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"cause it is too obvious to be mentioned how much "that religious and facred attention which is due to "truth, and to the important question, what is the "rule of life, is loft out of the world.

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"For the fake of this whole clafs of readers, for "they are of different capacities, different kinds, and get into this way from different occafions, I have "often wished that it had been the custom to lay be"fore people nothing in matters of argument but "premises, and leave them to draw conclufions them“selves; which, although it could not be done in all "cafes, might in many.

"The great number of books and papers of amufe"ment, which, of one kind or another, daily come in "one's way, have in part occasioned, and most per

fectly fall in with and humour this idle way of "reading and confidering things. By this means, "time, even in folitude, is happily got rid of without "the pain of attention; neither is any part of it more

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put to the account of idleness; one can fcarce for"bear faying, is spent with lefs thought, than great part of that which is spent in reading."

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If the plan of ftudy which I formerly described were adopted, it would undoubtedly diminish very much the number of books which it would be poffible to turn over; but I am convinced that it would add greatly to the stock of useful and folid knowledge; and by rendering our acquired ideas in fome measure our own, would give us a more ready and practical command of them not to mention, that if we are poffeffed of any inventive powers, fuch exercifes would continually furnish them with an opportunity of difplaying themfelves

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upon

upon all the different fubjects which may pass under our review.

Nothing, in truth, has fuch a tendency to weaken, not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extenfive and various reading, without reflexion. The activity and force of the mind are gradually impaired, in confequence of disuse; and not unfrequently all our principles and opinions come to be loft, in the infinite multiplicity and difcordancy of our acquired ideas.

By confining our ambition to pursue the truth with modesty and candour, and learning to value our acquifitions only as far as they contribute to make us wifer and happier, we may perhaps be obliged to facrifice the temporary admiration of the common difpenfers of literary fame; but we may rest assured, that it is in this way only we can hope to make real progress in knowledge, or to enrich the world with useful in

ventions.

"It requires courage, indeed," (as Helvetius has remarked,) "to remain ignorant of those useless sub"jects which are generally valued;" but it is a courage neceffary to men who either love the truth, or who afpire to establish a permanent reputation.

BY

SECTION VI.

Continuation of the fame Subjec.-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 propofed, but I think the foregoing definition applies to all of them.

Some forts of artificial memory are intended to assist 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 difcourse. 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 defcrip

tion.

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, might

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might very naturally fuggest the poffibility of affisting 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 fhe was accuftomed to hear, by fix. ing her attention, during the different heads of the difcourfe, on different compartments of the roof of the church; in fuch a manner, as that when she 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 praise 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 thefe apartments always in the fame invariable order. Suppose farther, that, in preparing myfelf 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 proposed to obferve in the communication of

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

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

my ideas. It is evident, that by a proper divifion 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 difcourfe 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 de. pend entirely on the particular object which we fuppose the speaker to have in view; whether, as was too often the cafe 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 arti cial memory to affift an orator in recollecting the plan and arrangement of his discourse, the accounts of it which are given by the ancient rhetoricians 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 modern 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.

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