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And so on, through the whole course of human studies, no matter what they may be, the three following stages are those which occur in every act of memory:—
1st. It must be agreed upon which two notions should always follow one another.
2nd. The two notions of the thus agreed upon couple must be stuck together, and impressed upon the mind.
3rd. One of these two notions must be placed before the mind, in order that the other may also spring before the same mind.
Such then is memory. We come now to a second question, no less important than the former, viz.: Upon what does memory depend? To this I would reply, that memory depends upon that principle of the human mind which is called by philosophers the association of ideas; that is, the association of one idea with another idea, of one thought with another thought, of one word with another word; or, phrenotypically speaking, of one notion with another notion. By the term notion, I mean everything which comes before the mind, either in reality or in imagination; this term, therefore, includes every other possible human term.
If you will watch the operation of thought for a few moments, you will find that as one notion passes before the mind it brings in its train a second, and this a third; and thus an endless train of notions is continually passing before the mind; as we have it beautifully expressed by one of our poets:—
"Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain,
Our thoughts lie linked by many a hidden chain.
Awake but one, and lo! what myriads rise;
Each stamps its image as the other dies."
Now the reason of these notions thus calling into existence their successors, is, because, at some time or other, we have established a connexion between the notions which thus follow one another; for instance, the keepsake calls into existence the notion of our friend who gave us the keepsake. Why? Simply because there is established in our mind a connexion between the keepsake and the friend; or, philosophically speaking, because they are associated the one with the other. This association of ideas is the foundation of all memory; and, therefore, we will make it the foundation of the art of memory, which you are about to learn.
If I take a notion with which I am familiar, and put it before the mind, I find (for the reason above stated) tha it causes a greater or less number of properties and circum-
