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 ...

MEMIORY. 315
retaining the most barbarous and the nmost insignificant verses;
which another person would find as difficult to remember, as the
geographical and chronological details of which it is the object
of this art to relieve the Memory. Allowing, therefore, the
general utility of the art, no one method, perhaps, is entitled to
an exclusive preference; as one contrivance may be best suited
to the faculties of one person, and a very different one to those
of another.
Objection to all expedients of this natzcre. —One important
objection applies to all of them, that they accustom the mind to
associate ideas by accidental and arbitrary connections; and,
therefore, how much soever they may contribute, in the course
of conversation, to an ostentatious display of acquired knowledge, they are, perhaps, of little real service to us, when we are
seriously engaged in the pursuit of truth. I own, too, I am
very doubtful with respect to the utility of a great part of that
information which they are commonly employed to impress on
the Memory, and on which the generality of learned men are
disposed to value themselves. It certainly is of no use, but in
so far as it is subservient to the gratification of their vanity;
and the acquisition of it consumes a great deal of time and
attention, which might have been employed in extending the
boundaries of human knowledge. To those, however, who are
of a different opinion, such contrivances as MIr. Grey's may be
extremely useful; and to all men they may be of service, in
fixing in the Memory those insulated and uninteresting particulars which it is either necessary for them to be acquainted with,
from their situation, or which custom has rendered, in the common opinion, essential branches of a liberal education. I would,
in particular, recommend this author's method of recollecting
dates, by substituting letters for the numeral cyphers; and
forming these letters into words, and the words into verses. I
have found it, at least in my own case, the most effectual of all
such contrivances of which I have had experience.
VII. Importance of making a proper selection among the objects of our knowledge, in order to derive advantage from the
acquisitions of /flemory, — The cultivation of Memory, with all