Dr. Edward Pick, a recent lecturer on mnemonics, has called attention to a peculiar mode of arranging lists of words that are to be fixed in the memory, as the exceptions to grammar rules, etc. He proposes to choose out such words as have some kind of ,connection with one another, and to arrange them in a series, so that each shall have a meaning in common with the next, or lie contrasted with it, or be related to it by any ,other bond of association. Thus, lie takes the French irregular verbs, which are usually :arranged in the alphabetical order (which is itself, however, a mnemonic help), and puts them into the following series, where a certain connection of meanings exists between every two: as sew, sit down, move, go, go away, send, follow, run, shun, etc. In a ,case where two words have no mutual suggestiveness he proposes to find out some inter anediate idea that would bring about a connection. Thus, if the words were garden, ;hair, watchman, philosophy, he would interpolate other words; thus, garden, plant, ihair of a plant—hair; hair, bonnet, watchman; watchman, wake, study—philosophy; and :so on. Of course the previous method is the one that should be aimed at, as the new words are to a certain extent a burden to the mind. Dr. Pick further suggests as a
practical hint, in committing to memory, that the attention should be concentrated sue cessively upon each two consecutive members of the series; the mind should pause upon the first aud the second until they have been made coherent; then abandoning the first, it should in the same way attend tq the second and the third, the third and the fourth, etc. Of course if every successive link is in that way made sufficiently strong, the whole chain is secure.
There are various examples of effective mnemonic combinations. The whole doc trine of the syllogism (q.v.) is contained in five lines of Latin verse; as regards amount of meaning in small compass, these lines have neverdieen surpassed, if, indeed, they have been equaled. The versification of the rules of the Latin grammar has the same end in view, but all that is gained by this is merely the help from the. association of the sounds of the verse in the ear; in comparison with a topical memory, this might be called a rhythmical memory. The well-known rule for the number of days in the different months of the year ("Thirty days hath September," etc.) is an instance of mnemonic verse.