vations upon technical
helps to the memory; they are hurtful to the understanding, because
they break the general habits of philosophic order in the mind. There
is no connection of ideas between the memorial lines, for instance, in
Grey's Memoria Technica, the history of the Kings or Emperors, and the
dates that we wish to remember. However, it may be advantageous in
education to use such contrivances, to assist our pupils in
remembering those technical parts of knowledge, which are sometimes
valued above their worth in society.

The facts upon which the principles of any science are founded,
should never be learnt by rote in a technical manner. But the names
and the dates of the reigns of a number of kings and emperors, if they
must be remembered by children, should be learnt in the manner which
may give them the least trouble.[47]

It is commonly asserted, that our memory is to be improved by
exercise: exercise may be of different kinds, and we must determine
what sort is best. Repetition is found to fix words, and sometimes
ideas, strongly in the mind; the words of the burden of a song, which
we have frequently heard, are easily and long remembered. When we want
to get any thing by rote, we repeat it over and over again, till the
sounds seem to follow one another habitually, and then we say we have
them perfectly by rote.[48] The regular recurrence of sounds, at
stated intervals, much assists us. In poetry, the rhymes, the cadence,
the alliteration, the peculiar structure of the poet's lines, aids us.
All these are mechanical helps to the memory. Repetition seems much
more agreeable to some people than to others; but it may be doubted
whether a facility and propensity to repetition be favourable to
rational memory. Whilst we repeat, we exclude all thought from the
mind; we form a habit of saying certain sounds in a certain order; but
if this habit be afterwards broken by any trifling external
circumstances, we lose all our labour. We have no means of
recollecting what we have learned in this manner. Once gone, it is
gone for ever. It depends but upon one principle of association. Those
who exert ingenuity as well as memory in learning by heart, may not,
perhaps, associate sounds with so much expedition, but they will have
the power of recollection in a greater degree. They will have more
chances in their favour, besides the great power of voluntary
exertion: a power which few passive repeaters ever possess. The
fo