student. The rules given are concise, and are readily impressed on the memory by the author's rhymes. The following is a specimen:—
To find the dominical letter with ease,
Take units and tens of the date, and to these
Add leap years within them, and two add beside;
Find what the sum wants to make 7 divide;
The number that's wanting will plainly bespeak,
In the alphabet's order, the letter you seek.
Snooke also gives an epitome of Grey's method. In 1838, Grey's system was condemned by Doctor Valpy, who issued a "Poetical Chronology," in which he dealt with English history in the following manner:—
"In sixteen hundred eighty-eight, behold,
Th' invited fleet in triumph's gallant pride,
Fraught with new stores of wealth and freedom, bears
William of Orange o'er the German tide."
The book at the time of publication was much used in schools.
In 1838, "Aids to Memory," by Mrs. Jukes appeared. This contained a series of short mnemonic sentences in which were embodied the principal facts of the Old Testament. The plan adopted was that which was afterwards popularized by Mrs. Slater.
A Mr. W. T. Imeson figures as a teacher of memory in 1843, and as the inventor of what he termed "Ideatypics." In that year he published a small card at 6d., entitled "Phrenotyphonicon," and in 1844 and 1851 he issued other works. There was, however, nothing particularly novel in his mode of treatment, and his productions are now only known as curiosities.
A novelty in memory books was published in London in 1841, when a Frenchman, Gustave Adolphe Bassle, issued his "Systeme Mnemonique" in French. It is probably the only French work on memory that has been published in England. The system is that of Aimé Paris, and there is a strong family likeness between Bassle's work and that of Abbé Moigno.
