Lesson 2 The Importance of a Good Memory

From the earliest days of human culture, the leaders of the thought of the world have unanimously accorded to Good Memory the most exalted position on the altar of the Temple of Mind. The world's greatest thinkers have been earnest worshippers at that altar, and have loudly sung the chant of praise to Mnemosyne, [1] the famed Goddess of Memory.

[1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemosyne ]

The ancient Greek mythology told the story of Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory, in enraptured words, the importance of her place being shown by the fact that the Greek priesthood held that she was the mother of the nine Muses who presided over the arts and sciences, literature and song. Veiled by the poetical tissue of mythology, the importance accorded to Memory by the ancient Greek thinkers is boldly revealed. And in the legends and mythologies of other races, we find the universal tendency of the thinking mind to accord to Memory its rightful important place.

Philosophy, science, and poetry have placed their flowers and devotional candles before the altar of this goddess. One has but to turn over the pages of the leading writers of all ages, to find the most glowing tributes to her.

Emerson has told us "I would rather have a perfect recollection of all I have thought and felt in a day or week or high activity, than read all the books that have been published in a century." Richter says: "Memory is the only Paradise from which we cannot be driven away." Hood says: "Memory is the golden thread linking all the mental gifts and excellences together." Basil says: "Memory is the cabinet of imagination, the treasury of reason, the registry of conscience, and the council-chamber of thought." Helvetius says: "Memory is the magazine in which are deposited the sensations, facts, and ideas, whose different combinations form knowledge."

But why multiply these expressions of respect and regard for this sovereign power of the mind, when every individual must express himself in like spirit if he but stops to consider the matter. Let us rather pass on to the consideration of the advantage of possessing a good memory, and the disadvantage of its lack. When once we fully realize the facts of the case, we will be filled with the spirit of attainment and mastery, and will strive to accomplish and acquire the principles which will lead to the wonderful goal of Good Memory.

As Drummond well says: "From the Archangel to the brute we conceive that something analogous to an organ of memory must be possessed by each." [1] But while every human being possesses memory in some degree, there are but few persons, comparatively who have developed their memory to the degree possible to the average person who will devote a little time and work to the task. And this is all the more strange when one stops to consider the disadvantages under which these persons of poor memory must labor throughout life.

[1. From The Unseen Universe, or Physical Speculations on a Future State, Balfour Stewart, Peter Guthrie Tait (first edition c. 1870-1875). The quote appears on page 78 of the 1896 edition at Archive.org Here. "Drummond" is possibly the Scottish evangelist, biologist, writer and lecturer Henry Drummond (1851-1897).]

Locke has well said: "In some persons the mind retains the characters drawn on it like marble, in others like freestone, and in others little better than sand." [2] There are far too many of these sand-memory persons in the world. We meet them on all sides, every day, and everywhere. They may be bright in other respects, but as the knowledge and experience has been written on the shifting sands of their poor memories, they are unstable, fickle, shifting, vacillating, and uncertain. We cannot depend upon them, and we soon pass them by in favor of others of more stable character.

[2. As quoted in The New Art of Memory: Founded Upon the Principles Taught by M. Gregor Von Feinaigle, 1813 edition at Archive.Org Here. ]

These shifting sand characters lack fixed and settled purposes in life, and find it impossible to adhere to any one idea, thing or purpose in life. They are blown hither and thither by the winds of conflicting aims and desires, and, as a consequence, can never hold to any one thing long enough to accomplish any good result.

To some of you it may seem strange to attribute this shifting character to poor memory, but there are the best scientific reasons for so doing, although the general public does not realize the fact. This explanation will clear up the mystery of many cases of this kind, if you will examine the particulars of each case. In practically every case you will find that the memory of these shifting persons is quite poor and unreliable.

In this connection, I ask you to consider the following statements from eminent authorities on the subject. Beattie says: "When memory is preternaturally defective, experience and knowledge will be deficient in proportion, and imprudent conduct and absurd opinion are the necessary consequence." Bain says, along the same lines: "A character retaining a feeble hold of bitter experience or genuine delight, and unable to revive afterwards the impressions of the time, is in reality the victim of an intellectual weakness under the guise of a moral weakness." And Kay well sums up the situation when he says of this class of persons: "They may not be otherwise deficient in natural parts, but their memories are not sufficiently strong for anything to impress them deeply or for any length of time. All the usual impulses to action may be in full force or even in excess, but they lack the wisdom or knowledge necessary in order to act rightly or with a due regard to results. They act usually upon the spur of the moment and are constantly making mistakes. Even the teachings of experience are in a great measure lost upon them from lack of persistence."

[Note: pages 18-19 are duplicated in the original scan.]

One does not have to be reminded of the terrible handicap a poor memory is to the person in professional or business life. The habitual "forgettor" soon becomes a nuisance, and ends in being avoided by those who require and demand the services of those who can and will remember the things which should be remembered. Many a man, otherwise well equipped, has gone down in defeat because of this one weak point. "Oh, I forgot!" soon becomes monotonous and tiresome, and the average business man will manage to separate himself from the person who frequently uses it to excuse himself for things left undone or done in the wrong way.

Elbert Hubbard [3] once said: "I know a man who is fifty-five years old. He is a student. He is a graduate of three colleges, and he carries more letters after his name than I care to mention. But this man is neither bright, witty, clever, interesting, learned nor profound. He's a dunce. And the reason is that he cannot remember. Without his notes and his reference literature, he is helpless. This man openly confesses that he cannot memorize a date or a line of poetry and retain it for twenty-four hours. His mind is a sieve through which sinks to nowhere the stuff that he pours in at the top." Not a bit overdrawn, is it? How many men of similar weakness do you know in your own experience?

[3. American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher (1856-1915). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbert_Hubbard ]

This would be a terrible state of affairs were it not for the fact that this deficiency, this weakness, can easily be rectified and cured by scientific and rational methods, such as are taught in this series of lessons. The bane is only too apparent—but the antidote is here ready to hand, easily procured and easily applied. For good memory is not a gift bestowed upon some, and forever denied to others of the race. The best memory may be improved, and even the poorest developed into one far above the average.

One of the best of the older writers on the subject, Prof. [David] Kay, assures the race of the above stated fact, in the following encouraging words, to which I heartily assent: "The defects of memory of which most persons complain, and with reason, are mainly, if not entirely, to be attributed to the ignorance that prevails regarding its true principles, and to the abuse and neglect to which it is subjected in our systems of education and through life. The office of the memory is to remember, and there can be no doubt that if properly trained and judiciously treated, it will remember to an extent and with a clearness that, with our present conceptions of it, will seem nothing short of marvellous." [4]

[4. The Science of Memory, David Kay, 1902. Google Books Author of Memory: What It Is, and How to Improve It, 1888. Archive.Org ]

The thousands of students of the principles taught in this course of lessons will heartily and earnestly testify to the truth contained in the words just quoted, which uttered many years ago have seemed like a prophecy of that which has been since accomplished along these lines. And, you, student, will soon be affirming this truth, for you will have demonstrated it yourself.

To realize the value of a good memory, it is necessary only to realize the handicap of a poor memory, and this I have already pointed out to you in the preceding paragraphs. There are no two sides to the question of the advantage of a good memory—there is only the one side, and that is a very strong one. No sane person would for a moment waste breath on an argument against a good memory and in favor of a poor one. But even at this, there are but few persons who really realize to the full extent how desirable it is to cultivate and strengthen the memory.

The well-developed memory serves to acquire, preserve, store away, and, upon the proper occasion, to faithfully reproduce the impressions of the experiences which have come to the individual as he has progressed on the path of life. These impressions are the result of the experience of the individual—the facts that he has seen, heard, felt, read, and thought. If these experiences have been preserved in such shape that they can be reproduced and acted upon at will, then they have been worth the price paid for them by the individual. If they have not been so preserved—if they cannot be so reproduced for service and use, then they have not been worth the price paid for them, and in such case are a loss rather than a profit.

Life is concerned with the gathering and gaining of experience. And the creative power which operates the machinery of the universe has evidently designed that all experience shall be a source of profit and progress to the individual as well as the race. This is the secret of the existence and evolution of memory. The cultivation, training, and adequate use of the memory is certainly in the fullest accordance with the great design and intent of Life. The opposite is really an attempt to defeat the creative design—an attempt to swim against the tide of Life, and its end is certain defeat and failure.

Not only should the individual use every effort to benefit by the ordinary experiences of life which have come to him, the memory of which constitutes his general knowledge of life; but he is in duty bound to himself as all individual to endeavor to retain and make use of the special experience and knowledge which have come to him in the pursuit of his special vocation, trade, profession or business. This acquirement of experience and knowledge, this retention of the knowledge, and this easy reproduction of the same for use at the proper moment—these are the things which constitute the greater part of that which we know as Efficiency.

Efficiency consists in doing any particular thing in the best possible manner. And the "best" way of doing any thing is learned only by experience—by the actual doing of the thing itself, or by knowledge gained by the experience of others in doing that particular thing. And, it will be seen at once that the efficient knowledge of the best way of doing a thing depends upon three things, viz: (1) the perception of the doing; (2) the recording of the doing; and (3) the ability to bring into consciousness the remembrance of the doing, the record of the act. A moment's thought will show you that each and every one of these three things is a distinct act of that which we call memory. To develop efficiency in any line, one must first develop and use the memory.

Everything that you ever have learned you have acquired by the operation of these three phases of memory. You have received the impression of the senses; you have stored away in your memory the impression; you have been able to bring into consciousness the memory of the impression. You have added to the impressions, and have reasoned about them from time to time, improving a little here, and modifying a little there. But without these reproduced impressions and mental images, you could not have reasoned about the thing.

A good memory means EFFICIENCY, whatever else it may mean. And in this day of the Gospel of Efficiency, there can be no better reason advanced for the cultivation, training, and strengthening of the memory than this—that it tends toward Efficiency in every line and phase of human endeavor. Without a well developed memory there can be no such thing as Efficiency. With a good memory, Efficiency becomes merely the result of patience and perseverance, aided by average judgment and intelligence. Even genius is seen to be "the infinite capacity for taking pains"—plus a good memory.

 

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