principles and opinions come to be lost, in the infin. ite multiplicity and difcordancy of our acquired ideas.

By confining our ambition to pursue the truth with modefty and candor, and learning to value our acquifitions only as far as they contribute to make us wifer and happier, we may perhaps be obliged to facrifice the temporary admiration of the common difpenfers of literary fame; but we may reft affured, that it is in this way only we can hope to make real progress in knowledge, or to enrich the world with useful inventions.

"It requires courage, indeed," (as Helvetius has. remarked,)" to remain ignorant of thofe ufelefs fub"jects which are generally valued;" but it is a courage neceffary to men who either love the truth, or who afpire to establish a permanent reputation.

SECTION VI.

Continuation of the fame Subject-Of Artificial Memory.

BY an Artificial Memory is meant, a method of connecting in the mind, things difficult to be remembered, with things eafily remembered; fo as to enable it to retain, and to recollect the former by means of the latter. For this purpose, various contrivances have been propofed, but I think the foregoing definition applies to all of them.

Some forts of artificial memory are intended to affift the natural powers of the human mind on particular occafions, which require a more than ordinary effort of recollection; for example, to affift a public speaker to recollect the arrangement of a long difcourfe. Others have been devifed with a view to enable us to extend the circle of our acquired knowledge, and to give us a more ready command of all the various particulars of our information.

The topical Memory, fo much celebrated among the ancient rhetoricians, comes under the former description.

I already remarked, the effect of fenfible objects in recalling to the mind the ideas with which it hap pened to be occupied, at the time when these objects were formerly perceived. In travelling along a road the fight of the more remarkable fcenes we meet with, frequently puts us in mind of the fubjects we were thinking or talking of when we lait faw them. Such facts, which are perfectly familiar even to the vulgar, might very naturally fuggeft the poffibility of affifting the memory, by establishing a connection between the ideas we wish to remember, and certain fenfible objects, which have been found from experience to make a permanent impreffion on the mind.* I have been told of a young woman, in a very low rank in life, who contrived a method of committing to memory the fermons which she was accustomed to hear, by fixing her attention during the different heads of the difcourfe, on different compartments of the roof of the church; in fuch a manner, as that, when the afterwards faw the roof, or recollected the order in which its compartments were difpofed, fhe recollected the method which the preacher had observed in treating his fubject. This contrivance was perfectly analogous to the topical memory of the ancients; an art which, whatever be the opinion we entertain of its ufe, is certainly entitled, in a high degree, to the praise of ingenuity.

Suppose that I were to fix in my memory the dif

*"Cum in loca aliqua post tempus reversi sumus, non ipsa ag"noscimus tantum, sed etiam, quæ in his fecerimus, reminiscimur, 66 personæque subeunt, nonunquam tacitæ quoque cogitationes in "mentem revertuntur. Nata est igitur, ut in plerisque, ars ab ex"perimento."

QUINCT. Inst. Orat. Eib. xi. cap. 2.

ferent apartments in fome very large building, and that I had accustomed myself to think of thefe apartments always in the fame invariable order. Suppofe farther, that, in preparing myself for a public discourse, in which I had occafion to treat of a great variety of particulars, I was anxious to fix in my memory the order I propofed to obferve in the communication of my ideas. It is evident, that by a proper divifion of my fubject into heads, and by connecting each head with a particular apartment, (which I could eafily do, by conceiving myself to be fitting in the apartment while I was studying the part of my difcourfe I meant to connect with it,) the habitual order in which thefe apartments occurred to my thoughts, would prefent to me, in their proper arrangement, and without any effort on my part, the ideas of which I was to treat. It is also obvious, that a very little practice would enable me to avail myself of this contrivance, without any embarraffment or distraction of my attention.*

As to the utility of this art, it appears to me to depend entirely on the particular object which we fuppofe the fpeaker to have in view; whether, as was too often the cafe with the ancient rhetoricians, to bewilder a judge, and to filence an adversary; or fairly and candidly to lead an audience to the truth. On the former fuppofition, nothing can poffibly give an orator a greater fuperiority, than the poffeffion

*In so far as it was the object of this species of artificial memory to assist on orator in recollecting the plan and arrangement of his discourse, the accounts of it which are given by the ancient rhetoricians are abundantly satisfactory. It appears, however, that its use was more extensive; and that it was so contrived, as to facilitate the recollection of a premeditated composition. In what manner this was done, it is not easy to conjecture from the imperfect explanations of the art, which have been transmitted to modern times. The reader may consult CICERO de Orat. lib. ii. cap. 87, 88. Rhetor. ad Herennium, lib. iii. cap. 16. et seq. —QUINCTEL, Last. Grat. lib. xi. cap. 2.

of a fecret, which, while it enables him to express himself with facility and the appearance of method, puts it in his power, at the fame time, to difpofe his arguments and his facts, in whatever order he judges to be the most proper to mislead the judgment, and to perplex the memory, of those whom he addreffes. And fuch, it is manifeft, is the effect, not only of the topical memory of the ancients, but of all other contrivances which aid the recollection, upon any principle different from the natural and logical arrangement of our ideas.

To thofe on the other hand, who speak with a view to convince or to inform others, it is of consequence that the topics which they mean to illuftrate, should be arranged in an order equally favorable to their own recollection and to that of their hearers. For this purpose, nothing is effectual, but that method which is fuggefted by the order of their own inveftigations; a method which leads the mind from one idea to another, either by means of obvious and ftriking affociations, or by those relations which connect the different steps of a clear and accurate procefs of reasoning. It is thus only that the attention of an audience can be completely and inceffantly engaged, and that the fubftance of a long dif course can be remembered without effort. And it is thus only that a speaker, after a mature confideration of his fubject, can poffefs a juft confidence in his own powers of recollection, in ftating all the different premises which lead to the conclufion he wifhes to establish.

In modern times, fuch contrivances have been very little, if at all, made use of by public speakers; but various ingenious attempts have been made, to affift the memory, in acquiring and retaining those branches of knowledge which it has been fuppofed neceffary for a scholar to carry always about with him; and which, at the fame time, from the numCc c

ber of particular details which they involve, are not calculated, of themselves, to make a very lafting impreffion on the mind. Of this fort is the Memoria Technica of Mr. Grey, in which a great deal of historical, chronological and geographical kowledge is comprised in a set of verfes, which the ftudent is fuppofed to make as familiar to himself as fchool-boys do the rules of grammar. These verfes are, in gen. eral, a mere affemblage of proper names, difpofed in a rude fort of measure; fome flight alterations being occafionally made on the final fyllabies of the words, fo as to be fignificant (according to certain principles laid down in the beginning of the work) of important dates, or of other particulars which it appeared to the author useful to affociate with the

names.

I have heard very oppofite opinions with respect to the utility of this ingenious fyftem. The prevailing opinion is, I believe, against it; although it has been mentioned in terms of high approbation by fome writers of eminence. Dr. Priestley, whofe judgment, in matters of this fort, is certainly entitled to refpect, has said, that "it is a method fo eafily learned, and which may be of fo much ufe in recollecting dates, when other methods are not at "hand, that he thinks all perfons of a liberal educa"tion inexcufable, who will not take the small de

gree of pains that is neceffary to make themselves "mafters of it; or who think any thing mean, or "unworthy of their notice, which is fo ufeful and "convenient."*

In judging of the utility of this, or of any other contrivance of the fame kind, to a particular perfon, a great deal muft depend on the fpecies of memory which he has received from nature, or has acquired in the course of his early education. Some men, as I already remarked,) efpecially among those who * Lectures on History, p. 157.