One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed, C. A. Bogardus [reader novel txt] 📗
- Author: C. A. Bogardus
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It will be noted that some of the date words, as "free will," only give three figures of the date, 845; but it is to be supposed that if the student knows that many figures in the date of Polk's inauguration he can guess the other one.
The curious thing about this system will now become apparent. If the reader has learned the series so that he can say it down from first President to Cleveland, he can with no effort, and without any further preparation, say it backward, from Cleveland up to the commencement. There could be no better proof that this is the natural mnemonic system. It proves itself by its works.
0 —hoes 1 —wheat 34 —mare 67 —jockey 2 —hen 35 —mill 68 —shave 3 —home 36 —image 69 —ship 4 —hair 37 —mug 70 —eggs 5 —oil 38 —muff 71 —gate 6 —shoe 39 —mob 72 —gun 7 —hook 40 —race 73 —comb 8 —off 41 —hart 74 —hawker 9 —bee 42 —horn 75 —coal 10 —daisy 43 —army 76 —cage 11 —tooth 44 —warrior 77 —cake 12 —dine 45 —royal 78 —coffee 13 —time 46 —arch 79 —cube 14 —tower 47 —rock 80 —vase 15 —dell 48 —wharf 81 —feet 16 —ditch 49 —rope 82 —vein 17 —duck 50 —wheels 83 —fame 18 —dove 51 —lad 84 —fire 19 —tabby 52 —lion 85 —vial 20 —hyenas 53 —lamb 86 —fish 21 —hand 54 —lair 87 —fig 22 —nun 55 —lily 88 —fife 23 —name 56 —lodge 89 —fib 24 —owner 57 —lake 90 —pies 25 —nail 58 —leaf 91 —putty 26 —hinge 59 —elbow 92 —pane 27 —ink 60 —chess 93 —bomb 28 —knife 61 —cheat 94 —bier 29 —knob 62 —chain 95 —bell 30 —muse 63 —sham 96 —peach 31 —mayday 64 —chair 97 —book 32 —hymen 65 —jail 98 —beef 33 —mama 66 —judge 99 —pope 100 —dioceseThe series should be repeated backward and forward every day for a month, and should be supplemented by a series of the reader's own making, and by this one, which gives the numbers from 0 to 100, and which must be chained together before they can be learned.
By the use of this table, which should be committed as thoroughly as the President series, so that it can be repeated backwards and forwards, any date, figure or number can be at once constructed, and bound by the usual chain to the fact which you wish it to accompany.
When the student wishes to go farther and attack larger problems than the simple binding of two facts together, there is little in Loisette's system that is new, although there is much that is good. If it is a book that is to be learned, as one would prepare for an examination, each chapter is to be considered separately. Of each a precis is to be written in which the writer must exercise all of his ingenuity to reduce the matter in hand to its final skeleton of fact. This he is to commit to memory both by the use of the chain and the old system of interrogation. Suppose after much labor through a wide space of language one boils a chapter to an event down to the final irreducible sediment: "Magna Charta was exacted by the barons from King John at Runnymede."
You must now turn this statement this way and that way, asking yourself about it every possible and impossible question, gravely considering the answers, and, if you find any part of it especially difficult to remember, chaining it to the question which will bring it out. Thus, "What was exacted by the barons from King John at Runnymede?" "Magna Charta." "By whom was Magna Charta exacted from King John at Runnymede?" "By the barons." "From whom was," etc., etc.? "King John." "From what king," etc., etc.? "King John." "Where was Magna Charta," etc., etc.? "At Runnymede."
And so on and so on, as long as your ingenuity can suggest questions to ask, or points of view from which to consider the statement. Your mind will be finally saturated with the information and prepared to spill it out at the first squeeze of the examiner. This, however, is not new. It was taught in the schools hundreds of years before Loisette was born. Old newspaper men will recall in connection with it Horace Greeley's statement that the test of a news item was the clear and satisfactory manner in which a report answered the interrogatories, "What?" "When?" "Where?" "Who?" "Why?"
In the same way Loisette advises the learning of poetry, e.g.,
"The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold."
"Who came down?"
"How did the Assyrian come down?"
"Like what animal did?" etc.
And so on and so on, until the verses are exhausted of every scrap of information to be had out of them by the most assiduous cross-examination.
Whatever the reader may think of the availability or value of this part of the system, there are so many easily applicable tests of the worth of much that Loisette has done, that it may be taken with the rest.
Few people, to give an easy example, can remember the value of +— the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of the circle—beyond four places of decimals, or at most six—3,141,592+. Here is the value to 108 decimal places:
3. 14159265 · 3589793238 · 4626433832 ·7950288419 · 7169399375 · 1058209749 · 4459230781 · 6406286208 · 9986280348 · 2534211706 · 7982148086By a very simple application of the numerical letter values these 108 decimal places can be carried in the mind and recalled about as fast as you can write them down. All that is to be done is to memorize these nonsense lines:
Mother Day will buy any shawl.
My love pick up my new muff.
A Russian jeer may move a woman.
Cables enough for Utopia.
Get a cheap ham pie by my cooley.
The slave knows a bigger ape.
I rarely hop on my sick foot.
Cheer a sage in a fashion safe.
A baby fish now views my wharf.
Annually Mary Ann did kiss a jay.
A cabby found a rough savage.
Now translate each significant into its proper value and you have the task accomplished. "Mother Day," m equals 3, th equals 1, r equals 4, d equals 1, and so on. Learn the lines one at a time by the method of interrogatories. "Who will buy any shawl?" "Which Mrs. Day will buy a shawl?" "Is Mother Day particular about the sort of shawl she will buy?" "Has she bought a shawl?" etc., etc. Then cement the end of each line to the beginning of the next one, thus, "Shawl"—"warm garment"—"warmth"—"love"—"my love," and go on as before. Stupid as the work may seem to you, you can memorize the figures in fifteen minutes this way so that you will not forget them in fifteen years. Similarly you can take Haydn's Dictionary of Dates and turn fact after fact into nonsense lines like these which you cannot lose.
And this ought to be enough to show anybody the whole art. If you look back across the sands of time and find out that it is that ridiculous old "Thirty days hath September," which comes to you when you are trying to think of the length of October—if you can quote your old prosody,
"O datur ambiguis," etc.
with much more certainty than you can serve up your Horace; if in fine, jingles and alliterations, wise and otherwise, have stayed with you, while solid and serviceable information has faded away, you may be certain that here is the key to the enigma of memory.
You can apply it yourself in a hundred ways. If you wish to clinch in your mind the fact that Mr. Love lives at 485 Dearborn Street, what is more easy than to turn 485 into the words "rifle" and chain the ideas together, say thus: "Love—happiness—good time—picnic—forest—wood rangers—range—rifle range—rifle—fine weapon—costly weapon—dearly bought—Dearborn."
Or if you wish to remember Mr. Bowman's name, and you notice he has a mole on his face which is apt to attract your attention when you next see him, cement the ideas thus: "Mole, mark, target, archer, Bowman."
FACTS WORTH KNOWING.
HANDY FACTS TO SETTLE MANY ARGUMENTS
London plague in 1665.
Telephone invented 1861.
There are 2,750 languages.
Two persons die every second.
Sound moves 743 miles per hour.
Chinese invented paper 170 B.C.
A square mile contains 640 acres.
A barrel of pork weighs 200 pounds.
Hawks can fly 150 miles in one hour.
Watches were first constructed in 1476.
Chinese in United States in 1880, 105,613.
Rome was founded by Romulus, 752 B.C.
Gold was discovered in California in 1848.
Phonograph invented by T. A. Edison, 1877.
The first balloon ascended from Lyons, France, 1783.
The first fire insurance office in America, Boston, 1724.
Jet is found along the coast of Yorkshire, Eng., near Whitby.
Napoleon I. crowned emperor 1804; died at St. Helena, 1820.
Electric light invented by Lodyguin and Kossloff, at London, 1874.
Harvard is the oldest college in the United States: established 1638.
War declared with Great Britain, June 19, 1812; peace Feb. 18, 1815.
Until 1776 cotton spinning was performed by the hand spinning-wheel.
Measure 209 feet on each side and you will have a square acre within an inch.
Postage stamps first came into use in England in the year 1840; in the United States in 1847.
The highest range of mountains are the Himalayas, the mean elevation being from 16,000 to 18,000 feet.
Envelopes were first used in 1839.
Telescopes were invented in 1590.
Iron horseshoes were made in 481.
A barrel of flour weighs 196 pounds.
A hand (horse measure) is four inches.
A rifle ball moves 1,000 miles per hour.
First steamer crossed the Atlantic, 1819.
Assassination of Lincoln, April 14, 1865.
German empire re-established, Jan. 18, 1871.
Storm clouds move thirty-six miles an hour.
First subscription library, Philadelphia, 1731.
Dark Ages, from the 6th to the 14th century.
The Latin tongue became obsolete about 580.
The great London fire occurred Sept. 26, 1666.
The value of a ton of pure gold is $602,799.21.
Ether was first used for surgical purposes in 1844.
Ignatius Loyola founded the order of Jesuits, 1541.
First authentic use of organs, 755; in England, 951.
The first newspaper advertisement appeared in 1652.
Cork is the bark taken from a species of the oak tree.
Benjamin Franklin used the first lightning rods, 1752.
Glass windows (colored) were used in the 8th century.
Authentic history of China commenced 3,000 years B.C.
Introduction of homœpathy into the United States, 1825.
Spectacles were invented by an Italian in the 13th century.
Medicine was introduced into Rome from Greece, 200 B.C.
First electric telegraph, Paddington to Brayton, Eng., 1835.
The Chaldeans were the first people who worked in metals.
First life insurance, in London, 1772; in America, Philadelphia, 1812.
Egyptian pottery is the oldest known; dates from 2,000 B.C.
Julius Cæsar invaded Britain, 55 B.C.; assassinated, 44 B.C.
Soap was first manufactured in England in the 16th century.
The largest free territorial government is the United States.
First photographs produced in England, 1802; perfected, 1841.
First marine insurance, A.D. 533; England, 1598; America, 1721.
Professor Oersted, Copenhagen, discovered electro-magnetism, in 1819.
First American express, New York to Boston—W. F. Harnden.
Glass windows were first introduced into England in the 8th century.
Chicago is little more than fifty years old, and is the eighteenth city of the world.
Glass was made in Egypt, 3000 B.C.; earliest date of transparent glass, 719 B.C.
First public schools in America were established in the New England States about 1642.
The largest inland sea is the Caspian, between Europe and Asia, being 700 miles long and 270 miles wide.
The term "Almighty Dollar" originated with Washington Irving, as a satire on the American love for gain.
The highest natural bridge in the world is at Rockbridge, Virginia, being 200 feet high to the bottom of the arch.
The largest circulation of paper money is that of the United States, being 700 millions, while Russia has 670 millions.
The largest insurance company in the world is the Mutual Life of New York City, having cash assets of $108,000,000.
The largest empire in the world is that of Great Britain, being 8,557,658 square miles, and more than a sixth part of the globe.
The first electrical signal ever transmitted between Europe and America passed over the Field submarine cable on Aug. 5, 1858.
The longest tunnel in the world is St. Gothard, on the line of the railroad between Luzerne and Milan, being nine and one-half miles in
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