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SECTION VI.

Continuation of the fame Subje&t.—Of Artificial Memory.

y an Artificial Memory is meant, a method of connecting in the mind, things difficult to be remembered, with things eafily remembered; fo as to enable it to retain, and to recollect the former, by means of the latter. For this purpose, various contrivances have been proposed, but I think the foregoing definition applies to all of them.

Some forts of artificial memory are intended to affift the natural powers of the human mind on particular occafions, which require a more than ordinary effort of recollection; for example, to affift a public speaker to recollect the arrangement of a long difcourfe. Others have been devifed with a view to enable us to extend the circle of our acquired knowledge, and to give us a more ready command of all the various particulars of our information.

The topical Memory, so much celebrated among the antient rhetoricians, comes under the former defcription.

I already remarked, the effect of fenfible objects in recalling to the mind the ideas with which it happened to be occupied, at the time when these objects were formerly perceived. In travelling along a road, the fight of the more remarkable scenes we meet with, frequently puts us in mind of the fubjects we were thinking or talking of when we laft faw them. Such facts, which are perfectly familiar even to the vulgar,

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might

might very naturally fuggeft the poffibility of affifting the memory, by establishing a connexion between the ideas we wish to remember, and certain fenfible objects, which have been found from experience to make a permanent impreffion on the mind *. I have been told of a young woman, in a very low rank of life, who contrived a method of committing to memory the fermons which he was accustomed to hear, by fixing her attention, during the different heads of the difcourse, on different compartments of the roof of the church; in fuch a manner, as that when fhe afterwards faw the roof, or recollected the order in which its compartments were difpofed, fhe recollected the method which the preacher had obferved in treating his fubject. This contrivance was perfectly analogous to the topical memory of the antients; an art which, whatever be the opinion we entertain of its ufe, is certainly entitled, in a high degree, to the praife of ingenuity.

Suppofe that I were to fix in my memory the dif ferent apartments in fome very large building, and that I had accustomed myself to think of these apartments always in the fame invariable order. Suppofe farther, that, in preparing myself for a public difcourfe, in which I had occafion to treat of a great variety of particulars, I was anxious to fix in my memory the order I propofed to obferve in the communication of

"Cum in loca aliqua poft tempus reverfi fumus, non ipfa ag"nofcimus tantum, fed etiam, quae in his fecerimus, reminifcimur, perfonæque fubeunt, nonunquam tacitæ quoque cogitationes in "mentem revertuntur. Nata eft igitur, ut in plerifque, ars ab expe"rimento."

QUINCT. Inft. Orat. lib. xi. cap. 2. my

my ideas. It is evident, that by a proper division of my fubject into heads, and by connecting each head with a particular apartment, (which I could eafily do, by conceiving myself to be fitting in the apartment while I was studying the part of my discourse I meant to connect with it,) the habitual order in which these apartments occurred to my thoughts, would prefent to me, in their proper arrangement, and without any effort on my part, the ideas of which I was to treat. It is also obvious, that a very little practice would enable me to avail myself of this contrivance, without any embarraffment or distraction of my attention *.

As to the utility of this art, it appears to me to depend entirely on the particular object which we fuppose the speaker to have in view; whether, as was too often the case with the antient rhetoricians, to bewilder a judge, and to filence an adverfary; or fairly and candidly to lead an audience to the truth. On the former fuppofition, nothing can poffibly give an orator a greater fuperiority, than the poffeffion of a fecret, which, while it enables him to exprefs himself with facility and the appearance of method, puts it in his power, at the fame time, to difpofe his arguments and

*In fo far as it was the object of this fpecies of artificial memory to affift an orator in recollecting the plan and arrangement of his difcourfe, the accounts of it which are given by the antient rhe toricians are abundantly fatisfactory. It appears, however, that its ufe was more extenfive; and that it was fo contrived, as to facilitate the recollection of a premeditated compofition. In what manner this was done, it is not eafy to conjecture from the imperfect explanations of the art, which have been tranfmitted to modera times. The reader may confult CICERO de Orat. lib. ii. cap. 87, 88.-Rhetor. ad Herennium, lib. iii. cap. 16. et feq.-QUINCTIL. Inft. Orat. lib. xi. cap. 2.

his facts, in whatever order he judges to be the most proper to mislead the judgment, and to perplex the memory, of those whom he addreffes. And fuch, it is manifeft, is the effect, not only of the topical memory of the antients, but of all other contrivances which aid the recollection, upon any principle different from the natural and logical arrangement of our ideas.

To those, on the other hand, who speak with a view to convince or to inform others, it is of consequence that the topics which they mean to illuftrate, fhould be arranged in an order equally favourable to their own recollection and to that of their hearers. For this purpose, nothing is effectual, but that method which is fuggested by the order of their own investigations; a method which leads the mind from one idea to another, either by means of obvious and striking affociations, or by thofe relations which connect the different fteps of a clear and accurate procefs of reafoning. It is thus only that the attention of an audience can be completely and inceffantly engaged, and that the fubftance of a long difcourfe can be remembered without effort. And it is thus only that a speaker, after a mature confideration of his fubject, can poffefs a juft confi. dence in his own powers of recollection, in ftating all the different premises which lead to the conclufion he wishes to establish.

In modern times, fuch contrivances have been very little, if at all, made ufe of by public fpeakers; but various ingenious attempts have been made, to affift the memory, in acquiring and retaining those branches of knowledge which it has been fuppofed necessary for a scholar to carry always about with him; and which,

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at the fame time, from the number of particular details which they involve, are not calculated, of themselves, to make a very lafting impreffion on the mind. Of this fort is the Memoria Technica of Mr. Grey, in which a great deal of historical, chronological, and geographical knowledge is comprised in a fet of verfes, which the ftudent is fuppofed to make as familiar to himself as fchool-boys do the rules of grammar. These verfes are, in general, a mere affemblage of proper names, difpofed in a rude fort of measure; fome flight alterations being occafionally made on the final fyllables of the words, fo as to be fignificant (according to certain principles laid down in the beginning of the work) of important dates, or of other particulars which it appeared to the author useful to affociate with the names.

I have heard very oppofite opinions with refpect to the utility of this ingenious fyftem. The prevailing opinion is, I believe, against it; although it has been mentioned in terms of high approbation by fome writers of eminence. Dr. Prieftley, whofe judgment, in matters of this fort, is certainly entitled to refpect, has faid, that “it is a method fo easily learned, and "which may be of fo much ufe in recollecting dates, "when other methods are not at hand, that he thinks "all perfons of a liberal education inexcufable, who "will not take the fmall degree of pains that is necef

fary to make themfelves mafters of it; or who "think any thing mean, or unworthy of their notice, "which is fo ufeful and convenient *."

In judging of the utility of this, or of any other contrivance of the fame kind, to a particular person, a Lectures on Hiftory, p. 157.

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