Dripread - Book

chiming."

"Barcarole," "Barrack," and so on, until finally the word "Blythe"
presented itself with a strange insistence, long after I had ceased
trying to recall it.

On another occasion, when trying to recall the name "Richardson," I got
the words "hay-rick," "Robertson," "Randallstown," and finally
"wealthy," from which, naturally, I got "rich" and "Richardson" almost
in a breath.

Still another example: Trying to recall the name of an old schoolmate,
"Grady," I got "Brady," "grave," "gaseous," "gastronome," "gracious,"
and I finally abandoned the attempt, simply saying to myself that it
began with a "G," and there was an "a" sound after it. The next morning
when thinking of something entirely different, this name "Grady" came up
in my mind with as much distinctness as though someone had whispered it
in my ear. This remembering was done without any conscious effort on my
part, and was evidently the result of the exertion made the day before
when the mnemonic processes were put to work. Every reader must have had
a similar experience which he can recall, and which will fall in line
with the examples given.

It follows, then, that when we endeavor, without the aid of any system,
to recall a forgotten fact or name, our memory presents to us words of
similar sound or meaning in its journey toward the goal to which we have
started it. This goes to show that our ideas are arranged in groups in
whatever secret cavity or recess of the brain they occupy, and that the
arrangement is not an alphabetical one exactly, and not entirely by
meaning, but after some fashion partaking of both.

If you are looking for the word "meadow" you may reach "middle" before
you come to it, or "Mexico," or many, words beginning with the "m"
sound, or containing the "dow", as window, or "dough," or you may get
"field" or "farm"--but you are on the right track, and if you do not
interfere with your intellectual process you will finally come to the
idea which you are seeking.

How often have you heard people say, "I forget his name, it is something
like Beadle or Beagle--at any rate it begins with a B." Each and all of
these were unconscious Loisettians, and they were practicing blindly,
and without proper method or direction, the excellent system which he
teaches. The thing, then, to do--and it is the final and simple truth
which Loisette teaches--is to travel over this ground in the other
direction--to cement the fact which you wish to remember to some other
fact or word which you know will be brought out by the implied
conditions--and thus you will always be able to travel from your given
starting-point to the thing which you wish to call to mind.

It seems as though a channel were cut in our mind-stuff along which the
memory flows. How to construct an easy channel for any event or series
of events or facts which one wishes to remember, along which the mind
will ever afterward travel, is the secret of mnemonics.

Loisette, in common with all the mnemonic teachers, uses the old device
of representing numbers by letters--and as this is the first and easiest
step in the art, this seems to be the most logical place to introduce
the accepted equivalents of the Arabic numerals:

0 is always represented by s, z or c soft.

1 is always represented by t, th or d.

2 is always represented by n.

3 is always represented by m.

4 is always represented by r.

5 is always represented by l.

6 is always represented by sh, j, ch soft or g soft.

7 is always represented by g hard, k, c hard, q or final ng.

8 is always represented by f or v.

9 is always represented by p or b.

All the other letters are used simply to fill up. Double letters in a
word count only as one. In fact, the system goes by sound, not by
spelling, For instance, "this" or "dizzy" would stand for ten; "catch"
or "gush" would stand for 76, and the only difficulty is to make some
word or phrase which will contain only the significant letters in the
proper order, filled out with non-significants into some guise of
meaning or intelligibility.

You can remember the equivalents given above by noting that z is the
first letter of "zero," and c of "cipher," t has but one stroke, n has
two, m three; the script f is very like 8; the script p like 9; r is the
last letter of "four;" l is the Roman numeral for 50, which suggests 5.
The others may be retained by memorizing these nonsense lines:

� Six shy Jewesses chase George.
� Seven great kings came quarreling.

Suppose you wished to get some phrase or word that would

The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing / A Manual of Ready Reference