly acquired n
otion has to be put beside or added to something already known. The learning of
foreign alphabets or the names of plants, or other such things, involves the as
sociation of two things in the mind so that they will recur together in memory.
Thus, if I am learning the Greek alphabet and I come across the sign and am told
that it re resents the sound " i , " my learning of this fact consists in my re
membering together the unfamiliar form and the familiar sound " i." I have to as
sociate an unfamiliar with a familiar. Really all learning consists in associa t
ing something reviously unknown with something reviously known. From these co ns
iderations Major Beniowski formulated what he called the three hrenoty ic ro ble
ms, namely

FAMILIARIZATION 31 (1) To associate a familiar with a familiar, as, for exam le,
lam with dog, or man with river. (2) To associate a familiar with an unfamiliar
, as, cow with obe lus, or green leaf with chloro hyll. (3) To associate an unfa
miliar with an unfa miliar, as, omelo with amra, or scutage with erianth. Let me
here quote Major Beniowski's excellent illustration "Su ose a London ublisher, w
ho being for man y years a constant reader of the news a ers, cannot fail of bec
oming familiar wi th the names of the leading members of the House of Commons. H
e knows about the biogra hy, literary roductions, and olitical rinci les of Dr.
Bowring, Sir Ro bert Peel, Lord Melbourne, etc., as much as any man living. "Su
ose also, that having on many occasions seen these ersonages themselves, as at c
ha el, the o e ra, museum, etc., he has their hysiognomies, their gait, etc., er
fectly im res sed u on his brain. "Su ose moreover that they are his occasional
customers, al though he never knew who these customers were; he never in the lea
st sus ected t hat these customers are the very individuals whose s eeches he wa
s just anatomiz ing, and whose olitical conduct he was just raising or de recati
ng. " He knows well their names; he knows a host of circumstances connected with
these names; he knows well the ersonages themselves; he saw them, he conversed
with them, he dealt with them; still he had never an o ortunity of learning that
such names had anything to do with such ersonages. "A visit to the gallery of t
he House of Commons during the debate on the (say) libel question, is the occasi
on on which those names and their owners are for the first time to come into con
tact with e ach other in his brain. The S eaker, one of his customers, takes the
chair, and immediately our ublisher bursts into an ' Is it ossible!'

32 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING "He can scarcely believe it, that the gentleman whom
he had seen so often before was the very S eaker of the House of Commons, whose
name and erson he knew se arately for so many years. "His sur rise increases by
seeing Dr. Bowring, Sir Ro bert Peel, Lord Melbourne, etc., addressing the Hous
e. "He knew them allhe had se en all three in his own sho he had conversed with th
emnay, had made serious allus ions to their names when resent. " He is now determ
ined to commit to memory the names of all those ersonages; in other words, he is
determined to stick togeth er the names with their res ective ersonages. "Next
to him sat a Colonial ubli sher just arrived say, from Quebec. This colonial gen
tleman is erfectly familia r with the names of the above M.P.'s; but he indeed n
ever saw any of them. "He a lso attem ts to commit to memory the names of variou
s s eakers on the occasion. "In another corner of the same House sat a Chinese,
just arrived in London, who also wishes to commit to memory the names, sha es, g
ait, dresses, etc., of the B arbarians that s oke and legislated in his resence.
"The Londoner, the colonial gentleman, and the Chinese have evidently the same
iece of knowledge to heave into their brain; but for the Londoner it is the firs
t hrenoty ic roblem; he h as to stick together a name which is to him a familiar
notion with a ersonage w hich is for him a familiar notion alsothus, a with a "F
or the colonial gentleman it is the second hrenoty ic roblem; he has to stick to
gether a name which is f or him a familiar notion, with a ersonage which is for
him a notfamiliar notiont hus, a with a "For the Chinese it is the third hrenoty
ic roblem; he has to st ick together a name which is for him a not-familiar

FAMILIARIZATION 33 notion, with a ersonage which is for him a not-familiar notio

nthus, a with a ." 1 The task for the Chinese is an exceedingly difficult one, ye
t students have of ten to face it. Imagine the distress of a student of botany w
ho has hundreds of times to link a with a , the a earance of an unfamiliar lant
with an unfamilia r name. There is only one way of getting out of the difficulty
, and that is in e very case to make the unfamiliar thing familiar, to make the
into a , either by thinking about it, and studying it, or by seeing in it a rese
mblance to somethin g already familiar. In no case is it desirable to try to rem
ember things which a re not familiar. So, first recognize whether your roblem is
of the first, secon d or third order, and if it is of the second or third, conv
ert the unfamiliar in to a familiar. The diagrams on age 34 show the rocess. Let
me now give an exam le, from the Major, of the rocess of making the unfamiliar
familiar "In my earl y infancy, my father, a hysician and an extraordinary lingui
st, initiated me in the mysteries of several mnemonic contrivances. In the study
of languages I inv ariably em loyed the association of ideas. I succeeded so fa
r that, when at the age of not full thirteen, my father sent me to study medicin
e at the University of Vilna, in Poland, relying u on my extraordinary memory, a
s it was called, I a ttended several courses of lectures, besides those usually
rescribed for studen ts in medicine. "I succeeded erfectly everywhere during sev
eral months, until s ring came, and with it the study of botany. Here, far from
outstri ing my fell ow-students, I actually remained behind even those whom I wa
s accustomed to look u on as oor, flat mediocrities. 1 Handbook of Phrenoty ics,
by Major Beniowski, 1845.

34 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING First Problem: familiar with familiar: Second Proble
m: Unfamiliar with familiar: Third Problem: Unfamiliar with Unfamiliar: "The mat
ter stood thus: Besides attending the lectures on botany, the students a re admi
tted twice a week to the botanic garden; there they find a metallic label with a
number u on it; that number refers them to a catalogue where they find t he res
ective names; these names they write out into a co y-book thus No. 1778 No. 9789
. . . . Valeriana officinalis, Ne eta Cataria, etc. "And having thus found out
the names of a dozen of lants they endeavour to comm it them to memory in the be
st manner they can. Anyone finds it tiresome, awkward , and annoying to look to
the huge numbers u on the label, then to the catalogue , then to the s elling of
the names, then

FAMILIARIZATION 35 to the co y-book, and after all to be allowed to remain there

only about an hour twice a week, when the taking away with you a single leaf ma
y exclude you for e ver from entering the garden at all. " But I was eculiarly v
exed and broken-hea rted. I came to the garden tired out by other studies; I had
a full dozen of co y-books under my arm, a very old catalogue with many loose l
eaves; to which if y ou add an umbrella in my left, a en in my right, an ink-bot
tle dangling from my waistcoatbutton, and, above all, the heart of a s oiled chi
ld in my breast, you will have a tolerable idea of my embarrassment. "Week after
week ela sed before I mastered a few lants. When I looked at home into my co ybook, the scribbled names did not make rise the res ective lants before my imagi
nation; when I cam e to the garden, the lants did not make rise their res ective
names. "My fellow -students made, in the meantime, great rogress in this, for m
e, so unmanageable study;for a good reasonthey went every morning at five into the
fields, gathered lants, determined their names, ut them between blotting- a er,
etc.in a word, t hey gave to botany about six hours er day. I could not ossibly
afford such an ex enditure of time; and besides, I could not bear the idea of st
udying sim ly a s others did. "The advantages I derived from mnemonic contrivanc
es in other de a rtments, induced me to hunt after some scheme in botany also. "
My landlady and h er two daughters ha ened to be very inquisitive about the stud
ents assing by t heir arlour window, which was close to the gates of the univers
ity; they scarce ly ever allowed me to sit down before I satisfied their inquiri
es res ecting the names, res ectability, ursuits, etc., of at least half a dozen
u ils. "I was never very affable, but on the days of my mischievous botanic gar
den they could hardly get from me a

36 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING single syllable; I could not, however, refuse, when
they once urged their earnes t request thus' Do tell us, ray, the name of that fi
sh, do!' ointing most athe tically to a u il just hurrying by close to the windo
w. "When I answered,'His n ame is Fisher' (I translate from the Polish, Ryba Ryb
ski), they broke into an al most s asmodic chatter. 'We guessed his name! Oh, he
could not have another name . Look only,' continued they, 'how his cocked hat s
its u on his head, ointing f rom behind forward, exactly in the same direction w
ith his nose! Look to the num ber of a ers and co y-books fluttering about on ea
ch side between his ribs and elbows! Look how he walkshe is actually swimming! Oh
, the name Fisher becomes him exceedingly well.' "I could not but agree with the
justness of their remarks. I com limented them. I became more attentive to thei
r conversation when at table, which ha ened to run thus 'Mother, what has become
of the Long Cloak? I saw him yesterday with the Old Boot. Do they reside togethe
r?' 'Oh, no; the Long Cloak looks often through yon garret window, where the Big
Nose lived some time ago, e tc., e t c ' They erfectly understood one another b
y these nicknames Long Cloak, Old Boot, Big Nose, etc. "This conversation suggest
ed to me at once the means o f dis ensing with my old anarchical catalogue when
in the gardenand in fact the w hole lan of roceeding in the study of botany stood
before my view. I felt conf ident I should soon leave all the young, jealous, t
rium hant, and sneering botan ic geniuses at a res ectable distance behind. " I
t ha ened to be the time of a dmission; I roceeded immediately to that corner of
the garden where the medical lants were, leaving the catalogue at home. I began
christening these lants ju st in the same manner as my landlady and her ingenio
us daughters christened the students of the

FAMILIARIZATION 37 university, viz. I gave them those names which s ontaneously

were suggested to m e by the sight, touch, etc., of them. "The first lant sugges
ted im eratively th e name of Roof covered with snow, from the smallness, whiten
ess and eculiar dis osition of its flowers, and so I wrote down in my co ybook '
No. 978, Roof cover ed with snow.' "Next I found No. 735, Red, big-headed, cocknosed lant;
and so on to about twenty lants in a few minutes. "Then I tried whether I had c
ommitted to memory these lantsYES. In looking to the lants, their nicknames imm e
diately jum ed u before my imagination; in looking to these nicknames in my co y
-book the lants themselves jum ed u . "My joy was extreme. In a quarter of an ho
ur I left the garden, convinced that I had carried away twenty lants which I cou
ld cherish, re eat, meditate u on at my own leisure. "The only thing that re mai
ned to be done was to know how eo le, how learned eo le, call them. This bu sine
ss I settled in a few minutes, thus: I ut comfortably my catalogue u on the tabl
e, looked for No. 978, and found Achiloea Millefolium; this made rise befor e my
imagination an eagle with a thousand feathers (on account of aquila in Lati n,
eagle; mille, thousand; and folium, leaf). " I ut simultaneously before my m ind
, Roof covered with snow, and eagle; and high mountain rose immediately befor e
my imagination, thusROOFS covered with snow are to be found in high mountains, an
d so are EAGLES." I have quoted the Major's ex erience fully, as it indicates so
well the average student's feelings, and so gra hically ex lains the manner o f
relieving them. It must be noted that when Major Beniowski had familiarized a l
ant in the garden, and afterwards the name of the lant at home, by likening t he
m to something that he knew well, and had come to the business of joining the tw
o

38 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING ermanently in his mind, he used his imagination in a
natural way. He did not in vent a story to connect them; he sim ly ut the two t
hings simultaneously before his mind's eye, and waited, and the connexion came o
f itself. The robability o f such a common idea s ringing u quickly is de endent
u on the degree of famili arity of both the ideas which are to be connected. He
nce the im ortance of famil iarization first. By this means the Major found that
he could at once carry away from the garden a clear memory of at least twenty l
ants within the hour, and a s his faculty grew by exercise he memorized some hun
dreds of medical lants in a few visits to the garden. Every student who uses thi
s method to learn names of objects, or the meaning of words of a foreign languag
e, or in fact anything of t he kind, will find that his faculty ra idly grows. B
ut let him be warned, for th e benefit of his memory and mind, to use the imagin
ation only naturally in findi ng the common or connecting idea. Do not create a
fanciful icture, for if you d o you will have made something extra, and what is
more, unnatural, which will be a burden to the mind. Let me summarize this roces
s of learning and remembering by imagination: First, it must be settled which tw
o notions you want to connect . Secondly, the notions must be familiarized, if n
ecessary. Thirdly, the notions must be stuck together by simultaneous contem lat
ion, resulting in natural imag ination, and Then, when one of the notions is giv
en the other will rise before t he mind's eye.

CHAPTER VII FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS LET me now a ly the method of familiarizati

on to learning and remembering forms . We will consider first the forms of forei
gn al habets. When learning these, do not try to remember them by sim ly staring
at them. Look quietly at each form u ntil you find in it a resemblance to some
other form which is already familiar t o you. Sometimes you will say to yourself
that the form has no com arison with a nything that you know. But that is never
the case, as the following conversation between Major Beniowski and one of his
u ils will show. The u il was about to commit to memory the Hebrew al habet . ale
f . baiss . guimmel . dalet . hay, etc ., etc. " Beniowski. What name would you
give to the first Hebrew letter ? or ra ther, What is the hantom that rises befo
re your imagination, in consequence of your contem lating the first Hebrew lette
r ? " Pu il. I think it is like an inva lid's chair. " B. Therefore call it an i
nvalid's chair. What name would you give to the second letter ? " P. It is exact
ly like the iron handle of a box. "B. Ca ll it so. What of the third ? " P. Noth
ingit is like nothingI can think of nothing . " B. I cannot easily believe youtry.
I infer from your looks that you think it would be useless to ex ress your stran
ge imaginingsthey would laugh at you. 39

40 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING "P. All that this third letter reminds me of is a oo
r S anish-legion man, whom I saw sitting on the avement with swollen legs and no
arms. " B. And this you c all nothing! this is valuable ro erty of your own; yo
u did not acquire it witho ut a certain ex enditure of life; you can turn it to
good account; call this let ter the S anish-legion man. What of the fourth ? " P
. I understand you nowthis fo urth letter is evidently like the weathercock u on
yon chimney o osite your win dow ; the fifth is like a stable with a small windo
w near the roof, etc., etc." As a second exam le (merely for illustration, as I
do not ex ect the reader of t his book to learn Sanskrit) I will take u some of
the unas irated consonants of the Devanagari al habet, which is used in Sanskrit
and some of its derivative l anguages. We may as well make use of the rinci le
of sense- roximity, as well a s that of association or mind roximity. Therefore
I first give a Devanagari lett er, and then the Roman letter (which, I' assume,
will be familiar to the reader) close beside it. The gutturals are ka ga nga We h
ave now to find familiar forms to name the forms which are strange to us. K look
s to me rather like a knot, g like a gallows, and ng like a rearing snake. I fin
d no great difficulty in associating these with ka, ga, and nga, res ectivel y,
for k and g are the first letters of the words knot and gallows, and a rearin g
cobra is a very icture of anger. The alatals are cha ja na Here ch looks like a o
inting fingerchiding. J resembles a footballer kickingscrim mage. N reminds me of
a lobster's ni er.

FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS 41 The dentals are ta da na In this case t a ears to me

like a fail, d like a hunch back sitting downdwarf, and n like a nose. The labial
s are a ba ma P is like a P turned round: b like a button; m is quite squaremathem
atical. I will conclude wit h the semi-vowels ya ra la va These will serve to ill
ustrate the rinci le of com arison with the forms already learned, since y resem
bles and v is much like b . R reminds me of an old-style razor, artially o ened
in use, and 1 seems like a air of crab's legs. I have said enough to enable the
student of Sanskrit or H indi or Mahratti to learn the rest of the al habet by h
imself within an hour or twoa rocess which usually takes days. Next, as further i
llustration, let me give some items from the Russian al habet g , very much like
a little rrag. d, like a delta.. zh, rather like a jum ing jack with a string thr
ough the middle which when ulled causes the arms and legs to f ly outwards laythi
ngjeunesse. 1, something like a ste -ladder. n, like Hhen. i, an arrow going throu
gh a target-flight or fight. We can do the same with any other a l habet. The fol
lowing are some suggestions for learning Pitman's shorthand outl ines : t is lik
e a T without a t o ; k is like a coward, lying down: m is li ke a little wound.
Among the Greek letters

42 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING gamma is like a cata ultgame; i is like an archway ylo
n; lambda is leaning; hi is like an arrow iercing a targetbattlefight. The Persian
characters require a li ttle more imagination than most of our al habets do, ye
t when I look at them I f ind boats, waves, commas, eyes, wings, snakes, and fun
ny little men, standing, c rouching, and running. I will now give the Roman al h
abet in a form in which it can be taught in English to young children in a very
short time: A stands for an arch; B for a bundle; C for a coiled cater illar ; D
for a drum; E for an ele h ant sitting u in a circus ; F for a finger- ost; G f
or a goldfish curled round in the Ja anese style; H for a hurdle; I for an icicl
e or a little im standing stock-still; J for a juggler lying on his back, balanc
ing a ball on his feet; K for a king, sitting on a throne and holding out his sc
e tre in a slo ing directi on; L for a leg; M for mountains; N for a na kin on t
he table; O for an orange; P for a arrot with a large head; Q for a queen, very
fat and round, with a litt le tail of her gown sticking out near her feet; R for
a rat climbing a wall, wit h its tail touching the floor; S for a snake; T for
a small table, with one cent ral leg; U for an urn; V for a valley; W for waves;
X for Mr. X a monkey stretchi ng out its arms and legs to hold the branches of a
tree; Y for yarn, frayed at t he end, or a yak's head, with large horns; Z for
a zigzaga flash of lightning. Fo r each of the objects the teacher should draw a
icture bearing a strong resembl ance to the letter that is to be taught (somewha
t as in our illustrations) and t he letters should at first be re resented by th
e full words, arch, bundle, cater illar, drum, etc.1 Turning now to geogra hical
outlines, the best-known exam le of com arison is the outline of Italy, which e
very schoolboy remembers much bet ter than he does that of any other country, fo
r the sim le reason that he has no ticed that 1 This method of re resenting the
al habet is co yright.

FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS 43

44 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING

FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS 45

46 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING

FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS 47

48 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING it resembles a big boot kicking at an irregular ball
, which we call the island o f Sicily. Africa is like a ham; South America resem
bles a eg-to ; Mexico is lik e a sleeve; Newfoundland resembles a distorted lobs
ter; France a ears like a sh irt without sleeves; Norway and Sweden are like an
ele hant's trunk; India is li ke Shri Krishna dancing and laying his flute; the
river Severn is like a smilin g mouth. The student of botany has to remember the
general a earance of a large number of lants and flowers. We have already seen
that the best lan to follow in remembering these is not to go into the garden or
the field with textbook in hand, but to go among the flowers and lants and give
them names of your own in vention. When the forms are thus made familiar to the
mind they can easily be re called by remembering the new names, and afterwards
the orthodox names can be le arned, just as we should learn a number of foreign
words. The o ular names of m any lants are already based on sim le com arisons.
Among these one thinks at on ce of the sunflower, the buttercu and the bluebell,
and the cam anula is obviou sly a cluster of most exquisite bells. But when the
student comes to narcissus, calceolaria, chrysanthemum and eschscholtzia and ma
ny other scientific names he must have recourse to his own familiarization for r
emembering their forms in the beginning. In rivate life, living in the country,
we often see and wish to rem ember flowers, without ever hearing what eo le have
named them. Then it is well to give them our own names for the time being. Near
one of my dwellings there w as a hedge full of jolly little old men with occasi
onal ur le-grey hair, and th ey seemed to bob their funny round heads in the bre
eze in res onse to my nod. I did not in the least know their names, but we were
not worse friends on that acc ount. The allegory of Narcissus is reflected in th
e flower of that name; the way

FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS 49 in which the gentle flower bends its lovely head is
remindful of the fall of the s irit enamoured of its image reflected in the wate
rs of existence; yet for mos t of us it remains a beautiful star. The crinkled w
hite cham aka reminds me alwa ys of a swastika; and the clover, so like a fluffy
ball, Is in India often calle d the rudraksha flower, because it is thought to
resemble the crinkled berry bea ds which yogis wear, these in turn being held sa
cred because their markings are thought to be strange letters (aksha) written by
the God Rudra or Shiva. We may think of the droo ing bag-like li of the calceol
aria, of the large velvet face of the ansy, of the curious li s and curly string
s of the sweet ea, and of the exfoliated heart of the rose, and we may know thes
e little ones much better by these ha y names than if our brains are fagged befo
rehand by the crabbed termin ology of the books. Major Beniowski's ex erience ha
s already suggested to us the way to remember ersonsa method which, in fact, led
him to his system of familia rization of the forms of lants. I may relate in thi
s connexion one ex erience o f my own. Once, when I was travelling on a boat, I
made the acquaintance of a st udious and learned university rofessor who won my
esteem. His name was Dittmer. Now, I was very familiar in India with the various
kinds of oil lam s which wer e im orted in large quantity from a manufacturing
firm named Dittmar. I had seen the name on lam s in many laces, so the connexion
of Dittmar and lam s was str ong in my mind. Well, when I first met Prof. Dittm
er he was wearing a huge air of round tortoise-shell reading glasses. They remin
ded me irresistibly of a air of motor-car lam s. Hence I had no difficulty in re
membering his name. Another reminder also occurred to me. He looked somewhat lik
e the immortal Mr. Pickwickwi cklam - -Dittmer. I am sure that, if this ha ens to
catch the eye of the rofess or, he will not be offended at the liberty with his
erson which I have taken, f or it is in the interests of science.

CHAPTER VIII FAMILIARIZATION OF WORDS THE rinci le of familiarization is es ecia

lly useful in learning the words of a foreign language. In this connexion let me
enunciate again two im ortant oints . Do not try to ut an unfamiliar thing into
the mind, and do not try to do two things at once, namely, to remember an unfam
iliar word and also its meaning. To learn foreign words always reduce them to fa
miliar sounds; then associate them w ith their meanings. First take the foreign
word which you have to learn, and re eat it to yourself without thinking of any
meaning until you are able to find it s resemblance to some other word that is q
uite familiar to you. Su ose I have t o learn the French word "maison." As I tur
n it over in my mind there comes u th e similar English word "mason." I am told
that the word "maison" means house. We ll, a mason builds a house. I have just a
sked my wife to give me another French word at random. Her re ly is "livre," whi
ch means a book. Pondering for a moment on the sound "livre" I find that the Eng
lish word "leaf" comes u in my mind, a nd I think, "A book is com osed of leaves
." Very often when we are learning a fo reign language there are many words whic
h are similar to words having the same m eaning in our own language. So, first o
f all, if you are free to choose your wor ds, look over your vocabulary, and lea
rn all the words that clearly resemble Eng lish words, such as, for exam le, in
German Wunder (wonder), Vater (father), Nord (north), Sohn (son), Schuh (shoe), E
bbe (ebb), Ende (end), Ochs (ox), Dank (tha nk), Eis (ice), Wasser (water), Donn
er (thunder), 50

FAMILIARIZATION OF WORDS 51 Ohr (ear), Krone (crown), Dorn (thorn), Schulter (sh
oulder), Seele (soul), Kuh ( cow), Strom (stream), Garten (garden), and hundreds
of others. If, however, the student is com elled to follow a course of study in
the order of a rescribed te xtbook, he will have to take the words as they come
, and will at once find many which do not a ear to resemble English words. He ta
kes the first word, Saal, ro om, and re eats: "Saal, room, Saal, room . . ." unt
il his head buzzes; then he g oes on to "Schutz, rotection, Schutz, rotection, S
chutz, rotection . . ." unt il his brain throbs; and then "Schn, beautiful, Schn,
beautiful, Schn, beautiful . . ." until his mind whirls; and then "Trennung, se a
ration, Trennung, se aration , Trennung, se aration . . . " until he nearly dro
s from his seat, and yawns an d rubs his eyes and wishesoh, how longinglythat it w
as time to go out and lay cri cket; and he looks u at the clock and sees there i
s still twenty minutes to la ytimeoh, endless and unrelenting timeand then he trie
s to fix his burning eyes u o n his book again, once more to grind out " Frchterl
ich, terrible, Frchterlich, ter rible, Frchterlich, terrible . . .", once more to
swoon, once more to look at the clockoh, mercy, nineteen minutes more! Do not gri
nd like that, dear boys! Take t he word Saal ; look at it; shut your eyes; re ea
t it audibly and visually three times without thinking of the meaning. You have
already noticed that it means a room, but do not dwell on that. Dwell on the mer
e sound of Saal, and look out fo r familiar words that sound something like it.
You may think of sale, salt, and saloonah, that is the best word, Saal is like sa
loon, which is a kind of room. Th en re eat Saal three times while thinking of t
he room. Do not think merely of th e word room, but think of a room known to you
. Then take Schutz, meaning rotect ion; re eat it three times, thinking only of
the sound. Think of some words that sound

52 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING like Schutz, say shut or shoot. Do you not rotect a
thing by shutting it u ? D o not the soldiers, who shoot, rotect us ? Once more
re eat the word three time s, thinking of the idea. Schn is like shiningbeautiful;
and for Trennung you might think of a trench or chasm which se arates, se arati
on ; and for Frchterlich, fe ar-like. Always re eat three times, and always think
of the connexion, such as: the soldier, who shoots, rotects us from aggression.
Now I will give a few word s from the S anish Mesa, a tablemess; libro, a booklibr
ary; ventana, a windowventila tion; verde, greenverdure; tiene, he has tenant; leva
ntar, to raiselever; escribir, to writescribe, and so on. As another exam le, a fe
w words from the Russian Koles o, a wheelkaleidosco e; komar, a mosquitono comrade;
derevo, a treea country drive among trees; bratstvo, brotherhoodfraternity; alatk
o, a tentnot a alace; skala, a rockscale it; osel, a donkeyO slow one; reka, a rive
ryes, if rocky and ra id it m ay be a wrecker; lozhka, a s oonfood lodges in it, t
em orarily; molot, a hammermou lds hot iron to sha e; nasos, a um noses are air um
s; and so on. The words tha t must be learned are not always quite so easy as t
hese, but if you ractise thi s like a uzzle-game for some time, you will be able
to find something for every word. Preferably take the accented syllable of the
word that you art going to m ake. Let us take some difficult words from Sanskrit
, as an illustration. They ar e difficult because they are very unfamiliar, and
because they sound somewhat di fferent from English words. Kama which means assi
onate desire, sounds like "cal m," and you might think in the form of a contrast
, "When a man gives way to ass ionate desire he is not calm." Karma, which means
work, sounds somewhat like " c ream." Cream is

FAMILIARIZATION OF WORDS 53 made into butter by constant motionor work. Sharira,

which means body, sounds lik e " sharing ": we can share with others in bodily w
ork and the roduce thereof. Or again, it sounds like "shear": wool is sheared fr
om the body of the shee - Ma nas means mindman has a mind. Prana means vitality;
you may think of a high-s iri ted horse, rancing along, full of vitality. Surya
means the sun; it sounds some thing like "sower." The sun stirs u the life of al
l the seeds that are sown in the ground. But really, these are too easy; let us
try something more difficult. Indriya, which means sense-organ, sounds like indi
a-rubber, which has no sense! Jagat, the universe. The universe is jogging along
all right. Raja, a king. A k ing is nearly always rich. Bhakti, devotion. The d
evotee bends his back when wor shi ing. Saundarya, beautiful and graceful. A sou
nd and healthy body is beautif ul and graceful. Naga, a snake. Always catch a sn
ake by the neck. Kshira, milk. The wool that is sheared from shee is as white as
milk. Kshattriya, a warrior. A warrior shatters his enemies. Ex ressing the con
nexions in briefer form we may use our four roads of thought. It is an additiona
l aid to memory to discover an d name the roads when associating two ideas not th
at the roads are to be remember ed, but the two things are automatically held in
close roximity while you are t rying to identify the road. Thus Harmya, a alaceha
rm, (Road I), luxury, (Road II) , alace. Pada, a foot edal, (Road IV), foot. Kama
, an ear cornea, (Road II), eye, (Road I), ear. Grama, a village gram, (Road IV),
agriculture, (Road II or IV), v illage. Kama, assioncalm, (Road I, contrast im ly
ing similarity), excitement, (R oad I), assion. Push a, flowerbush, (Road II), fl
ower. Madhu, sweetmad, (Road IV) , intoxicated bear, (Road IV), honey, (Road III)
, sweet. I have looked through m y Sanskrit dictionary for half an hour, and hav
e failed to find one word that co uld not soon

54 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING

be resolved in this way. We might take the most difficult words from Latin or Gr
eek, or, I think, any Euro ean language, and we should find them much easier th
a n the Sanskrit. You will discover that by this method you can ha ily and easil
y remember quite a large number of foreign words in the course of an hour, and y
o ur memory will not be burdened afterwards by all the fancies in which you have
i ndulged; yet you will remember the words better than if you had learned them
by rote. As a matter of fact, you really get to know the words as usable things
whe n you read a number of books in the language or ractise conversation in it.
The real difficulty which you will have to encounter at the beginning is that of
in troducing the unfamiliar words to your mind. To show how even the most diffi
cult words can be dealt with, we may form uncouth words, such as the following,
at r andom. Let labagart be synonymous with tametac, emattle with revilog, eb et
ag wi th thodge, nadard with smecia. We might associate them thus: Labagartlovely
cartma rketfruittomatotametac; emattlemetal riflerevilog; eb etag otatocottagercot
e; nadard adder field labourer smock smecia. If for the sake of exercise, or fo
r amusement, you wish to remember a long, uncouth word, such as hturtnahtrehgihn
oigileronsiereht, you can easily do so by forming a series of words such as the
following: hat; u er; ten; ah; tower; eh, gari (cart); hen; obi (magic); gai (c
ow); love; rao (king); ness (nose); isle; ro e; height. It will be noticed that
each word of ours re resents two letter:, of the long uncouth word the first and
last letters only being taken into account, Thus one can do a thing that most e
o le would think wellnigh im ossible for an ordinary brain; though, like many t
h ings generally regarded as more dignified and res ectable,

FAMILIARIZATION OF WORDS 55 it has no articular value beyond the exercise that i

t rovides. In some languag es we have the additional trouble of genders in the n
ouns. There are several way s to assist the memory of these. The student may kee
lists of masculine nouns i n red ink, feminine in green, and neuter in black. D
r. Pick, a famous mnemotechn ist who wrote about seventy years ago, recommended
the student to learn the exce tions. For this, however, one must have a teacher
or ex ert who will be accommo dating enough to make a list. When teaching the Fr
ench language Dr. Pick wrote t hat exce t for the following words all nouns havi
ng these endings are masculine. Amiti (friendshi ), moiti (half), iti ( ity), fort (
forest), aix ( eace), fourmi (ant), merci (mercy), brebis (shee ), souris (mouse
), vis (screw), erdrix ( art ridge), eau (water), eau (skin), chaux (chalk), fau
x (scythe), glu (glue), trib u (tribe), vertu (virtue), toux (cough), syllabe (s
yllable), clef (key), nef(nav e), soif (thirst), cage (cage), image (image), nag
e (swimming), age ( ageof a e r, not a age-boy), lage ( lain), rage (rabies or vi
olent assion), tige (stem) , voltige (lea ), art ( art), mort (death), foi (fait
h), loi (law), aroi ( art ition-wall), dent (tooth), jument (mare), gent (race),
faim (hunger), main (hand ), fin (end). I have given this list only as an illus
tration. Similar lists may be formed in other languages. If, however, you have n
o such list, and no ex ert available to make one for you, the following method w
ill hel . The genders of ma ny words will im ress themselves u on your mind with
out s ecial attention, as in the case of a child who is naturally icking u the l
anguage, but there will be a residue which may give you trouble. The items in th
is residue may be associat ed with qualities or objects familiarly regarded as m
asculine, feminine or neute r. Thus, in Sanskrit, adma, a lotus, is neuter; ghat
a, a jar.

56 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING is masculine; mukti, liberation, is feminine. We may

then, erha s, think that t he lotus is both bold in ushing its way u through th
e mud and water to the air , and gentle in resting its soft leaves u on the surf
ace of the water; so it may be considered neither one nor the otherhence neuter.
As to otwhere do you find ot-bellies but in men?a masculine sha e, surely. To avoi
d earthliness and to seek retirement are feminine virtues, so mukti may be remem
bered as a word of femini ne gender.

CHAPTER IX PROJECTION OF THE MEMORY WE have considered and erha s ractised some
sim le ex eriments intended to mak e the imagination vivid and accurate. We have
also a lied the imagination to le arning various things which may be new to us.
Let us now consider how to use ima gination to hel us to remember various thing
s when we want to remember them. Th ere are lenty of memories in the world which
remember a vast number of things, yet are of little use to their owners because
they do not deliver rust what is n eeded or wanted it a given time. An instance
of this was very cleverly de icted by Charles Dickens in his novel Nicholas Nic
kleby. The following are the words o f Mrs. Nickleby when Stratford-on-Avon, the
birth lace of Shakes eare, ha ened to be the subject of conversation: "I think
there must be something in the lace , for, soon after I was married, I went to S
tratford with my oor dear Mr. Nickl eby, in a ost-chaise from Birminghamwas it a
ost-chaise though ? Yes, it must h ave been a ost-chaise, because I recollect re
marking at the time that the drive r had a green shade over his left eye;in a ost
-chaise from Birmingham, and after we had seen Shakes eare's tomb and birth lace
we went back to the inn there, wh ere we sle t that night, and I recollect that
all night long I dreamt of nothing but a black gentleman, at full length, in la
ster-ofParis, with a laydown colla r tied with two tassels, leaning against a os
t and thinking; and when I woke in the morning and described him to Mr. Nickleby
, he said it was Shakes eare just as he had been when he was alive, which was ve
ry curious indeed. StratfordStratfo rd. Yes, I am 57

58 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING ositive about that, because I recollect I was in the
family way with my son Nic holas at the time, and I had been very much frighten
ed by an Italian image boy t hat very morning. In fact, it was quite a mercy, ma
'am, that my son didn't turn out to be a Shakes eare, and what a dreadful thing
that would have been !" And t his was one of her memories about dining: " It's v
ery odd now, what can have ut that in my head ! I recollect dining once at Mrs.
Bevan's, in that broad street round the corner by the coachmaker's where the ti
sy man fell through the cella r fla of an em ty house nearly a week before the q
uarter-day, and wasn't found till the new tenant went inand we had roast ig there
. It must be that, I think, that reminds me of it, es ecially as there was a lit
tle bird in the room that wo uld kee on singing all the time of dinnerat least, n
ot a little bird, for it was a arrot, and he didn't sing exactly, for he talked
and swore dreadfully; but I think it must be that. Indeed I am sure it must." Bu
t su ose we have a erson of good memory, whose mind has not been allowed to drif
t, as resumably that of Mrs. Nickleby had done throughout her life, and the conv
ersation turns to the su bject of ele hants. Then erha s that mind in an instant
will say to itself, wit hout words: " The ele hant is a large, vegetarian, mamm
alian, quadru ed animal, inhabiting Ceylon, India and Africa." And in a moment m
ore that mind will slide its fingers along each word of that definition, and at
once a great deal of info rmation will become available on each oint. Such a mem
ory is like a dictionary having more crossreferences than it would be ossible ev
er to obtain in a rinte d book; furthermore, a dictionary which will always o en
at the word or idea whi ch you want. It sometimes ha ens in ractice that a stud
ent has to remember a n umber of things which he may ut in any order he chooses,
as, for exam le, lists of foreign words. But more

PROJECTION OF THE MEMORY 59 frequently a certain redetermined order is required,

as in learning historical series of events, or in committing to memory heads of
a lecture or book. This oc curs often in ractical life, where one may require i
n the morning to remember a number of things to be attended to during the day. I
n this case it is obvious t hat the subjects will not fall into an order seriall
y connected in the way which we have already illustrated, so we must devise some
means whereby the items wil l suggest each other in their order. Generally thes
e things have no immediate or direct association. If, then, an effort is made to
remember them together, it u sually fails for there can be no lea in consciousne
ss; each idea must follow ano ther directly connected with it by one of the road
s I have described. I will tak e as an exam le a gentleman of long ago who was g
oing into town and wanted to ca rry out the following items of business (1) To ur
chase some barley at the market ; (2) To hire a labourer for some building alter
ations; (3) To kee in mind the roverb that a bird in the hand is worth two in th
e bush (since former ex erienc e had taught him the value of that maxim); (4) To
buy some aromatic s ices at a grocer's; (5) To call to see a lawyer about a fri
end's suit in Chancery; (6) To buy some velvet; (7) To collect some money due. M
any eo le would write these it ems down, but it is far better that we should rem
ember our own business, as we a ll know that notebooks weaken the memory. In thi
s case, we have to remember the following ideas in succession; barley, labourer,
bird, s ices, Chancery, velvet, debt. The best method for this ur ose is to ins
ert one or two intermediaries w here there is no direct association.

6o MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING (1) Barleyharvest (2) Labourergamekee er (3) Birdbird-see
dgroceries (4) S icesred ed-ta e (5) Chancery suitchancellorrobe (6) Velvetsmoothsli
btor (7) Debt. I not troubled to rint the associations or Roads of Thought, as th
e reader or stu dent will easily see them if he wishes to do so. I must mention
that this roces s is not artificial. It actually occurs in the mindthough general
ly sub-conscious lywhen two unrelated things are remembered in sequence. In racti
ce, the extremes , say barley and labourer, are considered; an effort is made to
work forwards fr om barley and, as it were, backwards from labourer, until the
two meet. It is th en found that there is rarely any necessity for more than two
intermediaries. Ha ving formed our connexions, we may re eat the series a few t
imes, and resently the intermediaries can be dro ed out of mind and the series w
ill be remembered without them, as they are only a tem orary aid to bring the ai
rs of ideas toget her. The recall of such a series is made easier when the mood
in which they were originally associated is revived, so when trying to revive an
im ression go bac k in imagination and ut yourself into the mood in which you o
riginally received it. You may have been to a lecture, which you now wish to rem
ember. First recal l the mood, the whole attitude of the attention, as it was at
the time given to the lecturer, to the subject of the lecture and to its differ
ent arts in turn. It will be quite im ossible for you to recall the succession o
f the ideas of the lecture if you are at the same time thinking of what you will
have for dinner, what so-and-so has been

PROJECTION OF THE MEMORY 6l saying about you, how you will carry out such-and-su
ch a lan, what a cold day i t is, or what a noise the eo le round about are maki
ng. A certain kind of indif ference is essential for success in this ractice. Th
e student ractising the re etition of a series of ideas such as has been describ
ed is recommended to notic e with the greatest care exactly what takes lace in h
is mind when he comes to a n obstacle in the rocess, and finds himself unable to
remember the next link of the chain. At once the attention darts off in a new d
irection, taking u anothe r line of ideas of its own. This indicates not so much
lack of memory as a chang e of mood. If the new mood is overcome and the mind i
s forced by the will into t he original one, the attention is bound to go in its
original direction, for the mood determines the ath of least resistance for it.
This device of intermediar ies is excellent for remembering the sequence of ide
as in a s eech or lecture wh ich you may ro ose to deliver. So far I have writte
n about associating two idea s together in the mind. It is also ractical to asso
ciate an idea with an actual thing instead of with another idea. This is articul
arly useful with reference to the future, when you wish to do something in some
lace or at some time. Some times a business man is asked to urchase some little
thing in town for his wife , and bring it home in the evening. Very often, it mu
st be confessed, he forgets . One device by which he may remind himself that the
re is something to be done i s to tie a knot in his handkerchief, so that it wil
l remind him of his commissio n when he ulls it out of his ocket. But it would b
e a better lan for him to a ssociate the idea of the thing to be done with some
object which he is sure to s ee during the day. In ractice, we are all being rem
inded all the time of many t hings by the objects which surround us. It is as if
they were lastered all over with thoughts and those thoughts

62 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING lea t out at us when we see the objects. To illustra
te this fact, take out your watch and look at it for a few minutes, kee ing y6ur
thoughts still and attentiv e, and observe the little ictures that arise involu
ntarily in the mind. You wil l robably find an image of the erson who gave you t
he watch or of the sho whe re you bought it, and ictures of any s ecial incident
s in which it has layed a art. The numbers on the dial will remind you of the di
fferent duties and a oi ntments of the hours throughout the day; while the quali
ties of the watch, the s ubstances of which it is made and the accessories which
are associated with it, radiate ideas in all directions, as do the ideas which
we have mentioned in earl ier cha ters. All the articles that we ossess are simi
larly full of thoughts the rooms, the houses, the streets that we enter, are satu
rated with them. There is thus a rocess, going on for the most art unconsciously
, by which the mind of man, exce t at moments when it is under the active contro
l of the will, is const antly influenced by his surroundings. This rocess can be
em loyed for rememberi ng things that are to be done, so that at the right mome
nt they will enter the m ind, without our being ut to the trouble of recalling t
hem again and again befo re the a ointed time. The memory may thus be cast forwa
rd, as it were, by our l inking the idea we want with an object that we are sure
to come across and notic e, and in the rocess we shall be free of the waste of
mental energy necessitate d when the idea is ke t half consciously in the mind t
hroughout the interval. Su ose, for exam le, you wish to remember to send a lett
er to Mr. Blank, when you arrive at the office. There is no need to worry the mi
nd by continually thinkin g about the matter, nor to weaken it by taking a note.
Sim ly make a clear ictu re of your office, roject your thought there, as it we
re, with Mr. Blank sittin g there conversing with you,

PROJECTION OF THE MEMORY 63 and when you arrive at the s ot the image will natur
ally rise u in your mind. I f during your journey by railway into town, you wish
to consider some roblem in electricity or in finance, fix your idea on the ligh
ting a aratus or on the co stly u holstery of the com artment; when you ste into
the train, these things w ill catch your eye and remind you of the roblem. It i
s ossible thus to hang im ages on rominent signs, sho and house fronts, monument
s and other noticeable t hings you are likely to ass, and to fix ideas on the bo
oks, ictures, furniture and clothing you are likely to use. There remains in the
mind a kind of latent or subconscious ex ectancy which will notify you on the s
lightest signal from th e determined object. When the memory is discharged this
latent ex ectancy ceases , the association is broken, and the object is left fre
e for future associations . Various s ecial ways of fixing ideas on objects will
naturally occur to the st udent. If I need to remember, for exam le, that I wan
t to send a clerk out to bu y a new air of com asses, I can associate the idea b
y making a icture of mysel f writing a letter A at my desk and noticing that tha
t letter resembles a air o f com asses. As soon as I sit down to write I shall b
e reminded of the intention . This ur ose must be forthwith discharged if the me
thod is to be em loyed agai n, for unless we are faithful to our memory it will
not long be faithful to us. Or again, su ose I want to look u a certain question
in chemistry. I know that when I go to my room for the morning's work, which co
nsists chiefly in writing, I shall use my fountain en, which is lying there. I i
cture myself icking u the en and noticing the gold nib, which reminds me of alch
emy, and that in turn revives the idea of chemistry. I know that when the time c
omes my memory will resent me with the idea I want, because we have much confide
nce in each othermy m emory and I.

64 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING This rinci le may be allied to the instinct by which
one awakens oneself from s lee in the morning at a time redetermined before ret
iring for the night. I hav e had to do that frequently when travelling in India,
and have found that confid ence is justified. But I have noticed several times
that when my watch was wrong the instinct awoke me by the wrong time of the watc
h, not at the ro er time.

CHAPTER X SIMPLIFICATION AND SYMBOLIZATION memorizing lists of things of any kin

d it is often an advantage to sim lify very com lex ideas and to symbolize abstr
act ideas. A good exam le of symbolization is related with reference to the Gree
k oet Simonides, who was one of the earlie st known ex onents of aids to memory.
He invented, among other things, a sim le device for committing to memory ideas
which do not re resent objects of sense, a nd are therefore difficult to rememb
er. For exam le, in re aring a discourse co ncerning government, financial matte
rs, naval affairs, and the necessity for wis dom in the olicy of the times, he w
ould not try to memorize those to ics or ar agra hs of his discourse in these ge
neral terms, but would re resent each by a s ymbola crown or sce tre, a current c
oin, the image of a shi , and the figure of M inerva res ectively. When re aring
such images or symbols we should always take account of their qualities, as alr
eady ex lained, to make them as natural and l ively as ossible. I take an extrac
t on this oint from a work written by John W illis, B.D., of Magdalen College, O
xford, which was ublished in 1618 in Latin a nd translated into English in 1661.
"Ideas are to be vested with their ro er ci rcumstances, according as their nat
ures require; for as writings the fairer they are, are more facilely read; so id
eas, the more a tly they are conceived, accor ding to the exigency of their natu
res, are more s eedily recalled to mind; and a lso consequently the things by th
em signified. "Motion is to be attributed to id eas of movable things; quiet to
ideas of quiet things and good and evil savours to WHEN 65

66 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING ideas re resenting things so qualified. Exam les of
movable ideas are: artificer s at work in their sho s, women dancing, trees shak
en by the wind, water running from ta s, and such like. Ideas of quiet things ar
e: hens laying in their nests , thieves lurking under bushes, etc. "Ideas to whi
ch sound is ascribed are: a li on roaring, a bell ringing, whistling, the rustli
ng of trees, a chorister singin g, etc. If incense burning be used for an idea,
a sweet and leasant odour must be attributed thereto; but, on the contrary, to v
aults underground, a dank unwho lesome smell is to be assigned. So also, ideas o
f merry men require cheerfulness of countenance, of sick men aleness and sadness
. "After this manner ideas of e difices, machines, and all artificial things wha
tsoever, ought to be signalized; ro ortion of form and s lendour of colour must
be attributed to ictures, grac e and liveliness of letters to writing, glory and
excellence of workmanshi to e ngravings. Finally, every idea must have such ill
ustration as may render it most notable and cons icuous and seem rinci ally cohe
rent to its nature." The quant ity and osition of ideas should also be observed.
In imagining small things, su ch as an ant, a grain of rice or of sand, or a dr
o of water, it is well to ict ure an army of ants, a bagful of rice, a sandy sho
re, or a flowing river, res ec tively. On the other hand, to re resent highly co
m lex ictures, such as a battl e, or a large block of buildings, it is well to r
educe them in quantity or in si ze, and re resent a battle by a few men fighting
, a block of buildings by some s mall erections, a church or a mountain as dimin
utive, as though seen through the wrong end of a telesco e. As to osition, thing
s which are usually hung u on wa lls, such as ictures and looking-glasses, shoul
d be imagined as hanging there; books u on shelves; crockery in cu boards; cloth
es in wardrobes, in drawers or o n the erson; tables, chairs, chests and the lik
e standing on the ground; and

SIMPLIFICATION AND SYMBOLIZATION 67 graves, wells, wine-cellars, mines and other

such things, under the ground. "The mind of man doth naturally and immediately
resent direct ideas of all visible things," wrote Mr. Willis, "so that it is vai
n to excogitate any, but rather use those that offer themselves. If a man hears
the account of a naval battle, doth he not resently seem to behold the sea, shi
s, smoke of great ordnance, and ot her things obvious in such matters ? If s eec
h be made of mustering an army, dot h not the hearer form in his mind the effigi
es of a field, re lenished with sold iers marching in military ostures? " To thi
s standard of direct imagination we may easily reduce com lex or abstract ideas.
The landing of Julius Caesar may be re resented by a few shi s a roaching the s
hore, their owners being re ulsed b y rough Britons. Athletics may be re resente
d by a ball; education by a blackboa rd ; art by a statue or a icture; music by
a violin; the theatre by a mask; hor se-racing by a jockey's ca . Cold may be re
resented by a iece of ice; heat by a fire; light by a lam ; love by a heart; ri
de by a eacock; gluttony by an ost rich; melancholy by a sad man; the s ring tim
e by green meadows and flowering tr ees; winter by a icture of houses, trees, an
d the earth white with snow and rig id with frost. We are all familiar with the
figure of Justice, the veiled virgin with her sword and balance, and old man Tim
e with his scythe and forelock, and his merciless wings. To conclude these remar
ks let me give some com lex exam les to show how ideas relating to incidents or
stories should be made in concrete f orm, not in mere words. This oint should be
es ecially im ortant to students of history "Milo of Croton, a famous wrestler,
first crowned in the Olym ic games, when through age he had left off his youthfu
l exercise and was travelling throug h some woodlands of Italy, es ied an oak ne
ar the way rifted in the middle. Will ing to try whether any of his ancient vigo
ur remained.

68 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING he thrust his hands into the cleft of the tree, to r
end down the middle art. Bu t as soon as his violence ceased, the oak, thus forc
ibly writhed, returned to it s ristine estate and, closing fast u on his hands,
detained him a rey for wild beasts. "Fancy a cleft oak, full of green leaves and
acorns, in the cleft of wh ich a strong great-limbed man, crowned with laurel,
is fast held by the hands. B ending back his head and body he cries out so loudl
y that you really seem not on ly to see his wretched body and the beasts reying
about him, but also to hear h is outcries and lamentations." "In the year 1530,
in the time of Charles V, Em e ror, the German Princes exhibited their Confessio
n of Faith at Augsburgh, with a solemn rotestation because of that erilous timewh
ence afterwards they, and all such as embraced the same Confession were called P
rotestants. "Su ose an Im er ial throne, adorned with badges of the Em ire, glit
tering with gold and gems, u on which sits the Em eror, crowned with a golden di
adem, while to him his nobles , bare-headed, resent their Confession fairly engr
ossed on a er." M. Gregor vo n Feinaiglea memory ex ert, whose New Art of Memory
was ublished in London in 18 12carried the rocess of symbolization to a new oint
when he recommended student s to make outline-and-symbol sketches instead of wri
ting notes, in many cases. T he diagram on age 69 is an exam le. The ex lanation
of this was as follows "A co nvention was entered into in Egy t, between General
Kleber, on the art of the F rench, and the Grand Vizier, on the art of the Subl
ime Porte, which was a rove d by the Cabinet of London. The straight line with t
he crescent on its to denot es the Grand Vizier, by its su erior height to the e
r endicular line which is t o re resent General Kleber; the line drawn through t
he centre of this line, form ing acute

SIMPLIFICATION AND SYMBOLIZATION 69 angles, is intended for the General's sword.

To denote the convention two lines are drawn, which meet together in the centre
, and re resent the shaking of hands , or a meeting. The convention was formed i
n Egy t, which is signified by a yramid. The Cabinet of London is ty ified by th
e outline of a cabinet on the right of the diagram; the head of a shi laced in t
he oblong denotes London, as it is frequented more than any other ort by shi s."

CHAPTER XI MODES OF COMPARISON IN studying imagination we have seen that one tho
ught or idea arises in connexio n with another as a result of revious ex erience
in which those two things have been closely connected. For exam le, an ele hant
might remind us of a zoologica l garden that we have known, or of the teak-wood
forests of Burma. When this ha ens, however, there is no mental act of com aris
on between the ele hant and the zoo or between the ele hant and the teak forest.
Their relationshi is a case o f roximity in the world of sense-objects. They si
m ly ha ened to come together , just as a tree may grow on a mountain. The conne
xion is a matter of chance. Bu t when com arison between two things occurs, you
have something more than ex eri ence and imagination. Then reason has arisen. Be
cause of the logical constitutio n of our minds we are ca able of com aring any
two things that exist. This com a rison consists of two artswe take note of the a
rticulars in which the two objec ts resemble each other, and also of those in wh
ich the two differ from each othe r. If we did not note the difference as well a
s the resemblance, there would be no com arison. The two things would be exactly
the same. Su ose we com are a ho rse and an ordinary tableto take a rather far-f
etched exam le. Well, you may laug h, but both are quadru eds. Among the differe
nces, which are many, the most stri king is that one can move by itself and the
other cannot. It is not usual for us to need to com are such unconnected things.
In ractical life a car enter might receive an order to make a chair and a stool
. To do this he must be able to com are them; they are both articles of furnitur
e to sit 73

74 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING u on, but generally they differ in that one has a ba
ck and the other has not. An other common com arison would be between a tree and
a bush. I am not an ex ert b otanist, so I can suggest only a very ordinary com
arisonthat while both are grow ing and woody lants, one has a long stem raising
its foliage some distance from the ground, and the other has not. Another elemen
t of reason is the erce tion of causes and effects. Very often, however, what eo
le call causality is sim ly an exam le of contiguity in time. For instance, it
may be said that gluttony is the cause of indigestion, and that fatigue is the c
ause of slee . What we reall y mean is that we have observed that gluttony is ge
nerally followed by indigesti on and fatigue by slee . But really the cause is t
he eculiar hysiological cons titution of the animal or man; some creatures can s
tuff themselves with food to the limit, with no ill effects, and some of our mus
clesfor exam le the heartnever slee . In common talk we say that if a lam is broug
ht into a dark room the ligh t in the room is the effect of the lam . It is not
in a logical sense, but only in a o ular sense, that the lam can thus be called
the cause. A very ignorant erson observing that day is always followed by night,
and night by day, might t hink that day is the cause of night, and night again
the cause of day. But the r eal cause is something which holds both the elements
of the sequence in its gras the rotation of the earth in relation to the sun. If
I say that the rotation of the earth is the cause of day and night, I have erfo
rmed a rational act, in the de artment of causality. The resent section of our s
tudy will deal chiefly wit h the rational connexions between successive ideas in
the mind. We will not se a rate them entirely from the imaginative connexions a
lready considered, because, as the mind moves on from one idea to another, somet
imes it roceeds by a ration al road and sometimes by one directed by imagination
.

MODES OF COMPARISON 75 I have already resented the student with an outline of th

e four Roads of Though t, and ex lained that three of them involve rational acts
of com arison while th e fourth relates to strong im ressions on the imaginatio
n through the senses. Ob jects coming together in the mind are thus connected ei
ther by com arison or con tiguity. To avoid any ossible confusion of these two,
I will now give more exam les of contiguity; the student will then be in a ositi
on to ignore all cases o f contiguity while studying the three roads of com aris
on, with their subdivisio ns. Contiguity. When I think of a banyan tree, at once
I also think of the huge tree outside the window of a room where I used to writ
e, and of the squirrels an d crows which thronged its branches. A banyan tree is
not necessary to the idea of squirrels, nor are they any art or connexion of a
banyan tree; nevertheless, these have been so closely associated quite accidental
lyin my ex erience that the thought of either now evokes a icture containing both
. There are robably few of us who can think of the Duke of Wellington without so
me vision or idea of the battle of Waterloo; or again of Na oleon without some t
hought of Corsica or of the island of Saint Helena, because these are always ict
ured together in histor y; yet they are not necessary associates. A thought of W
illiam the Conqueror is almost inse arable from another of the village of Hastin
gs, not because these ar e necessarily connected, but because they are vividly,
though accidentally, res ented together in ex erience. Another case is that of G
eorge Washington and the cherry tree. Similarly we all remember incidents connec
ted with the laces where we have lived, the countries, towns, houses, rooms, fur
niture, eo le, accident s of every kindan immense collection of incidents. For me
, many events of childho od can be recalled and laced in their ro er relation an
d sequence by their con nexion with the houses in which I

76 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING lived at different times. It is a ersonal matter, in

which the contents of my m ind are bound to differ from those of others. Again
the idea of ele hants is for me articularly associated with the city of Baroda,
because when I was there fo r the first time I was each night awakened by an im
osing rocession of them as sing the balcony on which I lay. For many eo le it is
, no doubt, more closely l inked with ictures of the zoo, of great wooden bars a
nd the ringing of bells fo r ennies and biscuits. More familiarly, en is associa
ted with hand, boots with feet, carriage with horse, shi with sea, slee with bed
, s ade with garden, le tter with ost office, cow with grass, and so on to an un
limited extent. Yet all these airs of ideas have urely accidental connexions, th
e members of each ai r having no com arative relationshi with each other. They a
re contiguous, havin g a relation for sense or imagination, but not for reason.
It is different, howe ver, with banyan tree and hanging roots, squirrel and bush
y tail, crow and black colour, Wellington and Na oleon, cherry tree and blossom,
cow and horse, ossib ility and im ossibility, house and room, ele hant and trun
k, Bombay and Baroda. All these have a relationshi of com arison of some kind. A
banyan without its r oots, or an ele hant without its trunk, would be incom let
e ideas, while cows an d horses, Wellington and Na oleon, Bombay and Baroda, obv
iously resemble each ot her in their res ective airs. Let us now examine more in
detail the first three Roads of Thoughtthose concerned with com arison; the firs
t Road can be convenien tly subdivided into three, and the second and third into
two each I. Class A. Thi s occurs when one idea includes another because of a ri
nci al characteristic wh ich one has in art and the

MODES OF COMPARISON 77 other in whole. It may be otherwise ex ressed as the conn

exion between an object and the class to which it belongs. Exam les are: animal
and cow; Englishman and man; dwelling and house; drink and tea. We may symbolize
the relationshi by on e circle within another, thus B. This occurs when two idea
s or objects have a rinci al characteristic in comm on, that is, when two object
s belong to the same class. Exam les are: cow and ho rse (both animals); chair a
nd table (both articles of furniture); red and blue ( both colours); daisy and b
uttercu (both flowers); train and shi (both means of trans ort); box and bag; sn
ow and ice; father and son; beech and oak. We may sy mbolize the relationshi by
two circles overla ing, as shown in Fig. B age 78. C. This occurs when two ideas
or objects have a rinci al characteristic in com mon, but ex ress o osite degre
es in regard to it. Exam les are: hot and cold (b oth tem eratures, but o osite)
; u and down (o osite directions); animate and inanimate; curvilinear and rectil
inear; fire and water; light and darkness; sage and fool; king and easant. We ma
y symbolize the relationshi as shown in Fig. C age 78. 2. Part A. This occurs wh
en two things or ideas are res ectively whol e and art of some natural object or
idea. Exam les

FIG. B FIG. C

MODES OF COMPARISON 79 are: tree and branch; whale and blubber; Bengal and India
; sea and waves; book a nd age; box and lid; cow and horns; bird and wings; ten
and five; river and wat er. We may symbolize the relationshi thus B. This occurs
when two ideas or objects are different arts of the same whole. Exam les are: hu
ll and sails (of a shi ); thumb and finger (of a hand), root and branch (of a tr
ee); nerves and muscles; stairs and door. We may symbolize the r elationshi thus
3. Quality A. This occurs when two objects or ideas are related as object to qua
lity, or substantive to adjective. Exam les are: lead and heaviness; snow and w
h iteness; fire and heat; ball and round; bottle and glass; coin and gold;

8o MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING

B. This occurs when objects having the same rominent quality are linked togethe
r by some striking feature ossessed by both, the feature not being their class,
but a quality of each of them. Exam les are: moon and orange (both round); a e r
and snow (both white); ink and negro (both black); feathers and cotton (both l
ight); church s ire and factory chimney (both high). We may symbolize the relati
onshi thus This com letes our seven logical connexions, which, with Contiguity o
r Proximity subdivided into Co-existence and Succession, make a total of nine. I
n ractice, however, it will nearly always be sufficient to classify a connexion
as belongi ng to one or other of the four Roads of Thought: Class, Part, Quality
, or Proxim ity.

bag and leather. We may symbolize the relationshi

thus

CHAPTER XII A LOGICAL SERIES

IT often ha ens that a student requires to remember a series of things. The day
s are gone, I ho e, in which children are ex ected to reel off the names of all
the kings and queens of Israel or of England, or of the ca es on the coasts of E
uro e, Asia, Africa, or America. But it does often ha en to anyone to be a conv
enience to be able to memorize a series of foreign words. Thus we might ut toge
ther in suitable order the exce tions given by Dr. Pick as a mnemonic for the g
e nders of French nouns, referred to in Cha ter VIII. The reader will readily se
e why I have said "in suitable order" if he remembers our ex eriment with a seri
es of ideas in Cha ter II. In that case he or she must have found that it was ea
sy to remember catmilkdairyshedroofto head eyes reading book a er white m ,
im ossible to remember moon dairy head a er roof milk fame eyes ite reading
d glory cat to sun book, although the words are the same in bo the series. Let us
then run over the easily remembered series, taking two at a t ime in order, and
notice the Roads of Thought which made the remembering easy Cat and milk (Proxim
ity); milk and dairy (Proximity); dairy and shed (Part); she d and roof (Part);
roof and to (Class); to and head (Class); head and eyes (Pa rt); eyes and readin
g (Proximity); reading and book (Proximity); book and a er (Quality or Part); a
er and white (Quality); 81

82 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING white and moon (Quality) ; moon and sun (Class); sun
and glory (Quality); glory and fame (Class).
All these links could be ex ressed in a more familiar way by sim ly making sente
nces to connect each air of words. That might be more convenient for a mind qui
te unaccustomed to scientific methods and formulae. Nevertheless, the method is
not as good as that of naming the Road between each air, because the act of au
sing with the two ideas before the mind while finding the name of the Road conne
cting them creates a momentary concentration on the two ideas together, which i
s the chief cause of their being afterwards remembered together. However, for th
o se who wish sim ly to make sentences I will lay down the following two rules 1.
W hen you link two ideas together, always give a clear reason for their associa
tio n. 2. Never invent any unnatural reason. I will now illustrate these rules b
y th e following series: Yellow gold iron rails railway steam water ice snow
kin hand en a er. Yellow and gold; because gold is of yellow colour. Gold and me
tal, because gold is a metal. Metal and iron; because iron is a metal. Iron and
rails; because rai ls are made of iron. Rails and railway; because rails are art
of a railway. Rai lway and steam; because there is steam traction on most railw
ays. Steam and wate r; because these are two forms of the same thing. Water and
ice; because these a lso are two forms of one thing. Ice and snow; because they
are forms of the same thing, and are often found together in winter. Snow and so
ft; because snow is v ery soft. Soft and fur; because fur is very soft. Fur and
skin; because the fur is attached to the skin of the animal.

A LOGICAL SERIES 83 Skin and hand; because the skin is art of the hand. Hand and
en; because we ho ld a en in the hand when we write with it. Pen and a er; beca
use with a en we usually write on a er.
Putting some of these in a different order we could make a more difficult exam l
e: water a errailwaygold steamfur ensnowmetalskin. The connexions by sentences mig
at as follows A sheet of a er is smooth like the surface of calm water. Or, water
is used in making a er ul . What is the connexion between a er and rai lway ? S
ometimes carriage wheels are made of com ressed a er- ul ; also everybo dy must
be familiar with the forms of the book-stall boys running about in the b ig rail
way stations, selling their bundles of a ers. Next come railway and gold . Here
it would be rather unnatural to think of railway trucks hea ed u with go ld; it
would be better to observe that the railway com anies are immensely rich and tha
t much gold asses through their hands. How is gold related to steam ? Th e use o
f steam ower has increased the wealth of humanity enormously, and wealth is re r
esented by gold. The next air is steam and fur. Furs conserve the warmt h of the
body; warmth roduces steam from water, or let us say, steam issues fro m a hot
lace, such as a volcano, while the most valuable furs are obtained from the cold
latitudes, there being a contrast between the two ideas in this res ec t. We co
me to fur and en. The hair of animals is used (among other things) for making ar
tists' brushes, or " encils," and the brush and the en are akin, since both are
used for the same ur ose, that of writing and drawing. We might assoc iate these
two in another way. Fur and feathers are the coverings of animals and birds, re
s ectively, and a quill en is made from the feathers of a goose. As f or en and
snow, let us say the feather of a quill is as white as snow. In defer ence to ru
le 2 we must, of course, avoid making an idea such as "I find

84 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING

a en in the snow," or " I see a snow man eating a fountain en." Such ridiculosi
ties have no art in the true art of memory. Snow can be connected with metal be
cause one is soft, the other hard. Metal can be connected with skin on the groun
d that knights of old used to wear metal armour and though as a rule it did not
touch the skin, it was, as it were, a metal skin to the body. A good alternativ
e is the idea that the skin of a shi is nowadays made of metal. As an illustrati
on of the use of the Roads in remembering a number of words I will take the col
l ection of French nouns given in Cha ter VIII. Dr. Pick ut them in the followin
g order, which he considered the most convenient that could be made with these s
ecific words. I will, however, give my own Roads of Thought, as I consider them
an im rovement u on the various associations of thought ut forward by many teac
hers of mnemonics during the last few centuries. I give the English words, in o
r der to resent the meanings so lainly that he who runs may read, but let the st
udent of French re eat the series to himself only in that language. To em hasiz
e the im ortance of isolating each air of ideas and thinking of only two at a ti
me I will show the series in tabular form. Conjoin ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, tooth with
bies (Proximity); rabies with ity (Pro y); ity with mercy (Class); mercy with en
d (Proximity) ; end with eace (Proxim ity); eace with law (Proximity); law with
faith (Class); faith with virtue (Cla ss); virtue with friendshi (Class); friend
shi with nation (Proximity); nation with tribe (Class); tribe with ant (Class);
ant with mouse (Class); mouse with s hee (Class); shee with lea (Proximity or Qu
ality);

A LOGICAL SERIES Conjoin ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, lea with mare (Proximity or Quali

ty); marc with artridge (Class); artridge with forest (Proximity); forest with s
tern (Part); stem with art (Class); art with half (Class); half with age (C lassh
alf a leaf) ; age with syllable (Part or Proximity); syllable with image (C lassa
ll words are symbols). 85 For the remainder of the series I will leave the stude
nt to find the Roads for h imself or herself, as an exercise. Conjoin image with
water; water with swimming ; ,, swimming with cough; ,, cough with thirst; thir
st with hunger; ,, hunger wi th death; death with scythe; scythe with hand; hand
with skin; ,, skin with lai n; lain with nave; nave with artition-wall; artitio
n-wall with chalk; ,, chal k with glue; glue with cage; cage with screw; screw w
ith key. The reader may won der why I have so much insisted that only two ideas
be taken together. The answe r is: Because the ability to forget or ut things ou
t of mind is essential to a good memory. If you want to remember something new t
o you you must, at least for a moment, concentrate u on it in relation with some
thing which is already famil iar. It is im ossible to obtain that concentration
while you are trying not to f orget something else. To em hasize still further t
his necessity for forgetting, I will give one more exercise showing the rocess An
imal and cow (Class), forget animal; cow and horns (Part), forget cow;

86 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING horns and knife (Class or Proximity), forget horns;
kni fe and s oon (Class), forget knife; s oon and tea (Proximity), forget s oon
; te a and wakefulness (Proximity), forget tea; wakefulness and slee (Class), fo
rget wakefulness; slee and vigour (Proximity), forget slee ; vigour and Hercules
(Q uality), forget vigour; Hercules and Greece (Proximity), forget Hercules ; G
reec e and Italy (Class), forget Greece; Italy and to -boot (Quality), forget It
aly; to -boot and highwayman (Proximity), forget to -boot; highwayman and horse
(Prox imity), forget highwayman; horse and swiff (Quality), forget horse; swift
and ea gle (Quality), forget swift; eagle and eak (Proximity), forget eagle; eak
and snow (Proximity), forget eak; snow and cotton-wool (Quality), forget snow;
cott on-wool and gas (Quality), forget cotton-wool; gas and liquid (Class), forg
et ga s; liquid and sa (Class), forget liquid ; sa and bark (Part), forget sa ;
bark and skin (Class), forget bark. After studying these relationshi s, close th
e book and re eat the whole series s lowly forwards and backwards. If you have a
ny difficulty in remembering any of t hem, try every ossible device before you c
onsent to look u the list in the boo k. If in going forward you come to a sto ,
start from the end and work backward until you meet the difficulty in the rear.
If that does not avail, take the word next to the missing one, and ask yourself
whether the connexion was one of Clas s, Part, Quality, or Proximity. The recove
ry of the last idea is sure by this me thod. One should not submit to the ignomi
ny of looking u the list, either as an admission of failure, or worse still as a
ca itulation to mental indolence. The mind should be firmly made to render com
lete obedience. When re eating the wor ds you need not recall the relationshi s
or linkages, exce t when a breakdown oc curs. To com lete my em hasis u on the l
acing together of two ideas, let me ex lain further:

A LOGICAL SERIES 87 It must be observed that two se arate or dissociated ideas w

ill not co-exist in the mind without blending. A new idea can come forward in th
ought only by linkin g itself with another already in the mind. If two ideas are
brought together, ci ther they will blend into a larger unit, or the stronger w
ill ush out the weake r, which will then sli out of attention. Link two such ide
as by a third, which is common to both, and at once they will remain together co
mfortably before the attention. Picture, for exam le, in your imagination a en a
nd a hand se arately . Now try to hold these se arate ideas at once before the m
ind. You will find th at the attention runs ra idly to and fro from one object t
o the other, and each is lost in turn; but if you icture the en in the hand in t
he act of writing it becomes easy to hold them together without any variation of
attention, because they are then really one idea, the two objects having a unit
y of ur ose and act ion. The sequences of ideas which we have studied in this ch
a ter may seem somew hat artificial, but really all our life is such a sequence.
There has been a con tinuous succession and if we wish to remember something th
at has occurred within it we can often do so with the aid of outstanding landmar
ks by the roadside. Th e ways of memory are not unlike those of outer ex erience
. In finding our way ab out the outer world from one lace to another we have thr
ee articular guides. W e may reach our goal by fixing our eyes on a distant s ir
e or mountain eak, and gradually working towards it, overcoming or circumventing
such obstacles as we may find in our ath. We may follow out a well-marked road,
trusting that it wil l take us to the lace we wish to reach. We may take note o
f a succession of lan dmarks, and roceed from oint to oint with their aid. In a
well laid out count ry these are am ly rovided. There is no road without landmar
ksat this turning an inn, at that a stout and ancient oak tree, at"

88 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING another a tinkling rivulet, at the next, a farm-hous
e with a barking dog, and ch ildren laying in the yard. In the sequence of memor
ies, also, the roads have th eir landmarksideas each of which leads on to the nex
t and suggests it. With their aid the train of thought can almost always find it
s way with certainty along th e roads and aths which it has trodden before. At t
he age of six I had a severe illness, at twelve my father removed his home to a
new house, at sixteen I went to collegesuch are the ronounced memories from which
most ersons would be able to trace out details of the ast. The man of orderly a
nd well-a ointed mind fin ds himself living as in a leasant, ros erous country w
ith well-ke t roads, wel l-stocked lands and smiling gardens, whether his range
be small or large. Anothe r may live in a barren wilderness or jungle twenty tim
es as large, but to move f rom oint to oint must cross the arid, thirsty wastes
of useless knowledge, scr amble over the broken ground of mental rubbish, wade t
hrough the estiferous mar shes of illassociated thoughts, or force his ainful wa
y through the tangled und ergrowth of confused ur oses and ideas. It is, of cour
se, largely these ill-ass ociations that are res onsible for bad memories, for w
hen they are numerous the roads and tracks are almost obliterated. In the follow
ing cha ter I will try to show how the mind travels, and we may then consider th
e means to guide its futur e movement.

CHAPTER XIII FOOTSTEPS OF THOUGHT I MUST now remind the student that the mind is
dynamic and that it walks as thou gh on two feet. This I have already ex lained
. Sometimes thinking is called a fl ow of thought. Very good, but I refer the si
mile of walking, as that reminds me of the static elementsthe ideas or mental ima
ges on which the feet of the mind m ay be thought to ste . This is an im ortant
oint. Therefore, even at the risk o f re etition let me give another exam le, fr
om my own ex erience. I start by thi nking about a cat. A few moments later I fi
nd myself thinking about a very strik ingly designed iron bridge that s ans the
river Indus between the towns of Sukku r and Rohri. I might imagine, if I did no
t know the laws governing the rocess o f thought, that my mind had lea ed from t
he idea of the cat to the idea of the b ridge, that it had merely casually forgo
tten the first thing and merely casually thought of the other. But if I take the
trouble to recall what has ha ened and to study the matter I shall find that th
ere was an unbroken chain of images lea ding from the first to the last, that it
was on a definite series of ste ing st ones that I crossed between the two. I t
hought of a cat, then of a cat lying u o n a hearth-rug before a fire (a very co
mmon thing in Euro e), then of the hearth -rug without the cat, then of the hear
th-rug being made in a factory, then of a articular factory that I knew very wel
l, which was near the river Indus, and th en of the scene further u the river wh
ere the great bridge already mentioned ri ses into the air. As I have said befor
e, the rocess is just like walking; one m ental foot comes down on the idea of t
he cat, the other moves forward and rests on the idea of the hearth-rug; the 89

90 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING first foot is lifted from the cat and moves forward
to the factory. When it is s ettled there the second foot is lifted from the ide
a of the hearth-rug and broug ht down u on the river Indus. Next the first foot
is removed from the idea of th e factory and settled u on the Sukkur bridge and
so on. The rocess is also like the beating of the heart. There is first a though
t, then it is enlarged by the addition of another; then it is contracted by the
elimination of the first. Ex a nsion and contra tion of thought thus alternate a
s regularly as in the beating o f the heart. When the ex ansion takes lace consc
iousness becomes vaguer, for th e light of attention is more diffused, because i
t covers a larger field; but whe n the contraction takes lace the object is vivi
dly illumined and consciousness is at its best in oint of quality. The contracti
on is concentration; the ex ans ion is meditation. The movement is thought. Now,
two things may ha en in this rocess of thought. The attention may sim ly drift
from one image to another with no settled ur ose or direction, taking at each st
e the easiest ath, followin g old habits of thought, kee ing to the beaten track
, or going the easiest way, like a stream of water finding its way down hill. Or
it may be set to the work o f ex loration and discovery in a certain definite d
irection decided u on before the rocess begins. The first of these alternatives
is mind-wandering; the secon d is thinking. Some minds scarcely do anything but
wander; others are ca able of thought. Knowing this, we are in a osition to ract
ise thinking, just as defin itely as we can undertake muscular develo ment with
or without hysical a aratu s. We may convert our thought-activities from streams
of mud and sand into chain s of gold. Let us define some of our words and see w
here we stand. (1) The atten tion is what is commonly called the will, which is
ourself awake, ex anding and contracting like a heart.

FOOTSTEPS OF THOUGHT 91 s anning ortions of what we may call the mental world, a
s with two feet. (2) Th e mental world is a subjective region full of ideas. As
the attention oises its elf on one of these, whether sim le or com lex (a larger
or smaller ortion of t hat world) it can look around and see some of the mental
scenery, the ideas conn ected with that u on which it rests. (3) Thought is the
rocess of moving from o ne foot to the other. Ideas are mental objects; thought
is mental travel; the wi ll is the traveller. Let us examine these more fully.
There is a sense in which we are all very much aloof from the world. Our life is
really in our minds; ther e we see the reflections of the objects around us; th
ere we feel our leasures a nd ains. Sitting in this mind I am at the moment some
what aloof from my surroun dings, and intent only on my writing. Su ose I sto wr
iting for a moment and lo ok round. In front of me are the table and chairs, on
and against the walls are book-shelves, cabinets, a clock, a calendar, ictures,
and numerous other things . I look through the windows and there are the to s of
the alm and mango trees, the white March clouds of Madras, and beyond them the
ethereal blue. I attend t o my ears instead of my eyesa crow squawks over on the
left; the clock ticks on t he wall; footste s shuffle along the corridor; there
is a murmur of distant voic es; a squirrel chirru s near at hand; some andits ar
e droning in the Sanskrit l ibrary near by; a ty ewriter rattles somewhere else;
and behind all these is the roar of the breakers of the Bay of Bengal on the be
ach half a mile away. I atte nd more closely, and hear the blood rumbling in my
ears and the long-drawn whist le of some obscure hysiological rocess.,, I turn m
y attention to my skin, and now I feel the en u on which my fingers gently ress,
the clothes u on my back, the chair on which I sit (I might say "in which" if i
t were more comfortable), the floor u on which my feet are

92 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING laced; the warm soft wind ressing u on and wafting m
y hands and face. I wish t o em hasize this oint: at any moment I am aware of on
ly a tiny fragment of the world. I have travelled about in this body for a numbe
r of years, seen, heard an d felt many things in different arts of the world, bu
t how little of that ex er ience of mine can exist in my consciousness at any mo
ment, and how inex ressibly small even the whole of it has been in com arison wi
th all that exists which I have not seen or known! I must acce t my natural limi
tations, but fortunately I am not a mere mirror in which the objects of the worl
d reflect themselves. I hav e the ower of attention. I can ignore some things, a
nd ay attention to others. This a lies to both sense-objects and ideas. This bei
ng so, let us understand the value of control of the mind, so that what we do we
do intentionally. Let us train the mind (1) to move in the direction we have ch
osen, and (2) to extend a nd im rove its range of vision, its ability to see cle
arly and rightly the event s which it meets on the road of life. Before we consi
der (1) let us look again a t (2), which is concerned with the static elements,
or ste ing-stones, in the rocess of thought. When the foot of thought comes down
u on an idea it does so l ike that of an ele hant, which s reads when it settle
s, and covers a certain amo unt of s ace. Therefore when you turn your attention
to an idea you do not find a solitary, clear-cut thing, but one thing associate
d with many others. Material ly that is the case also; you cannot find anything
by itselfbooks without eyes to read them, ens without a er to write on, shoes wit
hout feet to be covered, cu s without mouths to be oured into, houses without eo
le to live in them, are unthinkable things.

FOOTSTEPS OF THOUGHT 93 But every idea has a centre where the vision is clear, f
rom which it gradually s hades away. Just as when I fix my eyes u on the ink-bot
tle before me I see also vaguely other things on the table, the articles of furn
iture to left and right, the trees in the garden outside, a multitude of details
; so also when I fix my a ttention on a articular thought I find a mass of thoug
hts around it, gradually shading off, becoming more indefinite as more remote, a
nd finally losing themsel ves at no definite limit. So our ste ing-stones may be
large or small, on accou nt of various factors, es ecially our familiarity with
the subject and our degre e of concentration at the moment.

CHAPTER XIV THE POWER OF A MOOD WE have already seen that when I thought of a ca
t I thought of a hearth-rug (whi ch is one of the ideas that can come out of tha
t magic box), but I might a aren tly equally well have thought of whiskers, milk
, claws, or mice. One of such ide as was sure to form the next ste ing-stone in
my chain of ideas or flow of thou ght. This chain of thoughts resents an unbroke
n succession. Each idea is succee ded by another, like the links in a chain. As
in time things follow one after an other, only two moments with their contents b
eing linked directly together, so i n the flow of mental activity images follow
one after another, only two being di rectly connected. There is some kind of a c
hoice at every ste in the rocess of thought, and it is instructive to observe to
what widely se erate goals every arting of the ways may lead, since every idea
calls u such a great variety of a ssociations. When I used to look at the banyan
tree outside my window I saw and heard the throngs of crows and squirrels; and
now any thought of a banyan tree w ill at once bring within its circle a vision
of this articular tree, with its s reading branches and hanging roots, the fernots beneath it, the audacious cro ws and the chattering, shrieking, stri ed bro
wn squirrels. But at once thoughts of other kinds of trees also enter into the c
ircle of attention, though further from the centre; the tall, straight alm, the
wrinkled oak, the slender o lar, the sad, shorn willow of central England, the t
rim ine among the northern snows . Then again, as I view the s reading branches
of the banyan tree and its many t runks, bearing the weight of giant arms ten ce
nturies old, my mind runs back to the history which it might tellof the floods of
the river running near, 94

THE POWER OF A MOOD 95 of the building of houses and the making of roads, and, f
ar back in the ast, of the breezy jungle growth, the jackals and the tigers, the
birds and the monkeys and the countless ants and scor ions and snakes which hav
e nestled in its hollo ws and lived among its branches in the centuries ast. If
my mood changes again I might notice its vast extent a mountain of woodand think h
ow an army might shelt er beneath it, how it would give timber to build ten hous
es or make a thousand r oaring fires. Thus the banyan tree calls u different kin
ds of thoughts accordin g to my mood. The manner in which anyone's thought will
turn at the arting of t he ways which occurs at every ste in thought de ends u o
n his mood. Consider th is idea of the tree. It has many thoughts attached to it
, such as those mentione d above, or those re resented in the following diagram 1
. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Garden, field, etc. Banyan, ine, etc. Age, size, value, et c
. Bush, hedge, lant, etc. Leaves, branch, bark, etc. Crows, squirrels, insects ,
etc. Seed, blossom, fruit, etc., and so on. TREE If I were a farmer my thought
might ass along line 7 to an idea of fruit. Fruit would then become the centre o
f another circle of ideas, those belonging to lin es 1 to 6 having been assed by
, almost or entirely unnoticed. The mind might th en ass on to the idea of marke
t, a thought which has no direct connexion with t he tree, and the tree is now f
orgotten as the moving attention ursues its cours e. If I were a merchant my tho
ught might find itself somewhere on line 3, intere sted in lumber, which is dire
ctly connected with the thought of the tree, and fr om that it might ass on to t
he current rices of timber, and on to financial an d banking questions and other
matters still more remote. A naturalist might ass along line 6; a huntsman or a

96 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING leasure-seeker along line 1. Almost all would lose s
ight of the tree at the thi rd ste of thought. It is marvellous to what an exten
t the future de ends u on t he choice I make at every moment as to my next ste i
n thought. The following di agram illustrates how slight is the arting of the wa
ys of thought, but how wide asunder the aths soon go Bridge, etc. Indus Factory H
earth- rug Ganges Wheel Wool Cat Dairy Milk Baby Rattle Thunder, etc. Cradle Cel
luloid It is a choice between many ways that is being offered to us at every mom
ent. Ou r attention is being called from a great number of directions at once. T
here is an endless com etition among the objects of the senses for our notice; t
here is likewise an endless com etition among the ideas within the world of the
mind for our attention. The attention finds itself surrounded with various allur
ing bait s. Which will he take at any given time ? Will he refer the hearth-rug
or the m ilk ? In the succession of ideas, what is the nature of that internal m
ood which determines that one idea rather than another shall be a ro riated, sha
ll be ra ised to the throne in our minds, in the succession that takes lace ther
e ? Why should it not be some other idea, which is quite as closely associated w
ith the original one? Let me ut the roblem in another way. Su ose I am

THE POWER OF A MOOD 97 sitting at my desk in the centre of my room when suddenly
all the four doors o e n at once, and with the recision of the cuckoo from an o
ld cottage clock my fri ends Smith, Brown, Jones and Robinson enter and exclaim
with one voice: "Ah, Woo d, I want to consult you about something !" Which will
first claim my sur rised attention ? This will certainly de end u on something.
It will de end u on the m ood of my mind. The only other thing which could deter
mine it would be some unus ual eculiarity in attire or gesture, which we are not
su osing to be resent. If Brown were dressed as a Turk he would claim first att
ention; but in the absen ce of any such startling or abnormal thing, nothing but
the mood of the mind at the moment could determine which selection the attentio
n would make. Again, su ose that I am engaged in the work of utting a book throu
gh the ress, and someo ne comes to the door and calls out: "Proofs!" I have visi
ons of rinted sheets a nd the drudgery of correcting them. If I am engaged in st
udying a scientific ro blem, the same sound will immediately awaken a totally di
fferent set of ideas. H ere it is clear that the difference which determines the
sequence lies in the mi nd, not in the outside world. Similarly, if Mr. Lincoln
Inn, the eminent barrist er, is in London, and someone utters in his hearing th
e word "bag," he at once t hinks of briefs and all the ara hernalia of his rofes
sion; but if it is the va cation and he is engaged in his favourite s ort of sho
oting u on the Scottish mo ors, the word at once brings before him gratifying vi
sions of forlornlooking bir ds tied by the legs, and leasant recollections of hi
s skill and rowess and as t trium hs on the field of s ort. At different times d
ifferent moods ur oses, hab its, and interestsdominate our minds, and it is the mo
od which is the cause that one idea rather than another should be selected from
the many that surround ever y thought and object. As a owerful magnet olarizes s
oft iron within a

98 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING considerable area, not only in immediate roximity, s
o does the tem orary or er manent mood olarize each incoming idea as soon as it
a roaches the outermost s here of the field of attention. Most of us are familia
r with the schoolboy ex e riment with a test-tube loosely filled with iron filin
gs. We corked it and laid it flat u on the table, and as we assed a magnet slowl
y over it we watched the filings rise and turn over and lay themselves all in th
e same direction, so that they became a lot of little magnets all acting togethe
r. And we then found by e x eriment that the tube of filings had become a magnet
. At first the filings lay higgledy- iggledy; even if they had then been magnets
the influence of one woul d have neutralized that of its neighbour, because of
their different directions ; but now that they lie in line they act together as
a magnet, influencing all s oft iron that is brought near to them. So also if yo
ur thoughts lie higgledy- ig gledy in the mind, ointing in all directions, their
effects will destroy one an other. If you want to know the resent condition of
your mind, observe the natur e of your thoughts when you are not deliberately th
inking of something definiteth ey form the background of the mind, and it is ossi
ble that they may be a confus ed and sorry crowd. If we desire success in any ar
ticular ursuit, we had bette r olarize those thoughts. We can now understand tha
t success in the ursuit of any aim may be romoted by our establishing a ermanent
mood in its direction. W hen this is done, even the most trifling or the most a
dverse events will fall in to line and rove of service to us in the gaining of o
ur end. The will controls thought. It can form a mood covering a eriod of time o
r a s ecific enter rise. If you would like to undertake a little ex eriment in k
ee ing a mood through a s eries of ideas try the following O en a book at random,
and note the first noun t hat catches your eye; this idea will be your starting
- oint. Next

THE POWER OF A MOOD 99 o en it at a different age, and again take the first noun
; this will be your go al. You are interested in reaching that goal. It determin
es your mood for the ti me being. Then think consecutively from the starting- oi
nt to the goal. For exam le, I have turned u "law," then " ortal"; I must think
away from "law," kee in g " ortal" in view until I reach it. This roves to be an
easy matter, for I thi nk of a certain law court that I know, which has a strik
ingly gloomy entrance. A second case: "cloak" and "bottle." Again it is easy bec
ause my wife has a bottl e-green rain-coat. A third case: "turmoil" and "wall";
I might think of many thi ngs in connexion with turmoil, but under the resent co
nditions I find myself th inking of a medieval battle against the wall of an old
fort near which is a coll ege where I served as Princi al for some years. These
exercises will hel you to realize how a mood im osed by the will actually works
, and will assist you to i m ose one ermanently or tem orarily on the mind at an
y time, so that your life may be concentrated on a definite ur ose. In addition
to its general ur ose in life, you will find the ower to im ose moods very usefu
l as enabling you to tu rn ra idly and effectively from one iece of work to anot
her.

CHAPTER XV EXPANSION OF IDEAS IN Cha ter III we have studied how to develo conce
ntration by thinking of many things connected with a chosen object, taking care
at the same time not to lose sight of it. For that ur ose we made use of the fou
r Roads of Thought. Now I r o ose to the student a very similar ex eriment for t
he ur ose of ex anding idea s, so that he may be able to do his best thinking ab
out any object. Select your object, let us say "house," and roceed to clothe it
with all its directly conne cted ideas. The result may be somewhat as follows, b
ut should be much fuller, as there is not room here for a com lete icture. HOUSE
Road I. A. Abode, dwelling, domicile, residence, habitation, address, lodging.
B . Cottage, mansion, cabin, shed, hut, hovel, tent, shanty, barrack, alace, cas
t le, kennel, sty, en, nest, hive, wigwam, hutch, villa, lodge, hotel, inn, bung
a low. C. Prison. Road II. A. Room, hearth, floor, wall, door, roof, foundation,
b rick, mortar, tile. Village, town, farm, cam , ark, block, row, square, stree
t, road, terrace. B. Warehouse, sho , factory, field, orchard, garden, barn. Roa
d III. A. Large, small, comfortable, ugly, beautiful, new, old, Elizabethan, Geo
rg ian, Colonial, modern, stone, brick, wood, concrete, country, town. B. Museum
, s chool, factory, worksho , store, church, tem le.

EXPANSION OF IDEAS 101 Road IV. A. Furniture, crockery, fire, water, electricity
, gas, bath, architect, builder. Also houses you have known or articularly notic
ed. B. Comfort, safety , health, com anionshi , cleaning. As another exam le I w
ill take an abstract su bject PEACE Road I. A. Virtue. B. Harmony, concord, frien
dshi , calm, agreement, sym athy. C. War, enmity. Road II. A. Good citizenshi ,
worthiness, holiness. B. Industry, devotion, erseverance, altruism. Road III. A.
Fraternity, friendline ss, tranquillity. B. Sym athy, game, agreement, arbitrat
ion, goodhumour, co-o er ation. Road IV. A. Pi e, treaty, League of Nations, lou
ghshare, astoral scene, acifism. B. Safety, commerce, rogress, armistice, truce.
It will be noticed t hat some of the above lines of thought have two subdivisio
ns. In IV B, for exam le, we have to consider what eace leads to, and what leads
to eace. In actual ex eriment along these lines the student will find that he h
as to do much thinki ng. He will onder a moment to consider how eace is a virtue
. He will consider whether a factory is art of the same whole along with a house
, or is another ob ject having the same quality as a house; he will robably fina
lly agree with me that it is bothfor they are often co- arts of a town or village
, and they also ha ve an outstanding quality in common, the character of being s
helters from the su n, wind or rain. Some may consider that I am wrong in utting
rison in contrast to house, and that I should have ut "the out-of-doors," and t
hat I am wrong in including such

102 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING things as hive, nest and kennel in objects belongin
g to the same class. Perha s I am wrong in those cases, but the student must agr
ee that this exercise gives a good training in the art of thinking. To do it you
are com elled to think.

CHAPTER XVI NUMBER ARGUMENTS AND DIAGRAMS all ersons find it difficult to rememb
er numbers, because these do not in thems elves re resent objects evident to the
senses and therefore material for imagina tion. We can easily imagine two gate
osts, three sides of a triangle, six surfa ces of a cube, but when we go beyond
this it becomes increasingly difficult to i magine the quantities of even quite
definite things. It is still more difficult to icture the numbers re resenting q
uantities of units of measure. A teacher ma y "feel" that there are thirty-five
or forty boys in his class by seeing them in com lete or broken grou s, but of t
hings such as the number of feet in a mile, or the square root of a number, only
a s ecially constituted mind could form the slightest image. Numbers in themsel
ves are meaningless in the imagination. Notw ithstanding this abstract character
of numbers, they have some distinguishable f eatures in their relationshi s to
one another. It is therefore ossible to devel o a greatly im roved memory of num
bers by studying these features, so as to acq uire familiarity with their distin
ctions. To a very little child a cat and a dog are not at first clearly differen
t kinds of things, but later it observes their oints of difference and recognize
s them easilyno longer as indistinguishable tw ins. When non-Asiatic ersons first
go to Ja an or India, they often say that th e Ja anese or the Hindu eo le are
all alike. Frequently they find themselves in the embarrassing osition of not be
ing able to distinguish those to whom they h ave been introduced a day or two be
fore. But later on they have no such difficul ty. At first the general colour an
d formation of face dominated the mind, and on ly after it had become quite used
to these features did it begin NEARLY 105

106 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING to discriminate the minor differences. In time, ind
eed, the new resident forgets the brown colour and does not notice it at all. Si
milarly do we a reciate the facial merits of our loved relatives, who may be hom
ely or even re ulsive to oth ers. To add another exam le; it has often been rema
rked that a she herd recogniz es by their features the members of his flock, whi
ch look alike to ordinary ers ons. Most eo le have not develo ed a sense of the
relations between numbers, an d have not ractised thinking about themhence their
inability to recognize and re member them. When this faculty of the mind has bee
n develo ed by ractice of num ber arguments, the numbers will become familiar re
alities with strong features o f their own, and will be remembered with com arat
ive ease. Let us su ose that y ou want to remember your new tele hone number, wh
ich is 8715. Write the number d own, look at it, and do all the reasoning that y
ou can about it, on the followin g lines: the first number is even and it is the
biggest; the other three are odd , and of those three the biggest comes first a
nd is one less than the even numbe r; the middle odd number is the smallest ossi
ble; if you add the last two you h ave a descending series from 8; the addition
of the two middle numbers equals th e firstand so on. It is a great hel in the re
membering of long numbers to divide them into grou s, in much the same way as lo
ng words are divided into syllables . The resent number conveniently breaks into
8 and 715. Looking over the balcon y where I am writing this aragra h I see a m
otor car standing in the roadnumber 208457. This easily s lits into two arts, 208
4 and 57. The first art has only even numbers, if we may consider 0 in the even
series; the last art has two odd numbers, which are ascending and successive, an
d follow in order (5 after 4) fr om the first art. The first art begins with the
smallest

NUMBER ARGUMENTS AND DIAGRAMS 107 ositive even number, ascends after o to the hi
ghest and then goes on to half th at or double the firstand so on. The following
ha ens to be the number on a cert ain ass ort: 062246. It resents the eculiarity
of being com osed only of even numbers. It s lits comfortably into three, 06, 2
2 and 46. The middle air is ea sily remembered, and the other two may be com are
d. Both end in 6; the first num ber of the last air is the sum of the middle air
, and the second number follow s it successively; the sum of the last air is equ
al to the sum of all the restan d so on. There is no grou of numbers that cannot
be discussed in this way. Afte r considering for half a minute any tele hone or
other number you will find it leasantly reclining in your mind whenever you want
to remember it. The arguments will disa ear, but the number will remain, and yo
u will robably soon find als o that your observation and memory for numbers have
been greatly im roved, so th at you can remember them far better than before, e
ven without s ecial intention and without resort to these number arguments. Let
us now turn to a method of rem embering numbers Which I have called "Number Diag
rams." Look for a little while at the first diagram above, which is nothing more
than a square containing nine dots in the centres of the nine equal divisions i
nto whi ch it is easily broken u in the imagination. Then look at the second dia
gram, a nd imagine that the divisions of the square have the values of 1 to 9, a
s shown. In the first diagram the middle dot can be su osed to

108 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING stand for the number 5, the dot in the lower left-h
and corner for the number 7, that in the u er right-hand corner for 3, and so on
. Thus, an imaginary square containing a dot or a little dash, as below, will co
nstitute a diagram for the n umber 6. Two Digits. To form a diagram for a number
having two digits, sim ly dr aw a line from the one osition to the other, strai
ght if the smaller comes firs t, curved if the bigger comes first, as in the fol
lowing, re resenting 34, 95 an d 28. Three Digits. If the number contains three
or more digits, always begin with a s traight line and end with a curved one; th
us we may ex ress 458, 242, 6138, 5736 , 24691 and 759523 by.

NUMBER ARGUMENTS AND DIAGRAMS 109 If the three numbers ha en to lie in a straigh
t line, a break in the line shoul d be made, as will be seen in the following di
agrams of 258 and 1598: A little com lication is introduced if two similar digit
s ha en to come togethe r, but the difficulty is overcome by the device of makin
g a little tick across t he line to indicate the second similar digit; thus, for
553, 227 and 445599 we f orm A further com lication arises in connexion with the
ci her. In this case insert a little circle into the series; thus, for 20, 202
and 22005550 we have If the ci her comes first in the number, detach it at the be
ginning if there are only two digits, but attach

110 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING it if there are more, as in the following, re resen
ting 02, 026 and 073. A decimal oint may be indicated by a dot laced in that one
of the nine divisio ns of the square which corres onds to the osition of the nu
mber before which it is to be laced. Thus if the oint is to be laced before the
first digit, it w ill be ut in the first division, and so on, as in the followin
g exam les, showi ng 423, 423 and 423. It is a hel to make the number diagrams of a
generous size in the imaginationas big as an average icture or even a window fra
me. The two ractices in this cha ter lend themselves to immediate em loyment in
ractical affairs, so no s ecial exercises need be rescribed.

CHAPTER XVII NUMBER-WORDS IN the year 1648 Stanislaus Mink von Wenusheim wrote a
work entitled Relatio Nov issima ex Parnasso de Arte Meminiscentiae,1 in the co
urse of which he ex ounded what he described as "the most fertile secret." This
"secret" consisted in subst ituting letters for numbers and then making words an
d sentences from the letters . He a ears to have been the first mnemotechnist to
em loy this lan in Euro e, and his method was quickly taken u and im roved by t
he famous G. W. Leibnitz, who also called it a secret"A secret how numbers, es ec
ially those of chronology, etc., can be conveyed to the memory so as never to be
forgotten."2 Dr. Richard Grey was the first to ex ound the idea in English, in
his Memoria Technica, ubl ished in 1730. It cannot be said that Dr. Grey's numbe
r letters were very satisf actory, for it was ossible to make from them only unc
outh words, whereas for th e benefit of mind and memory we require words naming
familiar objects or ideas. In Dr. Grey's system 1 could be re resented by either
a or b, 2 by either d or e , 3 by either i or tI need not mention the rest of th
e equivalents. To remember ( to take only one exam le) that the Inquisition was
first erected against the Alb igenses in the year 1222, he formed the com ound w
ord, "Inquisded"the first art to re resent the Inquisition, and the "ded" to re r
esent the number 222, the tho usand being ignored as not being likely to be forg
otten. Gregor von Feinaigle (1 812) im roved u on that clumsy system by giving n
umber-values only to consonants , and 1 2
111

"Parnassus" was the name of a eriodical, e Library of Hanover.

ublished at Marburg. From a MS. in th

112 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING kee ing the vowels free, so that they might be inse
rted between the consonants t o form well-known words. His al habet was: 1 = t;
2 = n; 3 = m; 4 = r; 5 = 1; 6 = d; 7 = c, k, g, q; 8 = b, h, v, w; 9 = , f; o =
s, x, z. From these equivalen ts the number 812 (I take it from the date of ubli
cation of his work, as a rand om exam le) could be re resented by words such as
"button," "obtain," or "Wotan. " Other teachers of memory systemsnotably Aime Par
is, Francis Fauvel Gouraud, Dr. Edward Pick, and others more recent, worked furt
her u on this idea of number eq uivalents, introducing small im rovementsmostly a
ttem ts to rovide for each numb er a more or less equal re resentation. The lowe
r case of a ractical rinter sh ows that certain letters are used in the English
language much more frequently t han others. Those which are com aratively little
used should therefore be grou e d in lots, each lot to re resent one number. I
have studied most of these system s, and as a result have formed my own, which I
believe to be a slight im rovemen t u on even the best of any of the others. It
ha ened that nearly twenty-five y ears ago I had a long illness, and during con
valescence I had to lie down quietl y for about six weeks. I took the o ortunity
during that time to study the comb inations of the letters in all the commonly
used words in the English dictionary . Before I ex lain the method, in which I n
aturally ado ted all that was best in the old systems, I must mention that the "
fertile secret" was known among the Hindus long ago. I have before me a set of
number-equivalents for the Sanskrit l anguage given in Nilakantha's Commentary o
n the " Mahabharata" (Adi Parva, end o f Sarga 2). His system was called " Kata
ayadi." His number-equivalents were for consonants only as shown in the table on
age 113. I insert this only as a curi osity for Euro ean readers, and

NUMBER-WORDS 113 so refrain from ex laining the honetics of the Sanskrit al habe
t. One of the us es of this system is found in a commentary on the " Ramayana,"
in which the numb er of verses is given in mnemonic form at the ends of certain
sections. We find a arently unmeaning words ending in "mana" (a measure), such a
s garamana, which would indicate the number 32. The system is also referred to i
n other laces, s uch as Vararuchi's "Kadinava" and the "Laghu Arya Siddhanta." N
ow to the system which I advocate. It s rings from a study based u on a recognit
ion that the numb ers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, are robably used equally in
human affairs, bu t the letters of the al habet are not, and further, some lette
rs are rare at the beginnings or the ends of words, while others are common. 1 i
s to be re resente d by t, or d. Thus the following words may stand for number 1
: head, tea, toe, d oe, hot, oat, wad, yacht, youth, thaw, etc. 2 is to be re re
sented by n. Words f or number 2: hen, knee, wain, neigh, etc., 3 is to be re re
sented by m. Words fo r number 3: yam, may, home, ma, aim, etc. 4 is to be re re
sented by r. Words for number 4: oar, row, ray, arrow, etc. 5 is to be re resent
ed by 1. Words for num ber 5 : hill, hall lea, yellow, etc.

114 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING 6 is to be re resented by ch, j or sh. Words for nu
mber 6: joy, wish, ash, edge, show, chew, etc. 7 is to be re resented by k, g, o
r ng. Words for number 7: cow , hag, egg, hang, ache, etc. 8 is to be re resente
d by f or v. Words for number 8: foe, vow, half, wave, fee, etc. 9 is to be re r
esented by or b. Words for n umber 9: a e, bee, ho e, web, abb, hub, etc. o is to
be re resented by s or z. Wo rds for number 10: hose, saw, haze, zoo, ass, etc.
The letters h, w and y, and t he vowels, have no numbervalues in our method, bu
t may be used for word-making w herever convenient. Only the sound of words (not
the s elling) is considered, an d double letters are always used as though sing
le, as in "yellow." It is very ea sy with these number-letters to find a great v
ariety of words re resenting numbe rs from 1 to 100: in many cases, such as 10,
14, 15, 41, 50, 51, 57, 70, 85, 90, 91, 94, 95, 97, one can readily write down a
bout forty words for each number. W hen we come to numbers between 100 and 1000,
it is a little more difficult, and the student will find that, while he can rea
dily write down several words for mo st of the numbers there will be over two hu
ndred out of the nine hundred numbers which will give him ause. If we choose the
number 742 for exam le, we may read ily form corn, crane, green, carrion, grain
, acorn, cairn, etc. For 945 we easil y discover A ril, earl, rowl, broil, arole
, eril, arley, barley, barrel, a arel, beryl, brawl, etc. For 114 we readily fin
d daughter, editor, theatre, deb tor, auditor, tutor, tooter, dater, etc. But th
e following numbers, among others , resent difficulties: 993, 963, 896, 699, 598
, 599, 568, 525,-499, 418, 353, 1 35To overcome these difficulties I suggest the
following

NUMBER-WORDS 115 lan: use an adjective and a noun together, and count only the f
irst consonant s ound of the adjective. We can then form, for the above numbers,
e ic oem, rowl ing uma (993); ure jam, recious gem (963); flowery bush, full ag
e (896); shy baby, cherry-wood i e (699); lean beef, light uff (598); lively u y
, lead i e (599); Highland chief, yellow sheaf (568); long nail, lower Nile (525
); rest less baby, ruling o e (499); running thief, ra id dive (418); meek lamb,
mortar ed lime (353); daily mail, hot meal (135). It is necessary in all such c
ases to make a very lively image to re resent the adjective. Vague and general a
djective s, such as nice, good, bad, leasant, etc., are to be strictly avoided.
Students do not nowadays need to remember long lists of dates in history and of
numbers in science and mathematics, as was formerly the case, so numbers of more
than th ree digits are rarely needed. In history, one needs only three digits f
or dates, as the thousands may easily be remembered without any s ecial attentio
n being g iven to them. When we have settled that we do not want more than three
digits in one word, we may, if we wish, em loy the method of counting only the
first thre e consonant sounds in a long word, or if we use an adjective, the fir
st sound in the adjective and the first two in the noun. We may then form number
-words such as the following: flowing river (848); boomerang (934); book-case (9
77); wild e le hant (558); blue lotus (951); young igeon (796). The number-words
, when form ed, can be associated without difficulty in all the ways that I have
already ind icated, and from them the numbers can readily be drawn. The followi
ng will serve as a little exercise for the student. Convert these numbers into a
sentence by first finding as

116 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING

many words as you can for each: 2, 3175, 1741, 1953. 2, 651, 510, 6415, 1, 9, 2141
01, 9, 1, 45, 756, 8, 80620, 21, 1, 45. 756, 8, 04620.10, 01956321, 010, 2, 012
1 41,14,17140, 67, 1, 09650, 2, 1, 74, 8, 65142. The key to the above sentence i
s: "A new medical degree the Di loma in Child Healthis shortly to be introduced by
t he Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons. Its establi
shm ent sets, a new standard for doctors wishing to s ecialize in the care of ch
ildr en." In the last cha ter I gave a tele hone number, 8715, a motor-car numbe
r, 20 8457, and a ass ort number, 062246. If we wish to remember these by the nu
mberword method we could form "full kettle," "unsafe rowlock," and "such inane r
ush" res ectively. In this case we must remember that we are using the adjective
s in full in reference to the two larger numbers. Now let us su ose that the tel
e h one, the motor car and the ass ort belong res ectively to a Mr. Smith, a Mr.
Br own and a Mr. Robinson; we can connect the numbers with those ersons by: ful
l k ettlere air to kettletinsmithSmith; unsafe rowlock-boatdrownBrown ;such inane rush
a rrobberyRobinson. If they are your own tele hone, motor car and ass ort you may
r emember them by: full kettlebubbling sound ringing soundtele hone; unsafe rowlockb
oa tconveyancemotor car; such inane rushtravel ass ort. The student may erha s im ro
ve u on these associations; I have given the first that came into my head. A man
w ith a good memory for numbers, and thoroughly familiar with their mani ulatio
n, might be able, with some effort, to remember a dozen or twenty digits once re
ad out to him; but it would be indeed difficult to find a man who could remember
, s ay, a thousand numbers in that way, though the task of doing so by our metho
d of substitution is sim licity itself.

NUMBER-WORDS 117 There are several ways of arranging the digits in a very long n
umber. The method I recommend is that of taking them in grou s of three and then
finding number-w ords for them. I will take at random921840365719283605712823701
562394. For this I may form the following series of words: bind, freeze, marine
shell, cool di , new vim, chisel, cotton, venom, ghost, legion, em ire. These w
ords are almost th e first that occur to me, and are by no means necessarily the
best. I use them t o show what can be done off-hand, though it is better genera
lly to go over the n umbers and choose the words more carefully when there is ti
me. The next ste is to link the words by intermediaries, where necessary, as, bi
nd (fix) freeze (wat er) marine shell (sea) cool di (nudity) new vim (keen, tool
) chisel (shavings, soft, cotton-wool) cotton (cotton-thread, stringy, snake) ve
nom (fear) ghost (de ad, dead warriors) legion (Roman legion) em ire. Another me
thod of making number -words was "discovered" by M. Gouraud, and ex ounded in hi
s PhrenoMnemotechny, ublished in New York and London in 1845. He called it "numb
er metamor hosis." Hi s metamor hoses were made through similarity of sound. The
name of some object o f sense was substituted for the name of the number, thus:
for the figure zero, h ero; for the number one, a wand; for the number two, a t
ooth; for three, a tree; for four, a fort; and so on. These metamor hosed words
or "homo hones" were use d as " egs" on which to hang nine or ten numbers each,
while the ten numbers wer e formed into a sentence on the rinci le of number-wor
ds. M. Gouraud showed how to a ly this method to kee ing in mind the ratio of th
e circumference to the d iameter of a circle to the extent of 154 decimals, a fe
at which he erformed by learning sixteen sim le sentences.

118 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING The first nine numbers are 3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 , for
which he formed the ridiculou s sentence: "My deary dolly, be no chilly." This,
the first set, is the "hero" s et, and was linked with that word by the su ositi
on that a hero was uttering th e sentence. The sentences are difficult to make,
and the Unking is decidedly ri mitive, but a art from these elements, the scheme
of metamor hosed key-numbers roves very useful. It may, for exam le, be used as
roviding starting- oints for a series of our number-words, which may very readi
ly be linked on to it. We may choose thirty numbers, as before, 9218403657, 1928
360571, 2823701562, and remem ber them in three sets of ten, each receded by one
of the key-words. The digits from the first to the tenth will be under the aegi
s of '"hero," the eleventh to the twentieth under "wand," and so on. Thus for th
e foregoing numbers we may ma ke three sets: hero, bone, devour, smash, leg; wan
d, ta , knife, images, locket; tooth, hen, fan, hammock, stall, chain. These cou
ld be connected, where it is n ecessary, by (mighty dead), (hungry dog), (crunch
), (broken leg); (blow), (cut), (gleaming and mirror), ( ortrait); (beak), (feat
her), (swing), (rest), (ro e). This method facilitates the location of the digit
s, and enables one to ick out a number required, without the trouble of counting
along the whole series. A thi rd lan, which I refer to M. Gouraud's, is to sele
ct number-words for key-words , instead of homo hones; for exam le, instead of h
ero, use ice, sea, saw, ass, s ow, sue, ease, essay, hose, house, or any other z
ero word; instead of wand use t ea, tie, add, oat, toe, height, youth, or any ot
her word standing for the number one. In this case it is easy to find a word sui
ted to the series which it is re quired to begin. It will now be seen that the t
ask of remembering dates is a ver y easy one. All that needs to be done is to ta
ke the last three digits of the da te, form a word from them, and connect

NUMBER-WORDS 119 this in turn with the idea of the event by our link method. The
re are, of course , other devices useful to students, such as that of making cha
rts of centuries, divided into squares for each year or ten years, and fixing sm
all symbols in eac h square to re resent the ha enings of the eriod. I will cont
ent myself with o ne or two exam les of the link method: Queen Boadicea raised a
n army against the Romans and killed 7000 of them, in the year A.D. 67check. King
Arthur, famous fo r his owerful resistance and victories over the Saxons, A.D.
514leader. Queen El izabeth ascended the English throne, 1558fond of raiselady-love
. Germany annexed Austria, 1938, bold move. Transatlantic air mail began, 1939,
airair- um um .

CHAPTER XVIII PLACING THE MEMORY IN a revious cha ter I have mentioned that the
Greek oet Simonides had the ide a of symbolizing com lex or abstract ideas so as
to remember them easily. The ex am les I took were from a hy othetical discours
e in which government, financial matters and naval affairs and the necessity for
wisdom in the olicy of the time , would be re resented res ectively by a crown
or sce tre, a current coin, the i mage of a shi , and the figure of Minerva. We
are also indebted to him for the i dea of using laces or ositions in which to ut
ideas for safe-kee ing in the m ind, much as we ut a ers in igeon-holes or file
s. Su ose that we rovide our laces in a house which is quite familiar to us. The
n, if we enter our house at the front door and number all the objects we see in
turnthe doormat I, the brass ste 2, a icture 3, a hatrack 4, an umbrella stand 5,
and so onwe have at once a basis for remembering a large number of things in ord
er. In the discourse abov e mentioned we might lace the crown on the doormat, th
e coin on the brass ste , the shi in the icture, a statue of Minerva on the hatr
ack, and so on. Thus th e s eaker could avoid missing any of them in the course
of his s eech or debate. The incident which led Simonides to this mnemonic devic
e of laces is related a s follows by Cicero. I have taken it from Dr. Pick's His
tory of Mnemonics (1866) . "A man named Sko as, at Kranon, in Thessalia, once ga
ve a grand dinner in hono ur of a victorious gladiator. Among the guests was the
oet Simonides, who, duri ng the re ast, recited some verses he had com osed in
honour of the hero of the feast. After his recitation, he was called outside, an
d 120

PLACING THE MEMORY 121 had scarcely left the room, when the ceiling fell in, cru
shing Sko as and all hi s guests. When the relatives of the killed came to bury
the remains, they found them so smashed and disfigured, that they could not dist
inguish one body from an other. It ha ened, however, that Simonides had observed
the lace which each e rson had occu ied; and on looking at the several laces, h
e was able to identify all the bodies. This led him to believe that nothing coul
d better assist the me mory than to retain in the mind certain fixed laces, and
therein to de osit, wi th the assistance of the imagination, whatever we intend
to kee in our memory." The following extract from Quintilian shows how the idea
was used among the anc ients "You choose a very s acious and diversely arranged l
ace a large house, for instance, divided into several a artments. You im ress on
the mind with care wha tever is remarkable in it; so that the mind may run throu
gh all the arts withou t hesitation or delay; for the essential is not to hesita
te before the objects, as remembrances destined to hel other remembrances should
be more than sure. Mo reover, for recalling to mind what you have written or si
m ly meditated, you hel yourself with any sign borrowed from the matter you have
to treat ofif the obje ct should be one of war, navigation, or the like; or with
some word, for a word suffices to refresh the memory, as soon as it begins to f
ail. If the object is n avigation, the sign will be an anchor; if it is war, it
will be a wea on. "Then you roceed as follows: you lace the first idea in the ha
ll, the second in the arlour, and so on with the rest, going over the windows, t
he chambers, to the s tatues and similar objects. This done, if the object is to
a ly that roceeding to the memory, you look over every a artment, beginning wit
h the first, and rec alling at every icture the idea which was confided to it; s
o that, howsoever nu merous the things may be which are to be ke t in mind, they
are

122 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING ut in a row, and form a sort of chain, which revent
s the confusion to which yo u are ex osed when bound to learn by heart. You can
create for yourself imaginar y laces." In another lace Quintilian said that in l
ace of a house, which migh t not contain enough things to act as egs or laces (q
uite ossible in his day, I su ose, though hardly likely now), we may assume a ub
lic building, the wall s of a city, or a well-known road, to divisions of which
we may refer our symbol s. Metrodorus assumed the circle of the zodiac, divided
into 360 com artments of a degree eachbut that in my o inion would not rovide a b
ackground of sufficient ly vivid quality. The common things of daily life, or th
e incidents of mythology or history are far more vivid and facile for any but an
extraordinary mind. The rocess of locating ideas (by means of symbols and other
wise) in familiar objec ts underwent numerous changes in the course of the centu
ries that followed. I ne ed not detail these but will content myself with a brie
f descri tion of the ada tation made by Gregor von Feinaigle. In this later deve
lo ment an imaginary hous e is taken as having a number of rooms, and each room
as having fifty laces, ar ranged in the following manner: the floor is divided i
nto nine equal squares, an d each wall is divided similarly into nine, with, how
ever, a tenth in the centre above it u on the ceiling, while another square in t
he centre of the ceiling ma kes the fiftieth square in the room. You enter at on
e side, and find before you nine squares on the floor; then, on your left hand i
s a wall with the tenth squa re on the ceiling above, and squares 11 to 19 on th
e wall ; in front of you a si milar set from 20 to 29; on the right another, fro
m 30 to 39; beside you another , from 40 to 49; while number 50 lies above you i
n the middle of the ceiling. Ha ving fixed your walls, it is better to take a wa
lk round

PLACING THE MEMORY 123 the room in imagination, rather than merely to stand at t
he side and survey it i n the manner described, It now remains to eo le the a ar
tment, and this may be done in a variety of ways. Von Feinaigle used the method
of similarity of form, that is, he made ictures somewhat resembling the numbers
assigned to the square s or laces. On the floor of the first room he had The Towe
r of Babel A LookingGlass A Glassblower A Swan A Mountain, or Parnassus The Horn
of Plenty A Flower, or Narcissus A Throne Midas In the case of number 4, the fo
rm was really symbolical, the looking-glass havin g four corners, but the other
ictures were so drawn that they very closely rese mbled the numbers. I will su l
y a set of the first nine squares which I think g ive an im rovement u on von Fe
inaigle's selectionfor 1 a tower, 2 a swan, 3 a sea -horse, 4 a sailing boat, 5 a
snake, 6 a monkey, 7 a trum eter, 8 an ant, and 9 a flower. The ictures on age
124 illustrate the idea. It would be equally rac tical, at least for the smaller
numbers, to use the homo hones, or similar-sound words, of Gouraud, which I hav
e mentioned in my revious cha ter. Then the firs t square would be occu ied by a
wand, the second by a tooth, the third by a tree , the fourth by a fort and so
on. A better method, in my o inion, is to form ic tures according to number-word
s re resenting the numbers. In that case we might have in the first square a hea
d, in the second a hen, in the third a home, in th e fourth an oar, in the fifth
a hill, and so on. The advantage of this method is

124 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING that it gives us a very wide choice of familiar obj
ects from which to make at le ast two roomsthat is u to a hundred. If the student
wants at short notice a set of, say, ten squares or laces, I suggest that he ma
y select numberwords relating to some cho sen category of things, such as: Towns
; I Tokio, 2 New York, 3 Manchester, 4 Rio de Janeiro, 5 London, etc. For number
10 a town beginning with s or zStuttgart. Here I use the first consonant only. A
nimals; 1 dog, 2 hen, 3 monkey, 4 rabbit, 5 lion, etc. Materials; 1 wood, 2 enam
el, 3 marble, 4 iron, 5 leather, etc. Races; 1 Tibetan, 2 Indian, 3 American, 4
Russian, 5 Liberian, etc.

PLACING THE MEMORY 125 Locomotion; i tram-car, 2 underground railway, 3 motor ca

r, 4 aero lane, 5 lorry , etc. Sho s; 1 Thacker's, 2 Wanamaker's, 3 Marshall Fie
ld's, 4 Orr's, 5 Liberty 's, etc. (I have given the names of sho s well known to
me; the student will eas ily rovide substitutes of his own.) Clothing; 1 turban
, 2 necktie, 3 umbrella, 4 riding suit, 5 lace, etc. Foods; 1 toffee, 2 nuts, 3
milk, 4 rice, 5 olive oil , etc. Peo le; 1 Hitler, 2 Na oleon, 3 Emerson, 4 Remb
randt, 5 Lenin, etc. (I ha ve given historical names, but ersonally-known eo le
are even better, as havin g more mnemonic detail.) I now ask the student to noti
ce that I have given, in " Towns," "Animals," "Materials," etc., number-words fo
r 1, 2, 3, etc. He is there by rovided with 90 squares, which will serve him wel
l for a long series, since he can use Towns for laces 11 to 20, Animals for lace
s 21 to 30, and so on. To com lete a full" house " of a hundred squares he can m
ake an extra series of 1 to 10, com osed of, say, Sounds: 1 thunder, 2 neighing,
3 music, 4 rattle, 5 lau ghter etc. I consider this last method of mine about t
he best of all easiest to c ommit to memory, and allowing for a selection of very
familiar objects. Let the student make u his own ten sets of varied familiar ob
jects on these lines, and he will be well equi ed to erform what most eo le will
regard as wonderful fe ats of memory. Whatever he decides u on he will do well
to make a set of little drawings for himself; however rough or crude they may be
they will aid his imagi nation greatly. It is necessary to commit the chosen se
t of laces thoroughly to memory, but the task is an easy one, because the object
s either resemble the nu mbers they re resent or are number-words. Another lan f
or making a set of 25 sq uares on the s ur

126 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING of the moment is to follow the letters of the al ha
bet (omitting x) with referen ce to some category such as animals, or countries
or occu ations. Thus we might form the series: Architect, Butler, Car enter, Doc
tor, Ele hant-trainer, Farmer, Goldsmith, Harbour-master, Ink-maker, Journalist,
Kitchen-maid . . . Veterinary surgeon, Watchman, Yachtsman, Zoologist. The adva
ntage of the icture-system ov er that of merely linking together a long string o
f things is that you can at on ce ick out any one of the things you want from it
without disarranging the seri es, and without having to re eat the whole series
from the beginning. Its disadv antage is that more ideas are im osed u on the m
ind than are necessary for under standing the things to be remembered. Yet that
disadvantage is small, and the sy stem does enable one to do some things that wo
uld be im ossible by the link meth od. With its aid some astonishing memory feat
s can be erformed. Some such syste m as this was almost universally em loyed by
those who from time to time a eare d in Middle Age Euro e erforming memory feats
consisting of re eating vast numb ers of words and numbers once read out to the
m. One of the most striking exam le s of this use of the art was a certain Lambe
rt Schenckel, who travelled over the chief countries in Euro e in the sixteenth
century, and won honour and raise e verywhere, though in his earlier years he, l
ike many others, was ersecuted for su osed traffic with the devil. A u il of his
, Sommer, writes in a Latin treat ise "A lawyer, who has a hundred or more causes
to conduct, by the assistance of my mnemonics may stam them so strongly on his
memory that he will know in what manner to answer each client, in any order and
at any hour, with as much recisi on as if he had but just erused his brief. And
in leading, he will not only ha ve the evidence and reasonings of his own arty a
t his finger's ends, but all th e grounds

PLACING THE MEMORY I27 and refutations of his antagonist also. Let a man go into
a library, and read on e book after another, yet he shall be able to write down
all that he has read, m any days after, at home." The student will understand,
from my revious cha ters , how to associate the objects to be remembered with th
e laces to which they ar e assigned. Su ose that in the 17th lace we want to rem
ember an ostrich. Let m y 17th lace be a town beginning with k, g, or ng, say Ki
el. I do not like the o ld idea of making a icture of an ostrich crossing the Ki
el canal. If I make a r ational association and concentrate on it for a moment,
I can dro it out of min d with full confidence that it will come to light again
as soon as I think of Ki el. Such a connexion might be: ostrichsandwatercanalKiel.

CHAPTER XIX MEMORY-MEN OF INDIA INDIA has always been a land of wonders, among w
hich the mem ory feats of the Ashtavadhanis have long been cons icuous. An artic
le in The The oso hist magazine for 1886 re orts an occasion on which a memory e
x ert of South India simultaneously ke t in mind and did the following eleven th
ings and after wards correctly re eated the whole. 1. Played a game of chess, wi
thout seeing th e board. 2. Carried on a conversation u on various subjects. 3.
Com leted a Sans krit verse from the first line given him. 4 Multi lied five fig
ures by a multi l ier of four figures. 5. Added a sum of three columns, each of
eight rows of figu res. 6. Committed to memory a Sanskrit verse of sixteen wordst
he words being give n to him out of their order, and at the o tion of the tester
. 7. Com leted a "ma gic square" in which the se arate sums in the several squar
es added u to a tota l named, whether tried horizontally or vertically. 8. Witho
ut seeing the chess-b oard directed the movement of a knight so that it should m
ake the circuit of the board within the outline of a horse traced on it, and ent
er no other squares th an those. 9. Com leted a second "magic square" with a dif
ferent number from that in the above named. 10. Ke t count of the strokes of a b
ell rung by a gentleman resent. 11. Committed to memory two sentences of S anish
, given on the same sy stem as No. 6. The writer of the article, Colonel H. S. O
lcott, went on 128

MEMORY-MEN OF INDIA 129, to say that he had heard of men who could take in fifty
things in this way, and in one case, when he was living in Bombay, there was an
exhibition in the house of a Hindu gentleman of high osition in which the andit
remembered no less tha n one hundred things given to him at the one sitting. Th
e Colonel believed, howe ver, that twenty-four was about the maximum of new item
s that could be retained and the remainder must have been already known to the a
ndit. This estimate was certainly too low, but the author was correct when he ad
ded, with reference to t he method of memorizing, that the memory-men have acqui
red the ower of creating in the mind for each of the several things they do a se
arate mnemonic oint or thought-centre, around which they force the ideas relati
ng to it to cluster and grou themselves. The " laces" which I have described in
the receding cha ter constitute such mnemonic oints. In an exhibition which I ha
d the leasure of wi tnessing in the State of Morvi in Kathiawar, the ex ert, Mr.
Nathuram P. Shukla, remembered a hundred items. There was a large gathering of
eo le, seated on ca r ets in a big hall. Twenty eo le were selected and seated d
irectly in front of the andit. He attended to each of the twenty eo le in turn,
and went along th e line five times. Several gave him sentences com osed of five
words, each erso n using a different languageGujarati, English, Sanskrit, Persia
n, Hindi, Mahratti , French and Latinand the words were given out of order. One s
itter gave moves in a game of chess. Two others gave figures to be multi lied an
d added together. A nother carried on little conversations with the andit on var
ious to ics. Anothe r struck a little bell a number of times on each round. Ther
e were calculations of dates, com letion of short oems and other items. After th
e hundred oints ha d been made the andit

I30 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING meditated for a little while, then answered questio
ns relating to the items, and finally re eated the whole. Later I had the good f
ortune to meet this ex ert in the State of Limbdi. We s ent much time together d
uring my stay there, and he w as good enough to ex lain to me some of the method
s of memory culture in vogue i n his rofession. Though I am writing this book fo
r the benefit of students, and others who want to im rove their minds and memori
es in general, not for s ectac ular ur oses, the reader who cares to do so may c
om aratively easily erform ma ny of the feats of Ashtavadhana with the aid of th
e methods rescribed in this b ook, and a reasonable amount of ractice. The train
ing should be gradual, and on e must be articular about cleanliness of life and
thought, and general calmness of mind. Otherwise there is real danger of overstr
ain. I do not recommend eo l e beyond middle age to attem t these feats. I will
ex lain how some of the feats can be done. The student will easily arrange the o
thers for himself. First of a ll have in mind 100 laces. I will assume that you
have ado ted my system of Sou nds, Towns, Animals, Materials, Races, Locomotion,
Sho s, Clothing, Foods and Pe o le, as given in the last cha ter, and that you
know your " laces" thoroughly. You have twenty eo le sitting before you, and you
will attend to each of them f ive times. You first assign five of your laces to
each. Let us su ose that the third man is to give you a sentence consisting of
five words in English. His sq uares will be the first five towns: Tokio, New Yor
k, Manchester, Rio de Janeiro and London. He says: " My third word is ' looks'."
You can make a icture of a m an looking afar, erha s shading his eyes with his
hand, or erha s a icture of a erson looking into a microsco e. The connexion of
this with Manchester would be easy for me, for it was in

MEMORY-MEN OF INDIA 131 Manchester that I studied geology and examined many rock
-sections and other thin gs under the microsco e. On the next round our third ge
ntleman says, "My fifth w ord is ' retty'." A retty lady would do for my icture.
London in my ex erienc e has been largely Oxford Street and Regent Street, wher
e the ladies buy their retty things. Next, Mr. 3 says, " My second word is 'gard
en'." You must associat e this with New York. I would think of the roof gardens
on some of the tall buil dings of New York, which are already familiar to me. On
the next round, "My four th word is 'very'." Now "very" alone has no sense, so
I must think of a similar wordverre, the French word for glass, jum s u in my min
d. This must be connected with Rio de Janeiro. On one of my visits to that town
I stayed in an hotel whic h had a huge late-glass window. Now the fifth round: "
My first word is 'my'." A gain a meaningless word; turn it into micro hone or mi
ca. To join micro hone wit h Tokio, I would icture myself as I once gave a lectu
re therenot, however, using the micro hone that time. Your connexions, and your t
owns, erha s, would be qu ite different from mine. At this stage in the roceedin
gs you still have no idea of the sentence. You have not tried to remember the fi
rst round while going on the second round. Each time that you have associated an
object with your town yo u have immediately forgotten it and thought no more ab
out itthis is im erative. O nly at the end of the ex eriment, when you have recei
ved the entire one hundred items, and you are asked to state them, you will run
over your towns, Tokio, etc ., and will easily bring out, " My garden looks very
retty." In other languages you will follow the same rocedure. If it is a langua
ge that you do not know, y ou will have to treat the words as mere sounds, and f
ind

132 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING homo honesknown words having similar soundsfor all th
e five. Let us su ose that t he ninth man gives you a number, of fifteen digits,
divided into sets of three. His " laces" will be the first five Races: Tibetan,
Indian, American, Russian, L iberian. On the first round erha s he says, "My fo
urth set is 364." You might a t once translate this into 'major,' and then conne
ct: RussiaRed armymajor. On his second round Mr. 9 may say: "My second set is 589.
" Not seeing immediately an En glish word to my liking to re resent this, I thin
k of 'lavabo,' which is concern ed with washing. I connect this with my memory o
f the frequent bathing of the e o le of South India, which struck me very forcib
ly on my first arrival there. An d so on. At the end you will reel off the fifte
en numbers without difficulty. No w I will su ose that one of the eo le sets you
the task of multi lying five fi gures by four, let us say 47352 x 9463. For the
act of multi lication time must be allowed afterwards, because during the givin
g of the items you will receive o nly the figures, in five sets, 47, 3, 52, 94,
and 63. The giver may say, for exa m le, "The last two numbers of my multi lier
are 63," and so on. You will set do wn erha s "gem" in his fifth lace. How will
you do the multi lication? There a re several methods. I was taught that of the
Hindi "Iluvati," as follows. First multi ly 52 by 63 (52 X 60 = 3120; add 52 X 3
= 156; total 3276). Remember and s et aside the 76 (coach, or cash, or cage), a
nd remember 32 (moon) to carry forwa rd. Next multi ly 3 by 63 and add the 32 (1
89 + 32 = 221). Remember and set asid e the 1 (tea) and remember 22 (onion) to c
arry forward. Thirdly, multi ly 47 by 63 (47 x 60 = 2820; add 47 x 3 = 141; tota
l 2961) and add the 22, making 2983. S o now you have 2983176in words:

MEMORY-MEN OF INDIA 133

na , fume, tea and cash. Remember these four words, and forget everything else.
Now you may roceed to the second art of your task. 47352 is to be multi lied b y
94 in the same way (52 X 90 = 4680; add 52 X 4 = 208; total 4888). Set aside 8
8 (vivawaving flags, etc.), carry 48 (roof). Secondly, multi ly 3 by 94, and add
"roof" (282 + 48 = 330). Set aside 0 (sea), and carry 33 (mamma). Thirdly, mult
i ly 47 by 94 (47 X 90 = 4230; 47 x 4 = 188; total 4418; lus 33 = 4451). In thi
s second art you have 4451088in words: roar, foot, sea, viva. Remember the four
words and forget the rest. Now to add na fumeteacash to roar, foot, sea, viva. But
cash and roar lie outside, as the second multi lication (94 X 47352) was in hund
reds. So you add na fume tea (29831) to footseaviva (51088) and obtain 80919 in word
s : facebeetub. So your result is " roarface beetubcash." At the required moment you c
a translate this back into numbers, 448091976. The five words can be laced in th
e questioner's five ' laces,' as you no longer need his original numbers. Some
m ay refer to follow the ordinary Euro ean mode of multi lication. If so, they h
a d better re are a s ecial "room" for this task. I can ex lain it best by a dia
g ram as on age 134which must have three laces across and five down. I will assume
that the fifteen laces are made of Occu ations. On looking through the five " l
aces" of the man who has given you a multi lication to do you will find, let us
say, rockhomelionbeargem. This tells you that you have to multi ly 47352 by 9463. T
he working then is given in the table on age 134. So the answer is: Furoretubsshy
cub, the words being read backwards in this case, because the working is from r
ight to left. A third method of multi lication suitable for those who

134 Architect MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING Butler 1 4 2 Narada Car enter 0 5 Farmer
6 jewels Doctor 2 noses 8 foods 6 joiner 4 8 furore Ele hant-trainer 8 4 1 turf
Harbour-master 9 4 0 syru Kitchen-maid 1 6 8 full j et Nurse 0 9 1 1 2 scent Gol
dsmith 1 Journalist 4 2 Minister 4 Ink-maker 8 steel safe Laundress tubs Ostler
9 7 6 shy cub can readily visualize the original terms is shown in the following
diagram, whic h requires nine " laces," which I will make by number-words of ga
mes and s orts for the ur ose 47352 x 9463 Tennis Hunting Marbles Racing Lacrosse
Chess Golf Football Billiard s 3 x a 6 3 X 5 = 15 + 6 X 2 = 27 shirt countrysid
e bowler ti ster beat (stick) sitting fairway rugby red (ball) 3 x 3 + 2 =11 + 6
x 5 = 4 1 + 4 x 2 = 4 9 3 x 7 + 4 =25 + 6 x 3 = 4 3 + 4 x 5 = 6 3 + 9 x 2 = 8 1
3 x 4 + 8 = 2 0 + 6 x 7 = 6 2 + 4 x 3 - 7 4 + 9x5=119 6 x 4 + 1 1 = 3 6 + 4 x 7
= 6 3 . + 3 x 9 = 90 4 x 4 + 9=25 + 9 x 7 = 88 9 x 4 + 8 - 44 4

The answer is remembered in the words: er countryside shirt, re resenting icult,
but it requires ractice. It is lti lications in their round of ten or
redrugby fairway sitting beat ti ster bow 448091976. This mental arithmetic is no
t diff only the real ex erts who include such mu twenty eo le.

CHAPTER XX READING AND STUDY READING can be made into an o ortunity for the deve
lo ment of mental ower. Its effect is very often quite the reverse, for there is
scarcely anything more destructive of mind organization and the ower of thought
than th e habit of romiscuous reading without ur ose and without afterthought o
r foret hought. If you know any eo le who cannot read or seldom read, you may ha
ve obse rved that the condition at their minds is often su erior to that of read
ing eo le. What they know they know well; their ideas are vivid, and available w
hen the y want thembut we must offset against this advantage a great lack of ment
al conte nt. There is no reason, however, why we should not have erfect clearnes
s and vi gour of mind along with am le knowledge ; and indeed this can be brough
t about b y reading in the right manner. We shall erha s read a little less than
we did b efore, but we shall read well. For this ur ose I recommend the advice
of Emerso n: " Read for correction, not for information." In other words, think
first and read afterwards. Some few eo le read first and think afterwards, which
is a goo d thing, though not the best; but I am afraid that most eo le just rea
d and do not think at all. The rare eo le who are really going to rofit by their
readin g are those who think first and read afterwards. If you have half an hou
r for re ading, s end ten minutes in reviewing your own knowledge and thought on
the subj ect even if you think you have none, you may engage in wondering about
itand then read for twenty minutes. Or, 137

138 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING if you have only a quarter of an hour to s are, thi
nk for five minutes and read for ten. This means that when you ick u your book t
o read, let us say, a cha t er on the habits of ele hants, you will not immediat
ely o en the book and lunge into the subject. You will first sit with the book u
no ened on your knee or on the table, and say to yourself: "Now, just what do I
know about the habits of el e hants ?" It may be much, or little, or next to not
hing, that you know, but wha tever it is you must make yourself review your own
knowledge before you start to add to it. Then you may o en your book and begin t
o read, and the result will b e that you will understand more than usual; and yo
u will remember more than usua l, indeed, nearly all, of what you read. Your min
d has been awakened to the subj ect; its own knowledge has been rearranged in an
orderly form, and many question s, definite and indefinite, have come into view
. The ex ectancy engendered by th inking before reading rovides the mind with ho
oks to take u many oints which otherwise would scarcely be noticed, and the arra
ngement of your old knowledge o ffers a lace into which each iece of new knowled
ge will fit. This ractice ut s the mental house in order, o ens u and tidies the
most unused drawers and box es, and re ares the mind for light, as no other kin
d of reading can. First of a ll you have ideas of your ownthen you correct, enlar
ge and increase them by readi ng. You gain not only knowledge and a well-ordered
mind, but also exercise that results in ower of mind and will. Even if you are
merely reading a story or a n ovel, why not sit for a while musing on the situat
ion that has arisen ? What wou ld you do if you were in the osition indicated, w
hat would you make the charact ers do if you were the author ? This mode of read
ing has also another great meri t; it

READING AND STUDY 139 re ares one for a fruitful old age. Everyone who wants to
kee his mental ower s unim aired after the decline of the hysical senses should
have a mental hobby , and give a little time to it from three to five days each
weeknot every day, fo r that tends to fatigue. It is best always to have on hand
a good book, on hilo so hy, or history, or travel, or science or any other subje
ct, to which one can turn several times a week for mental recreation. There shou
ld be no thought of r eaching the end of the book; it is to be lived with, and t
he method of reading i t should be that in which one thinks first and reads afte
rwards. I recommend eve ry young man or woman when leaving college or high schoo
l to kee u one of his subjects of study as a mental hobby, or to take u some oth
er subject in which h e is interested. It does not matter what the subject isa br
anch of mathematics, h istory, biology, geology, sychology, moral hiloso hy, eco
nomics, olitical sci ence, astronomy, chemistry, religion, art; any one of these
, or any branch of on e of them. The most im ortant fact in connexion with this
study is that the stud ent will be using his mind under the control of the will,
that is to say, by det ermination from within, not merely in res onse to the st
imulus of everyday event s and needs, as is the case when we think about most of
the affairs of life. If a man has been thinking only in res onse to external st
imuli, it is almost certa in that when the hysical owers of hearing, sight, etc.
, begin to decline and e xternal things do not make as strong claims on attentio
n as they did before, and curiosity begins to disa ear, mental activity will als
o diminish. But when a m an has used his mind from within, has accustomed it to
work under the im ulse of his own will, there is no reason why his mental owers
should not continue to i m rove even into advanced old age of the body.

140 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING There are still other benefits resulting from the o
ssession of a mental hobby. You have sooner or later the satisfaction of feeling
that you are the master of some line of thought or subject of human knowledge.
You know as much as almost a nyone does about it. This gives you confidence, and
you feel also the strength a nd the indescribable ha iness of the inner sense o
f will. For the ur ose of th ese considerations I may divide books and articles
into three classes: (1) novel s and stories, intended for relaxation and for ima
ginative enjoyment, (2) books of travel, biogra hy, history, literature, olitics
, and human subjects generall y, intended to instruct or elevate, and (3) textbo
oks and technical works, inten ded to give full and exact information in the min
imum of words on the subjects t reated in them. The last class of books are not
for reading, but for study. In t his case there seems to be a difference of o in
ion: should they be read quickly, or slowly with meticulous attention to detail
? My answer to this roblem is: b oth. First read your current cha ter quickly to
get the high lights, the main te ndencies, the chief headings or to ics. Then g
o over the heading or to ic again with close attention to the detail. In our stu
dy of any com lex subject, we have to deal with such a vast mass of ideas that i
t is not ractical to learn them s eriatim. The student who tries to give equal a
ttention to each oint as it comes u will soon become a very dull student indeed.
He will resemble a erson who i n real life meeting with, let us say, a dog, wil
l first look at its nose, then e yes, ears, neck, shoulders, back, rum , and tai
l, and at last will declare to hi mself with an imbecile kind of sagacity, "Ah,
that is a dog." An intelligent er son will first see that it is a dog, and then
study it in detail if he wants to do so. So our student should understand the su
bject and nature of the cha ter or to ic he is studying, before studying it clos
ely. His study will then fall into grou s, under definite headings.

READING AND STUDY I4I When the main to ics are clear let the student turn to det
ail. Then very soon th e a arent multi licity of detail will disa ear, as the id
eas connected with a main to ic become consolidated in the mind. To a chemist, f
or exam le, the ro e rties and reactions of, let us say, sodium, become one unit
, just as we think of a book as a unit idea, not of the a er, ink, cover, bindin
g, etc., as a number of things to be individually remembered. At this stage the
subject will seem ea sy; all is sim le to one who knows. I have seen students lo
oking aghast at exami nation a ers such as they will have to meet in erha s a ye
ar. With white face the student mutters, "I shall never be able to answer." A ye
ar later, the same s tudent looks at the a er, and remarks loftily: "Very sim le
; nothing in it," an d when he becomes a teacher later on, he says: " I do not k
now what examination a ers are coming 1o in these days; in my time they used to
set stingers, but no w it is all kindergarten stuff." In ractice, then, when you
have sorted out you r grou s or headings, or such of them as you immediately ne
ed, ick out the rin ci al fact in a grou and make a thorough study of that, comm
itting it to memory . Incidentally, it would be well to review it in memory ever
y day for a week, fo r new knowledge is like young lants they must be watered reg
ularly while young, until they are strong enough to stand the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortun e without outside hel . As to the subsidiary facts in each
blocka mere careful re ading of them with reference to the main fact will be suff
icient to im ress them strongly on the mind, and if at any time you are called u
on for an account of these minor things, you will be able to recall all about t
hem by thinking first of the main fact which you thoroughly know, and mentally i
nquiring their relatio n to it. For exam le, in history, one would study thoroug
hly the

I42 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING most rominent monarch in each dynasty and the rinci
al fact, event or ersonag e in each reign, and then link the reigns together in
a series or lant them in order in a "house"; or in chemistry one would study th
oroughly chlorine as one o f the halogens, and sodium and calcium, and such ty i
cal elements, thoroughly, a nd associate other members of their series with them
by an after-reading of a fa r less searching kind. The secret of success in the
study of com lex subjects is to take one thing at a time, get hold of it firmly
, stow it away out of sight, and ass on to the next. When the second idea is qui
te clear, bring the first ou t again and add the two together. Never try to ut m
ore than two together at one time, and never hurry. Many a student fails because
he will not take one thing at a time and form a clear idea of that before assin
g on to the next. I have kn own students to grab feverishly at a number of ideas
at once, and fail to gras any of them clearly. Not feeling sure of one fact whi
ch they are su osed to hav e learned, they try to kee an eye u on it, so to s ea
k, lest it should sli awa y while they are learning the next; and the result is
that the new idea is not ro erly understood or learned. There is a little story
of an Irish farm labourer who was once sent by his master to count the igs in th
e yard. After a time, he came back scratching his head and looking sorely uzzled
: "I counted ten of the m," he ex lained, "but there was one little fellow who r
an about so fast that I could not count him at all, at all." It is a fact that u
nless we make our ideas stand quietly, and look ever them singly, they run about
so much that we cannot gras them clearly. It is necessary to get each new idea
into a corner, from whi ch he cannot esca e, and then examine him and watch him
very carefully indeed. I f the student will not do this, he is like a erson tryi
ng

READING AND STUDY I43 to run with a big armful of oranges; one falls over; he ma
kes a des erate clutch at it; another goes over on the other side; and soon all
the oranges are rollin g on the ground. It is best to make the new idea as sim l
e as you can at first, so that it may easily add itself to knowledge already exi
sting in your mind. In every case in which you are learning from a book it is a
good lan to sim lify t he sentence you are studying by taking away all the quali
fying words, making a m ental icture of the essential idea, and then adding to t
his image one by one al l the various qualifying attributes. For exam le, you re
ad of the discovery of L ithium "In 1817, Arfvedson, working in Berzelius's labor
atory u on a etalite fro m Uto, Sweden, discovered an alkali which he found to d
iffer from those already known in the following articulars: (1) in the low fusin
g oints of the chloride and sul hate; (2) in the hygrosco ic character of the ch
loride, and (3) in the insolubility of the carbonate." Sim lify the idea: Arfved
son discovered an alkal i. Make a clear mental icture (not in words) of Arfvedso
n in the act of discove ring an alkali. Re eat the idea several times until it b
ecomes familiar. Then ad d to it the idea that the discovery took lace in a labo
ratory. Picture the disc overy in the laboratory; add the idea that it was Berze
lius's laboratory; next g ive the whole idea the as ect of 1817; the date may ea
sily be remembered by noti ng that 18 is followed by 17, which is one less. Get
the whole idea clear that, in 1817, Arfvedson discovered an alkali in Berzelius'
s laboratory. How did he ma ke the discovery, and what exactly did he discover ?
He was working in Berzelius 's laboratory in 1817 u on a mineral silicate named
etalite from Uto, Sweden, w hen he discovered the alkali. Be sure that your ide
a of an alkali is clear, and recall to mind familiar exam les of alkaline ro ert
ies, such as those associate d with sodium and otassium. He found that it differ
ed from the known alkalis st udy them together; com are them carefully, noting t
he

144 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING resemblances and differences. Finally re eat the wh
ole idea from memory, and thu s slowly work through the textbook. I have tried t
o show how each sentence must be worked u on with thought, not sim ly read and r
e eated as a whole; how the qu alifying words, hrases, and sentences must first
be removed and then added agai n bit by bit. The aim is to transfer the form of
words from the rinted age, no t into a form of words in the mind, but into a liv
ing mental image which its own er can ex ress in any words or from any oint of v
iew he may choose. The image m ay be an inner visualization, audition, or other
sense imagination of the object , or a sim lified or symbolic icture. Most stude
nts of history, I feel sure, wi ll find it more difficult to remember: " The eri
od of Charles I was one of cont inual arliamentary, religious and martial strife
," than to make and kee a smal l mental icture of the handsome king, with an exc
ited arliamentary grou on on e hand and a body of Bible-carrying Roundheads on t
he other. When such icture-i deas have been made they should be com ared with ea
ch other, two at a time, in a ccordance with the four Roads of Thought. Su ose,
for exam le, that in English history we have studied the reign of Charles I, and
are familiar with it, and we now wish to study that of James I. We may make ano
ther little icture of that a uthoritative monarch sitting u on his throne surrou
nded by his favourites in suc cession, and then go on adding details to each ict
ure, inquiring in what res ec t, with reference to the whole and to each detail,
they resemble and differ from each other. Let us take a sim ler instance from e
lementary geogra hy. Su ose y ou are about to study the geogra hy of India and y
ou already know quite well tha t of England. As you come to each oint that is ne
w to you, com are it with a si milar oint in the geogra hy of the country that y
ou know well. For exam le, the lower art of India is a triangle with the

READING AND STUDY oint to the south; England is also roughly a triangle, but wit
h the oint to th e north. India is bounded on the north by a long range of might
y mountains, wher eas England is bounded on the north by a very short range of s
mall mountains. Th e large rivers of both countries flow into seas on the east a
nd the west, but in England the rivers, like all the other natural features, are
com aratively smal l. On the west of India we have a rojecting nose (Kathiawar)
, just as Wales sti cks out on the west of England. In this manner you may rocee
d to com are the nu mbers, sizes, sha es and ositions of rivers and mountains wi
th those you alread y know; and go on to com are the olitical divisions of the c
ountries, the natur al roducts, the general and local governments, etc., with th
ose that are famili ar to you. In all cases it is better not to try to com are t
wo unfamiliar things , but to com are the new unfamiliar fact with an old famili
ar one. As I have bef ore remarked, all learning consists in adding something th
at you did not know to something that you do; nothing can suddenly heave into yo
ur mind a new iece of knowledge which has no relation to anything that you alrea
dy know. Merely as an exercise, one might com are a number of large com lexes in
airs, such as a for est and a ark; a ark and a mountain range; mountains and th
e sea; the sea and the sky; a house and a factory; an ele hant and a whale; a la
w book and a textbo ok of science; a oem by Tennyson and one by Wordsworth. No d
oubt it will seem e asier and quicker to many students merely to read over and o
ver again the ortio ns of their textbooks that they require, in the ho e that so
me of the ideas they thus gain will stick in the mind. There is some excuse for
the student, who in these days is terribly harried by a vast and varied host of
teacherseach with his own coagulation of indigestible mental breadif he finds hims
elf too tired to thi nk. Yet the fact remains that the only

146 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING knowledge that is really retained for long is that
which has been acquired with some efforta sudden and incisive effort of erce tion
, or a long, slow and delibe rate ondering of the facts or ideas. Before closing
these hints on study, I mus t im ress again u on the student the great im ortan
ce of concentration, es ecial ly in re aring for examinations, for just as an ar
tist surrounds his icture wi th a frame or stands his statue on a edestal so tha
t its beauty may be isolated and thus more erfectly seen, so must the thinker co
ncentrate u on his idea to see it clearly. As that idea is a mental thing it can
not be surrounded by a fram e. There is this distinction between outside objects
and things of the mind, tha t the former are defined by their boundaries or out
lines and the latter by their centres. Let the student stick to his centres. Let
us su ose that a student is going to read several ages of a textbook by himself
. There are erha s five id eas which he must understand and make erfectly clear
to himself. He begins on t he first age with idea number 1, gives to it the full
ower of his attention, a nd obtains a clear im ression of it. Then he goes on t
o the next age, to study his second idea. But he is a little anxious about idea
number 1. He feels that h e must kee half an eye u on it lest it esca e from his
mind and be lost. He is not quite sure that he ossesses that idea unless he can
see it or feel it. The consequence is that he cannot give full attention to ide
a number 2. Therefore he does not gras it as well as he did the first idea. It i
s less definite to him, and his anxiety is therefore greater than before when he
has to turn to idea nu mber 3. Still less ower of attention can he give to idea
number 4, since he is anxious about number 1, very anxious about number 2, and
very, very anxious abou t number 3. His knowledge of idea number 5 is likely to
be vague in the extreme. When he has finished his whole course of study his Know
ledge of the entire subj ect will rove to be very unequal

READING AND STUDY 147 and mottled. Some few things are clear to him, others are
hazy, others are invis ible, and his success in the examination de ends u on his
luck with the question s. Further, his knowledge is not going to be of great us
e to him for dee er or m ore advanced studies, when in its elementary arts it is
so unequal. This unfort unate student reminds me of another story of an Irishma
n who was working on a fa rm, and (like him whom I have already mentioned) was o
ne day sent out into a yar d to catch some little igs. He ran after them and caug
ht one by the tail. Holdin g on to that with his left hand, he ran after another
and caught it. Now holding on to two of them, he ran after a third. It is not r
ecorded how he finished the task. He ought, of course, to have caught one and lo
cked it u , then another, a nd so on. That is what the student ought to do with
his ideas. Let him fully und erstand idea number 1, and then lock it u by an act
of concentration. When he h as made the idea clear to himself, let him lean bac
k and look at it calmly and s teadily for a quarter of a minute. He can now dro
the subject while he turns to idea number 2, confident that number 1 will come u
in his mind when he wants i t. Thus he will be able to give the same full atten
tion to number 2 that he firs t gave to number 1, and so on to number 5. Using t
his method of concentration, h is knowledge will be equal, and he will not forge
t. There is nothing like anxiet y to roduce both forgetfulness and feeble-minded
ness; but the ex erience of the value of concentration in study soon roduces con
fidence in its ower, and gran ts a new lease of life to the fatigued and worried
student. It is also a great m erit of concentration that it enables a student n
ot only to take u and retain a new idea, but also to dro one thing and turn to a
nother. This ability to forge t, to leave things alone mentally when it is not t
he ro er time to think about them, is of great value.

CHAPTER XXI WRITING AND SPEECH-MAKING I PRESUME that no one will venture to writ
e an article or deliver a lecture who has not studied the subject of which he in
tends to treat. It is, however, well k nown that even when that has been done, a
writer or s eaker often forgets, at th e moment when he needs them, several oin
ts and illustrations which he had inten ded to resent in connexion with his subj
ect. This can be avoided by the followi ng means. Su osing that a s eaker has co
nsidered the occasion of his article or s eech, and the matter at his command, h
e will have selected four or five main branches of his subject to be ex ounded i
n a redetermined order. These branches he can summarize each in a word or two, a
nd then " lace" the symbols of his ide as in the arts of the hall in which he in
tends to s eak. If he does not know th e hall, he may lace his headings in a fam
iliar "house" such as I have already d escribed in Cha ter XVIII. The next thing
for him to do is to consider those mai n headings or items one by one and extra
ct from each idea all the detail that he can, by the rocess of ex ansion of idea
s given in Cha ter XV. This will reven t ossible oversight of im ortant details
and also rovide suggestions for illus trations and similes of all kinds. When th
is is done, two or three selected subheadings and illustrations may be laced und
er each head, each summed u in a wo rd or icture or symbol and these associated
with the laces in the "house." In memorizing the oints of a s eech it is far bet
ter to use the ancient system of " laces" or "houses," than to form the sub-head
ings into a list or series connec ted by the Roads 148

WRITING AND SPEECH-MAKING I49 of Thought. The Roads of Thought, however, should
be used jointly with the imagi nation for fixing the required oints in their res
ective laces, so that when t he s eaker is a roaching the end of one of his to
ics, he has only to turn his attention for a moment to the next " lace," and all
that he wished to recall wil l s ring u before his mind. In the course of a deb
ate one may desire to remembe r the oints of an o onent's s eech, with a view to
referring to them, erha s in order, when one's own turn to s eak arrives. One m
ethod is to write these on a iece of a er and then turn to the notes one by one;
but this generally has r ather an enfeebling effect. Merely to memorize them is
not very satisfactory eit her, for it nearly always involves a certain amount o
f mental re aration of the second oint while one is still s eaking about the fir
st. A good lan is to fix your oints as they occur, in your "house," or, if you l
ike, u on the different arts of the erson with whom you are debating. Each oint
can thus be fixed an d left to take care of itself, while the mind is ke t free
to consider other mat ters as they come u . It also gives one the advantage of b
eing able to kee one' s eyes on one's o onent throughout the whole of the debate
. What I have written with regard to s eeches a lies also to a large extent to w
riting articles. I c onsider it a very good lan to ruminate before making any no
tes for a forthcomin g article. Sit quietly; turn your attention to the subject;
ex and it with the a id of the Roads of Thought. While you are ex anding it cer
tain items will im res s you as of s ecial interest. Remember those. Next consid
er your readers what the y already know, their oint of view and their interests.
You should now be ready to decide in what order to discuss the various oints of
your subject. Write th ese down if you like, or better, kee them in a "house" un
til you are ready to s ettle down and write the article. I would strongly recomm
end s eakers and writer s to go

150 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING over the subject mentally several times on a number
of successive days, before roceeding to s eak or write. In such rumination the
mind often finds ideas, oin ts of view, and similes which may otherwise remain f
or ever unknown. Before clos ing this cha ter I may say a few words about learni
ng oetry. When you take u a verse, first understand it. Then, in order to rememb
er the words, it is a good lan to im ress u on your mind the first word, the rin
ci al word, and the last word of each line in turn. Learn the first line. Re eat
it to yourself. Forget i t. Learn the second line. Re eat it. Recall the first
line and re eat both toget her. And so on. While learning, ask questions, and an
swer the questions in the w ords of the oem. As an exam le, I will take from Sha
kes eare's "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" a ortion of the advice of Polonius to his
son Laertes, at the momen t of his de arture to a foreign country Neither a borr
ower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, A nd borrowing
dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be t rue; And it
must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to a ny man. Let
us consider the last line. The rinci al word is "false." The subject is fal sit
y. To get the feel of the line, notice that the first word is "thou," the las t
"man." Now to questions. Whose falsity is referred to? Thou canst not then be fa
lse. Is it a matter of choice ? No. Thou canst not then be false. When ? As me n
tioned before, when following the advice, "To thine own self be true." False in
what way ? False to any man. Not to a articular man ? No. Thou canst not then be
false to any man. But do not be content with mere learning of the words. Poet r
y, by reason of its beauty, tells more than its words; it calls u new life in us
, to witness truth felt as well as known.

CHAPTER XXII MORE CONCENTRATION IN view of the great value of concentration of m

ind, I will now give some exerci sesnot by any means to be im osed on the student
, but useful erha s as laything s for him at odd times. 1. Sit down in your room
and look round carefully, notin g all the little things which it contains. Now
close your eyes and make all thos e things go before your mind in imagination, u
ntil the entire rocession has as sed by. If you know an al habet of foreign form
s, such as the Devanagari, the Ar abic, or the Russian, make the letters ass one
by one in rocession before your imagination until the whole series is com lete.
If a break occurs in the series , begin again. 2. Take a walk in imagination, a
long a familiar road or street, n oticing all the details that you can remember
as you slowly ass them by; return by the same route. If the attention wanders fr
om the ath that you have chosen for your walk, make it come back and begin the w
alk over again from the beginnin g. 3. Pass in imagination through some revious
ex erience of your own. Su ose, for exam le, you have risen in the morning, take
n breakfast, gone to college, l istened to a lecture, worked in the library, ret
urned to lunch, and so forth, th rough all the general incidents of the daily ro
und. 4. Select some articular si ght or sound that is resent, say the ticking of
the clock. Ask yourself what is the cause of that. It is due to the swinging of
the endulum and the movements of the s ring and wheels. But what causes all the
se ? Try to run back along a" s eries of images, following the clock back in its
wanderings; see how it was lac ed in osition, how it travelled to where it is,
where it came from, 151

152 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING how its arts were ut together and made, where and b
y whom, how its materials w ere rocured. Imagine all that has contributed to mak
e it what it is. It does no t matter very much whether your imaginings in this r
actice are right or wrong; the exercise will train the mind to run through a ser
ies of coherent imaginings without missing the oint. 5. Go out for a walk in ima
gination, as you did befor e, along some familiar way, but on coming to a select
ed building or scene, sto and examine it. Try to icture it in detail. If you fin
d that the mind begins to tug in its efforts to get away, move about into differ
ent ositions every few m oments and try to icture the scene from these different
oints of view. You wil l robably find that you know very little of the details
of the buildings or the scenes with which you thought yourself quite familiar. I
n this exercise dwell w ith erfect gentleness u on the scene you are trying to r
ecall, as though you we re trying to remember a fading dream. It is not success
in recalling that is the im ortant thing in these exercises, but the develo ment
of mind that comes from trying. Sto when you are tired. 6. Look carefully at th
e wall of the room in w hich you sit; notice everything about it, the objects th
at are fixed u on it or are standing against it, the form, size and ro ortions o
f everything connected with it. Now shut your eyes and try to icture the whole a
t once. You will find the image hazy and indefinite. Imagine then various small
arts of it in turn, a nd you will see how much clearer these are. Again, icture
to yourself the figur e of a man. You1 will robably find it indefinite, but when
you look at one smal l ortion of the image that art will become clear while the
rest will tend to d isa ear. If you make a hand or foot clear, the head will va
nish; if you make th e head clear the lower art of the body will have gone. What
ever may be the imag e that you examine in this manner, some art of it will elud
e you, and when you look at one ortion the

MORE CONCENTRATION I53 others will grow faint or even disa ear. Practise, theref
ore, the following met hod of mind- ainting. Take a icture of a human face. Plac
e it before you and ex amine a small ortion of it, say an eye. Close your eyes a
nd think of that orti on. Re eat this several times, until you can form it clear
ly. Now take another art near to the firstsay the other eyeand concentrate u on it
in the same manner. Next recall the first eye and make an image of the two toge
ther. Now deal with t he nose in the same way, se arately, and then icture toget
her the two eyes and the nose. Com are your image with the original every time,
and go on adding art after art until you can imagine the whole face without grea
t effort. In one si tting you may succeed in re roducing only one or two feature
s; it will take time to com lete the ortrait. If you thus do even one icture erf
ectly, you will f ind a great increase in gras of imagination. You will find it
a great hel in m aking such a mental icture, to see that all the details within
it are congruous with one another. For exam le, you might icture a cart drawn by
two horses, bu t if you attem t to imagine it as being drawn by two kangaroos y
ou will find the matter much more difficult. It is not ossible to hold two disco
nnected images or ideas before the mind at the same time, but it is ossible to g
ras them at o nce if the main idea includes both at the same time, or something
common to both . I can icture a kangaroo and a horse together by centring my att
ention on thei r common characteristics and thinking of both as animals. I can i
cture a horse and cart together because they occur together in common ex erience
as a unit hav ing a single ur ose. But it would be com aratively difficult to h
old together t he ideas of a kangaroo and a cart. The mind would tend to run fro
m one to the ot her, losing sight of each alternately. If, however, some common
relationshi wer e discovered and made the centre of attention,

154 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING the two ideas would readily cling together, instead
of re elling each other by t heir incongruity. It is useful therefore to find t
he idea which makes the grou really a unit, and make that the centre of your att
ention. 7. Select a icture o f any leasant scene. For exam le, a Hindu might cho
ose the well-known icture o f Shri Krishna in the form of a boy seated on a rock
, laying a flute, while in the background ha y cows graze on the bank of a eacef
ul river, beyond which a range of tree-clad hills rotectively encloses the gentl
e scene. Take such a ic ture; examine it carefully; close your eyes and re roduc
e it in imagination. Now begin to narrow down the view, and observe how much cle
arer the scene becomes a s you diminish its extent. First dro the clouds and the
mountains in the backgr ound, then the trees and the river and the cows which a
re grazing by it, and so on little by little until you have nothing left but the
form of the boy. Go on s lowly in the same way, making the image clearer and cl
earer as it grows smaller, until you have lost the rock and have only left the u
er art of the body, the head and the face. Hold that image for a moment, and th
en begin to ex and it ag ain, trying to kee the whole as clear as the small iece
to which you had contr acted it, and as you build u the entire icture again, oi
nt by oint, make eve ry effort to retain for the com lex unit the clearness whic
h you were able to se cure in one small ortion of it. 8. Place some leasant and
familiar object, suc h as a small statue in front of you, at a little distance,
referably in the mid dle of the room. After examining it, close your eyes and im
agine it clearly from the osition where you are, as you would look at it. Next i
magine it from the b ack, not by turning it round in your imagination, but by tr
ansferring your idea of yourself to a oint on the o osite wall. Imagine yourself
not to be

MORE CONCENTRATION 155 sitting where you are, but against the o osite wall, look
ing at the object from the o osite side. When you have both images well madefrom
the front and the bac ktry to imagine them both at once, as though you were looki
ng at the object from both sides at once. To do this effectively you will need t
o get rid of the idea that you are facing the object from one oint of view, and
imagine yourself as o n both sides of it, regarding it from both directions at o
nce. This exercise can be extended to the above and the below, if desired. It te
aches us at least to r emember that usually we have a very limited oint of view.
Even an artist a good observerrarely thinks of the roots of a tree or the sha e o
f its to , as seen fro m above. 9. Take u now a sim le object, such as a flower
or a box of matches. E xamine it; look into the interior. Close your eyes and im
agine it. Imagine that your consciousness is at the centre of the article and th
at you are looking at i t from within. Next, ex and your consciousness gradually
until you are no longer a oint in the middle of the object, but have become a l
arge ball with the obje ct in the middle of yourself. 10. Select an object which
you have already used i n your exercises in concentration. This time, instead o
f building the icture u little by little, call it u com lete. Command it to a ea
r. If you have used t he icture of Shri Krishna, now, with your eyes closed, loo
k into em ty s ace an d mentally call out the name of Shri Krishna, trying to di
scern the form. Sudden ly the com lete icture will s ring u before your mental v
ision, in idea or in form. 11. Make an effort to think in images, without the us
e of words. Very ofte n we feel that we do not know a thing until we have succee
ded in recalling its n ame or verbal descri tion, though its a earance and quali
ties may be quite fami liar. Thinking in words is thinking in symbols, and in th
at

156 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING there is much danger of missing the truth, for it i
s easily ossible to mani ula te and rearrange the symbols in a manner to which t
he facts would not conform. A s an exercise one might let the following ideas fo
rm a succession of thought for ms, without words: horse, cow, milk, moonlight, m
oon, sun. Picture a horse, tryi ng not to think of the name of it. If you now dr
o the icture and then call u the image of a cow, you will ordinarily have to thi
nk the word "cow" between the two. This is the usual rocess in the chain of thou
ght, name (horse), form (hor se), name (horse), name (cow), form (cow), name (co
w), name (milk), form (milk), name (milk), and so on. In this ractice however, t
ry to leave out the names, a nd let the icture undergo a continuous gradual chan
ge. Having ictured the hors e clearly, begin to modify it. Let the contour of th
e back, the slo e of the nec k, the sha e of the body, the form of the legs and
hoofs, the tail, the setting of the head, and other details gradually change fro
m those of a horse to those o f a cow, until the transition is com lete. Then ro
ceed to concentrate the atten tion on the milk which comes from the cow, and gra
dually lose sight of the arts of the cow until only the stream of milk is seen.
Make this undergo a gradual c hange. Thin out the liquid stream, letting it lose
its definite outline and o ac ity, but retaining the colour though making it al
er, and to this nebulous strea m add outline and surroundings until you have a s
tream of moonlight. Next trace the moonlight to the moon in the dark sky, adding
this to the icture. Pass away from the moonlight and let your attention centre
on the moon itself. Gradually change this form. Let its outline remain but ex an
d, and its colour change, unti l you have the great goldenred ball of the rising
or the setting sun. Many may t hink that these ractices of concentration involv
e great effort, but little resu lt. It is not really so. Think of the efforts th
at you made as a child when lear ning

MORE CONCENTRATION I57 to write, how long it took you to gain control of your ha
nd and en. That was a greater effort than this, for, however much the mind may s
eem to lunge about, i t is made of far more yielding and lastic stuff than is yo
ur arm or hand, and i s therefore easier to control. Indeed it is easier to lear
n to control the mind than it is to learn to write. Think, again, of the vast nu
mber of exercises a vi olinist will ractise to render his fingers su le, obedien
t, and ex ert. Give t he same, or far less, effort to mental training, and you w
ill surely be delighte d with the result. But there should be no hysical strain
in all thisthat is im e rative.

CHAPTER XXIII MEDITATION it does not come within the urview of the average stude
nt, it will not be out o f lace for me to describe here the rocess of meditation
, and ex lain how it ca n be done. The best reliminary exercise is what has been
called the daily life ledger. S are a little time in the morning or evening to
review the ex eriences and doings of the day and think about them in a gentle ma
nner. Quite a art from the mental exercise which it gives, this greatly rests th
e mind and emotions, as it combs out the tangled threads of daily life. It also
loughs and harrows the field, so to s eak, in re ara tion for ex erience to come
. It is well to form a habit of voluntary reflection also with reference to any
matter of current int erest to you. For want of this habit the rich variety of o
ur modern life leaves little or no knowledge behind it in the mind, and fails to
awaken thought. Very often when subjects such as chemistry, history, and econom
ics are being studied, or when languages are being learnt, the student makes ver
y little rogress. An hour's work makes little im ression u on the mind, if twent
y-three hours are all owed to ela se before the subject is revised. But in a sch
ool or college where t he jargon of the students contains frequent reference to
the salient oints of t heir studies, a kind of familiarity results, which gives
the subject a footing i n the mind. The same rinci le a lies in the case of youn
g eo le who desire to model themselves u on someone whom they admire. Girls atte
nd the moving icture s and sometimes fix u on one of the Stars as their ideal. T
hey are full of enthu siasm while the icture lasts and for an hour or two afterw
ards, but they lose t he oint and fail to stam it on their lives for want of ref
lection. ALTHOUGH 158

MEDITATION 159 Voluntary reflection not only im resses the mind in this way, it
starts the roc ess of thought. The collection and review of ideas or mental ictu
res is one thi ng. Thinking is another. But after a little time thoughts will be
gin to come. Th en the beginner may do well to cherish them and note them down f
or future reflec tion, since they easily evade the memory. Further, this meditat
ion or voluntary reflection will re are the way for intuition. It need not be fr
equent and shoul d not be strenuous. When others snatch u a novel or a news a er
or seek a conve rsation with some one else to fill an odd quarter of an hour, y
ou may quietly re flect. I do not think systematic meditation can be well done u
nless it is first understood. One must therefore consider the theory of meditati
on. Meditation beg ins where concentration ends. The ur ose of concentration is
to focus the atten tion u on a small field of mental vision, so that the light o
f consciousness may be as brilliant as ossible; it is analogous to the fixing of
a reflector round a light, as, for exam le, in a searchlight. During such conce
ntration our aware ness is at its best. Concentration involves contraction of th
e field of mental v ision, but meditation involves its ex ansion. In concentrati
on you gain clear vi sion; in meditation you try to kee that clear vision but ex
tend it over a large r field and into de ths and heights of thought which you ha
ve not been able to r each clearly before. Even a small mind can often do one th
ing well; even the ani mal mind can bring one narrow virtue to a high degree of
erfection, as in the c ase of the faithfulness of the dog. What we require to de
velo is a large mind w hich can gras a great deal at once and still deal decisiv
ely with the whole. Ye t concentration must recede ex ansion, lest there be diff
usion and indefinitene ss, instead of increase of mental

l60 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING ower. Consider this by the simile of a camera. If y
ou take a square box, take o ut the bottom and re lace it with ground glass, or
unglazed a er, and make a ve ry small hole in the lid, then stand it on its side
and look at the a er, you . will see u on it an image of the object that lies b
efore the camera. That is bec ause the same icture always a ears at both ends of
a ray of light. Have you no ticed in summer the sun shining u on the ground thr
ough the many sha ed but smal l interstices of thick foliage? The s ots are elli
tical or round, because they are each an image of the sun. If you made the hole
bigger and bigger, gradually your icture would become blurred and then disa ear
, because from every oint o f the object rays of light go in every direction, an
d when you make the hole lar ger the s ots of light overla and so obscure one an
other. The body of man is li ke the camera box, and the senses are like in-holes
or lenses which let into hi s mind ictures of the objects around him. There is
one great difference, howeve r, between the late of the camera and the mind of m
anman has memory, by which he continues the images, and reflection, by which he c
onsiders them in relation to one another, and forms his own lans. This limitatio
n of the senses is not an i njury to man, but a benefit, for senses and mind are
ada ted to each other. If w e could suddenly increase the in ut of the senses a
hundredfold, men would becom e gibbering idiots, unable to co e with such a vol
ume of fact. As it is, the lim itation of material that the senses rovide is ben
eficial, as conducive to clari ty of im ression in the mind, just as the smallne
ss of the hole in the camera r ovides a clear icture on the late. All the same,
clear im ressions clearly obs erved by the concentrated mind can become the mate
rial for that mind to work u o n by meditation, which involves ex ansion, and in
creases the ower of the mind t o gras clearly more things at once.

MEDITATION l6l Success in meditation therefore im lies success in concentration,

and in those t hings which are necessary to that, namely, relaxation of the bod
y, indifference for the time being to what is ha ening near at hand or far away,
emotional calm , and gentleness of vision. A man concentrating is almost aslee
bodily, but his consciousness in the brain is more than ever wide awake. In medi
tation that wid e awake consciousness a lies itself to the subject of thought. M
editation is th e very o osite of going to slee . It is a regular flow of though
t about an obje ct with regard to which one has no difficulty in concentration.
It is not like m ind-wandering, in which the chain of thought leads over the hil
ls and far away, and it is not like worry, in which one arrives again and again
at the same oint , having travelled in a circle. Meditation is a great act of se
lf-creation. The vivid consciousness obtained in concentration, carried by medit
ation into the ye t unirrigated and finer fields of the mind, is like an o en ch
annel for more lif e. No man has life as full as that which could be his. All me
n have a hunger for more sense of life. Sometimes ignorant eo le seek its satisf
action in outward excitement, not realizing that to be a surrender of real life,
and an acknowledg ment of de endence u on outside thingsnot u on what is inside
the mind itself for real ha iness and life. In meditation a man may reach conce t
ions of beauty, or duty, or truth or the grandeur of noble character, loftier th
an any he has obta ined before. As he dwells u on them, they work into him in a
creative way, so th at afterwards he will be able to reach and hold the higher l
evel with com arativ e ease. The object of meditation is not to bring something
down, as it were, for the satisfaction of our old ersonality. It is to take some
thing u , to reach i n our thought or feeling something that we have not touched
before, and yet to c arry u

l62 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING there the clearness of vision that was ours at the
lower levels. We must take ou rselves u . The self that seeks only consolation f
or the troubles in life, or a leasant emotional sensation of confidence in somet
hing higher than itself, may ossess and enjoy its own meagre delights in an infe
rior sort of meditation that is hardly worthy of the name. Grateful and comforta
ble, he of this meditation i s like a cat urring in a erson's arms, enjoying the
luxury of attention from a su erior being. But meditation ro er is for him who
would humanize himself to a higher degree, ex and his heart and intelligence, an
d increase his ractical c a acity things which contain the ha iness of true life,
ositive and active, far above the comforts and consolations and ho ings which a
re the resort of many wh o seek in the mind what they have failed to secure in l
ife. I ho e that my ex os ition of the theory of meditation has shown that it is
not different from thinki ng, when that is ro erly done. Su ose that a student
has before him a theorem in geometry. To rove it he must think. Firstif he knows
how to think, or meditat ehe will dwell for a while on his data. This is the reli
minary concentration to r eview the material rovided for his thinking. He must be
in a osition to rememb er the ro erties of the lines, angles, triangles, and ci
rcles, or whatever they may be. Then, and only then, should he begin the ex ansi
on rocess of consideri ng their relation to one another under the given conditio
ns. I have known many s tudents much troubled by geometry, and I have noticed th
at in most cases it is b ecause they do not know how to think, and so do not fir
st review the data and on ly afterwards try to solve the roblem or rove the theo
rem. At the end of a ro cess of thinking, the conclusion ought to be as clear an
d certain as the terms f rom which it is derived. Later that conclusion should b
e available as sim le and self-evident material for further and dee er study. Al
l

MEDITATION 163 the time the thinker or the student is really engaged in making l
atforms for hi mself, and then climbing on to them and using them for the buildi
ng of still hig her latforms. In thinking, we often roceed from the concrete to
the abstract. To know beauty we must dwell on objects of beauty. This rinci le i
s very eviden t in the use of meditation for the develo ment of character. There
would be litt le use in sitting down, closing the eyes and saying over and over
again: "Courag e, courage, courage" or "Kindness, kindness, kindness." If eo le
do not know wh at the dials of thei-r watches look like, still less do they kno
w what ideals or virtues really are They must begin the meditation with concrete
exam les. Havin g chosen the virtue that you want to build into your character,
first of all mak e mental ictures of the virtue in action. If it is courage, ma
ke several ictur es re resenting that quality erha s a soldier rescuing a wounded
comrade under fi re; an invalid in ain and wretchedness, but making little of h
is or her misery, so as not to convey it to others; a erson bound to some duty t
hat is drudgery, but carrying it through cheerfully; an artist or a oet who will
not give u hi s love, regardless of the unkind face of fortune; a reformer, who
se talents migh t make him a shining light in olitics were he to com romise, but
he will not. W ith the aid of these concrete exam les, im rove your conce tion
of the abstract virtue. In the rocess, make your ictures clear and living, concr
ete and detail ed, solid as a drama on a stage, not flat like a icture on a wall
. Next build t he quality into your own character by ste ing u on to the stage,
as it were, e ntering the body of the hero, acting and feeling and realizing the
scene as a li ving incident in your own life, and resolving to be that characte
r henceforth. T here is a more assive kind of meditation in which one

164 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING does not think directly of the building of characte
r, but sim ly dwells in thoug htex anding it to the fullu on some erson looked u o
n as ideal, or u on some symb olic form. This method is carried to great erfecti
on among the Hindus, who medi tate u on the 1008 namesreally qualities of Shiva or
of Vishnu, or u on images wit h many symbols numerous heads and arms bearing wea
ons and other objects and maki ng significant gestures, all symbolical of owers
and virtues and benevolent int entions. The idea is that one becomes like that
u on which the mind dwells, and so absorbs into one's own character the good qua
lities re resented by the symbol s or words. This method is suitable for consoli
dating in character qualities alr eady known, not for advancing to new heights.
The image is really a mnemonic dev ice, a "house" or set of egs for remembering
a collection of owers and virtues . It cannot show anything new, for the imagina
tion cannot ortray what is not kn own. It is quite ossible to icture a gesture a
s indicating benevolence, but th e idea of benevolence may remain very im erfect
unless one considers it ractica lly in actual ex ression in varying circumstanc
es in human life. To have virtue we need to kee very near to our fellow-men, wit
h all their faults. Sometimes th ere is meditation u on su erior beings, su osed
realheroes, angels, saints, mast ers, and divine incarnations. In this case ther
e are several dangers to be caref ully avoided. In great admiration for the qual
ities of these, ictured as exce t ional beings there is often the feeling that s
uch erfection can hardly be ex ec ted in us ordinary eo le. This reduces the cha
racter-building effect, and also tends to a harsh judgment of our fellow-men, si
nce they, too, are ordinary eo l e, and to them therefore we do not easily attri
bute the virtues redicated of ou r beloved ideal. There is also a tendency to sl
acken effort and be content

MEDITATION 165 with relatively negative virtues in ourselvesa feeling that since
the object of d evotion has the virtues and the ower we may be content with a lo
wer grade. Ther e may also be something of the attitude of the football or crick
et enthusiasts w ho go by the hundreds of thousands to see the matches and admir
e the layers, wi thout any serious intention to become such layers themselves. I
t is, however, i n ordinary life that we develo our qualities, and our meditatio
n as a science i s best ke t very close to that. Let us now ass on to the art of
contem lation. The fulfilment of meditation is contem lation. As concentration
leads on to medi tation, so does meditation lead on to contem lation, which may
be defined as con centration at the to end of one's line of thought. Just as it
is not well to be gin meditation suddenly, but it is best to sit down and quietl
y bring the attent ion to the chosen subjectfirst of all thinking of a large scen
e and then narrowin g down gradually to the s ecial object, and then meditating
u on itso it is not w ell to end a meditation abru tly. At a certain oint one mus
t sto the flow of t hought and dwell for a short time with clear-sighted and cal
m vision u on the be st thing that one has been able to reach. It may be that yo
u have reached a heig ht or de th of thought beyond which you cannot go on to an
y advantage. At this oint your attention begins to waver, your mind begins to lo
se its hold. Do not t hen try to go further; do not des erately try to clutch or
gras that s lendid c once tion or vision that is flickering just beyond your re
ach. Sto where you ar e and gaze contentedly at the highest you have been able c
learly to attain. That is contem lation. It will often ha en that this highest c
once tion has not bee n the consecutive outcome of your meditative rocess, but w
hile you were going o n with that a new idea burst u on

166 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING you in a flash of ins iration. Then you may sto the
meditation and give your wh ole attention to the contem lation of that greatest
thing. Such contem lation cr eates new latforms on which consciousness can stan
d, so that when you come roun d again to deal with that dee est thought you will
find that it is easier to hol d, and that your meditation can be carried furthe
r still. It often ha ens in da ily life that those who are given to meditation c
atch sudden glim ses of great t ruths, or s lendid ideas, which carry with them
some inex licable evidence of th eir own accuracy, and one thinks them wonderful
ly sim le, and says to oneself: " Now why on earth did I never think of that or
hear about it before ?" But beware ; if you do not kee your attention on that id
ea, sim le as it is, it will be go ne from you very soon and you will be unable
to recover its message. It is, alas , true that you must im rison it in a form o
f words. A great truth ut into word s is like a bird ke t in a cage; some like i
ts song, but it has not quite the no te of liberty, the quality of life. Still,
write it down, and make it the subjec t of future meditation. Even in dealing wi
th scientific subjects, which have not a quality of a eal to high emotion, the s
ame o eration a ears. Many of the gr eatest discoveries in science have come in
moments of ins iration, when their au thors have thought long and dee ly on the
subject and then given u the effort a s a failure, at least for the time being.
In any systematic attem t at contem la tion three stages should be followed (1) t
he attention must be centred on the obj ect; (2) thought must be active with ref
erence to that object alone; (3) the min d must remain actively centred on the o
bject while its ordinary activities cease . In the last stage we sto all com ari
ng and reasoning and remain with the atte ntion fixed actively u on the object,

MEDITATION 167 trying to enetrate the indefiniteness which for us then a ears to
surround it. It will be seen that in contem lation there is nothing in the natu
re of slee o r mental inactivity, but an intense search; you make an effort to s
ee in the ind efiniteness something definite, and refuse for the time being to d
escend to the ordinary regions of conscious activity in which your sight is norm
ally clear and recise. You concentrate again, but this time at the to end of you
r line of th ought.

CHAPTER XXIV USES OF THE WILL Voluntary Decision. It is a common thing among hum
an beings to wait for the guid ance of events. To some extent this is inevitable
. It would be folly for a saili ng-shi to set out from harbour in the midst of a
terrible storm, or for a motor car to undertake a long journey on roads dee in
snow. But often it must be con fessed that we are not resourceful, so that, one
thing being barred by circumsta nces, we do not make use of the conditions that
exist. One effect of this weakne ss of waiting on events is that when a choice d
oes offer, decision is difficult. Su ose that we need a month's change of air in
the summer, and we have the mon ey to ay for it. The question arises: shall we
go to the mountains or to the se aside ? Sometimes eo le wear themselves out in
deciding such a small matter. I knew a lady who used frequently to tire herself
by trying to decide what dress s he would wear, and sometimes she would array he
rself for going out, and then sud denly at the last moment rush back and change
her stockings or even her entire d ress. Once, when she was going on a voyage of
several weeks, a friend advised he r to make a time-table of dresses, and they
sat together and made an engagement book of her wearing a arel; the dates were w
ritten down, with morning, afternoo n and evening in the horizontal columns, and
in the vertical columns dress, shoe s, stockings, and even underclothing, were
set forth. The lady ke t to her rogr amme, and afterwards declared that she had
never before felt so free and ha y; she seemed to have four times the nervous en
ergy which had been hers before. The re are few things more fatiguing and devita
lizing than the habit of indecision i n small things. Truly, students 171

172 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING generally have their lan of life laid out for them
very fully by others, but ev en so they sometimes find it difficult to get to gr
i s with their rogramme. It is so tem ting to take u the easy or favourite subje
ct first, and neglect that which is troublesome or dull. But the student who wan
ts to develo the owers of his mind will act by voluntary decision as to what is
best. Sometimes a erson will say: " I really cannot decide what to do; I cannot
see what is best." Assum ing then, that you have fully considered the ros and co
ns, and cannot decide be cause they are evenly balanced, or because they do not
resent sufficient data o n which to base a definite judgment, and yet some actio
n is desirable, toss a co in and have done with the matter. The idea is not that
the coin will tell you wh at is best, but that it will ut an end to your worry.
Be sufficiently decisive, however, not to wish that the coin had fallen on the
other side, or to wonder w hether to toss it again to decide whether you will ob
ey the revious toss or not ! Voluntary decision is a great hel to ractical succe
ss, as well as to strengt h and clearness of mind. I remember an account, writte
n by a distinguished man, of the causes to which he attributed his henomenal suc
cess in life. Among these was one which he seemed to rize above all the restthe h
abit of making a list ea rly each morning of the things which he had to do durin
g the day. He said that w ith the aid of this ractice he was able to do ten time
s as much as he could bef ore he ado ted it; not because he really worked very m
uch harder, but because he had ceased to waste time in idle and irritating s ecu
lations as to what he shou ld do next, and whether he should do it now or leave
it until after lunch or unt il to-morrow. He discovered that these troublesome q
uestions, utterly unim ortan t as they were, had the ower to sa his strength and
resolution, so as to leave him unfit to enjoy his work. Their effect was such t
hat he found himself consta ntly turning aside to some trifling dissi ation that

USES OF THE WILL 173 would for the moment divert his mind, such as that of ickin
g u a casual magazi ne to fill in an odd half hour. Elements of Success. If you
would have success i n your life, take each thing that comes and decide how you
will use it. No man c an do everything, so choose some definite form of activity
. Do not be one of tho se eo le who follow no definite road, and drift hither an
d thither towards an o ld age filled chiefly with disa ointments and regrets. Dw
ell frequently u on th e idea of your chosen ur ose, so that it becomes a ermane
nt mood. When that is established, many things will serve you which would otherw
ise be assed by with out notice or use. If an architect travels, does he not not
ice the forms of the buildings in various laces, as his fellow-travellers do not
? And do not those things then hel him in his chosen rofession ? Some definiten
ess of ersonality and character is necessary for healthy hysical existence in th
e fullest sense of the term. Full health is not merely harmony in our own bodily
functions, but harmony also in relation to other eo le. We must fit into the la
rger body. What is usually called greatness is not sufficient for real success i
n life, unless there is also goodwill for humanity, and real love for some few e
o le. Without love, no ha iness, so do not sacrifice eo le to greatness. For rea
l success, b ody, emotions and mind must all be well occu ied, and in agreement.
If body, emo tions and mind are well occu ied, character will follow. Character
is inward suc cess. Its ossessor can make a mark on the world, but he will allo
w the world to make a mark on him only as he chooses. He will not drift. Nor wil
l he be de end ent u on circumstances for his ha iness or strength. He will be l
ike the Stoic of old times, who did not bother his head about things outside his
ower, but to ok good care to occu y himself with the things within his ower So,
before you l et anything worry you, ask yourself

174 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING if the thing is in your ower, and if it is not, tur
n your attention to somethin g else. I once knew a family of five brothers who w
ell illustrated the fact that there can be no real outward success without inwar
d success. While com arativel y young two of those brothers became successful in
business. But unfortunately t hey had not the inward strength to rofit by their
outward ros erity and their success roved a curse instead of a blessing. They a
te and drank more than was d esirable; they did not take any exercise. They indu
lged their bodies, knowing qu ite well the danger of it all. At the age of about
thirtyfive they were both fat and ailing; at forty they were ermanently in the
doctor's hands; at about fort y-five they were both dead, after ten years of utt
erly miserable life. The other three brothers remained hale and hearty, surround
ed by ha y families at an adv anced old age. Yet strange to say the friends of t
he family still allude to the two who died as the successful brothers, and say s
adly what a ity it is that th e best die young. But really, outward success with
out inward success leads to fa ilure; and inward success ultimately leads to out
ward success as well. Give your body a square deal. Let it have rest, recreation
, varietya reasonable amount of enjoyment of the senses. But exact obedience. Whe
n you know what is best insist u on it, in eating and drinking, in slee ing and
rising, in working and laying. The body is almost like an animal, and you will f
ind that it is ha y when well treated without over-indulgence, which it may at t
imes desire. Avoid fear. Reas on it out of your life. How can it hel you? Do wha
t you can, and be content wit h that. Avoid anger. If others wrongly obstruct yo
u, defeat their lans if you c an; if not, do what you can, and be content with t
hat. But thank your enemies at least a little for drawing out your faculties and
strength. Avoid ride; it wil l blind you to excellence which otherwise you migh
t attain. Try to do well

USES OF THE WILL 175 what you want or have to do, and be content with that. Do i
t well, if it is only utting your foot to the ground. If you must swear, swear w
ell, and even that w ill become admirable. " How much must I do ?" asked a stude
nt, of his teacher. " Oh," re lied the rofessor drily, "Just a little more than
you can." Wishing and Willing. Don't wish. For you cannot both wish and will. Wi
shing and willing are incom atible. This can be shown by a very sim le argument.
Su ose I consider w hether I will or will not ick u my en. I cannot wish in thi
s matter. I must d ecide either to ick it u or to leave it where it is. I know q
uite well that it weighs only an ounce or two and that I am free and strong enou
gh to ick it u . Therefore I may say; "I will ick it u ," or "I will not ick it
u ." But if I knew or thought that the en weighed half a ton I might find myself
saying: "Oh, I do wish that I could ick u that en!" Wishing is an acknowledgmen
t of inabi lity. It is a declaration of de endence u on external events. It is w
aiting, not working, and wasting time and energy while you wait, and o ening the
door to ev ery sort of weakness that will s oil you for your o ortunities when
they come. Wise men do not wish for o ortunity, but they wish to be re ared for
it. Willi ng is the use of your own ower; the man of will has no use for wishes,
which wo uld waste his time and sa his moral strength. Therefore he does not co
m lain ag ainst his environment, does not grumble about the things fortune bring
s to him t hrough no a arent actions of his own. He is content to make the fulle
st ossibl e use of what so comes. It is worth while to meditate u on this matter
of not wi shing, but willing, until you have made the mood, until you instincti
vely say, e very time that you find yourself wishing: "Sto that; I will not have
it!" Dwell a little in thought u on what this change of olicy would mean in you
r life. Wh at would it mean to you when you rise in the morning,

176 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING when you eat, when you lie down to slee ? What when
you meet your com anions, y our friends, your so-called enemies ? What when you
lose your a ointment or mon ey, or meet with an accident or fall ill, and your
family suffers. Sit down and think over all the disagreeable things that may ha
en within the next week, and see in each case, what it would mean to you. You wo
uld not wish them to be othe rwise. You would say to each of them: "What are you
for; what use can I make of you ?" You would not sink down and say " I am sorry
," or "I wish " You would ge t u and say: "I will " or "I will not " While I am
on this subject, let me give a warning against idle thought, which is akin to w
ishing. It is a great weaknes s of some to dally in imagination with things whic
h they would hesitate to ex re ss in act if o ortunity came. Avoid the habit of
lying awake in bed and thinkin g things over before going to slee , and of lying
in a semi-dream state on awake ning. Thinking should be done in a ositive ositi
on and with intention, not in a semi-slee . Do not dwell again and again on the
same thought or argument. If a nything requires to be thought over, bring forwar
d and consider all the facts be aring u on it, arrive at a conclusion, and then
dismiss the matter from your min d ; and never consider it again unless you can
bring some new facts to bear u on it. If a difficulty arises, do not rocrastinat
e; deal with it com letely there and then, and dismiss its further consideration
, or a oint a s ecial time for settling it. Do not let anxiety, fear and distres
s ramble about the mind, oison ing and enfeebling it. Do not think about what ot
hers say about you, exce t to e xtract from it the element of truth which is oft
en there. On no account make the im erfections of others a subject of your medit
ations. You need your energy and time for your

USES OF THE WILL own work, and besides, dwelling on others' defects tends to dev
elo the same wea knesses in ourselves. If the brain is tor id do not eat after d
ark or slee afte r dawn, and take mild exercise and fresh air. Work and Play. Th
e strong attitude towards life which I have advocated may seem somewhat hard, as
filling the day too much with work. But I would say, "Unify work and lay." Work
need not be toi l and drudgery; in fact, its true character is lay. Drudgery is
merely action; it does not create the man who does it. But the least bit of wor
k done well, don e heartily, done better than ever before, feels good, is good,
and leads to good . If, in writing a letter, one is at ains to do it neatly, eve
n beautifully, an d to ex ress oneself briefly, clearly and gracefully, one has
develo ed hand, ey e and brain, thought- ower, love- ower, and will- ower, and t
hat means more life for the future. But if you do it with your eye on the future
and not because yo u like it in the doing, you will lose much of the savour and
the benefit. Also, if you can hel it, do not work too much. There is no sense i
n overwork. The man who does it achieves less than he who knows how to measure h
is strength. All ou r work ought to create new strength in us so that to-morrow
will be better than to-day. Work that is so hard or rolonged that it leaves us w
eaker to-morrow is no true work at all, but waste. In the ideal, all work would
be lay. "Consider the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they s in."
Some eo le go to the extreme and convert lay into work. If you ractise, let the
ractice also be lay, or the thought of the future may s oil the resent, and tha
t in turn s oil the ho ed-for future, causing you to fall short of full success.
It is relat ed of Paderewski that when he had already made some a earances in u
blic at the iano, an ex ert a roached him and said: " If you will obey me for tw
o years I will make you the greatest of ianists." He obeyed and ractised

I78 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING exercises constantly without giving himself the lea
sure of a earing in ublic for two years. But I think that during that time he mu
st have delighted in the f eeling of growing strength and su leness in his finge
rs, and not fixed his gaze too closely on the end of the two years. No doubt we
have to whi ourselves u a bit sometimes, but that is only at the beginning of th
e journey, when the engi ne is cold. I knew a lady who used to get out of bed at
two in the morning to fe ed young u s. It was a ull, no doubt, but I believe a
bright s ot in her life, though robably she never analysed it as such. There are
many occasions of lea sure as well as rofit lost to the man who kee s his eye g
lued too closely on th e future. To him a long journey, for exam le, may be a mi
sery, as he is thinking only of what he will do or receive at the end of it. Ano
ther finds a thousand t hings of interest on the waythe scenery, the eo le, the t
rain itself; for him th e journey is a ha y holiday. And in the end he has accom
lished much more than the other man. I have long admired the Hindus for their c
a acity to enjoy the jo urney of life. The Hindu villager lives very near to nat
ure, and shows us a sam le of man growing as the flower grows. A man will set ou
t from his village to co llect the mail from the ost office or to dis atch some
letters there, erha s m any miles away. He does not tram along stolidly and ainf
ully, jarring his nerv es with the graceless movements that s ring from a discon
tented or im atient min d. The vision of his mail is not a mania that shuts out
all other interests, and makes him curse the length of the track. No, there are
insects, birds, flowers, trees, streams, clouds in the sky, fields, houses, anim
als and eo le, and last ly the blessed earth itself, to lie on which for a while
is to be in aradise. O n the other hand, do not be always seeking novelty as su
ch. Peo le seek novelty because their own shallow owers

USES OF THE WILL 179 of thought soon exhaust the surface ossibilities of familia
r things. It is a st e beyond that to have a revailing ur ose and mood. It is a
ste farther still to be full of a ur ose and yet awake to the value of all thing
s by the way. In conclusion, remember the Hindu roverbs If you want a light, what
is the good of merely talking about a lam ? If you are sick, can you cure your
disease sim ly by calling out the names of medicines ? Hidden treasure does not
reveal itself by your sim ly commanding: "Come out!" You must find the lace, rem
ove the stone s, and dig.

CHAPTER XXV BODILY AIDS are many very excellent exercises for the ur ose of kee
ing the body fit. Some of them are ositively necessary for the student who is in
clined to be sedentary . The effect of the mind on the bodily functions cannot s
afely be ignored by any one who takes u mental training. In concentration of min
d, for exam le, there i s a tendency to halt the breath outside the body; I know
one student who was occ asionally recalled to the fact that he had forgotten to
breathe in by suddenly c hoking. So a few suitable breathing exercises will not
be out of lace in this b ook. On the other hand, the restlessness of the body s
ometimes s oils our mental work. So for the successful ractice of concentration
it is desirable to train the body to remain quiet. Peo le who are mentally dis o
sed are often inclined to be somewhat nervous. Therefore a little attention in t
his connexion may also be in lace here. And finally, control of the senses, so t
hat you can curb their r estlessness and turn your attention away from their mes
sages at will, is also a useful accom lishment. I will therefore offer the stude
nt a few exercises along these lines. Stillness. Perha s you have never sat for
a few minutes without mov ing. Try it now. Try to sit quite still for five or te
n minutes, without su ort ing the back above the waist, with the eyes closed, wi
thout feeling either restl ess or slee y. You will robably be sur rised to find
in what a variety of ways your body will rebel, and in how many arts of it there
will be strange cree ing and twitching feelings. As THERE 180

BODILY AIDS l8l a remedy for this I recommend the following standing exercise: G
o into a room wh ere you will not be disturbed, and stand erect, referably befor
e a long mirror, with a clock or watch in sight. Stand erfectly still for five m
inutes. The eye s may blink; no attention need be aid to them. The body must not
be allowed to sway, nor the fingers to twitch; and no notice must be taken of a
ny slight sensa tions. The mind may occu y itself in thinking in turn of the dif
ferent arts of the body, and seeing that they are still. Probably the little fin
gers, or the sh oulders, or some other art of the body will ache, but no attenti
on need be aid to them. Practise this for about five minutes daily. Relaxation.
That exercise should be su lemented by the ractice of relaxation, intended to re
lieve tensio n in the body. To get the feeling of relaxation try the following e
x eriment: Wi th the right hand hold a book firmly in front of the chest. Raise
the left elbow almost as high as the shoulder, and let the left hand and wrist r
est on the boo k, so that the left forearm is about horizontal. By imagination o
r thought slowl y withdraw the energy of the left arm till you feel that there i
s no life in it, that it is quite relaxed. Then suddenly dro the book. If the le
ft arm falls as though lifeless, you have succeeded in relaxing. This ex eriment
will be better done if someone else holds the book for you, and removes it with
out warning. An other way of erforming this ex eriment is to stand close to a ch
est of drawers or other similar object on which you can comfortably rest your ar
m and hand, fro m elbow to finger ti s. Relax the arm and then ste back smartly.
If you have re laxed ro erly the arm will fall inert, by its own weight. Having
thus learned w hat relaxation feels like, you need not re eat the ex eriment, b
ut roceed as fo llows: Lie down flat on your back on the floor or on a board (no
t on a bed or co nch) and try to sink into it, as if it were soft. This will giv
e

182 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING you a luxurious feeling of relaxation of the whole
body. It is a good lan to st retch the body, then the neck, then let it go loose
and relax the body art by art, beginning at the feet and going u to the head. T
o relax the eyesan im ortan t matterimagine black. It is good to relax in this man
ner at night, before going to slee . As an extreme measure, if necessary, one ma
y learn relaxation by slee ing for a few nights on a table, with only a sheet be
tween the body and the boar d, that is, with nothing to soften the surface. It i
s ossible to go to slee in a soft bed without being relaxed, but it is not so ea
sy to do so on a board. On the hard surface you must relax in order to be comfor
table. Then, when you know what the mood of relaxation is like, and you can do i
t at will, it will be erm issible to revert to the soft bed. Stretching and Bend
ing Exercises. To the stan ding and relaxing exercises the following stretching
and bending exercises may b e added, for general health Stand with the heels toge
ther; raise the hands above the head; bend forward to touch the toes without ben
ding the knees; return to th e u right osition, reaching as high as ossible, sta
nding on the toes. Stand wi th the hands at the sides, alms inwards; lean over s
lowly to one side until the hand sinks below the knee, while the other hand is c
urled u under the arm it; slowly swing back to the o osite side, stretching the
body all the time. Perfor m these exercises with an even movement and concentrat
ed thought, for about one minute each. Finally stand, raise one foot from the fl
oor by bending the knee; n ow raise the other and lower the first, and thus run
for one minute, without mov ing along. Nerve Exercises. Let us now turn to the n
erve exercises. These are do ne either by holding a art of the body still and re
venting it from trembling o r by moving it very slowly and

BODILY AIDS 183 evenly. Hold out the hand with the fingers a little a art and wa
tch them intentl y. They move a little, and you begin to feel a kind of creaking
inside the joint s. Try to kee them erfectly still by an effort of the will. Af
ter a few minute s they begin to tingle, and you may feel a leakage at the ends,
as though someth ing were going off. Send this back u the arm and into the body
by the will. Nex t, stand before a large mirror, and move the arm by im erce ti
ble degrees from t he side into a horizontal osition in front. It should move wi
thout any jerking and so slowly that you can scarcely see it moving. Again, sit
with your back to the light, facing a large object, such as a bookcase. Without
moving your head, start at one corner of the object and let your eyes move, with
out jum ing, very slowly round the outline of it and along its rominent lines, b
ack to the origin al oint. These three exercises may take about five minutes eac
h, and should be done on successive days. Breathing Exercises. I do not recommen
d elaborate breat hing exercises, such as that of breathing in at one nostril an
d out at the other . Our object is only to learn regular breathing with the full
use of the lungs, so that there may be a good habit during study or concentrati
on. So I suggest on ly the following sim le ractices: Draw the breath in slowly
and evenly, through both nostrils, while mentally counting eight, or for five se
conds; hold it in w hile counting eight; and breathe out slowly and evenly while
counting eight. Re eat this eight times. While the breath is in the body it sho
uld not be held with the throat muscles, but by holding the chest muscles out an
d the dia hragm down by an act of will. To cork the breath in at the throat is i
njurious. The whole rocess should be easy, leasant and natural. Gently draw the
lungs full of air, and then, holding the breath as before, ress the breath down
as low as ossibl e

184 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING in the body by sinking the dia hragm. Then ress the
air u into the chest (with out raising or moving the shoulders) so that the abd
omen goes in. Thus ress the air u and down, slowly and deliberately, five or six
times, and then slowly an d gently breathe out. Inhale the breath as before, re
ss it down as low as ossi ble, and draw in more air, so that both the lower and
the u er arts of the lun gs are filled tight. Then suck in and swallow more air
through the mouth until y ou feel slight muscular discomfort. Release the air sl
owly, from the chest first . These breathing exercises hel to make the body brig
ht and cheerful, and to co unteract the natural sus ension of breath outside the
body which often occurs du ring strong concentration of mind, as distinguished
from the sus ension of breat h inside the body which accom anies hysical effort.
If carried on for too long at one time they tend to inhibit its sensibility. Pr
atyahara. I will conclude th ese exercises by mention of the ractice of inattent
ion, known among Indian yogi s as ratyahara. It is well known that often when we
are reading a book, or list ening to music, or looking at a beautiful object, w
e become inattentive to all b ut that in which we are interested. In all such ca
ses many things are battering on the senses, a erson may enter the room and go o
ut again, a tram-car may go h owling and screeching and thundering ast, but you
have not seen or heard. Vibra tions from these things entered the eye and ear, a
nd the messages travelled alon g the nerves to the a ro riate centres in the bra
in, but you did not see or hea r because your attention was turned away. How vib
rations of matter in the brain are converted into sense- erce tions in conscious
ness has always been a mystery to the sychologist, but the theory of knowledge d
oes not concern us at resent. The ractical oint is that the translation of vibra
tions

BODILY AIDS 185 into erce tions is within the ower of our will. We can ractise d
eliberate ina ttention to objects before our eyes. I am writing these words on a
bit of a er on a blue writing ad. I find it quite ossible to lose sight of the
ad as well as my en, by articular attention to what I am thinking, without turni
ng my ey es away. Similarly it is ossible to listen to the ticking of a clock or
the sou nd of the wind in the trees, and then forget them while concentrating o
n some id ea. I knew a man who used frequently to lecture on latforms on which h
e was re ceded by musical items. If, while waiting for his turn, he wished to re
flect u o n some oint of his lecture, he could turn his attention to it while th
e music w as going on, and deliberately turn it away from the music. The result
was that a fter a moment or two he heard the sounds no more, and was able to exa
mine his id eas as though he had been alone in his room or in the de ths of a fo
rest. And no w, reader or student, ermit me to wish you full success in the use
of this art of mind and memory, and all the good that may follow therefrom.

INDEX AIM Paris, 112 GENDERS, remembering, 55 Al habets, foreign, method of learn
ing. 39 Ashtavadhanis, the, memory feats of, 128 Associations, 60 , ill-, 88 Att
ention, 18, 90, 92, 93, 96, 166 BENIOWSKI, Major, 29 German words, learning, 50
Gouraud, Francis Fauvel, 112, 117, 118, 123 Greek, 41 Grey, Dr. Richard, 111 HEB
REW al habet, 39 Hindu roverbs, 179 History of Mnemonics, 120 Hobbies, mental, 1
39 IDEAS, 24, 91 Bodily aids, 180-85 Botany, 48 CAUSALITY, 74 Character, 173 Che
mistry, 63 Chess, 4, 17, 128 Class, law of, 7, 76 Co-existence and succession, 8
0 Com arison, 9, 75 , modes of, 73-80 Com lex abstract ideas, 24 concrete ideas,
24 Concentration, 6, 11-20, 90, 146, 151-57. 159. 180 Confide nce, 18 Contem la
tion, 165 Contiguity, 75, 80 Contrast, 8 Control of the mind, 9 2 DICKENS, Charl
es, 57 EMERSON and reading, 137 , associating, 61 , dissociated, 87 , ex ansion
of, 100-102 , linking, 82 , quanti ty and osition of, 66 , radiation of, 62 , sequ
ences of, 87 , succession of, 96 Ill-associations, 88 Images, 63 Imagination, 232
8 Im ressions, reviving, 60 Inde cision in small things, 171 India, memory-men o
f, 128-34 Intermediaries, 59 LEIBNITZ, G. W., HI Lithium, discovery of, 143 MEDI
TATION, 90, 158-67 Exercises, 25, 98, 100, 115, 151-57 , breathing, 183 , nerve,
182 , relaxation, 181 , stillness, 180 , stretching and bending, 182 Ex ectancy
, subconscious, 63 FAMILIARIZATION, method of, 29-38 of forms, 39-49 of words, 5
056 Fear, 174 Feinai gle, Gregor von, 68, 111, 122 Forget, ability to, 85 French
words, learning, 50, 84 Foreign al habets, 39 words, 50-56 187 Memoria Technica,
111 Memory, 141 , feats of the A shtavadhanis, 128 , lacing t he, 120-27 , roje
ction of, 57-64 Mind control, 92 Mind-wandering, 6, 90 Mink, S tanislaus, 111 Mo
od, 94-9 , establishing a ermanent, 98 , reviving a, 60 New Ar t of Memory, 68 N
icholas Nickleby, 57 Notebooks, 59 Number arguments, 105-10 dia grams, 107-10 wo
rds, 111-19 Numbers, remembering, 105

i88 OBSERVATION, 14 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING Sim lification and symbolization, 6
5-9 Simonides, 65, 1 20 Sommer, 126 S eech-making and writing, 148-50 Stillness
exercises, 180 Study and reading, 137-47 Success, elements of, 173 THINKING, 23,
90, 162 Olcott, Colonel H. S., 128 PADEREWSKI, 177 Parts, law of, 7, 77 PhrenoMnemotechny, 117 Pick, Dr., 55, 112, 120 Pitman's sh orthand, 41 Poetry, the lea
rning of, 150 Pratyahara, 184 Proximity, law of, 8, 8 0 QUALITY, law of, 8, 79 Q
uintilian, 121 READING and study, 137-47 Reason, 73 Reflection, voluntary, 158 R
oads of Thought, the, 7, 9, 53, 76, 100, 149 112, 128
Thoughts, chain of, 94 VOLUNTARY decision, 171 reflection, 158 WILL, the, 00 Rom
an al habet, 42 SANSKRIT, 91, al habet, 41, 113 Schenckel, Lambert, 126 Sim le a
bstract ideas, 24 concrete ide as, 24 , uses of, 171-79 Willing and wishing, 175
WillU, John, 65 Wishing and willing, 175 Work and lay, 177 Writing and s eech-m
aking, 148-50

Thought and walking, 89 100, 149

rocess of, 90, 94 Roads of, the four, 7,9, 53, 76,

SUGGESTED READING THOUGHT POWER, ITS CONTROL AND CULTURE CONCENTRATION, A PRACTI
CAL COURSE Annie Besant Ernest Wood With Su lement on Meditation MEDITATION, A P
RACTICAL STUDY With Exercises MEDITATION FOR BEGINNERS MEDITATION, ITS PRACTICE
AND RESULTS THOUGHT FORMS ADELAIDE GARDNER J. I. Wedgwood Clara M. Codd Besant a
nd Leadbeater (The effects of sound, feeling and thought in the invisible realms
of Nature. Il lus. coloured lates). THE MENTAL BODY (A Com ilation) THE ASTRAL
BODY (A Com ilation) AN INTRODUCTION TO YOGA A. E. Powell A. E. Powell Annie Bes
ant Obtainable from The Theoso hical Publishing House London, Ltd. 68, Great Rus
sell Street, London, W.C.I