MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 194.] FEBRUARY 1, 1810. [1 of VOL. 29. ** As 1‚ng 1 those who write are ambitious of making Converts, and of giving their Opinions a Maximum o " **Influence and Celebrity, the most extenfively circulated Mifcellany will repay with the greatest Bat the **Curiosity of those who read either for Amusement or InftruNion.”- -JOHNSON. 1 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. For the Monthly Mogazine. On the ORIGIN and PROGRESS of MNEMONICS; and the QUACKERIES of its PROFESSORS in the SIXTEENTH CENTheY. EMORY, or the power of retaining on the mind, is a faculty, whose fullness of vigour is rarely coeval with the formation of the human intellect. Man has therefore recourse to art, for supplying those resources, which are denied to him by nature. As to the readiest means of effecting this end, so indispensably requisite to the acquisition and retention of knowledge, the philosophers and rhetoricians of every age are found at variance; nor do they differ less widely, ia pomting out the fittest mode of cultivating and improving the memory, than agriculturists differ as to the mode of cultivating and improving the same soil. Some contend for the natural aids of a, well-directed practice and constant exe.cise: others scruple not to call in mes, dicare to the assistance of the retentive faculty; and many insist upon the agency of impressions, derived from external objects, with which a certain association of ricas is connected. In respect to the first of these methods, we find Quine tilian among its warmest supporters: "If, (says he,) I should be asked in what consists the real and greatest art for improving the memory, I would say, in labour and exercise; and that nothing is so efficacious as learning much by heart, thinking much, and this daily, if pos sible."*. These maxims are strongly enforced by various modern writers; and amongst those of our own country, by Beattie and Knox, who may be consulted with advantage, by such as feel an interest in this subject. The second method I have mentioned, as being founded Si quis tamen unam maximamque a me artem Memorie quærat, exercitatio est et labor; multa ediscere, multa cogitare, et si Seri potest, quotidiè, potentissimum est. Inst. Orat. lib. xi. c. 2. MOSTHLY MAG. No. 194. Ancients, known by the name of Muesl monics, and a-kin to the Ars Memora tiva or Artificial Memory of the Mo-" derns. The principles on which this are? is grounded will be adverted to' Heleafter; and its practice, at least in 'the' present day, I shall abstain frientatges ing upon, as that has been só: ably de-" veloped on a former occasion, "I'shall' content myself, therefore, with a sommary notice of the origir and progress of this art among the ancients, previously ' to entering upon a wider field; the quack?" eries of its professors, and the patronage conferred on them in the sixteenth century. The most important of human dise coveries owe their birth to accidental. causes; and I know not, therefore, why chance should not be deemed a fontfull a mother of invention, as neessity, Simonides, the Cean, was indehidd för". the invention of Mnemonics to a cásu. alty. We are told, that this mercenary poet being hired at a supper to'etiliņrize" the prowess of his patron, Scopns, victor in wrestling at the Olympic Games, he was suddenly called away froní table, on being informed, that two youths on white horses were waiting for him he; * Vide, vol. xxiv. p. 105; et seq Monthly Magazine, signed COMMON SENSE. + So Anacreon, Callimachus, and others," designate him, from the ardour with which, he proctituted the Muses for lucre: nor could the Romans brand the works of a fellow-poet with a more opprobrious epithet, than monidis Cantilena. To this charge, al. leged against. Simonides even in his own times, Simonides more artfully than wittily pleaded: "I bd rather leave wherewithal for my enemies to prey upon when I am dead, than become a burden to my friends in my life-time." Λ the the gates. During his absence, the chamber in which Scopas and his guests were carousing, fell in, and in its fall they were crushed to death. The relations of these unfortunate revellers, anxious to honour then with funereal ob sequics, were unable to recognize their persons in the mangled and disfigured corpses, which lay strewed around, till Simonides overcame this dilemma, by remembering the distinct places each had occupied at table; and thus pointing out each individual to those who sought his remains. This event suggested to his mind the practicability of making external impressions subservient to the strengthening of memory, by selecting places and images, as so many reposito ries and symbols of ideas. Hence, he was led to propound a method of associating the ideas of things to be retained in the memory, with the ideas of objects conveyed to the mind by that acutest. of our senses-the sight; and already impressed upon it in a regular series. The invention of this method, stamped, him as the Father of the Mucinouic Art. Cicero, tells us, that when Simonides, offered to instruct Themistocles in his method, his offer was rejected in these memorable words: "Ah! (replied the hero,) rather teach me the art of forgetting; for I often remember what I would not, aud cannot forget what I would." From this time, Mnemonics became a favourite pursuit with the Greeks; and being brought to perfection by Scepsius Metrodorus. was in great vogue among their orators. They are said to have made use of the statues, paintings, ornaments, and other external circumstances, of the places, where they harangued, for reviving, in progressive order, the topics and matter of their orations, which they had already appropriated to each circumstance. In the list of those who prided themselves on having perfected their memory by ar This story is handed down to us, both by Cicero and Phaedrus, in his fables. + This system of Simonides, is founded on that theory of emblems, which Bacon so justly characterizes: "Emblema verò deducit intellectuale ad sensibile: sensibile autem semper fortiùs percutit memoriam, deque in ea faciliùs imprimitur, quam intellectuale." Emblem reduceth concelts intellectual to images sensible, which always strike the memory more forcibly, and are therefore the more easily imprinted, than intellectual conceits-BACON's Augm. Scientian. Lib. vi. cap. 2. Plinii His. Nat. lib, viii. c, 21. tificial means, are enumerated Metrodorus, Hippias, and Theodectes. The Romans bestowed no less attention on this art, the subject of Cicero's panegyric and discussion throughout a whole chapter of his masterly treatise on Oratory." Yet Cicero's conviction of its utility did not prevent Quinctilian's assertion of its inefficiency, a short time afterwards; for we find the latter summing up his thoughts upon it, in these vehement terms:-"Wherefore, both Carneades, and the Scepsius Metrodorus, (of whom I have just spoken,) who, as Cicero says, had used this exercise, may keep this method to themselves: we will pass over to a more simple subject." Fabius, the historian, also ridicules this art in his XIth book. Mnemonics, however, still continued in great repute; and Cicero, strengthening precept by example, boasted that they were the basis of his excellent memory. It is said, their practice was cultivated with suc cess, by others of no less repute; amongst whom, Crassus, Julius Cæsar, and Seneca, are particularly noticed. This art appears to have lain dormant in after-ages, till that luminary of science, Raimond Lulle, thought fit to bring it once more into notice among the learned; and wooed it with such diligence, that it has ever since been called, Lulle's Art. I shall not detain your readers, by entering into an analysis of Lulle's method, which is amply detailed by Morhof, and in. Gray's Memoria Technica. Mnemonics had not yet attained the meridian of their greatness: this epoch was reserved for the sixteenth century; and I question much, whether any art De Oratore, lib. i. sect. 86, 87. f Quare et Carneades et Scepsius (de quo modo dixi) Metrodorus, quos Cicero dicit, usos hac exercitatione, sibi habeant sua: nos simpliciora tradamus. Just Orat. ut supra. Dr. Beattie, also says, in conclusion of his remarks on Artificial Memory, "I cannot but think with Quinctilian, that the Art was too complex, and that Memory may be improved by easier methods." Diss. Mor. and Crit. chap. ii. sect. 3. Lord Bacon held a similar opinion, as well as Morhof, in whose Arte Lulliana, and cap. vi. De Memoriae Polyhistor Literar." (lib. ii. cp. v. de Subsidiis,) is preserved an elaborate account of the writers on this subject. Dotor illuminatus, terms him, with jus Gaspar Scioppius, speaking of this tice, "lutulentum et ineptum scriptorem, ses portentosi acuminis."--Camusent. de Styla, Hist has bas ever been the subject of a more tedious and obstinate controversy; or has been brought forward under more illustrious auspices, with greater solemnity, or a more bare-faced impudence. These will be sufficiently manifest in the account I shall now render of the Mnemonistic Duamvirate of Lambert Schenkel, and his haud indignus' plenipotentiary, Martin Sommer. self as commissioned by Schenkel, to instruct the whole world. "A lawyer, (says he,) who has a bun dred causes and more to conduct, by the assistance of my Mnemonics, may stamp them so strongly on his memory, that he will know in what wise to answer each client, in any order, and at any hour, with as much precision as if he had but just perused his brief. And ́in pleading, he will not only have the evidence and reasonings of his own party, at his fingers' ends, but (mirabile dictu!) all the grounds and refutations of his antagonist also! Let a man go into a library, and read one book after another, yet shall he be able to write down every sentence of what he has read, many days after at home. The proficient in this science can dictate matters of the most opposite, nature, to ten, or thirty writers, alter.. nately. After four weeks' exercise, he will be able to class twenty-five thousand disarranged portraits within the saying. of a paternoster:-aye, and he will do this ten times a day, without extraordi nary exertion, and with more precision than another, who is ignorant of the art, can do it in a whole year! He will no longer stand in need of a library for referring to. This course of study may be completed in nine days"-(perhaps in the same way that foreign languages are now-a-days taught in twelve lessons!) Lambert or Lamprecht Schenkel, born at Bois-le-Due, in 1547, was the son of an apothecary and philologist, lle went through his academical course at Lyons and Cologne, and afterwards became a teacher of rhetoric, prosody, and gymnastics, at Paris, Antwerp, Malines, and Rouen; not forgetting, as the custom of the age required, to claim his title to scholarship, by writing Latin verses. From these, however, he acquired no celebrity proportionate to that which was reared on his discoveries in the Mnemonic Art. The more effectually to propagate these discoveries, he travelled through the Netherlands, Germany, and France; where his method was inspected by the great, and transmitted from one university to another. Applause followed every where at his heels. Princes and nobles, ecclesiastics and laymen, alike took soundings of his depth; and Schenkel brought himself through every ordeal, to the astonishment and admiration of his judges. The rec" and an hour's practice daily, will be suf tor of the Sorbonne, at Paris, having previously made trial of his merits, permitted him to teach his science at that university; and Marillon, Maitre des Requêts, having done the same, gave him an exclusive privilege for practising Mnemonics throughout the French dominions. His auditors were, however, prohibited from communicating this art to others, under a severe penalty. As his time now became too precious to admit of his making circuits, he delegated this branch of his patent to the licentiate Martin Sommer, and invested him with a regular diploma, as his plenipotentiary for circulating his art, under certain stipulations, through Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the neighbouring countries. Sommer now first published a Latin treatise on this subject, which he dispersed in every place he visked, under the title of "Brevis DeliBentio de utilitatibus et effectibus admirabilibus Artis Memoria." (Venet. 1619, 12, 24 pp.) In this he celebrates the rare feats of his master, and announces him ficient: but, when the rules are once acquired, they require but half an hour's exercise daily. Every pupil, who has afterwards well-grounded complaints to allege, shall not only have the premium paid in the first instance, returned to him, but an addition will be made to it. The professor of this art, makes but a short stay in every place. When called upon, he will submit proofs, adduce testimonials from the most eminent characters, and surprise the ignorant, after four or six lessons, (observe!) with the most incredible displays." Here follow testimonials from the most celebrated universities. Nine alone are produced from learned men at Leipzig, and precede others from Marburg, and Frankfort on the Oder.” At the same time was published, "Gazypholium Artis Memoriæ, illustra tum per Lambertum Schenkelium de Strasb. 1619" but this is far outdone by the preceding treatise of Sommer. Thes student, destitute of oral instruction, will gather about as much of Mnemonics by by wading through this treatise, as by secking them in the hieroglyphics of an Egyptian obelisk. It is pretty evident that this Gazypholium,' was designedly intended as a labyrinthal series: the author indeed closes his labours by confessing, that the work was to be intrusted only to his scholars, and referring for further clucidation to oral precepts. The very basis of his art is concealed beneath a jumble of signs and abbreviations: thus, sect. 9. d. a sect: 99; vidilicet, locus, imago ordo locorum, memoria loci, imagines." And further, in setting forth the most important points, he amuses himself by evincing a multitude of jingling, and ummtelligible words. As this work, besides being a literary curiosity, had of late years be come extremely rare; Doctor Klueber not long since published a German translation of it, and by his happy dexterity in decyphering, has unravelled the ambiguous passages in the original, and illustrated them with a profusion of pertinent annotations. At all events, this work is a singular production. Agreeably to the character of Schenkel's system, his development of the art does not confine itself to mechanical ideas alone. It sets the technical, symbolical, and logical faculties of the memory, in equal activity; and Compendium der Mnemonik, &c., Compendium of Mnemonics, or the Art of Memory at the beginning of the seventeenth century, by L. Schenkel, and M. Sommer. Translated from the Latin, with a Preface and Remarks, by D. Klüber. Erlangen. Palm. 18048; pp. 1047 January February requires that its powers should be at once ingenious and perceptive. Its acquire ment is founded on the association of ideas: nor does it fail to call wit and imagmation in aid of natural memory. Sommer's Compendium,consisting of eight sections, was printed for the use of his auditors. After his departure, permission is given to his scholars to communicate their mnemonistic doubts, observations, and discoveries, to each other; but no one can be present without legalizing himself previously, as one of the initiated, by prescribed signs: and he who fails in this, is excluded as a profaner. In thus tracing the origin of Mnemonics, and their progress, down to the sixteenth century, if the reader's curiosity should be awakened by these memoranda of mine, he will find it gratified by a reference to Cicero and Morhof, than whom no writer has so amply treated of Memory, and its assistants. Gray's Memoria Technica' will supply him with much information on this sub ject, to which the student's attention is also directed, in a plan of artificial memory, lately laid down in Robinson's Grammar of History? Your's, &c. LIPSIENSIS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. March April May June July August September October November December 1809. 330.130 From the foregoing Table it will be seen, that the first four months in the last year, and likewise October and December, were hotter than the same months in 1803; but in the other months, '500·619 the highest temperature was in 1803; and on the whole year, the average height of the thermometer was nearly a degree and a half lower in 1809, than m the preceding year. |