75
accession of his successor:—thus, if asked, How long did Henry VIII. reign?—the technical word for him is Lisp; which is quickly resolved into the figures 509, (by prefixing the figure 1 is 1509). His successor was Edward VI. the word Lyric attached to him is 1547—by subtracting 15;09 from 15,47; the remainder, 38 years; was nearly the exact length of Henry's reign.
They can likewise, by a little practice, immediately pronounce who reigned, when a date only is mentioned; thus they hear, that a memorable circumstance occured in the year 1415, which date is not the commencement of any king's reign; they know that the figure 1, representing one thousand, was not employed in their associations; they should only direct their attention to the figure which follows it :—in the present instance a 4, the letter representing it is r; they have now to think of any of those monarchs whose technical words commence with r:—Henry V. and Requiem, will be soon presented to the mind; which word reduced to figures, is 1,413.—To be certain that 1415 was in his reign, let them consider who was his immediate successor—Henry VI. and Rhino the date, was the next assimilation, being 1,422; which proves that it could not be in the reign of Henry VI.—the year 1422 being the time he ascended; and as no monarch reigned between Henry V. and Henry VI. it must therefore be in the reign of the former; by deducting 14,13 from 14,15 the date sought for; they perceive that he was then about two years upon the throne; they cannot fail in recollecting (if they have read the History of England), that it was about that period, the celebrated battle of Agincourt was fought.—Who reigned in 1,396? m is the letter representing 3. The technical words beginning with m, are Music, Monk, Mock, Muff; it will be seen that it was in the reign of Richard II. the word Mock being 1377.—Muff following it, is 1399. Thus any date of the British
