that it has conceived. Each theory presents difficulties, and for the practical purpose of this Course of Training it is quite unimportant which hypothesis is adopted.
VIII. THE PLACE OF MEMORY IN MENTAL EFFICIENCY AND IN DAILY LIFE.
17. Among the mental powers of man, the central place is occupied by the Memory. It is memory which makes life a connected whole and gives it a rational meaning. If a man were entirely without memory he would be utterly helpless, paralytic and imbecile. The action of the feet in walking involves memory. The motion of the hand towards the mouth when eating is an exhibition of memory. In the higher aspects of life the role played by memory becomes more conspicuous. No judgment can be formed unless there are present in the memory the facts from which the judgment is to be derived. Deduction demands a recollection of the “premises”, and calculation depends on recalling numbers. Social life would be impossible without a more or less developed memory for names and faces; business life would, in the absence of this mental quality, be certain to come to a standstill; indeed, without memory intelligent life is outside the realms of possibility. The better the memory the better the chances of a larger and fuller life in every sense of the term.
IX. THE GREAT DIVISIONS OF MEMORY.
18. Between the memory which guides the feet in walking and the memory which empowers the mind to form a judgment, there is a seeming distinction, but it is probable that much if not all of the memory which has now become racial and intuitive was at one time individual and voluntary. In psychological treatises memory is sometimes classified as conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious. The student of these lessons need not concern himself with these terms, since our attention will be devoted almost exclusively to the training of the conscious memory.
Impression, Retention, Recollection.
19. The faculty of memory comprises three stages—impression, retention and recollection, and if any one of these three factors is impaired, the memory is in a corresponding degree defective. You are earnestly requested to pay very close attention to this portion of your First Lesson, since it forms a groundwork upon which much of your future success will be built.
Impressions are of two kinds; those coming to the mind from outside; and those arising within the mind itself, as in the case of thought and of imagination. Ease of recollection depends more upon the strength and vividness of the first impression than upon any other factor. Whenever an idea originates within the mind, endeavour to trace consciously the train of thought that led up to it. Ask yourself: “Why did that idea occur to me? How did it come?” Do not hurry away from it. Turn it over in consideration. Ask yourself what bearing it has upon the department of life, or study, or business with which it may be concerned. If it is an idea likely to prove of value, revive it in the mind after a brief interval. Later on in the Course, we shall describe various methods of association by which you will inevitably be able to recall any idea after any lapse of time. But there are other things which you must learn first, and for the present you must treat impressions with the means already at your disposal. We aim at developing your natural memory and not giving you an artificial one. If we provide special aids too early in the Course, you will be tempted to trust too much to them, and too little to your own inherent faculties.
External Impressions.
20. Although there is a certain class of impression which originates within the mind itself, there is another and very large class which comes from outside. These impressions reach the brain through the five senses. Sometimes impressions are conveyed to the brain by two or even more senses simultaneously. Thus, when you meet a stranger who begins at once to talk to you your brain will receive impressions of his appearance and of his speech, and these impressions arrive together. Some persons, when they are reading silently, seem to have in their minds the actual sounds of the words before them though no sound is audible. In this case there is an external visible impression and an internal audible impression. Individuals vary much in their susceptibility to impressions through the different senses, some receiving their most intense impression by sight and others by hearing. If you want a perfect memory, you must train not only your brain but also your senses. Do not trust wholly to your sight and neglect your hearing because your sight makes the most direct appeal to you, or vice versa. Even persons whose activity of sight is excellent frequently fail to observe much that they ought to notice. Take a sheet of paper and try to draw upon it the Roman figures exactly as they appear on the face of a clock, and then compare carefully the figure you have placed at “four o’clock” with the figure as represented on the dial of a watch or clock. A large percentage of persons will not succeed, and to fail in this manner is indicative of faulty observation. On which side are the buttons on a man’s coat and on a woman’s jacket? Many such details as these have come constantly before your eyes, but have you seen them?
Face Memory.
21. Have you “a bad memory for faces”? If you have, make a point to-morrow of looking at each person to whom you speak. In men, notice whether they are clean-shaven, or moustached or bearded. Notice the shape of the chin, the form of the nose, whether the lips are thin or thick, whether the mouth is wide or narrow. Notice the colour of the hair, the height of the forehead, the colour of the eyes. If your “memory for faces” is very faulty, take one of these details alone for a few days, noticing only noses, or eyes, or hair. Then after a few days, notice two facial details. As you progress, endeavour to obtain not only a record of details but also the general key to the individual expression of each face. Where two faces bear a resemblance try to discover the points of difference. In subsequent Lessons, we shall set you further exercises for training your sense of sight.
22. To train your sense of hearing, try to recognise your friends by their voices or their footsteps when they are within hearing, but out of sight. In the case of footsteps, notice rapidity, regularity and weight.
23. Impressions are conveyed to the brain not only by sight and hearing, but also by smell, taste and touch. Shut your eyes and try to distinguish between different flowers by their scent alone, and between different coins and between different textile fabrics by the sense of touch. Can you distinguish between beef and mutton if you eat with closed eyes? The three senses mentioned in this paragraph are of less importance to the majority of persons than are the senses of sight and hearing, but they should not be wholly neglected.
Retention.
24. The second stage in the process of memory is retention. This is automatic, and, if taken by itself, beyond the control of the student. Whenever a vivid impression is made, an absolutely permanent retention is assured. Of course, if no impression has been made upon the brain, no impression can be retained. When people say they have “forgotten,” they frequently suppose that their retentive power has broken down. The failure, however, is not in the retentive power, but in the third stage, which is the power of recollection.
That the mind has immensely strong retentive powers, acting unconsciously for the most part, is proved by the experiences of many men and women who have been saved in the nick of time from a watery grave. After resuscitation, they have recorded the fact that during the moments preceding the loss of consciousness, a train of mingled insignificant details and important crises of their lives, has passed before the mind’s eye in panorama. A majority of these details or occurrences would ordinarily be described as “forgotten,” but what has been lacking in normal conditions has been, not retention, but a sufficient stimulus for recall. If the stimulus be of the right character, it need not be of great intensity, and often a mere passing odour of violets will instantly bring back to us the picture of the
