Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

PMEMORY. 313
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 embarrassment or distraction of my attention.
How far artificial Memory is useful. -As to tle utility of
this art, it appears to me to depend entirely on the particular
object which we suppose the speaker to have in view; whether,
as was too often the case with the ancient rhetoricians, to bewilder a judge, and to silence an adversary; or fairly and candidly to lead an audience to the truth. On the former supposition, nothing can possibly give an orator a greater superiority,
than the possession of a secret, which, while it enables him to
express himself with facility and the appearance of method,
puts it in his power, at the same time, to dispose his arguments
and 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 addresses. And such, it is manifest, is the effect, not
only of the topical Mlemory of the ancients, 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
whlich they mean to illustrate, should be arranged in an order
equally favorable to their own recollection and to that of their
hearers. For this purpose, nothing is effectual but that method
which is suggested 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 associations, or by those relations which connect the different steps of a clear and accurate
process of reasoning. It is thus only that the attention of an
audience can be completely and incessantly engaged, and that
the substance of a long discourse can be remembered without
effort. And it is thus only that a speaker, after a mature consideration of his subject, can possess a just confidence in his
own powers of recollection, in stating all the different premises
which lead to the conclusion he wishes to establish.
Various kinds of artificial femory. - In modern times, such
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