And in the chapter on Recollective Analysis, and also in the previous part of this chapter, I have given the attentive student such a familiarity with the Memory Laws of In., Ex., and Con., that he can make Correlations as easily as he breathes.
When learning prose or poetry by means of endless repetitions to acquire, and endless views to retain, the mind soon wanders, and thus discontinuity is promoted; but, in reciting a Correlation forwards _and backwards_ from memory, the mind cannot wander, and thus the continuity is greatly strengthened. Again, memory is improved by exercise, and _improved in the highest degree_ by _making_ and _memorising_ correlations, because in _making_ them the _reviving_ power of the memory is exercised in conformity to Memory's own laws; and in _memorising_ the Correlations both stages of memory are most vividly impressed. Thus, making and memorising the Correlations TRAINS both Memory and Continuity. And if to this training process there be added the habit of Assimilation which the use of the Analytic-Synthetic and Interrogative Analysis Methods of learning Prose and Poetry by heart imparts, as well as my other training methods, then the NEW memory thus acquired _will not demand the further use of the System any more than the adult swimmer will need the plank by which as a boy he learned to swim_.
1. What new burden do they impose on the memory? 2. What do I require from my pupils? 3. To what is the first intermediate connected? 4. Through what? 5. How do I deal with the other intermediates? 6. What is a memory process? 7. Is the memory used to help the memory in any way? 8. Do I add anything to the extremes? 9. Is memory improved by exercise? 10. When is the System laid aside?
"The Guide to Memory, or a New and Complete Treatise of Analogy between the French and English Languages," compiled by Charles Turrell, Professor of Languages, and published in 1828, contains the words which are the _same_ in each language (alphabet, banquet, couplet, &c.), and those almost the same--"Letters necessary in English, and superfluous in French, are included in a parenthesis, thus Bag(g)age. Letters necessary in French, and superfluous in English are printed in Italics, thus Hom_m_age." At first sight it seems as if this plan were a good one (and some still recommend it[H]). But of the words which are the same in both languages, some of them have meanings one rarely if ever needs to express, while others are seldom seen except in Dictionaries, so the student who uses this method does not make much _useful_ progress. The Rev. W. Healy, of Johnstown (Kilkenny), long before he had finished my course of lessons, stated: "_I wrote out the French words that correspond to the English of everything around us and that are in common use, and found that by the aid of Rec. Syn. I could commit them much faster than the time taken to write them out._"