-w 
 
 ^ 
 
Memory Keys 
 
 A ''Table-top" Treatise on Unlocking the 
 Mind's Treasure-vaults of Memory- 
 
 Written By 
 
 Lloyd Kenyon Jones 
 
 Published By 
 
 THE WILLIAM T. STEAD 
 MEMORIAL CENTER 
 
 Chicago, Illinois 
 
 The Price of this "Table-top" Volume is 
 $1.00, Postpaid in the United States 
 
^ 
 
 Copyright, 1919, by 
 
 Lloyd Kenyon Jones 
 
 ©CLA525667 
 
 ^W T5 I 
 
TEST YOUR MEMORY 
 
 What did you do between the hours of 10 a. m. and 
 noon, May 6, 1905? 
 
 Do you remember? 
 
 If you do remember what you did at that time it is 
 because something exceptional impressed itself upon 
 you. 
 
 That period was once NOW just as much as THIS 
 MOMENT is — and yet, a week hence, perhaps you 
 could not give even an approximate description of what 
 transpires RIGHT NOW! 
 
 A speeding ship leaves a wake, but the wake fades 
 away in a thin line of spume — and there is no mark left 
 to record the fact that a ship passed that way. 
 
 But there is a record of every thought, every experi- 
 ence, left somewhere in your brain. 
 
 Why should it not be as easy to recall EVERY- 
 THING you have experienced, as it is to tell what you 
 did twenty minutes ago? 
 
 EVERY NORMAL PERSON retains some kind of 
 active memory. It is different in different persons. 
 It is different for different reasons. Some adults can 
 
4 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 recall incidents reaching back to infancy — while to 
 others life before their twelfth year is a blank — as 
 though they had been projected into life at twelve, and 
 never knew earlier childhood. 
 
 TEST your memory. What does it reveal? 
 
 If you are a person of mature years, can you tell, 
 without pausing to think and find mile-posts in your 
 mind, just what you did in 1888 — or in August, 1889? 
 Just WHAT do you remember most easily? 
 
 You remember the incidents that CAUSED THE 
 GREATEST IMPRESSION. That is not startling— 
 but it is important. You will learn its importance be- 
 fore you have completed this treatise. 
 
 You remember incidents that HAD A PUNCH 
 BACK OF THEM! 
 
 They seem no more distant than yesterday — though 
 they may date back forty or more years. 
 
 You recall DISAGREEABLE incidents without 
 effort — because their impress was greatest. Likely, you 
 can r_emember all of your enemies — but perhaps you 
 forget many of your more agreeable acquaintances. 
 
 As time passes you substitute. You change facts. 
 You say that you remember cities — but cities change. 
 You visit a city to which you have not journeyed for 
 twenty or more years. Its geography and its typog- 
 raphy seem to have altered. You move away from a 
 childhood home — stay away a quarter-century, and you 
 return to visit your old friends. You are there a week 
 
TEST YOUR MEMORY 5 
 
 or two. But afterwards, likely you have only a picture 
 of the town you knew once; not a picture of the town 
 as it is today! 
 
 There are strange freaks in memory processes — and 
 equally strange conceits. Just as accurate history has 
 been written rarely, so are there few cases of accurate 
 memory. We think about that which we have passed 
 through— and "make over" our experiences with our 
 contemplation of them. 
 
 Others have shared our experiences with us. We 
 hear them talk about the times that were. Just as 
 twenty different persons will have twenty different ver- 
 sions of an accident which they have witnessed, so will 
 persons differ in their opinions of experiences. 
 
 Our minds play tricks on us. We are everlastingly 
 altering our memories — except certain special kinds of 
 memories, which we shall get to later. 
 
 Here are a few samples of FAULTY MEMORY : 
 
 Smith's family lived in the town of Blank for two 
 generations. In the same village, as neighbors for these 
 two generations, lived the Brown family. John Smith 
 and Jim Brown were playmates and schoolmates. They 
 graduated from high school at the same time and 
 attended college together. It is reasonable to believe 
 that John Smith knew Jim Brown. 
 
 Years later, Jim Brown became a detective — and a 
 capable one at that. He succeeded in "a big case," and 
 was offered employment by an agency in the largest 
 
6 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 city in the state. His fame grew — and finally he be- 
 came attached to the Government service, and made a 
 reputation worth while. 
 
 John Smith was proud to say that he knew Jim 
 Brown, and when Jim was at the height of his career, 
 John called on him in Washington. There he met a 
 man from the "back home" country, who lived in a city 
 a hundred miles from the old Smith and Brown home 
 town. 
 
 This man's name was Robinson. In talking with 
 Robinson, Brown mentioned that he was a boyhood 
 chum of Jim Brown. 
 
 "Why," Robinson observed, "I don't see how that 
 could be. Jim Brown's folks and my folks were neigh- 
 bors for thirty years, and Jim and I were in the same 
 class in high school!" 
 
 To Smith, Robinson was a liar — and Robinson held 
 the same opinion of Smith. 
 
 What was wrong? Smith's memory was accurate, 
 and Robinson's memory was faulty. Smith had a "fast- 
 color" memory, and Robinson had a "fade-out" 
 memory. 
 
 But, strange as these following statements may seem, 
 they are true : 
 
 With his active, dependable memory, Smith was a 
 failure. With his blow-hole memory, Robinson was a 
 success. Smith inherited a fortune and lost it. Robin- 
 son started poor and succeeded in a big way. 
 
TEST YOUR MEMORY 7 
 
 Here is another instance: 
 
 Cummings prided himself on his sense of direction. 
 He claimed to map every place he had visited — and map 
 it perfectly in his memory. 
 
 For twenty years he had not visited Chicago. But, 
 he argued, while there were new buildings, he could 
 recall the streets perfectly. Nevertheless, even though 
 many persons corrected him, he still insisted after his 
 visit, that Madison street should be north of Washing- 
 ton street—- and at one time had been. No one can iron 
 this error out of his mind. 
 
 How many persons, who were billed as "star wit- 
 nesses," failed miserably when shrewd lawyers put 
 them to the vital tests of memory? We may say that 
 the witnesses were confused and likely they were. But, 
 brought down to dates and facts, they found that they 
 remembered little. Their testimony had no value. 
 
 Now, let us digress a moment. 
 
 You have heard about "sky vision"? It is the vision 
 that comes to aviators of experience. They can see 
 things that the novice could not distinguish were those 
 objects pointed out to him. They learn to interpret 
 shadows and shapes. They know woodland stretches 
 from cloud shadows — and trains from factories, and 
 roads from streams. They can see birds on the wing 
 that the novice could not see — and they can detect other 
 planes that would make no impression on the sight of 
 those without air experience. 
 
8 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 There is the sight of the huntsman that mystifies the 
 amateur. The old hunter can see birds and wild ani- 
 mals that are only part of the forest scenery to the 
 novice. 
 
 There is vision for figures — for colors — for many dif- 
 ferent classes of SIGHT. And just as there is a differ- 
 ence in vision, so are there differences in hearing, in 
 tasting, in feeling and smelling. 
 
 If the sense-perceptions of persons differ, is it unrea- 
 sonable that their memories should differ? 
 
 One person can learn languages easily; another not 
 at all. 
 
 Here is a case of a number of boys who were reared 
 in "the North country," where vision was confined to 
 views of the woods. Their only playground was the 
 forest. They should have been great botanists. Sev- 
 eral of them became lumber experts. One, at least, 
 could see no difference between most of the varieties of 
 trees. To him, they were "just trees." 
 
 This man, in talking to one of his former boyhood 
 friends later in life, said: "Bill, how can you tell what 
 kind of wood you are looking at when it is stained and 
 polished?" 
 
 "I don't know," Bill replied honestly. "I can tell; 
 that's all. I have heard men say that it is the grain, but 
 this is not true. Some woods have the SAME grain; 
 many the same texture so far as the eye can see. Still, 
 
TEST YOUR MEMORY 9 
 
 there are differences. I know — but HOW I know, I 
 cannot explain." 
 
 Why does a typist remember the position of the keys 
 on the typewriting machine? How does the musician 
 remember the keys of the piano? Those instances rep- 
 resent a certain kind of memory. They belong to the 
 MIND — and whatever belongs to the mind must create 
 MEMORY RECORDS somehow— to some extent. 
 
 "Memory Training" has become a sort of hobby — and 
 a healthy one! If the method of training the memory 
 is not too cumbersome, it must help. If it js too cum- 
 bersome, it injures more than helps. 
 
 MEMORY IS JUST AS MUCH A NATURAL 
 FUNCTION AS THINKING. It is PART OF OUR- 
 SELVES. 
 
 Your heart functionates. So long as conditions are 
 right, the pump-action of your heart is as logical as 
 breathing — and calls for no greater conscious effort on 
 your part. Why should MEMORY be a taxation on 
 the mind? 
 
 If you are obliged to go through severe mental gym- 
 nastics in order to remember experiences (and what- 
 ever we do or think is an experience), that would indi- 
 cate that your mind did not function properly at the 
 time you went through those experiences. 
 
 MEMORY TRAINING is another way of saying 
 NORMAL THINKING. If you think normally, you 
 remember normally. 
 
10 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 If, in order to remember the name of a man who 
 chances to be known as Mr. Rivers, you must think 
 about the ocean, rain, Niagara Falls, Minnehaha, bath- 
 tubs and other things denoting H2O, you are paying 
 a fearfully heavy price to do what should be as easy 
 to do as telling your own name — provided there is any 
 reason for remembering Mr. Rivers. 
 
 The man who stutters, says that, if he can whistle 
 first, he can talk properly. And so we find many "whis- 
 tling" courses of memory training that are needless 
 burdens. 
 
LESSON I 
 
 IS THERE SUBCONSCIOUSNESS? 
 
 Says the pseudo-psychologist, "We have two minds" 
 much as he would say "A cow has two stomachs." The 
 statement regarding the cow may be correct. It might 
 have eight stomachs, so far as that is concerned. It 
 needs them. But who ever lived who needed two 
 minds? 
 
 If there are two minds, how can there be INDIVID- 
 UALITY? 
 
 The subconsciousist supports his dual-mind theory 
 by citing the numerous instances of REFLEXES. 
 
 Also, he refers to hypnotism as a court of last resort 
 in proving that we "have two minds." 
 
 You have ONE MIND, because YOU and YOUR 
 MIND are not two things. You can not separate 
 THOUGHT from yourself — and you can not divide 
 your thought. 
 
 You have REFLEXES — and thereby you keep in 
 
 < 11 
 
12 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 The theory of subconsciousness was established only 
 after considerable effort — and now that it is established, 
 it is like any other habit. It persists in repeating itself. 
 
 To say, coldly and with finality, that subconscious- 
 ness is but a fanciful name for the reflexes, which have 
 been recognized these many years by the medical fra- 
 ternity, might not go unchallenged. Surely, so bold 
 a statement in these strenuous "psychological" days, 
 needs — demands — a submission of evidence. 
 
 In a measure, this subconscious idea is a sad and irk- 
 some subject. It is almost disagreeable — but subcon- 
 sciousness has been associated so long with memory 
 culture, it is a subject that cannot be dismissed with a 
 word. Let us dissect it leisurely : 
 
 No matter what your mental or physical state may 
 be — irrespective of how injury or fever may distort your 
 judgment — no matter who you may be temporarily in 
 your own opinion, YOU ARE ALWAYS YOU ! That 
 SENSE OF ENTITY never leaves you. In your wild- 
 est dreams, YOU ARE YOU. In your delirium, you 
 remain yourself, without respect to what nonsense you 
 may babble. 
 
 The hypnotist may tell his somnambulistic subject 
 that he is George Washington, and the subject, in his 
 dream-state, may believe it— but WHAT HE FEELS 
 IS HIS OWN SENSE OF BEING! 
 
 You say that the pianist develops subconscious mem- 
 ory — and if you mean that the reflexes respond auto- 
 
IS THERE SUBCONSCIOUSNESS? 13 
 
 matically through long training, you are correct. You 
 say that the subconsciousness may become dominant, 
 and usurp the throne of reason — and you point to luna- 
 tics as glowing examples of your theory. But perhaps 
 you do not take into consideration the brain or nerve- 
 lesion of the insane patient. 
 
 You say that the subconsciousness holds a complete 
 storehouse of memory, but you forget that the CON- 
 VOLUTIONS on the cerebral hemispheres are but 
 MEMORY STREETS, cut shallow or deep according 
 to the experience that built them. 
 
 You forget that the gray-matter of the brain repre- 
 sents the cobblestones of MEMORY'S PAVEMENT 
 — and that the subconsciousness is supposed to reside 
 in the cerebellum, the madula and the nerve-ganglia, 
 which are but INSTRUMENTS OF YOUR OWN 
 VITAL BEING! 
 
 The REFLEXES represent the machinery that is 
 much more cunning than the air-brake or the electrical 
 devices that illuminate signs and give them seeming 
 motion— or the cinematograph that records and pro- 
 jects "pictures of motion." 
 
 The more you understand the NATURE OF 
 THOUGHT, the more clearly you will discern that 
 many functions of the mind that we have been told 
 are subconscious, are only examples of the real nature 
 of thought. 
 
14 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 THOUGHT IS THE QUICKEST THING IN 
 THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 Electricity travels about 186,000 miles a second, but 
 thought can outstrip electricity so easily, "the juice" 
 appears to travel at a snail's pace in comparison. 
 
 Perhaps you forget that your SENSE OF BEING 
 is expressed through YOUR INHERENT ABILITY 
 TO THINK — and that every sensation you ever experi- 
 ence is but an expression of thought. 
 
 The psychologist tells us that, on the one hand, sub- 
 conscious cerebration can be dominated by suggestion 
 — ruled completely ; and, on the other hand, it gives rise 
 to our most ennobling thought. It is master and serf. 
 Is that not a paradox? 
 
 Viewed in one light, we see subconsciousness as 
 animal instincts and in another light, we view subcon- 
 sciousness as the soul itself. Your subconsciousness, 
 therefore, is a SECRET YOU, bottled up, and 
 uncorked only under certain conditions — wise as Sol- 
 omon at one time, and a brother of the swine at other 
 times ! 
 
 But the YOU that goes through all the hopes and 
 fears and aspirations of life, the YOU that you always 
 thought you were, the psychologist typifies as only an 
 artificiality. Do you believe it? Do you think that life 
 is possible with such unreasonable madness? 
 
 We need less of subconsciousness and more of CON- 
 SCIOUSNESS! 
 
IS THERE SUBCONSCIOUSNESS? 15 
 
 God gave you reflexes to carry on certain bodily func- 
 tions without obvious mental effort. Through this 
 reflex action, your muscles can be made to respond to 
 certain memory of dexterity. But your fingers do not 
 do the remembering. The muscles in them have become 
 exercised for a certain purpose, and that makes it easier 
 for your mind to direct them without the expenditure 
 of much apparent effort. 
 
 The reason for dexterity is NOT in your bodily 
 structure, except as your bodily organs, including your 
 brain, are but servants of YOURSELF— of your own 
 durable entity. 
 
 To worship the theory of subconsciousness, is— in 
 time — to alibi your own shortcomings. Some persons 
 like to have "another self," which is a sort of official 
 goat, upon which they heap the indignities of their own 
 bad tempers. 
 
 Brain injuries — be they apparent or hidden — some- 
 times short-circuit certain records of the brain, and 
 give rise to aberrations that are called splendid exam- 
 ples of subconsciousness. 
 
 One thing is certain: As you strive to give yourself 
 a better memory, you must accept the responsibility of 
 YOURSELF. The more you cherish the subconscious 
 theory, the more difficult your task will be. To set up 
 the idea that you have a hidden YOU within yourself, 
 is to shunt responsibility onto a sidetrack. If you seek 
 
16 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 to escape responsibility, how can you develop your 
 memory or any other phase of THOUGHT? 
 
 Only as your learn to distinguish certain subtle and 
 lightning-beating processes of thought, will you begin 
 to see that what has been called subconsciousness is 
 ordinary consciousness — and that back of your mo- 
 ments of apparent mental torpidity, there is a cease- 
 less, restless searching of the SELF for knowledge of 
 some description. 
 
LESSON II 
 
 THE QUICKEST OF ALL THINGS 
 
 The wireless message is rapid — but thought is so 
 much more speedy, there is no comparison. 
 
 Thought seeps through the brain. The brain retards 
 thought to some extent, and under many conditions. 
 That is because thought performs certain physical work 
 on the brain structure. 
 
 The flash of lightning in the black clouds is electri- 
 city, but you still can see its course. At least, the 
 retinas of your eyes photograph a picture of that course 
 and in feeding the sensation to your brain, that picture 
 may be lengthened out somewhat. It was not too rapid 
 for your retinas, nevertheless! 
 
 The radio message, no longer depending on the air, 
 but vibrating through that mysterious ethereal some- 
 thing that is said to permeate all else, travels 186,000 
 miles a second — which is very much faster than the 
 electric bolt that we see during a thunderstorm. 
 
 Thought sometimes manifests itself unimpeded by 
 
 17 
 
18 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 brain resistance. Usually, we recognize thought by its 
 travel through the brain-mass. 
 
 To illustrate: An IDEA flashes through your mind 
 so rapidly it may take you hours to reduce to words 
 the essence of the thought you experienced. The faster 
 thought was thought — just the same! 
 
 These very rapid thought-flashes may be going on 
 continuously without our recognizing them — and when 
 we catch one of them by the tail, we may be inclined to 
 say, "Ah, ha, that wonderful little subconsciousness of 
 mine is busy again!" 
 
 If you just accept a theory because it "seems so logi- 
 cal," and let it go at that, you will fight for your theory, 
 because you find belief in it so comfortable. Should 
 that satisfy you? 
 
 Thought is just as much a function of YOUR LIFE 
 PRINCIPLE as perfume is in a flower, or radiation is 
 to heat. 
 
 You are thinking all the time — whether you admit it 
 or not — and because you are NEVER segregated from 
 your own thought-processes, you find an analysis of 
 them rather difficult. 
 
 Which proves that WHEN WE THINK NAT- 
 URALLY AND WITH INTEREST, there is nothing 
 difficult about thought. When we grasp our thoughts 
 and try to FORCE them along a certain channel, in the 
 name of intellectuality, we feel that we are working! 
 
THE QUICKEST OF ALL THINGS 19 
 
 And this may not seem to be related to memory, but 
 we shall prove that it is. 
 
 There are times when YOU HAVE TO THINK 
 FAST. Sometimes you become confused and do not 
 think coherently — but there are times when you are 
 "all keyed up," and you arrive at decisions very speed- 
 ily. You seem to think more in a minute than you 
 would think ordinarily in an hour or a day. 
 
 Men and women who have nearly drowned, have said 
 that their past lives floated before them so rapidly and 
 clearly, it seemed as though they had lived from the 
 cradle to their hapless state in just a few minutes. 
 Memory was awakened. And it was waked up by the 
 PRESSING DEMAND of the situation. You may call 
 it subconsciousness, but never forget that WE SENSE 
 THINGS ONLY THROUGH CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 If, in moments of stress, we can make our thoughts 
 HURRY UP, that should be sufficient proof to any of 
 us that THOUGHT IS SPEEDY BY NATURE. 
 
 There are times when thought no longer seems to 
 depend upon its slower course through the brain-sub- 
 stance. It skips over the surface, or it unlocks closed 
 doors rapidly. It does things that THOUGHT 
 COULD NOT DO WERE THE NATURE OF 
 THOUGHT OTHER THAN SWIFT! 
 
 Even in our mentally lazy moments when we say that 
 "we think about nothing," our thought is not idle. Per- 
 haps in those moments it is speeding up in ways that 
 
20 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 would astound us if we recognized that speed. Occa- 
 sionally, we do recognize it, because in some of these 
 "mentally absent" moments a vital idea will flash into 
 our minds so quickly as to startle us. 
 
 Philosophers have written many volumes of very dry 
 and burdensome matter about the mind. Most minds 
 would never recognize themselves after the pursuit of 
 these heavy studies — -that attempt to divide the mind 
 into many chambers — and give impressive Latin names 
 to the different divisions. 
 
 Put to the test of quick decision, how many students 
 of the labored psychology pause to remember what 
 Pro. So-and-thus said about judgment and memory and 
 logic and many other things? 
 
 Put to the test, all of the so-called faculties of the 
 mind prove that THEY ARE ONE; they unite in 
 YOUR OWN ENTITY. Truly, thought may classify 
 itself the same as it classifies plants or minerals. But 
 whether it be judgment or memory or sentiment or 
 anything else, it is still THOUGHT — and its nature 
 is swift and its flight the most rapid of all things. 
 
 Just as the bee makes many trips to the clover field 
 before he had filled one cell with honey, so may thought 
 make many flights of inquiry before it has established 
 one firm and dependable memory record. While 
 thought is swift, it builds the structure of its experience 
 slowly. 
 
 Look out of your window. You see MANY things, 
 
THE QUICKEST OF ALL THINGS 21 
 
 and each one is seen because YOUR THOUGHT 
 HAD ABSORBED ITS REALITY. Do you retain a 
 memory of the buds and leaves on the trees, of the grass 
 blades, of the infinitude of color, of the cloud shapes? 
 You SEE them and RECOGNIZE them; hence, they 
 have had a place in your thought. But your thought 
 has not utilized them — except in a general way, or for 
 very special reasons if in a more particular way- — in 
 the upbuilding of its MEMORY STRUCTURE. 
 
 The saw spins around on its axis many times in cut- 
 ting a board. The wood finisher rubs the panel many 
 times before he secures the final high polish. Thought 
 goes on many flights before it MANUFACTURES 
 THE RAW MATERIALS OF ITS OBSERVA- 
 TIONS INTO LEARNING. 
 
 Thought must EXAMINE many things before it 
 selects even one thing as essential to its records. And 
 often thought has observed very cunningly and 
 dropped the burden of its observation, only to claim it 
 again if a REASON should ever arise for that recogni- 
 tion. And this swiftness, restlessness of thought gives 
 rise to some hidden memories that apparently fortify 
 the subconsciousists in their fascinating theories ! 
 
 Thought is on the ALERT ever to acquire knowledge 
 that YOU need in your life and progress. You may 
 LOCALIZE thought and thereby build up a memory- 
 store of importance. If you refuse to direct your 
 thought in useful channels, you keep on thinking just 
 
22 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 the same, but only by sending your thoughts on count- 
 less trips. Likely its cargo is light — and often unim- 
 portant. But the CARRYING POWER of thought 
 is sufficient to make it bear valuable burdens of experi- 
 ence that will be stored up for future reference — like 
 grain in a granary. 
 
 The more fascinated you are with the subconscious 
 theory, the more you encourage your thought to go on 
 flitting and fruitless excusions. Why do it? 
 
 / 
 
LESSON III 
 
 DIRECTING THOUGHT-TRAFFIC 
 
 So far as your span of mortal life is concerned, we 
 must think about your brain in saying anything rela- 
 tive to your thought and memory. 
 
 What happened before you were born and what will 
 transpire after you die, are not parts of this discus- 
 sion. Right now our chief concern with MEMORY 
 deals with your mortal use of that memory. 
 
 MEMORY IS A THOUGHT RECORD— and it has 
 a place in the brain. 
 
 The STREETS OF MEMORY have their being in 
 your "gray-matter," which resides chiefly in your cere- 
 bral hemispheres. It also resides in nerve-tissue. 
 
 Years of speeding, flitting thoughts may leave few 
 brain-records— and they will be shallow. 
 
 You have streets in your brain— some boulevards, 
 some lanes and a number of alleys. And you have 
 street-territory that has never been opened to thought- 
 traffic. 
 
 You may not recall what happened between the hours 
 of ten a. m. and noon, May 6, 1905 — but for all that, 
 whatever you have been through — have EXPERI- 
 
 23 
 
24 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 ENCED — has left some impression on your brain-mass. 
 A child's brain — soon after birth — is like a wax record 
 with few indentations. The brain of a matured person 
 is a warehouse rilled with records. 
 
 You witness an accident. It SHOCKS you — fright- 
 ens you. It causes a deep impression. The BLOW OF 
 OBSERVATION has been severe. The memory-street 
 that is cut to preserve this record is also very deep and 
 wide. It is PAVED thoroughly with gray-matter. It 
 is KEPT OPEN— because you think MANY TIMES 
 about the accident you witnessed. Fifty years from 
 now, memory of that frightful accident will be clear, 
 because the memory-street that was made and paved, 
 was very deep and very long. 
 
 It is always easy to recall that incident, because your 
 thought courses over that record like a phonograph 
 needle traces the sound-vibration streets on the record's 
 surface. 
 
 But try to recall some triviality, and your thought- 
 force feels its way over very faint records, and finds 
 their REPRODUCTION most difficult. 
 
 THE FORCE OF THE ORIGINAL THOUGHT 
 EXPERIENCE causes recurring thought relative to 
 that experience, and the result is a clear, deep, well- 
 paved memory-street. We may add that it is well- 
 lighted. The thought-force finds no difficulty in locat- 
 ing and exploring that street. Its markings are all 
 familiar, because thought has been over the ground 
 many times before. 
 
 Music, as you know without being told, is a memory- 
 process. The sound you hear NOW has ceased to exist 
 a thousandth part of a second hence — but the MEM- 
 
DIRECTING THOUGHT-TRAFFIC 25 
 
 ORY STREET of the tune is cut easily in most minds. 
 In "musically-inclined" minds, that street is cut very 
 deep from the first. In others, many repetitions are 
 needed to open that memory-thoroughfare and pave it. 
 
 Motion has meaning to us only because we REMEM- 
 BER the motions that have led up to the one we watch 
 THIS MOMENT! 
 
 The baby touches a hot stove — ONCE. The burn, 
 the fright, the pain served to cut and pave a very sub- 
 stantial memory-street for that little one. 
 
 Let us not say that there are many kinds of memory. 
 There is JUST ONE KIND, but memory may be 
 stronger with one class of experience than it is with 
 other classes of experience. 
 
 It is very easy to remember DISAGREEABLE expe- 
 riences, because they left stronger memory-records than 
 the milder experiences. We never forget some death- 
 bed scenes, quarrels with former friends, narrow es- 
 capes and like RED LETTER impressions. And if it 
 is so easy to remember one class of experiences, why 
 can it not be made as easy to remember some other, and 
 more agreeable, class of experiences? 
 
 The mind reacts according to the weight and speed 
 of the "blow" or impression, that strikes it. As that 
 blow is heavy and fast, it leaves a deeper, stronger 
 brain-record. Different persons feel the impact of dif- 
 ferent blows of observation in varying degrees. To the 
 musician, the air that only pleases the non-musical per- 
 son, is tracing a perfect pattern in that musician's brain. 
 It is a preserved record of "the words and music !" 
 
 The stock company actor can memorize his part as 
 easily as we could read the manuscript of the play. The 
 
26 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 mechanic can take a piece of machinery to pieces, repair 
 it and reassemble it without difficulty, because each 
 fact relative to that machinery, its parts and their rela- 
 tionships, strikes a sharp, quick blow on that mechan- 
 ic's mind. It cuts a very definite, well-ordered memory- 
 street, and paves that street. The physician remembers 
 anatomy, materia medica, pathology and the other divi- 
 sions of his profession, because HE IS INTERESTED 
 in those things, and each experience is a sharp blow on 
 his mind. It stimulates his thought-processes. 
 
 We say, "William Jones can CONCENTRATE mar- 
 velously. No wonder he learns so easily." What Wil- 
 liam Jones does is nothing more than to FOCUS cer- 
 tain experiences (such as study) on his mind. He 
 makes his observation serve as a "burning glass," and 
 thereby DRAWS TOGETHER all of the rays of light 
 on that particular subject. If we are not interested in 
 that which interests William Jones, we catch only part 
 of those rays. The balance are scattered. We get but 
 a fraction of the MIND BLOW that he feels. We react 
 to that information stupidly. He reacts WITH LIVE 
 INTEREST. William Jones cuts and paves his mem- 
 ory-streets, while we drive over unbroken ground, leav- 
 ing but faint wheel-marks on the surface. 
 
 Why shouldn't Jones have a better memory than the 
 balance of us? Why shouldn't it be easier to drive an 
 automobile up Fifth avenue in New York, than over a 
 v/ild prairie? 
 
 No one has ever explained satisfactorily why the 
 
 sounds of an orchestra record can travel up the needle 
 
 phonograph without stubbing their toes on one 
 
 another — and perhaps no one can explain why MEM- 
 
DIRECTING THOUGHT-TRAFFIC 27 
 
 ORY OF MANY DIFFERENT THINGS will co-or- 
 dinate, and fit in so beautifully and become knowledge. 
 Beyond observing that this CO-ORDINATION of 
 memory is a property of the mind, likely we need no 
 deeper explanation. "It works," and it has always 
 worked. That brings the peculiarity of memory-rec- 
 ords within the scope of Natural Law, and we may 
 observe the operations of natural law calmly and with 
 profit, and still be unable to explain the law itself. 
 
 Similarly, we know that the STRENGTH AND 
 SPEED of the blow, or shock, or impact, of observation 
 will cut these memory-streets, pave them and keep them 
 open. We know that some physical change has 
 occurred in the brain-structure. We know these things 
 much as we know what electricity will do under certain 
 conditions^— without advancing our knowledge as to 
 the nature of electricity ! 
 
LESSON IV 
 
 CHOOSE YOUR CLASS OF MEMORY 
 
 You may spend a day in the business section of a 
 large city, and ACTUALLY SEE one million different 
 persons, without remembering one of them! And your 
 thought, always active, always searching, examines 
 many things without bringing back a RECORD of 
 them. 
 
 You cannot SEE a thing without THINKING about 
 it. Your thought may be so swift, that a moment later 
 you have no memory of what you have seen. You see — 
 and hence think about — the grain of wood, the marks 
 on plaster, the DETAILS of countless things. But you 
 save only a small part of your observations. 
 
 To believe that you can train your memory so that 
 YOU WILL RETAIN EVERY EXPERIENCE, is 
 expecting too much of any person's mind. 
 
 There must be special reasons why you should 
 develop SOME SPECIAL KIND OF MEMORY. 
 
 We shall make no effort to name all of the classifi- 
 cations. The underlying principle is all you need. We 
 shall name a few of the more prominent: 
 
 The clerk at the general delivery window of a post- 
 28 
 
CHOOSE YOUR CLASS OF MEMORY 29 
 
 office, and the detective, need MEMORY OF NAMES 
 AND FACES. Therefore, their observation narrows 
 down to this particular class of memory. They 
 STUDY features, statures, mannerisms and names. 
 They FOCUS the results of their observations into 
 ANALYTICAL THOUGHT! They IMPRESS their 
 brains with what they have observed. 
 
 The unmusical person hears a whistle blow, and it 
 is simply a whistle. The musician says, "Ah, that is in 
 the key of G !" The unartistic person calls a color blue, 
 but the artist sees a blending of several colors in that 
 particular shade — and maybe reflections of other colors. 
 The elocutionist reads a poem two or three times and 
 memorizes it. The mechanician examines a piece of 
 machinery and observes its construction and operation. 
 
 JUST AS THERE IS SPECIALIZATION IN 
 OCCUPATION, SO MUST THERE BE SPECIALI- 
 ZATION IN MEMORY. Without the memory spe- 
 cialization, there could be no avocational specialization. 
 
 The author observes WORDS — and their peculiar- 
 ities, their relationships to one another, their musical 
 value. The proof-reader observes and therefore remem- 
 bers spelling and punctuation. The housewife remem- 
 bers recipes and methods. 
 
 One person is proficient in writing and speaking ten 
 languages, but all of us cannot be linguists. Another 
 person knows the stars, much about eclipses and comets 
 — but to most of us the heavens might change their 
 design nightly without causing much comment on our 
 part. The botanist has his peculiar memory, and the 
 mineralogist has his particular type of memory. 
 
 We knew of a man in the Colorado State School of 
 
30 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 Mines who could take a specimen of ore from any part 
 of the world, "heft" it, look at it, and tell accurately 
 what it contained — and how much to the ton. We 
 heard about another man employed in the stockyards 
 at Kansas City who could feel the sides of a critter and 
 estimate within a few pounds at the outside, what the 
 animal would weigh. We have heard of other strange 
 memory freaks — but wherever such a freak exists, be 
 certain that there has been CONCENTRATED OB- 
 SERVATION on that particular type of information. 
 
 One time, in the days of the old museums, we saw a 
 country boy who had a copy of Webster's Dictionary 
 on a stand beside him. Any one could select any word 
 from among the three hundred thousand or more words 
 in that dictionary, and if he pronounced it correctly, the 
 young man would spell it correctly — and then spell it 
 backwards just as rapidly, and with equal fidelity. We 
 asked him how he did it, and he said, "I don't know. 
 Once, I read the dictionary through !" 
 
 We have known ministers who could find any pas- 
 sage in the Bible even though one were to suggest the 
 theme without remembering the words. 
 
 We are told that this is an age of specialization, and 
 that statement is correct. People who become profi- 
 cient in ONE thing, command the highest salaries — are 
 the most noted in their line. If they had not specialized 
 in one particular kind of memory, they would never 
 have become specialists. SPECIALIZATION BE- 
 GINS WITH THE FORMATION OF MEMORY 
 RECORDS! 
 
 It is not easy to remember things that do not seem 
 to be suited to our interests. The "tea-taster" seems to 
 
CHOOSE YOUR CLASS OF MEMORY 31 
 
 be peculiarly adapted to his calling. His memory cen- 
 ters on TASTE. The musician's memory is concerned 
 chiefly with HEARING. The blind person, who reads 
 by the sense of touch, specializes on THE MEMORY 
 OF FEELING. And while to each of us a certain sense 
 is most important, also to each of us a LIKING for 
 some special thing is paramount. We like soil analysis 
 or metaphysics, or golf, or motor cars, or salesman- 
 ship—or something. We are PREDISPOSED to that 
 particular subject. Hence, it is EASY AND NAT- 
 URAL TO CONCENTRATE upon that subject, and 
 in proportion to our concentration, we succeed in memo- 
 rizing. But we concentrate best on that which interests 
 us most. 
 
 To imagine that it is good memory exercise to memo- 
 rize poetry, which we shall never use, is as sensible as 
 believing that it is the proper thing to force a child 
 to learn to play the violin when that child has no talent 
 for the violin, and no liking for it. 
 
 On the other hand, we find many persons with no 
 acting talent who struggle to be actors. They do not 
 succeed. Apparently, they have the predisposition to 
 act — but they haven't. Predisposition is not always in 
 line with aspirations. A person may be predisposed to 
 a certain talent, and that talent "comes so easily," it is 
 no longer alluring to that person. This perverseness 
 in human nature makes people do much needless work. 
 They seek to memorize that which their minds can 
 never learn how to observe properly. 
 
 If we set out to cultivate our memories along lines 
 foreign to our "mental make-ups," we may succeed in a 
 measure, but never to any marked degree. But if we 
 
32 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 memorize along the lines best suited to our talents, then 
 we may make progress — and as our OBSERVATION 
 increases, our MEMORY RECORDS become deeper— 
 and our SPECIALIZATION moves forward accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 Many an unfortunate, and equally misguided, person 
 is seeking to cultivate his memory along lines foreign 
 to his adaptability. That is the same as trying to ferti- 
 lize soil to grow something that the NATURE of the 
 soil cannot nourish. The fertilizer soon represents an 
 outlay of money much greater than the value of the 
 crop! 
 
 If EVERY PERSON could become skilled in ALL 
 lines this would be a sorry world. We should be in the 
 position of the ten shipwrecked persons who found 
 themselves on a barren desert island. Wondering how 
 they would live, one of them suggested that, by doing 
 each other's washing, they could all make a good living ! 
 But we cannot all do each other's washing, or become 
 proficient in the same kind of memory. Until we have 
 learned WHAT CLASS OF MEMORY TO DE- 
 VELOP, we can make little progress trying to develop 
 any kind of memory. 
 
 
LESSON V 
 
 THE ART OF CONCENTRATION 
 
 Once, we read certain pseudo instructions relative to 
 concentration of the mind. The author advised his 
 pupils to "look at a spot" for fifteen minutes at a time. 
 What value that spot could have in the life of the vic- 
 tim of the system, was never made clear. 
 
 You concentrate mentally on whatever excites your 
 interest. Pick up a volume of Darwin or Ibsen, and 
 unless you are brave, you will read what the type con- 
 veys to your sense of sight, but likely you will be using 
 your mind chiefly to think about other things. 
 
 But if you are truly interested in Darwin or Ibsen, 
 you will read with the same fervor that a hungry man 
 devours food ! 
 
 Too frequently, people will read "learned things," 
 because they wish to appear learned — but if they read 
 a thousand volumes on subjects in which they had no 
 or little interest, they would not improve their minds. 
 They might cause their minds to echo certain passages 
 from that which they had read, but a phonograph could 
 give a more faithful reproduction. 
 
 Buy a fiction magazine and read a story — one that 
 
 33 
 
34 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 makes you forget that you are seated in a chair or loll- 
 ing in a hammock. You seem to be about seven feet 
 distant from the hero or heroine, and go through each 
 crisis breathlessly. When the story is finished, you 
 KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IT— because you 
 were INTERESTED, and INTEREST BEGETS 
 CONCENTRATION, and concentration cuts and 
 paves your memory-streets! 
 
 Pay more attention to your degree of INTEREST, 
 and the concentration will take care of itself. Let us 
 say that you are a salesman. You are fairly success- 
 ful — but not one of the top-notchers. You have the 
 ability to be high-class. Mentally, you are indolent. 
 You may resent that estimate of yourself, but remem- 
 ber that all laziness begins in the mind. 
 
 There are many things that will, or should, increase 
 your interest in your work — unless you are not fitted 
 naturally to your calling. If you are not, get out of it. 
 Never fracture your mental processes by straining them 
 to do that which is naturally objectionable to them. 
 
 Pride in your success will stimulate your interest. 
 Chagrin at being a "tail-ender" will stimulate your 
 interet, if you have any latent interest to stimulate. 
 
 A boy in school excelled in history. He knew more 
 about kings and queens than perhaps they knew about 
 themselves. Dates were as simple as the spots on play- 
 ing-cards. When asked HOW he mastered history so 
 easily, he said, "I am as much interested in it as some 
 people are in fiction. I read my history the way the 
 rest of you read stories !" 
 
 Really, there was nothing mysterious or complicated 
 about that view of the study ! INTEREST CREATES 
 
THE ART OF CONCENTRATION 35 
 
 CONCENTRATION. When you LOVE to study any 
 subject, or LOVE your work, you naturally CONCEN- 
 TRATE on it. Even though slighted work might 
 pass muster, you think too much of your own happi- 
 ness in work well done to fail in doing your best— and 
 in TRYING TO IMPROVE ON YOUR BEST! 
 
 You CONCENTRATE. You are INTERESTED. 
 You have no thought-room for outside things. You 
 do not hear sounds that might disturb others. Sousa's 
 band might play lustily outside the shop and you would 
 scarcely realize its presence! 
 
 Many a minister's son has "gone wrong," because he 
 was dragged to every service in his father's church. He 
 was not interested. Religion was crammed down him 
 much the same as castor-oil. He RESENTED being 
 forced to accept it in such large and frequent doses. 
 His resentment had the opposite effect from that which 
 his parents hoped to instill within him. 
 
 Permit a friend to entice you to a lecture on a subject 
 that does not interest you, and how much of that lec- 
 ture do you carry home with you? Your mind has been 
 traveling independently, and at times you did not hear 
 the voice of the lecturer — and when you did hear it, you 
 thought it was very rasping and disagreeable. 
 
 Love may be blind, but it has made fewer mistakes 
 than those of enforced matrimony. A boy might shame 
 his parents by refusing to be a lawyer and "hanging 
 around" a machine shop — but in time he may become 
 a great inventor. 
 
 If you have any predisposition to a subject, and look 
 into it and examine it, pretty soon you are INTER- 
 
36 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 ESTED in it — and your interest increases as your study 
 becomes deeper. 
 
 There is a rule in the drama that is based on this basic 
 subject of interest. In a scene, the other members of 
 the cast center their vision and, apparently at least, 
 their attention, on the person who has lines to speak. 
 That helps focus the interest of the audience on that 
 particular actor. And, in like degree, if we so arrange 
 our studies and our work as to AVOID DISTRACT- 
 ING THINGS, we shall have less trouble centering 
 our attention on the work we are doing, or the study we 
 are pursuing. 
 
 If many business men would CONCENTRATE as 
 studiously on their work as the safe-blower does on his, 
 they would be more successful than they are. The evil- 
 doer likes to be known as an "artist." His interest in 
 his questionable pursuit makes him a master at it. 
 
 You may resent the comparison of the burglar, but 
 if you would find the same THRILL in your work that 
 he finds in his, you would understand why there is so 
 much highly developed, but woefully misdirected, tal- 
 ent in the world. You would also understand why 
 such relatively NEW avocations as "movie acting" 
 and aviation, have produced so many marvels. The 
 thrill is very great — and the greater the thrill, the 
 keener the interest. That is why these folks CON- 
 CENTRATE so studiously on their work. And as 
 they concentrate, their MEMORIES carry complete 
 records of every phase and feature of their callings. 
 When a similar situation arises, the memory of the orig- 
 inal situation is presented — its facts are at hand — and 
 the judgment is formed accordingly. 
 
THE ART OF CONCENTRATION 37 
 
 Find the THRILL — the joy — the happiness in that 
 which you do and that which you study, and you will 
 need no further lessons in concentration. As you lack 
 interest, you lack concentration. If your thoughts are 
 scattered, they are not bearing down on one fine point. 
 If you could concentrate the full force of the weight and 
 impact of each step you take, in a compass no greater 
 than a needle-point, you would be surprised what power 
 you really exerted ! 
 
 Were there a means of determining the PHYSICAL 
 FORCE of thinking, we should find likely that the 
 numbskull uses as much mental energy as the highly 
 developed specialist. You THINK anyway. That, you 
 cannot help. But interest CONCENTRATES thought. 
 You no longer SCATTER your observations. You 
 draw them down to given metes and bounds, and then 
 your thought-energy counts most. 
 
 Love your work or your study, and you concentrate 
 on it; and the kind of memory that you need most is 
 at your service. 
 
 But — that is not the entire story ! 
 
LESSON VI 
 
 HOLD MEMORY REVIEWS 
 
 Unless the merchant took periodical inventory, he 
 would not know the extent and value of his stock of 
 goods. He is buying, selling and exchanging continu- 
 ously, and after a few months, he cannot tell just what 
 he has on his shelves or in his warehouse. He may have 
 more money in goods than he thought, and therefore 
 has made money — even though his bank balance is 
 lower than it was months ago. 
 
 If memory is worth having — worth cultivating — it 
 should be cultivated systematically. If you had a gar- 
 den, you would have to pull the weeds occasionally, or 
 they would grow up faster than the vegetables and 
 choke the worth-while vegetation. 
 
 If you do not use memory, the memory-streets become 
 dirty. Their pavement is hidden beneath the dust of 
 disuse. 
 
 Remembering things is easier than most folk think — 
 not only because of the interest and the attendant con- 
 centration that have been explained, but because of the 
 special interest a person may find in the process of 
 remembering. There is a good deal more fun in exer- 
 
 38 
 
HOLD MEMORY REVIEWS 39 
 
 cising one's memory than there is in playing most 
 games. It seems no more like work than the games. 
 A man will complain about shoveling coal into his 
 furnace, but he will walk ten miles after an elusive 
 golf-ball, and call it pleasure! 
 
 If we make memory-culture arduous, then it helps us 
 little. If it is "showing ourselves a good time," it is 
 helpful. 
 
 Did you ever count the bills in your purse and the 
 loose change in your pocket and say, "Now, I should 
 have had two dollars more than I have; what did I do 
 with it?" 
 
 What happened after this disquieting discovery? 
 YOU HELD A MEMORY REVIEW WITH YOUR- 
 SELF. Is that not true? You traced your course dur- 
 ing the day, and really, it was surprising to find how 
 easy it is to FORGET what has happened during THIS 
 VERY DAY ! Where could your mind be to forget— 
 for the time— -that you had gone into a drug-store, 
 waited ten minutes for attention, and bought two dol- 
 lars' worth of goods ! Or, how could you forget that you 
 went to the post-office, stood in line several minutes 
 with your money-order application form all made out, 
 to buy a two-dollar post-office order for a magazine 
 subscription? 
 
 When there is some special reason for RETRACING 
 YOUR STEPS, you do it — and it is not so very diffi- 
 cult, either. 
 
 Suppose you did that very thing each evening? And 
 suppose you held a weekly review, and a monthly 
 review? Each time you send your THOUGHT travel- 
 
40 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 ing over your memory-streets, you cut them deeper and 
 put more gray paving material on them. 
 
 You CLAIM to be good at memory, but get on a wit- 
 ness-stand and let a lawyer ask you, "What did you do 
 between ten in the morning and noon of May 6, 1905?" 
 and you will begin to wonder if you were really alive on 
 that day! It is a blank to you. So is the entire month 
 of May, 1905— and maybe 1905 itself! 
 
 The memory specialist will say, "Ah, ha! I shall show 
 you how the association of ideas will come to your res- 
 cue!'' Then he proceeds to give you a formula that is 
 more difficult that the very act of living. He has read, 
 somewhere, about the association of ideas, and it sounds 
 very learned to him. 
 
 Some years ago in England, several physicians made 
 a special study of the insane — as we presume other phy- 
 sicians have done in other countries. These doctors 
 believed that if they could occupy the minds of their 
 unfortunate patients, the particular phobia from which 
 each suffered, would disappear. The man who insisted 
 that he was the Duke of Wellington would begin to 
 recognize himself as John Jones. The doctors started 
 to make their patients take exercise, and after some 
 months, they noticed that THOSE WHO WERE 
 INTERESTED IN THE EXERCISE DEVELOPED 
 THEIR MUSCLES, and became strong and healthy. 
 Those who TOOK NO INTEREST in those exercises, 
 and yet went through them, were AS UNDEVEL- 
 OPED as they were at the start, and remained as mor- 
 bid and unhealthy. 
 
 If the MIND has so much to do with the development 
 of muscles as that, why should it have less to do with 
 
HOLD MEMORY REVIEWS 41 
 
 the development of memory? Further, if the mind can 
 make possible the development of muscle to that extent, 
 without knowing the technical names of the muscles, 
 why shouldn't the same keen interest develop memory, 
 without dragging in a labored discussion of "the asso- 
 ciation of ideas," which is only part of our mental proc- 
 ess the same as arriving at a decision? 
 
 THE TROUBLE WITH EDUCATION IS THAT 
 WE INSIST ON MAKING THE MIND AN 
 UNFATHOMABLE MYSTERY! 
 
 The association of ideas is as natural a mental process 
 as any other aspect of THINKING. Ages before any 
 philosopher gave names to the different types of 
 thought, people had wonderful memories. They did 
 not conjure up thoughts of concrete, granite, marble, 
 coral-rock, bricks, mortar, masons, et al., in order to 
 recall that a man's name was Stone! Indeed, the per- 
 sons who had to blaze their own thought-trails did 
 much better than many of us today who have the advan- 
 tage of following many blazed trails ! 
 
 It is remarkable that old persons, with plenty of time 
 to think, will "dwell in the past" so much that they can 
 recall incidents that many keen, active thinkers have 
 forgotten. They do so by holding these frequent 
 MEMORY REVIEWS. We who are active cannot 
 dwell so much in the past — nor is it imperative that we 
 attempt to remember all things we have witnessed or 
 experienced. But if we REVIEW those things that 
 profit us to remember, each time we recall them, they 
 seem to build a shorter bridge across the stream of time, 
 and the distant yesterdays with their vivid details, 
 come nearer to us. 
 
42 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 We know a man who, as a child, wondered if he 
 would recall his early life after he had grown up. He 
 started in to hold these little memory reviews, and in 
 maturity, his memory reached back faithfully to baby- 
 hood — to an age that seemed to be too early even for 
 thought. His friends indulgently called him a liar for 
 his claims, but he proved his contentions on more than 
 one occasion by giving facts to older persons who knew 
 the communities in which he had lived. 
 
 What we do today is but the CUMULATIVE 
 EFFECT OF OUR MEMORIES. Our skill, our 
 knowledge, are but reflections of the MEMORY OF 
 OUR EXPERIENCES— the things through which we 
 have passed as well as our observation and studies. 
 
 If we close today's book and never seek to reopen it, 
 its print becomes blurred — it grows yellow and dim 
 with age. If we neglect property, it falls into decay. 
 If we do not oil machinery, it rusts and wears out rap- 
 idly. If we do not USE memory, it becomes almost a 
 blank. Until we have learned the importance of TAK- 
 ING INVENTORIES OF OUR MINDS, we cannot 
 lay claim to having good memories — and good memo- 
 ries often are money-makers ! 
 
LESSON VII 
 
 OCCUPYING OUR MENTAL ROOMS 
 
 The chambers of our mind are going to be occupied 
 somehow. They may be occupied by needless, useless, 
 extravagant, vagrant thoughts, or useful thoughts. 
 
 Many a young man who is worthless in any known 
 avocation, can light matches in his teeth, make a coin 
 walk across his ringers and do card tricks. He prides 
 himself on his accomplishments — but no one cares to 
 pay him for his exhibitions. His friends may call him 
 "clever," and he is— like the dog that can speak and sit 
 up and shake hands ! 
 
 If we insist upon "remembering everything/' we have 
 so much active memory of no especial value, we crowd 
 out the kind of memory that will help us the most. 
 Many a person can quote the well-known authors, and 
 quotes them so studiously that he cannot write a letter 
 expressing his own thoughts. He fills the pages with 
 mummies of other men's thoughts. 
 
 It is not necessary that we remember all things which 
 we have "been through." Some of them we would bet- 
 ter forget. Memory can become such an inflamed proc- 
 ess, it is a disease rather than an accomplishment. You 
 
 43 
 
44 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 have witnessed these "detail memory" victims who 
 would start to tell a story and embellish it with their 
 memory pictures of details to such a degree that they 
 forgot the story they started out to tell ! 
 
 Some of these memory-sharks so alter the actuality 
 of the experience they would recall, that no one would 
 ever recognize it. They change their memories to suit 
 themselves. They alibi their own parts in an incident. 
 And in time, what they remember is NOT what hap- 
 pened — nor is it much like the reality. To them, it is 
 FACT! 
 
 It is easier to remember the truth than it is to remem- 
 ber a falsehood, but a lie — oft repeated — will cut as 
 deep a memory-street as a fact ! 
 
 Here are some utterly useless types of memory — not 
 all by any means, but a few of the more flagrant 
 classes : 
 
 A person remembers the quibbling details of the 
 small-talk of a conversation — with startling fidelity. 
 If that person were asked to memorize a message of 
 importance, he likely would fail. 
 
 There are people who try to remember pain. But 
 pain carries no memory. The fact that one has suffered 
 is remembered, but that memory does not bring the 
 same keen torture. Memory of pain and memory of 
 "hard luck," are not the best kinds of memory to culti- 
 vate. We can remember, with profit, whatever bravery 
 we showed in extricating ourselves from the slough of 
 bad times — and the processes we employed. If we 
 dwell much upon our suffering, we fill the active gal- 
 leries of our minds with harmful thoughts. Why do it? 
 
 With biting clearness, we remember the slurs cast 
 
OCCUPYING OUR MENTAL ROOMS 45 
 
 upon us by our enemies. Why clutter up our memory- 
 streets and parks with such litter? Can we not use that 
 same thought-energy to more constructive advantage 
 than by employing it upon objects of our dislike? If 
 those folk are our enemies, let us try to forget them, 
 because if they do not merit our love, surely they do not 
 merit the expenditure of our precious energy ! 
 
 Why should any person seek to perpetuate NEED- 
 LESS INFORMATION? When such a strenuous 
 sales campaign was inaugurated for the sale of a certain 
 popular encyclopedia, many folk thought that the farth- 
 est reaches of knowledge would lie in the direction of 
 learning everything in those twenty bulky volumes— 
 but the specialist knows that if he were obliged to 
 depend upon the information conveyed to him through 
 the encyclopedia, he would NOT be a specialist! 
 
 If one's father was French and he detested a Span- 
 iard, is that any good reason why one should go through 
 life hating Spaniards— particularly as the father's feel- 
 ings were caused very likely by contact with one dis- 
 agreeable Spaniard? 
 
 ALL memory is no more to be desired or cultivated 
 than an appetite for all food. Some foods disagree with 
 one. Some memory is harmful to an individual. ANY 
 memory is harmful if it takes up necessary and valu- 
 able room in the mind. Memory that is exercised dili- 
 gently, .will project itself into one's daily thoughts. If 
 that memory is needless or harmful, it injures one's 
 thoughts, one's work, one's progress. 
 
 The person who longs to possess unbroken memory— 
 to the smallest detail — may be seeking something far 
 more harmful than he suspects. But if he searches for 
 
46 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 and cultivates those memories that are constructive, he 
 will move ahead much faster, because WE CANNOT 
 LIVE THE PAST AGAIN. THAT IS GONE. 
 OUR FUTURE SHOULD CONCERN US MOST, 
 AND THE MEMORY THAT WILL HELP US 
 IMPROVE THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE 
 FUTURE, IS THE ONLY HELPFUL MEMORY! 
 
 There may be men who are superior in many lines. 
 We have never met one. The great physician may be 
 dull in other studies. What could be gained by being a 
 specialist in law, chemistry, astronomy, botany, sur- 
 gery, languages, art and a number of other things? 
 
 It is not the best idea to claim to be a memory-shark, 
 because "pride goeth before a fair' in memory as much 
 as in any other direction. The specialist of thirty years 
 of age may receive compensation of twenty thousand 
 dollars a year, while the "Jack-of-ail-trades" receives 
 three dollars a day, doing odd jobs ! 
 
 There are many "Jacks-of-all-memories," who pride 
 themselves on their "general knowledge," forgetting 
 the adage that "a little learning is a dangerous thing." 
 The half-informed person is far worse off in the race of 
 life, than the person who specializes on one kind of 
 knowledge, and masters it ! 
 
 There is many a salesman who thinks that "he can 
 sell anything," whereas his frequent jumps into this 
 class of business and that, make him unfit for any kind 
 of salesmanship. He sells the goods and the service of 
 his house, and unless he KNOWS that which he sells, 
 how can he sell it well? 
 
 The ham actor says that he is a marvel in comedy, 
 tragedy and any part, but he remains the same ham 
 
OCCUPYING OUR MENTAL ROOMS 47 
 
 actor ! He is generally "at liberty !" He does a little of 
 all kinds of acting, but none well. He has REMEM- 
 BERED A LITTLE OF MANY THINGS HE 
 NEVER MASTERED, and thereby takes up valuable 
 brain-space that should be devoted to one specialty in 
 his line. 
 
 When memory helps us pick out the kernels of knowl- 
 edge that will nourish us in our work, memory should 
 be cultivated. When memory seeks to master a miscel- 
 lany of non-essentials, it is harmful. Beware, then, of 
 the person who says that "I never forget anything." 
 A magpie may qualify as well as he ! 
 
 MEMORY MUST BE CONSTRUCTIVE. IT 
 MUST TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE TRUTH 
 THAT ACTIVE THOUGHT HAS ONLY SO 
 MUCH SPACE FOR INFORMATION. Do not 
 crowd the room you need to progress ! 
 
LESSON VIII 
 
 FORGET YOUR MEMORY-ERRORS 
 
 As we pass along Life's Highway, we form opinions 
 that later prove to be erroneous. The child, riding 
 along with its parents, sees the moon as every cross- 
 street is passed. "My," observes the little one," how 
 many moons are out tonight !" 
 
 It is only a question of time when common observa- 
 tion will prove to that child that it was mistaken. But 
 there are times when errors creep into our minds and 
 are not so easily dislodged. 
 
 Col. Roosevelt told, in his autobiography, about some 
 bauble in the family that he had regarded as very costly. 
 He carried this idea into mature manhood, but one day 
 it occurred to him that the special article he had treas- 
 ured all those years, was not at all costly, or particu- 
 larly useful ! 
 
 At times, gossip points its bony finger at some person 
 and says, "That person is evil — oh, so fearfully bad!" 
 If we never correct this idea, we shall employ our mem- 
 ories to work a great injustice against an honorable 
 person. 
 
 We might continue to cite instances to prove that 
 
 48 
 
FORGET YOUR MEMORY-ERRORS 49 
 
 thereare MISTAKES OF MEMORY, due to mistakes 
 of understanding at the time that memory was formed. 
 If these errors are never cleared away, those mistakes 
 may become mental barnacles that impede our thought- 
 progress. They may be rank injustices against others. 
 
 There are errors of common heritage. Many persons 
 believe that the sting of a scorpion or the bite of a taran- 
 tula is always fatal. Medical men say that it is not! 
 
 If we are not careful, we cherish wrong impressions. 
 We persist in them as memories, until they have formed 
 unhealthy growths in our minds. If memory-culture 
 depended solely on being able to REACH OUR MEM- 
 ORY RECORDS at any time, that would not be so 
 difficult — but let us be certain that the things we remem- 
 ber are CORRECT as well as HELPFUL. 
 
 The woman who can talk about nothing but her oper- 
 ations, is not very agreeable company. That is her 
 memory-hobby and it is cultivated to a painfully accu- 
 rate degree. The man who can remember only the 
 injustices he has suffered, becomes an unpardonable 
 bore. We all have our own troubles. We should try to 
 forget most of those. 
 
 But if we wish sincerely to cultivate our memories, 
 then let us ANALYZE THAT WHICH WE REMEM- 
 BER. If we find that a memory is either incorrect or 
 useless, why employ it? Why carry a dead cat around 
 with us because once it was a very beautiful tabby? 
 
 Some persons stop growing up mentally very young 
 in life. Some carry, for instance, the memory of youth 
 — and the desire for youth becomes a mania. Others 
 carry the memory of the time they were rich — whereas 
 now they are poor — and the memory of their better 
 
50 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 days prevents their progressing to the point where they 
 can bring still better days ! 
 
 WE MUST ANALYZE, We must not be afraid to 
 say that we have forgotten or that we were wrong. If 
 you refuse to readjust your mental equipment to fact, 
 what is your mind manufacturing? It really is a manu- 
 facturing plant, and its products are your SUCCESS 
 and your HAPPINESS. If it fails to produce these 
 results, it is not giving a good account of itself. 
 
 Any system of memory-cultivation that fails to weed 
 out error, is a very pernicious system. It is dangerous. 
 
 A mother dies. Her little one grieves. But as time 
 passes and new experiences come into that budding life, 
 memory of the mother begins to fade. Should that 
 memory be kept alive through frequent reference to her 
 death, or through referring frequently to her love, her 
 beauty of character, her goodness and kindness? 
 
 Too often we seek to keep alive that which were bet- 
 ter buried, and we bury the memory that we would 
 better keep alive! 
 
 It is true that some people "live and learn," but too 
 many just live. It is a fact that EDUCATION is the 
 desire of the majority of persons, but that too many by 
 far fill their minds with useless, hindering memories — 
 and cherish errors of memories to their own lasting, or 
 at least prolonged, detriment. 
 
 If all we have in life is the desire to "show our smart- 
 ness," then we are remembering things that do us no 
 good. There are men and women who fill their minds 
 with catch-problems, conundrums, the spelling of unus- 
 ual words, and like tricks that will "catch" most per- 
 sons. And those who persist in these needless, silly 
 
FORGET YOUR MEMORY-ERRORS 51 
 
 memories feel that they are very learned because they 
 have "stumped" somebody. If such persons would 
 make an effort to remember more of the better and 
 more useful things in life, they would no longer worry 
 about their being regarded as paragons of wisdom. 
 
 Whenever you touch upon the subject of memory, 
 you are thinking about something most vitally YOU. 
 And until you realize that you are not the finished pupil, 
 but that you are still climbing the hill of learning, you 
 will not form a proper estimate of memory and its 
 value — nor will you seek to remember those things that 
 are concerned most with your progress. If you remem- 
 ber for the sheer glory of remembering, then you will 
 remember the errors with the facts — the bad with the 
 good. 
 
 Certain classes of memory imbue you with FEAR — 
 with DOUBT— with MISGIVINGS. Such memory 
 anchors you to the past, and that is always to be 
 avoided, because your progress MUST BE FOR- 
 WARD. 
 
 Certain memories, such as injustices and terror, may 
 so incapacitate a person as to make him a physical and 
 moral coward. That is memory just as truly as remem- 
 bering the multiplication tables— but which is the more 
 helpful? 
 
 A writer aspires to be literary, and fills up his mind 
 with a vocabulary that is over the heads of ninety-five 
 per cent, of our population. If he writes "past" his read- 
 ers, of what value is his writing? Perhaps he never 
 succeeds until he has FORGOTTEN thousands of 
 those words! The "big words" exist just the same. 
 They are in the dictionary. He learned them. But — do 
 
52 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 these facts justify that writer in persisting in using a 
 vehicle of thought that means nothing to most persons? 
 
 We find thousands of men who learned trades in the 
 old way, and who refuse to learn the newer and better 
 ways. What have they gained? Their MEMORY 
 of the old methods has proved barriers to them. They 
 never regarded those old methods as crude. They have 
 never compared their own progress with the progress 
 of other workmen. They have never ANALYZED 
 that which they persisted in remembering. Is memory 
 an asset or a liability under these conditions? YOU 
 know the answer! 
 
 If you wish to cultivate your memory, then really 
 CULTIVATE it. Pull up the weeds of useless things 
 and erroneous things. Just because you can remember 
 something valueless, does not give it value. A young 
 man might be a clever pool player, but the poorest clerk 
 in the office. He might remember all about his dex- 
 terity with the cue, and very little of the facts of his 
 bread- winning labors! 
 
LESSON IX 
 
 MEMORY AND EXPERIENCE 
 
 In this School of Life, we are passing through the 
 refining processes of EXPERIENCE. And experience 
 means not only the things we pass through, such as our 
 goings and comings and our adventures, but it embraces 
 as well, our studies and our thoughts. Some of the 
 most important experiences we have, are thought-ex- 
 periences or study-experiences. 
 
 But there is also a PRACTICAL SIDE to experi- 
 ence. Until we have DONE a thing, we cannot say 
 that we know it. 
 
 There is a binding link between THINKING and 
 DOING. When we have the proper conception of any 
 subject, that proves that our ideas conform with the 
 actual work that would be involved in putting that 
 knowledge into operation. 
 
 In anything pertaining to life, we may find illumi- 
 nating suggestions. The circus presents its own les- 
 sons. To illustrate the point upon which our discussion 
 now pauses, we shall take the occupation of the acro- 
 bats. Some are Europeans — some Americans — some 
 Africans — some Australians — others Asiatics. 
 
 53 
 
54 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 It is said that, before a Japanese acrobat attempts to 
 perform any new feat of tumbling, he sits quietly and 
 MEDITATES on how to do that particular acrobatic 
 trick. He uses his MEMORY of acrobatics, and "fig- 
 ures out" just what muscles will be brought into play — 
 when he is to make a particular turn in the air — what 
 the problems of equilibrium will be. 
 
 He does not attempt to TRY the act until he has 
 "thought it out." When he is quite certain that he has 
 a proper conception of what is to be done, and HOW it 
 will be done, he steps out on the mat and — DOES it ! 
 
 What did he do but CALL UPON HIS MEMORY, 
 and ANALYZE the EXPERIENCE-KNOWLEDGE 
 that his memory called up? Could many progressive 
 men and women do as well, there would be more effic- 
 iency, less error and a smaller amount of vain boasting ! 
 
 Experience, no matter what its nature may be, would 
 be of small service to us unless we USED it. And to 
 use experience, calls for the exercise of Memory ! 
 
 Witness this difference between the progress of two 
 pupils, after they have graduated from school: One of 
 them remembers the PRACTICAL SIDE of his teach- 
 ings, and seeks to make the best use of that which he 
 has learned. If he has formed wrong conceptions in the 
 past, he corrects his ideas as he passes through the 
 active work he has selected. He realizes that he may 
 have studied many subjects just to learn HOW TO 
 THINK— and that he has studied PRINCIPLES that 
 lend themselves to practical work, without really teach- 
 ing all there is to know about that work. He prog- 
 resses. Gradually, he gets away from his text-book 
 ideas— but saves from his SCHOOL MEMORY that 
 
MEMORY AND EXPERIENCE 55 
 
 which will help him move forward. And that young 
 man has really benefitted most by his education. 
 
 The other young man is so positive that his learning 
 has been complete, he seeks at all times to MAKE HIS 
 WORK CONFORM WITH HIS THEORIES. He is 
 rebuked, but persists in believing that what he knows 
 is "the real truth," and that there is some grave error 
 on the part of those who seek to correct him ! 
 
 Never attempt to separate experience from memory S 
 
 Apply this same principle to any phase of life. As we 
 work and study, as we come into contact with different 
 people and with new features in our own work, we learn 
 things which we did not suspect existed. And we begin 
 to see, if we study diligently, that we were nearly right 
 in some of our former views— correct in others- — and 
 entirely at error in others. But if we insist that WE 
 MUST REMEMBER ALL THINGS through which 
 we have passed, what a drag that may be upon our 
 progress. Here are two men. They had equal starts in 
 life. One is a big success and the other is a failure. 
 The big man goes right through theories to FACT. 
 He does not dwell on the false notions he had in the 
 beginning. He sets aside all that is valueless. The fail- 
 ure remembers the theories— his hobbies — the little 
 hurts to his pride — the needless and harmful things ! 
 
 EXPERIENCE in time will show us where we were 
 wrong — and even though our memory may teem with 
 instances that incline us to cling to our former mistakes, 
 of what value is that memory ? Certainly, it is likely to 
 be very harmful. 
 
 The cultivation of memory that disregards the value 
 of experience, both past and present, and that does not 
 

 55 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 take into consideration the FUTURE DEMANDS OF 
 PROGRESS, is a harmful system. There may be great 
 pride in "remembering all things," but if that tenacity 
 of memory only hinders our progress, where can we 
 find any satisfaction in it? 
 
 Many a child grows up to be much more learned and 
 useful than his father, but the father longs for the days 
 that were — with their misery and their mistakes. The 
 father becomes a slave to useless memory. The boy sets 
 his face toward greater achievements, and blots out 
 from his thoughts those memories that bind him. 
 
 What does your memory hold that will HELP YOU 
 in solving today's problems? What does your memory 
 reveal that will help you step ahead tomorrow? Per- 
 haps the best thing in your memory is the knowledge 
 that you have learned to do things better through 
 knowing how and why you erred in the past. Perhaps 
 the most helpful part of your memory is that which 
 brings to your aid the knowledge that you had courage 
 to overcome obstacles when you were not so well quali- 
 fied to cope with them as you are today. 
 
 If the pianist did not have a PROGRESSIVE MEM- 
 ORY, then he would never become more efficient. His 
 crude efforts in childhood were but STEPS that carried 
 him to higher levels in his profession. Too many peo- 
 ple place too much importance on their memory of ear- 
 lier efforts, and regard themselves as very brave and 
 wonderful. They cling to these memories of commend- 
 able efforts they once put forth, and expect to be praised 
 for what they did years ago. 
 
 Thus we see that memory is a subject both broad and 
 deep, and that we cannot build a temple to memory, 
 
MEMORY AND EXPERIENCE 57 
 
 and forget all else. We cannot make memory a para- 
 mount thing. Until we have made it SERVE OUR 
 PROGRESS, it is more of a handicap than a help. 
 
 How much better is the practical side of the memory 
 subject than an over-learned effort to discuss pro- 
 foundly about subconsciousness and weighty meta- 
 physics. We LIVE our lives in a practical way, and 
 surely any philosophy affecting our lives should be 
 equally practical, and less "booky." 
 
 If we make ourselves believe that we are more pro- 
 found than our work proves us to be, what have we 
 gained? If memory becomes a hobby with us, and we 
 worship it for its own unadorned sake, then memory 
 is of small value. Only as it HELPS US MOVE 
 AHEAD, is memory of any value at all! 
 
LESSON X 
 
 THE MILESTONES OF MEMORY 
 
 In the lives of each and all of us, there must be certain 
 MILESTONES OF MEMORY. They represent those 
 periods in our lives when we took the most important 
 STEPS OF PROGRESS. 
 
 The day we mastered some evil habit, is a memory- 
 milestone. The day we found courage sufficient to 
 emerge from a state of serfdom, we created another 
 milestone. The time we set about to LEARN some- 
 thing, and never wavered from that course, we were 
 placing another milestone along our Memory High- 
 way! 
 
 History is nothing but a composite memory preserved 
 in records. Does history persist through telling about 
 all the little inconsequentialities of kings, queens and 
 courtiers, or by giving us the story of the UPWARD 
 STRUGGLE OF MANKIND? 
 
 There are various students of history. Some are con- 
 cerned with the learning of ancient peoples — others 
 with their laws and so on. History, therefore, reveals 
 many important truths about the progress of humanity. 
 But the great milestones of progress stand out clearer 
 
 58 
 
THE MILESTONES OF MEMORY 59 
 
 than all events. There were conditions and move- 
 ments upon which the forward swing of mankind 
 depended. When these conditions were NOW — when 
 they were being lived — they may have seemed to be of 
 no greater importance than many other events of those 
 days. But the other events have been lost sight of, 
 in considering the greater epoch-making movements. 
 
 Today, there may be something in your experience 
 that will have much to do with your progress. It may 
 seem of small importance right now. Days, weeks, 
 months or years may pass before the real value of that 
 circumstance may impress itself upon you. And there 
 are decisions that you make, that will become mile- 
 stones in your future. The nearer you are to any event, 
 the less you comprehend its importance. And the thing 
 that today you think you must remember always, may 
 fade away among the inconsequential as time passes. 
 You are not always in position to make your memory- 
 selections right now. You need the PERSPECTIVE 
 of the passing years, perhaps, to form your proper esti- 
 mates. Maybe you need more ripe experience before 
 you can select those circumstances and those decisions 
 in your life that were helping shape your future. 
 
 If you were to accept a rule that would tell you to 
 remember everything that happened to you today, that 
 rule might prove cumbersome, and even injurious, were 
 you to follow it. That would be equivalent to saying 
 that ALL that you have experienced is vitally impor- 
 tant ! It is like saying that the rapid, willy-nilly search- 
 ings of your thought, or the sense-observations that 
 press upon you from all sides, should be remembered. 
 You realize that the memory of these endless details, of 
 
60 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 itself, would prevent your having new experiences. If 
 you give so much time to memory that you lack obser- 
 vation of what is going on around and about you NOW, 
 you will extract but little value from your present 
 experiences. 
 
 You are living NOW, and for the FUTURE, and 
 any memory exercise that would rob you of time and 
 energy, is certainly more of a hindrance than a help. 
 Let the memory-sharks brag of their intricately error- 
 proof memories — but remember that by their very act 
 of making an embalming room of their minds, they are 
 shutting out many of the live, vital thoughts and obser- 
 vations that they need right now! 
 
 The subject of memory can as easily become a matter 
 of insanity as anything else. With some folk, it is a 
 mania. So loud are their boastings, that when they are 
 caught wanting, they feel criminally inclined. They 
 have taken a false stand, and false stands have to be 
 deserted some time or other — and the later this deser- 
 tion occurs, the more embarrassing it is ! 
 
 Memory is very valuable, but not all memory. Recall- 
 ing what had taken place, is a worthy mental attain- 
 ment, but it is not all there is to life. If everybody was 
 supposed to remember everything, reference books and 
 books of account would be of no value. If we had such 
 magnificent memories that, once we read a thing, we 
 would have it at our tongue-ends always, we should 
 soon find ourselves in a position of parrots. We would 
 be REPEATING to such an exaggerated degree that 
 we would have neither time nor energy to move 
 forward. 
 
 There are MILESTONES OF MEMORY that will 
 
THE MILESTONES OF MEMORY 61 
 
 aid us — and that will give us the real value in memory. 
 Let us find them — recognize them as we can — and learn 
 the lessons they teach us. 
 
 We offer no resume to this treatise. If we were to 
 finish our discussion of memory with a tabulation, then 
 you would attempt to remember the tabulation, and pay 
 no attention to the REASONS WHY that have accom- 
 plished each statement. 
 
 The proper exercise of memory is something to be 
 encouraged. It is a fine possession. There is a function 
 of memory that is necessary in our progress, and in our 
 character-building as well. Let us find these features 
 of memory, and cultivate these features and leave with 
 the remnants in the rag-bag and on the ash-heap, the 
 useless, futile memories that we shall never use to good 
 account so long as we endure. 
 
 Memory, properly cultivated, will assist us in sharp- 
 ening our observation, in overcoming our mistakes, and 
 in balancing our judgment. But to say that memory is 
 greater than all our other faculties, is equivalent to 
 saying that one part of a machine is more important 
 than the other parts. The mind serves best when its 
 faculties CO-ORDINATE! The well-balanced mortal 
 is more progressive and infinitely happier than the one- 
 sided person, whose development runs in one direction, 
 and with that tendency of no particular use. 
 
 Cultivating memory is much like raising flowers. By 
 always selecting the healthiest and best seeds, and 
 planting them in the best soil, a refinement will be 
 attained that would be impossible in any other way. 
 
62 MEMORY KEYS 
 
 Without memory, there could be no learning — no life. 
 But to think too seriously about memory is as bad as 
 thinking too much about one's heart. Were a person to 
 concentrate his attention for long periods on the beat- 
 ing of his heart, he might lose his reason. If a person 
 concentrates too much upon memory-culture, he gets 
 the wrong impression of the value of memory, and 
 receives the least good out of his efforts to remember. 
 
 When the cultivation of memory is pursued along 
 rational lines, that cultivation proceeds WITHOUT 
 EFFORT. It becomes as much a part of the process of 
 thinking as recognizing the words we see in a newspa- 
 per. When memory is cultivated properly, a person 
 observes and thinks in a manner that makes that mem- 
 ory RETENTIVE. The mind that makes the best use 
 of itself, is not under a strain — and the cultivation of 
 memory that gives one the right kind of active memory, 
 is not burdensome. It is natural, because every func- 
 tion of life, operating properly, is natural — and that 
 which is natural, is without burdensome effort ! 
 

 I