OUR YOUNG MEN’S COLUMN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2271, 24 October 1891, Page 3

OUR YOUNG MEN’S COLUMN.

[By Juvkms.]

MEMORY. A good memory is a blessing to a young man, and nothing is more exasperating tuan a bad one. We hear of numerour systems of mnemonics, but most of them run on the same basis —viz., the basis of certain laws. There is the law Of association, by which one idea is associated to another in the mind; the law of contrast, by which the mind jumps from one thought to an opposite one ; the law of similarity, by which thoughts are connected in the mind by means of words of similar meaning or sound; the law Of inclusion, by which the mind wanders from one thing to another until it traverses all the ramifications of a subject. The ideas in each law are connected in the mind by means of words. It makes a splendid dLs.'.pl’ne for the mind, but I cannot recommend such mechanical systems of mnemonics other than as a means to an end. In themselves they are really impracticable and more bother than they are worth. The man with a good natural memory possesses more than the man with a mechanical one. Of course, to obtain a good natural memory you must study your defects and endeavour to remedy them. Then you must set about it in the right way. If you Wish tb lificreaSe your faculty in remembering the cofrect spelling of words you must not ait.down to a book and learn words off by rote. ’ * No ■; words have to be written and jconte under the faculty of sight, and not be fep&ated in the mind as you would a verse of poetry which is to be delivered orally. If .you learn the words orally you will never gain- facility and correctness in writing them. You must learn them by looking at them, 1 grasping their outlines with your faculty ofe sight, and when you come to write them you will seldom, if ever, fail. The mistake is often made in cur schools of learning the spelling of words by two distinct ways, that is, orally repeating the words as they fall from the lips of the teacher, and learning them by sight in dictation, See., so that when a scholar comes to write a certain word he very often gets mixed. The faculty of sight and the faculty of hearing have a battle, as it were, in'the scholar’s mind. He attempts to recall the word by his faculty of sight, but there is only a dubious response. He next attempts to recall it by his faculty of hear- ' ing and is again left in doubt, and finally ' gives up in despair. How much easier -Would he have recalled it had he in the first used but the one faculty and the right one in learning. So with all the 'other faculties of the mind. If you*wish -cto'leam an oration or a poem the best faculty to use is the faculty of hearing; get ■ someone to read it over slowly while you repeat it, but never for one moment follow "the outlines of the words with your eyes. Languages should also be learned - by this 'method; a student should never see the book he is learning from until he comes to , -write the language, when he must learn to spell the words by their forms. Always this rule:—That that which is to be delivered orally should be learned orally, and that which is to be written or come within the compass of the eye should be learned by means of the eye. There is one reason why a good many young men cannot remember much of what " they have read; they read too much, and * think about what they read too little. Daniel Webster, who possessed a vast store information on almost every subject of , general interest, said it had been his habit for years to reflect a short time on whatever he read, and so fix the thought and "ideas worth remembering in his mind. who does this will be surprised to •"find how retentive his memory will become, f*(5F how the interesting portions of an .Article will remain with him.