MEMORY, a faculty of the human mind, whereby it retains or keeps the ideas it has once perceived.
Memory, says Mr. Locke, is, as it were, the store-house of our ideas; for the narrow mind of man not being capa ble of having many ideas under view at once, it was necessary to have a reposito ry, in which to lay up those ideas which it may afterwards have use for. But our ideas being nothing but actual percep tions in the mind, which cease to be any thing when there is no perception of them, this laying up our ideas in the re pository of the memory signifies no more than this ; that the mind has a power, in many cases, to revive perceptions it has once had, with this additional perception annexed to them, that it has had them be. fore. And it is by the assistance of this faculty, that we are said to have all those ideas in our understandings which we can bring in sight, and make the objects of our thoughts, without the help of those sensible qualities which first imprinted them there.
Attention and repetition help much to the fixing ideas in our memories : but those which make the deepest and most lasting impressions are those, which are accompanied with pleasure and pain. Ideas but once taken in and never again repeated, are soon lost ; as those of co lours in such as lost their sight when very young.
The memory of some men is tenacious almost to a miracle: but yet there seems to be a constant decay of all our ideas, even of those which are struck deepest, and in minds the most retentive; so that if they be not sometimes renewed, the print wears out, and at last there remains nothing to be seen.
Those ideas that are often refreshed by &frequent return of the objects or ac tions that produce them, fix themselves best in the memory, and remain longest there : such are the original qualities of bodies, vis. solidity, extension, figure, motion, &c. and those that almost con stantly affect us, as heat and cold.
In memory, the mind is oftentimes more than barely passive; for it often sets itself on work to search some hidden ideas ; sometimes they start of their own accord; and sometimes tempestuous pas sions tumble them out of their cells.
This faculty other animals seem to have to a great degree, as well as men, as ap pears by birds 'learning of tunes, and their endeavour to hit the notes right. For it seems impossible that they should endea vour to conform their voices (as it is plain they do) to notes whereof they have no idea.
local, among orators, is no thing but the associating the different heads to be handled with the objects be. fore the speaker's eye ; so that by only looking around him, be is put in mind of what he is to say.
Mammy, artificial, Mensoria Technica, a method of assisting the memory, by forming certain words, the letters of which shall signify the date or era to be remembered. In order to this, the fol lowing series of vowels, diphthongs, and consonants, together with their corres ponding numbers, must be exactly learn ed ; so as to be able at pleasure to form a technical word, that shall stand for any number, or to resolve such a word alrea dy formed.
I I 4 6 I 7 I I anynix The first five vowels, in order, naturally represent 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; the diphthong au = 6, as being composed of a and u, or 1 +5 = 6; and for the like reason, oi = 7, and ou = 9. The diphthong ei will easiky be remembered for 8, as being the mar. tials of the word. In like manner, where the initial consonants could conveniently be retained, they are made use of to sig. nify the number, as t for 3, f for 4, s for 6, and n for 9. The rest were assigned without any particular reason, unless that possibly p may be more easily remember. ed for 7, or septem ; k for 8, or ovras ; d for 2, or duo ; 6 for 1, as being the first Consonant ; and for 5, being the Roman letter for 50; than any others that could have been put in their places.
It is further to be observed, that z and g being made use of to represent the cypher, where many cyphers meet to gether, as 1,000, 1,000,000, &c. instead of a repetition of azyx yz y, &c. let g stand for 100, th for a thousand, and for a million. Thus ag will be 100, ig 300, oug 900, Ecc.; ath 1,000, am 1,000,000, Iowa 59,000,000, &c.