"But the principal expedient for assisting the memory is derived from association. For instance, when I see a house, I naturally recollect the inhabitants, their manner of life, and the intercourse I have had with them. The sight of a book prompts the memory of its contents, and the pleasure, or profit, I have received from the perusal of it. A view of the sea may suggest the idea of a storm, and the painful recollection of the loss of property, or of the life of a friend, by shipwreck. The act, then, of aiding recollection by association, is to connect thoughts remote, or abstract, with others more obvious and familiar, that the recurrence of the latter may bring along with it the memory of the former. Thus the sight of my ring, which I cannot miss to observe, reminds me of the action, to suggest the remembrance of which I moved it from one finger to another. The ringing of the bell, or the sounding of the clock, prompts the recollection of the business I had resolved to perform at these times. A glimpse at the first words of a paragraph, or a page, introduces the recollection of the whole. In a word, we must connect the things we wish to remember with the immediate objects of our senses, that offer themselves daily to our attention, but particularly with the objects of our sight, the most vigorous and lively of all our senses, and of which the objects are,
R3
