Sparkling Nightingale Memory
Where, in the end, do we search, but in the memory itself? I would use examples from my own works if you had not read them; I would use them from the works of others, if I could find any; or Greek examples, if it were becoming to do so. Yet is this a power of mine, and belongs unto my nature; nor do I myself comprehend all that I am.
Again, these persisting movements are the elements of memory. We see the impersonal activity of the physical world, the mystery that constitutes it, and the relative absence of human sound makes this all the more present. I was more affected with it than, I believe, was generally expected, beginning from snow, moving through seasonal streams, to rivers, and ending in oceans. Everything is seen in one indivisible and unchangeable present. It was not the presence of another being, it was not centralized in that way. Rather, it was everywhere in every thing: in water, stone, tree, and air. The silence was broken now and then by the plaintive song of a nightingale.
The items to be remembered in this mnemonic system are mentally associated with specific physical locations. The method relies on memorized spatial relationships to establish order and recollect memorial content. It is also known as the "Journey Method," used for storing lists of related items, or the "Roman Room" technique, which is most effective for storing unrelated information.
For, by the loss of my friend, I saw myself for ever deprived of the pleasure of his acquaintance, and of our mutual intercourse of good offices. Silence is not conditioned by the physical absence of sound energy, rather, silence is a psychological state. I likewise reflected, with Concern, that the dignity of our College must suffer greatly by the decease of such an eminent augur. That oration in truth corresponds so much to that idea which is implanted in our minds that no higher eloquence need be looked for. All his talents were being carefully developed.
This reminded me, that he was the person who first introduced me to the College, where he attested my qualification upon oath; and that it was he also who installed me as a member; so that I was bound by the constitution of the Order to respect and honor him as apparent. Everything is seen by him in one indivisible and unchangeable present. To the atmosphere in the mountains belong the snow and the night, but also all else that was in the air: its scent and cold, and the human sounds it carried that could not prevent me from feeling the silence around them. The perception of sound even heightened my awareness of the silence of the infinite openness of the universe into which the local sounds of the valley dissolved.
Silence is an inkling of the presence of something we cannot fully perceive, something moving in a dimension undetectable by human hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell. Through it the mind performs the act of sense perception. The functions now attributed to nervous substance are referred by Aristotle to the pneuma connected with the blood. I reached a point high in green hills, where the wetness of the air, the dripping of the trees above, and the moisture of ferns and moss and fallen leaves enclosed me in a vegetal richness far removed from the frenetic rationality of the valley.
How could the mind receive and retain at the same time a number of different and partly incompatible impressions? Augustine, as in the psychology of Plotinus, is a function of the soul, not of the body.
"Since all the money has been bequeathed to the Duchess, it is impossible that that ready money which was left in the house should not have been bequeathed. For the species is never separated from the genus as long as it retains its name: but ready money retains the name of money: therefore it is plain that it was bequeathed."
Ah, I have to check my bank accountaeur. I suggest you now create your own journey and memorize the above. As my mind attended to the sound of the stream, the entire space opened before me and revealed its secret: valley and stream and cosmos are alive, their motion is the life of being. The insight struck with exhilarating force: how could any witness to the persistent, anonymous movement of a rain-fed winter stream not see and hear that the earth itself is divine, that we merely human reside within a great dynamic process? The children, who were very well behaved, greeted him in a friendly way and watched him attentively. How many thousands of winters has this stream been singing? How many billions of years has this process been in motion? The wind bent the trees and raised the waters into high waves.
"No," said he, "the jewels belong to you. Countess Linden intended them for you, I am sure, when she gave you the right to choose first, and take the best One." The One is repose, I thought (with Plotinus and Augustine), amid this quiet, irrefutable presence. My perception of the universe in this state apprehended infinity's mute repose, "I am, and so I have always been."
"When you selected the least attractive trinket, you unknowingly chose a treasure which to you was only valuable because worn by the one whom you hold dearest. God sent you this secret treasure; and it is worth many thousand dollars, at least. Rivers, when seen from far above, seem silent and inefficient. Take it, sell it, and enjoy the benefits which you derive therefrom. But always keep the locket, as a memento of Countess Linden and her great benevolence."
Just try to visualize it for a few seconds and then move on to the next location. There are unknown forces moving in all the things we see and hear (and touch and taste and smell). So too, dreaming is the result of a movement in our bodily organs, caused either from without or from within. In this kind of speaking, for you may look upon oratory as a vast wood, all the importance of eloquence ought to shine forth. But these qualities, unless they are well arranged and as it were built up together and connected by suitable language, can never attain that praise which we wish that it should.
For if we have instances in history, though in studies of less public consequence, that some of the poets have been greatly afflicted at the death of their contemporary bards; with what tender concern should I honor the memory of a man, with whom it is more glorious to have disputed the prize of eloquence, than never to have met with an antagonist! Especially, as he was always so far from obstructing my endeavors, or I his, that, on the contrary, we mutually assisted each other, with our credit and advice.
At first Aristotle takes considerable space to show what would seem to be apparent enough to everybody, that memory is of the past, as perception is of the present, and hope and opinion of the future. They praised him heartily for the strides he had made. The Duchess Amy then gave him another gift of money for his journey, and said: "Success be yours. We must never do good by halves; the sapling that we plant we should also water."
Create the memory journey create a mental journey along a well-known route, for example, through your house. But every way of seeing, from near and from far, determinate or wayward, is, ultimately, an abstraction. She raised her thankful eyes to heaven and poured out her grateful heart.
She paused, then gathering her treasure in her hands, she hastened with joyous steps to acquaint her two companions of her wonderful discovery. For if we only lament that we are no longer permitted to enjoy them, it must, indeed, be acknowledged that this is a heavy misfortune to us; which it, however, becomes us to support with moderation, less our sorrow should be suspected to arise from motives of interest, and not from friendship.
But if we afflict ourselves, on the supposition that he was the sufferer; we misconstrue an event, which to him was certainly a very happy one. One morning, after almost a year's sojourn in the little home, the news was brought that the large business house in the city where Amy had invested her money had failed, and that the whole amount was lost to her. Suddenly it turned, trotted up the mountain path, and soon disappeared in the darkness of the approaching night.
The time was almost due to pay the debt on the house. And you must choose the abstractions that will condition how you see the world. Where would the money come from, now that they could no longer give security? Cicero discussed the method of loci in his de oratore. And the whispers of trees can speak to sensitive ears just as articulately as the singing of streams.
Virtual reality affords experimenters the luxury of extreme control over their test environment. Released into the larger pool of life, all is fed by that which has its origins in snow, streams, rivers, and oceans, then evaporates to fall again: water. The method relies on memorized spatial relationships to establish order and recollect memorial content.
If Hortensius was now living, he would probably regret many other advantages in common with his worthy fellow-citizens. Music is made by humans and can be imagined in a head with deaf ears. As the source of all life, oceans are also the source of all loss and perhaps therefore a symbol of the desire to reconnect with imagined origins, with a prehistoric past. The ocean was here before humans and will be here after; it creates a sound that could never be imagined with all the transcendent power it possesses in reality. And those other lights, if I may so call them, which are derived from the arrangement of words, are a great ornament to a speech.
The principle is the same in the case of these things which are the lights, and as one may say, the decorations of oratory: when words are repeated and reiterated, or are put down with slight alterations; or when the sentences are often commenced with the same word, or end with the same word; or both begin and end alike; or when the same word occurs in the same place in consecutive sentences; or when one word is repeated in different senses; or when sentences end with similar sounds; or when contrary circumstances are related in many contrary manners; or when the speech proceeds by gradations; or when the conjunctions are taken away and each member of the sentence is uttered unconnectedly; or when we pass over some points and explain why we do so; or when we of our own accord correct ourselves, as if we blamed ourselves; or if we use any exclamation of admiration, or complaint; or when the same noun is often repeated in different cases.
Although they could see the castle in the distance, where they had spent so many years of their lives, and from which they had all three been so rudely cast, they never longed to return; for their little home was filled with happiness and contentment. We tend not to appreciate what we have and complain instead about what we do not have, all the while hurrying toward true misery and death. As joy and sorrow, however, must change places with each other now and then here upon earth, so this little household was called upon to meet an unwelcome friend, "Trouble."
Even I am unable to restrain my tears, when I behold my country no longer defensible by the genius, the prudence, and the authority of a legal magistrate, the only weapons which I have learned to weild, and to which I have long been accustomed, and which are most suitable to the character of an illustrious citizen, and of a virtuous and well-regulated state. The birds are kinds of knowledge.
One year went by in quietude and peace, in the simple surroundings of the old gardener's home. The dreams were painful and whereas a normal dream dissipated much like the water vapor swirling over his sink mirror, this one lingered. But as the new occupants of the castle no longer wished the services of a man as old as he was, he received orders to leave.
This meant to give up his life-long work and the home which had become so dear to him. Now am I occupied only with such subjects as are contained in this book, but with much more weighty and important, ones; and if they are brought to perfection, then my private literary labors will correspond to my forensic exertions. But we find no scientific study of the subject before Aristotle.
After the usual salutations, "Well, gentlemen," said I, "how go the times? What news have you brought?" "None," replied Brutus, "that you would wish to hear, or that I can venture to tell you for truth."
Arguments are also derived from things which bear some kind of relation to that which is the object of discussion. It almost sounded as if the whistling of the wind was whispering to Brutus. But his kind is distributed under many heads; for we call some connected with one another either by nature, or by their form, or by their resemblance to one another, or by their differences, or by their contrariety to one another, or by adjuncts, or by their antecedents, or by their consequents, or by what is opposed to each of them, or by causes, or by effects, or by a comparison with what is greater, or equal, or less.
If you want to store the memorized information for a longer period of time, use repetition and go through the memory palace a few times per day until it sticks. Therefore is the mind too strait to contain itself. Amy bade her speak no more about it. The third stanza creates a sense of rushing, in the same way that water would rush out of the burst pipe. The object of sensation makes an impression upon the perceiving subject, as the seal impresses the wax.
Often the Duchess Amy would sit in the darkened room and watch over her charge during the long, weary hours of the night. An abrupt sound interrupted the whistling and replaced it with the gurgling from the petrifying waters below her. Days and weeks passed, and the invalid grew no better; still Amy nursed her with the same untiring patience and care. Create the memory journey. Create a mental journey along a well-known route, for example, through your house.
Thus it happened, among other misfortunes of a more deplorable nature, that when my declining age, after a life spent in the service of the Public, should have reposed in the peaceful harbour, not of an indolent, and a total inactivity, but of a moderate and becoming retirement; and when my eloquence was properly mellowed, and had acquired its full maturity; thus it happened, I say, that recourse was then had to those fatal arms, which the persons who had learned the use of them in honourable conquest, could no longer employ to any salutary purpose. This is also true of the image within us; and the idea which the mind contemplates is something, although it is also the image of something else.
Those, therefore, appear to me to have enjoyed a fortunate and a happy life, (of whatever State they were members, but especially in our's) who held their authority and reputation, either for their military or political services, without interruption: and the sole remembrance of them, in our present melancholy situation, was a pleasing relief to me, when we lately happened to mention them in the course of conversation.
Countess Linden explained to him how and where she had met the little one, at the same time asking the girl to step aside while she engaged the old man in quiet conversation. This rests upon the association by similarity and simultaneity. The central sense or sensorium must be in a condition suitable to receive and retain impressions. He was fraling in the air, trying to grasp on to something but everything was intangible. A place to search our inner self as we feel the blood rushing through our body all the way to the sound of a heartbeat. My perfect place was deeply absorbed in my dull thoughts but finally, I have regained and found it. The perfect place to find joy, comfort and peaceful thoughts is being lost in nature.
As to a friendly inclination, I shall certainly return you a full proportion of it; but as to a recompence in kind, I confess it to be out of my power, and therefore hope you will excuse me: for I have no first-fruits (like a prosperous husbandman) to acknowledge the obligation I have received; my whole harvest having sickened and died, for want of the usual manure: and as little am I able to present you with any thing from those hidden stores which are now consigned to perpetual darkness, and to which I am denied all access; though, formerly, I was almost the only person who was able to command them at pleasure.
I must therefore, try my skill in a long- neglected and uncultivated soil; which I will endeavour to improve with so much care, that I may be able to repay your liberality with interest; provided my genius should be so happy as to resemble a fertile field, which, after being suffered to lie fallow a considerable time, produces a heavier crop than usual. For they say that neither the proposition nor the assumption ought to be separated from their proofs; and that a proposition does not appear to be complete, nor an assumption perfect, which is not corroborated by proof.
The Romans mentally placed the key points of their speech in locations along a familiar route through their city or palace. I think we all have in our deepest imagination an image of the perfect place. Theophrastus tells us that Diogenes of Appollonia was puzzled by the phenomenon of forgetting things.
"I asked for help. 'Tis true I have some relatives in the city, and I would like one of them to take me. The clergyman says that it is their duty, but they do not want the trouble. Leading listeners to a new place, the instrumentals made a background breathing sound that continued throughout the sermon, resulting in an overall feeling of anticipation. I can't blame them, for they have children enough of their own."
This memory, which is peculiar to man, and which animals do not possess, this memory, which in a mysterious manner contains in it intelligible realities, is, according to the Bishop of Hippo, one of the three great faculties of man, and the origin of the other two.
"No," said Atticus; "we are come with an intention that all matters of state should be dropped; and rather to hear something from you, than to say any thing which might serve to distress you."
"Indeed," said I, "your company is a present remedy for my sorrow; and your letters, when absent, were so encouraging, that they first revived my attention to my studies."
"I remember," replied Atticus, "that Brutus sent you a letter from Asia, which I read with infinite pleasure: for he advised you in it like a man of sense, and gave you every consolation which the warmest friendship could suggest."
In order to recall anything by a voluntary effort we must remember the general notion of the thing or some associated idea. I hiked down the narrow muddy trail through the forest listening for the sounds of rushing water. Suddenly she stopped and read a tablet. It had been placed there in honor of a pious woman who had suffered much in her life, but had always striven to do good; and these words were written there: "She rests from her cares, and her good deeds live after her."
The cold crystal-clear water flowed effortlessly over the smooth rocks and the air was quite refreshing. With these thoughts in mind, we designed the present study using the hypothesis that the use of the Memory Palace leads to better understanding of the topic among the students, which can be observed through better student performance on assessments. He found time in his busy life to help the needy, and later became a director of the society which we have said was organized for the rescue of the outcast. He thus devoted his voice, his hands, his strength and his life to the betterment of mankind.
"The very same," said I; "for that little Treatise has absolutely saved me." All of them have the same wish, all defend the same objects, all are inspired with the same sentiments. How did they do it?
"I am heartily glad of it," said Atticus; "but what could you discover in it which was either new to you, or so wonderfully beneficial as you pretend?"
"It certainly furnished many hints," said I, "which were entirely new to me: and the exact order of time which you observed through the whole, gave me the opportunity I had long wished for, of beholding the history of all nations in one regular and comprehensive view." I have no fear of any of those men who delight in tranquility becoming a mischievous citizen. Loud and clear sounded this rich, soft voice as I sang, "On the rose thorn, on the rose thorn, there my hope is hanging!"
The remoteness of the area provided solitude. The attentive perusal of it proved an excellent remedy for my sorrows, and led me to think of attempting something on your own plan, partly to amuse myself, and partly to return your favor, by a grateful, though not an equal acknowledgment. Memory champions elaborate on this by combining images. Faster and faster she went, never stopping till she reached the rose-bush. For law is nothing but a correct principle drawn from the inspiration of the Gods, commanding what is honest, and forbidding the contrary. For what is the difference between a man who has advised an action, and one who has approved of it?
Marie was tired of waiting, very tired. Then she passed slowly on, stopping often to study the wonderful paintings by the old masters, and the inscriptions upon tablets placed on the walls in memory of notable men and women long since passed away. What they saw scared them to the bones. The functions now attributed to nervous substance are referred by Aristotle to the pneuma connected with the blood.
"Very well," replied Atticus, "I shall expect the fulfilment of your promise; but I shall not insist upon it till it suits your convenience; though, after all, I shall certainly be better pleased if you discharge the obligation."
To recall, they "retrace" the route, "stop" at each locus, and "observe" the image. The noble family was forced to live for some time in these same narrow quarters; but at last they were permitted to return to their fatherland, where they again came into possession of their property. Landscapes, especially those dominated by rivers, have distinct aural characteristics that scholars have both highlighted and perhaps overlooked. If these histories can examine how our ears help us make sense of the landscapes around us, although the leak may be small when water pours between our walls or under the floor every day it can do a lot of damage.
The Count and Countess rejoiced in being wealthy once more, for now they could return in measure full and overflowing, the goodness and kindness of the friends who had proven themselves in the hour of need. Water, especially that which flows in rivers, is ubiquitous in environmental history. Wealth constantly flows downwards and away.
"To speak ingenuously," said Atticus, "my friend Brutus, I believe, is not much mistaken: for as I now find you in good spirits, for the first time, after a tedious interval of despondency, I shall soon make bold to apply to you; and as this gentleman has promised his assistance, to recover what you owe me, the least I can do is to solicit, in my turn, for what is due to him."
A review of water and river histories suggests a dearth of discussions focusing on what those rivers sounded like and minimal analyses on how sound has been used by people over time to represent those rivers.
On the following morning, there was brought into this lowly hut another guest who had rendered such helpful service in the speedy reuniting of the separated family the little canary bird. The reader does not get a sense of the lost aural characteristics of the canyons and river valleys sacrificed in the name of progress. Perhaps it had been crushed to death by the collapsing walls of his house and been buried in the waters of the river.
Augustine anticipates Leibnitz in discussing the unconscious modifications of our own ideas; but he speaks especially of their gradual decay, while Leibnitz considers the unconscious growth of them. Though not necessarily influenced by the literal sound of the rivers they depict, songs and lyrics still illuminate a strong connection between the ear and both the individual and collective experiences along the banks of the rivers portrayed.
"Explain your meaning," said I.
"I mean," replied he, "that you must write something to amuse us; for your pen has been totally silent this long time; and since your Treatise on Politics, we have had nothing from you of any kind; though it was the perusal of that which fired me with the ambition to write an Abridgment of Universal History."
Landmarks and layout are complementary systems for spatial recall, but it is unknown how these two systems interact when both types of information are available. Timid and fearful, as if she half doubted that he really lived, she gazed at him long and steadily as the light of the fire irradiated his face. She could scarcely express her rapture.
Then after a long pause she said: "Oh, the joy of again seeing my loved ones for whom I have wept so long!" Indeed what is not found in memory after a year is somewhat diminished even after one day. But we shall, however, leave you to answer this demand, when, and in what manner you shall think most convenient.
At present, if you are not otherwise engaged, you must give us your sentiments on a subject on which we both desire to be better informed. What is the first location?
Intending to follow the good clergyman's advice, they continued their journey. But the sound of the waterway itself is not a focus. Soon they reached the summit of a wooded hill, and from the distance they discerned the low hut with its flat, thatch-covered roof and smoking chimney. Its soundscape now survives in the historical record and the memories of those who experienced it.
A corroboration of this explanation he found in the easier breathing that follows the recalling of what was forgotten. Brutus then went hurriedly ahead. But he explained it in accordance with the principles of his philosophy by supposing that the cause of forgetting was an arrest of the equal distribution of air throughout the body.
Knowing you, therefore, to be at leisure, we have taken the present opportunity to wait upon you; so that, if it is really convenient, you will oblige us both by resuming the subject. Its soundscape yet more survives in the historical record and the memories of those who experienced it.
"Well, gentlemen," said I, "as you are so pressing, I will endeavor to satisfy you in the best manner I am able."
"You are able enough," replied he; "only unbend yourself a little, or, if you can set your mind at full liberty."
"If I remember right," said I, "Atticus, what gave rise to the conversation, was my observing, that the cause of Deiotarus, a most excellent Sovereign, and a faithful ally, was pleaded by our friend Brutus, in my hearing, with the greatest elegance and dignity."
So too, dreaming is the result of a movement in our bodily organs, caused either from without or from within. They repaired at once to the clergyman's house, where they learned that the Countess and Albert Linden lived in the shepherd's lowly hut, some miles distant.
"The Countess holds her husband as dead," said the clergyman, "and no joy can now penetrate her heart. Her health has failed and it seems as if she would not last very long."
Recollection, then, with Aristotle as in modern psychology, is an excitation of the sense organs, reproduced in a less degree; and the same organs are excited and the same movements repeated as in the original sensation. Perhaps some of the best, or at least most easily found, examples of memory sounds are contributions to the literature by journalists. For after you had thoroughly improved your abilities, by pleading a variety of important causes, of which we are now to give the History, was condemned to perpetual silence.
"Our other misfortunes," replied Brutus, "I lament sincerely; and I think I ought to lament them, but as to Eloquence, I am not so fond of the influence and the glory it bestows, as of the study and the practice of it, which nothing can deprive me of, while you are so well disposed to assist me: for no man can be an eloquent speaker, who has not a clear and ready conception."
Whoever, therefore, applies himself to the study of Eloquence, is at the same time improving his judgment, which is a talent equally necessary in all military operations. Aeuroegreat is this force of memoryaeur, he exclaims, aeuroeexcessive great, o my god; a large and boundless chamber; who ever sounded the bottom thereof?
Often those descriptions are tied to unusual or disastrous events. Brutus ran to the village, and was gone what seemed an interminable time. At last he returned with the information that the fancier had bought the bird from a little boy who lived with his mother, many miles beyond, and who had trained this little bird to sing and whistle.
The fancier described the boy and mother so well that all were unanimous in their decision that this was the boy and mother for whom they were seeking. I had a hard time answering the question. Villages are particularly auditory places. They make their own sounds and they have played important roles in influencing aural culture.
Conversely, the inner scribe is a rehearsal mechanism for visual information and is responsible for information concerning movement sequences. But these were openly opposed by the famous Socrates, who, by an adroit method of arguing which was peculiar to himself, took every opportunity to refute the principles of their art.
His instructive conferences produced a number of intelligent men, and Philosophy is said to have derived her birth from him; not the doctrine of Physics, which was of an earlier date, but that Philosophy which treats of men, and manners, and of the nature of good and evil. Whether as a storytelling device, as part of an analysis, or even as an inclusion for the sake of posterity, the sounds of a river, both past and present, are worth documenting as part of the historical record.
But as this is foreign to our present subject, we must defer the Philosophers to another opportunity, and return to the Orators, from whom I have ventured to make a sort digression. "Ocean waves, waterfalls, streams, and rainfall are a few examples of flowing water that can instantly relax you."
Perhaps Aristotle meant to illustrate something more profound than the mere linkings of presentations in a series, and the process of recollecting the mental train. Sounds that are constant and soothing are considered non-threatening sounds to our brain. The extreme case is the well known phenomenon of a visual after-image. When someone recalls an environment or navigates terrain, that person implicitly recalls the overall layout at first.
Again, where, in the end, do we search, but in the memory itself?
A bevy of birds flew toward the land. "Oh, dear birds, I wish you could carry a message to my people and tell them that I am here!"
The Duchess Amy's birthday was now at hand. When she awoke one morning, she found the window-sills filled with potted geraniums, her favorite flowers, and a beautiful canary bird hanging above them in a pretty golden cage. Focusing your mind on the soothing sound and not tying it to anything, letting the sound wash over you, helps your brain let go of stresses that may be lingering and gets your body into an ultimate state of relaxation. The bird exactly resembled the one which she had had at home. She thanked her father in the tenderest tones for his selection. Something that we all truly need in this busy thing we call life.
But the illustration of such a simple matter as this was not unimportant in the first scientific study of memory. For mere nature itself will measure and limit our sentences by a convenient compass of words; and when they are thus confined to a moderate flow of expression, they will frequently have a numerous cadence; for the ear alone can decide what is full and complete, and what is deficient; and the course of our language will necessarily be regulated by our breath, in which it is excessively disagreeable, not only to fail, but even to labor.
This essay, however, is of special interest, because in it Aristotle sets forth very clearly the famous doctrine of association of ideas. The repetitive nature of things like flowing water can induce a type of light hypnosis or deep relaxation. It is not surprising, therefore, that the ancients put a high estimate upon memory before they began to theorize about its nature. Those men, therefore, are to be blamed; for they did not wish all the citizens to be safe.
They rode for days and days, and the way was long and dreary. Owing to the rough handling which the Count had received in the prison, the terror which his death sentence had caused him, the sorrow and fear of his flight, and the weariness of the journey, he soon became very much weakened and was forced to stop at a little village and rest for a while. He was soon rivalled by his cotemporaries Hyperides, Aeschines, Lycurgus, Dinarchus, and Demades (none of whose writings are extant) with many others that might be mentioned: for this age was adorned with a profusion of good orators; and the genuine strength and vigor of Eloquence appears to me to have subsisted to the end of this period, which was distinguished by a natural beauty of composition without disguise or affectation.
In practice, the two systems work together in some capacity but different tasks have been developed to highlight the unique abilities involved in either visual or spatial memory. Before the art of writing was in common use men had to depend more largely than to-day upon their memories for preserving and transmitting their knowledge. Ocean waves, waterfalls, streams, and rainfall are a few examples of flowing water that can instantly relax you.
Count Linden was thankful for his escape, and so were Brutus and the Duchess Amy. They seated themselves on an overturned tree trunk, to recover a little strength. In order to allay all suspicion, Brutus took a roundabout course through the thickly-wooded country. They could never have been caught thus, unless we had already had them in our memories.
But a particular attention to the art, and a greater ability in the practice of it, may be observed in Pisistratus. The method of loci is also called the journey method, and the imaginary journeys are often referred to as memory palaces, memory journeys, or memory spaces. He was succeeded in the following century by Themistocles, who, according to the Roman date, was a person of the remotest antiquity; but, according to that of the Athenians, he was almost a modern. This memory, which is peculiar to man, and which animals do not possess this memory, which in a mysterious manner contains in it intelligible realities, is, according to the Bishop of Hippo, one of the three great faculties of man, and the origin of the other two.
I wouldn't change anything at all; the only thing I would wish for were more palaces. This is also true of the image within us; and the idea which the mind contemplates is something, although it is also the image of something else. For he lived when Greece was in the height of her power, but when the city of Rome had but lately freed herself from the shackles of regal tyranny; for the dangerous war with the Volsci, who were headed by Coriolanus (then a voluntary exile) happened nearly at the same time as the Persian war; and we may add, that the fate of both commanders was remarkably similar. Does not even a triumph put an end to the war? in which was carried an image of that city, without whose assistance our forefathers never triumphed over the Transalpine nations. Then, indeed, did the Roman people groan.
At midnight, they reached the fisherman's hut. He knocked at the window. The fisherman came to the door, but stepped back frightened at seeing a soldier who might wish to arrest him or his brother. Each of them, after distinguishing himself as an excellent citizen, being driven from his country by the wrongs of an ungrateful people, went over to the enemy: and each of them repressed the efforts of his resentment by a voluntary death. He based his fears on the fact that they had both made many enemies on account of their fidelity to the Linden family.
When Atticus recognized the Count, he raised his hands and exclaimed, "Oh, it's you, Count Linden; how happy I am to be able to help you!"
Brutus, who had waited and watched there for the last ten nights, rushed into the room and shouted: "Oh, my master!" and both embraced and wept. And with his usual subtlety he shows that much of what is ordinarily attributed to perception is really the work of memory.
"You may use your pleasure," replied Atticus with a smile, "for it is the privilege of rhetoricians to exceed the truth of history, that they may have an opportunity of embellishing the fate of their heroes. The memory picture, on the other hand, does refer to an object and carries with it the consciousness of a time in the past, when the perception remembered took place."
I think it is very time consuming. As the months rolled along, the sorrows of the Countess still lay heavily on her heart.
"Loneliness must be sent for a good reason," thought she.
"Perhaps God sent me to this dreary, lonely place to make me see and feel what I never understood before." A corroboration of this explanation she found in the easier breathing that follows the recalling of what was forgotten. Many a night she spent in tears and sleeplessness, and many a day was sad and dreary. Not only do spatial abilities involve understanding the outside world, but they also involve processing outside information and reasoning with it through representation in the mind. She tried very hard to cloak her woe, and hide it from her son.
The joy that comes from doing one's best is the only lasting joy, for every other pleasure fades and passes away. In her unselfishness, she choked back her tears and grief, filled each day with work, and gave strict attention to her son's comfort, instruction and diversions. By memory the soul knows objects of sense when it no longer perceives them, and, moreover, combines the heterogeneous in ways inexplicable by means of a physchical substance. She always had a pleasant word and smile for the old shepherd and his wife, whose life, though lonely, was spent in the satisfaction of right living and lending a helping hand.
Aristotle seems to have been the first of ancient philosophers to write a systematic treatise on psychology. Cognitive maps serve the construction and accumulation of spatial knowledge, allowing the "mind's eye" to visualize images in order to reduce cognitive load, enhance recall and learning of information.
"I am much obliged to you," said I, "for your courtesy: but, for the future, I shall be more cautious in meddling with History when you are present; whom I may justly commend as a most exact and scrupulous relator of the Roman History; but nearly at the time we are speaking of (though somewhat later) lived the above-mentioned Pericles, the illustrious son of Xantippus, who first improved his eloquence by the friendly aids of literature; not that kind of literature which treats professedly of the art of Speaking, of which there was then no regular system; but after he had studied under Anaxagoras the Naturalist, he easily transferred his capacity from abstruse and intricate speculations to forensic and popular debates. I would not come up with a memory palace. But as we have observed a little before, that it is the business of an Orator to instruct, to please, and to move the passions; he was, indeed, perfectly master of the two first; for no one could better elucidate his subject, or charm the attention of his audience. But as to the third qualification, the moving and alarming the passions, which is of much greater efficacy than the two former, he was wholly destitute of it. "To fear to own the art he practises."
Though he enjoyed the bird's presence and tricks, yet he was obliged at times to cage him, in order to carry on his work undisturbed. It was late at night, and he knew not what to do next. Whenever Albert wrote, the bird would alight on his penholder and peck his fingers. Later, when the bird began to sing, Albert could not praise it enough.
Her two children were nowhere to be found, and all her servants had been driven away. She had no force, no exertion either by her own choice, and from an opinion that those who had a loftier turn of expression, and a more warm and spirited action, were little better than madmen; or because it was contrary to his natural temper, and habitual practice; or, lastly, because it was beyond the strength of her abilities.
Suddenly, the door was thrust open, and armed soldiers crowded into the room. Although the Countess, weeping and lamenting, threw her arms about her husband's neck to hold and guard him, and his children clung to his knees, the soldiers rudely tore him from their embrace. It is not surprising, therefore, that the ancients put a high estimate upon memory before they began to theorize about its nature. After an absence of several days, the Countess returned to her country seat and found her home occupied by soldiers, who had ransacked it and reduced it to a common tavern to which admittance was denied her. The cries of the mother and children were heart-rending. The leader presented an order in which the Count was declared a friend of the King and an enemy of freedom and equality, and in consequence he was to be conducted to prison. I suppose Atticus was a man of such a disposition that he was not able to do a service to the Republic if he had not some one to advise him to do it.
According to Roman legend, the memory palace technique was invented by Simonides of Ceos about 2,500 years ago. Invent an imaginary location, it can be based on real experience or it can be a place you dream up. Remember how it looks. Come closer, go inside. What do you see? If you need to remember someone's birthday, or the names of the streets downtown, for example imagine a table with an object on it, or a decoration hanging on a wall. Assign the date to features of that object. For example, February 2, 2000 might be represented by a card on the table with a picture of a pie with the characters 2k on top, for 2000. There might be two slices eaten, which represents the second day of the second month. You might invent other images, they serve to remind you of what you wish to remember.
The names of the streets downtown might be represented by a crucifix on your imaginary wall. From south to north, the street names are: Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike, Pine. One way to remember the order of the street pairs is with the mnemonic "Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest" (JCMSUP).
Let us say that this tablet is a gift of memory, the mother of the muses, and that when we wish to remember anything which we have seen or heard, or thought in our own minds, we hold the wax to the perceptions and thoughts, and in that receive the impressions from them as from the seal of a ring; and that we remember and know what is imprinted as long as the image lasts; but when the image is effaced, or cannot be taken, then we forget and do not know.
Then the grateful parents again urged Brutus to take the pearls, but he replied: "Let it be, as I said before. The pearls and corals are the least that Atticus brought back with him; for he has gathered unto himself costlier treasures: 'Love for God and to humanity.' These are priceless pearls." With all haste he set out for the villa, several miles distant, to study the situation and decide where he could best fasten the nest.
Among the Eleatics, Parmenides is reported to have held that not only thought, but recollecting and forgetting depended upon the way the light or heat and the dark or cold are mixed in the body. Just as those revolutionary times broke forth, Count Linden, with his family, moved from Paris to his mansion in the suburbs. His family rejoiced at having him constantly in their midst and he was glad at the opportunity of being the instructor of his children, particularly in music. Here he lived quietly, surrounded by orchards of fruitful trees, free from the turmoil of the noisy city.
Any variable can be manipulated, including things that would not be possible in reality. But you, O stupidest of all men, do not you perceive, that if it is a crime to have wished that Caesar should be slain which you accuse me of having wished it is a crime also to have rejoiced at his death?
As soon as Atticus was sure that the boat was firm on the rocks, he hurried out, waded through the foaming, shallow water to the land and climbed up the rocks, while his clothes dripped with rain and sea water. This is also true of the image within us; and the idea which the mind contemplates is something, although it is also the image of something else. And there, if one thing be, perchance, offered instead of another, we reject it.
Am I then called wicked by you because you suspect that I suspected something; and is he who openly displayed his reeking dagger, named by you that you may do him honor? They could never have been taught to us, unless we had already had them in our memories.
Be it so. For we have touched upon the lights of words both single and combined, in which the orator will abound so much that no expression which is not either dignified or elegant will ever fall from his mouth.
Let this stupidity exist in your language: how much greater is it in your actions and opinions! As, if you were to accuse him of having done so and so, because he was instigated by avarice; and yet, if you are unable to show that the man whom you accuse is avaricious, you must show that other vices are not wholly foreign to his nature, and that on that account it is no great wonder if a man who in any affair has behaved basely, or covetously, or petulantly, should have erred in this business also. For in proportion as you can detract from the honesty and authority of the man who is accused, in the same proportion has the force of the whole defense been weakened.
Scarcely a hundred feet distant, there stood a willow tree closely resembling the late home of the caged nightingales. After the guests had departed, the Duchess Amy said to her children, "Let us spend this delightful twilight hour here in quiet. My soul is satisfied; for what can compare with this blessed evening hour? What comparison can there be between the grandeur of our salon and the beauty of nature?"
The boy had chosen this tree and had prepared a place for the nest on a forked branch. But were it utterly blotted out of the mind, we should not remember it, even when reminded.
He went there late one evening, as the moon was shining brightly, and placed the nest securely on this tree; then he gave the parent birds their freedom. For it occurred to me, that it was possible that men should be found, I do not mean envious men, with whom all places are full, but even favorers of my glory, who did not think that it became a man with reference to whose services the senate had passed such favorable votes with the approbation of the whole Roman people, as they never did in the case of any one else, to write so many books about the method of speaking.
This insight led to the development of a technique the Greeks called the method of Loci, which is a systematic way of improving one's memory by using imagery. This does not allow me to conceal that I take delight in it; or whether it is your eagerness which has extorted this volume from me; still it was worth while to make a reply to those whom I suspected of being likely to find fault with me. Before daybreak on the following morning, Atticus hurried to the woods to find the nightingale's nest he knew so well.
When he had last visited it, he had seen five brownish-green eggs there. But as he now peered into it he found, to his great astonishment, that the young birds had broken through their shells. Arriving there, he found a suitable place, and then hurried back to the woods. But if the circumstances which I have mentioned had no existence, still who would be so harsh and uncivilized as not to grant me this indulgence, so that, when my forensic labors and my public exertions were interrupted, I might devote my time to literature rather than to inactivity of which I am incapable, or to melancholy which I resist? For it was a love of letters which formerly led me into the courts of justice and the senate-house, and which now delights me when I am at home.
Again, these persisting movements are the elements of my memory.
The silence was broken now and then by the plaintive song of a nightingale. The Duchess Amy and her two children seated themselves upon the trunk of a fallen tree and listened to the music till it ceased. A gentle wind sighed softly through the leaves of the trees, and merrily flowed the near-by brook. As the nightingale repeated its song, they all listened intently.
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