THE POWER OF MIND. William Walker Atkinson
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C
(Vowels, silent letters and letter “H” omitted. Two letters coming together are treated as one. Translation by sound, not by spelling.)
This table was thoroughly memorized, and words then translated into figures, or figures into letters. The letters formed from the figures are turned into words by the addition of vowels, and a word or sentence constructed having some connection (real or fancied) with the date to be memorized. Some of Winkleman’s successors have devised much better forms of “figure alphabets” but the principle is the same. The most absurd combinations are resorted to by the followers of these systems to memorize a date. A friend of the writer’s, using the above table as a guide, remembered the date of the battle of Waterloo (1815) by the words Bonaparte Licked, the first letters of the two words being B (1) and L (5) making ’15, the year of the battle. He recalled the battle of Yorktown by the words “Brave Novices Routed British,” the initials “B, N, R, B” indicating 1781. To our mind it takes a greater degree of work to memorize these associating words than to remember the date itself. Winckelmann used the words BiG RaT to denote 1480, although we would have to know the event in 1480, which was to be remembered, before we could trace the connection. Other writers have worked many ingenious combinations of this “figure alphabet” idea, but for the purposes of this work, the above examples will suffice, the whole idea being more curious than useful.
In 1840 Beniowski, a Pole, taught a system in which was first introduced the “correlative” and similar theories, which have formed an important part of many widely advertised “systems” of recent years. In 1845 Miles, an American, promoted a system of his own in which, among other plans, he used sentences containing the event to be memorized, the last word of which would contain the date, according to a “figure alphabet” system. He also taught an original plan of memorizing names of important places and events by associating them with well known objects, thus: Borodino was recalled by “Borrow a dinner;” Saskatchewan, by “Sis, catch a swan,” and so on. His most important departure, however, was his “nomenclature table” which took the place of the old “figure alphabet.” These tables were series of words, each word of which represented a number from 1 to 100. This list when committed to memory, was applied by using a word to recall its appropriate number, thus aiding in memorizing dates, etc.
In 1848, Dr. Kothe, a German, developed a system, since largely used by other teachers, the principal features of which were the connecting of words having no relation to each other, by means of intermediate or correlative words. For instance, the words “chimney” and “leaf” would be associated as follows:
“Chimney—smoke—wood—tree—Leaf.” The words “Pillow” and “Ink” would be joined in this way: “Pillow—feather— quill—pen—Ink.” This system has been incorporated into that of many teachers since that time. These systems, as a rule, are cumbersome, and usually prove more or less disappointing to the student seeking to develop his power of memory. Take, for instance, the wellknown correlation by which is taught the word Apfel, the German equivalent for Apple, which runs thus: “Apple—windfall—wind—storm—wrap well—Apfel.” It has always seemed to us that it would be much easier to impress the word Apfel on the mind in the first place, than to remember this chain of connecting words.
About 1878 John Sambrook, of England, taught and published a system which among other things stated the principle that figures could be easily memorized by the use of words whose vowels corresponded in sound to the numerals. He called attention to the fact that the vowel sound of each figure was different from that of another with the exception of the long sound of “I,” which occurs in the words “five” and “nine.” his last conflict of sounds he remedied by giving the short sound of “I” to “nine,” considering it as if it were pronounced “nin.” He constructed from this principle a most ingenious system of memorizing numbers. The following words will give an idea of the words to be used in memorizing numbers from 1 to 9, it being remembered, of course, that any word of the same sound would answer as well as any of the words here used.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Gun. | Tooth. | Tree. | Floor. | Hive. | Stick. | Sexton. | Gate. | Pin. |
In memorizing 1492 (Columbus’ Discovery of America) a sentence would have to be constructed having some reference to Columbus, in which the words, Gun, Floor, Pin, Tooth, appeared in their above order, or a word would have to be found in which these vowel sounds appeared in the same order, etc., etc. Interesting, but scarcely useful as a memory developer.
The Shedd system gives as an easy method of memorizing dates, the plan of forming a word or sentence, the number of letters of which correspond to the number to be remembered. Thus to remember that Rome was burned in the year 64 one must remember the sentence “Burned Rome,” the first word of which contains six letters and the second four. Napoleon’s birth (1769) would be recalled by the sentence, “A strange, mighty conqueror,” and his defeat at Waterloo (1815) by the sentence, “A Waterloo I found.”
Other writers have promulgated systems by which events, subjects, rules, dates, etc., are readily remembered by doggerel rhymes. Some well known examples are here given:
THE MONTHS.
“Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November,” etc., etc.
PARTS OF SPEECH.
Three little words you often see
Are Articles a, an and the. A Noun’s the name of any thing, As school, or garden, hoop or swing. Adjectives show the kind of noun, As great, small, pretty, white, or brown. Instead of nouns, the pronouns stand, Her head, his face, your arm, my hand. Verbs tell us something to be done, To read, count, laugh, sing, jump or run. How things are done, the adverbs tell; As slowly, quickly, ill or well. Conjunctions join the words together, As men and women, wind or weather. The Preposition stands before A noun, as in, or through, the door. An Interjection shows surprise, As Oh! how pretty—Ah! how wise. The whole are called nine parts of speech, Which reading, writing, spelling, teach.
“SHALL” AND “WILL.”
In the first person simply shall fortells,
In will a threat or else a promise dwells. Shall in the second and third doth threat, Will simply then fortells the future feat.
ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS.
First William the Norman,
Then William, his son;
Henry, Stephen and Henry,
Then Richard and John,
Next Henry the third,
Edwards, one, two and three;
And again,