How to Improve the Memory/Lesson 5
LESSON V
COMBINATION
IN using the word combination it is meant to express the idea of a conjunction of objects, words, or thoughts kindred in their nature or form; a group of things closely connected; as,
Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws.
—Emerson.
The laws of nature are few, but their combinations are many, and because of the many combinations of the few laws of nature these laws seem manifold.
There is a group of six poets who have shed luster upon American literature. These men are, William Cullen Bryant, born November 8, 1794; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, February 27, 1807; John Greenleaf Whittier, December 17, 1807; Edgar Allan Poe, February 19, 1809; Oliver Wendell Holmes, August 29, 1809; James Russell Lowell, February 22, 1819. Here we have a group of six: Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Poe, Holmes, and Lowell, arranged in the order of their birth. It will be noted that they all were born within a period of fifteen years; all but one (Bryant) within the nineteenth century; all but two (Bryant and Lowell) within the first decade of that century; all but one (Poe) lived into the second half of the nineteenth century, and he missed doing so by less than three months; all but one (Holmes) were born during the cold season of the year; all but one (Bryant) was born during the last half of the month; all but one (Lowell) were born on odd days; all but one (Bryant) were born in odd years. Thus it will be seen that all these facts agree in every combination except one in every case except once, thus the one runs through the entire list of combinations and even enters into the exception. By grouping the poets in this manner, all the facts pertaining to the days, months, and years of their birth are brought prominently forward, and the knowledge can be easily memorized and readily recalled. This is done by means of combinations of similar things. Be sure to study thoughtfully, lay hold of all the similarities in the birth of the members of this group, and do not aim to memorize the facts in connection with the births merely by committing certain figures and letters to memory.
Five vice-presidents of the United States became presidents through the death of the chief magistrate while in office. The names of these men are: John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, and Theodore Roosevelt. They succeeded William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley. In the first place, make two groups of the five presidents who died in office, placing William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor in one group, and Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley in another. Harrison and Taylor died natural deaths; Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley died at the hands of assassins. In this way we stamp upon our minds the names of the presidents who died in office. John Tyler is closely connected with William Henry Harrison by the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," Tippecanoe being the name given to Harrison by his followers because of his victory over the Indians at the battle of Tippecanoe, and Tyler was the candidate on the Harrison ticket for vice-president. Thus we find aids to remember that Tyler succeeded Harrison. Zachary Taylor was the hero of the Mexican war, and Millard Fillmore was elected vice-president on the same ticket, therefore, on the death of Taylor, Fillmore became president. This disposes of the first group of presidents who died in office. The second group, composed of those who were assassinated, commences with Lincoln, the emancipator. Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated and he was succeeded by Andrew Johnson, the first president whom it was sought to impeach, therefore by means of similarity Lincoln, the first to be assassinated, and Johnson, the first whom it was sought to impeach, are linked together in our memory. Garfield and McKinley are the other two members of the second group, and they were killed in like manner as Lincoln, by pistol bullet. Arthur, like Johnson, Fillmore, and Taylor, was refused a nomination for the presidency, while Theodore Roosevelt was nominated and elected, being the only vice-president of the United States to be elected president after succeeding to the presidency on the death of the president. The one way to remember the vice-presidents who became presidents on account of the death of their predecessors while in office is by way of the grouping, and the other incidents are merely mentioned as aids to the principal means. Be particular to lay hold of the facts, rivet the attention to the thought, using the plan of combination merely as a means to an end.
Many examples of grouping can easily be supplied by the student; such as, the New England states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is an easy matter to locate these states by placing them in a group and thus associating them with one another. In like manner, the middle states, the southern states, etc., may all be easily memorized by this simple process, as may also any facts, words, objects, or thoughts.
Take the statesmen who welded together the widely scattered opposition to the policy of Great Britain toward her American colonies in the last half of the eighteenth century, James Otis, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson, and it will be seen at a glance that the group can easily be divided into two groups, those from the colony of Massachusetts and those from the colony of Virginia, and while there were many other patriots of that period who did much toward bringing about American freedom, these six men were the prime movers in the events that led to the Declaration of Independence.
Let us form another group made up of the men who did most toward upholding the declaration that "these states are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states," and we have Washington, Hamilton, John Adams, Robert Morris, LaFayette, and others. Now form a group of those men who shaped the opinions of the masses previous to the Civil War, men such as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Wendell Phillips, Robert Y. Hayne, John C. Calhoun, and Stephen A. Douglas. Form one composed of the men who took different sides on the questions that brought about the war between the states and who fought to uphold their views during the war, and instantly the names of Lincoln, Grant, Davis, and Lee present themselves to the mind. Thus it will be seen that while these groups help one to remember the part played by each individual, the time of his career, the side he espoused, etc., it is absolutely essential that the information regarding the actors and the events must be obtained before the groups can be formed. This is analogous to the necessity of getting hold of the idea, laying hold of the thought, before attempting to memorize matter, and by the same processes of the brain will the mind lay hold of events in history as it grasps the ideas in a speech. The secret of remembering is that the thing must be known in all its phases before it is put away in the custody of the mind, where it is to repose until memory recalls it to activity; therefore, if we would remember the order of the succession of the presidents, the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, the poets, statesmen, or warriors of any period, we must learn the facts in connection with them. This once more brings us to the necessity of thoroughly seeing and understanding the soul, or the meaning, of a passage or a speech, the deeds of men, the productions of writers, the policies of statesmen, the formation and location of objects, before we can know them sufficiently well to remember them at will. It is useless to learn things by rote, to memorize parrot fashion, because too great an amount of labor is entailed in such a process of learning, and the knowledge so secured cannot long be retained. Memorize by facts, by thoroughly knowing events, men, or things; grasp the meaning of words; seek for the thought, the idea, the soul of the written or spoken matter; and after the facts are understood, the events, men, or things comprehended, the meaning of words perceived, and the thought grasped, they may be deposited in the chambers of the memory with the assurance that they will slumber there until they are needed, and that whenever they are summoned they will instantly report for duty.