his memory so perfectly, that he knew not only the order and number of every verse from one to a hundred in perfection, but the order and number of every word in each verse also; and by this means he would undertake to remember two or three hundred names of persons or things by some rational or fantastic connexion between some word in the verse, and some letter, syllable, property, or accident of the name or thing to be remembered, even though they had been repeated but once or twice at most in his hearing. Animato practised much the same art of memory by getting the Latin names of twenty-two animals into his head according to the alphabet, viz. "asinus, basiliscus, canis, draco, elephas, felis, gryphus, hircus, juvencus, leo, mulus, noctua, ovis, panthera, quadrupes, rhinoceros, simia, taurus, ursus, xiphias, hyaena or yaena, zibetta.' Most of these he divided also into four parts, viz. head and body, feet, fins or wings and tail, and by some arbitrary or chemerical attachment of each of these to a word or thing which he desired to remember, he committed them to the care of his memory, and that with good success. It is also by this association of ideas, that we may better imprint any new idea upon the memory by joining with it some circumstance of the time, place, company, &c. wherein we first observed, heard or learnt it. If we would recover an absent idea, it is useful to recollect these . circumstances of time, place, &c. The substance will many times be recovered and brought to the thoughts by recollecting the shadow: a man recurs to our fancy by remembering his garment, his size, or stature, his office, or employment, &c. A beast, bird, or fish by its colour, figure, or motion, by the cage, or court-yard, or cistern wherein it was kept. To this head also we may refer that remembrance of names and things, which may be derived from our recollection of their likeness to other things which we know; either their resemblance in the name eharacter, form, accident, or any thing that belongs to them. An idea or word which has been lost or forgotten, has been often recovered by hitting upon some other kindred word or idea, which has the nearest resemblance to it, and that in the letters, syllables or sound of the name, as well as properties of the thing. If we would remember, Hippocrates or Galen, or Parcelsus, think of a physician's name, beginning with H. G. or P. If we will remember Ovidius Naso, we may represent a inan with a great nose; if Plato, we may think upon a person with large shoulders; if Crispus, we shall fancy another with curled hair; and so of other things, And sometimes a new or strange idea may be fixed in the memory, by considering its contrary or opposite. So if we cannot hit on the word ! Goliath, the remembrance of David may recover it: or the name of a Trojan may be recovered by thinking of a Greek, &c. 8. In such cases wherein it may be done, seek after a local memory, or a remembrance of what you have read by the side or page where it is written or printed; whether the right or the left, whether at the top, the middle or the bottom; whether at the beginning of a chapter or a paragraph, or the end of it. It has been some advantage for this reason, to accustom one's self to books of the same edition: and it has been of constant and special use to divines and private Christians, to be furnished with several Bibles of the same edition; that wheresoever they are, whether in their chamber, parlour or study, in the younger or elder years of life, they may find the chapters and verses standing in the same parts of the page. This is also a great conveniency to be observed by printers in the new editions of Grammars, Psalms, Testaments, &c. to print every chapter, paragraph or verse in the same part of the page as the former, that so it may yield an happy assistance to those young learners, who find, and even feel the advantage of a local memory. 9. Let every thing we desire to remember" be fairly and distinctly written and divided into periods, with large characters in the beginning," for by this means we shall the more readily imprint the matter and words on our minds, and recollect them with a glance, the more remarkable the writing appears to the eye. This sense conveys the ideas to the fancy better than any other; and what we have seen is not so soon forgotten as what we have only heard. What Horace affirms of the mind or passions may be said also of the memory. Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quae Applied thus in English: Sounds which address the ear are lost and die Engraves the knowledge with a beam of light. For the assistance of weak memories, the first letters or words of every period, in every page, may be written in distinct colours; yellow, green, red, black, &c. and if you observe the same order of colours in the following sentences, it may be still the better. This wi!! make a greater impression, and may much aid the memory. Under this head we may take notice of the advantage which the N memory gains, by having the “several objects of our learning drawn out into schemes and tables;" matters of mathematical science and nd tural philosophy are not only let into the understanding, but preserved in the memory by figures and diagrams. The situation of the several parts of the earth are better learnt by one day's conversing with a map or seachart, than by mere reading the descriptions of their situation a hundred times over in books of geography. So the constellations in astronomy and their positions in the heavens, are more easily remembered by hemispheres of the stars well drawn. It is by having such sort of memorials, figures and tables hung round our studies or places of residence or resort, that our memory of these things will be greatly assisted and improved, as I have shewn at large in the twentieth chapter of the Use of the Sciences. I might add here also, that once writing over what we design to remember, and giving due attention to what we write, will fix it more in the mind than reading it five times. And in the same manner, if we had a plan of the naked lines of longitude and latitude, projected on the meridian printed for this use, a learner might much more speedily advance himself in the knowledge of geography by his own drawing the figures of all the parts of the warld upon it by imitation, than by many days survey of a map of the world so printed. The same also may be said concerning the constellations of heaven, drawn by the learner on a naked projection of the circles of the sphere upon the plane of the equator. 10. It has sometimes been the practice of men to imprint names or sentences on their memory, by "taking the first letters of every word of that sentence, or of those names," and making a new word out of them. So the name of the Maccabees is borrowed from the first letters of the Hebrew words which make that sentence Mi Camoka Baelin Jehovab, that is, who is like thee among the gods? Which was written on their banners. Jesus Christ our saviour hath been called a fish by the fathers, because these are the first letters of those Greek words, Jesus Christ, God's Son, the Saviour. So the word vibgyor teaches us to remember the order of the seven original colours, as they appear by the sun-beams cast through a prism on a white paper, or formed by the sun in a rainbow, according to the different refrangibility of the rays, viz. violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. In this manner the Hebrew grammarians teach their students to remember the letters which change their natural pronunciation by the inscription of a dagesh, by gathering these six letters, betb, gimel, daleıb, caph, pe and thau, into the word begadchepal; and that they might not forget the letters named quiescent vix. a, b, v and, they are joined in the word abevi. So the universal and particular propositions in logic, are remembered by the words barbara, celarent, darii, &c. Other artificial helps to memory may be just mentioned here. Dr Grey in his book called Memoria Technica, has exchanged the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, for some consonants, b, d, t, f, l, y, Pj k ̧ Ñ‚ and some vowels, a, e, i, o, u, and several diphthongs, and thereby formed words that denote numbers, which may be more easily remembered: and Mr Lowe has improved his scheme in a small pamphlet called Mnemonics delineated, whereby in seven leaves he has comprized almost an infinity of things in science and in common life, and reduced them to a sort of measure like Latin verse; though the words may be supposed to be very barbarous, being such a mixture of vowels and consonants as are very unfit for harmony. But after all, the very writers on this subject have confessed, that several of these artificial helps of memory are so cumbersome as not to be suitable to every temper or person; nor are they of any use for the delivery of a discourse by memory, nor of much service in learning the sciences: but they may be sometimes practised for the assisting our 1emembrance of certain sentences, numbers, or names. CHAP. XVIII. OF DETERMINING A QUESTION, 1. WHEN a subject is proposed to your thoughts, "consider whe ther it be knowable at all or no:" and then whether it be not above the reach of your inquiry and knowledge in the present state; and remember that it is a great waste of time, to busy yourselves too much amongst unsearchables: the chief of these studies is to keep the mind humble, by finding its own ignorance and weakness. II. CONSIDER again whether the matter be worthy of your inquiry at all; and then, how far it may be worthy of your present search and labour according to your age, your time of life, your station in the world, your capacity, your profession, your chief design and end. There are many things worthy enquiry to one man, which are not so to another; and there are things that may deserve the study of the same person in one part of life, which would be improper or impertinent at another. To read books of the art of preaching, or disputes about church discipline, are proper for a theological student in the end of his academical studies, but not at the beginning of them. To pursue mathematical studies very largely may be useful for a professor of philosophy, but not for a divine. III." CONSIDER whether the subject of your enquiry be easy or dif 150 bly he may deviate from some of the received doctrines. And thus men without any industry or acquisition of their own, (lazy and idle as they are) inherit local truths, that is, the truths of that place where they live, and are inured to assent without evidence. This hath a long and unhappy influence: for if a man bring his mind once to be positive and fierce for propositions whose evidence he hath never examined, and that in matters of the greatest concernment, he will naturally follow this short and easy way of judging and believing in cases of less moment, and build all his opinions upon insufficient grunds. XII. IN determining a question, especially when it is a matter of dif ficulty and importance, " do not take up with partial examination," but turn your thoughts on all sides, to gather in all the light you can toward the solution of it. Take time, and use all the helps that are to be attained before you fully determine, except only where present necessiy of action calls for speedy determination. If you would know what may be called a partial examination, take these instances, viz. When you examine an object of sense, or inquire into some matter of sensation at too great a distance from the object, or in an inconvenient situation of it, or under any indisposition of the organs, or any disguise whatsoever relating to the medium or the organ of the object itself; or when you examine it by the sense only, where others might be employed? Or when you enquire into it by sense only, without the use of the understanding and judgment and reason. If it be a question which is to be determined by reason and argument, then your examination is partial, when you turn the question only in one light and do not turn it on all sides; when you look upon it only in its relations and aspects to one sort of object and not to another; when you consider only the advantages of it and the reasons for it, and neglect to think of the reasons against it, and never survey its inconveniencies too: when you determine on a sudden, before you have given yourself a due time for weighing all circumstances, &c. Again, If it be a "question of fact depending upon the report or testimony of men," your examination is but partial, when you inquire only what one man or a few say, and avoid the testimony of others when you only ask what those report who were not eye or ear-witnesses, and neglect those who saw and heard it; when you content yourself with mere loose and general talk about it, and never enter into particulars; er when there are many who deny the fact, and you never concern your |