the body may be taken up and apprehended by the mind, it is necessary that a mental image of it be formed. The mind can take no account of any movements or changes that may be taking place in the body, except in so far as they give rise to mental images, and according to the clearness and accuracy of the image which is formed will be the hold taken of it by the memory. These images, it is believed, have their seat not only in the brain, but, like the memory and the mind itself, embrace also an organ of sense or certain of the muscles.

As it is held that every motion, sensation, and thought leaves its permanent traces in our physical structure, it naturally follows that every thought or impression that has once been consciously before the mind never afterwards entirely passes from it. It may never again come up consciously before the mind, but it will remain in the region of unconsciousness, giving a colour or bias, it may be, to all our after-thoughts and feelings. Hence the most sanguine hopes may be entertained with regard to the possibilities for improving the memory. What an unspeakable advantage it would be to a man if everything that he had ever read, or heard, or seen, or thought, or done, could be so laid up in his mind that he should be able to recall it at any time he might wish to do so; and who shall say that this is impossible? At least there are cases recorded of men having had such memories.

The author has little faith in Arts for improving the memory in two or three lessons, but he has unbounded faith in systems of education, properly conducted, to effect incredible improvements in this direction. Children in their earliest years manifest great power of memory, and they learn to speak and understand their mother-tongue in a very short space of time. This

power is said to be speedily lost, but it may well be questioned whether it is not destroyed by wrong methods of teaching. Whatever the child sees it looks at with its whole mind, whatever it hears its whole mind is bent upon it, but as soon as its education begins all this is changed. It is set to learn the alphabet, and here it has three tasks put before it at once. A letter is presented to its eye which perhaps it has never seen before, and it is expected to form a visual image of it; a sound is addressed to its ear, and an auditory image has to be formed of it, and it is expected to pronounce it all at the same time. Now, if there is any truth in the principles here laid down, they clearly show that a child cannot learn two things at the same time without great loss of power and injury to the parts concerned. If we would observe and follow nature, then, the ear should be first of all accustomed to the sounds of the different letters before seeing them, or even being required to pronounce them. Then, when it is familiar with the sounds of the different letters, let it be taught to pronounce them, and only when it can do this accurately should it be made acquainted with the forms. In like manner, in learning a foreign language, the different sounds should first be mastered by the ear and tongue before the words are presented to the eye. Further remarks on this subject will be found in the last chapter.

It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this subject as bearing upon education. The whole science of education may be said to be embraced in the question of "How to improve the memory?" It includes not merely the cultivation of the different mental faculties and furnishing them with knowledge, but the training of the senses, and the developing of the various physical powers. Every act in the training or cultiva

tion of any power or faculty depends on memory; all the habits we form are built up through it. If the author's views on this subject are correct, then the whole system of education as at present conducted is on a wrong basis. Instead of the communication of knowledge being made the means of improving the memory, the interests of the memory are sacrificed in order that it may be crammed with as much knowledge as possible without regard to the permanent injury that may thereby be done to it. It has been the author's endeavour throughout the volume to bring out the practical bearings of his views upon education.

In dealing with this subject the author has found himself in a great measure on unexplored territory. No other writer on Memory or Mnemonics has, so far as he is aware, taken up the same ground.1 Even the authors he has followed, and to whom he feels deeply

1 Professor Loisette largely advertises a system of improving the memory, which he calls "The Physiological Art of Never Forgetting". The art is only taught or communicated under a strict promise of secrecy, so that the author has had no means of becoming acquainted with it; but judging from the Prospectus he believes that it proceeds on the same lines as here laid down. It is said to differ from the hitherto taught systems of mnemonics in using none of the "associations," "localities," "links," "pegs," "keys," &c., of the latter; but to be based on physiological principles and to employ nature's own process of remembering,-statements which are likewise applicable to the present system. One of his pupils mentions, as an instance of the advantages he had derived from the system, that at a party he was able to name fifty different articles placed on a table in a private room, after simply taking a deliberate look at each, while none of the others could master more than nineteen. This doubtless he could not have done had it not formed an essential part of his training, and this is exactly the method here recommended. The Professor tells us that he believes his system "is destined to work as great a revolution in educational methods as Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood in physiology," but it is difficult to see how this is to be effected while it is kept a secret. The author, too, believes that his system will effect great improvements in educational methods, and in order that it may do so, he publishes it without reservation.

indebted for the support they have afforded him, he has frequently had occasion to differ from. While, therefore, he has endeavoured to express his views with all clearness, he trusts he has also done so with modesty, knowing how liable one is to err in such circumstances, and how little one individual mind can do towards perfecting the knowledge of such a subject, which calls for the combined labour of many minds working in different fields,-in philosophy, in physiology, in educa tion, &c.

LONDON, January, 1888.